A few new pieces in the Etsy shop

I haven't done a big update to my Etsy shop for a while, so I've added three new pieces. Each one is very different, one of a kind, and fun. Enjoy!

Blue bloom

Blooming

Bridal headband

These ones are all finished and ready to adorn a pretty head.

100th Post Giveaway Update!

**There was a bit of confusion with the Giveaway instructions. The Giveaway post has been updated with new instructions scroll down to check them out. Thanks for your patience!

Tuesday...

Hooray for short weeks!
Just a quick announcement, but Matt and I are giving ourselves a mini-vacation this weekend. We are leaving Thursday evening and will be back Sunday. Pieces purchased on Thursday/Friday that are not made to order will ship Monday.
Random photos...

We've been working on the yard quite a bit over the past few weekends. Here's a bit of our new lawn and some shade plants including hostas and viburnum. You can't see the hydrangea in this photo, but it's pretty big and blooming already.

Our new sidewalk full sun garden. We wanted it to look a bit natural and wild, while providing color. There are a few zucchini and tomato plants here as well. Low maintenance was our goal.

The alley garden I planted with a wild flower mix that is suppose to be good for butterflies and requires minimal watering. There were already some daylilies planted by the previous owner. Lots of lovely poppies. This side of the house gets tons of weeds for some reason. I see some in this photo and it drives me nuts.

We also planted bell peppers in the sidewalk garden. Did I ever mention that our sidewalk garden is big? We haven't planted it all quite yet.

I planted a bunch of pots again this year, and this woodland-esque one is my favorite.

The loyal dog (holding a down position until "released"). We've put Indy on a new training program. Have you seen those Perfect Dog infomercials? Well, we decided to get it for Indy because the one problem we have with her is that she wasn't coming when called in some situations. Well, after watching the DVD series (per the recommendation of a vet assistant who said it was really effective), we realized we had to totally re-program Indy because the traditional method of training with treats was all wrong (according to the DVDs). It really works! I can go on and on, but just wanted to mention because until the training is finished, she has to wear the special collar and leash that you can see in this photo.
Happy Tuesday!

100th Post Giveaway!

Today is our 100th post! Thanks so much for sticking by us over the last 9 months. That's a good chunk of time (we could have had a baby in that time... wait, Maria did!). We wanted to do a simple recap of our 5 favorite project posts since we started the SEI Lifestyle Blog. We want to make sure that you are made aware of these amazing posts in case you missed them.

• #5- star album Josh had a video tutorial on how to create a star album. It featured Alpine Frost but can be made with any paper line anytime of the year.
• #4- mimosa leftovers Every month we feature how to use your Club SEI leftovers. With this post we provided a box, bag and flower template.
• #3- paperdoll One of our favorite projects was this paper doll. If you need a project to entertain a bored little girl on summer break, visit this post
• #2- baby blocks Anyone having a baby will love you forever with these customized baby blocks

And our number one post that everyone fell in love with was from our guest blogger, Heather Mildenstein. It was her baby tie tutorial:

baby tie tutorial

Since our CHA Sneak Peak was our #1 giveaway (with over 100 comments), we have decided to give away one more sample packet. Click here if you can't remember the contents.

GIVEAWAY PACK!

Entering the giveaway is simple. Here's how:
1. From your blog, link back to this post! See, simple.
2. Leave a comment showing your blog address.

3. Your blog must have a post containing the link below:

http://seilifestyle.blogspot.com/2009/06/100th-post-giveaway.html

• Giveaway is open until Monday, July 6th! Good luck.

A Collar for Ned

I just came across these very cool Mascot dog collars and leads. I think I am going to have to order one in for Ned. Only problem will be trying to decide on which colour.....probably Navy.

A Beautiful Vignette

I am in-love with this beautiful vignette in the home of Melbourne based artist John Young which was featured in the July/August 2009 issue of Inside Out Magazine. I think the composition of the simple, natural tones of the objects with the divine, earthy coloured portrait is very beautiful.

Loving Ruffled Kitchen Skirts

I love the informality of ruffled kitchen skirts. I'm thinking from a budget conscious point of view this might be a fun option when we renovate our kitchen at our Stradbroke beach cottage. Are they a pain to use and keep clean?? I would love to hear from anyone who has had these before...

image 1 - mary ruffle, image 2 - skona hem

Online Blog Exclusive!

earrings | pouch | dress | shoes | bathing suit
from Anthropologie

The weather just keeps getting more & more beautiful. Summer colors are my favorite. The color pallets are always so bright and lively. A few months back we finished this line, Silk Road. To me it just screams summer, and it makes all my good summer feelings come alive. This week we are doing an online exclusive. Silk Road was featured as the May Club SEI kit and we liked it so much we decided to make the papers available to purchase. This line will only be available online and we are allowing our blog readers to be the first to purchase it online.

All you have to do is click here and at checkout enter the promotional code: seiblog.The promo code will also give you 10% off your entire order. It expires a week from today, July 6th, so be sure to use it while you can.

One of the most beautiful weddings...

I loved looking through all the photos of Ginny and Ed's wedding. Gorgeous. I spotted them first on 100 layer cake blog and then on Once Wed. All the colors, flapper vintage style, straw hats, location... PERFECT.

I love these dresses!

Old world charm.

That bride is beautiful... so much sophistication! Makes me want to plan a garden party with the hubby so I can have an excuse to buy a flapper dress and straw hats... I wish I'd thought of it for our wedding!
Photo credits: Josh Goleman

They've Got Talent

Please if you have a minute do yourself a favour and check this out....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gHvATmUsSg

I laughed and cried.
Thanks Ruby Rose.

