My new duvet cover?

I think after having the same duvet cover for the last 5 years (and still going strong thanks Cath), I  have found two options from Country Road's latest drop - what you think? Maybe I need both...

Gift Fair Treats

Just thought I'd show you a few of the treats I got at the Gift Fair, well these are the things I bought home, still more to come on order!...

These cute little bowls (from General Eclectic) are actually dipping bowls but I got them to be my new desert/cereal bowls as I'm going to focus on controling my portions!

  

I thought theses little milk jugs were so pretty (obviously from the same place). I got these (and the bowls above) for wholesale plus 20% discount so I was super pleased. One for me (the yellow) and two for the gift cupboard.

And then these little candlestick holders (obviously I haven't bought any candles yet) but these are quite popular here in little old Hamilton (lots of our friends have them) so I thought I'd make the most of getting them at wholesale prices while I could.

 

ps. I even took the photos with my big camera!

pps. Finally a blog post!

Dandelion Tile

LOVE LOVE LOVE these tiles from Claesson Koivisto Rune. I was in two minds about posting these because part of me thought I'd keep them secret so I could have them for my dream home and then no one else would know about them. But then I realised that they would sit in my 'virtual scrapbook' for about 30 years because at this rate that's how far away I am from building my dream home.

So, I will share...

I know this wasn't quite the big 'return to blogging' post I had imagined in my head....but it's a return...and a (second) start!

xx

Owl update

So after I posted the Sicily/Owl blog I then discovered two more owls without even meaning too! I was at Sam's house in Birmingham, finished my mug of tea and popped it on the bench to be washed and what did I see:

 Then I was walking down the hallway and I noticed this little guy in the plug socket!

And then spotted these super cool owls in Selfridges.

Just thought I'd give you a little update - owls on the brain!

48 hours in Sicily

I thought following the London update I'd give you a little Sicily update.

It was such a great weekend! To be honest, getting there was pretty tough....went to bed at 11.30pm on the Friday night for a 3am Saturday morning wake up to get to our 6am flight. Had a bit of a rush to get through the gates and a minor passport incident with one of the gang but eventually we got ourselves onto our Ryanair flight. Basically we were all separated (first in first served for seats), crammed in like cattle and super tired in the most uncomfortable seats. It didn't help that we had three Sicilian/East London geezers sitting in front of us who got louder with every vodka they ordered! Anyway....not to start off on too much of a negative....when we arrived it was all worth it. We went from rainy cold UK (left) to sunny warm Sicily (right) - Bliss!

We picked up our rental car, dropped our stuff at our gorgeous old school opulent hotel, Grand Hotel Des Palmes and then raced to Cefalu - about an hour away from Palermo where we were staying. After such a terrible NZ summer and a very cold and wet 2.5 weeks in England it was SO nice to lie on the beach till after 5.30pm. Of course the boys (Sam and Jerry) couldn't sit still for long and first purchase was a ball for 'Two Touch'.

After soaking up the sun for a good couple of hours the boys decided to try and get to the top of the mountain (viewed in the image above) however the girls (Ange, Kristi and I) decided it was time for shopping and wine. We wandered up to the little village, browsed the shop and then found the cutest little cubby hole sized balcony at the back of a shop where we relaxed in the evening sun with some local sicilian wine. Seriously. Amazing. We just kept pinching ourselves - exactly 12 hours before we were tired, grumpy, cold and rained on - sitting on that balcony we felt like we'd been away a week!

A few more pics from Cefalu - beautiful old European architecture gets me every time finished up with dinner at a restaurant on the water watching the sun set.

The next day was more of the same - another beach - this one with sun loungers and then a 'cultural excursion' to Erice - a medieval mountain top town. This was the scene of many photo ops and a million 'view' shots. It was also where (luckily) Sam was still able to get data roaming so that he could get minute by minute updates of the Man City/Newcastle game that he was missing (Man City won thank goodness). It was quite windy up there but wind is fine when it's warm!

Every time I'm in Europe I fall in love all over again with the detail everywhere. I didn't take nearly enough pictures (surprise surprise!) but here are a couple of detail shots.

And I seem to have developed an owl obsession since my NZ owl purchase! Look at these (vintage I assume) super cute owls I found in the hotels display cabinet and then spotted a whole bunch of souvenir owls at the airport! I'm regretting not buying one now but at the time 8 euro was too much!

Anyway, that's the Sicily update. We didn't have a lot of time to focus on the creative aspects of Sicily as we were too busy sun worshipping but overall verdict was beautiful island, lots of rubbish, great beaches for those on limited time (apparently the really great beaches are on the other side of the island), ok food, great wine and crazy drivers.

I'm tired so I'll wrap this little update up now! Will aim to do Met Ball pics tomorrow.

x

pretty pretty food shoot

Just before I forget...I've had these images sitting in my 'blog' folder for so long that when I went to go and do this blog post I realised I've lost the reference to where I found them!!! So, I have no idea who did this gorgeous food shoot (can the blog get sued?) but I wanted to get them up here to show you. So I'm just going to post them anyway for now and then when I find the link I'll update this post.

