Can anyone help?

A while ago I saved this image from over at the lovely Decor8 blog. I pulled it up recently and have fallen in love with the plates! Does anyone know who makes them? I seriously need to get my hands on some!!

Last year hubbie and I were trying to decide on a nice new "grown-up" dinner set. We looked at all sorts of sets but couldn't commit to one. Whilst holidaying in New York we popped into Yves Delorme on Madison Ave and got chatting to the ever so lovely sales assistant. During our conversation we explained our predicament regarding the dinner set (might have been spurred on by one of their gorgeous sets which said hubbie wouldn't let me bring home...). Anyway, he very helpfully suggested an idea that we loved - start with a plain white base and then add in different coloured pieces to suit different occasions. And that my friend, is what we did... (are doing more like it). We haven't as yet started adding pieces. I thought these plates might make a nice first edition. What do you think?

I would love to buy 8 dinner plates, or bread and butter plates (not sure what their official title is???). They would go perfectly with the rest of the set, and would add such a nice drop of colour and style to our next dinner party.

If you know where I can get my hands on some, or who makes them - I would be ever so grateful!

I'm in LOVE

with my new chair!

Whilst out shopping for a desk the other week I stumbled across this gorgeous Mulberry fabric chair! I couldn't resist entering the shop and enquiring as to the price (I know, I am a sucker)! I was totally swept away when the sales assistant told me that I could have the display one for $4,000 HKD (that's about $580 AUD and $515 USD). To give you an idea of what a bargain that was, if I ordered a new one it would have cost about $14,ooo HKD ($2,000 AUD or $1,800 USD).

To be honest, by this stage I had totally fallen in love with the chair so I don't suppose it would have mattered how much she said it was. The fact that it was a bargain only reinforced my decision that I had to have it {and allowed me to feel a little better about the impulse purchase}. I did run it past Will first, but thankfully he agreed that it was too good a deal to refuse {don't I have the best husband eva!}

I had been searching for inspiration for our bedroom since we moved into our apartment last year. My original intention was to put it in the bedroom, and use it as a base for decorating the rest of the room. Whilst I still intend to do that {at some point}, the delivery guys placed it in our living room, and boy does it look good! It hasn't yet made it's way into the bedroom, but I figure it deserves a little centre stage attention!

When I grow up...

...i want to own a big house that has lots of bright open spaces like this! I LOVE the feel of this room (just by looking at the pic you can sense the feeling you would have sitting in there can't you!).

I say when I grow up, cause although some would consider that I may have already reached this point, I never feel as though I have. I still feel like the young carefree gal who's off on an overseas jaunt, escaping reality and living the high life.

One day we will have to pack our bags and head home, and when we do, I am definitely going to ensure that my grown up life is spent in rooms like this!

Image from Coastal Living mag via Beach Vintage blog

Christmas decorations

We have been busy decorating the apartment these past few days ready for our Christmas lunch tomorrow. We have 13 of our nearest and dearest peeps coming round for Christmas dinner.

I even managed to get Will involved this year, although admittedly his involvement was inspired by the fact that his tasks all had to do with alcohol, buy the brandy, make the rum balls, brew the mulled wine, etc. etc. Luckily I found some Bundaberg rum for his rum balls (he wasn't that interested in making them before I found this - they just aren't proper rum balls without Bundy rum he said!)

Last night whilst we did some preps for the lunch, we watched Miracle on 34th Street! Now isn't that the sweetest Christmas movie eva.

How are your Christmas preps coming along?

We (well lets be honest, "I") had originally chosen a blue & silver theme for Christmas this year. After making this decision though, I found all of our gorgeous pink, red and green Chrissy decorations and just couldn't bear to keep them in their boxes. So, this year we have a mix match of blue & silver, red and green - and of course, some pink too!

PS. You know the pic I showed you last week of the purple Asiatic lillies which hadn't yet bloomed, well that's them in the first picture - not purple at all! Strange hey...

Brown Button can you help?

I recently purchased a selection of these gorgeous flowery painted metal tumblers from Brown Button Trading.

Now I have seen these and I want them too!!!

Brown Button can you help ?

Image from Joyful Living Blog (go check it out!)

