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I think I'm falling in love with bookplates - they have that beautiful old world quality about them, plus there is nothing better than getting lost in a good book.
I'm really looking for ones I can stick into books that I buy for friends, I really like writing special messages in books that I give.
Anyway, here are my favourites so far.
Swan Girl Bookplates by The Black Apple
Little Birds Bookplates by Cabin + Cub Design
Mum Bookplates by The Petite Press
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This has definitely been doing the rounds on Facebook, and I thought I may as well post it here as well.
1. I detest cockroaches. I can't handle them whatsoever, and killing them makes me want to be sick. YUK.
2. I broke my arm when I was 4 1/2, my first day of kindergarten I went to school in a sling. To add insult to injury, I liked to fiddle with the fluffy stuff under the plaster, and one night stuck a wad of it so far up my nose, Mum had to go up there after it with some tweezers.
3. I am developing an obsession to painting my nails.
4. My natural hair colour is now well hidden under about 50 layers of other colours. Nobody believes me when I tell them I used to be really tanned with really blonde hair!
5. I love to make stuff - I now even have an entire room of my house dedicated to making 'stuff'. But I can't make too much because it's such a mess.
6. I am incredibly protective of my little sister. She's only 2 years younger, but I have abused a few people in my time because of things they've done to her. My brother in law is next on the list.... watch out!
7. I love living alone - adore it. The only person I ever want to live with is my future family, or maybe my sister. I'm not weird...I don't think.
8. I love where I work. :) Strange, but true.
9. I would love to have a son one day, but I'm worried he's going to come and stick lizards, frogs, spiders etc in my face all excitedly. I'm going to have to learn to control my fear or I'm sure he'll do something really bad with one of those things.
10. I've only been in love once, and I really don't think it was love. I'm looking forward to finding out what real love is. :)
11. I wish I drove a more girly car.
12. I once had to have an operation to remove a broken sewing pin that got stuck inside my little toe. Had a general anesthetic just so they could make a tiny incision in my toe...
13. I am an online shopaholic. It seriously is an illness.
14. I like maths, and I like doing little games in my head when I'm working problems out.
15. I was 25 before I even tried any 'adventurous' food like Thai and Indian. Now I love it.
16. I don't eat anything from the ocean. Can't stand the smell or the look of it.
17. I can play the piano but rarely do, I prefer the piano in my house now more for decoration.
18. I adore my girlfriends and would do anything for any of them.
19. I once caused $2500 worth of damage to my parents car when I accidentally backed it into the house when I was on my 'Ls'. My sister just stood and watched me do it, some warning would have been nice!
20. I went to 7 schools in 8 years - and I wasn't kicked out of any of them. I was a nerd in school until about year 10. My year 4 teacher thought I had the potential to be a brain surgeon - gosh, she would be disappointed!
21. When I die, I want to go out in a big way. You know, something dramatic. But I don't want to know about it.
22. I love the show Will & Grace. I videotaped every single episode, then bought it all on DVD. Without a word of a lie I would have seen every episode at least 5 times. I change my mind all the time about who my favourite is, but today it's Karen Walker.
23. I am a die hard Cronulla Sharks supporter. One year we're going to win.... I hope!
24. I tend to trust people too easily, but once you break that trust it's over.
25. My parents couldn't afford to give me a real Cabbage Patch Kid when I was little, so I got a fake one with red hair. My great Nana told me I was ugly - like my CPK. When I was 27 I went out and bought myself a real one, her name is Riley and she's really pretty.
26. I know it's meant to be 25, but I love pink peony's, so that's why there's a picture!
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It’s Australia Day here today! I love this
day. It’s usually hot, so it means either a BBQ at the beach or a pool, lots of
hanging out with friends, maybe some fireworks, plenty or pavlova and
lamingtons and generally just a bloody good time. Oh, not to mention a day off
work which is so Australian.
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OK, I know in Australia we're in the midst of summer, and a very very hot one at that. But, because I take time to do everything I'm starting to plan the quilt I want to make this year.
My winter theme colours for the lounge room are based on Joel Dewberry's Aviary fabric in bark. Beautiful browns, creams, oranges etc So I'd love to use all these fabrics and more for my quilt.
Image from Sew Good Fabrics
As this is my very first quilt, I turned to some of the best for inspiration as to what style I will make. These are some of my favourites, starting with Amy Butler.
