Monday, May 31, 2010

Giveaway Winner!

Congratulations to Elizabeth of "I Heart Sunny Days", you are the winner of my 100th post giveaway!

I did the draw the old-school way, wrote out all the names on a piece of paper making sure each name was entered the correct amount of times for being a follower, mentioning in their blog etc. cut them up, folded them, mixed them around in a big bowl and pulled one out at random. I had a chuckle when the winner was the very first person to have commented on the giveaway, karma :-)

A big giant thank you to everybody who entered and mentioned the giveaway on their blogs and to all my readers and followers and a big welcome to my new followers, I hope you enjoy my blog and stick around and I'm really looking forward to visiting all your lovely blogs :-)

Email me your address details Elizabeth and I will order the book for you pronto!

Monday, May 24, 2010

100th Post Giveaway!

This is my ONE HUNDREDTH post!!! Who would have thought I'd make it this far? Certainly not me! So I am having a little giveaway to celebrate and say thanks to all my followers and readers, here's the prize!

The Nest Home Design Handbook is 192 pages full of interior loveliness. I don't have a copy myself but have had my eye on it for a while. However instead of ordering myself a copy off Book Depository I will order one for the winner, and yes the giveaway is open to everyone worldwide (don't you just love Book Depository's Worldwide free delivery).





How to enter:
As per the usual blog giveaway format:

Leave a comment and your name will be entered once.
If you are a follower or become one and leave a comment your name will go in twice.
If you mention this giveaway on your blog your name will go in three times.

The winner will be drawn next Monday 31st May.

That's it, good luck :-)

Friday, May 21, 2010

Bunking Down

My 2 older boys will be moving into bunk beds soon! I'm so excited, I loved sharing a bunk bed with my older sister when I was little!!! I was in the bottom bunk and loved stretching my legs up to push her mattress up and annoy her (sorry Rach)!

Being me, of course I went bed linen shopping before we even have the bunks. I found it hard to find something I really liked so went browsing on the internet and got the following gorgeous sets...

This duvet cover and pillowcase has a gorgeous nostalgic seaside design on one side and blue gingham on the other, so sweet.

I love this cowboy set complete with teepees, adorable.

Both sets are from Marks and Spencer in the UK, Yes! M&S are delivering to Australia!!! There is a flat delivery charge of £15 which they drop to £10 coming up to Christmas (I bought a heap of gorgeous clothes for the boys last December, pyjamas, vests, jeans, stunning black cord blazer for H and more...)

The bedlinen sets each came in their own drawstring bags in matching fabric, very cute and perfect to use as library bags.

Our boys will be going into freestanding bunks as we are renting and can't do anything built-in (someday...) But here are a pile of inspirational bunk pics...




















I particularly love the rooms with bunks for 4, so lovely for a big family :-)

As usual I just dumped these photos in my inspiration folder on my desktop without keeping track of where I found them. If you recognise them or they are in fact yours please let me know if you would like me to remove them or credit them :-)

Monday, May 17, 2010

Fine Dining

Not long after my first Noritake find I came across this gorgeous tea-set in another Vinnie's Store...
I absolutely love the pale blue band on the outside, platinum rim and delicate flowers on the inside of the cups, so pretty and just $10.

I haven't had much luck finding any info on this particular design, it is marked RC Japan with a little laurel leaf on the base, I have read that this mark was introduced in 1926 by Noritake and re-used in the mid-fifties.

Fast forward a few weeks and back in the same Vinnie's I found...

...a 16-piece dinner service in the same pattern for a grand total of $16! I have been on the lookout for a nice service and don't think I could have found anything even new this cheap never mind a beautiful vintage set in perfect condition!

I particularly love the delicate bowls.


I am really looking forward to cooking a very fancy dinner to use this beautiful service along with these gorgeous linen damask napkins I picked up for $5 still in their box, these retail new in Ireland for EUR 68 which is about $100!

I am thinking that if there were a few weeks between me finding the tea set and the dinner service in the same store they may have some more matching pieces out the back... Wouldn't you just love to sneak into the storage area in your favourite Op Shop to see what's waiting to be priced and found?

