enjoying

I thought it would be fun to share a few things that are floating my boat at the moment...

These images of the home of interior designer/writer Rita Konig.

I discovered that these pictures were originally published in Domino magazine and actually date back to 2008. You can see pictures of her newest apartment here, but I personally actually prefer the style of this older one one.

The awesome retro style of British shoe designer Charlotte Dellal. I love that she references the 1940's so much within her look- her signature red lipstick, flicked out hair and sky high heels are nearly always complemented with some leopard print. Nice touch. Her Charlotte Olympia line of shoes are pretty gorgeous too, though a touch on the high side for someone so generally as hopeless in heels as me!

The stunning wedding in the French countryside of the super stylish Alix from The Cherry Blossom Girl. It got me at the balloons but there are so many gorgeous touches, not to mention the beautiful outfits of the bride and groom and their fashionable guests. See more pictures on her blog.

checking in

Sorry for my absence from the blog. It's been another crazy work week which involved racing between shows at New Zealand Fashion week and spending the past four days in a shopping mall doing a Walk in Wardrobe event- giving 15 minute style consultations to members of the public. I have such a hoarse voice from talking almost solidly for 10 hours a day!

Seeing as my head has been full of fashion, I thought I'd share some of my favourite looks of the moment. As much as I admire the work of the top designers, I'm still most inspired by style on the street and the looks put together by real people. The image above is from The Sartorialist. Loving the tailored shorts paired with a loose top, the whole effect is relaxed but polished thanks to the addition of the shoes and the necklace.

Great combination of a hoody thrown on over a pretty white dress. Cute ankle boots too.

Image from Ascot Friday.

What an awesome 70's vibe, so simple yet well put together. The hat just makes it.

Image from The Sartorialist.

I'm glad to have the next three days off work, to spend some quality time with little Lila and the hubby who I have barely seen at all over the past couple of weeks. We have been like ships passing in the night as I've just been collapsing onthe sofa from exhaustion when I've made it home and crawled into bed shortly afterwards.

In other family news, my Grandmother sadly passed away last week. It's very sad news, especially as my sister and I are both on the other side of the world so unable to be there at her funeral. She was an amazing lady who will be very greatly missed, and I have the best childhood memories of dancing around her lounge to the Jungle Book album on vinyl which she would play for us on her record player. She was also the person who instilled in me my love of baking as we spent many happy hours making cakes (scraping the cake mixture out of the sides of the empty bowl was always the best bit). It makes it easier to be able to take comfort in the fact she had a long, full and happy life with a big family she was very proud of and passed peacefully, content that her time had come.

I thought I'd end on a happy note, with a book Lila and I discovered on our weekly library excursion. It's called 'Lost and Found' by Oliver Jeffers and is beautifully illustrated with a sweet, uplifting story about loneliness and the power of friendship, depicting an encounter between a penguin and a little boy. The illustrations are so expressive and have an almost dreamlike quality to them. It's a firm favourite our ours already.

elsewhere

How stunning are these images by photographer Vanessa Paxton, one of my current favourites discovered over on Flickr. See more of her work here.

Sorry for the lack of posts over the past week. I've been on a work trip to Christchurch and only flew back into Auckland last night. Although I spent most of it in a shopping mall styling outfits for a fashion show, which in itself felt quite bizzare and almost unseemly under the circumstances, it was humbling to witness the evidence of destruction and devastation caused by the recent earthquake and speak to people about their experiences.

After an exhausting five days, I was so happy to be reunited with Curt and Lila and spent an awesome day today hanging out with Lila at the park and we made biscuits together this afternoon. New Zealand Fashion Week begins tomorrow so looking forward to catching a few of the shows over the next few days. We finally hung up all of our pictures and put the finishing touches to our apartment this evening so it really does feel like home now. Happy days.

belle and boo wall art

We're still putting the finishing touches to our place and deciding where to hang all our pictures clocks and photos on the walls. When I saw these awesome wall decals by one of my long time favourite designers, Mandy of Belle and Boo, I immediately fell in love and decided Lila had to have one in her little bedroom. I am a huge fan of the whimsical, nostalgic illustrations and characters that Mandy creates and it has been awesome and inspirational to follow her on her journey via her blog as she has grown the business in to such a huge success story.

I haven't yet decided which one to get for Lila- I could take all of them. The dinosaur set would be so cool for a little boy! The fact that you can just peel them off and reuse and re-position them without leaving any residue on the walls is such a bonus if you're renting.

making a home

So a few months after we last saw them, all of our belongings have finally arrived via a ship from the UK. We spent the better part of last week unpacking nearly 60 boxes and trying to find a home in our fairly compact apartment for all of the contents. Not too easy a task! Thank goodness we have a garage to house all the surfboards, bikes and other random bits and pieces we can't fit anywhere else. My favourite part of setting up house is deciding where to hang all the pictures and photographs on the wall and displaying all our treasures and decorative things.

I sorted the books on our bookcase in to colour blocks which I've wanted to do for ages- I'm not under any illusuions it will stay this way for very long but I do love it. More laborious tasks such as actually putting furniture together aren't my strong point but thankfully my better half is very hands on and has an awesome talent for DIY (case in point- he spent the last two evenings building us both shoe racks to go in the bottom of our wardrobe using wooden slats from a chest we shipped over which didn't quite make in intact and arrived in pieces!)

I'll take some more photos to share when we've got it all sorted but here are couple of shots of some of my favourite bits. It's very much a mish mash of various styles of furniture that we've accumulated from various sources and definitely a work in progress.

Cushions which will live on our sofa...

These stools for our breakfast bar were a great find from a wonderful vintage furniture store here in Auckland- as you can see they are really old but we love that the seats are so marked and worn with use and age. We (ahem...Curt!) jut varnished the seat and painted the rather rusty legs with metallic blue paint.

This lamp shade below (one of a set of two) was amongst my wedding anniversary presents from Curt. The shade is made out of a special sort of plastic/velum and actually sits on top of a wine glass- we used really long stem tea light holders instead- and you put a tea light inside and it casts a really soft glow.

rust wedding

I stumbled across these beautiful pictures of the wedding of two jewellery designers- Artemis and Nao and had to share them. I love the relaxed garden setting of the reception and all the handmade details- everything from the calligraphy on the program to the hand painted signs and cute floral displays. See more pictures on their blog here.

Also check out their online jewellery store Rust- it has some very delectable pieces. Some of my favourites are below, I especially love the feather ring.