10 pretty great things

1. Brian Ferry's amazing photographs of London on his blog the blue hour

2. Making lengthy lists of potential new years resolutions and marvelling at how virtuous I could be, if I really wanted to (very high on that list: blog more regularly).

3. Cucumber and orange juice. So refreshing. Soon I'll be making it from my own home grown cucumbers!



4. This cooler weather. Right now I'm drinking tea (hot tea!) and tomorrow I'm going to bake these pear and chocolate cup cakes.


5. Ladies who wear huge flowers in their hair. Especially hydrangeas. Number 12 on my new years resolutions list: wear more flowers in hair (image Emma Fremantle by via all the mountains)


6. Watching Seinfeld again. Classic.




7. The free DIYs and knitting patterns on Pickles. Especially this pom pom wreath. Totally all-year-round worthy.



8. Howl's Moving Castle. I'd forgotten how brilliantly enchanting it is.



9. Geraniums. I really do love them. They remind me of old ladies, Paris and the seventies combined (photo by our ultra-talented friend Nathan).



10. The Social Studio. We stumbled across this shop/space in Collingwood on our recent Melbourne trip. Young refugees recycle excess materials from the manufacturing industry and turn them in to unique, sometimes bizarre pieces of fashion. It's so inspiring when people manage turn our rampant consumerism into something empowering and socially and environmentally beneficial.

To Market to Market

Hello Periwinkles. I'm just dropping in ever so briefly today to let you all know that I'm having a little stall at the Gorman House markets this Saturday. I'll be selling all kinds of prettie things, many of which would make fabulous Christmas presents! For more details and lots of pictures, check out Quincey. Also, readers of this blog will receive a very special discount, so don't be shy!

Neon Chandelier

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While Jaimie gets all swoony over brown leather shoes, my heart goes gooey for quirky, elegant and unexpected interiors.

How amazing are these pictures from Vogue Living Australia's September Issue? So romantic yet so modern with it's fuzzy walls and touches of neon! Genius. Wow. I'd like to sip my last mojito here, please.

What extravagant, ridiculous or humble things do you crave, petunias? Brown leather shoes, a $200 000 chandelier, a boob job?

DIY Sundays: Skeletal Lamping

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Another rainy Sunday, another perfect excuse for indoor crafting. And what better a winter project than one which promises to cast beautiful, warm, cozy light around your bedroom, perfect for reading or moodious snuggling?

I am aware of two ways of covering your own lampshades using a dashing fabric of your choice. My way, and the proper way.

For perfectionists, excellent instructions for the proper way can be found on the fantastic Melbourne craft blog kirin notebook. For this particular method, you will need to find a wire lampshade frame. I hear you can get them from good craft stores. I was unable to find one.

For my lazy method, you will need a pre-existing lampshade, which is made of a fairly sturdy plastic interior, over which fabric has been glued (I just bought some ugly shades which were on sale at a lighting store). You will also need some spray-adhesive which you can buy at an art store for around $10, and which will soon become your new best friend. Not only does the aerosol make you feel a fun kind of giddy, but the glue itself is all kinds of useful for neat, sticky application of one surface to another. Think of the possibilities! You will also need to acquire some pretty fabric of your choice, and probably more than you think you need. I'd go with cotton or linen or some other kind of non-stretch material. Quilting fabric is perfect. I would also recommend a pattern with at least a little bit of white, because this enables some beautiful pure light to shine through. (For Canberra readers, I have four words: Addicted to Fabric, Phillip. Best fabric shop on the south, or I'd imagine, any side of our humble town.)


Method:

1. This slightly dodgy process (which I completed so quickly that I took no photographs, apologies) requires you to rip the existing fabric off the plastic interior of your lampshade. I found this fairly simple with the shade I purchased: I simply made an incision on the top of the shade using scissors, and cut and tore it off in sections. If your shade is too flimsy it is likely that chunks of plastic will come off with the fabric, which is why I recommend a fairly robust product.

2. Measure and cut your fabric to shape, making sure you leave at least two centimetres overhang for both the top and bottom of the shade.

