Being in Melbourne, thinking of Paris, but happy with my lot...

 My little piece of Paris in Abbotsford (Cnr Johnston & Clarke Sts)

I step over or around this abandoned Cafe terrazzo on my way to work each week

at the Uni of Melbourne Early Learning Centre, just near the divine Abbotsford Convent

and am transported back to Paris where I spent 3 wonderful weeks last April...

 Crinolenne Lady with Cherry Blossoms and Waratahs, Beijing dragon's head c 1910, Peacock and French silk pansies c early 1900s, French Pomegranite in blue and white and Willow Pattern in brown and green.

 Fresh cuttings on my journal - I'm struggling with the branch for

my latest bird and these delicate yellows and whites are to be incorported in the last

of her tail feathers (it's after Ellis Rowan's 'Raggi's Bird of Paradise').

a beautiful watercolour by the wonderfully wimsical Maira Kalman

http://www.mairakalman.com/

It's always good to remember "I have enough"!



New acquisitions - Autumn treasure hunting in East Kew

 My most recent acquisition - a divine tea-cloth with mauve and pale brown floral sprays (circa 1930's?) I visited my local Mental Illness Fellowship opp-shop in East Kew on Wednesday and one of the lovely women there, who now knows me and what I do with embroidery, went upstairs to retrieve a box of recently priced needlework - this was one of them - and is soon to be deconstructed in the name of Art

the whole cloth on my studio rug