Beach and blog joy

Living by the sea and using beautiful handmade soap are two of life's little luxuries :-)I won Pam's giveaway the other week at Bayside Moments and received four beautifully wrapped handmade luxury soaps in Cath Kidston and Ralph Lauren fabrics amongst others - such a treat! :-)

My photos sadly aren't as good as hers as I'm still battling on with my old camera! Pam makes these soaps from scratch in her kitchen in Brisbane using the highest quality vegetable and essential oils. There are no artificial additives and no two pieces are alike. Go check them out, I'm very impressed!

They smell and feel divine. Many happy days to come of happy, soft hands. Thanks Pam! :-)

Adding some sparkle

Unable to have a chandelier by default of renting and not having the right light fittings, I decided to add some glamour to my lamp today by adding some old chandelier crystals that I picked up at the markets.

I just threaded them with beading wire and then rather crudely hooked them on to a circle of cardboard (from a cereal packet!!) with a hole in the middle to go over the light fitting. Unless you look inside the lamp you can't see this of course ;-)

Just playing around with Picasa 3 (if you haven't already, download it from Google, it's free!) creating different effects adding colour to my ranunculus, thanks Sarah! I always forget what flowers I'm buying even though my florist tells me - I'm terrible with names!

Hope everyone is enjoying their weekend!

xx

My tidy kitchen

A little (actually not that little when you think about all the work that goes into really cleaning a kitchen from top to toe but anyway!) task completed! With a trip to my local florist really making my kitchen look pretty today :-)

It's not often I love tidying and cleaning but today I'm feeling pretty happy to have cleared the decks as we've had so many mugs and plates lying around and no dishwasher, so after a couple of lazy days the mess is overwhelming!

Right, I think I'm off to the beach to catch the last of the day's rays! Only 4 days and counting... :-)

xx

Vintage beauty

I'm smitten with this vintage writing desk, chair and rose plates on the wall, just stunning! {Image 1}

Certainly puts a strong case forward for putting china on the wall! (Yes, I realise I'm quite wall obsessed at the moment!! :-) )

Hope you've all had a good week?

As usual, I’m very excited about the imminent arrival of the weekend, I think I’m going to try and cram in as much as possible as I have lots of little odd jobs and ends to tie up which never get done during the week – I know I’m probably not alone in this!

The sun is shining and I’m so excited that spring is only 5 days away!! Have a great weekend everyone!

xx

Inside Cath Kidston's Home

Oh yes, it had to be done. If you haven't seen these already in the latest edition of Lonny, then enjoy!






Colourful, dreamy, nostalgic and very Cath! :-) To see more, click here.

Pretty by the bed

I simply wish I had a lovely bedside table or little chest of drawers or a chair or anything pretty really next to my bed.

The truth is I have a plastic storage box on my side of the bed with magazines and a lamp on top. The storage box is housing...any guesses?
It's housing a number of my collected treasures which I'm either saving for 'my house one day' or I'm occasionally alternating them with things I have out in our living room.
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On Mr Cornflake's side of the bed is his amplifier - anyone unfamiliar with what one of these look like, it's a great big black box! 'Look it doubles as a side table!' those were his words!!

I can't change our sorry state of affairs for lack of room in our flat so for now I'm dreaming of a time when I can get a look like above!

xx

I ♥ this

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For anyone following my interior design inspiration I have to confess it oscillates wildly between the old, subtle, chic, pale and delicate to the loud, bright, modern and colourful all the while looking unique and eclectic at the same time!

Hmmm… I think it’s really hard for me to have one style preference. I just like what I like I suppose and that encompasses many different things!

This first picture is a definite treasure for me I love the bold, bright pink paint with the different mix of frames (yes more wall art!) and crystal chandelier sconce against it. Also inspiring is the second picture with it's bright green wallpaper, modern art and stunning antique chair and writing desk. These pictures are fuelling what I love - mixing old with new and juxtaposing styles, colours and influences to create something original.

