21.12.12 SIGNING OFF FOR 2012

Image via Pinterest

So here we are people! Today's post, my 104th is also my last post for 2012 and I am feeling super proud of myself for remaining dedicated to this week-daily routine. I am also in love with you all for sticking with me, enjoying the posts and giving me such wonderful feedback via email and my facebook page. Like the image says I reckon we have moved past friendship and into our own little gang! I will be back posting on January 7th bursting with inspiration to share I would think! In the meantime don't forget my online store The Six Week Boutique is open for business as usual and that many of your favourite products like The Saturday Night Girls cross stitch kits, To John Denver With Love macrame owls, and SoHi Magazine are all leaving the store on the 11th January so don't miss the last chance to purchase these, and with free postage* to boot! Here's to an excellent Christmas and New Year everyone, you do rock! Speak to you in 2013...

20.12.12 PAINT FILLED MOLESKIN

Images Inga Dalrymple

I don't know what is going on this morning but it feels like the attack of the lawn mower! Being the 'garden proud' community it is, I can only imagine everyone in SoHi seems to have decided Thursday morning is the time to prepare their lawns for Christmas visitors. I can barely hear myself type and my poor little orange boy Eric the cat has requested I put him up high, tucked safe of the depths of our bedroom's built in wardrobe. So tomorrow I am signing off for the year, blog wise that is, to have a break from my work and spend some time just being. I started looking around for a new Moleskin notebook the other day in anticipation of the thoughts I will want to put on paper in that optimistic first week of the new year and remembered Inga Dalrymple. An Australian painter, I love her work but it's her paint filled Moleskins in which she 'throws paint around in an attempt to find new forms and relationships' that I find so incredibly inspiring... 

19.12.12 CHRISTMAS DIY REVISIT

Image Tamara Maynes

I'm getting around with my arm in a sling, can you believe it? My trusty tendonitis has reared it's ugly head which means forced rest. This is what it takes, it's shocking and my need for balance is going on the list of new year resolutions... again. Anyway to the matter at hand - back to Christmas deco's today and I wanted to revisit one of the DIY's I designed for Inside Out Magazine's Christmas 2011 issue. A five page project spread styled by Vanessa Colyer Tay and photographed by Craig Wall, this was my first contribution to the mag. My favourite of the group was this really cool little set of stencilled slip covers for random timber stools that once made can be stored and used again year after year. My trick was to use super fab, modern looking fonts that gave the finished product an edge...

 Images above left Tamara Maynes, above right Inside Out Magazine

18.12.12 TOO LATE FOR A CHRISTMAS MIRACLE?

Image via Pinterest

Taking a break from Christmas deco talk today to have a conniption over this wallpaper. A couple of years ago when we were searching for a new rental house (yet again) we came across a little timber workers cottage perched on a hill. It really was the cutest thing though unfortunately the hill it was perched on overlooked the 'new' part of town... red brick cookie cutter central... no thanks. We moved on, and fast, though I have never forgotten the kitchen walls that were lined with pressed tin. Incredible!  It costs a fortune but I have got to get me some of this Brooklyn Tin Wallpaper by Netherlands company NLXL created in collaboration with philanthropic retailer Merci of Paris. They claim it looks so much like the real thing you don't realise it's not until you're up close and personal. Ohhhh is it too to order a last minute Christmas miracle...

17.12.12 BETWEEN YOU & ME

Image via Pinterest

Like me, if you've left your Christmas tree until the last minute you will possibly be looking for a super streamlined approach that will have this problem under control with minimal fuss. I've been stockpiling fallen birch branches for the past few months in anticipation of building a cool low-hanging chandelier style tree. Between you and me, it ain't gonna happen so I've collected my fave alternatives that are achievable quickly. Flat-packed and free to have delivered until Christmas the eco-friendly One Two Tree below right ticks all the important boxes a modern day tree should, plus as we know I'm all for self-assemble! My other two choices are cheap and cheerful and they look incredible. Main thing is all three have an element of creativity which is where it's at in my book...

Images above left One Two Tree, above right Love Aesthetics

14.12.12 IT'S TIME

Image Kinfolk

Super late post today, but I have a perfectly wonderful excuse as I have been in Sydney meeting with the Temple & Webster team who are all so amazing and friendly... I could have happily stayed all day! Ok, it's time for Christmasy-ness as promised. The countdown is on with only twelve days to go until the big day. I have not done any festive decorating in my space yet, which is nothing new - my Christmas tree has been known to go up Christmas Eve once I have closed up shop for the year. Living in the highlands means you can't go past using nature finds for wreath, tree and any other Christmas paraphernalia. I love the Kinfolk wreath pictured above and considering there is wattle still in abundance here along with our two huge rosemary bushes I might just go down this very path myself. Monday I'm thinking we talk Christmas tree...

13.12.12 WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN ALL MY LIFE?

Image Glen Proebstel

Wow, Christmas is getting so close, I promise I'll start posting Christmasy-ness any day now! For today though a big "where have you been all my life?" shout out to the incredible wall covering pictured above. Styled by my dear friend Glen Proebstel, it escapes me why I am only now noticing this image. Glen incorporates surfaces like no other, collaborating regularly with Mathew Collins of Art and Interiors and I'm wondering if this is one of those moments? With no information on Glen's site re this image I will report back with the lowdown. Either way... incredible. Also, loving the way he's managed to make gold and purple look desirable and snuck in a bit of faceted gold delight amongst all that softness. Speaking of faceted gold delight, check out these brass paperweights by Oji Masanori and Futagami...

