the red thread

Loving This...

03 December 2011

Are you in Melbourne? What are you up to this weekend? If you're interested in Australian design and up for a bit of shopping (ah, that would be me except that I'm in Sydney!) then don't miss The Design Files Open House.

Lucy Feagins, author of the Australian design blog The Design Files has pulled together an amazing four day event. Based in a stunning home in Fitzroy, The Design Files Open House is filled with wonderful furniture, homewares, art, books and so much more including a cool Mini in the garage - and all of it is for sale. There are even chefs cooking up a storm in the kitchen each day, including Rohan Anderson today. Lucy is all about championing Australian design and this is a genius idea to showcase the work of local designers and artists. I know it has been a huge task for Lucy to pull off, but she's done it and it looks amazing. (That's Lucy in the mustard pants below right enjoying a glass of bubbles at the opening.)

All photos by John Deer for The Design Files

The Design Files Open House is a pop up shopping experience that is only open for 4 days - until Sunday. You can find all the details here. If, like me, you can't make it there all the items will be available online from Monday. The link will be on Lucy's blog no doubt, so see you there.

For more images from the opening night preview go to The Design Files.

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A KatyJane kind of Christmas

28 November 2011

The creative team at KatyJane have come up with some gorgeous things for Christmas this year. I particularly love their advent calendar stickers. They are such a great idea that allows you to be creative with how you use them... on little glossy red boxes or envelopes, on kraft paper bags, and they'd be perfect for my advent calendar tutorial!

KatyJane also has sweet gift tags and everything you need to wrap and trim your gifts to perfection this Christmas. Take a look at their online shop and let's support local Australian small businesses rather than the big box stores this festive season.

Festive Craft Kits back in stock

I'm happy to tell you that Festive Craft Kits in red and aqua are available in my shop again. Christmas is creeping up and these fabric craft kits are a versatile quick project to make or to gift. You can use the panels to make ornaments, or on Christmas stockings, for lavender sachets, in a patchwork project, or whatever else you fancy.

Over the past week when I've been begged to watch Rio, Barbie, Horton Hears a Who, or something else that has been on high rotation in my house I've been doing a little embroidery.

Have you been able to sneak in a little Christmas crafting?

Festive Craft Kits are available here.
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Inspiration :: Poh Ling Yeow

25 November 2011

I've been a huge fan of Australian artist Poh Ling Yeow's work for years... way before her MasterChef fame. You can see one of my previous posts about her work here. So I was more than excited when Poh emailed me recently to tell me about her exhibition that's currently on at Hill Smith Gallery in Adelaide. We emailed back and forth for some time and she's so lovely. Poh told me that despite her cook books, TV shows and everything else that comes with the MasterChef success she'll never stop being a fine artist. When you look at her work you can see why - she has such a talent and her art must be an intrinsic part of who she is. How amazingly beautiful is this painting?!

I love everything about Poh's art from her beautiful dry brush technique that creates such wonderful graduations of tone and colour to the lovely soulful Chinese girl she paints. (Poh refers to her as "the girl", and she reminds me a lot of my girl, especially that exquisite mouth.) Most of Poh's work is an exploration of her identity as a Chinese Australian, which of course resonates with our family too. I've vowed that by the time Poh next exhibits in Sydney I'm going to be first in line to purchase one of her paintings. I've wanted to for years, and I think I deserve it, I've had such a crappy time in the last couple of years. I'm saving my pennies!

Images: Hill Smith Gallery

If you're in Adelaide go and visit the Hill Smith Gallery and see Poh's work in person. It truly is breathtaking.

As an aside, I just googled 'Poh ling Yeow' to see if there were any specific links to her culinary life and among the top google suggestions were "Poh Ling Yeow boyfriend" and "Poh Ling Yeow married"... I think there must be a lot of interest from the blokes out there! There's a great interview here if you're interested and she also has a blog which is related to Poh's Kitchen, her TV show.
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