Beautiful Creative Things

Thursday, 7 April 2011

The cult of beauty at the V&A

The V&A in London is running an exciting exhibition called The Cult of Beauty, which showcases masterpieces from the Aesthetic Movement, including paintings, prints, designs, photos, jewellry, drawings and decorative items from 1860s to 1890s. As a fan of the Pre-raphaelites, I find this exhibition wonderfully inspiring.

And to accompany The Cult of Beauty, the V&A shop is selling stunning merchandise - I'm very tempted by the earrings and peacock brooch! Would love to go and re-visit Lord Leighton house too! Click here to see pictures of this amazing house.

Pavonia by Frederic Leighton, 1858-9.

Private collection © Christie's

Monday, 4 April 2011

Woodland's wooden wonders

Hedgehogs, rabbits and a stunning squirrel

A felled tree at my daughter's preschool was transformed into a beautiful bench and organic sculptures by chainsaw carving artist Tim Atkins.

I couldn't resist showing off these beautiful woodland creatures and hope one day to be able to have one in my own garden!

An owl

Mushrooms

Saturday, 26 March 2011

Beautiful and useful

Lakeland Microwave Apple Cooker

Today I'm interpreting the William Morris's motto by stressing the useful bit - I bought this in charity shop only to find out that it's still sold. To me it has an 1980s retro look, when microwaves became popular all over the world.

I was wondering about the instructions (being a second-hand item I thought they had been lost) then I googled the name on the box and found Lakeland's page featuring this product. I was pleasantly surprised that the company addressed a negative comment about the lack of instructions by providing guidelines and a recipe! Click here to find out more. According to other users, this product is great for onions and to steam veg.