the rain it falls.

relentless it falls.  quietens the mind.

calms the soul.

xx

your home is your castle.

i grew up in a beautiful house on sydney's north shore.

my mum had gorgeous taste, and everything was *always* perfect.  there were rooms we were not allowed to go into (due to putting prints in the carpet), sinks we could not wash our hands in, and god forbid we sat on our bed after mum had made it!

and, i can honestly say, that every wall in the house was painted a slight variation of the same pale blue.  or was it pale green?  doesn't matter.

i am sure that my mum comes over to our place and quietly shakes her head over the decisions we make in our space.

she wouldn't understand my decision to spend 2 hours last night attaching white ducks feathers (with fishing line) to a dirty big branch i chopped from a tree outside.

and she *definately* wouldn't understand my decision to hang it on a freshly painted wall.

and that's ok.

we love it.

i love that my kids come home from playing with their friends,..or from going to school,..or from feeding the rabbits, to find that something inside has changed.

whether it be as simple as moving furniture around.  or, painting walls,.  or hanging twigs.

nothing remains the same.

and why should it?

your home is your castle.  have some FUN with it!

paint the hallway "brothel" pink if you want.  The kitchen floor *may* look awesome painted apple green.  the lounge room wall is crying out for an ecclectic 'wall sculpture'.  the couch might just look cool against the other wall.  that old rustic trunk feels as if it could become a funky industrial coffee table.  the vase in the kitchen is crying out for a couple of gorgeous green leaves plucked from the garden.

do it.

what's stopping you?

you may not like it?  oh well.  then you can formulate more exactly what indeed you *do* like, and what works for your family and your space.

don't be afraid to attach photos / images directly to the wall with tape.  don't be afraid to bring the outside in.

don't be afraid to change it up a bit.

live a little people!  own your space!

on another note, i am seriously lusting after a barnacle.  something like this.

gorgeous, no?

love your space, friends.

(here endeth the lesson!)

jane xx

black is the new black

i love black.

i love wearing black (especially now that i am blonde again!), the business cards for my new venture are going to be black, the outside of my house is heading towards being black, carrie is black.

hmm,.. too much black?

nope.

today, i am re-painting our breezeway black.  i painted it not so long ago in porters banana-leaf.  i liked it for about 10minutes.

it is just too much colour to live with.

too cheery.

too green.

it doesn't reflect the rest of the house.  calm grey and black tones everywhere, and then 'hello green, you are hurting my eyes!'.

this is my friends house.  (i won't mention her name being the internet and all.  i will come back and rectify if she is ok with it!).  

this is honestly the most divine space i have ever seen.

the chalky, black perfection of the walls.  paired back with whitewashed floors and woodwork and mixed up with natural elements of leather, feathers and linen.

to die for.

so, today, i am going to paint our breezeway in a similar tone.  

peaceful, calm space here we come!

jane xx

eat your vegetables.

it's cold up here today.  it's also a little dreary.

so, i am inside.

at my desk.  looking at pinterest.

the view from my office is over our vegetable garden.

and, i must say, our vegetable garden is looking a little miserable.  everything is looking a wee bit straggly and unhappy.  usually by this stage of the year, i have all my winter vegetables planted.  kale, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, onions and garlic.  

hasn't happened this year.

poor vegie patch.

so, i am sitting here, moaning about the demise of my vegetable garden.  instead of going out and doing something about it, i log onto pinterest.

where there are some beautiful vegetable gardens.

hmmmmm,..  maybe i could just add some bunting to my sorry patch?  

another day.  when it isn't so dreary.

jane xx

a rose by any other name is,.. a cabbage?

my gorgeous lottie brought me home some glorious cabbage roses yesterday to use as the centrepiece for her poppy's birthday dinner.

their creamy 'petals' and the slight grey tinge to the leaves are amazing.

they are a member of the kale / cabbage family, which means that the water tends to stink after a day or so.  you can counter that though by dropping a little bleach into the vase.

i put them into a vintage, cream coloured milk jug and surrounded them with tea lights held in jam jars.

thank you princess.  they are nearly as beautiful as you.

have a great day friends.

jane xx

a family affair.

a bithdaya family affair
tonight i am hosting a dinner party to celebrate the birthday of my dear old dad.
my brother and his partner are here from interstate, and we don't often get the chance to get together for family dinners, as we live so far out of town.
i am really excited!
the boys and i will spend the day cleaning the house, digging up kipfler potatoes and picking garlic and rosemary to bake them with.  we will turn our homegrown pumpkin into pumpkin, fetta and sundried tomato ravioli.  we shall harvest bundles of tarragon to stuff, (with lemons from the tree) inside the bellies of chickens, ready to be roasted.  pick parsley, basil and shallots to garnish, and coax enough eggs from our fat brown chooks to whip into pavalova, which will be served with creme fraiche and the blackberries, raspberries and strawberries that i harvested earlier in the year and that are waiting patiently in the freezer.
we will then clean the house, set the table with our family's antique silver, some vintage china and lots and lots of candles.


