pilgrim's place: bedroom art

i've been meaning to do this post since i wrote about my bedroom makeover way back last august! i know that post and the picture of my bedroom were popular, so its about time i gave some credit to the artists who made my art wall look so great. its just about an even split of purchases from etsy and outré gallery.

these two cuties ('carmen m' and 'ginger pops') are from tsktsk on etsy. they are digital prints of an original painting.

isn't this a fascinating piece? its a four layer paper sculpture by helen musselwhite, bought from etsy. and on top is a smokin' labbit! well, he's not smoking, but he is a kozik labbit, just a bubblegum one.

this is an original gouache on board by APAK, from their show at outré gallery, melbourne (just about my favorite place in the city! seriously, i had a crush on it in high school. what kind of geek crushes on a gallery? this geek!)

this isn't actually art, per se.. its a piece of plastic you slip between the letter you're writing, and your table - so the table doesn't get marked. anyway its cute and its by my favorite japanese kawaii brand 'swimmer'. i found it at the now defunct genki store: thought it was perfect colors, bought it, framed it, love it to bits. wall 'art' can be anything, my guidelines are simple: does it make me feel happy? yes? hang it on that wall!

these birdies are from sweetshorn vintage on etsy. they came painted that color and at first i considered repainting them but they add such a small shot of variety i really love them just the way they are. aww.

both of these beauties are by lab partners. the yellow and pink painting is an original from the hunt and gather show at outré. i really love this little painting, i desperately wanted a lady painting to go with it but alas - she'd sold! my son calls this guy 'ukulele man' and he says goodnight to it every night. i think he thinks its a painting of daddy (who plays guitar). the pink and blue one is a letterpress print, from etsy. its an homage to lab partner's home: san francisco. it definitely reminds me of happy holiday times now, too.

and lastly, here's a view of what i wake up to each morning. this print (from outré) hangs over our chest of drawers on the wall adjacent to all the other pieces. its called 'this is how it always starts' and is by heisuke kitazawa/PCP. i love how dreamy it is, and the little characters are so whimsical. its a nice piece to face first thing

i hope you've enjoyed the tour of art, i really love it. its so nice to have a bedroom filled with special treasures that make waking up such a sunny and aesthetically pleasing ordeal!

pilgrim's place: 'my place & yours: just five minutes peace'

hoorah! i'm the theme queen for pip's 'my place & yours' this week. despite my boyfriend insisting on seeing peoples' walk in humidors, or western wings, or orangerys, i have chosen the theme of 'just five minutes peace.'

where do you retreat to for that sanity-regaining break? i am interested in what or where in your home your sanctuary is.

when i get those golden times of peace and quiet, i like to curl up on my ottoman with a delicious cup of tea of some variety. the beauty of the ottoman is there really is only room for one, which sounds selfish, but anyone with children will tell you personal space is at a premium. it's in a light corner of the room, so its good to read or sew or crochet in and its just so colorful and happy it never fails to recharge me. did i mention the comfort factor? oh its comfortable. i've snoozed there, i've daydreamed, i've contemplated the ceiling. the restorative powers of this piece of furniture can not be underestimated.

edit: i can't possibly thank ms sara enough for actually pointing out that i was indeed this week's theme queen. seems i missed the post on 'mikes and was very confused that there seemed to be no 'my place and yours' this last week. in conclusion: a-doy and three cheers for friends

pilgrim's place: 'my place & yours: quirky features'

here is my contribution for 'my place & yours'! this weeks theme is basically what quirky things does your house have. our house has a few funny little things, but i thought i'd take the opportunity to show you some of the neat features my house also has. technically it's not my house, because we're just renting it, but honestly i love it as though it were my own. as soon as we visited this house's open inspection i was in love and ready to fight tooth and nail to make it ours (if only per 12 months)!

it was built along with a lot of other properties in this area, in the late 50's, early 60's. it's a really nice floor plan, giving lots of space in the living areas, and really comfortable sized bedrooms. it has big windows that let in plenty of light and a garden just big enough to run around in. from what i understand, our owner grew up here, and her mother lived here before us. that being the case, hardly anything has changed and the features are original. the stove and the kitchen laminate are newer, and there appears to have been a partition of some kind in the lounge that was removed (i try not to think about having missed out on seeing an amazing room divider, no.. it must have just been a plain old boring wall haha.)

one of the first quirky things we saw was the bathroom. we have a nice sized bathroom, with a bath, and a basin and then next door to that there is a smaller bathroom with a shower and another basin. its certainly a peculiar use of space, what's wrong with a shower over a bath?! why all the basins? why not just have a bigger bathroom with one less basin and shower cubicle!? its a mystery for sure. here's is a diagram, just to make sure you really get the confusingness of it all...

our bedroom door appears to have originally been hung the 'wrong' way. it's since been fixed, but the light switches are now behind the door. lucky i ain't afraid of no ghosts! (on that note, i'd like to point out, having grown up in a house with kind of haunty bad ju-ju, this house welcomed me. it has such a nice vibe, i've never felt creeped out here. thank you, house).

