stairs

I've been doing a bit of research on internal stairs and in the process have come across some fabulous interiors. Great area of the home to add a bit of confined colour with carpet runners like above

Convenient little compact powder room

I very much like how nice and open this is above

Love a reading nook under the stairs.

This one makes me think of winter time - up in the mountains somehwere with a log fire roaring ....

This pattern on the spiral staircase is gorgeous.

And a couple of outdoors below...

 

Wrought iron is so pretty in every colour

P.S cane lounge was sold for just under $900. To who - anyone know? I'd love to see it in all its glory once it's showered with affection. It will be nothing less than spectacular.

cane at its very best

I'm on ebay and mesmerised by this setting. This is the finest, most stunning and perfect example of the very best cane setting i have ever laid eyes on. Ever. In all the cane settings i've seen - this is the one that has stirred me the most ... ever .... ever

Just look at those curves

oh my

It has yet to sell and has a starting bid of $650 - based in Seaforth in NSW. I wish i hadn't seen it.

I wonder how many watchers are watching it? It's a rediculous bargain if you get it for under $1,000. The sunken lounge i plan on having in this lifetime would really thrive with this setting in it surrounded with palms and greenery flourishing in the indoor garden i also plan to have.  Wouldn't it look perfectly perfect? I wish very much that i had that house and space at this moment in time.

2 days and 1 hour to go. Someone is going to be a very very happy person come Wenesday night.

exhausted

Whoaa Mamma. Fairs and market stalls are hard work! I gotta give it to my homies out there doin it week in week out - you are taking some serious super vitamins. I have a completely new found appreciation and respect for the fair/market stall holder. It is 250% exhausting - and even though i may have been on a spending ban at the fair, somehow i accidentally purchased a couple of little trinkets, like this elephant brooch ... it was to show my  appreciation

it's bakelite, they're holding their cute little trunks together ...

and this table cloth - i do like a bit of australiana particulary maps

It's colours are excellent to work in with a Queensland one i bought last year.

And these clip on earrings. Very special i think. Because i desperately needed more you see.

 

How was the fair you ask?

Great start - wasn't a total sell out, but excellent feedback and the chance to meet some super fab people. I'm 100% motivated on my quest.

I must be honest when i say - i probably won't do a fair again, but that's because it's so full-on moving furniture around and can be detrimental to stock. Different when it's clothes and accessories - but furniture and breakables? Like this cabinet here. The rope rubbed against it on the way home and took some paint off back to raw. See on the side near the handle.

Not a major and totally fixable but it's more time in transporting and mending. It's my fault, i was rushing to get home and pass out.

This is the cabinet before hand - such a handy little piece for a bedside or phone table

The handles are new and the bom.com. I'm slightly obsessed with them. This cabinet is textured which actually looks odd in the picture but is pretty cool in reality

Networking is so valuable, so over the coming week i have emails to send to people who are looking for items i didn't have at the fair and also some soft furnishings in the fabrics i had on display. What was really good for me was who bought the items which were sold. It's always so nice to see the things you're passionate about going to someone who loves them just as much or more.

peter, peter pumpkin eater

Peter ain't gonna eat this pumpkin unless he wants a set of dentures ....

... this little darling was wood which i've spruced up, then there's the Pumpkin Recipe teatowel cushion, i thought how utterly fabulous it would look thrown on a couch with pumpkin perched up somewhere nearby. I think they make a very attractive couple.

A few shots of the fair tonight. I think our area is definitely more sparce in comparison to the others but hey, it's the quality not the quantity huh? Am i right or am i right?

... a 1981 teatowel.

Do you know what that means? It means that it was made the same year all ya'll turning 30 were born! I've been racking my brains to think of someone i know who's turning 30 and would love the quirkiness of a vintage teatowel cushion to cuddle up to. I'm drawing a blank.

A little shot of my swing tags which i made... i didn't want something too perfect - not to mention the fact that this is a fair not david jones ...

g- g -glamorous

Although I have a massive penchant for second hand furniture, I adore foraging through racks of clothing to find something simply amazing. I just don’t like someone else having what I have or it may be the memories of my mother spending a small fortune on a silk number for an event when I was younger only to be collected by another couple with (gasp!!) my mother’s friend wearing the same outfit in a different colour! While the meter ticked in the taxi, Mum zipped back inside and changed – what else was she to do?

I'm letting go of some of my collectable pieces in the hope that they will find a home  which offers black tie balls and elegant formal dinners. Where have they gone anyways?

This gown and jacket ensemble is a stunning colour. My sister in law has worn the dress. I've worn neither the dress nor jacket. I've planned to wear the jacket ... i love the drama of the feathers around the wrist.

I picture a french woman being photographed in this jacket. The picture captured while she's sitting with legs crossed leaning forward with her elbow on a cafe table holding a cigarette gazing up into the lense, feathers sitting around her cheek and the sparkles of the jacket below her chin ... i wonder who's worn it? The sequin detailing on the dress is so beautiful in tones of silver and deep gold.

This gown is the prettiest shade of midnight blue. It's severely elegant - the back goes down into a V which is jewelled like the front. Never worn by me. By who? i do not know. The flutter sleeve is so lovely.