happy birthday, dad.

xxx

weird and wonderful way of the world.

for months now, i have been lusting after a vintage dressmakers form.

specimens on ebay were always lost at the last minute.  divine forms found in stores were astronomically expensive.  

the universe was just not complying!

so, last week i put it out there.  blogged about it.  

and within minutes, a lovely friend sent me a message. 

she had one.

a vintage, 1950's one.

did i want it?

did i want it!

today the boys and i went to pick up 'bertha'..  she is simply gorgeous.

she looks perfectly at home in the hallway outside the office.

welcome to the family, bertha!

thank you helen, we shall take very good care of her.

jane xx

see you later, alligator!

today, i am saving my regular early morning post for a bit later on in the day.

hopefully by then i will have something lovely to share with you all.

in the meantime,

have a wander over at stylist, heather nette king's blog.

it is truly gorgeous.

i have been coveting her royal blue table for months now.  

divine.

(this was the first colour i considered using for carrie).  not perfect for carrie, but couldn't get more perfect for a country, kitchen table.  especially paired back with crisp, white, bentwood chairs and a pop of peonie rose pink.

sheer perfection!

see you all later on!

jane xx

bromley + india

last week, when i was out an about sourcing props, i happened upon the 'david bromley arcade' in danks street, alexandria.

the paintings and furnishings were incredibly beautiful of course.  

however, the highlight for me was learning that david bromley's beautiful paintings were being made into indian quilts!

look at those happy little faces smiling down at their western doppelgangers.

providing jobs in india, and making his iconic paintings into a more affordable form.  prices start from only $800!

a bromley quilt is officially on my wish list.

have a lovely day friends.

jane xx

one day. three events. three dresses.

saturday was such a massive day for me.

as usual, everything i had been invited to in the last week, fell on the same day.  thank goodness, at different times!

my plan was to come down to sydney, with a mobile wardrobe.  wear a different frock to each event (keeping boots the same to make the procedure a wee bit easier).

so, we begin.

the first 'event'(via a coffee with a girlfriend and also an auction house to photograph items for my business partner to bid on this week)was the finders keepers markets in redfern.

i wore this gorgeous, bespoke 1950's tea-dress.  handmade, with vintage fabric by the very clever rebecca over at naughty shorts.

go. and. order. one. now!

then, i was lucky enough to be heading to pia-jane bijkerks book launch over at one of my favourite shops of all time.

newspaper taxi

(if you are ever in newtown, sydney, make this store a *must visit*)

the people were delightful, creative souls.  the shop looked amazing.  the champagne was flowing.  

i wore this.

a vintage, cream lace dress from darlinghurst vintage shop zoo emporium.  with a vintage gold belt and a 'carpet' clutch purse also from zoo emporium.

i was sorry to leave that little soiree.

but leave i did.  and did a quick costume change in my car in a back lane into dress number three.

it's a vintage sari that has been cleverly converted into a kaftan from gorgeous sydney vintage store, grandma takes a trip (the altered state).  i love wearing this sparkly little number.

off to event number three at a ritzy malaysian restaurant by the water.

a fabulous, albeit exhausting day!

jane xx

today, carrie showed us her true colours.

so, you all know that i have been painstakingly restoring a cute little 1950's caravan.  i plan to use her as my office, and to run my business from her.

when we collected her from her former home, she looked like this.

we then started working on her, found lots and lots of rot and other revolting things.

and for quite a long time, as we pondered the next step, she looked like this.

we then rebuilt her walls and sanded her back.

and today, she got her first coat of 'domino' charcoal coloured paint and some slick white woodwork.

we have a long, long way to go.

but she is looking mighty cute, eh!

jane xx

let's meet up.

hello friends!

no post of any substance today.  i have so much to get through.  meetings.  meetings.  more meetings.  glass of champagne with girlfriend.  more meetings.

i am lucky in that *most* of my meetings take place in cafes around the traps.

yup.  pretty tough working in an office like this.

but, if i were to ever go back to working *shudder* in an office, i think i would be perfectly happy working here.

the selgas cano offices in madrid. 

photographed by iwan baan.

look at that pop of yellow?  divine.

anyway.  must run!

will have some beautiful images and stories to share with you over the weekend.

have a lovely day, friends.

jane xx