DIY Serving Tray

Sorry about the delay between posts.  We had a fantastic holiday away and I am just starting to feel human again now the jet lag has gone.   The flight back from the US to Perth is tough...  40 hours later (including long stop-overs) it was so nice to be home in our own place.  

I did come home to find this little treasure on our table which was nice!

A gorgeous friend had knitted my teapot a little hat to keep it warm! Very thoughtful and very appropriate for today's post...  

Did you catch my second guest post for We Love Perth on my DIY Serving Tray?  With Winter here I am all about entertaining at home and in particular I love a good old fashioned afternoon tea.  These easy to make serving trays are perfect to serve your afternoon tea on.  I might have to organise one this weekend just to show off my new teapot hat!  

You can read the full post here.

M xx

DIY Wedding

One of my favourite parts of planning our recent wedding was collecting and making props to place around our ceremony and reception locations.  Our wedding took place in Hobart, Tasmania and as we were living in Dubai when we got engaged the majority of our wedding was planned over the phone and email.  Gumtree and ebay became my favourite web sites at the time and my lovely Mum became our much needed 'on the ground' resource.

My favourite finds were the box of vintage glass bottles and decanters that Mum picked up from an old farm (she drove over 3 hours each way to pick them up!), the hundred or so old vintage plates that we sourced and the old apple picking ladders we picked up for only $5 each and the seller even delivered them for free (that's the helpful Tasmanians for you!)

We also had lots of help from our amazing friends and family who helped collect bits and pieces or donate their treasures.  We had a loose theme of 'Vintage Travel' and had so many ideas of what we wanted to use but at the same time we didn't want it to look too gimmicky.  We were really happy with how it came together on the day and had the best day!

M xx

- If you know anyone getting married in Tasmania that would like to hire any of the above let me know x

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Away on a jet plane!

It's holiday time!!

We have left today on our holiday to the US and I cannot wait!  First stop is LA where I am hoping to do some celebrity spotting.  We have got tickets to The Tonight Show with Jay Leno for Friday so hopefully we will get off to a good start there.  I will keep you posted as a go! 

I am excited about the shopping but I think I will be saving my pennies until the New York portion of our trip.  I bought this book below on the recommendation of a like minded good friend and it is fabulous!  The plan was to read it before we leave so as not to carry books around with us but it is such a gorgeous book and has so many hidden gems that it is coming along with us.

M xx

Glam Drinks Trolley

You will know from previous posts that I love a great drinks trolley.  I think they are glamorous and decadent and I hope one will feature in all my future homes. 

I recently saw one Design Sponge which is absolutely gorgeous.  I love that gloss white finish with the gold details.   How fantastic is the end result below!!

You can read the full post here.

M xx

Images: here

We Love Perth

It was an exciting day on Friday when my first Guest Blogger post for We Love Perth was published!

We Love Perth is a fabulous resource that details all the amazing things Perth has to offer.  Whether that be things to do, places to go or tasty treats to eat.  

For the month of June I will be doing a guest blogger post every Friday.  Make sure you check their website every Friday to read each post in full.  It was fun coming up with new ideas for the posts and also re-working some of my most popular ones so hopefully they are all well received!

You can read my first post by clicking here! 

M xx

Home Office

Lately I have noticed I am spending more and more time doing blog work or personal admin after work or on weekends.  My current home office set up consists of me sitting on the couch with my laptop or propped up on the dining table when we are not using it.  Neither option is ideal and after hours of typing on the couch my neck would agree!  So it is time to think about setting up a home office... any thing similar to these would do be nicely.

What do you look for in a home office?

M xx

Images:  here, here, here, here

USA Shopping List - Part 1

We are heading to the States next month and I have been busy planning our trip around furniture stores, vintage markets and galleries.  I am sure I will be tempted by the clothing sales whilst we are there but personally, I would really like to come back with some special bits and pieces for our house rather than clothes.  

I recently saw these beauties and they have gone straight to the top of my list.  Designed by UK designer Lee Broom these hand crafted crystal bulbs won the ELLE Decoration British Designer Award in 2012.

I would love one of these hanging on either side of our bed as our bedside lamps.

