The Flickr Williammorrismarigoldpattern Image Generatr

The theme for “Smile on Saturday” for the 10th of May is “Blue for You – ME 2025” which is in honour of ME/CFS and Fibromyalgia International Awareness Day which happens to fall on May 12th. May the 12th was chosen as it coincided with the birth date of Florence Nightingale, the celebrated English social reformer and statistician, and the founder of modern nursing. Nightingale became chronically ill in her mid-thirties after returning from the Crimean War; the M.E.-like illness often left her bedridden during the last 50 years of her life. I have friends who suffer with ME/CFS and Fibromyalgia, so this theme has a personal connection for me, even if I do not have it myself.

As the subject for “Smile on Saturday” this week was open to personal choice but required a lot of blue, although I usually create a blue themed Playmobil tableau, I have broken with tradition this year, as I recently was given a rather lovely blue hand painted resin Nostalgia Shoe which I felt was perfect to feature in a photograph. I have paired my slipper which features red and gold accents with a blue Art Deco “Charme Caressant” Rachel powder box from my powder box collection which features stylised red and pink flowers on it. I have photographed them on a piece of hand made and printed paper featuring a William Morris pattern in blue. I hope that you like my choice for this week’s theme, and that it makes you smile!

"Charme Caressant" is the name of a vintage Dalon face powder, produced in both Paris and Sydney from 1924 into the 1930s. It was a popular French beauty product known for its Art Deco style and various colour shades.

These delicate and fragile Easter eggs have been painted completely by hand in Turkey in a beautiful Art Nouveau style, known as Arts and Crafts Movement or “Style Liberty” in the United Kingdom. The eggs all have a solid background over which a stylised pattern of flowers in a William Morris style has been painted. The decorated eggs are then covered in a varnish to protect the fragile hand painted surface. The eggs are all painted in Turkey by one family, and then shipped to Australia. The family also make stylish wooden spherical Christmas ornaments with similar Style Liberty design.

The theme for "Looking Close on Friday" on the 22nd of March is "eggs and reflections", as a tribute to Easter in the lead up to it. The day the theme was announced, I was out shopping and went to buy these eggs, which I will give as gifts this Easter and Christmas to a select group of special friends. It was wonderful to return home at the end of a pleasurable day of retail therapy, and a trip to the pictures, to read what the theme was. I immediately unwrapped them from their tissue paper and set them up on a large mirror I use for photography purposes. Each egg has a small puncture at both the top and the bottom, indicating that it was “blown”, a tradition where one blows the white and yolk of the egg through the hole in the bottom by way of exhaling into the hole at the top. A time consuming method, egg blowing must be done gently so as not to break the fragile egg shell by applying too much pressure. It can take well over an hour to blow a single egg. I hope you like my choice of the theme this week, and that it makes you smile.

This delicate and fragile egg has been painted completely by hand in a beautiful Art Nouveau style, known as Arts and Crafts Movement or “Style Liberty” in the United Kingdom. The egg has a background of vibrant aqua blue which is decorated with a mixture of stylised blue flowers and foliage in a William Morris style and then overlaid with tiny silver white flecks. The egg is then covered in a varnish to protect the fragile hand painted surface.

The theme for “Smile on Saturday” for the 6th of May “Blue for You – ME 2023” which is in honour of ME/CFS and Fibromyalgia International Awareness Day which happens to fall on May 12th. May the 12th was chosen as it coincided with the birth date of Florence Nightingale, the celebrated English social reformer and statistician, and the founder of modern nursing. Nightingale became chronically ill in her mid-thirties after returning from the Crimean War; the M.E.-like illness often left her bedridden during the last 50 years of her life.

As the theme for “Smile on Saturday” this week was open to subject but required a lot of blue, I thought I would submit another of my ornamental eggs, all of which just happen to be blue! This egg, perched atop a small porcelain rest, has a small puncture at both the top and the bottom, indicating that it was “blown”, a tradition where one blows the white and yolk of the egg through the hole in the bottom by way of exhaling into the hole at the top. A time consuming method, egg blowing must be done gently so as not to break the fragile egg shell by applying too much pressure. It can take well over an hour to blow a single egg. The paper I have chosen for the background, which also just happens to be blue, is William Morris’ 1875 “Marigold” pattern which I thought suited this Style Liberty Easter egg as well as the blue theme. I hope you like my choice of the theme this week, and that it makes you smile.

This delicate and fragile Easter egg has been painted completely by hand in a beautiful Art Nouveau style, known as Arts and Crafts Movement or “Style Liberty” in the United Kingdom. The egg has a background of rich cobalt blue which is decorated with a mixture of stylised white and blue flowers in a William Morris style and then overlaid with tiny gold flecks. The egg is then covered in a varnish to protect the fragile hand painted surface.

The theme for "Looking Close on Friday" for the 31st of March is "a single egg". This egg, perched atop a small porcelain rest, has a small puncture at both the top and the bottom, indicating that it was “blown”, a tradition where one blows the white and yolk of the egg through the hole in the bottom by way of exhaling into the hole at the top. A time consuming method, egg blowing must be done gently so as not to break the fragile egg shell by applying too much pressure. It can take well over an hour to blow a single egg. The paper I have chosen for the background is William Morris’ 1875 “Marigold” pattern which I thought suited this Style Liberty Easter egg. I hope you like my choice of the theme this week, and that it makes you smile.