Sitting pretty

Here are the roses I bought yesterday morning looking pretty in two of my vases on our coffee table (which by the by I don't think I've mentioned before - I found thrown out by a neighbour last year - love these neighbours that do this!- acquired it therefore for free and painted it white). What makes me smile most looking at these photos is that everything in them (aside from the table) was bought for about a fifth of the original price. I don't think I'll ever stop buying second hand, it just wouldn't make sense!

I hope you all had a good weekend? Kicking mine off with iyengar yoga was the best thing - I got some really good stretches in and in the process (sadly) discovered muscles I never knew I had! We caught up with several groups of friends, showed our age in Darling Harbour on Saturday night by not really getting into the vibe of the thriving local bars (so many teens!) and wanting somewhere where 'we could hear each other talk' lol! And the beach called yesterday and I got a little sunburnt, oops!

Happy Monday! I'm staring down the barrel of a very busy week :-/
xx

Smelling of roses

Six dollar roses at the market - what could be sweeter than that? (*clearing of throat* and a little thrifty turquoise find...)

Trying to prise myself away from the frozen yoghurt and get up the nerve to have a swim. It's going to be a hot one today!

The reading chair & breakfast

Kicking off the day with a healthy bowl of pomegranates, strawberries, blueberries and yoghurt (who am I kidding I'm also having three rounds of vegemite toast too!). I'm up bright and early as I'm off to my first yoga class this morning - wish me luck! :)

p.s. here's the matching chair - it's now our reading chair as once you sink in you can't escape!

Have a great weekend!

Colourful temptation

When we went to breakfast last Saturday I couldn't help but notice (of course I couldn't!) all the beautiful colourful window displays around at the moment.

So inviting and sadly so not open at the time we went (very early in the morning to avoid the heat). I love seeing how creative people are and it always gives me decorating ideas of my own.

I've always thought it would be fun to dress up a shop window but the danger is if it was mine I wouldn't be able to sell anything as I'd like it all too much myself. Ooh but still, I fantasise about owning a shop with perhaps a place to have a coffee too!! :-)

Pretty in vintage

{Image via here}

Some pretty vintage inspiration today. So beautiful. Now I have some 'thanks yous' to say to Mariska from I used to be Snow White but I drifted, Simone from Honey and Fizz and Michelle from Paper Tree Studio for awarding me the Stylish blogger award! :-)

So as part of the award I have to say 7 things about me. Okay, here we go:

1. I have fantasies about running my own shop/cafe/B&B one day!
2. My Dad is very similar to Phil in Modern Family ;-)
3. I'm turning 30 this year. EEK!
4. I'm trying really hard this year to not panic about point 3
5. I have bowed to social media peer presure and linked my blog to facebook (!?@?). Please 'like' me if you do :-)
6. I love Jaffa and Tunnocks tea cakes (they remind me of home)
7. Mr Cornflake and I are planning to start a family next year :-)

I'd like to pass this award (without dublicating I hope, as I've noticed many of my favourite reads have already received this award) to Poppies and Sunshine, Kit & Nancy and Hey, Lady Grey

Wishing you a lovely day! :-)

p.s. to local readers how hot was Australia Day? Phew - hope you had fun and didn't get burnt!

A new addition

Well, it might not be exactly what some of you may have been thinking I'd announce (;-)) but if you've been following me for a while then you'll know how exciting this is - my new sofa! I've been after one for ages. For 3 years we've had one that was about fifth hand with dusty stuffing coming out of the stiching and the only way to make do with it was to cover it up with a big blue throw!

Then after a little searching on Ebay towards the end of last year (and the luck of living in a big city with many sellers) I found this baby. It's super comfortable, real leather (I don't know why I feel I have to say real when it's leather but everyone seems to be doing it these days) fits three and was being sold at a fraction to what it would have been bought for. So it wasn't rocket science, it was a winner straight away! We also bought a chair that matches (it's enormous!) but the light wasn't very good (it's in the corner squeezed in next to our bookcase) when I took these pics so I'll show you in another post.

