More? Yes please!

No doubt most of us have seen the gorgeous images of Anna Spiro's home featured in Vogue Living and read of the launch of Anna’s website Black and Spiro.

Imagine my delight when I noted that Catherine Shields has posted additional images from Anna’s home and shop! Here and here!

Thankyou Catherine and thanks Anna for more inspiration!

Romana xx

Lordy, Lordy!

I am a busy little bee!
I have not even taken the photos that I have intended to post this past week.....lots of things on the go!
This weekend I turn 30 (!!!) and have a large family meal happening, and then on Sunday we are hosting my sister's engagement party - at our house! Aahhh! What was I thinking??!! Equal thoughts of excitement and panic trying to get the place looking respectable right now. Not helped my the rainy weather.

OK bloggers, I will be back with some pics of the little projects I have been up to, but right now, I am off to freshen-up the spare room linens and work out where to hide two clothes airers.....

xx

Busy as a bee

Got some projects on the go.

Pics to come in next day or so!

xx

Care to curl up here?

I utterly adore this nook from Reese Witherspoon's home.

It is red and green (but certainly not Christmas-y), rustic and contemporary, grounded....I could on and on!

I could snuggle up there for a afternoon of book reading, or perhaps put my girls down for a nap while I wrote some letters at that scrubby table. Gorgeous.

Spotted over here (with more yummy rooms from the home) and sourced here.

Beautiful Life Friday

It is cold, wet and VERY windy here at the moment, so we have spent a lot of time inside. Not so flash for a 4 and 2 yo, their Dad on night shift, the ran-out-of-ideas-two-days-ago mummy or the poor harassed dog.

Solution - get out some craft paint and let htme get into it!

Miss Sunshine did start out with a paint brush, but finger painting is much more appealing!

So, a mid-day bath and a lot of table scrubbing later, we are all a lot more satisfied.

And this picture makes me smile a whole lot :)

Hope you also had a beautiful day today.


xx Romana

Blogged for The Inspired Room - Beautiful Life

Thrifty Thursday

Latest op-shop buy:

daggy cane magazine rack.

Quick DIY:

-spray paint

+ colourful ribbon

= “Rainbow Book Holder” for Miss Chooken.

She requested rainbow paint for her bedroom, but I was not feeling that, so a rainbow book holder it is!

To prep it, I just gave it a quick clean to get rid of dust build-up. The spray paint adhered very well even over the roughed-up bits of worn cane. This project cost around $10 in total (magazine rack+paint+ribbon) and could be much cheaper if you already had spray paint and ribbon in your stash. Another idea is to weave through skinny strips of material left over from quilt or other craft projects.

Lots of fun, Miss Chooken loved helping make her own book holder, so definitely a project you can do with a pre-schooler.

Have fun!

xx Romana

Ditto

Right up there with Free Hugs....

As seen via Sarah's Fab Day :)

Mirror, mirror, on the wall…

Gorgeous arrangement of mirrors.

*Heart* them all!

A local thrift shop has a couple at reasonable prices, I hope they are still there when I visit soon!

 

Do you have an antique or vintage mirror or even a collection of them? Such lovely shapes, edges and patterns, I look forward to collecting a few over the years!

 

Romana

 

1. InsideOut Decorating&Renovating Vol. 3

2. InsideOut May-June 2008

3. David Coote via Pure Style Home

Steal the blue

I have already shared some of the gorgeous images from Country Living, but I have to post some recent inspiration along the blue lines.

From Brown Button… stunning hydrangeas, one of my favourite flowers. I could put a few uses to that cute shed too!

The Lettered Cottage… coffee table repurposed from an old school desk. Love it Layla!

From a lovely post by Catherine at Simply Natural (via Absolutely Beautiful Things).

Via Sarah’s Fab Day (source unknown), reminds me of Layla’s redo (above), with a great rustic mirror above the table.

 

And from the Country Living coffee-table book:

 

A perfect tone of dirty pale blue. Would look great with a brighter splash of red in it to set off the colour.

I had recently been thinking of cinnamon when I came across this one,

One of my favourite images from the book, all similar toned drawers, wooden pails, utensil crate and even the rolling-pin. Love that dirty blue colour!

 

The scrubby cabinet was on a porch, stocked ready for afternoon teas – how nice! Great wicker basket holding dried hydrangeas too.

The door and console both were painted with milk paint, the console with a black undercoat.

And it doesn’t get much more loved than this little fella,

So, what is your favourite image? Does a bit of blue do it for you?

 

Romana

Ideas from the past

While out op-shopping I stumbled across a copy of a late 1980’s Country Living hard-cover. Wow! What inspiring photos! Sure, there is plenty that is either quite dated or just not really my taste, but there are plenty of images that just sing to me. Here are just a few:

So many of the elements appeal to me, worn timber, scrubby paint, texture from woven baskets. I guess the styling is dated, but apart from that, I can see many of these images in Country Style today!

What do you think? Too dated, or something to inspire?

 

Romana

These look gorgeous!

Want to have a chance to win one? Head over here. Livs Lyst is a stunning blog, great images.

Good luck!

“Mum, I need a dangle”. “Huh? What?”

Can you guess what Miss Chooken wanted?

Yes, that’s right. She wanted to be a student graduate with a cap and tassel. (The black thing is a cardboard cut-out, the blue feather is her tassel.

I hope Miss Chooken doesn’t pose like this in any graduation photos!

Miss Sunshine wanted to join in and put a tea-towel on her head.

Yes, this is my entertainment in the evenings :)

Bi-lingual?

