A little thing that I'm working on...

Re-invent, Re-interpret, Re-make is an exhibition that I am curating at Town Hall Gallery for August 2010. Almost a blessing in disguise, we had a cancellation for an exhibition while I was overseas on long service leave. I had to come up with a show very quickly so the 'Re' show is bit of a baby for me.

Here's the little blurb about it that went into the calendar, a big thanks to Jones for the lovely 'R' promo image as well.

"They say that everything is old is new again and that there are no new ideas,
just new ways of interpretation. This exhibition explores the idea of
re-invention, re-interpreting old ideas into new ones and re-making materials
into works of art.
Artists selected have either paid homage to iconic artworks and re-interpreted them in a modern way of have taken traditional
artisan skills and re-invented them into works that will challenge how you see
arts and crafts. The lines between what is old and traditional are blurred
by the modern and now."

I've started approaching some artists about this exhibition, both Australian and international, however we will also be doing a bit of a call out as well. If you're a blog reader and interested in this exhibition or would like to pop in a proposal, please email me at missmardi@gmail.com

I think it will be fabulous and I'm really looking forward to working on this exhibition!

Love a good machine knit...

image from www.swankdollar.blogspot.com

While I was on my long service leave, I did take up hand knitting again for something to do. My dream is to get my knitting machines back into the studio and take it up to make some beauties.

I am even more inspired to do after finding this awesome blog http://swankdollar.blogspot.com/ featuring some of the best machine knitting I've seen! Check it out, it's beautiful!

Thanks to Craftzine too for posting a link to this blog which is how I found it!

It's lovely to be in love...

We have arrived home in Melbourne, for me, it was three months away overseas. Poor Mark came and went and came over again. Lots of frequent flyer points there! I guess we have settled back into work and home and entertaining. We have had two fantastic weekends of chatting with friends, eating lovely food and organizing stuff for our wedding.

Thanks to Anita for these photos! I stayed with Anita and Bud in Boston while I was travelling and it's great to catch up again in Melbourne. I love these two photos from our shopping day. It was the day that we sorted out shoes and ordered Mark's suit for the wedding. We are running on a bit of a tight schedule but I don't think that we are stressed at all. It will all come together in the end. Plus Mark is one of my favourite shopping buddies! He has great taste... naturally! ;-)

2009 roundup...

I've been a little bit lazy in getting my 2009 round up completed. I guess that is what happens when you are overseas and trying to fit a million things in!

Here is a bit of a round up of my 2009:

I got engaged to my awesome man Mark so we can spend the rest of our time being silly, travelling and eating great food!

I have spent a quarter of 2009 overseas and on long service leave! how I will be going back from this, I'm not sure but it's going to be hard!

I got 2 new tattoos from 2 lovely Scandanavian ladies!

I spent a lot of time with my friends having fun and chilling out. There needs to be more of this!

I made heaps of dresses in the last 12 months. I had a somewhat New Year's resolution to buy less and make more.

I cooked more in 2009. Our kitchen was pumping with loads of yummy delights and snacks for Mark and myself to take to work.

I started walking to work and have been enjoying it.

I broke my first bone ever! In a freak accident I broke my foot and had my first plaster cast.

I ate alot of cupcakes in 2009 thanks to the amazing Sugadeaux and my interest in becoming a 'cupcake connoseiur'.

I appreciated and purchased a steady amount of beautiful Marimekko designed stuff. I love it and it brightens up my day!

Heres to 2010 and more greatness!

New Years Eve 2009

New Years Eve New York City 2009... a few images... a few words...

Mark being festive with hat and star shapped clapper thing!

Miss Amy and the Bradams with Unique (the little dog) enjoying a champas!

This is my self-portrait mirror NYE pic, yes those tiaras are very flattering and the split in the mirror seems appropriate for a drunken evening!

My favourite pic! Nick and I celebrating!

We are all starting to look a bit tired! By the way... check out the lovely tie I got Mark from Paul Smith... lovely!

The Bradams enjoying their New Years New York experience - great glitter glasses boys!

Lots of fun had!

Mark & I got Kapten Hannafied...

One of the things that we did while in Portland Maine was to visit the Squid & Whale headoffice of awesomeness and get inked by the equally awesome Kapten Hanna. My beautiful Deco lady took two days but was definitely worth it... she is such a pretty lady!

Here she is finished and all healed...

And here is an image of the line work. There was alot of line work to be completed! Hanna did a great job at the many straight lines and tiny pearl beads.

Mark got a sextant on his arm... if you don't know what a sextant is, it's a ye old nautical measuring device. Very mathy ... very Mark! They are quite beautiful.

A big shout out to the fabulous Kapten Hanna and Cindy Lou who made our three days in the studio so much fun. I had to try and stop laughing so much so Hanna wouldn't mess up any lines! Our discussions on music and film were very indepth... as was Cindy Lou's appreciation of made up songs! Can't wait to catch up with you guys again!

More Marimekko madness

I really need to stop by shopping at Marimekko but I think that I'm just making up for lost time! The store in New York has such a variety of stock and I couldn't resist hitting the post Christmas sales to see if there were any bargains. I did pick up this cute Petra dress (shown above) however I got it in the yellow and pink colourway... very cute!

I also got this lovely Marimekko clutch. Above is a screen shot of information about Mari's bags a newish line for Marimekko from the Finish website. I have had my eye on this clutch for awhile and I can't wait to use it! It has great summer colours and I love the circular patterns.

So enough Marimekko for awhile... I feel like I may burn others eyes from such brightness!

A very Jewish Christmas

I love spending Christmas in New York, it's always so festive and the shops are beautiful. Even the Empire State Building looks festive (above) with it's green and red lighting.... so pretty.

We had a very Jewish Christmas, spending the day with our Jewish friend Evan eating plate after plate of delicious dim sum. I think it was the most amount of dishes we have ever ordered!

Here is Evan and I taking in delicious dim sum, yes I am wearing one of my new Marimekko dresses with the hares on it!

We then had yummy icecream from the Chinese Icecream Factory in Chinatown before exploring and buying up in the shops that were open. (Yeah, love the fact we could buy shoes on Christmas day! Awesome!)

We also decided that Christmas wasn't Christmas without indulging in some cocktails. We headed to Uncle Charlies bar where we may of induldged in one too many cocktails but we blame the 2 for 1 drinks that lead us to becoming a little merry. (see photo below!)

So even though we didn't get to see a movie on the day it was still a great Jewish Christmas, lots of fun, food, cocktails and excellent company! I will miss this kind of Christmas.