I adore great homewares & accessories, yet I constantly see much of the same. So when I recently fell across a gorgeous homeware & accessories store, Ondine, in Double Bay, Sydney, it was hard not to get just a little bit excited.
Talking excitement | It wasn’t that long ago that my niece suggested that both my sister and I maybe had ADHD (so we already share a love of Ottolenghi and breast cancer, so seriously, what is one more thing)! You might well ask why I drop the big “BC” in from time to time…it is simple…to serve as a constant reminder to you all to stay on top of your mammograms and take excellent take care of yourself…which has always been and quite possibly continues to be the only true purpose behind my blogging, camouflaged as incessant food chatter.
“When it rains, look for RAINBOWS. When it’s dark, look for STARS”. FionaChilds.com
At first, I wasn’t totally comfortable being handed yet another label. Still, then I didn’t much care because I know our niece loves us both equally, and it was never intended as a criticism, more an observation. Regardless, I thought about what she had said and decided that if this is the label we get for being mindfully energetic, doing with our minds what our body is way less inclined to do, gymnastics, then so be it. So my sister and I love creativity in any form. We are constantly looking for something new to challenge us. Rather than this being viewed as something positive, it can be considered unhealthy hyperactivity and labelled as some medical condition.
However, it makes me question why we are all so quick to try to hang labels on our behaviour! I love shopping. I love homewares. I love clothes, so the love keeps on pouring out all over the shop…so does this mean I am a shopaholic or does it simply mean I am passionate about beautiful things?
Interestingly, I googled shopaholic the other day to see if I had any of the same traits. Remarkably, I almost got a perfect score. So now I have ADHD…and I am a shopaholic! So help me if I start reading up on people who need to hang all the same colours together in their wardrobes or store their spice jars in alphabetical order!
I love and adore my family and friends, and I can become equally obsessive when it comes to that, yet there doesn’t appear to be a medical label for excessive heart matters. Why is that?
I always hate to digress, but let’s digress anyway…after all, I am hyperactive. My sister and I recently undertook a spring cleaning of our mother’s bedroom. Something which could only have been done when your Mother is in hospital having a total hip replacement and incapable of moving (at 87, I am still so totally in awe of her having had her hip done).
We ruthlessly tossed away bottles of unopened perfumes and handbags (after all, surely you only need about 10 good bags, so the other 20 odd starts to become somewhat obsolete).
As the clean sweep progressed, so did my self-awareness, which somehow and sometimes I had morphed into my mother. I adore my mother, so maybe this is not such a bad thing. Seriously, why do we think she has a problem? She stashed away 30 plus handbags (and the rest, but I am doing my best to be nice here). Does it really matter in the bigger scheme of things? Can’t we just be happy being and accept these little habits, obsessions, and delights? However, we want to describe them. Indeed they can simply be attributed to who we are as people. It is these things that define us rather than label us! The way I see it is simple, if it makes you happy and feeds your soul or the soul of others, then embrace it. If it makes you feel somewhat anxious, you may just need to give it some kind of attention.
Now back to earth | another one of my obsessions, homewares. I adored the earthy heartiness of these Danish ceramics pictured below. I am a little frustrated that I did not purchase any and bring them home to add to our already heavily (maybe obsessive) range of plates and serving trays. I am sure I can find a little more space…just might need to move the other half out!
Photo |Ondene Transvaal, Double Bay, New South Wales. A Nordic range by K. H. Wurtz (an internationally sought-after Father and Son team of studio ceramics, located in Horsens, Denmark. Exclusively sold in Australia at Ondine.
Photo | Ondine carries another gorgeous range by Rina Menardi, Italy.
Photo | Another piece by Rina Menardi, Italy, available at Ondene, Sydney.
Photo | K. H. Wurtz Go see for yourself just how wonderful they are | There is something fabulous about the tools, colours, and textures sitting so harmoniously together on their website.
Photo | taken from K.W.Kurtz website. It reminds me of that utterly sexy scene from the movie “Ghost” with Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore getting down and dirty in clay. This was one of my best movie scenes and soundtrack of all time. Maybe I am getting old when I think potting is the new sexy!
My time to get down and dirty | So it is only to be expected that I now want desperately to do a ceramic class. When I told my sister, she said, “but you know you won’t be content making an ashtray…you will want to make a full dinner set”. I wasn’t sure what point she was trying to make because I wanted to make a complete dinner set (who smokes anyway)! I enrolled and started my first lesson today! Stay posted; you never know what fabulous things I might come up with, or be warned, you might never know what you might get for your birthday.
Photo | This photo was taken today at my first pottery lesson (SO not sexy). When I asked Graham Hay, my instructor, where the potting wheel was located, he said, “we are a ghost-free studio”. Oh seriously…what have I let myself in for!
Debbie-Ann Scott 