Flamingos - the porcelain kind

Flamingos are such pretty creatures. What do you think of these two? They're porcelain and in mint condition.

 

And they're big. My good friend C was over friday night and arranged them in the bathroom. I love that they're close to water. I brought in some Palm frongs to enhance their little habitat.

Here's a few googled facts about Flamingos if you're interested ...

• Flamingos live an average of 20 to 30 years.
• Males and females look alike
• They rest by standing on one leg. The “knee” of the flamingo is actually an ankle joint and the lower leg bends forward.
• Nests are built up by mouthfuls of mud!
• Grown flamingos have few natural predators
• Their pink or reddish color comes from the algae, diatoms, and small crustaceans the birds eat
• During the day flamingos preen using their bills and spreading oil from a gland near the base of their tail through their feathers. They spend 15 to 30% of the day preening

I worry that our house is turning into a giant wot-not stand. You know, those things our parents had in the corner of a room with ornaments all over it, budgies, little horses, floral things. Maybe it's time for an edit? 

The Coat of Arms

I found this at a demo yard.

It's a coat of arms mould that belongs above a door.

These wooden moulds must have a proper name but I have no idea what it might be. At first I couldn't see the emu and kangaroo, I just thought it was a design of some sort.

We decided to modify it to fit above our front verandah door and to do so needed to make a frame for it to sit in. 

It was nail gunned and glued and timber strips added to the back sides to keep it in place.

3 weeks later we finally painted it and this is it now.

The plan was for it to go directly above the door frame but it ended up being a teeny bit snug. The door frame must've changed size...

Good old demo yards - It's amazing what you may find!

Cool Sink.

Isn't this a great sink/splashback combo?

Whether it's for a bathroom or laundry it's very attractive. By the looks, the concrete stretches out lower and wider on each side to create a shelf. The tapware is traditional in line with the labratory double basin, but the concrete makes it sleek. And the butterflies - very pretty indeed.

Something to put in the ideas pile if you're struggling for a laundry or bathroom solution. Initially I was going to use a labratory sink for our bathroom downstairs and came across a company who does a few versions of them Brisbane. www.belfastsinks.com 

After seeing this image, I'm wondering why I changed my mind.

Winter Fashion

Even though I'm a Queenslander and love nothing more than swimming around in a sea of blue water in summer time, I do become excited when Autumn fronts up and welcomes winter.

I adore winter clothes. Hats, gloves, capes, ponchos, tenchcoats, boots. This morning the Today Show reported that Melbourne Fashion Week's on at the moment. I wonder what they have in store?

Many moons ago I worked for Carla Zampatti. This is from her collection last year. I still love her clothes and her daughter's, Bianca Spender. Some would say she's for a more mature audience. I disagree.

When I was O/S it was winter and I purchased a few things that i'm looking forward to finally wearing. Two of them were these Fendi Rain Boots, which I'll wear as all-rounders. They have a nice gloss finish so they look patent

 

and this Dolce & Gabbana Mesh Trench coat.

They did a bit of a gothic collection in 2010, I stumbled across it in the Dolce & Gabbana outlet in Vegas. It's actually their Spring Collection and not very warm at all (it's made entirely out of mesh), but over black pants etc it'll be good for our winter. 

Thinking about the D&G shop, my main recollection of my experience (other than paying half price) was how incredibly arrogant the sales girl was. Terrible. It's amazing what we'll put up with for something we want, even though we shouldn't have to.

It seems that these shades below are the trend for autumn/winter 2012/2013.

Tangerine and teal are such pretty colours.

Happy Winter Shopping!

on safari

Looking back at some of my most recent purchases, and other bits n pieces in the house, it's seems that i like a bit of safari. So, I googled 'safari' last night, and these came up.

Aren't they faaaab!

Papier Mache and avail for purchase from http://www.kidostore.com/index.php?act=viewCat&catId=65. I love the zebra's. I think i'm leaning toward the pink. Who says papier mache pink zebras are only for childrens rooms?

Small Vintage

Quite often when shopping for vintage fashion, majority of the gorgeous frocks I find are miniscule. Teeny tiny Vivienne Leigh size waist. V Small.

‘A’ found this punch bowl still in its box about 8 months ago, somewhere. It’s been sitting on the back deck on a bench collecting dust so I decided it was time to wash it and bring it in. This is it

Dime a dozen, and probably shoved in the back of most of our parents cupboards, but a good little piece nonetheless and still in its box with its plastic hooks and ladle.

 

Of course my first thought was, ‘there’s one sip to be had out of this cup’.

