Life lately....

... has been busy. 

A shopping trip to Brisbane.

Nicasso's latest art work.

School holiday activities.  (...that would be the Colosseum made out of Lego)

The Mummy of a 5 year old boy who was missing a tooth (discovered recently via x-ray apparently).  Both were fascinated.

Armchair Collective.

Dinner at Hugo's Manly.  Beef carpaccio is back on the menu, thank you universe for answering.

Peonies from my parents garden.

Looking perfect in my kitchen!!!

The view from my bed when the Jacarandas are in flower is magic.

Love that they are still not too old to try and build these crazy towers out of wood blocks.

A darling little friend for a sleepover.

Admiring street art.

There's also been a trip to Melbourne.  The boys are quite the fans of the pool at The Olsen. I wanted to steal the towels.  I didn't though.

Admiring the Christmas windows at David Jones in the city.

This child is impossibly cool.

This child is still impossibly cute. 

A trip to the Opera House to see 'Twas the night before Christmas.  

and much, much more.... to be documented at some point soon hopefully.  

Merry Christmas to all. xx

Turning 40

A few people have asked me what I got...  

A framed vintage scarf. 

 R confessed me to me that he had no idea what to get me and I pointed him in the direction of the Table Tonic shop in Avalon.  A few weeks ago Jane from My Pear Tree House wrote a lovely post on blue and white scarves and included a photo of a divine framed scarf available for sale in the Table Tonic shop.  Lovely I thought but almost certainly snapped up already!  Then just before we left for Byron I was having a quick coffee with Carolyn and her lovely Beach House Brat in the cafe just outside Table Tonic and spotted it immediately.  If R hasn't bought me a present for my 40th this is what I want I announced to her and well... now it is hanging in my kitchen and looking beyond fabulous!!!

I only picked it up on Tuesday but it has already given me so much pleasure!!  Thank you R!! xx

Pelicans

I just picked up this lovely little Pelican at the Salvo's for $2!  Such a lovely and unexpected find!  I have a bit of a thing for Pelicans despite two rather unpleasant incidents.....  

Incident 1

This event took place some time ago.  We were living in Clovelly at the time and had taken a two year old Captain over to Rose Bay to watch the sea planes taking off and landing.  On arrival we found the ultimate rockstar car park, right on the harbour front.  We couldn't believe our luck and off we went to the park.  Upon our return we saw a bunch of tween aged kids sitting on the fence near our car, holding their noses and giggling.  As we got closer we saw what they were laughing at.  A pelican, perched rather prettily on a lamp post in the car park, next to our car had decided to empty it's bowels.  All over the front of our car. The damage was extensive, it took us a few minutes to clear the windscreen enough to drive. It was the smell however that was the most shocking.  A pelican diet consists primarily of fish.  R and I stood looking at the car in dismay whilst the tweens on the fence were laughing at us like hyenas!  After a while we had to bite the bullet and drive home though and the smell was simply phenomenal, it literally permeated the whole car.  At one stage I can remember we stopped at traffic lights and even the people waiting to cross the road started gagging and pointing at our car.  We now know why that car spot was empty.

Incident 2

The second pelican poo incident, yes there are two.  Be grateful, I have taken the fall for a lot of people as surely the odds of this happening must be rare!  Anyway, this event took place on the little one's third birthday.  For his present we gave him a lovely new bike and in order for him to try it out I took both boys to Manly, to ride to Shelly beach and back.  Along the way I stopped to answer a phone call, simultaneously a Pelican perched above answered a different kind of call, all over me.   Once again it was the smell, but this time it was in my hair, down my shirt, it was everywhere.  I had to walk another 2 k or so back to the car dry retching the entire way.  When we finally got back to the car I took off my t shirt and drove home in my bra.  By that stage I was completely over it and beyond caring what I looked like.   Pelican Poo Incident 2 has taken a little while to get over but over it I must be as I still love Pelicans.  

I even have this fabulous one at the front door!

One man's trash is another man's treasure!

A cliche, but oh so true in my case!  It is council clean up in my neck of the woods at the moment and I have been very busy street shopping.

The lamp and shade I found at the bottom of our street when I was out for my evening run with the Captain.   The Captain is such a gentlemen that he carried it all the way back up our street for me.  His father's reaction was not so genteel.  Nevertheless, it is here to stay, especially now that I have discovered it is in perfect working order.

This divine split cane shelf was just a few houses up from ours and was filthy but look how beautifully it has cleaned up.  The little wooden boat on the bottom shelf is from the same rubbish pile and is so sweet.  It was handmade by someone, probably many years ago and is just too precious to end up in landfill.

I have been on the eye out for bedside tables for the spare room and I can't quite believe that I managed to find such a fabulous one on the street.  Now I just need to find something interesting for the other side of the bed.

I often have people visit and ask me where I found bits and pieces in the house and invariably the things that I get asked about are the items that I have scavenged from the kerb, inherited or are op shop finds. The greatest pleasure I get from street shopping though is the feeling of rescuing something beautiful or interesting from ending up in landfill.  It is the ultimate in revamping, reusing and recycling!

Things I regret....