My [not so new] lamp

Now you can see why I want the pink antique Chinese stool - it would match perfectly with the [not so new] lamp my lovely husband gave me for my Birthday this year.

You see, the lamp should be fairly new seeing as though my birthday is in September, but the problem was he bought it a while before my birthday and couldn't resist giving it to me early...ok, so the truth is, I couldn't let it sit in the cupboard any longer and convinced him that I could have it early. You can see why though can't you?

Squeal!!

I am totally coveting this pink antique Chinese stool which appeared on Anna Spiro's fabulous blog a while back.

Living in Hong Kong you would think I would be able to lay my hands on one (just one!), but do you think I have been able to find any!! We have millions of the blue and white ones (which I confess I may already own), but none as pretty as this. Think I might have to print a pic and get my sources onto it.

It would go perfectly with my lamp - ohhh - I haven't shown you a picture of my lamp yet have I? Let me do that right now.

Divine Intervention

I don't know if it was divine intervention (I think god knew I couldn't handle another brownie failure), or just plain luck, but yesterday morning when I arrived at work there was an email in my inbox notifying me that the cake bake had been cancelled. Can you believe it!

Consequently I got to spend my evening finishing off some card projects (I have a friends baby shower on the weekend and another friends birthday) with no stress, tears, or tantrums! Fabulous.

I know this image has nothing to do with divine intervention, cake bakes, or brownies, but I just wanted to share it with you because I love it so much. I wish I could spend my weekend lazing about on that bed in the middle of a big green paddock.

Image from here

My big project

As you may know, we moved into a bigger apartment a few months ago and I now have a designated "craft" room (Will thinks it's his study, but that's just because the decorating hasn't started yet...)!

Herein lies my dilemma. As I am starting from scratch with the decorating, I have a clean palette to work from. Whilst this is great, I can't seem to commit to a design/layout/colour etc.

Consequently, I now have an empty craft room which I haven't been able to use for 3 months! In fact, my dining room table is currently hidden under crafting supplies which I haven't managed to put away since the weekend. And you can imagine how impressed Will is about that, especially given the fact that we got a 3 bedroom apartment for this very purpose!

I think I am steering towards white furniture - I have been looking through millions of pics on the web for inspiration and the ones I love all seem to be white. I think it's because it's such a clean palette and it really highlights all the colourful crafty things that will be shoved in there. This is a little bit of a change for me as our house is full of timber furniture and I naturally thought that the craft room would be too. Now I am thinking that timber is too dark, and I want the space to be light and colourful.

I also want to ensure that the set up is as user friendly as possible. I want to be able to access all of my supplies quickly and easily - although I don't want it to look messy. I was tempted to go for cupboards with doors, but then I wonder if this will be a pain when you want to grab something quickly... I also want to make sure that all of the things I use frequently are in arms reach - hmmmm.

I know it's a nice dilemma to have, but it is really frustrating and I want it to be over ALREADY! I just want to be able to walk into a perfectly fitted out craft room and start crafting.

Anyone have any good ideas?

Image from here

Top of the morning to you

Don't you just LOVE Saturday mornings!

It's my favourite time of the week. I love the moment when I first wake up and realise that it's not a work day and I am free free free to do whatever I like. It's like a rush of adrenaline...

I have to confess that whilst I love my husband to bits, he usually works Saturday mornings (one of the bad things about living in Hong Kong) so I get a whole morning of 'ME' time. I totally cherish this time, and always like to spend it doing something I love. Usually that involves taking CoCo to the park for a play whilst I sit sipping coffee and reading my latest mag (today I will be reading the new Red* that's out) and then doing something creative.

This week after the park, I want to get moving on my Christmas cards (yikes I have about 80 to make!) and Christmas decorations. I am also embarking on a little project, which I will tell you about anon.

I do wish I could spend the day in the garden pictured above though - isn't it divine!! Imagine the gorgeous lunches/tea parties that you could host in this space! Not to mention a lazy relaxing afternoon reading a book up the back with a nic glass of rose. Now I am dreaming, one day...

However you spend your weekend, make sure it's a good one!

