Bathroom Bliss

Australians have always loved a good bathroom. That room combined with the kitchen are the 2 areas we spend the most on with our house renovations.

When it comes to bathroom design the major thing I've learnt over the years is restraint. When you're planning a new bathroom it's way too easy to get caught up in the excitement and endless choices shown at the tile salesrooms and in the glossy magazines. 

But the trick is keep it simple in terms of finishes, not too many. 

In my own bathroom I've kept the colours subtle and let the gorgeous cornices and timber mouldings do the work as visual elements. I also love to pick greenery from my garden to add some detail. 

The other thing I love to incorporate into my bathrooms are rocks. I just love the look of rocks as they get wet and change back to dry. I love having them in my basins.

This selection have travelled with me for many years and are originally from Tasmania.

My guest basin has tumbled glass rocks.

In keeping with my bathroom blog- who doesn't love beautiful soap! Especially when it's L'Occitane.

To launch the Bailey Retail Design facebook page we are asking people to "Like" and "Share".

Australian participants will go into the draw to win this gift box of soaps. The winner will be announced next Thursday 14 November. Happy clicking FB'ers!

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Bailey-Retail-Design/1431365993743335?ref=ts&fref=ts

Melbourne Cup

From lunch time onwards tomorrow don't expect to see much work happening in offices. Victorians are lucky enough to enjoy a public holiday for the big race. Tomorrow will be full of lots of bubbles, no doubt some seafood and lots of pretty hats and dresses. 

I had a friend who many years ago worked in a regional council office and she told me that every year without fail there would be people calling the switch to make sure that it was getting answered and that the council workers weren't slacking off to watch the race. Hmmm.... each to their own. Just enjoy the day what ever you're doing. 

When ever Melbourne Cup season comes around and the fashion stores start to display their head ware and fascinators etc I often see the same repetitive things. If you're a bit craft orientated this store would be right up your alley to create your own individual touch for the big day.

It's called Bead Trimming and Craft Co. It's in Stones Corner and full of eye candy for crafters. They have amazing feathers and beads and trims just as the name suggests.

This is their front threshold. They've set heaps of beads into the concrete. 

beadtrimmingcraft.com.au

Good luck if you're placing a bet!

Happy Halloween

   

It's a big day here or tonight to be precise. One of our fav's of the year. All the neighbour hood kids are off tonight to fill their bags.

Here we are at the Manly Halloween Parade last Saturday. We are supposed to be aliens, but we've been having a good laugh at all the other descriptions people are coming up with.

And my first ever pumpkin carving attempt. I started with a super simple design. I pin pricked all the outlines with the kitchen skewer. 

Then hollowed it out and cut along the punctures with a short blade knife. It was all very easy and I'll be ready to take on a more tricky design next year.

Skeleton biscuits by grandad! 

Happy Haunting little ghosts!

Eyes on the City Streets

Firstly a plug for one of my clients. Kerri Irving has just opened her own eyebrow shaping and beauty salon at Kelvin Grove in the Urban Village. She is right outside the front of the Woolworths store. Kerri is very experienced in this industry and has spent the last several years managing another brow chain.

Kerri and her family were a pleasure to work with and from the first moment with the design brief everything flowed really well. Once Kerri has settled in properly I'll get some professional pics done and post them here. Another bonus with going to Eyelure is free undercover parking just below. I know this can be a problem at other such establishments.

www.eyelure.com.au

Moving on from Kelvin Grove and into the CBD. A few Sundays ago I attended the Brisbane Open House program. It's a weekend with a lot of prominent public buildings open to the public with guided tours. It was fantastic and definitely on the calender for next year. The other lovely thing about being in the city on a Sunday was being able to look around properly without the hussle and bussle rushing by.

This is Spring in Felix St and I love the greenery and the aspect of the ornate iron work as their shopfront.

A cool sculpture at the entry.

Another store I like is the new Sumo Salad near Post Office square. It has some lovely open suspended shelves and lots of greenery to go with the healthy food concept.

I love their vertical green wall and the suspended plants.

Halloween in the air

It's beginning to feel like Halloween and this weekend we'll be putting up the decorations.

Yesterday I bit the bullet and bought my first ever proper Halloween pumpkin. I'd always wanted one, but they had been hideously expensive but the prices seem to be getting better this year. I have had a lot of emails back and forth with my Canadian friend who is a pro at carving pumpkins and has been doing so all her life. I'll post the photo next week when it's done.

This Saturday is also the big Manly Halloween Street Festival which just gets bigger and bigger every year. This will be our 8th year that my family has marched in it. Photos to come of that also.

I've always been a big fan of Martha Stewart. Check out her amazing Halloween website with pumpkin tips and so much more.

http://www.marthastewart.com/275075/how-to-carve-a-pumpkin/@center/276965/halloween

This is the beautiful Spring display that Carindale shopping centre has hanging outside of David Jones. 

It's all types of flowers hanging on fishing line.

On the subject of flowers and gardens, we're all hoping for rain. Here in Brisbane it's crackly dry everywhere. It's been weeks since decent rain, but we may be seeing a typical afternoon storm today. Everyone is watching the weather radar site.

An Art full month

It's been a creative month around here. First up is the "Brilliant" traffic box my 10 year old son painted. It's in our local area. He's a keen and very talented artist and had been on the waiting list for over a year, as the boxes are only released every 12 months. His design features the Roles Hill water towers at Manly, which are very prominent on the skyline around Brisbane. 

He had to go through the whole design process of drawing up his concept and presenting it to the organisers to get approval. Upon his allotted time period for painting he collected the big box of paints and other paraphernalia such as witch's cap and safety vests. I was his apprentice for the day and was very impressed at his patience and stamina and of course the end result. It was a long day painting and not once did he complain. He loved the whole process and wants to do another one!

It's also been baby month with lots of friends having bubs. This was a present I did for one bub. It's the boy version of the butterflies that I did for my own little girl a few years ago.

And here's the butterflies for a friend who had a little girl.

If you enjoy abit of arty farty stuff, check out my Pinterest link for other stuff I've done when I get a spare moment.

Finally, for something different "Glamping", if you don't know the term- Glamour Camping. It's all the rage and I came across this mini version for your back yard.

Bunnings have this tent. I'm sure it doesn't offer rain protection only shade, but still cute.

I think you'd be fighting the kids to use it. Hmm great cubby or afternoon siesta? 

Check out the grubby footprints!! I think a lot of people have been trying it out.

Picnic at Camp Hill

When I began my blog I made a conscious decision that I wanted to show exciting new locations or design products and if I featured a store to always do so in a positive aspect. So the other week when I was in the Martha St, Camp Hill precinct I was very excited to see the new comer- Picnic. As it turned out it was lunch time and I was with mum, so we decided to try it out.

The fitout looked exciting and inviting and my client across the road informed me that on weekend mornings the ques are out the door.

The cafe is over a split level with dining on the top side. A nice use of recycled timber featured and several other warm touches.

In the vein of being positive let me phrase my comments as such; if you are a person who enjoys a long languid brunch with extensive offerings until well into the afternoon you will be happy to see their menu. You will not mind that there are only 3 lunch items on the menu and on the day I visited one was removed at 12 noon, leaving a choice of 2 lunch meals.

If you are in a similar situation to me with children up early and you're used to breakfast at breakfast time and look forward to dining out for lunch with a reasonable choice of meals, perhaps one of the other food establishments in the Martha St precinct may be better to tickle your taste buds!

I love the picnic style cutlery holders.

The fresh herbs outside were a lovely aroma while dining.

Yes, definitely a ring of truth to the old saying about "don't judge a book by it's cover"......