Curtains at last

When we bought this house, it came with the top of range, expensive custom made drapes on every window.

Unfortunately they were all  hideous!

The ones in the formal lounge were so ugly and filled with dust that they were thrown away immediately. I thought we would never have drapes here as the windows are so large (6m x 4m) and it would be horrendously expensive to cover them. Privacy is not an issue, as we look out over the treetops into green hills, but I wanted something to soften the wall of glass.
Before we left Jakarta, the kids chose custom drapes for their bedrooms and on the spur of the moment I got them to make up some sheers for the lounge. I am so pleased I did as I think they make all the difference for around $100.
GJ thinks that installing curtains is the devils work, but I smiled sweetly and he got out the ladder. I have to wait till we get a big group of strong men over to hang the other half of the room as the baby grand piano is in the way. But soon it will be done!

Guilty pleasures

When I get stressed and or overloaded with uni assignments, I often take a few minutes out for a little guilty pleasure.....creating (and rearranging) little vignettes.
This bookcase is one of my favourite spots to tinker in
All of my extended family, bar my mother and sister, have passed away, and I have inherited some wonderful treasures. This antique bookcase was my uncles and it is filled with books from both sides of my family as well as my maternal and paternal family silver, plus GJ's grandmothers Carltonware. I love how the creamy glaze on my mothers Belleck china and the blue of the Wedgwood looks against the wood. I think I might have over-filled the bookcase, but I just can't take anything out, it all has sentimental value and gives me great pleasure to look at.

Uni starts back next week, I haven't have much of a break as I did a WONDERFUL 3 week prac teaching stint in a year 1/2 class. It was my first time with such young students and I loved it!

I think I am so busy with words for uni as well as family life i have lost my bloggy mojo...I think I have exhausted the Indonesian expat life and  will change focus to see if I can get back into the groove of regular posting.
I am going to start featuring my art, antiques and treasures.

GJ and I trialled every single piece of art, in every conceivable combination, in our bedroom until we ended up with this arrangement which I love. The muted reds match so well with the green gold walls. These are all antique Sumatran (Indonesian) ceremonial cloths. The two on the right hand side are Sumatran kain selandang songket (supplemental weft gold thread)

Ron Meuck Exhibition

We all went and saw the Ron Meuck exhibition recently; it was just as amazing as I thought it would be, even the kids were impressed!
Ron Mueck (born 1958) is an Australian hyper realist sculptor working in the United Kingdom. Mueck's sculptures faithfully reproduce the minute detail of the human body, but play with scale to produce disconcertingly visual images (via wikki 2010). The images are so life like, there is an overwhelming urge to reach out and touch the sculptures, but of course it is not allowed. There was no flash photography permitted so my photos aren't as good as I would of liked, however I did purchase the book of his work which is very interesting. 

These images highlight some of his other work in other galleries around the world (from google images)

The exhibition finished this weekend: http://qag.qld.gov.au/exhibitions/current/ron_mueck

Heather Jansch, Sculptor

I found a link and followed it from ::Lime in the Coconut::: and found the magnificent work of Heather Jansch.
These wonderful sculptures are made from driftwood.
Click on the picture to see how the sculptures capture the essence of the horses and then click through to read about Heather and how she found her definitive style.