By rights, I really should be bi-lingual. My father is Dutch and still speaks Dutch with my Oma and other rellies. I loved studying Indonesian at school (Selamat datang!) and would enjoy taking up the challenge again. (At least it is cheap to visit Indonesia and get some practical application of the language). I have Chinese (Mandarin) speaking family members who would be chuffed if someone else in the family could join the convo.

But, alas, I am not fluent in anything but Australian-English. My favourite Dutch word is “lakker”, always directed at the deliciously guilt-ridden butter-cookies my Oma makes. It means “yum”, lol. Probably a good thing she lives 500km away.

However, there is hope!

Miss Chooken appears to be taking a shine to Spanish! And we all know how much in demand that is in Australia :s

I can not take the credit however. It is all because of this girl. Thank you Dora!

Unfortunately, Miss Chooken also has a very good imagination and now believes she can put an “ico” or “aa” sound on the end of any English word and insist it is Spanish.

We may need to also work on eliminating some Aussie slang. A recent conversation went something like this:

(Miss Chooken is walking our pet dog Zam, I am walking with Miss Sunshine to the park).

“Mum, stop a minute.”

(I turn to look at what caused the tenth stop in the 50 meters we have travelled from our front door).

Pet dog is having a squat in the road verge. Then Miss Chooken pipes up a very serious look on her face:

“Mum, Zam is doing a piss. That’s Spanish for wee”.

Oh, sooo wrong. Oh, sooo funny.

Anyone for early English tutoring?

Please wipe your feet

I love this idea for its obviousness……gumboot cubbies with in-built coir mat. I’m surprised I have not seen something like this before!  The perfect spot for gumboots, riding boots, footy boots, gardening shoes….all those little beauties that need an extra clean, but you usually come in wet/cold and need to get warmed up first.

The built-in dog beg is cute, with the perfect place for leads and toys in the drawers.

Image Country Homes and Interiors, spotted at This is Glamorous.

Memory Lane

Sometime ago my mum passed on old copies of various magazines for me to peruse. It is great to see when trends first came on the scene, what trends are still around and what have disappeared. I thought I would share some of my favourite images from Australian Country Style ala June 2005. I guess for me, these are the sort of images that are classic and timeless.

A simple palette of cream, white and  grey allow the simplicity of a cast-iron bed and wooden chair acting as a bedside to shine through. And so it is in all the images- simple palettes of colour, texture through wood and simple furniture = bliss for me.

Enjoy!

 

Don’t forget to close the gate!

xx

Romana

source: Aus Country Style June 2005

This is nice...

I am loving two things about this image (spotted on Camilla At Home).



Firstly, it is nice to see black wooden chairs with the traditional table. I have gotten a bit over seeing white chairs (either a traditional chair or juxtoposition with a contemporary chair) with every wooden dining table. Set against the fresh white walls keeps the feeling light and airy but there is more depth to the room.



Secondly, I think the overall feel of the room is helped by the two-tone wooden floors. I have been loving either painted white floors or ebonized flooring lately, but this image has reminded me how nice natural tones can be.


I also like the general nautical fell to the room, although it does not feel at all"themey". I'd lose the whales on the wall though :s (are they whales??).

xx

Give me a slap on the back of the head...

Seriously, I feel like a twit.



Please picture one slightly frazzled mama chasing her two year old and four year old around the supermarket, trying to keep them on task.



"Miss Chooken, you grab the bread. Miss Sunshine, help me grab a cucumber. Remember girls, we are only here to grab 4 things! OK, let's grab the milk and paper and we are out of here!"



(Said girls are running up and down aisles, Miss Sunshine laughing at random old men, Miss Chooken walking backwards and singing at the top of her lungs).



We make it to the newly installed self-serve check-out area and as a reward for nearly getting through my housework I grab the nearest copy of Real Living.



Miss Chooken starts scanning our items while I try to restrain Miss Sunshine from taking them out of the bright orange re-usable bag,

"Please replace item in the bagging shelf"

says the automated register chick, thinking I am trying to pinch something.



(note to self: make some nicer looking shopping bags soon).



OK, all good, we get out of there with my sanity surviving, collect our trusty Jack Russell from her veranda post and we head home.



Poor dog is going blind and gets scared half-way across the road and just stops.

She wont. move. an. inch.



Frantic shouts at Miss Chooken to wait on the over side of the road while I desperately try to shield the stroller and Miss Sunshine from on-coming traffic and work out how to pick up the dog, not drop the shopping and push the stroller to safety.



Car stops for me to pick up dog, we make it across safely. I think dog may need to see a chiropractor as my initial frantic attempts to pull her across the road surely dislocated some vertebrae...or maybe just her ear (lucky the collar wasn't too tight).



We get through the front door and after sorting the girls out with a drink and snack, I sit down to peruse my little literary reward.



Then it hits me....



This magazine looks a little familiar.

A little too familiar.

Like I bought it a few weeks ago familiar.



There goes my $6.75.

There goes my hour of guilt-free relaxation time.



So, sorry April edition of Real Living, you are off to the spare room closet along with the two County Living November editions I bought last year (yes, this is not the first time I have done this).



So another magazine I will hide from hubby....and I don't have that many hidey spots left.



But that is a post for another day.



xx

Hey good lookin', What ya got cookin'???

Ok, mine was not quite so good looking, so I am using the published image...







Slow-cooked beef duabe....mmmm, and it was nice!



I actually prepared all the ingredients in a pan and then transferred to my slow-cooker to give it the extra long coking treatment. The recipe calls for a bottle of red wine, and I used a shiraz, but next time I will use something milder or maybe 1/2 wine and 1/2 stock.



So thank you Country Style! Even Miss Chooken ate some!



What good recipes have you tried out lately? I'd love some more ideas :)



xx