vans ...

Ever since getting my first kombi van back in '93, I wouldn't seriously consider driving any other type of vehicle ... nice high ride and great carrying capacity ... and road trips are way more fun in a van.

But can you beat those Californian vans for proper '70's cool?
Check out 'Vans and the places where they were.' for some really nice pics.

just wow ...

Nobody can deny that there's an art to good storage, but Swedish artist Michael Johansson has made it ART.  We saw a few of his pieces featured on 'What's blogging my view' (Janne, a Norwegian blogger with a GREAT eye), and had to follow up.

Johansson combines collecting and curating and colour-coding and compacting so well ...

For those of us with a nasty habit of accumulating more than we can accommodate, his work is pretty inspiring, and the mix of scales is cool too.

Sadly, though we share some of his principles in filling our garage with our finds, the lack of open space around our stacks means we're not quite at exhibition levels yet.  Great stuff though!

windmills of our minds ...

Cath's a big fan of those 'Southern Cross' windmill pumps that are scattered thru the dusty paddocks of rural Australia - most country drives we take involve a few 'out the window' blurry snaps of great, rusty bits of iron.  We had occasion to head up towards the NSW border a couple of weeks ago and spotted pretty much the biggest we've ever seen, just outside Shepparton.

Impressive as it is, it rides the 'tourist attraction' / 'functional machine' border - still super beautiful though.

It's next-door neighbour definitely falls into the category of 'nice spot to stop for a devonshire tea' ... not that we're judging.

Will collate a few of our pics of the 'proper' windmills and post them soon.

return of the mantis ...

Guess it must be the change of seasons - though it kinda feels like summer's still here - the praying mantis posse is once again descending on our garden.

They are definitely the kookiest bugs we see in our neck of the woods ... and a lot less harmful than the locust plague Victoria's being smitten with ...

position vacant

Just heard the news of the passing of Mr Malcolm McLaren this morning, at 64 years of age.
Probably best known for his fashion collaboration with Vivienne Westwood in the early 70's via their stores 'SEX' and 'Let It Rock', and his subsequent engineering ot the punk movement in London, he was an archetypical music entrepreneur.

I was a late arrival to (but big fan of) the Sex Pistols, and the aesthetic McLaren gave them ... but I have to say that the work I loved the most (and played to death - sorry mum and dad) was his fusion of B-Boy hip hop and world beats, the fantastic Duck Rock album.

A totally kooky and cool collection of music ('Buffalo Gals', 'Double Dutch', 'Soweto'), it's a record we still play in the store now ...and as for his appropriation of Haring's NY street art style ...




Though he hasn't had too much relevance for you genX and genY kids, he gave us older folk a lot of joy during the 70's and 80's ... might be a nice time to look up some his past work ...

Thanks Malcolm ... it may not all have been art, but it was a lotta fun!

truck and roll

Conserving and restoring mid century furniture is our preferred pastime, and with so much product still out there looking for love we can never understand why people opt for sub-standard new pieces, or cheaply produced (though seldom cheaply priced) knock-offs ... no not much respect for 'new' mass-produced stuff.

We recently came across the site of a Japanese company who seem to be crafting new pieces with absolute respect for the look and feel of vintage, though.

They are called TRUCK, and their stuff is super-cool ...

Heck, maybe we have been fooled into thinking they are doing something that they're not ... neither of us is too hot at reading Japanese - but whether it's all original vintage or all new stock with a great deal of effort put into making it look old, it's hard to deny the aesthetic ...

super-cool - we love it ... take a look sometime.

judging a book by it's cover?

Cath's got this knack of collecting that has a logic all of it's own.  We're currently hunting for a couple more bookshelves to accommodate a burgeoning stack of novels from Penguin Publishing - a stack which gets bigger each time she spots a different logo on the spine ...

We're just waiting for the apocalypse now, so we have a bit of time to hole up at home and read 'em all ...

boxfresh ... easy-pack living

Another 'via' find - saw these crazy things on 'what's blogging my view' (ever-reliable for pretty stuff and good finds) and we love 'em.

These pieces are all by TAF architects of Sweden (man - Scandinavians leave the rest of the world waaaay behind sometimes!).  There was a mini-feature last month on design*sponge ... plenty more fun stuff to see - check it out.

Sure, you might need to psyche up a bit before you take on the stairs with a hangover, but well worth the effort ...

... and how simple would the re-upholstering job be when you wanted a new look!

attention young modernists

Well hi there ...
As is often the case, we might be a little late in cottoning on, but a friend popped in to the store yesterday and directed us to ModernistAustralia - a great blog/site which is right up our alley.  These few picks are a sample of their mind-blowing content ...

They have a fantastic eye, and pay homage to local mid-century architecture with a great set of photos and links to current homes for sale.  Some great and thorough scouring involved for sure - they have so many great pics of those few places that haven't yet been demolished to make way for townhouses ... imagine if there were a few property developers out there with this much respect for the truly beautiful.

We are totally hooked and will be frequenting their site for sure ... wholeheartedly recommended!

more reasons why 2010's not so bad ...

so, we are totally blessed to have a like-minded friend on the other side of the world who helps us with our chair-sourcing ... he's got very similar taste in design to us, plus the energy to scour and hunt for hidden gems.  and he found us ...

we're not label-snobs looking for 'designer' items (heck - we appreciate design, but it ain't the label that gets us excited), but we can't believe that we will be sharing our lives with the lovely 'pernilla 2' by Mr Bruno Matthsson.  1941 - that's crazy! 

the next shipment should be here in late march, all going according to plan ... not sure that pernilla will be on display in our store tho' - haven't met her yet, but i think it might be true love.

travel safe baby!