Eye Candy

Some lovely Mid-Century gems in the Croydon/Croydon Hills area.
And this last picture is some unusual sculptures outside a fairly non-descript house in Chirnside Park. They certainly stand out against the white wall!

door decal

door decal
Originally uploaded by Joyflea

I found a door in hard rubbish (a council roadside clearout for non-Aussies) and after much wrangling, got it into my car and safely home without breaking the glass. When time was on my side, I stripped it back and with the bloke's help, repainted and rehung it. I was worried about the fact that it wasn't safety glass and as we have already had one child hospitalised from running through a glass door, I didn't want a repeat of that. I decided to design a decal that could be applied to the door in frosted vinyl, so that if the door did get broken, the vinyl would hold the glass in place. I searched the web for inspiration and was going to go for a traditional retro design, when the bloke suggested I use one of my sketches. We scanned it into CorelDraw and then he cut it out using a vinyl sign cutter. (He works in the industry, so that's a bonus!)
I love the finished product, and I'm sure our bookkeeper will be pleased with the outcome as well.
Because this is the door to our office. She comes to our place once a week to do the bookkeeping and she is seriously allergic to cats. And of course, the office is the cat's favourite room.
Not any more.

Dreaming.

It's been too hot to pound the pavement lately, so I've been doing my daydreaming online. Here's some properties in my area currently on the market.

• Tagell Rd, Heathmont. Built in 1962.
  

• Gracedale Avenue, Ringwood East.

• Aurum Crescent, Ringwod North. I liked the style of this house, but I didn't like the renovation of some parts of the house. Why do people insist on feature walls of every lounge and bedroom in a suede finish?

• Wembley Gardens, Donvale. I love the exterior of this house. The crazy paving, the split rock walled garden. Unfortunately, the interior of this house was a bit OTT. The masculine room was alright, but that stag head would be the 1st thing to go!!

All of these images were found via realestate.com.au.
It has a great new gallery feature so you don't have to squint at thumbnails to get an idea of the property.

One day whilst the sun was briefly shining.....

.....I grabbed my camera and went for a drive around Ringwood North. Why did I drive? Well, it's magpie season and I preffered not to get swooped by a birdie!

Ringwood East, Heathmont

I have a friend who lives in the leafy part of Ringwood East, in a house that sits amongst the tree tops. I am envious of her large expanses of glass at each visit.
It's a beautiful area with many gorgeous modernist homes. The only problem is that many of them have been there for 30-50 years so the magnificent gardens often obscure the houses from the street.
The neighbouring suburb of Heathmont, once thriving apple orchards, is another hotspot for contemporary post-war housing.
After visiting my friend on Wednesday, I grabbed my camera and cruised around the streets of these 2 suburbs and took some snaps. Here's a couple that could be seen through the foliage.

Open for business!

After a well deserved break and a freshen up for the shop, Railway Bizarre is open for business again. Drop in and see the lovely Wendy at 42 Railway Ave, Ringwood East.(It's almost across the road from the train station-how's that for handy?)
Opening hours are 10-5 Tuesday to Saturday. If you visit on a the 1st Saturday of the month you can wander around the Car Boot market in the station car park.

Wall art

I grew up in a newly established estate in the South Eastern suburbs in the 70's. There were lots of brick veneer houses, mission brown wood trims and some quite avant garde houses. One thing that I remember vividly was the "flowers" that people had attached to their houses. The 1st time I saw them, I thought that they were a kind of metal sun and wondered why our house didn't have one. I guess we just weren't European enough. Or cultured. I later discovered that you could get coffee tables made from the same twisted and misshapen metal. I didn't like those quite so much as the wall art.

They are slowly disappearing from the landscape. As houses get renovated, rendered or knocked down completely, these metal marguerites have no doubt been handed over to the scrap metal man for a nice wad of cash. Or placed in hard rubbish for the lucky treasure hunter to acquire for him/her self.

I hope to acquire one for my own 70's redbrick, so that I may bask in it's nostalgic from the comfort of my yard and not from a stranger's nature strip.