Happiness is
…splashing about in a pair of canary yellow Hunter wellies. These are on my wishlist for Autumn.
We’ve just spent the entire day in the garden, weeding and planting and laying down mulch and generally remedying a month or two of neglect.
A while back, I found a three-piece outdoor cane sofa at a flea market and carted it home, sans cushions. James went to Clark Rubber to source some new foam inserts, while I stayed home sewing up the cases. Olive was content to simply play in the mounting pile of fabric scraps, god love her. They took all of three hours to complete and we’ve been enjoying them all summer.
This is our back patio, where we spend most cocktail hours, and here’s a few of my favourite things:
Lime blossom
New limes
A backyard bust
Olive's watering can
Potted plant
Luck over the lintel
A spot of redecorating
The spare room
Ever since I bought a laptop, our study has become redundant. A guilty little secret, it was the dumping ground where we popped everything we had no cause to use often or, frankly, wasn’t pretty enough to have on display, and simply shut the door.
No more I decided recently (plus, we had James’ mother coming to stay from the UK so it needed to be sorted out, fairly pronto).
Here’s its new layout – the bed is a single Victorian enamelled number purchased from the Lewisham Auction House. While I was heavily pregnant, James and I ducked in there for a look. I pointed at the bedhead in a darkened corner, which was chipped, dirty and missing slats, and proclaimed it was the bed I’d always imagined for our future child. James said “me too,” and we had a soppy moment or two before buying it at the $90 reserve price. And yea, it will verily be Olive’s when she grows out of her cot.
We cleaned and fixed the worst of the chips, bought a length of pine for $30 from the hardware, which we had made into slats, and a super-comfy mattress. With the auctioneer’s commission it set us back just over $300 all up, plus an afternoon’s industrious labour.
The side table is a trusty Benjamin stool from IKEA, and the girly floral duvet set is a Queen size from Habitat – a remnant from my bachelorette days which I couldn’t quite bring myself to dispose of.
Wise advice indeed
The poster I ordered a couple of years ago from the UK, although you can find them all over the place now. You might recognise the frame from the collage page of my book… it was a pinboard for a while but I re-purposed it for the poster, as its greenish patina just seemed to work really well with the red and white.
Next weekend, we’re installing a cavernous built-in wardrobe to house all those ugly odds and ends. Hurrah.
Aiya’s crafty bedroom
My sister-in-law just sent me these gorgeous photographs of my niece, Aiya’s bedroom. My brother and sister-in-law are super crafty – they’ve completely transformed their (UK) home into a handmade haven. We stayed in this room a few years back when they first bought the house and I can barely recognise it.
Some information on the decorations from Vanessa -
Card collage: made from many of the congratulations cards we received on the arrival of Aiya. It seemed such a shame to throw them away or store them in the loft, never to be looked at again!
Ceiling lampshade: the original shade was picked up from a homewares store for £1.50. I removed the cheap covering and used it as a template for my material. The edges were hemmed and then the fabric pulled over the shade frame and stuck using fabric glue.
Floor standing lampshade: again, this is a cheap shade I purchased for £8. The shade diameter was over 50cm so I was pleased to have found this so cheaply. The original had a silky lining which I carefully removed and kept, then discarded the original shade fabric. I then cut two arc-shaped pieces of material (using the inner lining as a template) and sewed them together at both ends, leaving the top and bottom open. The material was then placed over the shade frame, as if putting on a hat, then pulled tight and the edges tucked under and over the frame and stuck down. I then hemmed the inner lining as it had frayed where it had been taken off the original, and stitched it inside the shade.
The lamp stand belonged to my great uncle. It’s wooden but we sanded it back and painted white.
Charlie’s paintings: The Phunky Penguin Series were painted on some old pieces of chipboard. I framed them using some old white frames I picked up and we then mounted them using cream card.
Shelves: the wooden shelves were made from excess stair treads from a building site, taken from an old bespoke staircase. We painted them white and the white brackets were purchased very cheaply from a garden centre. We have 4 shelves in Aiya’s bedroom and they cost a grand total of £10.
Lovely tree decoration for a child’s room
From the home of Emily Henson
I just saw this on Design Sponge – what an ingenious idea for decorating a child’s bedroom wall, or even a grown-up’s room. Adorable birdhouses… I think I’d feel as though I were sleeping in the branches of the Magic Faraway Tree up there on the top bunk.
Post-work entertaining
Lazy lady's chicken casserole
I love having people over for dinner, and with Olive so small we tend to do a lot more of it these days. Even if I’m rushed for time, I like to set the table and have at least a few minutes to chill and relax. My top tips for achieving such zen-like calm before guests arrive on a busy weeknight:
1. Make a chicken casserole: this is my own concoction, comprised of brown onion, garlic, half a bottle of white wine, 2 x chicken thighs for each guest, mushrooms, carrots, bay leaves, oregano and a mixture of chicken and vegetable stock. Brown the onions, chicken and mushrooms, then slosh in the wine, stock and the rest of the ingredients. Cover and simmer on a low heat for a couple of hours, stirring occasionally, after which time the chicken’s so tender, you won’t even need a knife. Serve with mash and steamed green beans – the only things to prepare during the entire time you’re entertaining. Voilà.