Who knows? In a another few weeks maybe I'll find a matching teapot or soup tureen? Wish me luck :-)

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Flea Finds

One of our local Churches held their bi-annual flea market a couple of weeks ago. I was only able to pop in briefly before dashing back to collect S and D for a friend's birthday party while hubbie brought H to another party (our kids have way better social lives than us). Here's what I managed to find in my brief rummage...

This lovely double-bulb lamp, I saw a similar lamp in a gorgeous homewares store recently but it was very expensive so I was thrilled when I saw this one.

I adore this large brass document clip, it can be used on a desk or hung up, lovely!

Yet another typewriter (don't judge me), this one is an Olivetti Lettera 32.


A pair of beautiful original etchings entitled "Mechanical Bird". These are market A/P which I recall from my days doing print-making in art college means "Artist's Proof". Basically when an artist is producing any sort of original print, such as screen-prints, etchings etc, they do a run of test prints before whatever their final print-run will be, messy or unsatisfactory prints get binned but ones that are true to the effect the artist desires or would like to keep for themselves or possibly a gift are marked A/P. These are often considered more collectable than the numbered prints.

I don't know this particular artist, probably somebody local clearing out their portfolio. I really love the graphic bird, I think the black one will be nice in our living room and the red in our boys' bedroom.

I have been on the hunt for a pair of bedside lamps but haven't been able to find anything with the character I like in retail stores. I saw this pair of brass lamps but they had huge frilly shades way too big for me to carry, so I took the shades off and left them back on the stall, who knows maybe somebody else was looking for a bit of funeral parlour-chic for their home?

I picked up some back shades a few days later in Target, the smaller version of the one I used for my tripod lamp...
... and am very happy with the result.

I'm using this large document filer in the kitchen to sort the million handouts/newsletters/notes my kids bring home from school and preschool each week.

And finally an aqua snowflake pyrex divided dish to match the large casserole I found recently :-)

The pricing system at this market was on a sticker basis, different coloured stickers denoted prices of 50 cents up to $5. Some bigger items had larger sums marked on them, some no price at all. So when I brought my haul up to the desk to pay I was given a final price of $14, giving each item an average price of approx $1.55!

I would have loved to spend hours browsing this market but we did have loads of fun at the birthday party we went to so I can't complain!

Sunday, May 9, 2010

Mama Le Creuset

I have had the loveliest Mother's Day ever!

After a much-needed sleep-in I was woken to my little munchkins bearing gifts, choccies and breakfast in bed. Then when I finally got up my hubbie very unexpectedly suggested I go off to the monthly market a couple of suburbs away for a little break, I don't even know how he knew it was on, it's not like I had been harping on about it constantly for the last few days or anything ;-) The one condition was that I be back in time for lunch as H was preparing me a very special meal, with a little help from Dada of course :-)

Off I went to the market, arms swinging freely (no stroller to push). It was well worth the visit, look what I found...

A large Le Creuset cast-iron oval casserole, I have been eyeballing these for ages on eBay but they usually sell for a lot, I can't believe I got this for $20!!!


There is a bit of chipping to the enamel on the inside, but for $20 who's complaining? Not me!

At another stall I picked up these 2 Le Creuset cast iron pots, they are in fantastic condition. The seller was asking $20 for the larger and $12 for the smaller, but when I rather pathetically counted out the sparse remains of cash in my wallet, coins and all, she was happy to accept my $25.80 for the pair!

I wandered around the market for another while, I was totally out of cash so I was glad I didn't see anything else I fell in love with. There was a cute vintage aqua-coloured microscope for $7 but I already have a black one, and a vintage Remington typewriter for $10 couldn't even tempt me to run to the ATM.

Home I went, a happy mama, even happier sitting out on the deck in the beautiful sunshine watching my hubbie and eldest boy prepare me a delicious lunch of fillet steak in pepper sauce, boiled potatoes and runner beans.

A perfect day :-)