Update > Glen has reported the wall detail above is actually a hung rug!

Image Muhs Home

12.12.12 VIVIENNE STAYS STOP

Image Tim Walker

I am ridiculously busy with all manner of modern craft endeavours today and am hoping this image of Vivienne Westwood will inspire me to stop and smell the roses. After all it is the twelfth day of the twelfth month of the twelfth year! Captured perfectly in all her eccentricity, this really does have to be my all-time favourite Tim Walker image. Speaking of the photographer like no other, he has a new book out called Storyteller which I'm pressing for from HoHo - as my niece calls him...

11.12.12 SERIOUSLY GOOD PATCHWORK

Image Meg Callahan

It's no secret I love patchwork. Sleeping under a patchwork quilt is officially one of my favourite things. The most honest of crafts, patchwork quilts manage to capture an incredible essence of time and place and if chosen well can look unbelievable in a modern space. Two of the best styles around hail from Meg Callahan (above) and Gees Bend (below). I've rambled excitedly about the quilts of Gees Bend before so I pronounce the star of this post as Meg's Spine Quilt influenced by Navajo blankets. Seriously good...

Images above via Design Squish

10.12.12 JUST WARMING UP

Image Martha Stewart

Freezing here in SoHi again this morning. As I blog I have a red nose, blue hands and am wearing my trusty Ugg boots. Strange to think that my sister who lives on a property only 700km's away is melting in 40º heat! In order to warm myself up today I'm talking wool. One of the most achievable things you can make with wool is pom poms, stick to a modern colour combination like those pictured above and they make incredibly effective deco's. If you're new to wool check out Martha Stewart's fab guide to different pom pom effects using different wool types. For those who's level of wool craft is somewhat more advanced and you're a chair nut like me you will be entirely in love with these Eames chairs which have been crocheted by Noriko using a chain stitch. I'm feeling much warmer already....

Image via Apartment Therapy

7.12.12 MAJOR MITCHELL PERFECTION

Image Leila Jeffreys

Native Australian birds are the best, not only do they keep me entertained while I work all day but they really do don the most ridiculously amazing outfits. As we speak my studio doors are wide open leaving me almost deafened by the early morning ruckus going on in our backyard. Kookaburras, cockatoos and anyone else who can get a noise in, is. With it's faultless colour placement, clever use of materials and knock-out plume design, the Major Mitchell or Pink Cockatoo photographed by Leila Jeffreys is my idea of modern craft in nature... perfection. Speaking of perfection, I'm off to The School's Christmas party in Sydney today to eat, drink and be merry. What a way to end the week...

6.12.12 ON A ROLL

Images Urban Outfitters

I'm on a pale pink roll now. After posting about those Casla chairs all I see is pale pink. As far as colours go this lovely powdery tone is perfect used as an accent. Like the chairs all you need is a hit and your space will look amazing rather than pretty. I can vouch for this after my over the top pink teenage decorating phase lasted well into my early twenties. Everything was pink and I mean everything. Not a good look! To the cushion pictured, Urban Outfitters has done a copy of this standard retro pintucked number. One of my all time favourite style of round cushions have a go at making this yourself via Four Square Walls if you're up for the challenge...

5.12.12 MORE SHARING

Image via Pinterest

Yes, I know I've already raved on about how I've started collecting my thoughts and taking stock of the year almost passed but it's so present in my mind I've decided to go there again... lucky you! Coming across this image on Pinterest this morning I feel it embodies everything that's going on upstairs. An incredibly powerful statement executed in a gentle and beautiful way, it's the one that I am going to carry into 2013. What's yours?

4.12.12 THE GOOD STUFF

Image via Kirra Jamison

Yesterday turned out to be rare indeed... my mailbox was full of the good stuff instead of bills. Most exciting was the arrival of an old design publication I found on Ebay called The Rocking Chair Book. As I flipped through the history of the rocking chair with animated enthusiasm, the bearer of the mail (my long suffering husband) switched off, leaving me to it. The other goodness was the new issue of Inside Out Magazine which features the home of Melbourne based artist Kirra Jamison. The warehouse space which was once an old Cornflakes factory also houses her painting studio downstairs and along with those incredible, and not to mention authentic, pink Casalino chairs is my idea of home heaven...

3.12.12 AND THE NOMINEE IS

Image Maarten De Ceulaer

Well we've hit December! Christmas in three weeks and then I'll be reflecting on all I've managed and not managed to achieve this year before filing it away in my mental compartments. Aiming for my compartments to look organised like this clever storage titled Pile Of Suitcases by designer Maarten De Ceulaer, I have much to sort through. Something I'm super thrilled to be filing in the 'to be continued in 2013' category is the fact that I have just been announced as the first nominee in the Temple & Webster and Inside Out Magazine Emerging Designer Award! An incredible acknowledgement which I do hope you will all vote for when the time comes... never fear I will remind you! You can read about my designer profile and future plans on the Temple & Webster and Inside Out blogs...