yoko furusho

A big bonus of now residing in the Southern Hemisphere is that I can now get my hands on all of the Australian magazines that I fell in love with whilst living there a few years ago. Russh and Yen are two favourites but the queen of them all is of course the inimitable Frankie magazine. It was in the pages of the latest issue of Frankie that I discovered this amazing illustrator...

YOKO FURUSHO is a Japanese illustrator based in New York.

Here is a little bio from her website:

She was born in Tokyo and moved to New York to study illustration at School of Visual Arts. After graduating, she started her career as a professional illustrator/artist. She likes to draw details, textures and patterns with ink and acrylics. She usually uses fashion as her inspiration. She is addicted to collect fashion magazines and she likes to see many dresses and cute textiles.

I love the surreal, fantasy element in her work and the strong influence of Japanese imagery and art. Below are a few of her pieces that especially caught my eye. Check out more of her work on her website.

life on a houseboat

It was a while ago that I first came across some images of the awesome house boat that British author Josie Curran and her boyfriend (and their baby son) call home, and I've been meaning to share them ever since.

They moved from a 2 bed London flat to a two story house boat moored on the river Thames at Hampton Court, on one of a cluster of tiny islands each made up of about a dozen back gardens and a lane. They wanted to move to the country but needed to stay close to London for work so this was the perfect compromise. It sounds like a truly idyllic, village type location, and yet is still only a 25 minute train ride away from the city. They spend their summer evenings entertaining friends, fishing, swimming and sitting on the deck. Yes please! There's no doubt that if I still lived in London I would be doing my very best to find one of these for my own little family.

I absolutely love the way that they've furnished the house boat- with a mix of eclectic finds from antique markets, and artwork and decorative items from talented independent designers. Josie's boyfriend Barney collects vintage surf posters which adorn the walls- nice touch. Hope you find the images and lifestyle as inspiring as I do.

Images from Times Online and Guardian Online. Sorry some of them are a bit blurry! They were very small so didn't enlarge too well.

scenes from the city we now call home

In Auckland there are many boats...

Lots of hills with stunning views of the city...

Secluded little beaches...

People live in houses that look like this...

And do lots of this...

And there are wonderful shops like this one (for a magazine addict like me this is heaven!)...

So far, so good.

wedding love

Just a quick one to say my wedding has been featured on the brilliant and always inspiring wedding blog Snippet and Ink as one of the real wedding features. You can check it out here. Thanks so much to Kathryn, the lovely owner and creator of the site!

hello auckland

Just checking in quickly to say we have finally arrived in Auckland! After many hours of travelling and a two day stop over in the incredibly sticky and insanely busy city of Bangkok (thank goodness for the hotel's outdoor swimming pool!) we are trying to adjust to a new time zone and get our bearings. Lila is stuggling with jet lag and was awake between the hours of 11pm-4am last night/this morning...ouch... but apart from that everything is peachy so far. Outside there is blue skies and sunshine- and this is Winter! We are looking forward to exploring the city today and meeting up with Curt's friend and his family who live out here. I'll be back in the next couple of days, hopefully with some pictures of the city we will now be calling home x

just for the halibut

One of my very best friends in the entire world- and a very talented print designer and general fashionista lady- has just opened up a brilliant Etsy shop called Just for the Halibut (her surname is Salmon and she is extremely funny and fiercely passionate about fishy creatures!)

She is offering a selection of lovely t-shirts for both him and her, super awesome cushions and
screen prints all with totally unique and quirky screenprinted designs. I am so proud of her!
If you have a spare moment pop on over to her shop to check out her goods and show some love. She has also just started a shiny, brand new blog which will no doubt be a very entertaining read.

These are a few of my personal favourites from her collection...

P.S. Hiding behind the big sunglasses in that last picture is me!

goodbyes and a birthday

I'm going to miss these ladies sooo much!

It's been such a crazy busy week I hardly know where to begin...in the last five days we moved out of our flat, had a farewell drinks party with all of our friends in London and said our last goodbyes, then Lila and came to stay at my parents farm a few days ago whilst Curt finishes up at work and yesterday was my birthday! (27th if you were wondering!)

It was a quiet birthday spent with my parents and Lila- to be honest I hadn't even had time to think about it until the day actually arrived but it was totally wonderful and the sun most definitely put her hat on. We took a champagne picnic to a beautiful castle and wandered around the grounds in the sunshine and then headed out for a tasty dinner at a local country pub. On the agenda for the next few days is the final bits of packing, lots of admin and sorting out of bank accounts and a big send off celebration with family and some friends at the weekend.