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend? Let me know what you got up to! I ate loads of lovely food and basked in the sunshine - we’re fast approaching spring in Australia. Glorious! :-)

Happy Monday!
xx

Eclectic dining

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I'm back! Phewee I'm really seriously in need of a relaxed weekend. I've been here there and everywhere recently :-)

Luckily I don’t have many plans except dinner tonight with friends in Pyrmont (we’re having south Indian cuisine yum yum!) and a beach catch up with friends over some tapas later in the weekend. As usual all my socialising revolves around food!!

Speaking of food which you eat (typically) on plates...yup trying to neatly link this in folks! A few pictures above of a design idea for walls that I love. So easy to do with all your mismatching china or an easy look to achieve by hunting down pieces at flea markets, vintage shops or antique stalls.

Love it, just wondering though if seeing all these bare plates is making me hungry!

Have a super duper califragilistic expialadocious weekend!

xx

A touch of Morocco

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I'm afraid what with stepping off the plane Sunday evening and stepping right back on it first thing tomorrow I haven't had time to take any pictures of my thrifty buys (there's actually a lot of things to share with you, so I might do a very big post next week!) so I thought I'd share with you one of my home interior influences, Morocco.

While I still haven't been (it's at the top of my hit list) I really love Moroccan style. One element that always stands out are Moroccan lanterns. I have a few with different coloured glass which look wonderful when I put tea lights inside. They really create quite an alluring, magical atmosphere! I'd love to have a hookah too but just for ornamental purposes!

Love these light airy (almost beachy?) Moroccan interiors above.

Okay, must dash a million and one things to do this week. Thanks for popping by and all your lovely comments, I will catch up with you all on the weekend! Have a great week!

xx

Hanging out

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Hallo all, I'm just back from 3 days in Victoria.

Mr Cornflake and I decided we needed some 'time out' so decided on a long weekend in Victoria's treasured park, Wilsons Promontory. We hired a car, cottage, drank lots of red wine and did some lovely hikes around the national park. It was so peaceful and beautiful - I'm a country girl born and bred, so it's great to be to be able to go back to nature from time to time.

We saw lots of kangaroos without trying, as well as wombats (sadly we ran one of these over in the dark driving to the cottage :-( could have been much worse though if we tried to avoid it completely), koalas and whales.

I'm back in Melbourne in two days time (for work) - I can't believe my busy life sometimes!

I hope you all had a lovely weekend too.

xx

Picture me here

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Oh I can definitely picture me here! I think filling a wall with either frames alone or canvasses, black and white portraits or an electic mix of art is just wonderful. It really creates a feature in a room.

I've always wanted to do this along a staircase with lots of frames of different sizes and styles with a mix of photos, fabric and art. In my family house (which is a big haunted house back in Warwickshire, England - spooky!) we have a collection of family portraits lining the wall along the stairs. I love looking at it although I guess it's a little distracting and I can loose my footing sometimes!

Wishing you a lovely day everyone!
xx

The power of white paint

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Two great examples of how white paint can transform a room. I’ve been painting a lot of my furniture white recently so thought white paint deserved an honorable mention! Would really love to have this cabinet, desk, table and chandelier in my place, how lush!

I also really like the idea of painting picture frames such as these above and then hanging jewellery from them from baby nails in the frame or adding lace or netting behind. It's all about imagination helped by a little inspiration!

xx

Oh pip!

I thought I’d bring some colour to Monday and reveal my love of Pip Studio based in the Netherlands. A girlfriend of mine is heading to Amsterdam today to see her boyfriend for a month and has promised me some goodies from here which I’m all too excited about! :-)

If you’re not familiar with Pip Studio, It’s a little bit like Cath Kidston on steroids! Here are some of my favourite designs above. They have the most awesome wallpaper too.