Pretty Yellow Wattle

Whilst I have been out on my morning walks of late I have noticed the wattle trees in flower all over the place. When I went down to the park with Harry yesterday there was one large tree in flower. I picked a few branches and brought them home and then arranged them in an old crystal vase my grandmother gave me a couple of years ago. I just adore the vibrant yellow of the flowers against the grey-green of the leaves.

Saturday Vintage Shopping Trip

A friend asked me to go hunting for vintage pieces with her yesterday {Saturday}. I warned her before we left that sometimes it can be hard to find things and sometimes we can come home with no great finds. Well, didn't I eat my words. We had one of the most successful vintage hunts I have had in a long time. We filled the boot of the car and then filled the back seats with things too. We even have a few pieces which need delivering next week!! Now, that's what I call a successful day...

Weekend Projects

Summer is always a great time for me to catch up on projects that have been burdening me for a while. I think it has to do with the longer days making me feel like I have all the time in the world. I love summer! I found this website today called Oliver + S. They have the cutest patterns for children's clothing. They are all under $20 and they offer both girl and boy patterns. I think I might make these one of my weekend projects. I can work on a few outfits for my nephew. Whatever you busy yourself with this weekend, have an enjoyable one. Take it slow and appreciate the small things.

Hunter Boots sale on Gilt Groupe today

Things are selling out fast, but there is a Hunter Boots sale on Gilt Groupe today! I snagged a pair of equestrian-esque black boots for nearly free since I built up some credits! So excited. You can sign-up as a friend HERE.

I really wanted these ones, but they sold out of my size. They are having a Stuart Weitzman sale on Tuesday I'll have to try to remember.

The Perfect Birthday

The birthday festival is well and truly over but gee I had a good time. Surfer Boy was unfortunately away but the kids and I walked up to the Village and had brunch with Mum, Dad and my brother. As always the guys at The Corner Shop made me feel like a rock star and I even got a cake with a candle and some singing!

The rest of the day was spent with the kids, shopping, baking and generally having a lovely afternoon.

During the week I sent a text message to some of my lovely friends, hoping that at least one, maybe two would be able to come over for a Gilmore Girls style movie night (lots of junk food, pizza, great movie) By the end of the week all EIGHT had said yes!!

I had such a fantastic night - 8 of the most fantastic chicks - a sh-t load of sugar based products - and St Elmo's Fire on the telly.

I couldn't have asked for a better day - maybe Surfer Boy being here, but you can't have everything.

And look what I got .....

Only K. would know me well enough to buy me white boot roller skates for my 41st birthday!!! I'm so in love with them - keep your eye out for me skating around the hood if you're in Melbourne's western suburbs.

Friday Flowers

I was very lucky to be given these pretty mottled roses from a friend today. I arranged them in a pretty yellow vase we have at Black & Spiro. I placed them next to our beautiful vintage lamp and shade {note the beautiful embroidery on the shade} on a table in the shop and then a very lucky young lady came into the shop with her mum and her sister and they took the lamp home for her bedroom. I am sad to see this beautiful one-off vintage lamp go but I know it will be loved and cherished by it's next owner...

Happy Weekend. See you next time.

xx

Anna

Wonderful Stationary

This past week, I received a postcard from my friend Rachel addressed from Barcelona, Spain. Mandi is still in Switzerland... and I'm getting the travel bug. Since I won't be able to travel abroad anytime soon, I figured I needed to do something in my life that would make me feel better. This stationary from Paperwink hit the spot. Although I can't travel abroad and find exotic postcards, I can have personalized ones. They make me happy!
Does anyone out there have any summer escapades planned?

Black & Spiro Today

It's been a while since I posted some pictures of the shop so I thought I would post some today. We have some lovely new pieces in at the moment including some beautiful vintage/antique pieces.

Summer on the Otherside

One of the things I love about this time of year {Winter in Australia} when it comes to my magazine subscriptions is the beautiful Summer homes featured in my favourite American magazines. Even though we are a little lighter on this year without the likes of Domino to give us our hit, this month's issue of Elle Decor looks like it's a cracker!! Loving this house belonging to Scott Currie {Elie Tahari public relations} in Southampton, New York.

I love anything that goes on your head

I should have taken photos ages ago, but for our 1 year anniversary, I got Matt and I matching fedora style custom hats from Pinkham Millinery. I highly, highly recommend seeing Dayna Pinkham! She is just phenomenal. Everything is customizable, which really makes the end result that much more special. We got to choose the material, color, brim size, height, ribbon, accent... everything... and of course, it is all done in person. Dayna is such an expert and really knows how to make it look fantastic in accordance to your style and head/face shape. I love my hat! I love Matt's hat too (even more than my own). His turned out to be just so cool (photos to come). Anyhow, yet another piece to my growing collection of head gear... I love feminine meets masculine... anything androgynous.

Please excuse the zero make-up look. I've been busy!

The Origins of Taste

I've been talking a little bit about my mother's style in comparison to my own this week and I happened to stumble across this article by Anne E. Collins the Executive Editor over at Point Click Home in which she talks briefly about the origins of taste. I think it's a good read and applicable to my posts here this week. I hope to talk more about this topic in the coming weeks on ABT.

Modern floral bustle

I finished it and here is what it looks like on (I am sure it will really shine on a wedding dress):

Thank you, Trang!!!!!!