All Things Lovely

I Love Christmas

I am so excited about Christmas this year. I've been planning my gifts, making my cards, and organising my wrapping which I'm still changing my mind on! This weekend though with the lovely Josh Groban serenading me Christmas carols, I put up my tree and decked my halls.

My tree. Gosh, i need to scour Pinterest for how to take good photos of my tree but my lounge is so cozy it's hard!

Anf some close ups of my ornaments. The birds are probably my favourite.

What's your favourite album to play when you're decorating your home for Christmas?

Sydney Finders Keepers Market

I was fortunate enough to get to go to the Finders Keepers markets on Friday night, held only twice a year in The Carriageworks, in Sydney's Eveleigh. This two day event is truly food for the soul.

I didn't go too crazy, this is my small stash of shopping. Fortunately most stalls are cash only which helps reign it in. :)

Owl card from Nikki Catalano. I have lusted over this picture forever and i had no idea the artist was Australian!

Christmas tags by Maya Muse Textiles. They also have divine screen printed fabric wares.

My love of letterpress runs deep. These letterpressed bookmarks and card, as well as the card below are both from Bespoke Letterpress Boutique. I stayed at their stall for a long time, there was just way too many beautiful card, tags, envelopes and other eye candy.

If you're in Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane do try and make it along. They really are just amazing.

Christmas Ornaments

I thought I would quickly show you how I made the clay ornaments that I'm hanging on my twisted willow tree. I'm not fully happy with these which is why they're not going out as gifts. But I'm happy enough to keep them for my home.

I started out with some Fimo air clay, lace and some Christmas themed biscuit cutters.

I rolled out the clay on a plastic bag. Warning, this stuff sticks to everything! Plastic or foil is recommended.

I wanted the ornaments to have a slightly textured feel, so I used some old lace curtains. I laid them over the clay and just went over it lightly with a rolling pin.

Once I'd done that, I chose my shape and wet it thoroughly. I feel like it made it slightly easier to get the clay out of the cutter. The heart and bell shape seemed to be the easiest.

I just used a skewer to pop  hole in the top. If I was doing it again, I'd probably use a straw instead as it would sort of take out the clay, rather than just press it through if that makes sense? Not to mention it would have been good to have a slightly larger hole.

Anyway, after a good 48 hours of dry time, including turning them all over half way through, my ornaments were dry. You could always lightly sand off the rough edges but I actually left them very 'natural' ie I was too lazy to do that! Just threaded a bit of twine through and voila! Done.

Christmas Craft

I've been busy making some Christmas crafts, which I can finally show you. I've wanted to do this for a couple of years and finally got around to it.

I used some twisted willow I've had sitting in the garage for about 5 years (!) and put it in a tall vase which I'd added some silver baubles to the bottom of. I needed to use floristry oasis but didn't want it right at the bottom. The baubls were a good filler. I then wrapped some hessian which I've frayed slightly, and some pink twine.

I'd originally made the little porcelain ornaments as gifts for Christmas, but I really wasn't happy enough with them to give away so used them on my little tree here. I'll show you later how I made them. What a shame when gifts don't work out and you just have to keep them for yourself... :)

The Wanderlust

I was flicking through some of my favourite blogs and saw that Danni from Oh, Hello Friend has her new shop, The Waderlust, open! I love seeing an online shop with beautiful vintage wares. Here's a few of my favourites.

All so yummy!

Beautiful New Zealand

Happy Monday!! I've just arrived back from two blissful weeks travelling around New Zealand's south island. This place has to be one of the most scenic in the world. I won't bore you with al the details but my friend and I hired a campervan and off we set to see a bit more of the world.

I've never seen it actually snow in my life, here it snowed on our second day in Queenstown, was just magical!

Lake Wanaka. I loved this town. Walking down the main shopping street and this is pretty much the view.

On top of the Franz Josef glacier, we were helicoptered to the top.

The breathtaking Marlborough Sounds. Words cannot exaplin how beautiful this place is, and we were blessed with the perfect weather for our day there.

And the hills outside Kaikoura. This view is all over the south island.

It was the best holiday!! And the two weeks without PInterest nearly killed me!

How To Make An Australian Quilt

I've finally made my first quilt! To the joy of my mum who is a quilting queen. I just went with something very simple for the first go, but I'm so happy with it. A simple brick pattern, each square made up of six rectangles.

I agonised for months over my fabric choice, and eventually settled on pretty much the entire range of Dolce, by Tanya Whelan. It's so beautiful isn't it? I know this will probably offend real quilters who delight in picking out their fabrics, but because beautiful fabric is so expensive in Australia, I prefer to buy online and it's just easier to know everything matches!

