Art Deco and Art Nouveau

I'm fairly certain I've written about my love of the Art Nouveau and Art Deco styles before. Here are some of my favourite examples of the styles.

Elizabeth Norton, Metropolitan Museum of Art

Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen, Metropolitan Museum of Art

Fork pendant, Doctor Gus

Via http://datography.tumblr.com/archive

London Underground poster

I love the Tiffany blue

Something on Twitter made me keen on a small project which involves the Tiffany blue colour. I'm really quite excited about it. Stay tuned for more details. 

Lovcat

I know there are a lot of people who don't really like cats, but I love them. The current "lord-of-all-he-surveys" is a big male but doesn't like to be left on his own. He always calls to find out where we are in the house and then wants to sit on our laps or laptops.

Here he is in sleep mode

Recently there's been a neighbourhood gangster-cat who has been leaving some serious wounds on our cat so we've implemented a curfew. After 8pm the windows are closed and the litter tray is made available. This is met with vociferous complaint until the DH and I go to bed and then it's all purrs and snuggle time.

Catching up on a little more sleep

Woolworths excellence for Easter

Woolworths has an excellent selection of Easter treats this year. This is my selection of their greatest hits!

Hand decorated "quail eggs"

Bunny bags containing praline eggs

Hand decorated chocolate egg selection

Ceramic bunny containing mini oat digestives 

Cuddle bunny

"How can I be happy?" Narrated by Stephen Fry

I've written before about interconnectedness and human nature and quoted Henry Melvill (1798-1871) before "Ye cannot live for yourselves; a thousand fibres connect you with your fellow-men, and along those fibres, as along sympathetic threads, run your actions as causes, and return to you as effects". 

Well, I've found another resource for a similar train of thought via the British Humanist Association and in particular their video narrated by Stephen Fry called "How can I be happy?"

Calendar app helps you to keep up with everything

The Apple Calendar app is awesome for planning and remembering those important dates. The aspect that I use most of all is the "alert" function.

When you're adding a new event as well as setting the location, date and time of the event, you can also set if this is a repeating event (which is what I do for birthdays), set one or many alerts to remind you that the event is coming up (I also use this for birthdays to remind me in time to get a present or card), add invitees (Mac and Windows compatible) and add notes. 

If you're adding a new event on your iPhone, it's become a whole lot quicker to do. Simply go to the date that of the event, tap the screen to create a new event and simply drag it to the correct time. Then all you need to type is the name of the event.

As with the Reminders app where you can have multiple lists of reminders, the Calendar app lets you have multiple Calendars that can be colour-coded. I use different colours for birthdays, anniversaries, appointments and public holidays.

Quick intro to being organised with Reminders on iPhone

I love what they've done with this app. They've made it into everything I need for a "Things to do" organisation system. I keep many lists with just the titles of the lists showing (you can customise them with colour as well).  When you tap the list title, the list opens up and you can see the items on each list. What's more, the edit feature allows you to move items from one list to another, so if an item has been on the "Reminders" list for some time but you know that you'll be going to the "Shops" where that item is sold, you can move it from "Reminders" to "Shops" in preparation. You can also organise the sequence of the lists themselves by dragging them into the order that you need to look at them. For example, on weekends, I often drag the "Garden" list to nearer the top so that I can remind myself of the little outdoor tasks that need to be remembered.

 

On each list, you can check off the individual items by tapping on the little circle next to the item. This is fantastic for shopping because I can knock off the items as I add them to my basket. What's also really neat is the "Show Completed" and "Hide Completed" options. I use these for my shopping list by hiding completed items so that once I've marked them off, they drop off the list. Then next week, or while I'm in the kitchen, or wherever I am and I need to add something to my shopping list, I just show the completed items and de-select them to add them back to the list. This means I don't have to re-write the names of my regular purchases which saves a whole lot of time.

If you're a Mac owner, Reminders can sync with your computer and you can also organise your lists in the app there. Check tomorrow's post where I'll be talking about using your Calendar for planning and remembering those important dates.