Furoshiki

Bottle of red wrapped and stamped (didn't really show in photo but stamps are there I swear) Furoshiki style - Happy Birthday Uncle Pete x

Mummy's little angel

Lisa Kokin, Some, found (2006)

via art propelled

Textures

via brown dress with white dots

The countdown has begun!

Am in the shed again to day final clean out before painting the floor, but that's ok because in exactly 13 days time, my lovely friend Rachel and I will be on our way to the Surf Goddess Retreat in Bali. I am getting very very excited, however I have to admit I will be equally excited to be coming back to my new fitted out shed too.  Lucky girl, happy days!! Big thankyou to Steven and Brett too xx

all images vie www.surfgoddessretreats.com

Clues

These are all clues as to why I have been absent, everything takes so much longer than I anticipated.

 The presence of carpet snakes, bush rats and wolf spiders does not at all help.

 Nor does a husband who gets a little too cocky on his digger, thank God for our local McGuyer, Neill.

 It helps to be small and flexible when painting those back corner of the shelving.

 These old girls have had a rough last few years, however a lick of paint will dress them up enough to be presentable for their new role.

J. Crew is here!

Finally J Crew delivers to Australia, bring with them alongside their own simple, clean lines (man they pick their models well)  - Lemlem. "International Goodwill Ambassador (and supermodel) Liya Kebede's line of handmade garments. Lemlem, meaning "to bloom" in Amharic, was started as a way of providing Ethiopian weavers with a means to escape poverty"

Days like this...

Pressie catchup day x

Sugar and spice and all things nice

 Do you like my little ladies? I found this lovely vintage look fabric at  Fabric Traders and have started a series of little girl pendants and brooches. I am playing with silver backing for stamping purposes and mirrored acrylic front. I have a bit of a way to go in terms of rivets and finishing.

She's sweet isn't she xx

Simply Paper

via tumblr

I would love to make this for a baby's room, how lovely to watch in a breeze.

So "simple"

So my dad looked at my blog and said it should be called ''really expensive things to love" instead of "simple". I explained it wasn't called "simple things to go out and buy" but point taken. So whilst battling my ongoing issue of living semi-rural and poor connectivity, I took the opportunity to cast my eye around some of the simple things in my immediate surrounds.

First stop my desk which is home to a few "simple things" that belonged to my mum and nan -"things" I love very much. It would be so easy to pass over such things, such is the importance of taken the time to stop and reflect.

And from left field...

via Dwell

... the Peruvian gift show. I felt the need for a little colour on another rainy day. It's a little all over the shop here rainy, sunny, humid, breezy. This should to the trick - "A felt necklace by designer Vacide Erda Zimic. Photo by: Diana Budds"

As you can imagine the focus is on textiles and yarns, however there are also many recycled works and woodwork. To see more go to Dwell.com.  I love the colours, they are so intense and hold nothing back. It all looks like such a celebration of culture. I think I will need several homes to indulge all palette options. Such choice is a luxury to be sure.

This is a private pool fence

via archdaily

Yes it is.... actually the Austrian based architects, Heri and Salli refer to this as a 'landscape fence' created to define/reframe the existing view of the lake, for the owner land. Just to clarify this is a private owner. Whoa! I would love to see what our local pool certifiers had to say about this.

Chinoiserie or not



via wintonhousebowral



Miu Miu via Net-a-Porter



via NSR Handcrafts

Lanvin via My Theresa

via Willowbrook Park

Kenneth Jay Lane via ASOS

Everytime the conversation starts up about repainting our interiors my heads starts to spin a little. I am from the school of white on white for walls ceilings etc. It is a line of thought I have always sold to my clients "change your fabrics, artworks etc, but white on white will always give you the base to work from". However having done that for so long I find myself drawm more and more to Chinoiserie. It seems a little decadent and little lush and screams boudoir and who doesn't love something that screams BOUDOIR. I have already made small jumps in this direction, in readiness for the repaint I have a wall sized map of the world to hang in one of the boys' room and a wonderful mural reminiscent of The Faraway Tree to hang, well actually wallpaper, on the wall of my other boy's room. I am now thinking our room and possibly the entry. When is too much of a good thing too much, this is a question I have had difficulty answering my whole life (generally in respect to chocolate, wine, good food, etc etc etc)

Travel with Children Part 3

Legoland is waaaaaaay better than Disneland, just ask a 5 and 7 year old boy. Don't get me wrong we had a great time in Disneyland and know how lucky we were to go however by way of themeparks, I think we enjoyed the relaxed, low merchandising nature of Legoland more. It was an hour bus ride from Anaheim but that was ok, we got to see drive through an ACTUAL marine training base at Pembleton and drove past a Nuclear Reactor, yes a Nuclear Reactor. There is one in California apparently, the things you don't know.... until you are driving past a NUCLEAR REACTOR!  ANYwayyyy......

We arrived at Legoland, super super excited.

Legoland was easy, the lines were more than manageable, there was space and the kids were always visible.

But the highlight, apart from the mini land - fabulous, the boat ride-where you get to steer yourself, the driving school for over 7s with your own automatic lego car, the snow arena and on and on - we really could have spent another whole day there - was the Star Wars display. Each saga has a display or two and the detail is fantastic, it was almost too much to bear......

Photos by Joe

They also had a great choice of food and the best punnet of freshly cut strawberries I think we have ever tasted. We finished off with a 4D Clutch Powers movie and hour and a half trip home in LA traffic.We could easily have spent another day there, great fun.

For My Husband



Breitling Watch



Aged to Perfection

Tag Heuer Carrera Mikrograph

It's not good to slouch but .....

.............how can you possibly resist in these gorgeous garments from the glorious La Garconne. Totally slouchable in the most fabulous of ways. Next find the perfect black slouchy pant to pair with my slouchy top, just what one needs on a wet and dreary day like today.
Being a slouch never looked so together.

Etoile Isabel Marant

Helmut Lang

Vanessa Bruno

Zero + Maria Cornejo

Little Under a Month

 I don't mean to jump the gun, but it is a little under a month and don't you think you better to get a move along. xx

hotmixcold via etsy

Earmark via etsy

JudyStalus via etsy

nancynikkodesign via etsy