Tea with Grace

Arachnophobics beware: Amazing shots of spider webs

2012-10-29T11:30:00.000+00:00

Gorgeous Macro Shots of Spiderwebs Twinkling with Raindrops by Lafugue Logos

I've been interested by spider silk ever since I did my physics coursework on the properties and uses of it. I found out that because its as strong as high-grade steel, if humans could synthetically produce it, spider silk would be contender for being used to make bullet proof vests!

Amazing neon text photography by Lee Jung

2012-10-27T13:00:00.000+01:00

Photographs by text artist Lee Jung

Via BOOOOOOOM!

"A designer a day keeps the doctor away"

2012-10-24T14:30:00.000+01:00

See more here

Lee Prince: Realist Oil Paintings

2012-10-23T18:12:00.002+01:00

Snack

Jelly Doughnuts

Lemon Meringue

Grilled Cheese II

Ice Cream II

Strawberry Shortcake II

Strawberry Shortcake III

Self Portrait in Tub with Chinese Food

Realist oil painter Lee Price paints self-portraits of herself from an overhead vantage point, primarily in bathrooms while eating junk food.

Lindsey Wixson for Barneys Fall 2010 Catalogue by Walter Pfeiffer

2012-10-01T16:30:00.000+01:00

A very old catalogue but lovely all the same. And you can never go wrong with a cat story.

Blouses, Boots and Balenciaga; an Autumnal style selection.

2012-08-22T11:30:00.000+01:00

Dark, masculine style by teawithgrace featuring silk tops

A L C silk top
$450 - matchesfashion.com

Balenciaga loden coat
$1,286 - matchesfashion.com

Theory
£300 - net-a-porter.com

Current/Elliott distressed jeans
$291 - matchesfashion.com

Nine west shoes
£135 - kurtgeiger.com

Aamaya by priyanka star jewelry
$166 - matchesfashion.com

Thierry Lasry round sunglasses
$369 - matchesfashion.com

Carvela Kurt Geiger Warm
£79 - kurtgeiger.com

Joe Webb's fantastic collages

2012-08-12T14:30:00.000+01:00

Kissing Magritte

Anatres and Love IV

Plough

Belly

The Hand We Are Dealt

Jean-Paul Sartre Making an Omlette

2012-08-11T18:00:00.000+01:00

We have recently been lucky enough to discover several previously lost diaries of French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre stuck in between the cushions of our office sofa. These diaries reveal a young Sartre obsessed not with the void, but with food. Aparently Sartre, before discovering philosophy, had hoped to write "a cookbook that will put to rest all notions of flavor forever.'' The diaries are excerpted here for your perusal.

October 3

Spoke with Camus today about my cookbook. Though he has never actually eaten, he gave me much encouragement. I rushed home immediately to begin work. How excited I am! I have begun my formula for a Denver omelet.

October 4

Still working on the omelet. There have been stumbling blocks. I keep creating omelets one after another, like soldiers marching into the sea, but each one seems empty, hollow, like stone. I want to create an omelet that expresses the meaninglessness of existence, and instead they taste like cheese. I look at them on the plate, but they do not look back. Tried eating them with the lights off. It did not help. Malraux suggested paprika.

October 6

I have realized that the traditional omelet form (eggs and cheese) is bourgeois. Today I tried making one out of a cigarette, some coffee, and four tiny stones. I fed it to Malraux, who puked. I am encouraged, but my journey is still long.

October 7

Today I again modified my omelet recipe. While my previous attempts had expressed my own bitterness, they communicated only illness to the eater. In an attempt to reach the bourgeoisie, I taped two fried eggs over my eyes and walked the streets of Paris for an hour. I ran into Camus at the Select. He called me a "pathetic dork" and told me to "go home and wash my face." Angered, I poured a bowl of bouillabaisse into his lap. He became enraged, and, seizing a straw wrapped in paper, tore off one end of the wrapper and blew through the straw. propelleing the wrapper into my eye. "Ow! You dick!" I cried. I leaped up, cursing and holding my eye, and fled.

October 10

I find myself trying ever more radical interpretations of traditional dishes, in an effort to somehow express the void I feel so acutely. Today I tried this recipe:

Tuna Casserole
Ingredients: 1 large casserole dish
Place the casserole dish in a cold oven. Place a chair facing the oven and sit in it forever. Think about how hungry you are. When night falls, do not turn on the light.
While a void is expressed in this recipe, I am struck by its inapplicability to the bourgeois lifestyle. How can the eater recognize that the food denied him is a tuna casserole and not some other dish? I am becoming more and more frustated.