So I did a direct comparison with a normal sized glass of today, and compared my Poppy mug with the daily coffee mug I actually drink out of

Ridiculous right?

 

And then i felt a plate comparison was required

 

I realise that this isn’t news to anyone. We all know that the size of these things has increased and nowadays, when a woman seeks to lose weight, she has her meal off a side plate instead to assist in portion control.

What I’d love to know is why we even needed to make things bigger? Because it's 'trendy'? Other than making our entree of scallops look incredibly small and glasses of wine pitiful, it enables us to eat more than we need without even realising.

40 years ago women (and men) drank out of little glasses, ate off small plates and scooped out of shallow bowls. Women didn’t go out and hit the pavement, box, do yoga or run on a treadmill to slip into a frock. They just ate and drank smaller quantities. Actually, aerobics was big in the 80's. Is that when our plates got bigger??

Anyway, my punch bowl cups are very small and this is the punch recipe book that came with them

 

There’s a June punch. My month of birth, so I might have a little morning tea in June with small portions of caramel slice and scones. I'll be in the market for teeny vintage frocks in no time.

Yellow Cane Lounge - Recovered!

Before Christmas you may recall, or not, I did a post toying with ideas for recovering the cushioning on my yellow cane lounge, this was the post here. 

It's done. And it's totally the opposite to what i originally envisioned. All the fabrics are linen. I'm crossing myself that they won't fade. A tea towel linen cushion i had out there hasn't budged all through summer. Here's to hoping.

We have these tinted blinds on the front balcony due to extreme weathering coming through. I've grown to like them a lot, because they're dark, but i can still see out, it makes the area feel nice and cosy, and the darker fabric makes it less obvious or something.

You can see the slight mustard yellow in the base fabric. The cushions are reversible, the other side is a neutral linen so i can bring them in or use them out the back if i want a change.

Mr B lounging on my leg yesterday arv. He shan't be making it a habit of jumping up there, but who can resist a face like that?

Lights for reno Part II

This is very typical of me, meaning: I purchase things prior to needing them, just in case.

Insert this pendant shade below. May not work in this house at all, but good to have ... 'just in case'

It folds to a flat piece, the light sits in the middle so it would throw a moody glow i think.

I like very much that it's copper.

These sconces however, I will use downstairs. There's 3 of them.

I intend on using 2 of them in the bathroom but they'll need some adjusting. 

They're in great condition and will be tweaked once I have my final bathroom visual planted in my brain. At this stage, the wood will be sanded back and stained a darker colour with the gold remaining OR, the wood will be sanded back, sealed (think naturally its a bit lighter and less red) and the gold sprayed black. Either/Or.

The third one. Well, not sure if it'll get a run. We'll see. I don't want to over sconce it.

I also have this light in the bathroom upstairs as you can see above. I'd prefer that the rooms work together rather than have them looking totally different, the style of the sconces and the green lantern above is a start at the rooms complimenting one another. Still a way to go ... but finally finishing this house is beginning to look like it will happen.

Bushells 'Tea of Flavor' ...

What magical weather we had here in Brisbane on the weekend. Let's pray it keeps up and spreads its gloriousness to our friends in St George and other regions who are experiencing weather gone bad.

I achieved a few things on the weekend and one of them was finalising some dimensions for the study downstairs. I've opted for a skinny room for sole 'office' purposes, in order to have a larger bedroom rather than having having a small bedroom and a small bedroom/office.

So while stepping out measurements for downstairs I was using these teaboxes as the study desk, well, where the desk will be. They looked so lovely lined up I thought i'd take a pic.

I've had them for about 5 months now but they just get moved around and used as imaginery walls, desks, baths etc on a slab of concrete.  I like them together so I think down the track, somewhere, i'll put nice big leafed pots in each of them. Use them as a screen or space divider. The Bushells my fave. The shade of blue's v pretty.

The inside still has remnants of the foil. All-in-all externally they're in pretty good condition. The woman who  owned them used to work in a tea factory, i'm guessing a Bushell's one? She did say, but I forget.

And speaking of tea, I met the lovely MMMC from Make Mine Mid-Century Saturday. Knee deep in boxes and packing paper and still smiling. You're a better woman than I. 

Doing a pre moving declutter, MMMC was offloading this teaset below which I've been lucky enough to get my greedy little crockery loving hands on.

Thanks again, they're so cute. I do like birds. My coffee cups have birds on them too.

Our front garden is being strategically dug up by the new addition to the family. He digs up just Bromeliads. They've all been dug out as if i'd used a shovel myself. Weird. Is this normal? Just bromeliads. Nothing else.