more colour...

To look at our homes, you might think that we disliked colour.  I have decorated in shades of white with touches of French grey, JJ's gorgeous home is full of beautiful neutral colours, and SusieQ is currently decorating her new apartment in Dubai in classy black and white (wish we were there to help Mum!)  However, all of us are drawn to the gorgeous colours that nature provides, and a lot of our work is full of vibrant and striking colour. We might not be about to paint our walls a bright pink or green anytime soon, but we love these new framed pictures of ours. 

We were very excited to discover the stunning fabric on the left.  We had previously worked with this Oilily fabric in a red colourway, and only recently discovered this teal version.  We hand-stitch sequins and beads to each square to enhance the design of the fabric and add texture and sparkle.

 Look at the difference changing the background colour makes to the feel of the piece.

 They look far better than my amateur pictures convey.  Any ideas on how to take a photo of framed pictures without getting all sorts of reflections from the glass?

inspiration...

I just love the colours of these cute little coin purses.  I picked these up for practically nothing at the Lifeline Bookfest that was held in Brisbane a few weeks ago.  Advertised as the biggest second hand book sale in the world, it has thousands of books, puzzles, dvds and videos and all sorts of other bits and bobs.  These purses were hidden in some hand made bags in various satin fabrics that were piled high in boxes.  Not knowing quite what I was going to do with them, I restrained myself and only bought 20!  At 50c each, I should have bought many more. Especially since all the money raised goes to charity.  I have to own up to not being quite so disciplined when it came to the puzzles and children's books...

winter cheer...

Here is a little bit of spring to brighten up a chilly winter morning in Brisbane.  I love this hanging vase I found in a gorgeous shop in Melbourne a few years ago.  Wish I had bought a few more!

flower party

The last couple of months have seen us madly planning for three mondo kids' parties. JJ did a party in the park for her Harvey's second birthday with the most marvelous digger cake. That party had us madly sewing little take-home bags in various ginghams. Then my ten year old had a movie trivia party in which my husband organised a very elaborate treasure hunt which had the kids running all over the garden to movie 'locations'. But the party in which I was most able to satisfy my creative spirit was my eldest daughter's flower party. Hannah loves beautiful things and finds enjoyment in details, so we were able to have a lot of fun. We had all sorts of flower games, but probably the most successful part of the afternoon was the craft in which the girls made tissue paper flowers of all sort of shapes and sizes. There was 35 minutes of happy chatter which was just lovely.
It is probably a good thing that we only have parties every second year though, as the clean up takes the most part of a week!

Invitations for the flower party using vintage children's books too damaged to salvage.