MCA Sydney - arty

The new extension to the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney opened in late March, and it's a wonderful addition to the harbour foreshore. This is a quick visit, in pictures.

First, though, we took the ferry from Balmain, past Luna Park and under the Harbour Bridge to Circular Quay.

The new wing is all white and stark and modern, very different to the Art Deco original building next door.

The MCA Cafe occupies a prime spot next to the Loti Smorgon Sculpture Terrace.

The menu and dishes look fab.

Here are some of the exhibits.

More on these on the MCA website

Worth a visit? Definitely!

Royal Easter Show 2012 - a Sydney tradition

The Sydney Royal Easter Show is reassuringly the same every year.

The only thing that may change is the price of entry (transport plus show entry via Showlink was $32 this year), the showbags available for sale and the novelties you can win in sideshow alley (Angry Birds and Muppets were popular).

I went to the Show in 2012 and these are my pictures.

Read on and marvel at the colour and spectacle.

Or click and play 'spot the difference' with Easter Show visits from 2010 and 2009, here and here.

Starting the kiddies early on the not-so-scary rides.

Looks like fun!

This year, we had gourmet sausages in a roll, aka hot dogs. My bratwurst was bland, the kransky in a roll (with onions, extra 50 cents) was better.

Cafe Grande flavour ice cream from Connoisseur was sensational.

Warm sunny weather calls for a Frozen Coke - love it!

BMX riders getting some air.

Horses being judged. See the unusual zigzag markings on the chestnut horse.

As usual, the cake decorating was spectacular, including Pippi Longstocking.

The district display was super-crowded. Love the Western District fruit and veg arrangement.

The woodchopping arena looks like a Quidditch stadium.

A burly New Zealander won this heat of the woodchop.

Q: How much wood does a wood chopper chop if a wood chopper does chop wood?

A: One small log

Had to visit the cat pavilion to see some judging (I think this white cat is a Maine Coon).

The Hello Kitty breed is slowly infiltrating the event.

Clowns usually give me the heebee jeebies, but these are okay.

Keep your arms inside the carriage!

It was a long day.

But I wouldn't miss the Easter Show for quids.

See you next year!

Fireworks! Sydney 2012

Happy New Year!

Here are some pics of the fireworks over Sydney Harbour.

I was feeling a bit too settled in front of the television when midnight rolled around (does that make me sound old or what?), so these photos were taken from my upstairs window. Please excuse the telegraph pole and wires, though at least you can see the top of the arch of the Harbour Bridge!

Christmas cards 2011 - hole in one

Here are my Christmas cards for the year - this is one of the simplest designs I've made in ages, purposely so because I've left it so late...

Never mind, I was inspired by a card from the Hero Arts flickr pages and simplified it because I had to make several. There are two versions here, a pink card and a green one.

I used the Cuttlebug machine (with Nestabilities die) to cut a circle in the card and patterned paper.

I love the colours of this card, so girly and pretty.

This green one is more Christmassy in flavour. 

Inside of the cards.

Supplies:

Cardstock: Stampin' Up!

Patterned paper: Jillibean Soup

Stamps: Hero Arts

Ink: Stampin' Up!, Colorbox

Ribbon: Stampin' Up!
Jewels: BoBunny Design

Christmas scenes in Sydney

Here are some images of the 2011 Christmas decorations around Sydney town, taken a few days ago.

This is a modernist 'tree' at Westfield Sydney. It goes with the recently revealed storefronts of the Prada and Gucci temples of consumer heaven:

The windows at David Jones department store are filled with slightly creepy puppets that represent Christmas carols. The mechanised sheep are very cute, from Silent Night:

The Strand Arcade tree is a massive red edifice with lots of sparkly lights strung around the balustrades of the arcade. It looks pretty good against the Victorian shopfronts:

The 3-storey crystal-bedecked tree at the Queen Victoria Building is spectacular, as always. Look how great it is reaching up to the central dome:

Hope you're preparing a wishlist for Santa, and hope he delivers: 

Art and About 2011, Sydney

Art and About Sydney is about 'transforming the city into a canvas'.

Part of the project is a series of laneway installations.

We spent a morning trying to find them

(Sydney's laneways are not as well known as Melbourne's).

Mooncakes galore - Sunday adventures

It's the time of the August Moon, according to the Chinese calendar, and this means mooncakes everywhere in Chinatown. I took a stroll around Sydney's Dixon Street to take in the festivities.

There were lion dancers, snatching red envelopes of money hidden inside lettuces strung up high above doorways:

And more mooncakes than you could poke a bamboo pole at:

Clashing cymbals and pounding drums and prancing lions:

   Happy Moon Festival!

Double yolk, white lotus mooncake:

David Jones Flower Show 2011 - Floriography

 This Saturday was spent wandering through a department store.
Nothing new in that, but the David Jones flower show is on and it is a riot of colour. This is the 26th anniversary of the show and the theme is 'Floriography, the language of flowers'.  There are over 30,000 flowers and just as many camera-wielding 'shoppers' enjoying the spectacle. Definitely worth a visit.

The David Jones flower show is on at the DJs Elizabeth St, Sydney store, from 1-11 September 2011.

The purple ball of blooms is an allium, from Holland.

There are also 3000 cymbidium orchids and 4800 phaeleonopsis orchids (the lovely white ones in the first pic) on display.

The Waratah is the state flower of New South Wales.