Silk flowers... why not?
2. Lay a pretty table: the fact you neglected to vacuum, hid the unmade bed behind a closed door and the garden’s a bit weedy will be forgotten with the perceived effort of a well-laid table. A tried and trusted diversionary tactic.
3. Buy-in dessert: it could be icecream, macaroons, tarts or even a nice block of chocolate. Why stress yourself out preparing another course in such a short space of time? (unless, of course, you’ve the foresight to get going on it the night before – in which case, you’re more disciplined than I am).
4. Ask for help: whenever friends ask, ‘what can I bring?’ I used to say ‘just yourselves’. Now, I ask for something little like flowers from their garden, which saves a trip to the florist or market.
After years of hosting dinner parties to varying degrees of success it’s finally sunk in; our friends are coming to spend time with us and, providing we don’t poison them, couldn’t give a fig about much else. Running around like a headless chook only makes everyone edgy and causes them to wonder why they came.
Look at these gorgeous hydrangeas Ella & Keith brought over on Friday night, stored in the crackle-glazed vase from Koskela Mark & Olivier gave us for Christmas. They sit atop the new runner I just made for the living room, a still-living reminder of an evening well spent.
Ah, home.
A massive wreath… and xmas goes pastel
Twisting on baubles in the garden
Here’s some pics of the craft projects I worked on for The Australian Women’s Weekly’s December issue a while back. I spent three days sourcing materials for the wreath alone and putting it all together with the sun beating down, then cut my hands to shreds on the wires, just about scraping in on deadline… but it all worked out in the end (hurrah!)
On the cover with Julie from Master Chef
I also made some boxes, crackers and xmas stockings for the Magic Moments feature, with the stockings making an appearance in the Michael Clarke shot. Here they are in our kitchen:
Pastel boxes & crackers
Incy boxes
Xmas stockings
I do love my sorbet colours but I’m not sure I made the pastel a success this time… what do you think? My favourite colours for the season are still fairly traditional: red, white and beige. Very French, very gorgeous… non?
Speaking of gorgeous, if you do see a copy of the Weekly, check out Marijke Kingma’s xmas craft feature on p298 – I think it’s lovely, particularly the doily thingummies on p300. I bought a stack of these at my local discount store a while back, so will experiment making them myself ASAP.
Christmas with Polli
Polli tree decorations
Just loving this year’s new range of xmas decorations from Polli… you can order them online here with free shipping (bonus).
My favourite wreath, mentioned on an earlier blog post about xmas decorations below:
Polli xmas wreath
Pompom wreath
A cheery christmas wreath
Now it’s November I’ve officially started decorating the house for christmas (any excuse to re-decorate). This wreath has been waiting patiently in the hallway for the past few days, for Halloween to be done & dusted…
Here’s my first half-handmade project: a rainbow-coloured pompom wreath for the front door, inspired by a very similar one spied in last year’s Marie Claire Idees December issue. What do you think? James thinks it needs more pompoms but I quite like its spare charm.
I bought the el-cheapo wreath from Spotlight and made the pompoms from various balls of brightly coloured wool while watching the latest episode of True Blood on telly (made much easier with my new pompom makers – love these – purchased over the phone from Berry’s Sew & Tell: 02 4464 2428).
Christmas lunch is at ours this year – I’m already devising ways to lay the table.
Ho ho ho
Fab Christmas decorations
Love doves from Polli
I can’t believe I’m thinking about this already, but I’ve just finished making some Christmas craft for a magazine so it’s got me pondering what we’ll do with our own home this festive season.
Last year we decked out the living room in multicoloured decorations from Ruby Star Traders. They have the most delicate glass and capiz shell baubles, and hand-carved and painted wooden animals. Plus sequin-covered fruit shapes – all imported from Rajasthan. It’s worth buying in the January sales if you can wait… they mark them down by something like 70%. I added them to my own attempts at handmade decorations and they looked magic!
We laid the hall table with beige and red-edged French linen from Ici et La and a large wooden platter, then stacked it high with pine cones collected from Centennial Park after the Open Air Cinema; all topped with bows of red grosgrain ribbon. Traditional but lovely.
The very talented ladies at Polli do some gorgeous shades for tea light candles which cast pretty shadows on the walls, and decorations in addition to their excellent jewellery range as well – I particularly love the kimono design tea light shade and the doves above. Last year they made gorgeous white and red acrylic wreaths as well for front doors.
My friend Rebecca had the most beautiful living wreath, pre-ordered from Seed, and my favourite Sydney florist Jodi McGregor (Jodi did the flowers for my book) does some gorgeous things with a wreath also.
More Christmas tips to follow in the coming months…
Polli tea light shades