Years ago R and I lived in a fabulous art deco apartment in the heart of Tamarama.  It was a fantastic, breezy apartment in the most amazing location, just moments from the spectacular cliff path that meanders along the eastern suburbs beaches.   In the eat-in-kitchen, the owner had painted an entire wall with blackboard paint.  On this wall we would scribble notes to each other, write out the shopping list and so on.  One day a flight attendant friend popped over to visit us with her then boyfriend who was an up and coming artist.  On our blackboard wall he drew the most amazing chalk drawing of our apartment building and the airport, planes flying in and out and so on!  We were flight attendants after all!  His wonderful mural then remained up on the wall until the day we moved out.  A sad day, but the Australia's Next Top Model contestants, who lived in the apartment underneath ours drove us away with their incessant partying!

Fast forward to today, my friend married her up and coming artist boyfriend and he is no longer up and coming, in fact he has been a finalist for both the Archibald and the Wynne Prize a number of times, two very prestigious art awards, and he is well and truly a success.

My regret?  I never even took a photo of his amazing chalk drawing!  But, I can say that for about 6 months I had an original Alexander McKenzie on the wall in my dining room.

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My other regret?  That we didn't actually buy one of his paintings way back when we could actually afford to!  His paintings are breathtakingly evocative.  Landscapes that are vast and timeless and hauntingly beautiful.   Just imagine for a moment that you had one hanging on your wall and the feelings that it would inspire in you on a daily basis!

If you are in Sydney,  Alex has an exhibition coming up in May at Martin Browne Fine Art in Paddington.

The new Koskela showroom!

Yesterday the Captain and I stumbled across the most fabulous place, the new Koskela showroom in Rosebery!  He had an appointment at the studio next door and as we walked past I caught a glimpse inside the converted warehouse space and I was instantly captivated!  It is full of the most spectacular treasures and is well worth the visit.   As the lovely FF would say:

"run, don't walk people!"

Loving these vintage birdies!!!

The most exquisite bed linen for children that I think I have ever seen!

The Captain's croissant came to him literally straight out of the oven! His review... delicious!

We will be back, the Captain is hankering after one of the embroidered tree house doona covers!  

All of this wonderfulness is at:

Koskela 1/85 Dunning Ave Rosebery   

My two whirlwinds of destruction and mayhem!

I know, they look innocent enough and thankfully most of the time they are, when they get up to mischief however it can reach levels of unprecedented destruction.  The most recent incident of fairly catastrophic proportions happened a few weeks ago.  I am only really ready to talk blog about it now.

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We eat out regularly.   R and I love food and dining out and we are hoping that by exposing the boys to some fabulous restaurants and dining experiences we are doing our bit to raise them as little gourmands.  Perhaps we have even been a touch too smug about our little foodies that happily join us at the table, quietly colouring in or reading whilst we scan the menu and savour the wine list.  All smugness has been abandoned however in the aftermath of our first dining out disaster and it was at one of the most spectacularly located restaurants in Sydney, Le Kiosk at Shelley Beach

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A lovely little restaurant located literally metres from the sands of Shelley Beach.  It really is the most picturesque location and the restaurant itself is definitely a bit more sophisticated that your average neighbourhood restaurant which makes what happened even more mortifying!

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So... as we entered the restaurant R and I waited at the door to be seated and the boys were just behind us.  As I was saying to the waiter... booking under the name of ****** I caught they boys out of the corner of my eyes making their way over to the mirrored wall that runs the length of the restaurant behind all the tables.  Presumably to reflect the view for any diners not facing out towards the spectacular view... but before the waiter had even managed to look up our reservation disaster struck: 

The boys were making faces at themselves in the mirror.

The Captain picked up the little one.

The little one howled in protest and kicked his feet off the wall.

Everything started to move in slow motion, yet Ross and I were paralysed with horror.

The Captain fell sideways into a table set for four.

The table teetered and then tipped over.

A chair quickly followed it.

Both boys fell to the ground.

Four sets of cutlery, glassware and crockery hit the floor.

After the initial crescendo of crashing glassware and smashing crockery, the silence was deafening.

The kitchen staff came out to see what happened.

Time started to accelerate suddenly for some reason.

Both boys emerged from the scene of destruction completely unscathed despite all the hazards they were surrounded by. 

The little one started to cry.

The Captain walked out of the restaurant tears dripping and marched straight across to the far side of the beach (well out of reach of everyone!)

R whispered to me out of the corner of his mouth, "we need to leave immediately!"

I curtly announced out of the corner of my mouth, "definitely not, we need to order up big time and leave a massive tip!"

And, that's exactly what we did. To the credit of the staff they were amazing, Ross and I tried to clean it all up but we were ushered straight to a table and wisely handed a wine list.  A soothing glass of wine later and an apology to the staff from Nicholas and I felt (a little) better.  The meal we had was excellent and the service, considering what had happened was impeccable.  I highly recommend it, just make sure you have a meal during daylight hours to take advantage of the magnificent setting and maybe don't tell them that we sent you!

John & Ginger in Freshwater

Home Beautiful arrived yesterday and as I was quickly flicking through,  as I won't have time to properly read it until after Dec 11th or when the majority of the work will be finished,  I was captivated by this image:

I was so enamoured of it that first thing this morning, ie. after I dropped the Captain off at school, I raced over to Freshie to have a look.  I was desperate to get those blue and white cushions as well...

mmmmm, look how lovely they are! 

Imagine, my disappointment when I found out that they were sold yesterday.  Some smartypants obviously got their copy of Home Beautiful before I did...

Nevermind, the trip to John & Ginger was well and truly worth it.  It is one of the most beautiful shops that I have ever visited and the owner is just gorgeous.