Christmas Lanterns

When you spend a lot of time on pinterest, your list of 'Things To Make or Do' becomes quite long, and after seeing pictures of beautiful Christmas lanterns, I knew I needed one ... or two.

 There were plenty of white and silver lanterns in the shops, but I wanted something a little more rustic that would match the colours of my house.  I finally found some white-washed timber lanterns at Eureka Street.  To make them Christmasy, I added fake snow $2 from Overflow, a mini wreath $2 from Overflow, and battery operated Real Safe Candles.

The candles are great.  They look like real candles as they are made from wax but are battery operated LED, so I don't have to worry about leaving real candles burning unattended and the timber lanterns won't catch fire.  Even better, I bought the remote control for them, so I press either the 4 or 8 hour timer and they turn themselves off.  How good is that?  I also used rechargeable batteries.

Here's how they look at night.

Just one thing about candles made of wax.  When you leave them behind glass on a 40 degree Brisbane summer day, they melt!!!!  They are fine in normal temperatures but 40 degrees was just too much.

To see more Christmas decorating, please visit my new blog DIY Decorator

Silver Hearts Giveaway

I have some beautiful silver tin hearts as a giveaway to say thank you.

I started blogging on May 16, 2011. This is my 170th post in the past 18 months.  In that time I have met (either online or in person) some amazing people and fellow bloggers.  I became addicted to pinterest, then instagram, and I got diagnosed with MS.  A pretty big 18 months.  A couple of weeks ago my blog was hacked.  It was so stressful that I was about to hit the big delete blog button, but I realised how much blogging and the blogging community means to me.  Instead I asked Katrina from The Media Maid to give this blog some love and weave her magic, so now I have a fresh new look.

Throughout this time the kindness and support I have experienced has been amazing, so I want to say thank you to you all.  I'm not a big business blogger, so this giveaway is not sponsored.  I saw these tin hearts in Pillow Talk and bought them especially as a thank you present.

One is a small loop of hanging hearts - there are 3 small hearts and three large hearts hanging from jute strings (see above).  The second item is a garland of hearts about 90cm long with 5 small hearts and 4 big hearts.  I like hearts.

There are no strings attached to this giveaway.  Well there are strings attached to the hearts but not the giveaway.  To enter just leave a comment below.  If you'd like to be my friend on facebook, or stay in touch via email, google+ or instagram, then that's great - I love the friends and community there.

Thank you all from the bottom of my heart.

Entries close Sunday 18th November.  I will notify the winner on Monday 19th November.  Entries are for Australia only due to postage.

Sharing this giveaway at Aussie Giveaway Linkup

Fab Finds for Five Dollars

Hello lovely ladies,

Well you can't get much for $5 anymore can you?  Maybe a cup of coffee?  In the past couple of weeks, I've stumbled across a few things that I think are pretty fab for less than $5.  

Wrought iron bird garden stake. $5 - Bunnings

Hanging chalkboard sign.  Reduced from $10 to $5 - Typo

Mini chalkboard hanging signs $1.95 - Wheel & Barrow

Clearly with all that chalkboard, you need chalk $2.95 - Typo

I love these glossy laminated white board lever arch files for sorting out the paperwork $2 each - Officeworks

and to make them stylish, these Martha Stewart adhesive bookplates, slightly over budget at $5.49 for 3 - Officeworks

Finally to get into the Christmas spirit, a DIY Christmas cracker set complete with bad jokes, less than $3 - Spotlight.

So there you go, you can still find some fab things for less than 5 dollars.  If you've found any bargains lately, please share them with us.  At this time of year I'm always looking out for stocking fillers and small gifts.

Sharing at Savvy Southern Style, Home Stories AtoZ

Vintage finds in the Barossa

Just wanted to share a couple of little vintage finds from the Barossa.  We went to a few antique shops and there were lots of things I would have liked to buy that simply wouldn't fit into my weekend size suitcase, but here's a couple of things that did .

This is a small square of tissue paper that would have been used to wrap around the oranges.  Imagine that - beautifully wrapped oranges grown in Australia.

I've popped it in a frame.  Now I have to decide where to hang it.

 This is a selection of vintage postcards - there's The Round Church, Cambridge; The Round Tower and Edward III tower at Windsor Castle and Edinburgh Castle.  There was a whole box of vintage postcards, but I chose these as they are all places I have been to.

And this one with the rippled edges is the Parma Baptisery in Parma, Italy.  We stopped in Parma when we drove from Lake Como down to Tuscany.  It was very hot and we ate a great big plate of Parma ham, as you do in Parma!

Finally I picked up this small rusty key, which fits in the keyhole of my great great grandfather's chest.  It doesn't work but I always wished I had a key for the key hole and now I do.

Enjoy your week. Spring has arrived in Brisbane and it's time to switch the jeans for skirts and dresses.

Online Decor Magazines

I use to be a complete magazine addict.  I would regularly buy all sorts of home decor magazines, and I still do buy some from time to time, but I find myself more and more reading blogs and online magazines now.  They are free and get delivered straight to your inbox.

Here are some online magazines I've found (click on the name for a link)

Adore Home Magazine

A Brisbane based Australian decor magazine

Ivy & Piper

Another Australian magazine with a worldwide feel.

Tickle The Imagination

A lovely Australian craft magazine

Heart Home Magazine (UK)

Pretty homes from the UK

Covent Garden

I think this one is Canadian - really nice.

For a little dose of Scandinavia try 1 by Fryd

The Party Dress
This is more of a dining & entertaining magazine, but still very pretty.

There's a round up of some other US and Canadian online magazines at Decor Happy blog here. (Includes Rue, Est, Matchbook, Anthology, Nesting Newbies, High Gloss and Lonny)

If you go to the issuu web site, you can browse loads of online magazines.  Do you read any of these magazines or know of any others?  Please share, I'd love to know.

The French Corner, Newmarket

I was meeting a friend for coffee who lives on the northside of Brisbane, so we decided to meet at The French Corner, 240 Enoggera Road, Newmarket.  I had driven past the shop a couple of times and had wanted to have a look inside.

This is out the front of the shop.  Look at those beautiful lanterns.

Want to come inside?

Beautiful table displays.

So many lovely decor pieces.  There is just so much stock in the shop.

French armchairs

Cushions and pillows

The most amazing lights.  There is a whole room full of lamps and chandeliers.

and French style furniture.

I would love to tell you about the people who run the shop, but the whole time I was there - a good 5 minutes, I didn't see anyone.  I could hear somebody out the back, but nobody was in the shop.  In any case, if you're on the north side of Brisbane and love all things French, then it's well worth a look.

If you're after a coffee, walk down to the hardware store, only 100 metres away and follow the painted footsteps to the back of the store.  There you will find a quirky little gift shop that sells cakes and coffee.  My friend and I sat on the back balcony.  You would honestly never know it was there.

PS - Sorry the photos are small.  For some reason Blogger will only let me change the size of the first 2 photos, then I can't change the others.  Who knows?

Love Home Cushions

Last week I met some friends for lunch at Hawkins Nursery.  After lunch, I had a stickybeak through the gift shop and found these lovely cushions.

I originally intended to put them on the leather sofas in our back room.

The problem is, that a very cheeky schnoodle called Gus seems to think he's allowed to sleep there during the day.

As he has a habit of doing this ...

I have decided that I might be better putting the cushions on my French sofa in the hallway.

Much safer option.