homewares

acrylic … look we’re painting op shop stuff after all

So I think I found one of the painting loves of my life in our very first acrylic painting exercise in CREATE … still life.

I love a domestic painting.  And especially one that is focussed on a collection.  And then one focussed on a collection that comes from the op shop is of course my idea of heaven.

We had a crack at acrylic painting (and at the same time practised mixing paint using just red, yellow, blue and white) by looking at the works of Georgio Morandi.

He painted the same collection of jugs and vases over and over and over.  See the same jug in all the paintings below?


 The colours really are just my cup of tea.

Anyways … I did 3 acrylic paintings along these lines.  Not quite the same of course, but ‘inspired by’. 

I think my main challenge was to try and make things 3D … which as you can see Morandi did in a much flatter way … but that’s okay, perhaps the first step is to go extreme before you can pare back?

And actually, writing this post makes me want to go and give it another go!  Another 20 years of this and I’ll have it down pat … I think I could do it! Still life + me = friends.

colours of 2017

As you know, I DO shop mostly at the op shop, buying last year’s clothes and all … but I don’t want to be super uncool in my choices.  I like op shop prices (and it’s good for the world to reuse and recycle) but I don’t want to look like I shop at the op shop necessarily (not that I won’t immediately tell you that I bought something second hand if you comment on my clothes or anything in my house – I just can’t help myself).

So, to keep things relevant I present my not so secret weapon …ta da!   The Pantone colour chart for the year.  2017 here we go.


‘Greenery’ is the PANTONE COLOUR OF THE YEAR (and thus I predict that the home decorating trend for lots of plants inside is going to continue – go forth and buy that fiddle leaf fig I say).

Anyway, now I am checking out this chart to get the vibe man … you know.  

I’ll keep that smokey mid blue colour in mind.  I ❤️ blue.  And I like mid greens and yellows.  A bit of orange (yay I’ve got some great orange pants).  And I like the combo of the greens with that lighter blue.  

Those pastels aren’t super for me, but they might be good mixed with the stronger colours …

Right, done.  That’s it.  I’m  ready to go forth and rummage my way through 2017 with confidence.

who knew?

So for Christmas we ventured into the gaming world.   But we’re not the ‘serious gamers’.  

We’re the ‘Just Dance gamers’, looking for a device with a Kinect.

And so I discovered my new favourite second hand store, EB Games.  Who knew that a second hand shop had so successfully infiltrated mainstream shopping centres (well clearly I didn’t and obviously I now realise lots of you  did.  Still, belatedly, how ace!)

Anyway, what I liked BEST was that despite all the pricey new tech, the guy in the store listened to me* say ‘Just Dance’ and ‘Kinect’ 20+ times in our two minute conversation and  then pointed me in the direction of the cheapest device in the shop … a second hand Xbox 360 with a Kinect.  And then pointed out lots of second hand games to make the most of this ‘new to us but old’ technology.


And I can tell you now that despite the reviews saying that the Kinect is ‘unresponsive’ and ‘clunky’, it is perfectly adequate for judging dancing competitions in our lounge room.  

We ❤ love love it.

*on behalf of 🎅🏼.  S/he was very busy 2 days before Christmas and asked me to do the initial investigating … 

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