Thea & Sami

While in Sydney earlier this year I bought a beautiful soap for Eko from a lovely little shop that reminded me a little of Mr Sparrow (only with great clothes, too!). I don't normally really go in for soaps and that sort of thing but these ones were particularly special because they were wrapped in beautiful fabrics and had an absolutely delicious smell! So since then I've been looking for something similar to sell at Mr Sparrow...and a few weeks ago I found these beauties from Thea & Sami. Aren't they pretty? And the smell is really, really delicious - it's filling the shop and I'm loving it! The fabrics are all original designs by Thea, screen-printed by hand onto organic and natural fabrics like hemp, cotton and linen. And the soaps are made from all-natural ingredients and have delicious scents like lavender, lemon myrtle and rose geranium. Yum!

Thea has a great blog you can check out here (or in the the Mr Sparrow blog sidebar under Places I Like), and she also runs screen-printing workshops...which sounds fantastic, if only Brisbane wasn't quite so far away!

Thank you, Thea & Sami, for making my soap dreams come true!

Looks like: Pizzas of the world

To start with, there's nothing stylish or trendy about this 'Looks Like Monday' post but I couldn't help sharing this with you! The pizzas are courtesy of Jen from Tiny Urban Kitchen. They represent all the countries she has travelled to in the past decade. Check out her blog post here. It's such a fun idea! And just to make sure that I hold up my end of the bargain... voting is on for the British Style Awards as part of the British Fashion Awards. You can have your say here. My money's on Chung! (photos of Alexa Chung from Trendland)

Happy Friday!...and confetti funtimes

The deer is back! And this week he's got some sweet-smelling red roses picked during our weekend at Dwellingup.

I thought I'd celebrate the festivity of Friday by sharing some images from Confetti System with you. You've probably seen these guys around - they seem to be popping up all over the place and are now being stocked in Australia by Third Drawer Down - but I just couldn't resist the glittery, tasselly fun!

I hope your weekend looks like this :)

 

*Images from Confetti System

A big ball of goodness

The other day a big box of glass baubles arrived on my doorstep, which meant I could put these guys together. I've filled them with little bits of dried moss, twigs, dried flowers and pink peppercorns (my favourite). They're for sale in the store now...

...oh, and also these!

Kinda fun, don't you think? :)

Shadowbox

I picked up this lovely little shadowbox at the swapmeet a couple of weekends ago - I was so excited because I'd been looking for one just like it for ages! On Monday I put it up next to our ladder shelving and filled it up with all sorts of special little things. What do you think?

And that reminds me...I never told you about the swapmeet! The early start was insane (we literally got up at 3.30 and got to the swapmeet by 4.15am! And we were the last to arrive!!) and will probably mean we'll never do it again...well, not for a long time, anyway! But it was actually really fun and also a big success - I managed to sell most things and made a bit of spending money for my New York trip (I haven't mentioned that yet, have I? More on that another day!). Also, being there from the start of the day made me realise how much I'm missing when I do my usual thing of rocking up as people are packing up at 10am - along with the shadowbox I made some other fantastic purchases! Oh, and something else worth a mention - when we got there at 4.15 in the freaking morning there were people rummaging around in the dark buying things! With torches! Wha??? It was insane! We were literally selling things as we were unloading them from the truck! Wow, some people are really keen!

Oh, and here is a photo of me selling my wares :)

Nests in progress

 

James and I were lucky enough to manage to slip away to Dwellingup this weekend...but it wasn't all lounging by the pool and eating pizzas (although there was certainly some of that!), I also busied myself with weaving some more of these bird's nests, plus a few festive wreaths, too.

I thought I would take a few photos along the way so you can see how a nest comes to be. Mum and I picked the willow fresh on Sunday morning and I made the baskets on Sunday afternoon so it was really nice and supple and comparatively easy to work with. From this huge pile of willow I got four little nests, two small wreaths and one large wreath...with a few big branches leftover for a window hanging - it's amazing how much it takes to make one little nest!

Now these guys will need a bit of time to dry out and then I will be able to pull off some of the leaves so they're not quite so bushy! Look out for them in the store soon (I only have one of the original ones left!).

I also had to share this photo of the amazing full (?) moon in Dwellingup on Sunday night...

