And a couple of older pictures from outside of my house:
Guggenheim Museum, New York 
Casa Batllo, Barcelona (Listening to: White Spaces featuring Jim Kerr, Don't you forget about me)
It really is the perfect space for a party with lots of places to sit.
Grab a stool and help yourself to nuts or chips while I pour you a drink. Or two!
Once you're done you might want to wander over to the corner sofa and lounge back, chill out and listen to the groovy music.
I needed to put the doors to rights and reglue the walls...
reattach the chimney and the stairs and make it look like someone cares.
(Yes that is a jar of Dolmio - I needed a weight to glue the bathroom back in...)
Here's a sneak peek of the after kitchen - with a floor that has been cleaned possibly for the first time in its 35 year life! Fridge, sink, tables and chairs are all Brio with accessories from all over the place but about right in age to fit the era of the house. And next door, the bathroom with all original Brio bathroom fittings which were the only pieces to come with the house.
What makes me particularly excited is the bath is complete with plug and shower hose (which doesn't happen very often as they are usually lost in play or removed by parents concerned with safety)
(Want to learn more? Check out these sites:
Elizabeth's Svenska dockhus (Click on Museum then Brio)
My old dollhouses has some lovely photos of old Scandinavian dolls houses packed with furniture and occupants. (Navigate through the tabs at the top marked Side 1 etc)
Carola's site is a bit of a mess to navigate round but worth a visit
And for brand new modern Lundby houses and furniture check out the Australia Lundby site)
(Listening to: Skallander, The Camels)
Black Paddington Coat Factory coat (70% wool, 20% nylon, 10% cashmere): $15
(Oopsie, over budget on the first stop....)
White milk jug $1.25 (they were having a 1/2 price off all bric a brac sale). Country Road lidded sugar bowl: $2.
Brand new with tag Transversion Chrissy bag: $1
There's a fantastic vintage clothing boutique in Dickson called Lily Haze*. I try to steer clear of it as it is a dangerous place. For my wallet, that is.
Cool 50s/60s tin: 50 cents. No idea what I'll do with it but I couldn't just leave it there could I?
Stovetop espresso maker: $2. Need to find instructions for it. Also two retro tiles which may end up on the kitchen wall: 50 cents each. And more knitting needles: $1 a pair.
Jar of black and white buttons: $2. Good thing Use What You Have Month is over for me!
Two lots of vintage fabric 50 cents and 30 cents and a book on writing fiction for $2. All are destined for other people. And finally I found a brand new with tag pair of black and white polka dot PJs for $7.50. Chinese, so the top's a bit odd so I might just wear the pants with a T or I might get creative and change to top around. But since they're summer weight I've got a while to sort that out. No picture - they're in the wash....Much refreshed I finally made it back to the depths of wintery cold and damp Canberra. Where the contents of the car exploded all over the lounge floor
and I found this towering pile of mail waiting for me (not bad for three weeks, huh?!)
I was in a quandary on which to unpack first so did the most interesting looking bits of mail before tackling the luggage.
From Jen over at Red Instead, an envelope full of goodies including two of her pieces of art (I love how she has stitched the pieces onto their backing - an idea I'd not thought of) plus a hand printed card. Coupons for a month's free trial of a DVD service, a couple of Lincraft patterns including a stripy jumper (a gal can never have too many black and white stripy jumpers, right?) and lastly some white rick rack (yay! my favorite thing at the moment) and some super wide binding. Thanks Jen!
A birthday box from Pink Rocket who knew I wanted some freezer paper to try out the whole stenciling craze and filled the rest of the package with other yummy things. The really funny part is I was eyeing up the black versions of these plates at Walmart two weeks ago and humming and harring over whether to get them or not. Finally decided no as I was running badly out of room with two more weeks of travelling and amassing souvenirs in front of me. Good thing I didn't buy them, hey?
Go frugalling, of course!
Originally we weren't sure if I was going to be able to see everything I had on my list as they were scattered from one end of the LA to the other. But Laura managed to get me round all of it and more, and even extended my time happily by an extra hour to accomodate it all. Even better, I didn't feel I was on a "tour" at all but rather hanging out with a friend who shared an interest with me - which made it a very enjoyable day indeed and caused me to completely change my attitude to LA. Yay to Laura!
First (and possibly the most exciting stop for me) was the Eames House and Studio which was just a magic place. Unfortunately you're not allowed to take photos of the inside so I had to content myself with outside only. And those of you who know me well will be very pleased to hear I was very very restrained and did not collect a stone from the garden to add to the collection I have in the downstairs toilet!