Do you like it? I think it's a real statement piece. The crimson colour has meant a bit of a design change in our little apartment but that's okay as it's made me a little more co-ordinated with colours.

Well, it's Australia Day tomorrow which means a public holiday over here and I'm super excited about having a day at the beach with friends and a great big BBQ. Maybe I'll reach a florist too, who knows :-) Have a lovely time wherever you may be and thank you so much for our sewing support and suggestions yesterday!

xx

Confessions of a creative mind

Now, I have a naughty confession to make. Last year (October to be precise) I purchased a sewing machine. Yes, I did. My first one ever. Do you know how many times I've used it (excluding a friend coming over to show me) since it entered our home?

That's right. Nil. Zero. Naught. Zippo.

It's nicely gathering dust by the side of my bed. May be Pip Lincolne's (from Meet Me At Mikes fame) Sew La Tea Do book can help get me out of myself and actually use it to create something wonderful. Here's hoping! Here are some extracts above that didn't make it into the book (which makes you wonder then what did!)

Any tips for getting started/motivated (beyond buying the book) are welcome!

On an entirely separate and unrelated note, stay tuned as I have some very exciting news to share with you tomorrow! :-)

Two weekend favourites...unrealised

Well this weekend I was hoping to get to the markets again (this photo is from last Saturday aren't the chandeliers to drool for) and the florist (I'm really keen for some hydrangeas...), but it was not meant to be. We just chilled out completely (minus stepping out for a few early morning walks and breakfasts and a friend's birthday dinner last night) - it's been so hot it's left little else to do but totally chill!

I'm loving the sunny weather at the moment but the heat can be a little inhibiting at times. Is anyone else feeling the same or is my lazy streak coming out?

Anyway, it's a quiet night in now with a movie and Mr Cornflake (just returned from a surf) for company. I have a potato and zucchini fritatta baking in the oven (yes another frittata ha!) at the moment that needs some attention so better go...Hope you're all enjoying your Sunday evening/morning and having pleasant time.

Lovely spaces

A great deal of my inspiration for interiors these days comes from surfing the ever expanding world that is the blogosphere - all of you! But every so often a book comes along that just blows my socks off and I can’t wait to get my paws on - Spaces by Frankie is no exception.

Retro, electic, vintage, quirky = just the thing for me! A few sample pages above.

I was going to get a copy last year at the Finders Keepers markets but failed miserably because I got distracted by other things (how typical of me) but now it's top of my shopping list :-)

Do any of you have a copy? Which is your favourite bit?

A little find

I found this gorgeous little bracelet at the flea markets last weekend. It was in a bucket loaded up with all sorts of discarded, broken or missing pieces of jewellery so I had to do quite a bit of digging around to find it - but as always, the hunt is so often worth it. I just fell in love with how sweet it looks and how it has been made with so much love and meaning.

Thanks for all your comments on my photo yesteday. The picture is of two young sisters riding a horse into the village of Hampi in central southern India. We caught them on their way to sell local farm produce (with other family members and villagers). Even though it doesn't look like it in the photo they loved having their photo taken (and seeing the result) but like many Indians we met they seem to just freeze when the camera is on them! Anyway now I think of it, it seems like ages ago that I was there but it was to the day only 2 weeks ago - wow how time flies!

Wishing you a lovely day.

Wordless Wednesday

For more Wordless Wednesday see here.

Cabbage flowers

I bought some kale last night when we did the grocery shopping. Here they are this morning adding some natural green tones to our living room. I don't normally buy flowers like this, they're often very delicate and colourful so this is a lovely change.

They've quickly established the nickname, cabbage flowers because they look so much like the vegetable! In fact I think you can eat them?

Wishing you a lovely day and thank you for finding me at my new address.xx

Sunday lunch by the sea

I thought I'd share some photos of where we spent a beautiful sunny Sunday yesterday - at our friends' coastal retreat (lucky things). It was so beautiful and we were really lucky with the weather (Australia is going through la nina this year which means it's very humid causing a great deal of showers, although most of NSW seems to have thankfully been spared for most of the year so far). If only we could have lunch here every week, sigh!

