Merry Christmas

You Can Never Have Enough...

...lovely tea towels from To Dry For.

Cake

Love this cake decorated with M&Ms. See the full story here. The bride/cake-maker runs the teatowel wonderland To Dry For.

Dreaming about...

...Italy.
Image source.

Brack

Loved the John Brack exhibition at the Art Gallery of South Australia.

John Brack: Latin American Grand Final, 1969.
Oil on canvas, 167.5 x 205.0 cm; NGA, Canberra; © Helen Brack.

John Brack: The new house, 1953
Oil on canvas on board, 127.0 x 55.8 cm; Private collection, Brisbane; ; © Helen Brack.

John Brack: Collins St, 5p.m., 1955
Oil on canvas, 114.6 x 162.9 cm; NGV, Melbourne; © National Gallery of Victoria.

Image sources: National Gallery of Victoria.

The Random Cat Project

Enjoying... The Random Cat Project:

Image source.

Drinks Monitor

Loving... "Drinks Monitor" from Wild & Wolf Vintage Old School Badges. Found mine for AUD11.95 from a great local on-line store, Brown Button Trading (pretty blog too).

Comfortable Paranoia

"Here you will dream of people you admire exposing your fraudulence" pillowcase. Part of a set of two (with "Here you will dream of endless kissing") designed by Miranda July and available from Third Drawer Down (AUD65 the set).

Images from Third Drawer Down.

Keep Calm...

Download this spot-on spoof as a card via creature comforts.

Squirrels

Squirrel tag by Missing Q Press (via here via here).

No! Well, maybe...

'Mesblock', a polyurethane knifeblock shaped like a cat, by Robert Knight.

End By Bookend

'Falling Books Bookend' by Artori at Design My World (GBP22.50).

Twinings

Found via BrocanteHome PinBoard.

Playing Games

A friend tried to teach me how to play backgammon last weekend on a board brought back from Iran which was inlaid with tiny pieces of, e.g., camel bone. Stunning. I now have backgammon board lust in a major way and keep googling 'mother-of-pearl'...

Adelaide @ Etsy

Another 'Had to Have', from Adelaidean Humdinger Designs' etsy shop. 'Miss Vegemite Pussycat', ACEO (copyright the artist).

This is my office...

Had to have it

'The Cat and the Canaries' from Matou en Peluche's etsy shop. The artwork remains copyright © 2008 the artist (S. Battersby).

Carved in stone

Detail from a stele in the Kerameikos in Athens. The inscription reads (as far as I can make out) 'Protarchos Protomachou Salaminios) and underneath are two of these flower/rosette things.

Reading

Isn't this a great cover? Sue Shephard, Pickled, Potted & Canned: the story of food preserving (2000, various reprints; ISBN 0-7472-6207-1).

Exploding Rats

The Australian War Memorial currently has an exhibition on animals in war ('A is for Animals') and the latest issue of their magazine Wartime features the 'exploding rat' developed by the Special Operations Executive. There's an 'interactive' display at the UK National Archives site (source of the above image). On the Australian War Memorial site one can also read about the Dickin Medal ("the animals' VC").

Playmobil Classics

What's not to love about the Playmobil 'Romans' series? More (an arena, chariots, soldiers, tents, family, etc.) via the Playmobil site. They're available online in Australia from Toybarn.

Dish Bunny

Designed by Chris Koens and available from dutch by design. They post to Australia.

Failure

Walter Benjamin on Kafka:

"One is tempted to say: once he was certain of eventual failure, everything worked out for him en route as in a dream."

Source: W. Benjamin 'Max Brod's Book on Kafka and Some of My Own Reflections', [letter to Gerhard Scholem: June 12, 1938] in Illuminations (London: Fontana, 1992; tr. H.Zohn), 136-143 [quotation, p.143].

Street art

Set into the cobbled footpaths of Delphi.

Milk Bottles

One day my own pottery will be as beautiful as these 'milk bottles' and mixing bowls from Bison. Bison, based outside Canberra, was started by a classicist.