All Things Lovely

Shortbread Buttons

I've had such a delightful time pottering around blogs, but the blogs I don't usually look at are all the yummy baking blogs. Oh wow...it's a whole new world! But goodness gracious, these have to be the cutest little shortbread cookies going around, along with the most beautiful recipe card. Nikole from the beautiful blog, forty-sixth at grace has made these, and the recipe has been beautifully written and illustrated from one of my favourite artists, Eva Juliet.

You can find the beautiful recipe to print for yourself right here. I'm definitely going to give these a go.

Mirror, Mirror On The Wall

I'm looking for a mirror to go in my lounge room above the TV. Currently it's a bit bare, plus I'm also planning an art feature wall for the opposite wall so I think it would look great in the reflection. Of course, I turned to eBay to try and find something so here's my current watch list. I'm not planning on keeping any of them gold, *shock horror* Wish me luck!!

A Lamp Dilemma

You might remember the lamp that I nabbed from the side of the road a few weeks ago, well, I've still done nothing with it. I've been thinking about what kind of shade I'd like to put on it. Colour wise it doesn't really matter as I'm more than likely going to cover it in fabric, (although how gorgeous is the Anthro shade?) but with a lamp stand this big and dare I say it, 'fancy', I'm not sure what kind of shaped shade I should go with.

That's where you, dear readers come in. Please excuse my atrocious Photoshopping (something I'm yet to master) but here are some shapes I like, but I'm not sure what works the best. So...it's over to you!

One Ikea | Two Anthropologie | Three Freedom | Four Freedom

Happy Australia Day!

Today is Australia Day, and days like this make me so happy to be Australian. We really are the 'lucky country' in so many ways. Lots of space, amazing weather, stunning beaches and the coolest people on earth, so happy Australia Day to my Aussie friends.

Anyway, in honour of this day that we get off work to basically do nothing but have a BBQ with friends and hang at the beach being 'straylian I thought I would do a round up of some of my favourite little Aussie Etsy shops. Ready? Here we go.

Percy Handmade is based in our nations capital, Canberra! With lots of vintage style brooches, clutches to die for and more, it's just all too lovely.

Susannah Tucker; aren't these photos just the most lovely things? I have the butterfly print on my wish list. Etsy | Blog 

Wilkintie is from lovely Melbourne and has a cute little range of letterpress prints. I have a big crush on anything letterpress right now!

The Love Shop. Oh, I just love the name! Let alone the gorgeous prints.

Lucky last is Lovely Sweet William, oh lovely sweet prints!! Another shop from Melbourne, and I do hate to admit it being from Sydney, but they do have a lot of good stuff down there! Etsy | Blog | Flickr

Bloomingville - Blooming Gorgeous!

I've been sucked into the enchanting world of Bloomingville, via the lovely Brunch at Saks blog. This lovely Danish brand of homewares is just so delightful. Where can I get me this light?

 

 

 

Flickr Lovin'

I'm guessing everyone knows about the Interior Styling group set up by Decor8's Holly. I've been loving having a poke around and I'm feeling very inspired. Here are just a few of my favourites.

Go here to see sources and a few more of my favourites and some amazing inspiration.

Alli Coate

Happy Monday! Hope you had a lovely weekend creating, relaxing and just enjoying the beautiful things in life.

I think I'm a little addicted with illustration and other forms of artwork at the moment, so I apologise if you're finding it an overload, but I do find it lovely.

I found Alli Coate Illustration via Deocr8 recently, and just fell in love with her keys print. But then when I went to her website, I really just loved the whole way it was designed. Don't you love when you're pottering around the web and you just find beautiful websites? Even better when they're full of beautiful things to buy!

  

 
  
 If you have some time, pop on over and have a look. Etsy | Website | Blog

The Kitchen Renovation - Part One

I've finally started doing some renovations to my kitchen which I'm pretty dam excited about! I really have done nothing to it since I moved in except change the handles from very ugly wooden ones to silver ones. Here's an idea of the before.

