Having your say in The Queensland Plan

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I’m quite embarrassed to say that I wasn’t aware of The Queensland Plan to create a 30 year vision for the state until I was approached to write this post…

Clearly I’m a part of the Queensland population who generally tunes out or flicks over the newspaper, preferring to read Hagar comics and the movie reviews instead!

Yes, a most vacuous life I enjoy!

But a 30 year plan, where we are canvassed our opinions, is not something to ignore. I’m all for giving my two cents worth and if enough people, like you and me, wrote in with their ideas and vision, perhaps the future will look brighter.

The aim of The Queensland Plan is that it will be created by Queenslanders, for Queensland. It will go beyond politics and personal priorities; to be a genuine reflection of our collective aspirations and priorities for the future.

One of the questions is about sustainable landscapes: How do we strengthen our economic future and achieve sustainable landscapes?

Obviously there is no right or wrong answer… but for me, in 30 years time, when I am a sprightly 70-year-old, I would like to see the preservation and conservation of not only our national parks and forests but also our urban landscapes as well.

I don’t think there is enough done to save many of our historical buildings (that includes mid-century and post modern), which is a shame for our future generations. I’m from the school of thought that we will never appreciate our future if we don’t appreciate and know our past.

Many of the great cities and states in the world do a booming trade on the fact that they have a story to tell with their architecture. Why can’t Queensland do the same with its interesting sub-tropical flavoured urban landscape?

What is your take on this question? It could be about water quality, protecting nature corridors or investing in energy efficient bio-fuels… I’d love to hear your thoughts because I will then collate your responses and complete the survey as a reader collective.

Are you in?

If you would like to contribute to the responses, please add yourcomments below. Just remember to keep your views apolitical because it will be wasted in this particular forum.

p.s. if you don’t want to air your views so publicly you can just go toThe Queensland Plan here and fill it out online. I’m getting my eldest son to fill one out – he’ll be 41 in 2043 and hopefully living a goodquality life in Queensland.

* This blog topic was commissioned by the Queensland Government to raise awareness of The Queensland Plan. Content and ideas are entirely the author’s own.

Hans Wegner daybed

Overjoyed is the only word I can use to describe today's delivery. We finally bought a new sofa for the lounge-room and it is just fabulous. I kind of feel like we don't deserve to have such a lovely piece!

It is a 1957 Hans Wegner oak daybed from the lovely people at Dansk Vintage and it is the one which I wrote about in this post.

It was in unrestored condition when I first saw it, but James from Dansk Vintage restored the piece beautifully and helped me pick a new fabric, as the original fabric sadly needed replacing.

Vella Brothers Upholstery in Salisbury did a lovely job with the upholstery too. It is called Warwick Beachcomber, which is a hard wearing textile suitable for our all-boy (except for me) household!

Our new daybed is perfect for our lounge room - comfortable and a nice size without being overly heavy or bulky.

Here are some shots of the newly restored Danish piece in the Sow's Ear:

Hans Wegner daybed

Some rearranging of furniture is occurring...I've moved our DQF viking chairs from the sun room to lounge room 

In this shot you can see the simple modernist angles of the daybed 

The day bed can be used for overnight guests. The back rest opens up to reveal a mattress. You are also able to store pillows and bedding in the space when the backrest is down.

Many thanks to Dansk Vintage and Vella Upholstery for a job well done. Also, many thanks to Mr D and his buddy Jimmy who very kindly became furniture removalists on their smoko this morning. Thanks a million.

Isn’t dish washing your job?

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A few months ago I asked Son #1 to put some dirty plates in the dishwasher.  His response was along the lines of, ‘Isn’t dish washing your job? You know… you’re the mum around here.’

Well, let me tell you, that child got the ear-bashing of his life. Spilling from my mouth were phrases like: who do you think you are; where did you get this highly-developed sense of entitlement; and I’ll show you who’s mum around here…

The cheek! I should have filled the sink with suds and made him do the dishes by hand if he thought he was hardly done by.