M xx

All images from here. 

House Envy

A few weekends ago I flicked on the television during the day and saw that a repeat of Blue Lagoon was on.  I don't think Brooke Shields could possibly be any more beautiful than she was in that movie.  Stunning!  Perhaps I am a prude after so long living in Dubai but I was fairly shocked by all the nudity.. I didn't remember that from when I was a kid! I suppose it was shocking to me as both main characters  seemed so young...  My interest piqued, I googled Brooke to see how old she was when she filmed Blue Lagoon (she was 14 in case you are interested!*) and I stumbled came across this article in Architectural Digest on her Manhattan Townhouse.  OH.MY.GOODNESS. A collaboration between architects MADE and designer David Flint Hicks the house is absolutely stunning.  The clincher for me from the article was this line...  

"One of the team’s first excursions was to the hangar-size warehouse in New Jersey where Shields had stowed the treasure—and detritus—from her own many moves and from her mother’s decades as an obsessive comber of flea markets."

Wouldn't I have loved to have been part of that team that explored that warehouse!!

Read the full article here 

M xx

* apparently Brooke later testified before a US Congressional inquiry that older body doubles were used in some of the nude scenes. 

Latest Find

With being away and busy weekends we haven't had a chance to get back to the Tip Shop recently.  So it was great to finally get there recently and find it bursting full of new pieces.

You will know I love bentwood chairs and stools from one of my earlier posts so I was pretty excited to see these as soon as we walked in!

No doubt a replica but I love them just the same.  So they were promptly put in the back of the car and taken home.  Now to paint them or not to paint them...

M xx

Too ambitious?

So I haven't yet mastered my DIY beaded chandelier and now I have just seen this!

How amazing is this white shell chandelier from Manyara Home?  At $6000 it is not cheap... do you think a DIY white shell chandelier attempt is a bit ambitious??

M xx

Image: here

DIY Inspiration

My love of bed heads is no secret and predictably ones that I could make myself are my favourites.   I love how they can instantly change the mood of the room and it is something you could easily replace, change or alter when you feel like updating your room.   

Who would have thought that dated vertical blinds could be used to make a great new bedhead!  

Read all about it here

M xx

Necessary Purchase?

When determining a budget there are those inevitable conversations about what are necessary purchases and what are not.  It seems my husband and I have different ideas about what is a necessary purchase and this can make for some interesting negotiations on my behalf.  My most recent example are these awesome skull jewellery boxes I read about on Peep my Style.  Necessary?  Yes!

 

You can buy them here

M xx

My Dream Auction!!

When I was looking for vintage props for our wedding I became a little addicted to checking websites of auction houses and placing online bids.  Sure you miss out on the excitement of being at the actual auction but when you are living half way across the world from the actual auction you don't really have much choice.  

Although the wedding has been and gone, my addiction continues and this week I discovered the most exciting of all exciting auctions yet.  Auction 428 - Medical, Dental & Pharmaceutical items is happening on the 8th May at Leski's Auction House in Melbourne.  291 wonderful, quirky and in some cases, a little creepy, items!

Coincidentally my great friend Simon worked on this collection in his previous role, he has impeccable taste.  It is my dream auction collection!!

These are my favourite items:

Hospital heater on tripod with extension arm

Vintage dental instrument trolley on wheels

DISPENSING BOTTLES: with polished pontils, labels, 18cm tall, all in good condition & all with stoppers

Vintage hospital trolley with glass shelves

Group of prints (in frames) of hand drawn historical figures relating to the medical & scientific professions, including Charles Darwin and Pierre Curie. (9 items)

Imagine turning this vintage trolley into a table.  Like this one here

And there are a couple of things I won't be bidding on:

Female hand held urinal!!

2 early vintage urinal bags

Can someone who lives in Melbourne and won't have to ship their purchases across the country please buy lots of items so I can live vicariously through you?

You can find the full collection and details on how to bid here.

M xx

DIY Candle Holder

We were wandering around Bunnings a few weeks ago (everyone does this on the weekend right?) and saw these wooden blocks on the shelves.  I thought they'd be perfect for an easy DIY project.