Completely thrilled to have won Pam from Bayside Moments' giveaway last week. I never win anything, lol, so I'm delighted to be receiving such a wonderful gift of her handmade natural soaps! :-) If you haven't already, go check out her blog it's filled with gorgeous goodies including great thrift finds!

Have a wonderful start to your week everyone!

xx

p.s. Mr Cornflake (as Janette from My Sweet Prints referred to him yesterday – love it!) did a stella job on his charity run yesterday, so proud. He got in under an hour!

My little souvenir

Having next to no time to go shopping and sightseeing (the latter of which always takes precedence when I'm abroad) when I was in New Zealand, I ventured into a tourist shop (yup, at the airport of all places) and choose this lovely little glazed bowl which has been dipped at the rim and in the centre with gold as my souvenir. I didn't have time to go panning for gold in the beautiful rivers like my Dad did when he visited as a teen in the 60s but I felt this would be a good second best and it was only $10!

My camera couldn't really pick out the detail very well so it's a little blurry I'm afraid but it's pale blue in the middle and has a mother of pearl in the middle. It looks so lovely on my dressing table although I don't dare put anything in it as it's so delicate!

I am so happy the weekend is almost upon us and the sun is shining! Have a lovely one everyone!

xx

Teacup love

Remember those T2 teacups I went crazy about not long ago? Well of course I dashed out to get one - understandably I couldn't rely on the bf to move fast enough ;-)

I was super disappointed to find the one/s I liked had sold out locally but one lovely assistant told me about a few teacups from last season (???) that someone had put on layby 6 months ago and never picked up so asked if I wanted to see them. Of course I said yes!! And it turned out it was love at first sight! I bought two, one blue and one yellow which I'll have to show you another time.

LOVE teacups, love these ones! Did anyone else get any and what did you get?

xx

The Bold and the Beautiful

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I love finding rooms such as this one where risks have been taken using bold colours and patterns. When I have my own home I'd love to wallpaper a wall. However when that time comes I think I'll find it hard to choose considering all the wonderful options that are available!

Okay everyone I'm off to bedfordshire, it's been a super loooonng day! :-)

xx

Thrifty Tuesday

Much to the horror of a small (very small...) number of friends I picked this discarded, once loved chair up by the roadside. Yes this week's thrifty post was totally free!

Someone was throwing it out and no longer had a use for it but there I go walking past thinking 'great shape, white paint!' so guess what I was doing for a good hour this weekend! This project I'm proud to say got done in a jiffy! I will show you the finished results later in the week.

A few of my friends (none of whom I might add blog but always like to pass comment on mine :-)) have asked why I thrift so much, it's not like times are tough and we're still in the middle of 'the recession we had to have' - well, not in Australia thankfully. Well, I know I could spend a large part of my salary on beautiful things - not to mention clothes - but I've done that in the past and I've come to realise the smart way to consume is to take a step back and realise that it is possible to achieve a customised look that is beneficial not only to my long term savings plan of 'ever being able to afford a house' but also the environment (by salvaging/recycling/upcycling) and where possible buying fair trade.

That's not to say I don't like buying the odd name but as I approach my later twenties I think being a responsible shopper is the way to go.

I hope you all have a lovely Tuesday! We have gale force winds in Sydney at the moment, seriously so loud last night I hardly got any sleep!

xx

Colour me happy

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I love colour (if you haven't already guessed!). One of the ways I have achieved colour in my home, short of painting my walls which sadly isn't an option as I rent, is with fabric. Cushions, throws, table cloths, even framing fabrics! Even though I seem to be endlessly buying things [at next to nothing, so I buy more of course! ;-)] I am still amazed at how long it takes to build a look. It really doesn't happen over night! Loving this room above, a perfect example of how I'd like my place to look and also loving the colourful china!

I hope everyone had a lovely weekend, we had a really sunny mild day yesterday. I wore a dress and small cardi and was perfectly warm, wow!!! Maybe summer is upon us....?

xx