You may remember a while ago the lovely Nicole from Making It Lovely kindly did a photoshop mockup for me to have a look at what it would be like with new benchtops and a few other little changes.

 
So, with that in mind I looked at my options. New benchtops in Australia aren't cheap, but another option for the interim was White Knight Laminate Paint. I'd never really heard of anyone using it on benchtops but I did some research and found people who had used it along with another product by White Knight, Bench Top Clear. I thought I couldn't stuff it up too badly, so I'd give it a shot.

So, preparation is key! First of all, everything needs to be well and truly cleaned and sanded lightly. Taping up is one of my least favourite jobs!

Then, a laminate primer is applied. This just goes on with a brush and is dead easy.

 
Once primed you're ready for the first of two coats of laminate paint. I chose the colour Spicey Pepper, but they have heaps of colours. The can says to apply this paint with a brush, which I did for the first coat. The paint is very forgiving so brushmarks aren't a huge problem, but after a light sand in between coats I chose to do the second coat with a gloss roller. I was much happier with that finish.

 
It almost looks like a granite bench...if only! Once it's all dried for about 24 hours, the Bench Top Clear is applied. This is all done with a roller and gives a nice protection to the paintwork. This needs about 7 days to really harden up, and it also takes away the glossy look.

So, here it is!  
 
 
I could almost leave the cupoards grey, but I won't. I've started painting them all white so hopefully I can get that finished soon. I'm pretty happy with it. For under $200 on paint, it's a pretty dramatic change for the time being. I can't see it lasting more than a few years, but when I have new benchtops put in, I also want a new oven and sink so it's a big expense.

So, there we go. Part One of the renovation done!

Romeo + Juliet

Happy Tuesday! This week is already flying by. I had a lovely weekend, I hope you did too. I spent Sunday afternoon up in Leura, one of my favourite places in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales. We were fortunate enough to go to a moonlight performance of Romeo & Juliet in the Leura Everglades Gardens, it was just beautiful.

The gardens are just stunning, it was lovely just to wander around before the show. I wish my gardens could look like this!

 

 

Isn't it all just lovely? The Leura Shakespeare Festival is on until this weekend, if you can, head along! 

Light It Up

You know that old saying, one woman's trash is another's treasure? Well, it's definitely true in this case! I found this lamp on the council clean up pile and thought that I had to just grab it. After missing out on a gorgeous table and mirror, my new policy is to grab everything if it's up for grabs and if it's not right or unsalvagable to put it back out. So, I grabbed this not knowing if it worked or would be right for my house.

 
Boy, I'm glad I did. It actually works!! I mainly wanted it for the gorgeous base, the shade will soon be in the bin, but I absolutely love the base. And, the fact it works is just a bonus. I'm trying to decide whether to repaint it, or just clean it. I do like the colour, I'm planning to use it in the loungeroom which I'm trying to lighten up with white / cream accessories. What do you think? And have you manged to nab some wonderful pieces from the side of the road?

Nicey Jane

I'm sure many of you already know about Heather Bailey's new fabric line, Nicey Jane. I think I've finally found the fabric I want to make a beautiful quilt out of for winter....these fabrics are so pretty and feminine. Perfect for what I'm planning in my lounge room.

I am such a fan of Heather Bailey, I have loved all her fabric lines. Such a nice mix of funky, pretty, modern and retro. I get way too excited about fabric! Here's just a few of my favourites, I think I will go with more of the pinks when I make my quilt.

  

Elli Popp

Hi, and happy new year!! I really can't believe it's 2010, 2009 seemed to just go by in a blur. I'm happy it's a new year, it seems so many possibilities are now stretched out before me, even though not much has changed! I hope you had a nice break if you did get to have one, I enjoyed a week off work which I spent relaxing and also starting a mini kitchen renovation, which I'll have to share with you soon.

I thought though I'd share about Elli Popp, which is all about gorgeous wallpapers, cushions and lovely ceramic tea sets. I just love their website, such beautiful photos. Go and have a look!