Happy weekend!

It's the weekend and I could do with a sleep in... a nice long sleep in.

We've been invited to a wedding this weekend. The weather is lovely here and I'm sure it will be a beautiful day. I might do some gardening this weekend too. I'm growing a whole bunch of vegetables - potatoes, tomatoes, capsicums, eggplant and more. Some have survived the heat and others haven't (although that may be due to my poor gardening skills but I prefer to blame the weather). I might get around recovering a chair I have stashed away in the garage too. Now that I've written it I'm locked in!

And of course spend time with the family - I have a feeling Robbie might walk any day now.

Have a lovely weekend!

(Image Neiman Marcus found via Apartment Therapy)

Shop News

It's been such a fun and busy last month or so. I am hoping to hit the markets soon (!!) so I've been busy creating lots of butterflies and prints and working on customer orders. I can sometimes drive myself a little crazy with self made deadlines and to-do lists and then I receive lovely feedback from a customer and it makes me realise why I do what I do.

Some exciting shop news:


- My products will be stocked in an adorable homewares store in Brisbane called Lace and Bark. It's been a wonderful challenge to refine my products for the retail market and a very exciting step for my business!

- I have opened a new Ish & Chi MadeIt shop for Australian (and International) customers. I have had lots of requests for AUD prices so feel free to shop here if you like or my Etsy store.

- Ish & Chi has been invited to appear on Lovely Clusters which is a site that showcases handmade work from around the world. Thank you Rachel for including my store amongst these gems!

- The gorgeous Kenzie Poo has featured my products in her Holiday Gift Guide. Visit her site here for a special promotion for Kenzie Poo readers and check out some of the other beautiful stores too.


- I have had a few requests for more Butterfly Trees so I have listed a new Butterfly Tree in my Etsy store with more to come soon.

- And lastly, I am using new heavier weight paper for the fabric artwork. The texture of the paper is really lovely and sets off the texture of the fabrics beautifully. I am also trimming each artwork to 8 x 10 inches in size so that you won't have to trim it yourself and can simply pop into a frame, hang and enjoy!

Decorating for Christmas

I usually don't like to think about decorating for Christmas until December but I came across these images and really wanted to share with you, especially the beautiful hanging bauble centrepiece. Doesn't it look great? I'm tempted to try to make my own to dress up the table this Christmas.

Have you started decorating for Christmas?

(Images Roland Bello)

Wallpaper sample

I picked up a sample of the wallpaper I mentioned and stuck it up on my wall to ponder over.

The colour is more of a green/blue. It's pretty!

Inspired by Shannon Fricke

Interior stylist Shannon Fricke has created a beautiful, simple, relaxing and stylish home. My dream home.

I do wish we had an entryway as pretty as hers. Walking into our home the first thing you see is a large wall with a TV in front. Ugh. I don't mind the TV, I just hate that it is the first thing you see when you walk into our home. I've been trying to work out a good way of decorating around it without hiding it.

Shadow Floral Florence Broadhurst paper. Image via Signature Prints.

I really like the wallpaper Shannon has used in her home. Perhaps if we were to decorate the TV wall with this wallpaper then the TV will not be the focal point? I might be clutching at straws though.

Our living room, taken on the day of the Real Living shoot.

In the words of Winnie the Pooh, "think, think, think". I might sit on this idea for while.

Have you seen any good TV decorating ideas?

(Images Shannon Fricke, Signature Prints and me)

Cockatoos

I seem to have a growing collection of bird 'things' in my home. I'm not yet over the bird motif!

Cockatoos are my latest obsession. These funny looking Australian native birds have been catching my eye lately and the lamps in Anna's window display for her shop Black & Spiro are my idea of perfect. The whole display is beautiful.





I remember spotting cockatoo objects in Catherine Martin's home in a past issue of Home Beautiful magazine. She has also designed a limited edition range of cockatoo rugs for Designer Rugs which by now I'm sure you've seen as her designs have also graced the covers of Vogue Living.


Cockatoos on walls look lovely as well. The bottom blue wallpaper is a Florence Broadhurst design but I'm unsure of the one above it. Would anyone happen to recognise the wallpaper?

I rather like the fabric used on this chair too. I would love to track it down or to find something similar.

What have you been obsessing over lately?

(Image 1: Absolutely Beautiful Things, 2-3: Shannon Fricke, 4-6: Designer Rugs, 7: Studio Pip & Co, 8-9: Absolutely Beautiful Things, 10: Decorating with Pattern)

woe

cue dramatic music from guitar playing cats here...

my poor little bub is sick. my husband is now too. my fridge is empty. my hair needs a cut. my left shift key doesn't work and it feels unnatural to use the right shift key.

need sleep. tomorrow will make things better.

thank you for your beautiful comments and emails over the last few days. they always make me smile.

image miles aldridge from here

Decorating differences and influences

I have been enjoying our home lately and have been ignoring the big list of projects I need to do. It's been rather refreshing!

Looking around our home I can see a lot of my style and influence and also that of my husband's. It's nice to see our mix of tastes and how our home has come together. I can also see the changes we have made to our home since our son was born - baby proofing, moving breakables up high and out of reach of curious hands etc. Our home will probably keep changing and evolving as our tastes change and our family grows so it is probably a good idea to take our time 'finishing' off our home and crossing off that to-do list.

