A gallery and garden visit

This weekend my big sister and I are having a weekend away - the main reason we're hitting the road is to take in the Australian Modern Masterpieces exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ballarat. Some of my favourite artists are on show at the exhibition - Grace Cossington Smith, Margaret Preston, Nora Heysen.

Jeffrey Smart's 'Truck and trailer approaching city', 1973.

While we're up that way I also intend to visit the Lambley Garden and Nursery, just north of Ballarat.  I have been longing to visit this garden for two reasons: (1) the stunning dry garden; and (2) the artwork of Criss Canning - her husband owns the nursery/garden.  As the pics below show, the garden is nothing short of stunning...large drifts of plants punctuated with colour:

And the veggie garden is not too shabby either...

And equally as stunning is Criss Canning's flora themed artwork:

I'm hoping to pick up a copy of Chris Canning's book when I visit Lambley Nursery and Garden:

Apparently the weather is going to be quite lovely and Spring-like too, so hopefully we'll have a great time exploring.  Whatever you're up to this weekend, I hope you have a good one.

[Images: 1 - Art Gallery of Ballarat; 2-12 - Lambley Nursery]

Mirror love and indigo infatuation

Thanks to this fabulous post by Mr Jason Grant I am now besotted with the mirror in this pic - I want to jump on a plane, head up to Sydney, tuck this mirror under my arm and bring it home with me. I think it would be perfect for our new house...but there's just a couple of things stopping me: (1) we have a lot of rebuilding to do before I can even start decorating; and (2) I don't think the flight attendant would let me put this mirror in the overhead locker as carry on baggage.

Actually, the whole Small Spaces store looks fabulous and I think I'd have a hard time containing myself to just buying the mirror!  Can't we have a Small Spaces off-shoot in Melbourne please??

Small Spaces, 674 Bourke Street, Redfern.

Also, given the other things that have recently taken my fancy for the new house, I think there's going to be a fair smattering of indigo in the new house:

And because I'm all over the shop at the moment thinking about the endless possibilities for our little weatherboard house in the country, I'd like a bit of wall panelling too!

P.S. Normally I am fastidious about attributing the images I use to their owners, but unfortunately apart from the top two images from the very lovely Small Spaces, I have had these images tucked away in my archives for quite a while and I can't recollect where they originated from. My apologies. And please, if you know where they're from let me know and I'll pop the links in the post.