promise me you'll never do this...

This, dear bloggy people is a travesty...

An all white bookshelf. It's just plain wrong. When I first saw this picture I thought all of the books had been covered with white paper, and I wrote quite an impressive rant about that!  Which I had to delete when I realised that they weren't covered...that they were in fact books with only white spines. Which, I concede is not as bad, but it's still wrong. 
In my book J
You know I'm a book lover...and this just makes me wonder if these books are really loved for what's inside their covers, or if they're only in those shelves for their decorative appeal. Call me odd, but that makes me a bit sad.
Would you do this?  Would you, in the worst case collect, or if not collect because you already owned them (in which case I'm prepared to cut you some slack)...would you only display certain coloured books to fulfil a room vision? Could you? Should you? 
I really, really hope there's another room in this home with a bookcase full to the brim with books in every colour of the rainbow. But not colour coded...no, not that.... even though I will confess to having done it myself once upon a long time ago. Before it became a trend! 


Thank you for the kind comments on my last post and welcome to a few new readers...it's lovely to have you here in the townhouse, where the books are colourful and placed by height and sometimes category...so I know where to find them! 

my creative space...styling workshop

I went on a little trip last week. A flying visit to Bangalow and Shannon Fricke's Little Cottage...for her Styling workshop.

It was a terrific day, for several reasons:
I got to spend time with my dear bloggy friend Kerri with an 'i'. We didn't stop talking from the time she picked me up from the airport on Thursday lunchtime until she dropped me back on Friday afternoon. Except maybe when we were being model students...demonstration by Kerri below...
I got to meet some really lovely women, all of us with a shared interest in the stuff we bloggers love. And three who are doing the Certificate IV in Design that I'm doing as well. That was fortuitous, especially seeing they're all way ahead of where I'm at and I now have their email addresses :)

I learnt some really good stuff about concepts...and I feel that I can apply this process to a whole lot of things (my spring concept: 'a carefree life' is shown below)

I confirmed that I love styling and will continue to do it with gay abandon around my own house and at anyone else's who'll let me in the front door! Here's the little scene I created to demonstrate my springtime 'carefree life' concept...

... and most importantly...
I recognised that styling will NOT be my next career move. But I did come a great deal closer to working out what that might be...words and pictures in some combination...exciting :)

And apart from anything else the day offered (and there was lots), if that didn't make it a worthwhile investment, I don't know what on earth would.
By the way, that Shannon Fricke is one impressive woman. And super nice as well. Complete bonus :)
all photos taken by me

across the tasman...nz style

I really like New Zealand. And New Zealanders. Even with their funny accents. How anyone can confuse a Kiwi accent with an Aussie one though, I'll never know...but it happens...one of life's little mysteries.

Mind you, it's been a VERY long time since I've been to NZ. I was 13 and on a Girl Guide camp. That's so long ago it probably qualifies as ancient history. And the guide leaders were an item...who knew! Certainly not me.

And probably not my mother or I wouldn't have been allowed to go. But it was my first experience of overseas travel and I was hooked.

I vividly remember that we handed over $3 each week to the Guide leaders and each deposit was recorded in a dinky little notebook. My mother covered mine in some groovy orange patterned contact. I loved that thing. It took just over a year to  save up enough money. If only $3 a week would get us overseas these days!!

Anyway, now my magazine addiction lets me get my NZ fix simply, easily and a little more cheaply...although if I stopped buying magazines I could probably nip over the Tasman within the next 3 months on the money I'd save!!

These are some fabulous pics from the NZ House and Garden website, because I just can't bear to rip up the real thing quite yet. 

 

Is it possible to marry a space...

 

And then...while doing my meticulous research for this post :)...I stumbled across this site...more wasted entirely productive decor research hours in cyberspace coming up!

So there you go...aren't they clever possums? I mean Kiwis.

Of course, I don't like them all that much when the All Blacks beat us. Which is frequently. I'm talking about Rugby Union for the uninitiated...
Maybe I'll move to New Zealand. 