We also caught up with friends on Saturday for (4 hour!) lunch and had a quick scoot around the weekly flea markets - one of my favourite pastimes. All in all it wasn't a bad first weekend back after our trip.

Both of us are still missing Indian food (which we had morning, noon and night - it was that yummy) so this year is a new resolution for Mr Cornflake and I: learn to make 4 dishes each - 2 of which must be curries. We bought a chilli plant on Friday in an effort to realise this task so we'll see how we go!

What did you get up to this weekend? I hope it was a lovely one.
xx

I have moved!

{Image from here}

Hello everyone, just a quick update to say I have a new web link to Cornflake (now called Cornflakes & Honey) so you might want to update your reading lists and add this address to your followers list from your dashboard so you can keep following (sorry if this is a pain).

I've been wanting to change the name for a while but still want Cornflake in there somehow. I can't have the name alone as it's been taken (everywhere) so I have removed bankongoodstyle (which now I look at it sounds a bit...) and have added some honey to the mix :-) I hope you like it.

New matching contact details too which you can find on my contact page.

Hope you're having a good start to your weekend.

p.s. if anyone's wondering if I have an obsession with cereal, namely cornflakes, I don't! I just love the name and it somehow reminds me of my childhood and the simple things! :-)

Vintage magpie

In pursuit of further distraction (I'm so glad this week is coming to and end soon, what a week with the news of the devastating floods in Brazil too) here are some gorgeous vintage trinkets I recently spied (such a magpie) from Myra Melinda.

It's been a hard week for many around the world. My thoughts and prayers are with you all.

Wishing you all some reprieve from the rain and reasons to be happy this weekend. xx

Far away lands

I thought I'd help distract us all a moment from the terrible news on the floods with some more pictures of my trip.

We managed to cram in a massive amount in what was really quite a short amount of time given how large India is. Of course, we went straight to the Taj Mahal after we left Delhi. As you'd expect it's very popular so we got there at sunrise (to avoid the swollen crowds) which is when I took this photo above. It was so amazing to be there and I felt so blessed to have been able to visit and touch the marble - an incredible architectural feat.

A lot of India's beauty lies in it's equisitely carved temples, maginificent forts (like the fourth photo taken here of Amber fort in Jaipur), magical palaces, grand mausoleums and natural landscapes. Where you are less likely to see so much beauty (the other side of the story) is in the litter, smog and pollution that sadly dogs most of India. With more than a billion people throwing all their waste in the rivers, lakes (no matter how sacred they are - which really surprised us as the locals also bathe in them every day) oceans, roads and fields it is hard not to feel a little disappointed. There is education but apathy prevails and the ease of throwing things on the floor is all too tempting.

One of the villages we stayed in was Hampi which is a stunningly beautiful tiny Hindu village in central southern India surrounded by temples and set amongst old ruins of a former grand city and hills of boulders. (second and third pictures above). The locals there were so friendly and on our first day of the New Year everyone we passed shock our hand and greeted us with happy New Year messages and little children came up hugging us. It was so sweet and we never felt such a warm reception from the world to start our brand new year. The whole village was so talkative and happy and many houses and shops had used colourful powdered chalk to create pretty messages and flowers on the ground.

I have a feeling this little gem will turn into a major tourist location in years to come as more people discover it. It really is something else.

Having been there now (and I've wanted to go for years) I don't think India is for the faint hearted. There is a massive amount of chaos on the streets (which are quite dangerous - we had a car collison on a main road from Dehli to Agra but it wasn't too bad and we weren't the ones driving which probably saved us) hassling, you never get to forget you're a tourist (and have a different skin colour) and most importantly that you have loads of money (comparatively) so you can fall victim to scams (thankfully we were on top of that one but a couple of other tourists we met unfortunately came unstuck).

