Beautiful Shop ~ Whiteport

Beautiful Australian homewares store, Whiteport, is offering a 20% storewide discount to my lovely readers, for one week starting Monday 2nd August. Please enter coupon 'blog' at checkout. (Discount is applied before any delivery charges. Cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer). This is a great offer from the lovely Jennifer, please have a look at her store here..

Beautiful Home

Thank you so much for all your lovely comments about Bridget's party. You are all too kind about the cake! We had so much fun and it has eased a little the bittersweetness of watching my baby grow up..

Back to every day life..winter has well and truly set in here in Melbourne so when I came across this Cape Cod home I fell in love with its summery, airy feel..The house is shared by Meredith Hutchison, her four brothers and their aunt. The families often overlap their stays, with eleven children enjoying the house at one time. Sounds wonderful to me..You can read the very interesting article here..xx

All images - here

Bridget's Birthday

Bridget had lots of fun yesterday at her party..and we had lots of fun creating it..She chose a Carousel theme, inspired by her favourite movie, Mary Poppins. We made a carousel cake, carousel horse chocolates, horse biscuits, marshmellow pops and other sweet things. It only took half a day of baking and it was nice to make everything ourselves..

...although I did have a few problems, being an amateur..the cake was quite tricky..when it came to assembling and decorating I found that the top cake was too small. My spare 22cm cake tin was not 22cm.. The cake had to sit on a thin cake board right to the edges to decorate it correctly. The only thing I could think of was to turn the cake tin upside down, pad it out with playdoh and cover it with the icing! I had run out of time to make another cake..Oh dear..never again will I decide to assemble the cake just before the party..

But Bridget loved it all and no one looked too closely at the cake.. xx

A bit of quiet reflection after the party..

Dreaming of merry-go-rounds..

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday Gidgi (Bridget)! I can't believe you are 3 years old...our beautiful, precocious, funny, loving, wonderful girl. I couldn't love you any more than I do, my heart is bursting xxxxxxxxx

Architecture

If I could choose any style of architecture for my own home, it would be Georgian. The proportions, the symmetry, the decorative cornices, the large rectangular, sash, dormer windows, the framed internal doorways, the use of colour..I could go on. If you could have any style, what would it be? xx

All images - here, here, here, here, here

Beautiful Shop ~ KatyJane Designs

Katy & Jane have combined their marketing and graphic design experiences in London and across Australia to develop KatyJane Designs, stationery "with modern style but a unique twist". Their first collection is personalised children's invitations and gift tags with a modern retro twist. I ordered Bridget's birthday invitations from KatyJane and they are beautiful, perfect for her chosen Carousel theme.. Have a look at their designs here..xx

Beautiful Home

It's been a busy week..we've had a painter here - hooray! (which means some kitchen photos soon) - and I've been doing some video editing on the side for a bit of pocket money. My lovely little girls are as busy as ever and very excited about Bridget's birthday party next week..Charlotte had her first experience of gymnastics with preschool today and was very proud of herself as she walked across the balance beam several times without assistance. She can be a little sensitive (like me) so it's wonderful when she feels confident and strong. It was just a little preschool excursion, but she'll take a lot away with her from today.

Now back to the blog world..I have A LOT of catching up to do and a beautiful home to show you..This one belongs to Swedish lifestyle photographer Mari Eriksson.. Happy weekend xx

Photography

For all the budding bloggy photographers out there..and there are many of you (taking amazingly good photos I must say)..here's a blog for you. It's called Take Out Photo and is put together by Marc - a father of three, professor and photographer. Marc gives monthly tips on how to apply different effects to your photos and discusses various photography subjects. Have a look here..

Beautiful Design

Tracey Rapisardi is an American designer, stylist and retail store owner. Here is just some of her work..

Images- here and here