pretty in pink...

It has been a busy last week of school holidays, but today we enjoyed life at a slower pace with a relaxing pottering-about-at-home day. I was greeted quite early (and in my pyjamas!) by a courier who handed me a very exciting parcel from Ada and Darcy. I had treated myself to this gorgeous pink and white lampshade which I have paired with the lamp base I purchased at a bargain price at the Camberwell markets. The pink really adds a lovely, happy pop of colour and I have been carrying my newly revamped lamp around the house to see where it fits best. I think it will end up in our family breakfast area, but it also looks at home in our guest room, paired with the blue.

Thank you Kellie. The lampshade really made my day and I am loving the beautiful cushions I purchased as well. Even the box the lampshade arrived in is experiencing a little love, having been turned into a hermit crab shell by my kids! If you haven't checked out the Ada and Darcy shop, head over now - so many beautiful, beautiful products.

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend. x

a clash of colours...

Today we are loving these hot pink roses in an old aqua sundae glass - not a colour combination you can walk by without noticing! Try clashing some colours at your house today and watch the room come alive.

patchwork school books...

My 4 biggest kids went back to school this morning after their long summer holiday (although actually it wasn't nearly long enough). We spent the weekend covering their books and labelling what felt like hundreds of pencils. I have an aversion to contact (sticky backed book covering) - my perfectionist side struggles with the air bubbles and creases which you always seem to get - and my kids have inherited my dislike for it. Every year they like to have something different to cover their books in and so we have done old maps, stencilled brown paper and sheet music. This year the boys have gone for foreign newspapers - the Arabic papers look particularly cool. My 9 year old daughter was very keen to try fabric, and when we were chatting to Joy about it on the phone, Joy jokingly suggested patchwork. Talk about making life harder for me!!! After raiding my stash of fabric, my Hannah sewed lots of strips together and we cut them into big rectangles and wrapped the books up like you normally would with paper. We then tucked them into the plastic covers you can buy to protect them from the rough and tumble of a school bag. They do look very pretty and I love the way that the lines aren't quite stright so they have a really quirky feel. But the best bit is seeing how proud she is of herself for sewing all day and making them with very little help. Well worth the mess!

children of the world...

We are very excited that we will be taking mondocherry to the Mathilda's market in Melbourne on February 27th and in Brisbane on March 12th. We have been busy making some new artworks, cards, tags and decorations. Here is a quick look at one of our new artworks, "children of the world", which will make it onto our website this weekend. These fabric covered buttons have the cutest little children dressed in their national costume - we couldn't possibly pick a favourite!

Could you pick the 16 different countries the children come from?!

there's no place like home...

Here is a little display that sits on a mantlepiece and reminds me how blessed I am. The drawing is by my 4 year old son, and while the our hairstyles are not entirely accurate, I love the way he drew us all holding hands!

Hope you are having a wonderful week.

the last of the Christmas decorations...

I love it when the shops sell off the last of their Christmas decorations. I found these red butterflies marked down to just a few cents each as they had lost their hanging cords. They were just perfect for the mobile I had in mind to brighten up the room belonging to my two smallest girls. It has not been looking very attractive as we have been battling the dreaded mould (which seems to be a widespread problem in Brisbane this summer) and definitely needs some brightening up.

After tying the butterflies to a metal hoop with twine, I decorated the top with some strips of Japanese masking tape which I had bought to tuck in someone's Christmas present and then had forgotten all about. These beautiful patterned tapes have been widely available for a while now (I bought mine at Borders), and I have often read blogs and articles singing its praises, but had never actually used it. Well, I am now singing too! It has the perfect amount of stickiness and transparency, and cuts very easily - I am keen to experiment some more.

waiting for the water...

After watching the devastation caused by flooding in many Queensland towns over the last few weeks, it is now Brisbane's turn to wait for the water to come. While our home is thankfully on high ground and in no danger, so many friends live in areas that are predicted to go under over the next two days. I find it hard to tear myself away from the news bulletins and tweets, and my heart has been breaking for those families who lost loved ones in Toowoomba and the Lockyer Valley. It is so hard to comprehend how much of this state has been affected by flooding - an area twice the size of Texas and five times the size of the United Kingdom - and it seems petty to worry about the little, everyday frustrations when such an enormous event is taking place. The photo above was taken in the most recent major flood Brisbane suffered, back in 1974. This one is predicted to be worse.

And so we watch, and wait, and pray.

a new look for a new year...

After three weeks visiting family in Brisbane, I returned home last night to a house still full of Christmas decorations. Our suitcases of clothes that needed washing could wait, but I had to pull down the tree and pack away the decorations the moment the kids were in bed. With a clean slate to work on, I had a lovely time this morning pottering about changing some of the cushions and creating a few new tablescapes.

Before Christmas I treated myself to two gorgeous floral cushions from Ada and Darcy's beautiful online shop - it was hard to stop at just two as I absolutely adore the beautiful colours and pretty patterns. The bird cushion in the centre is actually made from a tea towel given to me by my beautiful friend, Kym. Hand printed onto 100% linen by the talented trio behind PrintinK studio, it was far to beautiful to use to dry my dishes! Coincidentally, I have admired PrintinK's studio's designs since we had a stall next to them at the Finders Keepers Markets last year so it was an extra special gift.

I love a good interior freshen up, so tomorrow I think I will treat myself to a bunch of pink roses to complete the look. Clare tells me she has changed her slip covers on her sofas this afternoon, so maybe I'm not the only one feeling like a new look for the new year!