Hissy Fit!

B's room prior to this mornings Hissy Fit.

Ben's room after Hissy Fit!!

And yes, that is every item of his clothing pulled out and lying on the floor.

I love three year olds!!

Lulu DK Interview at Pioneer Linens

Here's the interview, enjoy.....

Lulu DK bedding at PioneerLinens.com

Lulu DK Interview

Jotham McCauley from Pioneer Linens emailed me last night with a link to a very interesting interview with New York Designer Lulu DK in their showroom. She talks about her inspirations and her beautiful new line of bed linen. The interview is a must see. Click here to be directed. Thanks Jotham for this wonderful link!!

Tantrums and Decisions

Today started badly but ended exceptionally well.

If you were at my local shopping centre this morning at approximately 10.00am you would have been witness to the mother of all hissy fits thrown by my normally angelic 3 year old. We were having a lovely browse in the children's section of Borders when I heard my daughter utter the fatal words... "Look Ben, a Power Ranges video!" Well that was all it took. As soon as I told him,very sympathetically, that we couldn't buy it, all hell broke loose! Needless to say I immediately vacated Borders to the staff's relief, and spent the next 2 HOURS with B. lying on the floor in the hall screaming and thrashing around like that poor, yet oh so creepy, Exorcist girl!
Luckily just prior to my having a hissy fit myself, some divine being flipped the switch and Mr Schizophrenia (as we now refer to him) came good and wondered off to play with the cat and be cute. He had a delightful afternoon but I was completely wrung out.

Needless to say when J. arrived home from work at 4.00pm I related the events of the day and then informed him that I had to leave to go to the Prep Info Evening at the local school. Knowing that this started at 7.00pm he was a little bemused but agreed cheerfully and sent me on my way.

This is where I ended up -

I spent a very cathartic 2 hours wondering around my local bookshop and drinking tea. This set me up nicely for what turned out to be the highlight of the day. Information Night!

In my area we are lucky enough to have 3 or 4 really great state primary schools and over the last few weeks all the prospective prep parents have been doing the rounds. I had pretty much decided on the school E. was going to but after a few visits I found that the school I felt most comfortable with was not the school I had chosen! This threw me into a bit of a spin as I could not quite get me head around the change. One thing I tell anyone who asks for my professional opinion on choosing schools is to go with your gut instinct. My gut was telling me to choose 'School B' over the original choice of "School A". Tonight saw me back at 'B' and I had the overwhelming feeling that this school was right for us. I was so excited as the decision was now so easy.

I'm so thrilled and can't wait to enrol E. first thing tomorrow.

This is the way I should hope everyone feels about their choice of school. No matter what they do or don't offer, ultimately you have to feel good deep in your gut that this school is right. The rest is gravy.

www.ywps.vic.edu.au

Yellow...

I love this sunny image which I found via Love Made Visable. I'm almost certain that this image is taken on the beach at Positano in Italy. It brings back memories of the summer I spent in Italy when I was 21 and my week long visit to beautiful Positano. I think this girl would look gorgeous lying on the daybed in my image of the week.

Crocodile Creek

Another new product in store this week that I'm thrilled about.

These puzzles are very high quality and have such lovely pictures on them.


I'm always on the look out for new products so please let me know if you come across anything fabulous.


Thanks to another wonderful blogger I have sourced some very special knitted rattles that should be instore very soon. Being a huge fan of the doughnut, I particularly like these ones.

My Inspiration Board

Thought I would show you a little snapshot of my inspiration board. I like to fill my board with bits and pieces of my life and little things I love. I include notes from friends, photos of my family, paintings my 4 year old does for me, scraps of fabrics I like, patterns and pictures of all sorts of things which inspire me. I like to change my board every month but sometimes there are just some things that I never remove - I just move them on the board and continue to treasure and love them.

White Inspiration

I think you all know how much I love white and when I saw the beautiful images which Jo & Kym found on The Beach Studios a little while back I immediately visited the site and I immediately fell in love with all of the beautiful white houses they showcase. I just thought I would show you a few of my favourites.

What Price Boredom

I woke up this morning to the sounds of Barbie and the Red Power Ranger arguing fiercely and had that sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach that I am sure every Mum has experienced... How am I going to entertain my children today? An empty Monday stretched before me and rather than be cooped up in the house all day with the offspring I started racking my brain for something to do that would satisfy all of us. The usuals flitted through my brain but I decided on the rash course of asking E what she wanted to do! As the words came out of my mouth I realised my folly, but to my surprise she actually had a legitimate suggestion - the local indoor play centre. Great idea. Haven't been for ages. Can have a cup of tea and feel like a good mum at the same time.
All went according to plan and I even had the added joy of being able to read my book as the kids were so engrossed and old enough not to need me. Woo Hoo! Then as I was driving home 2 1/2 hours later I realised that there must be a hole in my wallet as all my money seemed to have disappeared. On reflection I realised that my morning outing had cost me a small fortune! Entry for 2 kids $16.00 Tea $3.50 2x pop tops $8.00 2x smartie cookie $7.80 Another tea $3.50 It had cost me $40 for our little outing!!
Now I remember why I had stopped going. Compare this to last week when we visited Scienceworks for the grand total of $0.00. The kids get in free, as do I being a teacher, and we took our own snacks. Now that is a worthwhile outing and if you're lucky the kids will catch some science germs while you're there.
I'm going to start a list of cheap and cheerful entertainment starting with Scienceworks and if anyone can add to this list it would be much appreciated.
Now what on earth am I going to do with them tomorrow.....