Ciao for now
xox

* For those who haven't heard of Red (not sure how widely distributed it is in Oz?), it is a fantastic mag filled with interesting and inspirational stories for women about my age;-) That adorable husband I mentioned just before happened to buy me a subscription for Chrissy a few years back and I am totally addicted. It doesn't contain all of those crappy stories that you just aren't interested in, or can't relate to - they are real life, down to earth honest stories about REAL women. I would highly recommend you sampling an issue if you haven't already. Let me know if you like it!

I'm truly sorry I can't remember where this image came from - if it's yours please let me know.

My new spoons

Aren't they gorgeous!

I purchased them over at Brown Button Trading which is the fabulous on-line store owned by the lovely Kimberlee from Brown Button. She has put together a little shop showcasing a few of her favourite things. To give you a taste, some of Kimberlee's favourite things include...

Palas jewellery, ribbons and stationary, chalkboard stickers, pewter clocks, maileg rabbits, ginger jars, marvis toothpaste, glass canisters, les papier jean rouget, rattles for newborns, candlesticks, photo frames for fabulous shots, lanterns, French first aid boxes, charm bracelets, soft and cuddly Scandinavian woollen soft toys, pewter tea canisters, perfect picnic stainless steel tumblers, statues, Zoe BonBon Jewllery, Greengate Goodies, House Doctor Homewares and Danish toys

I bet a few of these are on your list too!

Thanks Kimberlee xox

Image 1 by me; Image 2 and 3 from Brown Button Trading

Junk (antique) shop find

Here in Hong Kong there are millions and millions of junk/antique shops. Whenever I spot one, I usually pop in and see what treasures can be found (Anna Spiro has me slightly addicted to Chinese ginger jars)! Last weekend whilst spending the day with friends at the Soho Festival, I popped my head into the little china shop in Staunton Street and discovered 2 great finds. The first was the ginger jar which I posted a pic of below (vase housing the gorgeous pink spray roses) which after careful negotiation cost me $150HK (about $20 Aus). The other was this gorgeous plate which I absolutely LOVE!

I tend to steer away from the traditional red and yellow Chinese plates in favour of the pinks and bluey green ones (like the one above). They are harder to come by, but I think they are just divine. I particularly love the cute little butterflies fluttering around the plate. I was able to negotiate a small discount on this one too ($25HK instead of $30, which is roughly $3.50 Aus).

I don't know about you, but I am already counting down the days/hours till the weekend... here's hoping that the rest of the week goes fast!

I am in love!

I totally [heart] wallpaper! Have you seen the range of scrummy wallpapers that are on the market? Gone are the days that only Granny got away with it, the wallpaper industry has been well and truly revamped.

I am currently contemplating whether or not to bite the bullet and create a feature wall in our new (but rented) apartment here in Hong Kong... I recently attended an event at Lane Crawford and got to meet the lovely David Lennie (owner of Signature Prints - the fab oz company that are the proud custodians of the extraordinary Florence Broadhurst range) who assured me that todays wallpapers are much more user-friendly.

The problem I have is that I cannot choose which one I want. It is sooooo hard to commit to one design/colour, and to tell you the truth, it scares the hell out of me! What if I get it wrong, will it go with our furniture, will it be overbearing and on and on go the questions in my mind. Then I tell myself, what's the worst thing that could happen? I have to take it down and paint the walls white again... I guess that wouldn't be the end of the world.

Images via katiesellers.co.uk and signatureprints.com.au

Bath time

I am happy to report that I survived the 'adventure' day - and whilst I am loathe to admit it, I actually quite enjoyed myself! After a day at the Food & Wine Festival on Saturday (OMG - it was crazy, our little stall was 4 rows deep in peeps waiting to try Ross' lurverly wine) and the 'adventure' day yesterday, we were well and truly pooped come Sunday night.

Aside from the oven and the balcony (which I have already mentioned), the other great thing about our new apartment is that we now have a bath! Squeal!!! And, it is the perfect size - not one of those tiny tubs that you have to sit cross legged in, which are very common in Honkers.

Sooooo, last night I drew myself a bath and soaked for a good hour! Then I took myself off to the couch and didn't last 10 mins before lights were out (and it was only 7.30pm)!!

Whilst I am extremely happy and content (for the time being anyhow) with my lovely bath, wouldn't you just love to be sitting in this bath! OMG - isn't it just delicious. I would be well and truly wrinkled by the time I emerged from this bathroom.

Image via Dransfield & Ross