Feeling a little sombre lately...

The last couple of days have really brought me down and made me sit and reflect. With the storms in Brisbane, the wharf tragedy and the mother dying after the balcony collapse as well as most of my weekends spent cleaning and packing up our beloved holiday home as it gets closer to auction date, I find myself saying over and over why do these things have to happen? The sale of our home is a completely seperate issue but I feel with the news tragedy's, these poor people have been made examples of....In the cruelest of ways.

As a mother, a wife, a daughter, a sister and a friend, It sadens me that it's times like these that really hit me hard and make me give so much thanks for my life. My heart is absolutely aching for the families who are in so much pain and sorrow right now but I suppose I shouldn't dwell on it too much and really enjoy and embrace the good health and happiness my family endures.

My woes with the sale of our lake house seems ever so trivial compared to the greater picture but nevertheless it's still a hard time in my life.

I thought I'd post some more pics of our "happy place". It's nothing fancy, most of the furniture remains from when my grandparents resided. As it was used as a weekender after their passing we never felt the need to refurnish it. My mother for a long while had plans to retire there herself and renovate it then but she has now since decided she wants to retire closer to the city, and us, on the northern beaches of Sydney, where all the action is... And I don't blame her. This unfortunately means she needs all the money she can get as this area aint cheap. She's worked extremely hard all her life and always put her children and grandchildren first so now is her time and she truly deserves the best retirement possible.

As you can see for 26years we have enjoyed the most beautiful panoramic views of Tuggerah lake. Bird life is in abundance here and my favourites are definately the pelicans and black swans.

There are no fences ajoining the properties.

I love to sit and read at the dining table and stare out the window as the sun sets.

The main livingroom is very open plan. Something quite new of it's time in the 80's.

My grandfather built all the kitchen cabinetry himself downstairs in the garage. It still looks brand new even today 26yrs later. If I lived here permanently I would keep the cupboards but paint them white and replace the counter tops, knobs and flooring.

My mum's room.

My grandparents old room...bedroom 2.

The bathroom definately needs updating but it is clean and functional.

It'll be another busy weekend for me but I plan to make the most of it. I hope you all have a wonderful wonderful happy, memorable and safe weekend too.

images courtesy of realestate.com

Just when I thought homes couldn't get any more beautiful...

Joni goes and pulls this rabbit out of the hat!

*siiiiiiiiiiiiighs*

It's BIG, BEAUTIFUL and ever so inspiring. If you haven't already don't waste another moment and get over to Cote de Texas for so much more of this grand splendour :)

Latin style...

I'm working on a new project that I'm extremely excited about and these are just a few images I'm drawing inspiration from.


These beautiful and colourful interiors all come from my new favourite book Latin Style by Juan Carlos Arcila-Duque.


As a pastel lover myself it's so fun and refreshing researching and sourcing more bold colours. This is a complete change from everything I've done till now and quite a challenge but I'm certainly up for it.

Once again, my scanned pics just doesn't do these incredibly beautiful rooms justice. The bedroom in the first pic I could stare and dream at for hours. It actually reminds me alot of the bedroom in the "Australia" movie I posted last week.

If any Sydneysiders know of any boutiques specializing in Latin/mexican style I'd be very interested and appreciate the heads up. This kind of decor as I'm discovering is not so readily available down under as opposed to Balinese/Asian. As I always say, thank God for Ebay lol.

Chrissy Inspiration...

Skipping around blogland this week I noticed most of you are already getting into the Christmas spirit and begining to decorate your homes. My home is already so chaotic I usually don't like to even think about Chrissy decorating till the 1st of dec. I do however LOVE this time of year and after my little trip into the city on monday and seeing all the stunning shop window displays, as well as this months cover and feature story in Australia's Home Beautiful magazine I'm INSPIRED!

There are so many Christmas "styles" now it seems you have more and more choice each year. Gone are the days of the traditional red and green schemes. My BFF Pru dedicated her whole Christmas colours to hot pink and silver last year. I'm not that brave and as you well know a rather traditional girl at heart.

More and more Australian's are embracing our way of life at Christmas time and decorating accordingly. As most of the population are descendants from somewhere in the northern hemisphere a traditional winter style christmas was what had been passed down through the generations. The trouble with that is there is a 90% chance christmas day will be 30 degrees celcius + therefore cooking turkeys and whatnot in a hot oven is highly inappropriate.

Ever since my grandparents passing we started a new Christmas tradition with my family and only cold foods are on the menu. This includes loads of king prawns, fresh oysters, cold ham and turkey as well as a sumptuous variety of salads. And lets not forget pavlova with fresh fruit and lemon tart for dessert.

I absolutely LOVE the images above and I was SO excited when I saw this cover and feature of Gaynor Groome's home in the december issue. Mz Groome is the owner of yet another French treasure of a store in Sydney called Shades of Pale. For more incredibly beautiful pictures from this feature please visit my blog sista Ness at Marley and Lockyer but people who can, should definately buy the magazine as the computer just doesn't do these inspiring images justice.

This is exactly how I will be decorating my home this Christmas. It certainly encorporates my true love for French design as well as completely capturing the essence of the Australian climate at Christmas time.

Light, cool and whimsical are words I would best describe Gaynor's Christmas decor. I love the traditional colours of green and red but I love the complementary mix of white and silver. Although every other month of the year I am definately a gold person and love my gilded accents, at christmas time, I actually prefer silver as it is definately more of a cool colour. This year I will be banning all gold from my tree and all tinsel must go too lol.

One of my most favourite things about Gaynor's christmas decor was her linen stockings on the mantle. Last year was the first year I encorporated alot of linen in my christmas decor. Linen is fastly becoming my new best friend. I can't get enough. I now have chair covers, chair pads, curtains, placemats, a tablecloth and hopefully soon a new sofa all in raw linen.

