mondo mentions...

We have really enjoyed reading Amanda's fantastic children's bedroom tours and are very excited to have been included in them. Be sure to pop over to Swish and Swanky to see Sienna's room (posted today) and Harvey's room (posted last week) and, with a cup of coffee in hand, scroll down through the whole series for loads of great ideas. Thanks, Amanda!

We were also thrilled to get a mention on Apartment Therapy's children's blog, Ohdeedoh last week, and even Matilda had her photo posted on the Boutique Market blog which features some super gift ideas for Christmas from amazing Brisbane talent.

tour of Melissa's house...

Every second Tuesday morning we get together with a group of Mums and their children for a couple of hours of tea drinking, cake eating and chatting. We take turns hosting this get together and this morning it was at Melissa's beautiful house. Since we love seeing photos of the inside of real people's homes, and being inspired from the way they decorate, we thought you might too!

We love these black and white blinds at the front of the house...

Beautiful original doors and a stylish neutral sofa...

Melissa had this day bed made by Get Squared and is collecting blue and white cushions to add to it as she sees them...

A natural vignette...

Stunning lamp shade that Melissa had covered in deckchair fabric from ici et la...

Melissa's son is car mad!...

Such a cute little elephant...

This house is decorated with many beautiful touches and lots of love...

a dash of blackboard paint and a piece of chalk...

We love blackboard paint, although none of us have yet been brave enough to paint a wall with it like is often seen in magazines. Having a pot sitting around begging to be used, we were excited when we came across these 90's place mats which desperately needed an update. A coat of Primer followed by 2 coats of the blackboard paint transformed them into blank slates which can be used in a number of ways on the table.

Here is the before...

And here are some quick and simple ideas we thought of. We would love to hear yours!

A sweet little message to make someone's day...

Good for teaching little ones which side to put the knife and fork on, and still quirky enough for adults...

A place to jot down the menu...

Write around the outside - no drawing skills required...

And probably the most useful in our households... something to amuse the children while waiting for their food to arrive...

leaves, moths and butterflies...

While we dislike flies in our kitchens, hate sharing a picnic with some hungry ants, and have a positive fear of cockroaches, we have always been fascinated by museum exhibits in which the many hundreds of different types of insects are laid out in ordered rows. Similarly, old fashioned books full of detailed line drawings of insects, leaves, and flowers have a huge attraction, and photos of the beautiful shapes, patterns and colours on the wings of butterflies are totally inspiring. Influenced by these things, we have been creating our new Meadow Range. Here is a selection of recent artwork - all created from damaged vintage children's books; hand cut, layered and stitched. Lots more to come (although don't hold your breath for anything cockroach related!)

sugar and spice and all things nice...

Thank you so much for all the lovely comments and emails about my newest little cherry pip, Matilda. She is an absolute darling, and even after just six days it is hard to imagine what life was like without her. She is already spoilt rotten with loads and loads of cuddles (we almost have to have a roster system to keep her brothers and sisters happy) and some gorgeous presents just for her (life as the 4th girl will inevitable involve lots of hand-me-downs in the future). I am loving not being pregnant and being blessed with a very quick labour - 40 minutes and just one push for those who want the gory details - means that my recovery has been swift. I am enjoying the teensy tiny nappies, the addictive newborn smell, and all the adorable little snuffly noises that only a newborn can make. The sleep deprivation hasn't kicked in yet, so SusieQ, JJ and I even managed to fit in a bit of mondocherry this morning without me nodding off on the job! We will be at the Boutique Markets again this weekend and, all being well, I am looking forward to introducing Matilda to those who can make it.

It's a girl!

It's a girl! Little Matilda Lucy has finally arrived weighing 7lb 1 oz. She is totally scrumptious!! Tilly will be one much loved little girl with 2 older brothers, 3 older sisters and a bunch of adoring aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents. CB is doing well and looks fantastic but we will be sure to give her a few days off mondo duties (aren't we kind!?) to recover and enjoy her precious little bundle.

JJ and Susie Q

another year older...

Happy Birthday to my gorgeous little sister, JJ, who turned 33 today. Who would have thought that we would be working together, having so many laughs and enjoying each other's company, after all those years that I bossed her about and she messed up our shared room (though you would never guess it from her spotless house nowadays)! JJ has changed a lot since this photo of course, but those huge shiny eyes and infectious smile have never left.

