Skateboards as art

We currently have two artist skateboards on display in the living room. One is a limited-edition glow-in-the-dark board designed by Dalek (one of about 150, I think), and the other is an autographed Neckface board (acquired during his 2007 visit to Brisbane).

Lately, I've been thinking that we could do with a couple more of them on the same wall – probably four in total. After all, skateboards can be two things for us: affordable art, and icons/relics of John's past. I’m sure John would particularly like some decks by Barry McGee, Mark Gonzales or Ed Templeton.

Here are a few that I wouldn't mind hanging on my walls:

Artist: Jeff Tremaine

Image: Disposable: A History of Skateboard Art

Artist: Barry McGee

Image: Disposable: A History of Skateboard Art

Artist: Mark Gonzales

Image: Disposable: A History of Skateboard Art

Artist: Mark Rivard

Image: Sharpie Blog

New on the blogroll: designed to a T

I've very excited to announce designed to a T as the latest addition to my blogroll!

Terese is based in Sydney, and she is going to be chronicling her own DIY experiences, including some step-by-step 'how-to' guides (which is fabulous for novices like myself who just make stuff up as they go along!). For those of you who remember my post a few months back, Terese was the lovely person who gifted me a huge Florence Broadhurst wallpaper offcut back in November - and I still haven't been game to do anything with it! Maybe after I learn some new skills from designed to a T I'll be ready to tackle it!

Perspex initials

A few months ago when we were at Reverse Garbage, I took a liking to these perspex letters. I was lucky enough to find some with our initials on them, so happily took them home. Then, we put them somewhere REALLY safe - so safe that it took me about six weeks to eventually find them (high on a shelf in the garage).

Today, I finally wandered around the house trying to find them a home. I had a feeling they'd end up somewhere in the main bedroom, and here they are - on the side table in our reading area. John may decide to move them when he gets home, but this is where they live for the timebeing!

What do you think - worth the $3.50 each I paid for them?

More pictures from my Apartment Therapy photo shoot

I thought I'd upload a few extra images that I took for the Apartment Therapy House Call. Although many of the images weren't of great quality (since I'm not the world's greatest photographer or interior stylist!), these are some additional favourites of mine.

I really quite like this one...

Living room from a different perspective...

View of the living area from the dining room...

Some of my favourite things from some special friends...

Suitcases and other cute things in the bedroom (including the red suitcase, which I've had since I was little - it still holds my childhood drawings and paintings)...

And, finally, another nice shot of the office!

Thank you to everyone who commented here and on the Apartment Therapy site - the feedback means a lot to me, and hopefully our home will continue to improve over the years to come!

Flying Ducks featured on Apartment Therapy!

I am very proud to declare that, as of today, our place has been featured as a before-and-after House Call on Apartment Therapy! Click here to see it.

I am extremely pleased with how it looks, and surprised and excited to receive such positive comments from the AT readers so far (because, let's face it, I'm not an interior design expert by any means). A huge thank you to Jenny Butler for arranging the tour!

Pretty Tuesday flowers

We had the not-so-appealing task of grocery shopping this evening, and I not-so-discreetly pointed out to John that there were bunches of flowers on sale at the registers. He chose these pretty yellow chrysanthemums - aren't they lovely?

Some goals for 2010...

I thought that, given it’s the beginning of a new year, I should outline some of my goals for the home for the next 12 months. I’m certainly not the resolution type, but I figured that making a public declaration about these things would mean that all (or at least some) of them would get done!

Goal number 1: Learn how to sew
I’ll be getting a few beginner lessons from a friend (thanks Shilo!), and then hopefully once I’m confident I’ll dare to make some cushions with my Florence Broadhurst ‘Spring Floral’ fabric.

Image: Signature Prints

Goal number 2: Get plantation shutters installed
This goal doesn’t really require a lot of effort on my part, since all I have to do is wait for the installation guy to show up in March. Thanks to a pre-wedding gift from my parents, we’ll be getting shutters a lot sooner than we anticipated, so it’s very exciting indeed! We’ll be getting the white sliding version from Cosmopolitan Shutters.

Image: Cosmopolitan Shutters

Goal number 3: Have some art works framed
As mentioned back in November, I’ve unframed, limited-edition prints by Kozyndan and Shepard Fairey that I would dearly love to hang on my walls. Of course, professional conservation framing is expensive, but I’m committed to getting them done this year!

Goal number 4: Finish the bathroom
Although the structural renovations are complete, there are still jobs to be done! As the bathroom was the first room in the apartment that we painted (not to mention the first time either of us had really painted walls at all!), we didn’t do a brilliant job. We’ll keep the 'Desert Bake' colour on most of the walls, but will re-paint the main wall in the complementary colour of 'Cherokee Smoke' (it’s a kind of smoky cream/white). Then, we’ll hopefully had some nice new towel rails and get rid of the ugly portable one that we’re currently using.

Goal number 5: Paint the cupboard doors
Some of the gloss-white paint is peeling to reveal, you guessed it, beige. Yuck. There’s a couple of weekends’ worth of work to do, but it’s not a big deal.

Goal number 6: Finally, learn to take better photos
I’m considering buying a better camera, perhaps a digital SLR, at some point in the future, but for now I’d like to get better at using the one I have. I think I have improved over the past six months, but more improvement is needed (and an improvement in photos will improve Flying Ducks as well!). I actually quite like these few shots that I took recently for Apartment Therapy.