And some other bits of news: I've just added beautiful Christmas stockings from Little House and porcelain ornaments from magoolie to the online store. Check them all out here.

Plus the much-anticipated interiors book from Frankie, Spaces, has just arrived! (as seen on Design*Sponge!) Check it out instore now or look out for it in the online store in the next day or two...

Looks like: Summer scarves

The heat-wave's over so why not throw on a silk or cotton scarf to jazz up/warm up an outfit. I'm a huge fan of scarves, it's the air hostess in me wanting to break free! Check out this adorable way to tie a square scarf in the Liberty style. Or even use it to cover up a bad hair day a la this last picture from The Satorialist. (top picture from Inside Am-Lul's closet and middle picture from Street Peeper Paris)

Rosie & Robbie

I'm loving these new calico bags from TMOD. Each side features a different character (Rosie on one side and Robbie on the other), and you can cut out the pieces and sew them together to form two cute dolls! The instructions are even printed on the bag...

Or you can just keep it as a really handy go-anywhere bag. It's a nice big size and would make a perfect beach bag.

These guys are now in the store and online.

PS Just added several more TMOD and O-Check cards to the Christmas section, too!

Partridges, pigs and pretty things

These delicate handmade porcelain Christmas ornaments arrived today from magoolie - aren't they beautiful? You might have seen them on Julie's blog when I ran the giveaway but believe me, they are even more lovely close up than I imagined!

I will be popping them up into the online store in the next few days...in the mean time, these guys have just been added online: a gorgeous bone china piggy bank, tiny glass bottles and this fantastic scratchie advent calendar! I've also added quite a few cards (you'll find them in the office) so all your present-buying needs are now covered :)

And coming soon online (and already in the store) are beautiful linen Christmas stockings, scratchie Christmas crackers and fun calico bags!

PS I'll be back with a proper Happy Friday post next week, I promise! In the mean time, have a lovely weekend!

A couple of firsts

When I left for work this morning, I was super excited to see that one of my Little Gem magnolias was showing off this beautiful bloom! We planted two of the magnolias a couple of years ago and they have had several promising-looking buds before but they have all turned brown and dropped off before opening up properly...so this was a first! It only lasted a day (not surprising in this heat!) but wasn't it pretty?

And another first from a couple of days ago: these two delicious cherry tomatoes from our garden, the first of the season. I've planted more tomatoes than ever this year and I can't wait to reap (more of) the rewards - yum!

Sunlight

This is the coolest thing I've seen in a long time. Sunlight is an installation by artist, designer and product inventor Adam Frank, creator of the beautiful Lumen. Although he has previously created several light-based installations (including a spooky one involving a disembodied shadow!), Sunlight is Frank's first major permanent public art installation. It's now in place in Denver, Colorado.

Each night, as the sun sets in Denver, a projected sun rises on a building downtown. As the night progresses, the image climbs up to the top of the East facade of The Minoru Yasui Building. The projection continues throughout the night and sets as the actual sun rises. This unique light mural is entirely solar powered and was commissioned by the Denver Office of Cultural Affairs.


You can see a video of the "sun" rising and setting here and read more about how the installation works here.

Image thanks to Adam Frank.

Byrneleigh and Dominic

 

Have you heard about The Byrneleigh? It's a nice new bar and restaurant in Hampton Road in Nedlands. Eko spotted it a few weeks ago so we hightailed it down there for a drink...and were impressed! Although a couple of its features like the astroturf and the potted plants are a bit everywhere at the moment, the wood panelling and this beautiful ceiling were really lovely! And the drinks and antipasto-type snacks we had were delicious...so delicious in fact that I'm heading back there for dinner tonight with James and my mum, so I'll let you know the verdict! I suspect it will be yum, yum, yum!

Also, today has brought some very exciting and happy news - this little guy is now a big brother! James's sister Lisa had a happy, healthy baby boy this morning. Congratulations, Lisa and Tucker! I can't wait to meet him...in about five minutes :)

Looks like: Stacked bracelets

The first photo is a brilliant outfit on The Satorialist and it inspired me to blog about bracelets. Seems like the trend is the brighter the better and stacked high! I'm a big fan of the bangle stack at Mr S.

(Images: 2- Miu Miu, 3- Marc Jacobs, 4- Diane von Furstenburg, and 5- Alberta Ferretti. All images are from style.com)