I did go a little crazy with the souvenirs though and bought the DVD set of Eames Movies I have been lusting after for a while, a couple of books (including a postcard book which had a photo of the Revell dolls house Eames had built a prototype of - which the women at the house says they are considering putting into production. My name is so on that waiting list!) And the lovely woman at the house gave me a limited edition Eames designed spinning top as a belated birthday present (possibly the best souvenir of the whole trip) Back in the van I could have happily gone back to the airport feeling the tour was a worth it. But we were just beginning the afternoon's adventures.The next destination was Pasadena. No, not to pay homage to the Depeche Mode film 101 (which ended at the Rose Bowl) but to visit some Greene and Greene homes.
On the way we saw many interesting things, the most striking being the toilet where George Michael was arrested
and the other end of Route 66 (so I may not have driven the length of it but I saw both ends which has to count for something, right? I made sure to hum Depeche Mode's Beatmaster's Mix of the song while taking the picture). 
I first discovered Greene and Greene through articles in Nutshell News (a magazine about miniatures) about a couple called Noel and Pat Thomas who make the most breathtakingly exquisite 1/12th scale models of their homes. I knew the houses fitted into the whole Mackintosh/ Lloyd Wright arts and crafty area but not much more and was keen to fill in that gap.
But as we drove up to The Gamble House the only thing I could say was "Isn't this the house?" which Laura finished off with "Back to the Future? Yes". And, of course, both the house and gift shop were closed for the day. Typical!
Just round the corner was Frank Lloyd Wright's Millard House (La Miniatura) for which he invented a new system of concrete block construction which was exciting to see (and touch!) even if the view from the gate wasn't that extensive.Laura showed me and gave me the background to many other districts and buildings before dropping me back at the airport. 
Five stars and mucho recommendations to Laura and Architecture Tours LA!
Long wait at the airport for my flight - by the time I boarded I'd already been awake for 20 hours and by the time I got back to Sydney it was 33 hours with a couple of cramped naps on the plane. Do I need to mention I was still wearing the same clothes I'd climbed into 33 hours beforehand? Let me say I was very happy to see the shower and a fresh outfit!
(Blogger's picture loading has been playing up for the past 36 hours - I'll have pictures for this and all my other holiday posts up as soon as they sort themselves out...)
If this wasn't enough excitement for the morning, our next experience was the 75 minute speedboat ride and architectural river tour on the SeaDog with very entertaining commentary from a chap called Chris.
the Anish Kapoor cloudgate sculpture
and the Parisian Metra entrance way which handily happened to be the place we needed to be to catch the train out to the final stop of the day - Colleen Moore's Fairy Castle at The Museum of Science and Industry.
We were very fortunate as originally we had planned to visit the Fairy Castle first and do Navy Pier in the afternoon but changed our minds at the last minute and switched them around. Halfway out to the museum on the train, the heavens opened and there was torrential rain - perfect timing for a trip inside!
Even better we discovered a 2 hour Sex and The City special on TV which we watched. So the evening turned out to be rather excellent, if not what we had originally expected.
I think I've reached that point in my trip where my feet hurt from too much walking (let's not even talk about how they smell, shall we?), I'm sick of the sight of my clothes (and am starting to get confused as to which are clean, which are "airing" for potential second wearing and which need to visit a washing machine desperately), my eyebrows are starting to resemble early Brooke Shields and I'm having cravings for a time where I don't have to live out of a suitcase any more.
(and do some more culture as we stumbled across a stained glass museum on our wanderings).
On our last day in New York we (of course) had breakfast at the Wholefood Market to fortify us for the walking ahead then caught the subway to The Rockefeller Center so I could at least imagine I was iceskating there (I've always wanted to iceskate at the Rockefeller Center on Christmas Eve for some odd reason).
Nearby was apparently the New York branch of Mary Quant but it mysteriously disappeared and we couldn't find it. Other places we didn't get to visit were the Museum of Arts and Design (which had a very fine looking exhibition on the Eames Armchair which I could see from the gift shop) and The Museum of Modern Art (which had an excellent gift shop with a Canberra made Fink jug for sale
and a very small range of Muji products). We really were planning to actually visit MOMA but the queue was a terrifying length so we ran away.
Wandered back across to pick up our bags which we'd left a the hotel and got sidetracked in Kiehls which was just round the corner. Princess B found some lovely new skincare products to take home and we both discovered rather acceptable coffee at the inhouse cafe, Mud.
Even better, the coffee was free as we were browsing!