However, despite this and the low levels of hygiene (which actually ends up being quite good for your immune system...) I really want to go back and would definitely recommend a visit as it is so inspiring and such an experience (I've just realised I haven't even mentioned the food which was delicious!!). We saw quite a few young families travelling, some with one year olds which was really quite inspiring so who knows, next time we go back it may be more than the two of us! :-)

Strength in love

No doubt many of you will have heard by now that Australia is facing a national crisis. Many have or are being affected by unrelenting floods in south east Queensland and northern New South Wales. Now Brisbane is under seige from rising waters. People's lives have been lost, young and old and many are missing. It is just so sad.

Mr Cornflake's mum (who lives in the countryside just north of Brisbane) sent us a photo last night of her garden and the river that runs at the back has swollen massively. We're just hoping and praying it doesn't rise up onto the garden and seep into her home.

My heart goes out to everyone affected by this natural disaster and I pray the rain stops sooner than expected and there is no further loss of life.

(Print shown available here)

A fresh start

Firstly thank you so much for your comments yesterday it’s great to hear such enthusiasm and interest about my trip. I’ll be sure to share more pictures and insights with you this week.

So it's a new dawn, a new day, a new year and... a new lifestyle? While I was away certain things rudely came to my attention (namely at the beach...isn't it always?). Over the years I’ve been really slack with exercise (minus the odd dance class/night out) due to (stop reading if you don’t want to hear this) having an extraordinarily fast metabolism, and while it’s been fantastic (I’m a complete foodie) it’s all starting to catch up with me. At the grand old age of 29, my legs are revealing some alarming signs of really poor circulation – help! So topping my list of New Year’s resolutions this year, I aim to embark on a weekly yoga programme and do some light running a couple of times a week. Huff puff. Have you any key resolutions this year? Some others on my list include:

1.) Start yoga / light jogging
2.) Thrift in moderation ;-)
3.) Expand my current reading list beyond magazines - no seriously!
4.) Apply myself to the laundry situation that is building up in our bath (that is never used because, er there’s laundry in it)
5.) Expand my cooking repertoire beyond: spinach and ricotta canneloni, pasta, frittata and cupcakes.

On a side note, a little thrift for you today above (note it’s in moderation ;-)). A little blue and white dish to match my little blue and white ginger pot (on the right) and a small kitsch wooden dish (for the wall) with a round plastic Mary icon in the middle. Looking at her is really calming. Amazing what you find when you dig around!

Wishing you a lovely day.

Incredible India

I don't think I made it too hard to guess in my last post where I went... :-)

We've just come back from the most incredible trip of a lifetime around one of the world's most amazingly diverse, complex and inspiring countries. Here are just a few snaps I took above (funnily enough now I look at them they're all shot near water). I have literally thousands of photos (oh the joys and, dare I say, tribulations of digital media) which I'm in the middle of going through.

A month is just not long enough for such a richly vibrant, frenetic, multi-faceted not to mention LARGE country but we got to see an amazing amount: Delhi (for our friends' wedding which was stunning), Agra, Jaipur, Pushkar, Udaipur, Bombay, Goa, Palolem and Hampi. More photos to come...

Even though we were immersed in so much beauty and culture there were moments (can you believe) where I missed blogging, lol and wished I had my laptop! That is one good thing to being back but I am sad the adventure is over although it has spurred us on to plan the next.

Looking forward to catching up with you all this week.
xx

I'm back!

Hello my lovely readers and Happy New Year! I seriously can't believe how fast the years pass these days. It seems to be the older I get the fast time flies - but how unfair is that when we all know we get wiser and more accomplished with time. ;-)

Anyway I owe you all a great big (and a little late - sorry) season's greetings! I hope you had a wonderful Christmas with your loved ones, ate lots of lovely festive food (yum) and got merry under the mistletoe! You're probably wondering where I have been for the last few weeks and why I haven't popped in to say hello. Well, I was on a very exciting trip. Can you guess where I've been?

xx