October 12

My eye has become inflamed. I hate Camus.

October 25

I have been forced to abandon the project of producing an entire cookbook. Rather, I now seek a single recipe which will, by itself, embody the plight of man in a world ruled by an unfeeling God, as well as providing the eater with at least one ingredient from each of the four basic food groups. To this end, I purchased six hundred pounds of foodstuffs from the corner grocery and locked myself in the kitchen, refusing to admit anyone. After several weeks of work, I produced a recipe calling for two eggs, half a cup of flour, four tons of beef, and a leek. While this is a start, I am afraid I still have much work ahead.

November 15

I feel that I may be very close to a great breakthrough. I had been creating meal after meal, but none seemed to express the futility of existence any better than would ordering a pizza. I left the house this morning in a most depressed state, and wandered aimlessly through the streets. Suddenly, it was aif the heavens had opened. My brain was electrified with an influx of new ideas. "Juice, toast, milk.." I muttered aloud. I realized with a start that I was one ingredient away from creating the nutritious breakfast. Loathsome, true, but filled with existential authenticity. I rushed home to begin work anew.

November 18

Today I tried yet another variation: Juice, toast, milk and Chee-tos. Again, a dismal failure. I have tried everything. Juice, toast, milk and whiskey, juice, toast, milk and chicken fat, juice, toast, milk and someone else's spit. Nothing helps. I am in agony. Juice, toast, milk, they race about my fevered brain like fire, like an unholy trinity of cruel denial. And the fourth ingredient! What could it be? It eludes me like the lost chord, the Holy Grail. I must see the completion of my task, but I have no more money to spend on food. Perhaps man is not meant to know.

November 21

Camus came into the restaurant today. He did not know I was in the kitchen, and before I sent out his meal I loogied in his soup. Sic semper tyrannis.

November 23

Ran into some opposition at the restaurant. Some of the patrons complained that my breakfast special (a page out of Remembrance of Things Past and a blowtorch with which to set it on fire) did not satisfy their hunger. As if their hunger was of any consequence! "But we're starving," they say. So what? They're going to die eventually anyway. They make me want to puke. I have quit the job. It is stupid for Jean- Paul Sartre to sling hash. I have enough money to continue my work for a little while.

November 24

Last night I had a dream. In it, I am standing, alone, on a beach. A great storm is raging all about me. It begins to rain. Night falls. I am struck by how small and insignificant I am, how the entire race of Man is but a speck in the eye of God, and I am but a speck of humanity. Suddenly, a red Cadillac convertible pulls up beside me, In it are these two beautiful girls named Jojo and Wendy. I get in and the take me to their mansion in Hollywood and give me a pound of cocaine and make mad, passionate love to me for the rest of my life.

November 26

Today I made a Black Forest cake out of five pounds of cherries and a live beaver, challenging the very definition of the word "cake." I was very pleased. Malraux said he admired it greatly, but could not stay for dessert. Still, I feel that this may be my most profound achievement yet, and have resolved to enter it in the Betty Crocker Bake-Off.

November 30

Today was the day of the Bake-Off. Alas, things did not go as I had hoped. During the judging, the beaver became agitated and bit Betty Crocker on the wrist. The beaver's powerful jaws are capable of felling blue spruce in less than ten minutes and proved, needless to say, more than a match for the tender limbs of America's favorite homemaker. I only got third place. Moreover, I am now the subject of a rather nasty lawsuit.

December 1

I have been gaining twenty-five pounds a week for two months, and I am now experiencing light tides. It is stupid to be so fat. My pain and ultimate solitude are still as authentic as they were when I was thin, but seem to impress girls far less. From now on, I will live on cigarettes and black coffee.

Via

Friday Inspiration

2012-08-10T13:30:00.000+01:00

A history of art, ballerina painting and sitting room.

What does this look like to you? Mural in Boston by Brazilian street artists

2012-08-09T19:10:00.000+01:00

via hyperallergic.com :

Last week, the Brazilian street art twins, Os Gemeos, unveiled their new mural on Boston’s Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway at Dewey Square and Fox Boston couldn’t resist suggesting the work portrayed some sort of controversial figure and like moths to a flame the xenophobes and anti-Muslim bigots came running.

“This is a new mural on a Big Dig ventilation building. What does it look like to you?” Fox Boston wrote on its Facebook Page with a link to an article on their website titled “Greenway Mural Interpreted as Little Boy, Terrorist” — though it should be noted that the original title appears to have been altered after its initial publication.

