News. Wish me luck

Big things...scary things...and maybe really cool things are happening. Today is my last day of being a full time employee. As of tomorrow i will be officially 100% self employed. The world of high end residential architectural work has been up & down (hmmm, actually, mostly down) for a few years & i am going from full time to doing contract work with my current job. This is both scary & also maybe the push i needed to make a full time effort with my own work under MY name. My side work has been going pretty well & i ve had a steady steam of jobs that ive been doing around my full time job. 'Side' jobs no more! Now ill be able to work during the day (& not all night after an 8hr day at the office), get jobs done faster & move onto new ones & actually proactively go & put myself out there (so far all the work ive been doing has been word of mouth which of course is fantastic!) I know they say one door closes & another opens. This is my chance to make a real go of it & see if i can be my own boss 'for real'. Scary stuff with a wedding coming up & a morgage to pay, but hey you never know if you never try right? Wish me luck.

yikes!

Loving this office below & the quote on the magazine page its come from (you might have to look closely) i SO agree.maybe soon ill be able to make that amazing office im always dreaming banging on about....

Image via Heartbeatoz

console love

Am i a weirdo for having a strange love of a good console table/sideboard? Here are some of my recent fav's that all seem to be a bit monochrome (maybe with a tiny pop of colour!)

Lonny Mag

Desire to Inspire

Savvy Home

DecorPad

DecorPad

Made By Girl

Nooiiice stuff :)

Just felt like posting some random picture that make me smile today. Enjoy x

Minted Wedding Invites Winner!

Happy Monday everyone! Im still recovering after 2hrs of sleep on saturday after my friends hens night! So...i wont keep you in suspense any longer, as always, i draw my giveaways the old fashioned way - everyones names into a hat!

............drumroll please.............the winner of the 75 Wedding Invites from Minted valued at $198 from Minted is......Amanda! Who said she 'loved the Fall Carving Invites & had had her eye on them for a while'!

Amanda i will pass your details on to Minted who will be in contact with you! Congratulations!!

You will have to let me know what invites you end up going with & maybe share a wedding picture or 2 with us!

Thanks to everyone for entering - its been really fun seeing what & why people love different styles!

Hens Time!

Does this picture just make you feel like getting your best party dress on, painting your nails pink & drinking champagne!? Well thats what im doing tomorrow night! Its one of my best mates hens parties! Hope she has a great night - we are having cocktails & bubbles at our hotel & playing some games in the afternoon & then heading into chinatown for a banquet dinner at Golden Century (one of the best places in china town - its even got a chefs hat!). I spent last night making the 'funnest' playlist of music for the night - i spent a bit of time dancing around the living room - woohooo! Im off today to buy the wine for dinner & get cocktail ingredients........

Before i sign off for the weekend just a reminder to enter the Minted Wedding Invitation Giveaway - ill be drawing the winner on monday!

Divine table settings

How divine are these two table settings.

One for the brights & one neutral.

Both with lots of glassware & crystal & flowers.

swoon!

Wedding Wednesday - We have Cake!

We have now decided on our wedding cake! I have to say it was the easiest & one of most fun parts of the wedding planning so far (is that weird?). We went met Patricia from Yummy Cupcakes & Cakes & had a lovely hour looking at designs, sizes, colours & then most importantly - tasting them! I took a few photos while we were there so thought i might share them as it was really quite fun & this is the sort of thing i always used to enjoy hearing about before it was me doing it myself! Ben enjoyed it too so it was great doing something together & both finding it really easy to decide on what we wanted! Not that im going to tell you what it is! But i will say its simple & elegant.

Lots of cakes to look at!

Patricias gorgeous sideboard set up with lots of mags for inspiration & a plate of cakes to taste (& a much needed jug of water to wash them all down with!)

Now to the fun bit! Tasting them - and they were all pretty yum! The flavours included choc & white choc mud, caramel, bannana, coconut & indonesian sponge.....

and yes, we did eat them all!

