If I were to go 'holidaying'...

..this would be my wardrobe. Or the wardrobe I would dream of wearing, at least. Lanvin's latest resort collection from genius Alber Elbaz (and I usually don't give too many hoots about who designs what and bla bla bla). Kooky and pretty and a little bit Frida Kahlo.

I adore the jewel-like colours of turquoise and sapphire with not-so-plain black


Acid-green + gym shoes suddenly seem like a good idea




Those prints! My god, those prints...

Elephant Boy

St Pat and I have been taking a heck of a lot of photos of late, so I'll stick them up with appropriate commentary and that should get the mojo back..


Last week, us three bundled up and went up to Bowral to visit Pat's lovely mother. The Southern Highlands are just beautiful this time of year, but, mild-weathered coast-dweller that I am, I'm not used to the cold. However, this means that I have an excuse to wear my favourite coat of all time (a $20 op-shop splurge. I remember being hesitant due to the hefty price tag; thank the gods that good sense prevailed). To date, the only other place it has seen frequent wear is mid-winter France.


We (well, I - Pat and his mum have part-anti-freeze blood, and Baboushka was swaddled in so many layers she resembled a beach ball) braved the icy cold and walked into town to Elephant Boy, a marvellous cafe with book-lined walls and coffee served in bowls.


We also journeyed to The Cheese Store for some raclette (yay, winter!), and I did a bit of thrifting (sadly, not much was uncovered, just a few books).

Back at the homestead, we got cosy in front of the old stove and drank tea and knitted and chatted and ate sticky date cake from the Gumnut Bakery (apparently, their motto is "Life's short - eat dessert first". Ah, a bakery after my own heart!)




We'll be back there next week - I'm working at the Bowral Art School for the first time. Good God I hope they have powerful heating..

Pat's back!

Hurrah! My better half has returned from a week in New Zealand, what a lovely relief. Not least is the relief that he doesn't appear to have swine flu! I'm not one to buy into hype, but now that there's a wee baby in the house I'm discovering the world of maternal paranoia.

Anyway! To lessen my envy at his getting to go to lovely NZ without me (not that a week with only Babushka and I was not Awesome Girl Time), he got me a fabulous book - At Home: A Century of New Zealand Design, which I've been perusing oh so lightly while I wait until I have a cup of Earl Grey and good, quiet hour during which to devour it.
(the Mrkusich House)
(a Garth Chester chair)

Pat's stories of tiki torches in the workplace, rainy weather and a chain of vegetarian restaurants (how do we not have this in Australia?!) have only further ignited my curiosity and possible desire to move there. As has the recent discovery of a handful of great blogs from NZ:

Anemone
craftwerk
etsy-love
HOME New Zealand
hyena in petticoats
juniper
lily's make believe
ruby in the dust
So Tread Softly...
Swonderful
the design alphabet
world sweet world

So many crafty, talented New Zealanders! It's enough to make a girl want to up and emigrate, build a studio and spend the rest of my days painting and knitting and sewing and printing and embroidering... Although the creative juices aren't really flowing at the moment, these blogs are feeding that little part in the back of my brain that is storing ideas for when I finally have both time and brainpower to bust out and get my craft on. It'll be choice, bruh!

Narooma

Last weekend, we three jumped in our rickety old Ford and headed south (again!) to Narooma. We stopped off at Jervis Bay on our way down, to break up the trip a little bit..

It was Pat's grandfather's 80th birthday. We had lunch at the Tilba Valley vineyards,

(Anouk wore her lovely dress and little pantaloons from Eternal Baby - it's always fun to have an occasion for her to wear something prettier than the baby chesties and nappy pilchers she gets about in when we're at home)




afternoon tea at Pat's grandparents' farm,



and went to Bar Beach the next day. I was extremely cranky at myself for forgetting to pack my swimmers :(

Birthday!

What better way to begin a new blog than with a birthday?!

Okay, so today is not strictly my birthday. Or in any way other than strictly. But I'm ignoring that fact and my first post is about the celebration of my recent natal anniversary, with pictures to go with it...

Last weekend, our little family journeyed south to my Dad's holiday shack at Jervis Bay...

I was hoping to teach babushka to swim, but we didn't get past dipping her tiny toes in the water.

Her dad wrapped her up so she was cosy and happy again...

...and then she got her hand caught in my messy hair, but we made it look as though we were having loads of fun.

Just cute.

And I got a Pantone mug for my birthday (colour 337C)! I love it far more than a person should love a kitchen item...