Wooooohoooooo: Halloween is upon us!!

I don't know how you guys spent your Sunday, but at our house this happened:

No, those lollies are not decoration - they are the real deal my friend mwahahahaha...

So this is on our corner coffee table in our main lounge area that is pretty much where any and all seasonal decoration ends up happening.  Yes, there will be an entirely separate post when our Christmas tree goes up...

The lolly jars are all from Wheel & Barrow but they are a couple of years old now - still, I'm sure there are similar items available. This is my perfect idea of a grown-up version of Halloween, where yes, there is a pumpkin and there are lollies, but it still looks pretty damn fancy. Add a couple of spooky-themed cocktails and it's a very fabulous adult way to celebrate a traditional kids affair :)

Of course, in my opinion the ceramic pumpkin is pretty much the most exciting thing happening in the whole tableau. In fact, I would say this little guy is one of my most prized possessions in the entire apartment...and you have seen my bag collection...still, there's something just so endearing about a permanent pumpkin.

He actually broke in three places when I was driving around with him in the backseat (I still don't really know why he was there actually - possibly from when I originally moved - which would mean he'd been sitting there for about 12 months...) when M and I had just met. M mentioned casually as he was getting out of the car one day after being dropped at work "You know, you really have to move that thing, it's going to break." Naturally, I said "No he's not, he's fine."

About 3 minutes after that conversation and (thankfully) while M was NOT in the car, I slammed the brakes on when a lady pulled out unexpectedly and heard a classic crunch in the back as something fell on the pumpkin.  I then drove it home and hid it in our storage space so M wouldn't get to do his I-told-you-so dance. Even though it was early in the relationship, he'd gotten to do it a fair bit already and it wasn't one of the main things I really enjoyed about his company...

Earlier this year, we were cleaning out the storage space and I pretended to find the pumpkin and M, apparently having forgotten the entire conversation, offered to glue him back together - what a complete champ!

We don't have any young children in our building, so the sugar will probably be dispensed at early afternoon drinks on Saturday with friends :) Have a ghoulish Halloween everyone!! xo

House and Home: DIY delights!

Ok, so I promised I'd do a full post on how M and I came to make our coffee table.

Background: our apartment is actually my apartment, which I bought 4 years ago shortly before M and I met. I took my time with furnishing it, because I find that you have to spend lots of time in a space before you can really decorate it to best effect. When in doubt, wait and see whether that bright feature wall, that 3-seater sofa or that 6-seater outdoor dining table is really going to work practically for the space that you have.

Bearing that in mind, as recently as this year we still didn't have an outdoor table. I mean, we had a $10 Ikea nightmare that served a purpose i.e. you COULD put plates of nibbles on it - but it was ugly and because it was outside with our plants, the MDF swelled up and cracked from all the water. We had a 2-seater very practical, very comfortable grey outdoor couch, but no table we wanted to actually keep out there.

We looked and looked at manufactured outdoor tables. I felt that what was on the market was too expensive for what you got - ugly, heavy and generally too big for our balcony (which is quite a generous 10 square meters). M was similarly unwilling to spend money on the pre-fab items available that looked cheap yet came with a hefty price tag.

One Friday night, we were watching Better Homes and Gardens/BHG (don't judge us, ok? I'm exhausted by Friday, I just want to look at flowers and animals and other people cooking on TV) and they showed some of those naff 'look-what-we-made-from-the-show' photos that viewers send in sometimes (which I now totally want to do - such a hypocrite, no?!?) and they showed a fruit-crate coffee table. M and I both spontaneously said, "Hey, what about that?"

The beauty of most BHG DIY is that it generally is something you really can do yourself. So we found the recipe/instructions (?) at this site:

https://au.lifestyle.yahoo.com/better-homes-gardens/diy/h/20417667/how-to-make-a-fruit-box-coffee-table/

And proceeded to make greatness happen:

Measuring and hammering and stuff...

That OMG moment when it actually starts to look like they said it would...

Ta-da!!!!

What we love about this is it looks nice, polished but not over-engineered. The dark timber varnish goes nicely with our green plants. We can bring it inside if we want to, if we're having friends over but it's too cold to sit outside.

The flame is actually an ethanol burner with a big glass cover that we already owned, that just happened to fit in the centre well of the coffee table and consequently looks completely fabulous. A glass of wine at our place is now so much prettier than it used to be ;) xo

Long weekend musings

Oh dear, I've been gone from this space for a while! I feel like I should be spanked or something - the truth is, no matter how stressful or time-consuming work and life get, I shouldn't forget to make time for blogging. I am going to definitely be more disciplined about it from now on. It makes me happy to be able to share some thoughts and some outfits and general musings on life, unlike my fairly serious everyday working life...

So how can I sum up the past three months when I basically dropped off the face of the Earth? A few highlights:

1. I have lost over 6kg (that's over 12 pounds for our imperial friends): I'm doing a combination of paleo and 5:2 and I must say, it is working an absolute treat. M and I have amped up our exercise as well, so I'm currently working out 4-5 days a week plus twice daily walks with our dog;

2. I have started to get quite excited about the wedding: dress, done; shoes, done; hair, ideas in play and hairdresser chosen; stationery, just about done; venue, done; DJ requested, just waiting to see if she's around or in LA at that time next year (she plays mega music festivals apparently - how glamorous of us);

3. M and I have made a coffee table (which looks fabulous, no?) and are considering our next DIY project;

I will do a full detailed post on how this DIY-lifestyle awesomeness came to be - stay tuned...