By this stage all the choices had been made! (and I felt a bit ill!)

and you can see in the background the foam shapes she has so you can play with them & get an idea for size & scale of your cake - very helpful! I had also ordered a cake plate from Bountiful a few months ago so we took that along too to use it to see what would look 'right' sitting on it!

Cake = tick!

and here are some more random pictures from my inspiration files!

How gorgeous is this! Perfect if you were having a woodland theme wedding - or at a mushroom farm!

lol (sorry that was a bad joke)

Ritzy Bee

Divine, classic cake - those flowers are to die for!

Super cool!

Style me pretty

Love this mexican fiesta inspired cake! The succulents are such a great addition to it aswell.

I love the ruffly flowers on this one! Some cakes are more like a pirce of ary i think! I decided that in the end our cake was going to be like a part of our decorations!

Via Style me pretty

Tom Binns

Have recently discovered the genius of jewelry designer Tom Binns

enough said

find it on Net A Porter

Minted Wedding Invitation Giveaway!

Happy Monday Everyone! 

Thought we'd start it off with something really cool - especially for those of you who are planning a wedding (or know someone who is & would like to give them something awesome!). Soon after we got engaged i discovered Minted. Minted is an amazing website that has 100's of some of the most unique wedding  invitations ive ever seen! All their designs are sourced from independent designers all over the world who enter design challenges with them. What's great about Minted is that you have different colour options for most invites & can plug in all your information & see what it will look like before you decide on anything. WARNING - Hours & hours of time may disappear as you play with this feature! Not only do they have the invites, but all the matching items that go with them! You can check out their wedding invitations here & their save the date cards here!

Minted now ship to Australia (yay!) & are giving me 75 flat printed wedding invitations to giveaway to one of my readers (value $198)! I know from your comments that im not the only one planning a wedding at the moment, so im really excited for one of you guys to win this!

All you have to do is become a follower & then head to the Minted site & come back & tell me what your favorite wedding invite design is & why. Extra entries for sharing this giveaway on facebook or your blog (just let me know you have) Ive picked out some of my favorite designs to get you inspired!

La Fete

Midnight Vineyard

So elegant & classic - i think i love this one because it reminds me of one of my favorite things...fairy lights!

Fall Carving 

gorgeous & organic - perfect for lovers of the great outdoors

Banner & Branches.

One of my absolute favorites - this whole suite is amazing!

Lovely Knot

Modern & fresh!

Stephanie

Elegant & classic yet modern.

Jennifer

Beautiful colours & i love the lace motif. The backer pattern is pretty cool too & a great juxtaposition to the classic tone of the front of the invite!

Fracas

Fresh & Modern! I love a bit of chevron (as you might remember from our engagement invites!)

Bibliotheque

How cool is the graph paper look of this one! The illustrated look of the flowers is gorgeous & it has kind of a feminine industrial feel to it!

Winged Specimen (i loooove this one!)

Um - Divine! Not much else i can say - just beautiful!

Love & Marriage

So get to it! Head over & pick your favorite...

I will announce the winner next monday the 26th September

Immature i know....

But this cracks me up - i dont even know where i found these pictures but everytime i look at them i start laughing. Save them to your computer for when you need a laugh too ;) Happy Weekend!

Bedroom Heaven

Dont these images just beg you to make over your bedroom?? For years ive been 'thinking' about wallpapering or painting the wall behind our bed but just never got around to it...(possibly because i quite love our 'all white' bedroom with one pop of pink from the 'For Like Ever' print).....ditto to finding a huge piece of equine art! Droooolllll.....

Belle Maison

Heartbeatoz

La Belle Vie

Watch

I dont wear a watch but if i did it'd be something like this!

Get it here from Triwa

oh my mr louboutin!

mmmmmm more CL goodness!

These ones were custom made for the bride with blue soles instead of the signature red ones!. LOVE!

You know what im thinking dont you????

;)