How pretty though?!

48 hours in Londontown

What a whirlwind in my beloved London. I had 48 hours to cram in as much as possible....and I think I managed to do that, mainly thanks to the lovely Ange, Ellie, Matta and Boris Bikes! Friday was spent re-orientating, eating and shopping in the Regent St/Oxford Circus area. Friday night was spent at a quaint-but-cool pub in Westbourne Grove. Saturday was an early start - we picked up our first set of bikes at 9.30am and proceeded to race along Regents Park up to Primrose Hill. 31.5km and 9 hours later we arrived back home! Such an amazing day and the best way to see the whole lot of London in a very short time!

Our route was Maida Vale - Primrose Hill - Camden Town - Exmouth Markets - Broadway Markets - Columbia Road - Spitalfield Markets - Liverpool St - Blackfriars - Big Ben - Chelsea - Sloane St - Hyde Park - Maida Vale. We biked along tiny streets, parks, canals, the Thames and 4 lane highways (scary!!!).

I should have taken way more photos but here were 6 good things I did manage to take (iphone) pics of!

1. The beautiful view of Londontown from Primrose Hill. I only had about 30 seconds to take some photos before a crazy man started talking to us and we swiftly left.   


2. Ellie and Matta on Primrose Hill. Two of the best people to go adventuring with.


3. Mozzarella at Broadway Market - £3 and delicious! In NZ this would have been about $30 (I spent my day saying "In NZ this would cost....")


4. More barrels of deliciousness at Broadway. The pesto was SO YUMMY (we bought some to take home).


5. Lunch at Broadway. Ange and I shared burger/fish'n'chips telling ourselves this was our reward for all the biking. Really yummy and made even funkier with a 'rainbow' filter on the iphone.


6. Ange and I on the bikes (already shared on FB i know!) but this was taken at Columbia Road Flower Markets but on the day that the markets aren't on so it was very quiet streets! I was so disappointed that my favourite homeware shop wasn't there anymore (which was the reason we went there).

Anyway, these pics don't do the 31.5km justice but hopefully soon I can get some off Ellie who is good at taking photos and has a super fancy camera. I was too busy biking and taking it all in!

My next post will be based around all the things I loved at Anthropologie! That is a post in itself!!!

geometrics never fail me...

I am continuously obsessed with geometric shapes and repetition. Found this little beauty on the Society6 website. I'm tempted to get the art print, the stationary cards and the iphone case...overkill?

Beautiful sand paintings

I was reading a new blog this morning called Brandflakes for Breakfast and they featured the beautiful sand paintings of Andres Amador. I had to share, they look so majestic! I love artwork that uses the local environment (remember I used to be obsessed with Andy Goldsworthy at tech).

The making of a vase...

I stumbled across this online the other day. So beautiful! It makes me want to start being creative in a 3D way.

Found here.

Painting with shadows

I really love this shadow art by Rashad Alakbarov from Azerbaijan. I can't find a website for him personally but I found it at Design Fetish which is a cute design website. I particularly like the city scapes.

Final thoughts on Angelina's leg

Pip sent this to me yesterday. In the spirit of the Oscars this was too good not to share.

Image found here

Oscars: Catie's Best & Worst

OK, I've been obsessively looking at all the Oscars coverage and I thought I'd tell you my top pics for best dressed.


My top 2 faves:
Gwynnie in Tom Ford. Beautiful! Very regal. LOVE LOVE the cape. She said "This is my Jackie O moment."

Michelle in Louis Vuitton. Love all the layers and the coral and the detail. Oh to be that skinny. Sad that she didn't win although you could never complain about being beaten by Meryl.

Other faves: 
The Red Heads. Loved Emma Stone (L) in Giambattista Valli (haven't heard of this one before). I think the bow by the neck is beautiful. Also thought that Ellie Kemper (R) from Bridesmaids looked gorgeous in her Armani Prive dress - she called it 'glittery rust' and I love that it matched her hair!

 
Penelope Cruz (L) looked like a princess in her Armani dress. Old school Hollywood glamour. And Meryl (R) in Lanvin - some people loved and some people didn't but I thought she looked stunning. I cried when I watched her speech and I've not even seen 'The Iron Lady' yet. She is one of the good ones I reckon.

And my worst:
Angelia Jolie looked awful! Terrible dress on her, terrible hair and don't even get me started on that stupid leg! Apparently it now has it's own twitter page which is actually quite funny - the latest tweet is "Left leg and I talked -- everything's cool. Next Oscars, she gets the slit."

What are your faves Pippy? Look forward to your picks!

beautiful colour

Love love love this textile art from Jane Denton

valentine inspiration

happy valentines day darling pippy! a bit of beauty and valentines day inspiration for you!

i found this at super swoon but they found it here at small talk studio.

best buy: cute teal sandals

best buy of the week! only $5! bought from the place where everyone gets a bargain! ange bought three pairs (teal, black, white) and i just got the one (teal) but might go for the black too. (ps. do you like the cute silver nail polish? it's orly)

hello!

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