JJ, thanks for always being there for a chat, for coming up with so many brilliant ideas, and for being my constant inspiration. Love you lots!

an adorable alphabet...

We love living in Brisbane - it has great weather which is perfect for outdoor entertaining, it is an easy city to get around, and there are lots of great places to day trip. However, originally from England, there are a couple of things we miss from that part of the world... the chocolate and donuts (they really do taste different there!), 'Boots' the chemist where you can just about buy anything, and of course the beautiful English countryside with its wild flowers. We have mentioned before that none of us have green thumbs, but even for those who do, it is almost impossible to have a pretty cottage garden in this climate. When I stumbled across these beautiful alphabet cards in a local gift shop, and saw that they had many of the flowers I remember from when I was young, I couldn't resist them. The forget-me-not is my absolute favourite. My two youngest girls love having them in their room, although it has encouraged them to stand and jump on the beds trying to spot all the little fairies that are hidden amongst the flowers!

busy making business cards...

We used to have our business cards printed in the normal way, but one day we experimented with making something a little more memorable. With our beautiful little vintage pictures and our signature stitching, we wanted to produce something that hopefully people will hang on to for a little longer. The original intention was to use the nicer offcuts leftover from our artwork, but in reality we end up choosing extra cute illustrations. Yes, it takes a lot of work for a freebie, but this is one of our favourite mondocherry jobs and it gives us a real kick at the markets to see people sifting through the pile choosing their favourite card. We notice that we are giving away a lot more business cards than we used to... maybe the little bit of extra effort is worth while!

nesting...

Pregnancy hormones are funny things. Here I am blogging at a ridiculous time after waking up in the wee hours of the morning with a sudden and uncontrollable urge to clean the front of my kitchen cabinets. After finishing those, I moved on to sorting out a couple of drawers and then felt the need to go through the contents of the bathroom cupboard. I thought about cleaning the oven too and have only managed to stop myself from doing so by coming to the computer instead. I'm definitely nesting! I only hope it means the baby will be coming sooner rather than later, as I really would prefer to be sleeping than cleaning... Maybe I should pack my bags for hospital just in case.

Please tell me your nesting stories, or those of a friend, and remind me that this is all normal!

a trip to IKEA...

We have a love/hate relationship with IKEA. We love the great storage, the reasonably priced fabrics and curtains, the relatively child-proof slip covered sofas, and the great styling in the catalogue which makes everything look more expensive that it is. On the other hand, we dislike putting the flat-pack furniture together (usually a job we leave for the husbands who loathe it even more than we do), the way that the one thing you go for is the one thing that they have sold out of, and the queues at the check-out on a weekend!

We took a trip out to IKEA this morning with the three youngest children, and while we didn't end up buying too much, we were pleasantly surprised by some of their new stock. They had just put out their Christmas range and we loved the reds, whites and greys of this year's decorations and wrapping.

They also had a new patchwork range which was quite pretty.

We then popped into the group of shops next door with the sole purpose of showing Susieq the Pip Studio wallpaper which both JJ and I would love to use in our girl's rooms. With vibrant colours, gorgeous patterns and interesting texture we think it is pretty special, and the styling of the rooms in the wallpaper sample book is incredibly inspiring too. Bed, Bath N' Table here in Australia stock a couple of the Pip Studio bedding lines which are also gorgeous.

how we spent our Sunday morning...

We had another great morning at the Boutique Markets yesterday and only just managed not to spend all our profit at the many gorgeous stalls (it helped that our new set-up made it very difficult for me to squeeze my rather large tummy out from behind the tables!) The rain held off until the very end and it was fabulous to meet lots of lovely blog readers and other bloggers, including the vivacious A-M. The next markets will be on Sunday November 8th, so if you live around the Brisbane area pop that date in your calender now. Christmas is not that far away and it is a great place to pick up beautiful, original and very special gifts. If you live elsewhere, remember that the Boutique Market website has links to the online shops of all the retailers who participate, and our work can be found on our mondocherry website.

new chair love...

I was so excited to receive the two gorgeous Riviera Maison chairs I ordered through the wonderful A-M. They are from a new outdoor range by the Dutch furniture company and are to go on my deck, along with a daybed or two that I am yet to purchase. However, here is one pictured in my living room (the deck resembles a dump more than an entertaining area at the moment) where they actually fit in just beautifully and will make great chairs to bring in when extra seats are needed. I just love the faded grey colour of the vintage rattan and the extra details like the handle on the back.