3. Spray both the shade and fabric with spray adhesive. Wait for the glue to feel tacky, then carefully stick the fabric over the shade, as if applying contact to school books. The spray adhesive should make this step remarkably easy, messy and wrinkle free. Make sure you leave a few centimetres overlap at the back of the frame, and stick these together firmly.

4. For a neat top and bottom, you want to fold the fabric over the top of the shade, then hook it under the wire that runs around the top of the frame. So measure and cut the overhang so that when folded inside the shade the edge will tuck neatly underneath the wire. Apply a little spray adhesive to the wire, then use your fingernails to glue the fabric securely underneath it. Repeat for the base of the frame (detailed diagrams of this step can be found at kirin notebook).

5. Screw your shade onto your lamp base, and add a globe which will cast a nice, gentle, warm light.

NB. I bought my two mismatching milk glass bases at an antique store for a fairly decent price. They were pretty dusty and disgusting at the time, but cleaned up real nice and fresh. I recommend you hunt around for some pretty and unique ones, otherwise you can pick up fairly plain metal bases at furniture stores like IKEA and Freedom.

Little Paper Planes

ZOMG. This is my second post in a week! What is this craziness?? I can't explain it, I just have the spirit in me. Oh Lordy, it's the blogging spirit!

This post is rather image heavy (as was the last), but I couldn't resist sharing some of my favourite prints from Little Paper Planes, a great online store. This is only an extremely small fraction of the artwork they have on their site, there are hundreds of works and artists to choose from and because they are mostly all works on paper they are a reasonably affordable way to buy original artwork. I however do not have any money at the moment so I can't purchase any of these delights, but when I do...oh, then the fun begins! They also sell zines, books, cards and clothing as well as artworks, so check it out and go crazy! As crazy as a blogger who posts twice in one week (so probably not that crazy...).

A new housey, a new home.

This is not our new housey-home. It is Brad and Kendra's housey-home home from Appartment Therapy.
It may serve as inspiration, however.

Last weekend I moved house again. AGAIN. Yep, it was a real crap time and I really thought I would dearly, dearly miss our old cottage with all its charming olde worldy charm. But then I cooked my first meal in the kitchen of the new house. At the first lighting of the gas stove I knew it was love sweet love. I literally felt a little weightless and dizzy in the head when the onions started sizzling instantaneously. Like, the moment they hit the pan, which was only a moment after I lit the stove. And when I roasted pumpkin in the oven and the underside didn't burn, all sentimental memories of the whitewashed house of my past evaporated. Then there was the dishwasher. And the bench space. The metres and metres of bench space. And the ducted gas heating. And the never ending hot water. And the 'secret garden'-style ivy fenced courtyard which our huge huge bedroom opens out onto, and its little stone barbecue. And the garden. And the birch trees. And the front deck the size of an olympic swimming pool.

Bliss.

There is one small problem though. Our huge bedroom with the massive windows and secret garden-style courtyard has a flaw: a dusty, earthy red feature wall, reminiscent of Uluru or slightly congealed blood. If you knew me (which, let's be honest, you probably do), you'd know that dusty, earthy red isn't exactly the shade of my aura. Or a shade I would ordinarily associate myself with, or even like in any particular way, let alone allow to DOMINATE my bedroom. Even if, by virtue of my red hair, my season is supposedly 'Autumn'.

So, friends, some adjustment has to be made. I have to change the delicate shades of my decor to compete with this harsh colour of the earth. Or slightly rotting Autumn leaves. I realise that this comes across as a very very 'first world' problem. Ooh, poor Julia has to deal with a colour which does not complement her aura nor her bedsheets. Sad face. Which it is. Obviously. But the whole point of this post is to simply say, I now have a project, a channel for my creativity, something to daydream about while at work, and all kinds of fun DIY ideas to share. So watch this space, babies, because we gonna be giving that terracotta sheep's blood red wall a real slap in its obnoxious ruddy face.

I hope you enjoy the ride.

I also hope, even if you're just here from the hype machine, you enjoy embroidery and lamp shade ornamentation.

Maybe I should start a new blog. Am I getting off topic?

Any idea, perchance, what the 'topic' is, anyway?

