Each year my good friend Leslie (aka Swarm) visits the Design Academy Eindhoven during Dutch Design Week, and while she’s there she takes photos of some of her favourite creations/ideas/designs on display and emails them to me. This one came through my inbox the other day with just these words “Make your own wallpaper from wildflowers and a hammer”.

Love. It.

Created by design student Elena Pereira, her idea stems from the notion that flowers are used to express emotion as well as the strive for perfection:

“Life withers, nothing ever stays the same, why then should we cultivate perfection? The living space is a reflection of the daily struggle with life’s demands.”

Here is a little film of her making the wallpaper, and you can visit Elena’s website to see more of her work.

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Photo courtesy of Leslie Oschmann

Once upon a time, but not so long ago, Monday was my ‘washing day’. I’d do a week’s worth of washing in one day, about three loads (whites, colours, dark) – maybe with an extra load for woolens every now and then.

These days, every day is washing day, with more loads than I can count. Sometimes I might skip a day if I’m out and about. That’s never a good thing for the days that follow.

Having baby clothes amongst the laundry is delightful though, there is no denying it.

xx

Do you have an obsession for all things clay? The other day I took some photos of some of the ceramic collections I have dotted around my home, and wrote about them here, on the Country Style blog. Perhaps you can relate.

xx

photograph by miep jukkema

photograph by String Gardens at Pompon Bloemen & Flowers, Amsterdam

photograph by miep jukkema

photograph by annelie bruijn

…they are.so.beautiful.

photograph by me at Flower Salon/, Droog, Amsterdam

More about them here.
(fyi they are created by Dutch artist Fedor van der Valk.)

Just up the road from where I live here in Sydney, there is a gorgeous little gallery called Little Paper Plane. I pass the space daily, while walking with Laly to our favourite French cafe, LaBancz. Over the months I’ve seen some beautiful art showcased, including this stunning textile and print work by Mehwish Iqbal…

Mehwish has screen printed as well as embroidered over pattern paper – I love her technique, and the layering of textures is striking. The exhibition is titled “The Silent Diaspora”, and explores the course of integration, assimilation and separation experienced by migrants living in Australia: ” The Silent Diaspora conveys the space and divide that exists within our multicultural country.”

It’s a stunning collection, and although its last days were this weekend just gone, hopefully we’ll get to see more from Mehwish soon…