---

Scienceworks www.scienceworks.museum.vic.gov.au
C.E.R.E.S. www.ceres.org.au
Kensington Community Playground - 'The Venny'
Melbourne Museum
Melb Zoo (If you have a membership!) www.zoo.org.au
Collingwood Children's Farm - small entry fee www.farm.org.au


The Zoo -

Straddie...

Last night we had some friends over to our beach house at Straddie (Stradbroke Island) for dinner. It was a great night with lots of fun had by all. I thought I would show you a picture of the table setting and also some pictures of our house. I love spending time here in our little beach cottage with my husband and our son. We rent the house out for holiday bookings so please email me if you are interested in renting it.

Solo At Rod Laver

WOW, what a great show. I won't bore you with a rave suffice to say that I had an absolute ball and loved every minute of my solo concert going experience thanks to a great performer and the best seat in the arena (Thank you my gorgeous friend Megs)

They didn't have any mugs but I did get a great tour poster that is rolled up waiting for some nice relative to frame for my birthday! I had all the best intentions of buying out the merchandise stand as you may recall but I made a -'not so startling, once I had thought about it'- discovery. Country music is not known for style or subtlety. Now I don't like to say a bad word about my Keith but who the hell is designing the merchandise??? Every T-shirt was black with a Massive photo of Keith covering the entire front. Now he's got a good head but who the hell wants to walk around wearing this?

The only item of apparel that was passably wearable was The Waifs tee!

And where, I ask, were the calenders, totes, Cd's etc. I did pick up a lovely pair of Monkeyville (Keith's fan club) ear rings which I turned into a necklace after getting home! Bet you wish you picked up some of these...








Here's one last shot of the Man, just for my own pleasure before I move on.

Happy Weekend!!

I'm off to Straddie for the weekend and it's starting to get cold here so we'll be rugging up in our Winter woollies; I can hardly wait!! Have a great weekend everyone.

xo
Anna

Black & Spiro Today

Just thought I would show you a few pics of Black & Spiro today. I love it when I have fresh flowers in the shop. They make me happy.

New Vintage Stool @ Black & Spiro

I love this cute little vintage stool I bought for Black & Spiro yesterday. The gorgeous multi coloured zig zag needlepoint upholstery is original and it just looks so gorgeous sitting against our zig zag wallpapered wall.

Today I'm Loving...

Today I'm loving all of these things. In particular I love the white/pink bamboo chair from Pieces and I love, love, love my new issue of Domino Magazine which arrived in the mail today and who could resist the magenta Ginger & Smart overnight bag? Oh and how could I forget that gorgeous Golden Retriever - I could just squeeze him!!

Images courtesy of Domino Magazine, Flickr, Johnny Valiant, Ginger & Smart, Sarah Kaye, Pieces & Ebay.

New @ Black & Spiro

New turquoise polka dot chair and new couture cushions at Black & Spiro this week. Lots of great feedback on the chair so far!!

Have a great weekend...

I hope you all have a lovely weekend and I look forward to sharing lots of wonderful things with you next week.

xo
Anna



Image courtesy of johhny valiant.

Sneak Peak...

Here's a sneak peak of the St. Lucia bedroom I have almost completed. I still have a few things to finish off next week. As soon as I'm finished I will post lots of photos of the completed room. Remember the blue and white chairs I posted last week? They are going into this room. Stay tuned....

Here's the picture I posted last week of the chairs at the manufacturer before they were freighted. You should see them in the room. They look so beautiful!!

Urban Girl In More Ways Than One!

The quilts are done, James has taken Ben to the park, Emma is at Kinder, so I am free to indulge in a bit of KEITH therapy!!!

For those who are lucky enough to have experienced my obsession with Mr Urban over the last few years it will come as no surprise that with 7 hours to go until the Melbourne concert I am in full boot scooting, guitar picking, yee haaing glory. My so-called friends think it is hysterical, although not surprising, that I could find no one to come to the concert with me. So I'm off for my first solo concert experience! This is probably just as well as even I am anticipating my being very embarrassing.

For a city bred girl I have always had a secret love of all things country - for that I am blaming my Dad's Glen Campbell, John Denver collection. Tammy, Dolly and Patsy have always held a secret spot in my heart and I guess now that I'm in my 30's I'm more able to handle the mocking and taunting that goes with the territory.

I fully intend to come home with every single item in the merchandise stand just to annoy everyone. The next time you pop into the shop you will no doubt find me wearing my Keith Urban tee and sipping from my 'I LOVE KEITH' mug.