The fact that towel of this “raghead,” which is a bigoted term at least one Facebook commenter used to describ the male figure in the mural, is a jacket (which is obvious from the sleeve hanging down from his chin) has not deterred commenters who continue to rage about the 70-foot mural.

Since the initial reaction of hate, many more openminded commenters have begun to chime in to point out the ridiculous “terrorist” talk about the mural.
Yet the initial reaction to the work by Fox Boston fans was undoubtedly negative and you only have to look at the first comments on the Saturday, August 4 post to see it:

Our favorite comment is by Facebook commenter named Johnny Dow, who simply wrote, “rorschach test for idiots and racists.” Amen. Though we’re going to admit that Tall Guyme’s “gay ninja” comment is a close second, because, let’s face it, the world needs more gay ninjas.

Fantastic Oscar De la Renta Fall 2012 Campaign

2012-07-31T13:49:00.000+01:00

I've always loved Oscar de la Renta - it's so pretty and feminine, the colours and fabrics are beautiful, and these photos are just lovely in my mind (despite the slightly excessive photoshop).

What do you think?

Newest additions to my iTunes

2012-07-29T17:19:00.000+01:00

Enjoy :)

Die Antwoord - Baby's on Fire

Florence + the Machine - Spectrum (Say my Name)

Yelle - La Musique

DJ Fresh (feat. Dizzee Rascal) - The Power

Utah Saints - What Can You Do For Me

Friday Inspiration

2012-07-27T14:00:00.000+01:00

Audrey on the phone, a birthday party, happy german shepherd and midnight in Paris.

Intimes Sensations | Magdalena Frackowiak by Paolo Roversi for Vogue Paris October 2007

2012-07-25T16:39:00.000+01:00

In An Octopus' Garden | Alana Zimmer photographed by Sofia Sanchez and Mauro Mongiello for Garage Magazine SS12

2012-07-23T15:30:00.000+01:00

Body art by Chooo-San

2012-07-22T13:30:00.000+01:00

Chooo-San discovered her talent for body art during a gap year studying for university admission exams. While taking breaks from her studies, she would often draw eyes on her hands. Soon, her doodles started getting better and better, so she moved on to create even more bizarre body modifications. Using only acrylic paint, the young Japanese girl can turn herself into a creepy mutant with several pairs of eyes covering her face, or a robot with integrated batteries and LCD display.

Via Odditycentral

Flickr Favourites

2012-07-21T14:00:00.000+01:00

in the flowers by Jacqueline Harriet

Untitled by utter otter

rose tinted bacchanal by Tea K.H.

these old bones by drivingshoes

laguna niguel by Jacqueline Harriet

Friday Inspiration

2012-07-20T11:00:00.000+01:00

Karl Lagerfeld's first time in a supermarket, Le Petit Prince/Sherlock Holmes via muamma, blossom.

Dan Cretu's everyday objects made of fruit

2012-07-19T19:33:00.000+01:00

Photographer and visual artist Dan Cretu recreates everyday objects using fruits and vegetables. In experimenting with oranges, limes, peppers, tomatoes, and otherwise manipulating food in all manners of ways, Dan transforms common everyday foods into recognizable objects.

Via Junkculture

Amazing Kinetic Sculpture of San Francisco made with 100,000 toothpicks

2012-07-16T15:30:00.000+01:00

Via thisiscolossal:

Thirty five years ago I had yet to be born, but artist Scott Weaver had already begun work on this insanely complex kinetic sculpture, Rolling through the Bay, that he continues to modify and expand even today. The elaborate sculpture is comprised of multiple “tours” that move pingpong balls through neighborhoods, historical locations, and iconic symbols of San Francisco, all recreated with a little glue, some toothpicks, and an incredible amount of ingenuity. He admits in the video that there are several toothpick sculptures even larger than his, but none has the unique kinetic components he’s constructed. Via his website Weaver estimates he’s spent over 3,000 hours on the project, and the toothpicks have been sourced from around the world:

'I have used different brands of toothpicks depending on what I am building. I also have many friends and family members that collect toothpicks in their travels for me. For example, some of the trees in Golden Gate Park are made from toothpicks from Kenya, Morocco, Spain, West Germany and Italy. The heart inside the Palace of Fine Arts is made out of toothpicks people threw at our wedding.'

See the sculpture for yourself at the Tinkering Studio through the end of June. Photos courtesy of their Flickr gallery.

UPDATE: Rolling Through the Bay has been moved to the American Visionary Art Museum through September 2012.