When we first moved in we made quick, rushed decisions and now that the dust has literally settled, our decisions are better thought out and planned. My husband trusts and likes most of my decorating style. I enjoy bouncing ideas off him and talking with him about how he imagines a space to look and function. Although I mainly write about my decorating preferences on this blog, I always involve my husband since I want to create a home that our family will feel comfortable living in. I sometimes wonder what our homes would look like if we lived alone! Along the way, it has been interesting to see the differences in our tastes and how we have overcome them. It's something I have been thinking about lately and I hope you don't mind me sharing.

We have found that our decorating preferences have been greatly influenced by the homes we grew up in. For example, my husband likes leather lounges. His parents owned a leather lounge for many years and still do. My parents preferred upholstered lounges and I suppose that is where my love of upholstered furniture comes from. When my husband and I moved in together, one of the first major purchases for our home was a lounge and the topic of leather versus fabric was raised. We decided on leather since we knew we would one day have children and spills and marks can be easily wiped off leather.

Another major decision was whether to lay carpet in the bedrooms. I love the feel of carpet underfoot but I grew up in a home with floorboards throughout whereas my husband grew up in a home with carpeted bedrooms. We decided to polish the existing floorboards and pop rugs in the bedrooms because it was the cheapest option at the time.

Have you experienced differences in decorating styles with the people you live with and how have you handle these differences? Are you also influenced by the style of your childhood home?

Lots of questions! I would love to know your thoughts.

French caricatures

I just couldn't resist these french caricatures and their adorable harlequin outfits which I found and won on eBay. The series of four are meant to be displayed together and each have the following text on them: La Rencontre, Laveu, Confidences, Ju'elle est belle. Are there any french speakers that can translate this for me?


I think they would look cute in Robert's room but there is not much wall space left aside from this wall and I rather like the look of the wallpaper with no art hanging on top of it. Off to storage I think until more walls magically appear.

ETA: Thanks @chinchincheroo for tweeting that they translate to "the meeting, confession, trust/share secrets, how she's pretty!"

The circus comes to Peter Alexander

Peter Alexander's catalogues are always fun to look through, don't you think? His latest one is adorable and circus themed which you know is right up my alley!

Above are my picks. Check out the full range here.

Meanwhile let's talk Christmas shopping. I know, I know it is still November! I can never manage to get my act together until the week before Christmas. Nothing can tempt me to start earlier - not the store decorations that are already out or the pre-Christmas sales. Not even my local post office that has been counting down the days to Christmas for a few months now.

When do you start your Christmas shopping or have you already started?

(Images copyright Peter Alexander)

A glamorous greenhouse

I came across these images from Country Living a while back but I've been thinking about what to do with the large chandelier so I dug these images up again to have another look.

I've been spending lots of time in the garden lately. How nice would it feel to unwind after a day of gardening in a glamorous space such as this? One can dream I suppose.

Tell me about your weekend. Was it a relaxing or busy one?

(Images Country Living)

Free hugs

Oh look! Bright and cheery. Exactly what I need right now. I was given some bad & thankful good news today about someone dear to me. The bad news turned into good news so no need to worry! I'm just incredibly thankful it all turned out okay.

This weekend I'm going to spend it hugging everyone that is dear to me and maybe even people I might meet for the first time this weekend. I'm going to be like that free hugs guy.

Take care friends and see you next week!

(Beautiful images by Catherine Ledner. More of her work that are sure to make you smile can be seen here.)

Frills, feathers, sequins & dots

I confess. I've been shopping over at ASOS today. When I shop online I tend to fill up my shopping cart full of goodies I like from a site and then whittle down the items slowly. These are currently sitting in my shopping cart - some I would love to own and wear and others I just like to look at.

Have you got anything in online shopping carts right now?

All Images ASOS.
Top row: ASOS Wiggle Hem Dress, ASOS Vintage Style Sequin And Beaded Outline Butterfly Headband, ASOS BLACK Feather Cape.
Bottom row:Reiss Akira Button Detail One Shoulder Silk Top, ASOS Iridescent Feather Clutch, Reiss Nyasia Feather Jacket With Belt

Melbourne Cup

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I missed the Melbourne Cup this year. They call it "the race that stops a nation" but it didn't stop me. I was pottering around the house and just lost track of the time. I forgot to bet as well. It's probably a good thing though because I never win.

Did you win or have you ever won at the races?

(Images by photographer Chris Colls found here)

Paper lanterns and pom poms (+ shop update)

Today I'm enjoying paper lanterns and pom poms clustered together as shown in these beautiful rooms and the colours are just lovely. I never thought I would be but I'm really into tangerine shades at the moment which is why I chose this tangerine coloured fabric to make a nice new Butterfly for my store.

And look! Flowers from plants in my garden that I haven't killed yet!!

Back to pom poms, I decorated with them for my son's baby shower and they are really simple to make. Instructions can be found here. I'm thinking of making a few to hang next time we have friends over for dinner just for something fun.

Hope your weekend was lovely and relaxing.


(Images Design*Sponge, Swish and Swanky, Ish & Chi)