After umming and ahhing over what to make we decided to make a DIY candle holder.  The original plan was to create two candle holders, each made of two blocks.  After spraying them I decided they look better as a stack of four so I have only one for now.  A good excuse to go and buy four more so we have a pair! 

For colour I decided on black and used Dulux Spraypax in Gloss Black.  I hadn't used a gloss spray paint before and found it does have its challenges...  after spraying the blocks outside it felt like every time I came back to check on them I'd find bits of dust/sand/miscellaneous items stuck to the blocks!!  The downside of living with a sea breeze I suppose!! 

M xx

Updating Ikea Furniture

When I first moved to Dubai in 2008 the plan was to stay for a year before moving to Australia.  So when choosing furniture for my apartment the plan was to stick to affordable basics for my 'temporary' home that I could sell a year later.  Well that one year turned into four years and then we were relocated to Perth and sure enough we still have our 'temporary' ikea couch!

We've actually grown quite fond of our couch over time and as it is also a sofa bed and a storage unit it has been really handy over the years.  Like any soft furnishing it is starting to show its age and has some marks accumulated on it from our beach days in Dubai.  We do keep an eye out for new couches but I am saving that purchase until we buy a house here.   To tide me over until then I have recently discovered a company called Bemz... a Swedish company that has created covers for a whole selection of ikea furniture in really great fabrics and colour choices!

Our sofa is the Manstad model and the below are my short list of my favourite covers:

Can anyone guess I like stripes??

M xx

All images from here

Daily Mantra

As an avid reader of home interior magazines and blogs I get serious house and apartment envy on a daily basis.  As we are currently renting it is easy to wish your life away (or those fun years of creating a home!) and want that perfect dream home right now.  

But today I saw a saying that struck a chord with me.  It's a good reminder that we are just at the beginning of our 'dream home' journey in Australia.  I haven't even been back in Australia for a year yet so I have plenty of time ahead to work on our perfect home that hopefully someone else will read about in a magazine and blog one day! 

 

M xx

Image: here

DIY Inspiration

The new May issue of Real Living is a great one! It's full of bright and colourful decorating ideas and things to add to my house wish list.  But there was something on page 53 that particularly caught my eye...

I just love those beaded chandeliers and feel inspired... I think maybe I have just found my new DIY project!

Do you think I am being a bit ambitious?

M xx

Images: mine, here, here and here

Bali - Food

Leading up to our trip we had received many recommendations and suggestions for restaurants to go to in Bali.  So armed with a long list of places we had to try we attempted as many meals out as we could.  These are some of my favourites:

Sea Circus:

A friend summed up the decor in Sea Circus by saying "if you were to have a shop this is how I'd imagine it to look".  It was right up my alley!  From the chevron painted tables to the neon drink cart in the corner.  There was DIY inspiration for me everywhere I looked.  The food is pretty fabulous here too! The fish tacos were the table favourite that night.  

Sardine:

Sardine is located in Pettinget so just a short drive from Seminyak but once you are there you feel so far removed from the hustle and bustle of the busy Bali streets.  The restaurant is located on the fringe of working rice paddy fields which are tended daily by the local farmers.  It was such a beautiful and peaceful outlook.    

Mama San:

My favourite restaurant from the trip.  The asian fusion menu had so many dishes that I wanted to try.  We ordered about 7 dishes between the four of us and I loved them all.  Even when one was a bit spicy for us they brought over some frozen cucumbers for us to suck on - service!  We were recommended the steamed snapper dumplings which were delicious!

Rock Bar:

Located in the stunning Ayana Resort, Rock Bar was a perfect ending place for a great trip.  Built into the cliffs at water level we first had to line up to catch the inclinator (had to look that one up!) down from the resort entrance.  Luckily we had been pre-warned about the lines and got there fairly early so we didn't have to line up for long.  Once seated on one of the several terraces it is ironic that although we had gone for the amazing view we had to shelter under huge black umbrellas to escape the beating sun!  Once the sun dropped a bit, umbrellas were collected and we were able to enjoy the view and toast a great holiday with some cocktails.  

M xx



Images: here, here, mine, here, mine, mine and mine