Outdoor Bliss

An afternoon tea stop at Zoo Cafe in Sam-Cheong which had a fantastic rooftop garden

It's amazing what a bit of greenery can do to transform an outdoor area

There's nothing better than sitting down with a good coffee and reading a good interiors magazine!

Tea Museum

The National Tea Museum

Inside there is a gorgeous open space for having tea
with exhibition gallery and shop

Love the display and the exquisite ceramics on offer

Some of the glazes are just incredible.

I had lotus leaf tea - good for restoration and reviving feet
for more shopping LOL!

The tea selection was huge.

A stroll through Insa-dong

I was tempted but I think I have to improve my 'Chinese painting'
before attempting to paint on fans.

There's always lots of various exhibitions happening in
the art district of Insadong.

One of my key finds - an antique store selling 100 year old
hand painted and wood block rice paper panels .

Clever Idea - digitally printed rulers on fabric for bar stools

Yep - there was definitely no KFC in here.

This time of the year is beautiful with all the ivy and greenery.
I especially love the gingko trees.

Exquisite door handle.

Tree Magic

Zoe Ouvrier is a French artist who creates beautiful art pieces by engraving into wooden panels. The effect is extraordinary. We first saw her work at MaisonObjet many years ago and to re-discover her work here at the Westin Chosun (where we're staying this week) was a nice surprise. Incidentally, this hotel is the oldest western style hotel to ever open in Korea - it's 97 years old today. Thank God, it's had a facelift LOL!

The reception area

Complimenting textiles and furnishings

The detail is extraordinary

Copyright Zoe Ouvrier

What is this called?

I have something to confess and I'm a bit embarrassed...I have no idea of half the names of flowers I paint. I am so ignorant; as long as it's pretty and colourful - I'm there! I don't suppose anyone knows what types of flowers these are?

I know Missoni has used these in their designs too.

Stunning colours

Have you noticed how colours in nature are always perfectly balanced;
in that nothing looks out of balance or weird?

What are these called again?

Off Again!

We're off to Seoul this morning as M has a conference and I'm just going along because I can LOL. Which means lots of shopping, exploring art galleries, eating, hot baths and enjoying everything about Seoul. We were here last year and had such a great time. This time however, we are prepared for the cold weather so we have the winter woollies with us.

Fabulous Family Project

Following on from my last post (of rummaging through old photos etc), I found these pictures of my biggest painting I did about 6 years ago. A dear friend commissioned me to do a painting with her children to fill a blank wall. I nearly died when I first saw the canvas - it was HUGE but it so much FUN!!

I first designed the layout of the painting which was filled with everything the kids loved and what was special to them. There were robots, glittery shoes, pigs; even fried eggs! We then all got together and painted. I think the whole project took 2 days which isn't bad. This is a great thing to do with your kids/ family for the holidays and as well, you get something to treasure!

The work in progress...

We take this job very seriously LOL!

Robots with Mother Earth and floating boats.

I wanted the painting to still look 'good' so we added lots of texture

It was a mammoth job

Voila!

Enough Ideas to sink a ship!!

During the floods last week, I was able to complete a much desired and long overdue project. For the past year, I've been collating reference materials from magazines, cards, internet, photos from travelling...anything that inspired me into themes that I've wanted to work on. Well, 50 storyboards later - I don't know whether I feel more excited or scared at everything laid out in front of me....

Everything and Anything

These tiles are all from Asia.

Where do I start?

Faking it (badly)....I'M SICK OF IT!!

This morning I found out that one of my best selling designs has been blatantly plagiarised....UGH! This is another story but it reminded me of the huge amount of fake designer goods we saw in Bali. The sheer audacity of it all...quite unbelievable! I can't even begin to tell you the number of fake handbags and designer goods being sold just alone in their international airport of all places.

If we were in Europe or any other English speaking country, there is no way you would ever be able to get away with this. And you would think Paul Smith was Indonesian with the number of fake PS shops we saw in Bali.

On a more serious note, the issue of copyright and protecting our Intellectual Property is of key importance to artists and designers like myself. All I ask is that you think about it the next time you decide to buy a fake designer handbag or pirated DVD. In principle, you're saying that it is OK to copy one of my paintings and do whatever you want with it.

You just have to 'laugh'.

Take your pick - Hermes, Chanel, LV, Bally etc

Our first flood

For the past few days, Chiang Mai has been badly flooded from heavy rainfall up north which caused the Ping River to overflow. The last major flood was in 2005. As we live very close to the river, we were surrounded by water waist deep for a couple of days with sporadic electricity and no internet. We were completely safe living on the 8th floor but we feel very sorry for the locals who have had their shops/ restaurants damaged from the water.

Thankfully, the water has gone down and the clean up has begun. I'll let the pictures do the talking...

The main road where we live off with a sign warning motorists.

It didn't stop too many people until they got further down
the road and they had to turn around again.

Our street the next day.

The main road was completely submerged!

Our condominium had a boat which we took
to get to dry land so we could do some essential food shopping

The sight was quite unbelievable!

'Transport du jour'

It didn't stop some of the kids from having some fun though!