A-M takes orders for these chairs, and for other gorgeous items from the Riviera Maison range (sold in Australia as Villa Maison) through her web shoppe Armchair Trader. Unfortunately, she is having technical problems with the server that hosts the website, so the best thing to do is to head over to the Armchair Trader blog and send A-M a message. Just don't blame me when you end up spending lots of money after seeing all the fabulous things she stocks!!

bookcase...

We have often thought thought how useful it would have been to be married to a doctor (no more wondering if the kids have an ear infection), car mechanic (would save us a fortune on servicing) or architect (to design our ideal homes free of charge!). However, although our husbands are none of these things, they are pretty useful. My hubby is a whiz with all things technical and does a superb job with our mondocherry website, and JJ's husband loves to build things for around the home and for our market stalls.

This is a open fronted bookcase that JJ's hubby whipped up on the weekend to display some of their children's books in the playroom. Rather than simply painting it, we were thinking how lovely it would look with some wallpaper along the back - any ideas on where we can get a small amount of wallpaper rather than having to buy a whole roll (a quick look on ebay didn't reveal much)?

spring series...

While we work with both paper and fabric, we are especially loving paper cutting from pre-loved, damaged vintage books. We love the colours of the old illustrations and we just get such a buzz to see them completed in their box frames. Here are 2 we have been working on this morning - all hand cut and then stitched onto recycled card and text. We are very happy with the result.

Stay tuned for other designs in this spring series... flowers and hearts in progress below.

d.i.y vases...

It is no secret that we love having fresh flowers in our homes, but sometimes instead of using the same old vases it is fun to add something more creative or colourful to the display.

Using some scraps of material and a few old tins (baby formula, hot chocolate and soup in this case!) and our trusty double sided tape, we created these in only a few minutes. The hardest part was getting the iron out to get a neat fold on the top and bottom. Of course, you could avoid this issue by using beautiful wrapping paper or old wallpaper scraps for a similar effect.

creativity on the coast...

As you can imagine, with 7 children under the age of 12 between us, we built our fair share of sandcastles and dug a large number of holes and forts during our holiday at the beach. However, all our efforts were completely outclassed by this fantastic structure built from driftwood that some creative person constructed. Big enough to easily fit all our tribe underneath at once, it lasted for days as everyone appreciated the work that had gone in to it.

We were inspired by so many things during the week - gorgeous sunsets, interesting leaf shapes and colours, and the ever changing landscape of the dunes. Here is my 2 year old getting creative with her big brother's Crocs!

Even the Resort shop impressed us with their creative buying. Aren't these eco-bags in a little strawberry shaped sacks gorgeous?

And we can never go past bobble trim.

These matryoshka key covers caught our eye too - perfect for the woman who has everything.

We are back home now and getting stuck into creating new mondocherry products - that and doing the endless washing that comes from going to the beach for a holiday!

she sells sea shells...

Here is a fabric button artwork that we drew, printed and assembled as we were dreaming of the beach holiday we are currently enjoying. Printing onto linen is something we are really loving at the moment and we have plenty more ideas and sketches ready to go.

Below is a section of another of these linen button artworks, this one with a leafy theme (currently in our webshop.)

blogging from the beach...

Pass us the sunscreen, and shake us another cocktail...we are blogging from the beach on our annual extended family holiday. With Susieq back from Dubai, our cherry pips (children) are loving spending time with their Grammy and Gramps and so are we. With beautiful hot and sunny Queensland days forecast, this is what we have been doing today, and are planning more of the same for the remainder of the week.

swimming and surfing...

jumping waves (action shot of susieq!)...

spending time with family (the little ones are loving Gramps)...

fishing (well done Lachlan, not a bad size for your first ever catch)...

and trying not to have this baby while on an island without a Doctor!...

And of course, plenty of relaxing, delicious food, bike riding (me being the exception) and sleep (mostly me)!

on JJ's fridge...

JJ discovered this pretty bird wall sticker/decal in a shop on the northern NSW coast for the bargain price of $5. It has found a home on her fridge where it gets many comments and brightens up what is usually a fairly boring and unattractive appliance. What do you have on your fridge... children's drawings, photos or magnets, or do you prefer a 'naked' fridge?