Actually I should have just said, ‘No, son. That’s your father’s job or it was, until we got the dishwasher!’

I don’t want him to grow up with that attitude of domestic duties being only for females. I’m not even sure how he would even think that way, especially as Jason does take on quite a few domestic chores at the Sow’s Ear?

One of Jason’s many shirtless domestic duties is hand washing the larger pots and trays and then making sure the dishwasher has a Finish tablet in it before switching it on.

Anyway, I was pretty cranky with Son #1. The man-child has never known a life BD (before dishwasher), where a sink load of washing up and a drainer full of drying up was the nightly ritual. Not that I really want to go back to that time because hand washing dishes is a time suck. Life AD (after dishwasher) is so much better.

Our older boys now have to pack and unpack the dishwasher as a daily chore, to teach them they can’t be lazy gits and that it’s men’s work. It is also an easy task they can take on at a young age.

Fisher & Paykel Dishdrawer Dishwasher series

Speaking of easy tasks, I still like the cool Fisher & Paykel DishDrawer dishwasher series. I was told the definition of luxury is the absence of difficulties, so those DishDrawer dishwashers seem very luxurious to me.

They’re a great option for smaller kitchens and apartment living, where space is at a premium – there’s no excuse to go without a dishwasher in small spaces. The DishDrawer dishwasher requires less movement to open, load and close and you don’t even need to bend. Fisher & Paykel are trying to make dish washing even easier by increasing the height of the drawer to al­low for even larger plates and platters.  

I wonder if we had one of those, whether I’d still get resistance from the boys about dish washer duty... 

So, do you agree that dish washing ought to be men’s work?

New acquisitions - Sibley lithograph and more iittala crystal

I have to say that when I go out and about fossicking for mid-century goodies (iittala or any Scandinavian crystal is my poison) you really don't find much. I always have my eyes peeled for furniture too...just in case I stumble upon something like...

The other day while I was filling in an hour before school pick-up (as is my weekly habit), I stumbled upon a framed lithograph which caught my eye. I looked at the signature which read Sibley. The only artist I know of with the name Sibley is Andrew Sibley who is a renowned Australian artist, except in the Lifeline Supastore. You can read a little about him here, if you are interested.

I took a punt and bought it and have found out through a friend that yes, it is indeed an Andrew Sibley and details about this particular lithograph can be found here. Yay! I'm glad I found it. There will be some rearranging of the art on the walls over the weekend I suspect...

Andrew Sibley 1990 Lithograph The Inner Garden

And in other exciting news my iittala Festivos are breeding. A new six ring Festivo has made its way to the Sow's Ear from Shop 88 in the Woolloongabba Antiques Centre. I was looking for a tall one to complete the cluster, so I am very happy about this particular purchase.

In the centre of the table (image below) there is also an iittala Ultima Thule glass platter designed by Tapio Wirkkala, which I found recently. I've never seen the glass plates before and of course it came to a welcoming home.

iittala Festivo candle holders

It might be time that I clean out some of my cupboards to swap out old crockery and glassware with my new acquisitions...again!

Have you had much luck in your thrifty endeavours?

Campbell's Soup tins

To say I'm not a huge fan of tinned soup would be an incredible understatement...but it didn't stop me from adding four Campbell's limited edition tomato soup tins to my grocery trolley the other week.

So, I'm a sucker for Warhol and retro packaging!

Campbell's limited edition art tins

We've only eaten one tin. I made the kids eat it one night when I wasn't bothered cooking.

You have to take your hat off to the people who thought to package these tins as limited edition pieces, because there is no way in the world I would've bought them otherwise. I am officially a wanker!

Now, what to do with these colourful tins. Unfortunately, my idea for using them as herb planters was quite flawed. The paper labels won't last the distance, so I will have to rethink  how to use them.

Some people are using them as vases, pencil holders and tea light candle holders... I'm thinking of peeling off the labels and making some sort of art piece. I have a vision of getting my pop art mojo on. I'll show you what I come up with when it is done...after we get through all the soup!

Did you guys buy the tins too. And what are you planning on doing with yours?