Birthday celebrations

Another year older this week. My sister E put a lot of effort into wrapping my presents, and they were very enjoyable to unwrap! I love the simplicity of the brown paper, and E has found a source of recycled brown paper.


I have an excellent tea trio to add to my growing collection, a sewing project and a lovely vase.


I have also been spoiled with some bubble bath. I love taking a bath and relaxing in the warm water.


Some goodies for me to get creative. I get the feeling that my friends want me to make them some cupcakes!

Continuing on the food theme I have also been gifted a subscription to Donna Hay Magazine and some awesome noodle bowls. Mum & Dad have said that they will contribute towards the camera that I have my eye on.

Thank you to everyone who has helped me to celebrate, I feel very spoiled this week!

So far - My blue teaset!

A fuzzy photo of my "in progress" tea set.

This teapot, with my two blue Dibbern teacup+saucer+plate sets.

I used it yesterday, and got three cups of tea out of the teapot! Next on the list for the collection is sugar bowl and milk jug. Watch out!

Stylish scarves

This stylish neck art is made by Perth seller PLUmFISh.

I do love the different textures and the variety of clours and shades that she uses. Winter is coming (according to my calendar) and these would pieces would stand out over the drab black that is so prevalent.

Photos from PLUmFISh' Etsy store

Chooks!

One of my neighbours has a most penetrating voice. It brings me in mind of a chook screeching. You get the idea. I went in search of an image of a chook to illustrate the point and came up with this gem! These oh-so-cute chooks have a practical purpose - keeping your doors open (or shut).

Refab are a UK company who use vintage and reclaimed fabrics to make cool chicken doorstops, snake draught excluders and mice toys for your moggie.

Images from Refab

Precious Jewels

Local Perth seller Killer Jewels has some lovely pieces. Handmade resin flowers and Swarovski crystals are a theme through most of the collection and you can find many a striking pretty statement piece.

Photos from KillerJewell's Etsy store.

Inuk sneak preview

I ordered a couple of items from Inuk Designs and they arrived yesterday. I was so excited to receive them. They were both wrapped in tissue paper and placed into a lovely cloth bag! The items are organic cotton with a hand stitched detail.

Both items are gifts so I will post photos once they have been received. For now, enjoy the packaging.

The PostPak bag that they were posted in was made of 100% recycled paper, another nice touch.

Table dressing

Our friends L&C wished to give C and me something extra special as an engagement gift. The brief was for something that we would look at and go "How cool! L&C have great taste and gave us that as a gift". (Or something like that.)

As the date of our party approached I managed to have less and less interesting ideas - apart from the fact that I love the Mud Australia products! - and in the end my suggestion of a voucher to a funky homewares store was taken up.

We received a voucher from Monde in Claremont, that being very much a funky homewares store and somewhere to buy Mud Australia. They have lots of cool and interesting pieces, including Alessi, Mud Australia and Chilewich to name a few.

I have long been an admirer of the Chilewich tableware, however the cost of them has meant that any purchase is deferred until I could justify the expense. Suddenly, I had a very good excuse to spend some money and buy some placemats!

Initially we purchased rectangular placemats in the Bamboo style, Pepper coloured. Once we got them home however and arranged them on our square table we realised that they were too large - the edges overlapped! I also thought a darker colour would look more effective against the jarrah. C went back to the store and they were happy to exchange them for Smoke coloured square placemats.

So now we have some trendy placemats and we can think of L&C whenever we dress our table up with them.

Thank you!

Unwrapped South Perth

I was disappointed that I could not make the Unwrapped market in South Perth a few weekends ago, we were down south in Dunsborough for a wedding.

I did a search to see if anyone had written about the markets, and the only review that I could easily find was from Style Discovery.

It seems that everyone wanted to write that it was happening, and noone has taken the time to write about how good it was!!

My sister went along, and she has picked up some cards from Vendors who she thought I would like; I think that they are mainly wedding related.

According to their website, the next market is not until September!! So long to wait!!

Surprise purses!

I am currently keen on clutches. I used my Litle Tea Party clutch for the first time tonight, and thought I would see what else was out there on MadeIt.

Woollongong seller Seventh Sphere uses some funky fabrics. I love the contrast of the lining, definitely a surprise when you open the purse!


Victorian seller Nellie's Purses uses more retro fabrics. Some beautiful prints and also a surprise inside!


More later.

New camera...

I checked out a few cameras today. I went to Plaza Cameras and spoke to the very helpful Harry!

I saw the Olympus mju-8000 and mju-8010, as well as the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FT1 and DMC-TR7. I really liked the DMC-TR7, and when I did some investigating online, I realised that there was a new version!!

So, the Panasonic DMC-TR10 is my favourite at the moment! It's made in Japan (always a plus) and has a Leica lens, 12x optical zoom and lots and lots of megapixels.

My current camera is an Olympus mju-300 that I bought back in 2003 before I went over to Europe. It has served me well - and indeed still serves me! - however I am after a camera that will better compensate for my lack of talent when it comes to photography - low light situations and sharper focus.

Image from Panasonic

I heart felt!

I saw B&M felt at the Unwrapped Market in Leederville just before Christmas. I really liked their felt product, and at the time was extra keen to get some for our table as a centrepiece. I thought that the Pepper colour would look good as well as being practical, but they did not have any in stock in 3mm.

Time ticked on and C's sister K gave us table clothes as a Christmas gift - tablecloth in RED with matching napkins, and square place mats made of small plastic discs held together with fishing wire. The urge for FELT subsided somewhat.

I would still like some! They have eight new colours on offer, so even more colours to get confused over. They are also opening up a shop in Fremantle in a few weeks, read here for details.

Until then, check out their store.

Photo from B&M Felt Blog

Tea cosies

Thea & Sami have combined two of my favourite things - a pot of hot tea and lovely linens!

Ink and Spindle Sale!!

Melbourne screen-printing studio Ink & Spindle are having a sale! Check out their funky fabrics.

I already have some Ink & Spindle cushions and fabrics. I love their fabrics, prints and colours!

Puzzles

These Puzzleboards are so cool! They are by Dutch design company OOOMS.

I like the fact that they are functional and funky, they can be used as a chopping board or also as a plate for canapes. Guests can hold their plate and their wine glass safely and have a spare hand to eat with!

The downside that I can see is that the timber might make these boards quite heavy, so I am not sure how practical it would be to use them so without testing them out!

Images from OOOMS, thanks to Apartment Therapy.

More cool tees!

I really love kids tees and onesies with appliqued cuties on the front! Local Perth seller Inuk Designs makes these beautiful tees from bamboo, organic cotton and upcycled materials. You can purchase locally and know that the fabrics are prepared in a sustainable manner.

Images from Inuk Design's Etsy shop.