4. Some things happened: Chloe medium Paraty tote in black; Chanel classic double flap in black caviar with gold hardware; JBrand 811 jeans, multiple pairs; Nine West tan stack-heel summer sandals;

It's a fabulous long weekend this weekend and M and I managed to align the stars and get Friday off, as well as the public holiday on Monday.  We went out on Friday and had lunch at a casual restaurant - we felt like absolute tourists watching everyone else rushing back to work. We saw Gone Girl at the new cinemas in Fortitude Valley (good but not going to be everyone's cup of tea, noir female characters are hard to pull off). We went out for dinner on Thursday and Friday nights (Gordita on Thursday with friends; Green Tea for cheap and cheerful Thai on Friday).

The rest of the weekend is being spent cooking up a storm, doing odd jobs around the house, walking our fat dog and generally trying to relax as much as possible :)

And I promise I will get back to daily posts where possible. Below is a quick OOTD shot from heading out for a quick glass of wine at Summerhouse with a friend:

Top: Marcs
Jeans: JBrand
Flats: Nine West
Bag: Chanel
Dog: Leo ;) 

Take care everyone :) xo

Office decoration - work in progress

My office was redone last week and M and I came in on Saturday to clean everything up and also hang some art.  This rose is one of my original photographs that a friend of mine very kindly framed up for me. Since  I own the artistic copyrights (natch) I had her print two so I can have this one in my office and the other at home :)

This chair is by French and English - it's called the Hepburn chair and I always call it the Audrey chair which confuses the poor sales staff no end - sorry guys :)

I think a well-ordered and aesthetically pleasing work space is incredibly important. I'm really happy with how my office looks now, it's not completely finished but the right paint colour is finally on the walls and I've got some art in mind as well as some nice touches for my desk. It is well on it's way to a space I really love and can work long hours in.

House and Home: Statement wall colours

Our apartment is a space I'm very proud of - it allows me to work out all my pent up interior design ambitions. It has a fantastic layout starting with a small entrance alcove, which enters into the main dining/living area, with the open plan galley kitchen looking out towards an entertainer's balcony. The two bedrooms and bathrooms (an ensuite for the master bedroom) are off opposite sides of the living area which is very clever as it creates two 'wings' of the apartment, if you like. So it's all very private if you have guests staying and no awkward running into each other in your jammies in the middle of the night!

We went for dark timber laminate floors, grey carpets in the bedrooms and a combination of light and dark furniture. For example the sofas are all ivory leather and we have coffee, dining and side tables in travertine marble (*sigh* so pretty) but then we also have some dark pieces like the cube bookshelves and console table along the main living room wall. Décor is definitely a mix of high-low. I prefer to save money where I can (more money for fashion, no?) and frankly, some things are more fun when you do them yourself! Case in point: changing the wall colour.

Painting a room a different colour or simply painting one wall in a room as a feature is one of the easiest and most cost-effective ways to freshen up your home. All you need is the paint, some plastic drop sheets, a couple of rollers, tape to protect your ceiling/skirting boards and a brush or two for the edges/corners and a spare afternoon to take your home from this:

To this:




Work in progress...

Ta-da!!

 

We went from a lovely very pale pink/white/ivory to a bold blue that lies somewhere between a royal and a navy, with petrol tones in certain light. No, I'm not a colour expert, that's just what I think it looks like :)   I love how going for a very bold colour has accentuated the neutral palette of the rest of the apartment and makes the art on the wall really pop!

Tricky reflection shot


What colours would you put in your home to brighten things up? xo

What an organised closet looks like...

Is there anything better than an organised closet? I think not...

Shoes, glorious shoes...

More shoes. No judging!

Yeah ok not actually my closet but hey, uber organised!

Don't think I'm being smug - this is my closet after a big (BIG) clearout and no, it definitely won't always look this pristine. But I love the fact that occasionally, you can have a really awesome looking closet like you see in fashion mags.

Our apartment has built-ins, not custom wardrobes and there isn't as much or as efficient storage as I would like. I find shoe storage difficult because I don't have custom racks and the shoe racks you can buy at places like Ikea leave everything open and I find shoes you're not wearing super often can get quite dusty - not good for Givenchy black suede, amiright?! And while some go down the 'store in their original boxes' route, I don't really like it - sometimes the boxes are damaged when you get them, also it's just not a very uniform look. Gal loves her symmetry!

Solution: Net-a-Porter boxes! Each has room for one pair, or two if they're flats or loafers. Kept with their original dust bags, nice and secure and the only thing that needs an occasional dust is the box itself! Now I don't have just Net-a-Porter boxes in those pics - sometimes, I do keep the original box, if it's in good condition. This enables me to fit three boxes per shelf on the shoe rack (the NAP boxes are a bit too big to fit three across). I write the contents on the front of the box using a fluoro pink post it (classy I know) and so when I went looking for my Tod's tan loafers, I just did a quick scan of the top of the boxes et voila!

Are you a storage nerd too? xo