DIY Sundays

xx


Welcome to a new, and probably very rare ditty I plan to introduce to Number One Millionaire: DIY Sundays. There is no more enjoyable, wholesome and all together warming way I can think of to spend a drizzly June Sunday than indoors with needle and thread in hand, quietly crafting. This particular project was begun, oh, last December and completed last weekend , conveniently two weeks before we move house (hence the dramatic difference between the natural summer light in some photographs, and the artificial indoor light of others). But creativity knows no schedule, and I've gotta say, I was pleasantly chuffed at how it all came together.

DIY Canvas Shadow Box

The idea for this project came about when I purchased a cheap canvas for a painting project and was struck by just how lovely the inside, unprimed side of the canvas was. So I decided to stitch some pretty pictures to it and use the bottom edge of the frame as a shelf for neglected nick-nacks and other treasures.

Step 1. Purchase a cheap canvas with a nice, textured, lightly flecked underside.



Step 2. Gather pretty pictures (the Yoshitomo Nara image I used is from an old Calendar), postcards (mine are from Japan), buttons, artworks, photographs, pretty pieces, of fabric feathers, acorns, small ornaments (or whatever takes your fancy) to hand, and lay them out inside the frame. I found it was useful to lightly mark the positions with a pencil so as not to forget them later.


Step 3. Using a thin needle, punch holes about half a centimetre apart around the corners of each image (for the postcards I just stitched used two diagonally opposite corners, but stitched all corners for the Yoshitomo image). This makes it easier to control the distance of the stitches, and also makes for much neater holes; I found that when stitching from the canvas, up through the card the holes came out rather messy.

Step 4. Carefully stitch through the holes, making sure you make a tight knot on the back (or technically the front) of the canvas. I also reinforced my knots with sticky tape, just to be sure.



Step 5. Stitch on your buttons, sequins or other bling in much the same way you would if you were stitching them onto ordinary fabric.


Step 6. Choose some lovely lace, and stick it around the frame using PVA or craft glue of so that it covers up the ugly staples.



Step 7. If you want to attach a bottle to use as a little vase, measure out another piece of lace and stitch a loop into the canvas above the bottom shelf to hold the bottle securely in place.


Step 8. Attach some wire to the back (front) of the canvas to hang it on the wall with. I ended up stapling it onto the side of the frame with a staple gun, which looked rather unsightly, but decided to cover it up with some nice ribbon. If you have a better idea, which really wouldn't be hard, please use it. I couldn't figure out a way which wouldn't be visible and ugly from the front.




Step 9. Hang your masterpiece on the wall, and place your little bird-friend and mouse-friend (or whichever friends you've chosen to use) on the bottom shelf (reinforcing with blue-tac if you think it necessary), and pop some pretty flowers into the bottle and the bottle into it's loop. I also attached a little haiku badge the boy made me because I felt it was seasonally appropriate, and he convinced me that my masterwork was 'missing something'.




Some other ideas:

• You could attach pretty hooks to the top of the frame and use it to hang, and frame, your favorite jewels.
• You could try painting the canvas or the wooden frame.
• You could embroider pretty designs onto the canvas.
• Try making a series of cute little ones using small canvases.
• You could use this as an affordable and unique method for framing individual artworks or prints.
  

Crush

So I have a new blog crush, Taghrid. I only discovered this blog today, so it may be a fleeting crush, but we'll see. She is giving me the much needed inspiration I am missing. Desperately missing actually.


Have you got any blog crushes you would like to share? I love new reasons to waste time!

Quilted Love

Bed of Sue Daly of Timber. Check out Design Sponge for more pics of her super-sweet crib.

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If there is one thing I believe in, it's the healing qualities of a well-made bed. Unfortunately right now my bed is a tangled, unmade mess, and the sheets still smells like smoke from the bonfire at Jaimie and Vanessa's (fabulous) housewarming party last night. I wish it was perfectly made, freshly sheeted and adorned with a georgeous colourful quilt just like this one. I think, maybe, when I'm finished with this mountain of wedding invitations, I shall make a quilt of my own. Can't be that hard, right?

My Quirky Practices.

(Image found via Blue Ant Studio)

Unlike lucky Julia who is currently free as a bird, I am enslaved by my work and am being held hostage by 'the man'. Sure, it's my own doing, but it still kind of sucks. Working full time in an emotionally draining job, then having to come home and learn about how to do my job better (I'm doing honours in psych part time over the next two years) really takes it's toll. I've no time to do anything other than work and uni and it's not going to stop for another year and a half! Ugh!