And the lovely Heather Bailey
And some beautiful quilts from Joel Dewberry fabrics
And last but very much not least, beautiful quilts by Lisa Manoglesby. I absolutely love the edging she does on her quilts, it's a small touch but makes such an impact.
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The ever lovely Nicole from Making It Lovely kindly offered to do a mock up of my kitchen with some new bench tops. I was amazed at just how much of a difference a change of bench tops made to the whole look.
Nicole says 'all I did was take away some stuff, add an inexpensive rug from IKEA, three birch tree prints (also from IKEA), swap out the counter, and paint behind the open shelves.' Wow, all sounds so easy, but it makes such a huge difference!
I definitely have something to think about now. Thanks again Nicole.
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My kitchen is really starting to annoy me. It's pink and grey. So 80's, even though this house was built in the 90's! I am guilty of also adding a lot of pink in the way of accessories, but still.
You can see how utterly lovely it is....not. I don't really have much money to spend on it, and with house prices here in Sydney really going everywhere, I really don't want to spend much on it.
When I moved in 3 years ago, it was filthy and had delightful wooden door handles. All I've done in that time is change the handles, actually changing them was the very first thing I did. It made a little bit of difference, but now it's time for more.
My thought now is to paint the cupboard with laminate paint in a kind of off-white colour. That still leaves me with the pink and delightful wood trim bench top. I vaguely recall seeing in Bunnings last week laminate paint with a special bench top hardener that you can paint over the top. I need to head back there and see if I was dreaming. If I wasn't dreaming, I'd love to paint the bench and the trim in a charcoal colour. I love the contrast of those two colours.
What do you think? Had anyone used laminate paint with success? Has anyone heard of a paint for benchtops. One day I will actually replace the benchtop, but then I will want a new stove and oven so I'm holding off for a bit.
These are some examples of colours I like, I have no idea where these pictures are from so my apologies.
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One of my best friends recently returned from a trip to the US and Canada. Seeing as she was going to be near an Anthropologie store - of course I asked her to make a little trip there for me. Armed with my list (shorter than I would have liked given the disastrous Aussie $) she went in and did me proud. One of the beautiful things she bought me was this journal. When I first saw it on their website I thought it would be great just to take notes in. Once I saw it in the flesh I realised it was just too pretty.
I thought really it deserved to be a journal. I have really high expectations of 2009, so I thought I would try and get back into journaling, and see if I can do better than last year and at least achieve half my goals!
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I'm not in love at the moment, but for some reason I'm feeling very lovey dovey. Anyway, I was looking on Flickr (as you do) and these are some of my favourite lovey dovey pictures.
1. young love, 2. this one goes out to the one i love..., 3. Love Coupons in a Tin, 4. love, love, love, 5. True Love Lingers, 6. love ♥, 7. (3) If I was a red biro pen, and you were the page..., 8. If You Find Yourself Caught in Love, 9. I Love You Romantic Vial Snowglobe Pendant Valentines Anniversary Wedding, 10. I Love You, 11. LOVE, 12. All You Need Is Love..., 13. He loves me not..., 14. Crazy in Love, 15. a day at the park, another day of love, 16. "love comes from the most unexpected places..."
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Have you noticed balloons popping up everywhere? I love it. It's so fresh and youthful. I thought I'd share some lovely prints featuring balloons that I'm loving at the moment.
Greeting card from Sweet Beets
Print from Shirae
From Hillsong Church Colour Conference brochure
Flickr Inhumano
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I have loved the prints from The Black Apple for so long and I finally have one!
I thought The Red Piano print was perfect for me, since I love red, playing the piano and birds! Plus I really needed something for this particular wall in my room.
I dare say I'll be buying quite a few more.
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I wanted to wish each and every one of you an absolutely wonderful 2009. May this be the best year ever, I have very high expectations of 2009!
I've just woken up after a big night out last night celebrating new years eve in the best city on earth, Sydney!A group of my friends and I headed down to Mrs Macquarie's Chair which is near the Botanical Gardens in Sydney, one of the best vantage points. We had to queue for 5 hours to get through the security bag checks! I've never queued that long for anything in my life. We're all sunburned even after applying so much cream, but it was a great night.
Photo thanks to Reuters
If you haven't celebrated yet, I hope you have a wonderful night!
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I love that you love this blog, but please don't take any of my original photos without my permission. I'm happy for you to use them though if you're linking back to All Things Lovely, which I'd love you to feel free to do to your hearts desire! Thanks so much for understanding.
