in love with...

originally used in France, the glass cloche, or bell jar, was a solid piece of glass formed in a dome shape. The purpose was to protect an early garden from bleak cold and frost. today, i can' think of less useful, but much prettier uses for the cloche..... i recently bought a cloche, and have been searching for ideas on how to present it. currently it covers a collection of shells, but here are a few more ideas....

this gorgeous wire cloche shaped cover above is a favourite.

a version of the original use for the cloche

bleached white coral, saturated with lovely warm sunlight...just gorgeous.

friends....

so nice in this crazy time in my life to have such good friends. when the days are filled with kids and work and husbands and washing and homework and everything else in between, it's my friends that look past all the chaos and see me for me. offering a cup of coffee, a chat, a yummy lunch like the one above...
So thank you to my friends, you are comfort food for my soul.

if only...

if only my work space was as calm and serene as this! mine a miss match of piles of paperwork, cables and everything else in between. Today I am going to attempt to make it pretty. i will be back with more images soon.... I love a good DE-clutter, it's so good for the soul!

image - martha stewart

silly season

alas, it will not be me this weekend, curled up in a chair reading a magazine.... and why would it be when the silly season is all but upon us! So let's begin the season with my pick of the best range of boutique handmade products and designers Brisbane has to offer - with this sunday's, November Boutique Market down at Portside Wharf. Our designers have already begun filling their marquees with beautiful product for your Christmas shopping delight! You can read more about the market here, and more about the designers here.

old things

as I mentioned a few days ago, the kids and have just returned from a little holiday to my mums in central qld for her 60th birthday. As mum is generally in Brisbane for work once a month it has been almost 7 years since we last were at her house. It was lovely to return and again find all those little things that make your mum's home, really feel like home. I spent many hours just photographing things in her house, but mainly the 'old things'. my dad has a beautiful collection of his great grandfathers books (below), many in German and the gorgeous old ruler from primary school above. The books are housed in his great grandfathers writing bureau and i wish wish wish I could have got a good picture of it - it is just divine! these things are such beautiful old treasures that will always be kept!

On our trip we also visited the Mt Isa underground Hospital and I must say some old thing just should be thrown out! There with my sisters, one a GP, one a paramedic the other a dietitian, I had to walk away as they happily had a frank and open discussion about the following two items - both now class as 'old' and used in the 50's.

yes ladies, above is a placenta grinding machine and below the most medieval looking breast pump I have ever seen! (Why people do you have this on display?)

some old things just need to be thrown out!

yes please

image - country style
I love eat in kitchens, the thought of having everyone gathered in one room relaxing and enjoying a meal is such a lovely thought. My husband is the cook in our home and he is forever complaining that everyone sits at the dining table (which is currently away from our kitchen) whilst he slaves in the kitchen...hmm, where have I heard that before? Our new kitchen will kind of be eat-in, with a very large island bench for informal family dining, but our outdoor kitchen on the back deck will be similar in set-up to the one above and I'm so excited.

baking....

i have been on holidays up north spending time with my family for my mothers 60Th birthday. we stayed a few beautiful days with my eldest sister in tropical north Queensland (balmy hot was more like it though), and I watched her each day create the most amazing gourmet food I've ever seen. A busy mother of 2, a university lecturer and doctor, she still managed to come home each day and whip up (from scratch I might add) home made breads, filled with everything bit of goodness from her gorgeous veggie garden.

so this weekend I am going to take a leaf out of her book and make myself some home made bread (I wonder if they sell it pre-done in the frozen section) and as I don't have the veggie garden she does, I am going to get some lovely fillings to pop inside instead. Thinking of something similar to the recipe over here using baby spinach, basil and macadamia pate from Dish and Spoon.

good morning monday!

image - coutry living

today, after a monster weekend, I've woken feeling refreshed and ready to start the week! We headed out to the Brisbane home show on Saturday, which was great, got some great ideas and have eagerly added them to "the list". Then yesterday was the October Boutique Markets down at Portside Wharf, which started off grey and gloomy, and we thought we had been lucky to miss the rain until a downpour 20 minutes before packdown ruined the day. 60 White and very wet marquees later.... to say it was a long day wouldn't be a stretch! Anyway, it's a new day and I'm feeling as happy as the gorgeous green on the walls of this image.

and one for the trees....

image courtesy of evergreen memories

today I dropped all of our paperwork off to the bank, and when I say 'all of' I really do mean that there was loads. from bank copies, customer copies, solicitors copies and of course all in duplicates as they stupidly send a copy of each to both parties - even though we are married. I had them all inside my bag, which hung precariously over my shoulder and I think I still bear the remains of the indent it left from the weight of it all in my bag.

Seriously, I felt sick at the thought of how many trees had to be felled to in order to produce such a ghastly, completely unnecessary amount of paperwork! So tonight as my husband and I drink to celebrate the next stage of our Reno, I will raise my glass to the little trees that helped us along the way....

a cup of tea and something for me....

yesterday I visited a friend and we sat down and enjoyed a lovey cup of tea whilst the kids ran around their house, chasing their kitten and generally being noisy.... we caught up on house plans, drawn on scrap bits of paper the kids had left on the table - our upcoming Reno, and her plans to add a couple of extra rooms to the house.

and whilst I was their I purchased a piece I have been eying off for a while, and then another little something to go with it. the top image, a gorgeous white framed, sparrow and bird cage paper lined, photographic print in my favourite red and green and white. and then second, a cute little print of a picture she took at a family photo shoot she did with us, edged in handwritten blue script of the Paris subway stations..... Thanks Taryn

breathe in...breathe out....

with the school holidays less than a day away, I am dreaming of a simple escape to the a quite secluded place, with no T.V, no mobile phones, no Internet...no noise...... Fond child memories of morning swims at the beach, afternoon naps, and ice cream cones that always melt before you get a chance to eat them... what more could you want.
Alas this is not to be..... we are not headed anywhere special these holidays, but a girl can dream can't she??? what is your dream holiday?