So, my recent 'life dilemma' of being stuck in a perpetual state of stress has got me thinking... What lengths should people go to to achieve their 'life goals'?

My life goal is to run my own private psychology practice. It's going to be very highly regarded and it's approach to treatment will be ingenious.

One of my rooms will look something like this;

And because everyone is different and feels comfortable in different settings, I'll have another room that looks something like this;



My special therapy chair will look something like this;



And my practice will be full of quirky decorations (like the magazine table) to both look cool and to act as talking pieces.

When I publish my first critically acclaimed book, I'll dream about using this font;

So, my life consists of almost nothing else but psychological interventions for the next two years. Yes it's stressful, yes I'm boring to hang out with, and no I can't go out to have a drink with you tonight. But I'm cool with that, as long as I can keep working towards the idea of my brilliant practice.

(Excluding the first, all images found via the ever wonderful Apartment Therapy).

What I achieved with my weekend...

The above drawing, which I am far too proud of considering it could easily have been completed by a 5 year old. This delight was a product of crafternoon, a very pleasant way to spend a Sunday afternoon (Thank you, Tara, for the awesome word! Thank you, Julia, for the actual crafternoon).

The cleaning and organisation of my bedside table.


You should have seen how dusty it was, I would have taken a before photo, but I was too ashamed to show you all how disgusting it really was. I added the framed print and sorted my jewels into piles on plates, instead on the clump of tangled jewelry it used to be and voila it looks like new (I suppose you'll have to take my word on that...). I have recently been inspired by the amazing homes and studios on The Selby to make more of an effort in my own spaces.

So that was my relatively pathetic effort, I hope that all of your weekends were much, much more productive than mine.

The perfect space

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I've been scouring the interweb lately for quirky, cheap and easy decorating ideas for our new abode, and this room has to be my favorite find yet. I just love the use of old boots as vases for dried flowers, the georgeous mirror, rich wall colour...and, most of all, the rumpled sheets.

I'm pretty sure if I lived here I would spend my days in bed writing succulent erotic novels and drinking mulled wine, and my nights entertaining local artists, poets and miscellanious creatures of the underworld.

From Bilyana Dimitrova's new book, via Apartment Therapy.

And then reality moved swiftly in...

So I know I came over all hyper-excited about the new house in my last post, and made it sound like some kind of magical fairyland wonderland marble-mansionland. But let me tell you, cherubs (in a gather near t' my bosom and let me share with you some wisdom, kinda way), I'm not sure if anyone has told you this, but moving really is THA WORST. I think from now on, I simply won't do it. I'll live in a gypsy caravan, just as I'd always planned.

Plus, you know, the house...magical fairyland though it is, has some flaws. The gas heater leaks gas. There is a dire lack of power sockets, and they're all in the most impractical of places. The fancy newly polished floors are (and it kills me to say this) almost more trouble than they're worth. There is no garden.

But don't get me wrong, m'dears. I do love the joint - it has a lovely character. I am happy. This is the moment I've been dreaming of for most of my adolescent/early adult life. In fact, on Friday, when we picked up the keys and I started moving in items from my glory box, I even uttered the following words to my housemates, triumphantly and with great glee: "This is the happiest day of my life." They laughed at me, and went back to their macbooks (they were trying to fleece wireless internet from the neighbours). But it kind of was, in a way.

So, to reignite the fire of my enthusiasm, I thought it apt to share a few pictures of some of my favourite corners of our new, somewhat humble, abode.

Olde-worldy light switches


Even more olde-worldy light switches


Beautiful, wooden doors, with lovely hexagonal brass door knobs


Wallpaper on the inside of our wardrobe

Bathroom lady on our ensuite door

Orange tree!

Pegs holder on clothesline. KC tried to remove the bird deposits from it with a bit of the ol' spit-and-rub, but managed instead to create a spitty-pooey paste. But I told her that you wouldn't mind.

Apparently this little room is where the milkman would have delivered the milk back in the olden days. How positively quaint!

Daffodils on the mantelpiece for Daffodil Day, and oranges from our tree.