I Love A Rainy Day in Sydney

Why is it on the weekend when you'd expect to sleep-in you awaken at 5am, that's not normal.

Though for me, recently it does seem so. A downpour which is so synonymous with England brought me out of my slumber. It's one of those lashings-of we do need in this sunburnt country, specially our garden, the edges of which are a dusty track paced by our beautiful blue heeler, well.. she's actually a cross of some kind.

Likely to be part greyhound and the rest blue heeler, she's fast and tall. Nicknamed SB for sapphire blue and referred to as the high heeler, cos she's legs to her undercarriage.

Nuf said, I don't feel guilty about sitting aside the computer scrawling this as its pouring cats 'n dogs outside. Just love it, hearing the water make its way down the rocky ridge into the little kerbside brook, the same one that yields many a croaking frog nightly and which just the other day gave sustenance to an unusual animal. 

On glancing at it we thought it was a rat, bush rat, no, a snake not reddish brown, no a lizard not that either, a bandicoot, no.

So out came the big guns, out nautical nockulars, binoculars which revealed it to be a bird, so was it a baby black cockatoo. No an eagle with a curved beak. It was waddling like a parrot and had a long tail, spikey brown and blonde tinged jagged feathers.

This one called for an internet search, a 2nd hand book store bird book rifle through, eliminating kiwi kakas, bourkes parrots, ground parrots. Our one grazed on seeds and crickets by the brook (ditch) and disappeared back into the undergrowth.

Random google word pheasant. It was.. an australian pheasant, never seen one before, but I'm sure it will keep good company with the bush turkey and wake up birds that live nearby.

Thanks to Ness for including my Bus Roll in this Treasury found this morning.

Whilst adding favourites to my blogslist I happened across uppercasegallery and a new book A Collection a Day by Lisa Congdon this is very cute. So to all those collectors, do take a peek. Am loving the industrial typography signs and numbers featured within the pages.

Black letters, stencils, linen and lampshades are nicely combined and a unique use of a grain sack as the latter has such appeal. There's a fair bit of cupboard love also for Sandy's painting prowess. 

Having spent a fair few years calling Amsterdam my base I adore the gracht houses. In the early years the owners of the canal houses were taxed on the width their house took up overlooking those famous cobbled canal streets. 


They therefore kept their houses narrow, reducing their tax bill. Most were merchants of the East India Trading companies importing from asia. My eye was drawn to these delightful jewelry stands from polli They have been inspired by the cute frontages of these Amsterdam Icons.

I really like the industrial lighting over the kitchen bench here with its low sheen aluminium finish. I've been looking for lights of this type and have searched retro sources in Holland and the US  in the categories school lights, lights upcycled from loudspeakers, ships lights, cargo hold lights some are originals from cargo ships. These go so well in this space: Picture 

When I talk about industrial casual or cottage industrial, this is what I mean. 

The S strung up in the image reflects my passion to a "T" or should that be an "S". 

Sibella Court is a whirlwind of style, with projects going on across the globe, she's a true traveller and has alot of her inspirations documented on thesocietyinc 

It's an Alladins cave of collections and a great way to soothe ones eye with candy to die for.

To conclude todays post I found this adorable and informative combination of black and white, chalkboard and typography which has made my morning here created by Pia Jane Bijkerk and Eric Loechner for Street Cred.

Vintage and White Floors

Back in the blogosphere and with a couple of inspiring interiors to get your springtime off to a jumpstart. I love searching for inspiration and am loving the vintage pieces here. The colonial windows are a great backdrop.

A had a chandelier a couple of years back... it was a chalk drawing I put onto a blackboard wall by my phone. Kasey's one has lovely ruffles. A couple of weeks ago I didn't really get ruffles, but now they've taken over my psyche.

Standard lamps are back, just found in 2nd hand shops and painted a chalky white, dress it up with a stylish retro fabric shade. Shall get my paint out next and try this at home.

Home pictures in large white mattes and chalky white frames set above one another are just fine here. You can get free software online to create vintage effects and run your images through their series of actions to achieve an aged and interesting style.

This trolley table reminds me of one my family had when I was little very vintage. My son's school is undergoing renovations and I saw a couple of school trolleys with the large wheels in a skip. They would look great in an industrial style interior. Schools across Australia are benefitting from government grants for renovations and it would appear they are throwing out alot of what would be considered junk. So with many of you liking the industrial style that is so inner city, just check out your suburban schools for special finds.
                                             

Cloches are so making a comeback, atop a cupboard, awaiting use. Try them with fairly lights inside. A flower sculpture or feathers. Vintage papers cut and displayed are fun too under a cloche.

My hatboxes are in the garage on a shelf, why does my stuff end up in the garage,its coming right back in and being displayed.

The risers on the staircase have been painted white. Must remember to put that on my to do list. My stairs are a bit worn and could do with smartening up.

Theres a very sweet white wooden shelf that looks well placed amongst all the assembled white frames with black and white pictures. For more info and photography techie advice visit kaseybuick.com she's apt at apertures and has a wonderful blog.

A novel use for a nursery seed box, planter box or... is it a green grocers fruit box.! is to set several vertically for a well placed shelf. I'm always dumping items on the steps as a reminder to take things up or down to their designated spots.

The assembled frames white or otherwise has such appeal.

Maybe considering doing something with your bathroom, it can cost a fortune. But just add a few items like replacement fawcets / taps and matching towel rail and glass shelf brackets and you have the fundamentals of a quick spruce up.

What caught my eye, was the bench used as a coffee table, I have one up in my dining area. It frequently gets placed in the lounge as a book table, has been used one side of the dining table as bench seating and now sits in the sun next to colonial windows with my black linen cushions on it. There's a use for that old school industrial trolley, painted and then sanded back to give it some character.

Am loving the french boudoir chair / dining chair, with it's closely set button upholstery. Am off to the garage where half my beautiful old furniture sits. There's an armoire being used as storage for life jackets and camping gear. It's coming straight back in to my dining area. I'll give it a primp (will have to clean it up) and bring it back to life for some household prettiness.