It seems i like the razzle dazzle. Belts, earrings. I so rarely wear pierced earrings anymore. I love a good clip on. For my mother's 60th birthday i took her to have her ears pierced. She was so tired of not being able to buy all the nice pierced earrings but had been a complete scaredy cat to go through with having her earlobe shot. It really is barbaric.

She refuses to allow another clip near her. So i now have all her 70's,80's earrings. Jadore them! ... but have too many so this along with other frocks seek a new owner.

retro rippers

Who doesn't love a bit of retro glassware and ceramics to mix up the kitchen dresser?

It's great when you have a visitor that revisits a fond memory on account of the glass you've given them to drink out of or the table cloth, coasters, placemats, tea cups that surround ...

This pineapple's a cutie

I love these Kartell magazine holder's

herbal tea perhaps

lamp lovin

who says carry on luggage needs to be drab?

These are a couple of things i snapped racing out the door to work this morning. They all sit rather still while they prepare themselves for a new home.

***

All these items are for sale at the Wear and When Vintage Fair this weekend at the Mount Gravatt Showgrounds.

Friday 25 March --- 6:00pm-8:30pm

Saturday 26 March --- 10:00am-4:00pm

Sunday 27 March 2011 --- 10:00am - 3:00pm

Preparing for a market stall

Busy, busy, busy bee.

'The way we wear' fair is on this coming weekend 25-27 March 2011, at the Mount Gravatt Showgrounds in Brisbane and ... big news ... my friend and i will be having a stall there. I had planned to open my own shop this year, and with things not falling into place the way i had planned, it will come to fruition when the time is right. In the meantime i've decided to rejuvenate some of the pieces i have collected over the years sooner rather than later which will be on sale this weekend. Bit of furniture, soft furnishings, homewares, vintage frocks, jewellery etc.

This week i'll show a few bits n pieces and some of the before and after's of the following. It's nice to look at the before and after's because it's such a lengthy process you forget why you bothered in the first place ... until you review the transformation - very worth it in the end.  Today, i finalised what fabric will go with what and this is the outcome:

This manilla cane footstool above will remain raw. I love it and happen to have sourced two, one for me and one for someone else. I completely adore the blue and white moroccan style fabric. It will cover the cushioning with a navy piping.

This little guy above is married, the missus is still drying. I had planned to paint navy or black, but when i happened across this fabric i changed my mind. It's red with beige and white detailing and is so refreshing to look at. The more i look at these things the more i want to keep them.

This chair belongs to the setting i pictured a couple of posts ago. The fabric is black with white and grey palm frongs. Perfect for this piece. So they go off to be made first thing in the morning.

 I'm a proud parent of some seriously growing tomatoes. They've grown at least 2 inches since last Sunday.

The house had smealt beautiful with the fresh roses provided by the markets yesterday ...

... but now smells of roast pork which i am salivating over. It still has about 50 hours to cook. I never post about cooking because i don't really do too much of it worth sharing. As you can see, this roast dish is about 300 years old but it does it's job very well. Sunday roasts are the best!

a saturday drive

On Saturday, A and i went for a drive which is what we do when neither of us can face up to the list of stuff only the weekend enables us to action. We drove out to Nambour and then came back through Montville. Found this groovy store in Nambour called

It was packed with millions and millions of records. There were old music mag's and Womens Day's, prints of different things, jewellery, nick nacks and general stuff.

 for all y'all 80's fans out there this record player was 'totally narly'. I've seen one in a movie before i'm sure of it -  maybe 'back to the future'?

Downstairs little rooms shot off in different directions full of  vintage fashion, accesories, homewares and a snippet of furniture. Worth a browse next time you're in the hood. There used to be other antique stores up there but all i saw were empty shopfronts.

What i did see is this Old fella. Don't see enough of these red and white stripes these days. Cracker.

This Art Deco building is being painted black in case you can't tell - will look a gazillion times better once finished. It looked so good in real life compared to this photo. Black really is beautiful.

The drive up to Montville saw us come across this lovely old tennis court, the fencing was in excellent condition

Complete with a little spectators hut.

These purple trees are in bloom everywhere up there - very pretty

we took the back road down the mountain, which you can access on the main drag of Montville next to the school.

and took different turns here and there and ended up in lovely little Eudlo

That's Eudlo above. Look at that lone petrol bowser. Just adorable.

We also drove through Mooloola which had a store that shocked me called Vicious Vintage. Shocked me because it's the last thing i expected to come across in a little valley town, and also because the bloody thing was closed by 12:30 on a Saturday! Ugh. I'm going back.

Something that was achieved ... our second herb/vege garden that has tomatoes, lettuce, peas and some other stuff in it. I'm very excited about nurturing this, that gate thing is for the peas to climb up. We now have 2 old baths with herbs in them complete with the signs so i know what's what. All hell will break loose if a possum so much as eyeballs this tub!

My mother packed up some pieces of mine still at the family home including my cross stitch case i used when i was in primary school, this was still in the box ... It's love that makes a house a home. Awwww.... 

I hear cross stitch has been making some kind of comeback. Maybe this is a sign? My parents may like another bath towel each for christmas with their name's cross stitched on it like i did for them circa '88'. I was obssessed with making things. Their bedroom was riddled with plaque things similar to the one above. What parent's have to go through. All stopped when i hit great 8. Totes not cool anymore to 'stitch' in highschool!