speaking of switches, we have our fair share of switches that aren't connected to anything. i like to imagine they control something in a neighbor's house: i switch off the one in our kitchen and the people at no. 8 are plunged into darkness while i laugh maniacally, safely ensconsed in my kitchen/mastermind lair.

my favorite quirk is what is now my son's room. obviously its always been the child's bedroom, there are the faint dimples of pin marks on the re-painted walls, where once was probably a shrine to teen idols. inside the left hand wardrobe door is pinned a relic: a clipped advertisement for peter paul and mary's fourth australian tour, 1968. i find it so touching, that its still there, 41 years later.

as mentioned, there are lots of original features, let's take a look shall we? first off, our house is jewish, so in the majority of doorways there are mezuzah:

thankfully the house hasn't minded having christmas trees in it, and nothing has fallen on me when i'm cooking bacon, so it's either lapsed, or just a really forgiving house!

we have some really neat light fittings:

and our carpet has a pretty neat pattern:

i must admit the toilet wallpaper is what convinced me this house was my dream home:

hey look! our kitchen sink is a radient gem! ... whatever that means!

... and our bathroom mirror is "a spamco product"! tee hee.. spam!

but my favorite quirky features of this house are my boyfriend and our son... its just a shame they're camera shy!

pilgrim's place: 'my place & yours: my collection'

once again i'm joining in for 'my place & yours'. how could i resist this week's theme of 'my collection'! i love having collections of things. i blame my unfulfilled childhood dreams of being a librarian or a curator. i have my own little wunderkammer here in my lounge room, filled with trinkets and toys and objects that make me smile. sure its a pain to dust, but its the only way i can justify having quite so many useless things!

a consistent presence in these shelves and pigeon holes are apples. since the moment i laid eyes on a dick bruna apple illustration at the age of 1, the simple apple has won my heart. i don't mind if its green, but honestly i'd prefer it to be red (unless i have to eat it, in which case the greener and tarter the better!) i really like my apples to be plastic (again, unless i have to eat them) or at least japanese or scandinavian. they seem to have a good hold on the basic apple design. maybe because its such a simple, graphic fruit? none of those frou-frou pineapples for the japanese and scandinavians! i really, really like it if my apple is some form of container: jug, mug, box, canister etc. now, that's satisfaction: apple storage!

in the picture you'll see an apple desktop trashcan, an apple bottle, an apple bento box, an apple suitcase (not quite full of japanese candy!! nom nom nom) an apple mug in an apple bowl, an apple patch, apple hair bobbles, an apple box, and a fisher price happy apple that makes the sweetest chimes. not pictured above are the BIG apples that hold my son's toys in the lounge room. unfortunately thats as close as he'll peacefully get to fruit.

thanks to an ambiguous bible translation from ancient greek, apples have had a bad wrap as being the sinful forbidden fruit. how could a beautiful simple little apple be responsible for all that drama? but maybe its their simple beauty that is precisely their problem, maybe my insatiable lust for anything apple will be my down fall? probably not. but if it is, i'll happily be the world's first crazy apple lady.

pilgrim's place: 'my place & yours: bedside'

my bedside, pillow-view

this week i thought i would join in on the 'my place and yours' meme fun-times, as started by the unstoppable pip from meet me at mikes! so for your voyeuristic pleasure, here is what i wake up to each morning.

starting from the top left corner and going clockwise you can see:

my lovely vintage wallpaper lampshade, from drawflowers ✽ a little solar powered plant that, as much as i try, i just can't kill ✽ a handy little green and pink mug that holds hairclips mostly ✽ a pink box to store my moisturizer and lip balm etc ✽ current bedtime book 'the ten cent plague: the great comic book scare and how it changed america' ✽ the fabulous yellow alarm clock ✽ and last but not least a sweet little plastic box made by swimmer with bunnies and toadstools and hula hoops and filled with earrings that i'm too lazy to put away ✽

pilgrim's place: kitchen stitchin'

1. kitchen bench, 2. melamine wall plate, 3. japanese mug and iced vovos , 4. decole key hook on the fridge

despite my best intentions, i'm not a naturally tidy person. and, as i transcribed from my calligraphy book numerous times when i was nine years old, "creative minds are rarely tidy" (that was about all i learned from the calligraphy book before it got lost in the maelstrom of my bedroom!). i'm not sure wether i am burdened by that adage or try to live up to it but one thing i am getting good at is creatively hiding my untidiness!

exhibit a: the kitchen bench/storage shelves. just your average ikea item, but a scene of stacked platters and unsightly appliances! this wouldn't be a problem if they didn't also get dusty and covered in the drifts of coffee grinds that seem to settle on everything in the vicinity of the espresso machine.

solution: whip up some cute curtains out of those orla kiely tea-towels i was too scared to let touch a wet dish! (but not too scared to cut up... go figure?!)

i used three tea towels (2 blue and one patterned one - halved and sewn to each of the blue), and some curtain cord (the kind that is plastic coated and you can screw metal 'eyes' into, with matching size hooks). it was a very quick job and the sewing was probably the longest part.

i'm very happy with the result, and as you can see in the picture above, they blend in very nicely to my little blue kitchen!

