wedding week

March 13th, 2010

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My baby sister gets married on Friday! So it’s crazy-busy wedding week in all of my family members’ households – spraytans and pedicures to have, placecards to print, speeches to write, motorbike-riding-and-fishing-by-bucks to be done, chocolates to make… My own to-do list involves shopping for lanterns and ribbons, sewing paper doilies, making pretty paper tags, painting chalkboard signs, cutting up placecards, creating table numbers… That’ll teach me for volunteering! So, as with this week, next week will be a slow-blog week. But if you need me, I’ll be the crazy girl flailing and wailing about in a pile of tissue paper making way too many pom poms… Being the total opposite of wedding obsessed, I thought I’d post some pretty pics to get me in the right head space!

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Psst: Big thank you to everyone’s comments on my last post. As soon as I pressed “publish” I wanted to unpublish because I thought it might be insensitive to talk about other people’s heartache. And yet, everyone was so sweet and helpful, I’m now going to bundle up all your words, links and love and send it off to those who’ve lost so much when the time is right. I think they’ll appreciate it. x

{Images by Jose Villa. This just might be my fave wedding shoot ever. The couple is so cute and cool and casual (my kind of wedding!), the dress is perfection, the location heaven, the yellow shoes and striped socks are adorable, the barn gorgeous, the yellow cake a sweet surprise and I love a fabric backdrop done well as this one was. I tried to get my sister to do the same thing, but she decided not too. Good thing that, or else there’d be something else I’d be doing this week! If you like drooling over wedding pics, spend a few days lost in Jose Villa’s gorgeous images}

babies born sleeping…

March 10th, 2010

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In the past two days, two of my friends – who don’t know each other – lost their unborn babies halfway through their pregnancies. One of their losses came a day after her friend died of cancer. It’s not often I’m lost for words, but this week, I am. It’s hard to know what to say or do in times of unbearable heartbreak, and this is all I could manage. So to E and to A, this is for you… xx

Our thoughts are with you
Our tears are for you
Our invisible hugs are for the babies born sleeping
And we’ll wish upon the shiny new stars in the sky that your pain is gone soon

ikat cushions & vintage suzanis a mouse click away…

March 10th, 2010

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How’s this for moving fast: in early Feb, I visited my friend Lou from Table Tonic blog for a kids playdate and we got chatting about what she was going to do after leaving her job. I was excited to hear her thoughts about an online store selling gorgeous exotic homewares. Excited because I knew it’d be a hit bringing these gorgeous things to our shores and that someone was possibly going to succeed where I had failed (I’d planned to do a similar thing with Moroccan wedding blankets, poufs and Turkish towels a couple of years ago, had a supplier all lined up, then got scared off by the economic doomsday and wasn’t brave enough to resurrect my idea!).

So this was in Feb. On Monday, Lou opened her store – Table Tonic – selling the most gorgeous range of ikat cushions (starting from than $90), vintage and new embroidered Mexican suzani bedspreads, tribal tassles and jewellery and baby buntings. Just look at all this prettiness…

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Aren’t they beautiful? I’m astounded at how quickly it all came about, am impressed with the range and am looking forward to seeing what other goodies she has in store (ha!) for us shopaholics in the near future. I’m particularly excited (and slightly jealous of her can-do-ness) about the vintage Moroccan wedding blankets that will be arriving soon. I’m saving my pennies now! So, do you likey? I have my eye on the green chevron and grey diamond pattern ikat cushions, how about you?! Check out her store and say hi at her blog which is as colourful, pretty and eclectic as the items she now sells!

{top image courtesy Table Tonic. This was shot in Lou’s bedroom (which is in her dining room at the moment!). Collages 2 & 3 by me through my new fave tool – Picasa – using images from Table Tonic}

introducing…

March 8th, 2010

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…these fabulous five (god I loved that Enid Blyton adventure series…) blogs I discovered through the Blogging Your Way course I’ve been doing these past few weeks. It has been such fun and so inspiring, I’m sad it’s ending today – for the first time ever I’ve enjoyed doing homework (even if I’ve turned it in late!) and eagerly waited for class to begin. If you have a blog and are keen to give it a little more love, look out for Holly’s next class. I’m not sure if Leslie is also teaching again, but I hope for future pupils that she does – they’re a great duo. And so, I thought I’d introduce you to a few fellow classmates whose blogs I’ve found myself returning to several times. Enjoy, enjoy! x

Fabric of my life – an interior stylist’s blog from the UK.

Fabulous Doodles – sweet fashion illustrations from a clever New Yorker

Lolalina – a little bit of prettiness every day

Merissa – gorgeous imageryfrom a gorgeous Hawaiian

Going home to roost – crafty goodness for happy homebodies

wonderful wood

March 5th, 2010

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Lately – ever since I drooled over Tim Neve’s home in a recent issue of Real Living – I keep finding myself attracted to everything and anything in warm wood tones: lamps, vases, furniture, pencils, contact paper… Then I accidentally stumped upon a wooden bike in cyberspace, then the very cool wood tape dispenser I NEED for my many, many rolls of Japanese masking tape. And then, my mini obsession culminated yesterday and sparked this post when I discovered Polaroid is not only bringing back its instant-film camera (yay!) but in a woodgrain covering sometime this year. Me likey. Me also likey – and want – each and every one of the following…

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1. Eco Bamaboo Squirrel Clock, $59, Hunt & Gather
2. Wood Tape Dispenser, $US30, Uguisu
3. Bike by Waldmeister
4. SRF Hantverk Table Brush Set, $74.95, Make Designed Objects
5. Wooden Birds, from $US80, Kristian Vedel at MoMA Store

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6. Woodgrain contact paper, $US8.49, Hardwarestore (you can also get it at Kmart)
7. Replica Hans Wegner Wishbone Chair, $325, Matt Blatt
8. PIC 1000 instant-film camera, Polaroid
9. Window Stool, $US239, Viva Terra
10. Ono lamp, $99, Oz Design Furniture
11. Moso Bamboo Vessel, Stone Forest

It’s likely because winter is on its way and I’m actually thinking ahead of time of ways to warm up my home – a few earthy touches and textures will do this simply, stylishly and naturally. I’m also mightily impressed that so many everyday items are being grooved up a little; that even the little things can be stylish (hello tape dispenser! and contact paper – I have a few rolls just waiting to be played with), and eco-friendly too, with many made from recycled wood or planet-friendly bamboo.

But mostly, it’s such a delight to see manufacturers embracing our natural materials and not just resorting to plastics and other man-made bits and bobs (or at least faking the look!) Not just to save the planet, but because in a time of techno everything and a plastic world, there is something so calming and nostaglic about quality wooden items – a benchseat made from a bunch of PVC pipes just wouldn’t get the same reaction as the wooden version in the top picture would it? The texture, the colours, the imperfections: it all makes for a beautiful piece of furniture. I wonder how hard it’d be to DIY?!?! Do I dare to even think about trying it?! Thoughts?

{all images linked to in credits; top image House to Home}