 

Or at least visit again sometime soon :) 
After I've been to Washington and New York next month (oops, that could be considered gloating couldn't it?) Oh well, as the first born would say...soz about it :)

decor from india...in honour of the commonwealth games

As Australian athletes start to compete in the Commonwealth Games in Delhi, India today, I thought I might showcase some Indian interiors...because, quite frankly, I'm sure they'll be much easier on the eye...

than the revolting get-up that the Aussie athletes were forced to wear in the opening ceremony...my goodness, who designs these things!! Oh ok, the team garb....vomitous...can't bear to make the pic bigger...what were we thinking!!!

unlike these lovely spaces...ah, that's better...

And to my bloggy friends from other Commonwealth countries...

my apologies in advance...

because you just know we're going to win the medal tally count don't you?

It's inevitable I'm afraid...

sorry about that...

console yourself with these lovely interiors instead...

Here's to a Games free from trouble...of any sort. India is an amazing country, and I hope it's wonderful. I'll leave you with my favourite photo of my trip to India in 2007...dawn at Varanasi...

Namaste bloggy peeps.
all images except mine from here

a few chuckles...

I'm enjoying my day off and at the moment I don't actually feel like creating anything...although that may change!

So of course I'm glued to the computer...but not for much longer...there's sun in the courtyard...hooray!!

the pacman's coming to get ya... and who wouldn't want to use the slide...at least once? Great fun for kids big and small...

and so sorry about this next one...but I couldn't resist

...perhaps it's spring fever!

Update: spoke too soon...sun's disappeared and rain clouds have taken its place...bloody heck!

all images from here

Lonny magazine makes me laugh ~ in a good way

You've probably worked out by now that I like to laugh...not that I'm unusual in that...I'm sure we all want lots of laughter in our lives. But I like to laugh at interiors too...little things that catch my eye and make me grin. I can appreciate the elegant simplicity of an all-white room, the sublimely styled tablescape, the perfectly put together, the flawless (ok perhaps not that...not sure it exists anyway). I look on all that and know that I will never be entirely capable of it...and that's ok. Because what I really love is quirk, whimsy...possibly even a slight bit of over-the-top nuttiness!  The latest issue of Lonny gave me a few morsels of that...here are my favourite bits of Issue No. 4...on-line now. 
Nutty ostrich head in the sand wallpaper...could only be improved if they were emus! [spoken like a true Aussie hey?] Mind you, I hate emus...they're nasty. 

Mad feather pillows matched with exotic wallpaper, an ornate bedhead and intricate crewel bed cover...at least I think it's embroidered...need new glasses so can't be sure of anything much at the moment...

Eggs mounted on cute little stands (too small for ostriches or emus) and some more great feathers...pheasant perhaps??

Sorry...not a doggy person...do these pooches look slightly kooky to you...and not in a good way?? Sorry puppy lovers! Mind you, my Buffy the Vampire Slayer could probably give them a good run for their money...they have that same evil glint in their eye like she does...and is that a bear in the background?

The thing that makes me smile about this next one is the fun the kid who lives here must have playing peek-a-boo with him or herself...how gorgeous is that mirror and the cute little car...almost makes me want to be a grandmother...but not quite!

And what is not to love about that parrot cushion...Johnny Depp must surely be lurking in the next room all kitted out in his Cap'n Sparrow outfit...

...and this orange and black combination just makes me want to do a little jig down the hallway...I think it's glorious...but I'd probably slip on the rug...being ever-so-slightly clumsy as I am...with the bruises to prove it!

The only reason this next pic is here is because of the Chinese stools. I have two just like this and I got them for only $30 and I know they cost a lot more than that now...so that makes me very happy...

Say no more...there is a goat in the library, bloggy people...a goat!

...and while I know the giant fork on the wall thing has been done before, I still think it's so simple and so clever...cleverly simple or simply clever...you decide which...it hurts my brain at this time of the morning to work that one out...

And lastly...because I'm a crabby person with poor eyesight...I just had to include this...

Oh, and when I said crabby person, you know I meant Cancerian right? Not crabby as in cranky...well, not all the time anyway :)

I'm off to earn some moolah lovelies...hope your week gets off to a great start and stays that way.

And P.S....the slow cooked pork with orange and star anise last night was indeed yummy!

all images Lonny magazine...love it to bits but still wish I could curl up in bed with it...the laptop doesn't come close to satisfying my need to read in bed!