draw! pilgrim press: a bubblegum rainbow studio visit on the vine

some of you may have noticed this... i know, i sneakily tucked it into the link 'round up on friday, but ego be damned, here it is again! the gorgeous gemma paid me a visit and whipped up this lovely piece about me for the vine!

and make sure you go and visit gemma's site cos her work is pop-tastic! i'm especially looking forward to seeing the “milkbars, laundromats and urban beauty” show next month.

all future interviews should come with iced vo-vo biscuits (for the uninitiated, they're the finest, frilliest, pinkest biscuit one can enjoy in australia - if not the world!). i might have to put that in my rider!

anyway i hope you enjoyed the peek inside my studio, and thanks again to gemma!

pilgrim's place: bedroom before & after

i have to admit, my bedroom is a real sanctuary for me. its a very light room, and even though i'm not being a morning person, i really love waking up there.

gradually i've been pulling together some treasures to make it an even lovelier place to wake

up, and just a few weeks ago i scored the pièce de résistance - a cane bedhead!

my grandma had one, when i was little, and i just loved how curly and pretty it was.

after some hardcore searching and some ebay-related patience i found one to fit our bed.

it isn't in perfect condition, but i knew with a coat of paint it would be good enough for me!

so, enough chat! time for the before and after eye candy!

before...

and after....

i'm so happy with how it turned out. it was a full day of spraying, and waiting, and spraying some more, and my flip-flops got a bit ruined (oops) but it was worth it. i feel like the room is complete now!

what do you think?

things i already covet

Following on from yesterday's post on 'What I'm Coveting' i thought i'd show you why i'm not coveting much - i already have a lot of lovely things. Things with stories, and memories, and ways of making me smile! Awww. I mean really, i could show you everything i own, because if i didn't love it, i probably wouldn't own it, but that would be a blog unto itself, and really, who wants to see an entire week devoted to posts about each pair of my socks? No one. Didn't think so. So here is a small selection of things about my house which have a place in my heart...

1. Decole, 2. Books, 3. Scarves, 4. OrlaBag, 5. BedroomWall, 6. ArabiaFranck, 7. Tchotchke, 8. Photographis, 9. Ottoman

Created with fd's Flickr Toys

✽ Decole 'Boulangerie' mug/teapot Isn't it a sweetie? I actually have quite a bit of Decole, i just can't resist their cute products. This is a relatively new addition, but it's a mug with a lid on top, and the lower part has a strainer and is used as a tea pot! Ugh - i die. No sugar needed in that tea - its sweet enough!

✽ Books! I love me some books. Mostly these are inspiring, shiny-paged, art books. I do read novels, but i love to surround myself with wonderful pictures and as a result i've filled two very big bookshelves with mostly art and design books. Its so good to curl up on the sofa and soak in a heavy, glossy paged book!

✽ Psychedelic Scarves My grandma was an amazingly stylish lady, and i'm fortunate enough to have inherited her scarves. Although i rarely wear them, its so good to be able to have them in my closet. Not only are they a reminder of her, they're an inspiration on their own. Just look at those colors and patterns! And they're just the tip of the scarf-berg!

✽ Orla Kiely bag I, along with quite a few others, am an Orla addict. Admitting i have a problem is the first step i've been told, but i think its her problem. Stop designing great bags, Ms Kiely! (please don't!! i take it back!) I have a few of her bags but this is my favourite. Its big, and durable and just look at those flowers. It makes my heart smile!

✽ Bedroom art gallery Our bedroom is lovely and sunny (except at night - boom tish) so its a pretty happy place to wake up in. Up there on the wall is a gouache painting from APAK and a plastic picture of a deer and flowers by Swimmer (Japanese kawaii brand) a shadow box paper sculpture by Helen Musselwhite and an original acrylic painting of a boy & a guitar (just like my boy & his guitar) by Lab Partners.

✽ Arabia Enamelware by Kaj Franck Another treasure inherited from my grandmother, the Arabia enamel pot and salad bowl are possibly my favourite things ever. I remember them from such an early age, and unknowingly my drawing style was heavily influenced by Kaj Franck's designs on them. They've served many a delicious meal and i love that something i love so much can be used, and really be a part of my day to day life.

✽ Tchotchkes Just little things, kitschy bits and pieces. I have a lot of them, scattered around, in pigeon holes and little groups. Here we see a leg of a little blue deer, a vintage floral mug, a 'Friends with You' blind box toy and a postcard my grandma sent from Hawaii back in the 70s. Oh and the very edge of a 'Las Vegas' salt & pepper shaker - sin city seasoning!

✽ Photo Graphis My mum was a graphic designer, back when graphic designing required rulers and pens and real tools. While i inherited a lot of her drawing tools, i must confess the pile of Graphis annuals have been used the most! And how could you resist that cover? Another day i'll post some scans because there is some really amazing stuff in these books.

✽ Comfy colorful corners Like i said, i could easily post my entire house, but this corner sums it up. Its a happy, comfortable place i can go to and think about what a lucky girl i am to have not only such lovely surroundings, but what adorable people i have to share it with! L.u.c.k.y!