city girl walking.

A dedication post to my friend Buzz. One of my favourite city girls, who together with the other darling Eclairs (a name created for a group of girls that lived for emails back in the day, but now just lives for regular outings & organic pizza!) keep this country girl's city heart alive!
So back to Buzz. Let's review her last 3 months. She quit her job for an adventure in the New Zealand snow fields of Queenstown, only to break her ankle 2 weeks in by running in the rain and slipping over on a footpath. With no hopes of finding a winter-job in a leg plaster, she hopped on the next plane home and has spent the last couple of months trying to recover without going insane from cabin fever.
I invited her up to our humble country abode last week to get her out of the house. So with moon-boot in tow, to Lala land she came. We started the day with pancakes & fresh orange juice for breakfast, also with a third guest Louise who dropped in for the morning. Then we headed for Tanunda, a beautiful little town in the Barossa Valley, and spent the afternoon discovering the antique shops & enjoying home-made scones (with jame & cream of course!). I picked up some great little treasures, & Buzz got out of the house. All in all a great day!

creative logos.

As a designer I get very envious of any unique and creative concept. In particular logos, and their concepts that really make you stop and look and think "how did they come up with that?". Linking the company name with a matching image is one of the best branding exercises around. When the company has more than one name in it's title, for instance the Australian band "The Cat Empire" which is one of my favourites. Their logo incorporates a cat's eye, with the crown of an empire. Genious! Here are some more examples I most admire of creative logo branding:

invisable winter.

If you're living in Adelaide at the moment, you've probably forgotten it's Winter. The parade of beautiful sunny days continued today, somewhere around the mid-20's, which has never happened in August before (or so the weather man tells me)! I spent the afternoon in the Barossa with my good friend Buzz sprouting the antique stores and munching on delicious scones at the local German cafe (which is a whole new blog on it's own!). But even thought I've been enjoying this amazing weather, it also makes me think of poor little Winter and how it must be feeling so....invisiable! Besides it's horrible weather, the season still has so many reasons to celebrate.

1. The only time you can wear a poncho and mittens and not be mistaken for an extra in the local community theatre show.
2. A great excuse to theme your winter party with a winter themed invitation.
3. Spend time with yourself and a great book in front of the cosy fire.
4. Try out a new hair-do that suits the season
....

 

nanna antiques

Just over a month ago my family decided that my darling Nan should move into a Nursing Home. After a few too many instances of her forgetting to take her meds etc, and worrying about her being on her own, we thought it was about time. I think I've previously blogged about the amazing place we found for her, more of a mansion 5 star hotel than a typical nursing home.
Well once she settled in to her room, we had to sort through all the remaining furniture and bits and bobs left over. She only live in a small homette in a retirement village, but wow she sure fit alot of stuff inside that little home! I was so glad when my folks offered me some of her things that they knew I would appreciate. Floral vintage pattern serving plates, antique bowls, hand-sewn vintage serviettes, antique spoons (we tend to use so many teaspoons with our coffee machine that we collect them just so we have enough!), lots and lots of bags and belts, and so much more. We even found an old baby seal furr coat that was made for my Great-Grandmother on one of their travels to America, with a matching shawl! We are thinking about donating it to a museum, it's so ancient, and I would probably get arrested if I wore it in public!
Here's a sneak peak of some of the amazing things I got given, that I will treasurer forever:

disco fever.

I've just spent the night decorating for a "disco" party tomorrow night. 70's disco to be exact. Lots of gold & silver & stars, & my favourite the old vinyl records feature above where the DJ will be. Some oldies like Streisand, Barry Manilow, and the Beegees hanging covers and vinyls, and then at the end I can take them home for the collection! And of course it's a dress theme night, so everyone has been busy swapping possible dress ideas. I can't wait to see what outfits will be on show!

Anyway the theme of 70's disco has got me inspired this week, and not just for decorations and fashion. I'm talking about design theme, in particular invitations. What makes an invitation retro theme? What colours and type style can you use to make it look funky. Most importantly I think it's about the shapes and patterns too, which was the huge style craze in the 60's/70's. Well I searched around and found designs which I thought suit the theme to a tea, hope you enjoy! xx