It's just so earthy and airy. A table grouped with linen chair covers, a white tablecloth, white cotton napkins with red monogrammes and a clear vase with olive branches screams a summer christmas to me. A dash of duck egg blue couldn't hurt either ;)

The company where Mz Groome purchased her gorgeous stockings from has a fabulous website with an extensive range of heavenly linen and cotton products. Flora and Ceres monogrammes are based in Victoria and ship all over Australia. They are a company where you can buy that special personalized gift you just can't find anywhere else.

I will be placing my order this week and this is my list...

I want 4 Xmas stockings, all unique. The stocking above will display the letter J for my husband.

I want the star for my daughter...

And the stripes for my son.




Finally I'll take this one with a red monogrammed A.




I'm also LOVING this small santa sack!




As well as this outstanding idea for an advent calender.




I also feel I HAVE to have this apron as I hate cooking without one and it will look FABULOUS hanging off my new bakers stand lol :)




Just before I go I wanted to quickly show off my first little purchases for the season. A gorgeous ceramic handpainted "elves boot" from Me & Mo and a little russian doll from Myer for my tree :)

I hope you are all having a wonderful weekend. I can't wait to read about your Christmas inspirations.

Airspace Locations

The ever inspiring and on the ball Jo from Desire to Inspire just beat me to it with her gorgeous girly post yesterday on a London home from Airspace Locations. I thought I'd still go ahead today with my planned post just incase some of you have yet to discover this magical website.

Airspace is a site bursting with the most beautiful and enchanting locations for film and photographic industries, as well as us Interior buffs looking for endless inspiration.

There are obviously all types of properties and styles but my favourite are definately more on the eclectic feminine side (naturally) ;)



This website has shown me some of the most beautiful pieces of French furniture I've ever seen! Where does one find such pretty fabric?!



In my fantasy world this is how I invision my daughters room when she's a teenager. Of course that may well not happen and she'll want black walls with Zac Efron posters all over it lol.




Another thing you can't help but notice is the extensive and stunning range of art, especially portraits. Yet another box I must someday tick off my list of things to own.






Ahhh such treasure!






love love love this bathroom!




This room is just soooo feminine chic! I adore it. The tufted chaise, the black & white flooring, the pink corset lamp....TOO DIE FOR!




They even have some truly lovely outdoor images. Who doesn't love an old bike against a wrought iron gate?

Grab a cup of tea or coffee, sit & relax and spend some quality time immersing amongst all the heavenly locations Airspace has to offer...Enjoy!

A mother and daughter's day of fun!

Yesterday I granted my 9yr old daughter Sophie permission to skip school and have a mother and daughter girly day in the city.

Our ultimate destination was the High School Musical 3 premiere but I thought I'd kill two birds with one stone and have our hair done at the newest, hippest hair salon on the block - Brad Ngata at The Ivy.

As you know I've been following the progress of this salon since it's early design stages as I LOVE the whole Marie Antoinette concept and the fact that it just doesn't look like your average hairdressers with posters and clutter.

Tucked away down a little lane you can't help but stop and peer through the window at the pure eye candy that awaits you inside. I have to say though, it's alot smaller than I thought it would be but the floor to ceiling bevelled mirrors are a classic example of opening up a small space to appear much larger. I never felt closed in at all.

I loved the private wash room with the reclining chairs and dimmed lights....sooo relaxing.

The chairs are gorgeous with their studded faux jewels but apparently very impractical as they recline alittle and not appropriate for straight cutting. I've never actually had my length cut while standing up before lol.




My daughter Soph enjoyed a sweet hot chockie in a pretty tea cup and waited ever so patiently for her turn while I had my hair cut, dried and curled. We were the only two customers at the time, (monday is the best day to go if you don't like crowds) and we had a great time yacking and laughing about all matter of things with our champion stylist Travis and co-worker Trang.

A couple of hours having your hair fluffed and spritz is hungry work so next door to the salon was this amazing cupcake store and we couldn't resist.....YUM!!!!!

The next couple of hours we walked around the beautiful shops Sydney CBD has to offer including the magnificent Queen Victoria Building. Would you believe though not one purchase was to be had! I know crazy huh? To be honest with you I really didn't want to have to carry bags once we got to the premiere.


(image courtesy of wireimage)

The premiere!! What a wonderful experience for her. When we got there it was already very crowded. I thought there was no way Sophie was going to see anyone over everyones head. To our surprise a lovely man we were standing next to told us his daughter was at the front and Sophie could probably squeeze next to her...and she did!


Here is Soph and her new friend Caitlyn waiting IMPATIENTLY for the arrival of the HSM gang :)

(image courtesy of ninemsn.com.au)

Sophie managed to get everyones signature except ZAC's!! but she spoke to all of them. She even met little Bindii Irwin awww :)

My photo's were completely horrible but I found the image above that just shows Soph in the bottom left hand corner :)

A quick photo with one of the cheerleaders as we left. It was a truly magical and memorable day.

Sophie couldn't wait to go to school today and show off her autograph book as well as her curly hair lol.

Happiness is...

Scoring BIG TIME while op shopping on the weekend! I found this incredibly beautiful swan print that will go perfectly in my new bedroom or great room :)

The frame is rather ordinary so I'll either give it a couple of coats of antique white or buy a new one. It is a great size at 70cms by 59cms and as you can see, my favourite colour blue!

Ever since I saw that swan print in the stunning dining room of Mz Elman's apartment I have been on the hunt. Never did I imagine I'd find such a beauty in the most unlikely of places. But then again life is full of surprises :)


P.S - Tomorrow!! Very Excited!! Full day planned!! So much fun and adventure!! Can't wait to show you my pics!! Stay tuned!! ;)