As a little nod to my mum and her style of quilting, I included a little pink 'peeper' between the main quilt and the border. I really like how it breaks the colour up without standing out too much.

The wonderful lady who did the quilting used an aqua cotton so it can just be seen, with a lovely squiggly pattern for the edge, and a flower pattern for the main body of the quilt.

Uh oh....I think I've now got the quilting bug!

Picture Gallery Wall

I have so many things to share with you all that I did to my home on my little blogging hiatus. One of my most favourite is this picture wall I put up in my lounge room.

This was about 12 months worth of hunting down and collecting exactly the right pictures. Without even noticing, I really stayed with the pastel pinks and aquas, and somehow it came together.

Normally I like things very symmetrical (it's the accountant in me) but for this I wanted it to kind of just get slapped up on the wall in a random display so I could keep adding to it, which I have. It also makes it easier to not be too precious that everything is lined up!

I love every single one of these pictures all for different reasons. I think this is one of my favourite places in the house.

Photos are, from left to right:

One :: Irene Suchocki 

Two :: The Black Apple 

Three :: Lola's Room

Four :: Lovely Sweet William

Five :: Alice B. Gardens

Six :: Skippy Designs 

Seven :: My Monography

Eight :: The Poppy Tree

Nine :: Susannah Tucker

Ten :: Marmee Craft

Eleven :: Alice B. Gardens 

Twelve :: Heather Future 

Thirteen :: Vol. 25

Fourteen :: Eva Juliet 

Fifteen :: Irene Suchocki

On Your 'Vintage' Bike!

Happy Friday! I'm so glad the weekend is nearly here. What have you got on? Tomorrow my friend and I are are hosting a 'Walk for Hope' to raise some money for breast cancer. I'm hoping the weather clears up a bit! I'd also like to get down to the park and do some biking. You see, I went to Bicentennial Park here in Sydney a few weeks ago where you can hire bikes. I don't think I've ridden since I was about 16 which is a fair while! I had the BEST time and felt like I was 10 again. It's got me thinking how nice it would be to have a bike of my own. There's some great areas to bike near me, I'm a bit uncertain of the road, but there's heaps of bike paths. Anyway, if I'm going to do it, my bike will be very cute. Here's a few I've seen and like, some are just a dream!

This is I think my favourite bike, the Sommer from Pappilionaire. And they're Australian which is even better.

The Dannebrog from Velorbis. Loving the red!

And the Craighton OMA from Achielle

The Royal 5 Star from The Classic Bicycle Shop

So, which one is your favourite? Have a wonderful weekend friends!

Christmas Cards

Oh yes....I know it's only October!! But for some reason I'm very excited about Christmas this year. And, I'll be away for a fair bit of November, so I'm trying to be Little Miss Organised this year.

I love to put lots of thought into my theme, and wrapping for Christmas, and of course the gifts. There's something so special about the planning, isn't there? So, I went for a homemade, doiley and brown paper kind of theme for this year and I really love what's come so far.

These are my cards. Very simple, far from perfect but pretty. Usually I'm quite a perfectionist, but I think the imperfections are what makes them charming.

Brown card, a cute doiley, some alphabet stamps and thread. I'm so happy with them. The stamping took me forever though, and unfortunately the white ink just didn't come out as well as I'd hoped. Oh well.

I decided to use some lines from Christmas carols as well, rather than the plan 'Merry Christmas'. I think it's fun. Now just to count down to the 1st of December to post them out!

Have you started any Christmas crafts yet?

Monday Pinterest Loveliness

Happy Monday!! How was your weekend? Hope it was filled with rest and lovely things. Unfortunately the weather in Sydney was dreadful....I really thought it was meant to be Spring! The rain and cold and thunderstorms was perfect though to do some craftiness, and watch plenty of rugby. I am such a sports fan, so when it's quarter finals of the Rugby World Cup it's my perfect excuse to spend a weekend on the couch.

My Pinterest addiction is no secret to those who know me, and I figure Monday is definitely the day we need to see some Pinterest loveliness, so here's a few images I've been really loving lately from my Lovely Lovely board.

I desperately wish I could live in this home, from Tiny White Daisies

Bicycle + flowers = perfection on Flickr

Adore magazine 1st birthday party by Life In Bloom Photography

What are you loving on Pinterest at the moment?

 

Cross Stitch iPhone Case

Today the world has lost an amazing man. Steve Jobs, you definitely changed the world and inspired many.

The iPhone is definitely one of my favourite Apple inventions, and I love these new cross stitch iPhone 4 cases! Possibilities are endless and I can't wait until they're available to grab one for my phone. Now, just to think of the exact right design to stitch.