european road trip

Love the carefree vibe captured by these photographs taken by Nirrimi when on the road during the Billabong European Tour. I'm in awe of her skills, she surely must be one of the most talented photographers of our generation (at just 19 she has already has amassed an incredible body of work including other major campaigns), not to mention a cute baby girl called Alba. A very inspiring individual following her own path with a refreshing outlook on life. See more of her work and life on her blog The Road is Home. And wow, does this have me dreaming of summer time!

All images by Nirrimi Firebrace

less stuff, more happiness

It seems that within every aspect of our lives we are faced with such an overwhelming amount of choices and products we simply must buy in order to improve our lives; what to buy, wear, watch, listen to, eat are just the tip of the iceberg. We are bombarded from every angle at every opportunity and for me personally (and I think maybe quite a few others too), it's all become a bit too much.

Simplifying life, breaking it down to the bare bones of what's important seems more appealing every day. And that certainly has nothing to do with having at least forty pairs of shoes, a fancy car, all the latest gadgets and every toy under the sun for the children. Especially when there's not much that makes a kid happier than a cardboard box. When we near the end of our days and we reflect on the decades that have passed, I doubt it will be all our posessions that will be at the forefront of our mind, but rather happy times spent with loved ones, perhaps places travelled to and memories made.

For me the dream is a carefully edited home (and life) filled only with things that we truly love and actually use. This is not really the current reality, but hopefully we are slowly making our way there and two international relocations within as many years have helped. I like the idea that if an item is required for practical purposes, there's no reason it shouldn't also be beautiful. Then there's the fact that if you own less, it also means less time needs to be spend cleaning, organising, tidying and more precious minutes can be devoted to doing what's really important.

Personally, the major stumbling block is that I'm apt to assign sentimental value to almost everything and then can't bear to part with any of it. As a life long hoarder of things, I know our home will never ever be what could be described as minimalist but I am really trying to be more mindful of what I buy- less but better quality items, and I've made a promise to myself to purge on a regular basis (though when you live in a glorified shoebox is actually more of a necessity than anything else). Our local op shop (charity shop) is in for a treat.

Image by Ye Rin Mok

memory keepers

As a fan of saving mementos and chronicling events and memories (usually in a more haphazard method involving stuffing everything in a huge box with the intention of sorting through it one day), these beautiful scrapboxes created by Darcy Miller are so appealing to me. She has framed her family photographs along with relevant objects- such as a birthday snapshot of her daughter with one of the candles she blew out, adding a whole new dimension to the stock standard photo in a frame and showcasing and giving meaning to the objects she has saved rather than just keeping them in a box to gather dust.

It takes a well honed creative eye to curate and layout these treasure boxes to such great effect, avoiding too much clutter and stopping them from crossing over into nauseatingly twee territory but she has absolutely nailed it. I'm now itching to get myself down to Ikea to pick up some similar frames and have a go.

Discovered via A Cup of Jo

on our walls

Here are a few snapshots of what is currently adorning our walls. I considered taking some pictures of the rest of the house too but it was frankly obscenely messy- imagine an explosion in a toy factory and you'll get the idea, and the floors could really do with a vacuum so those will have to wait 'til next time. 

above : letters and pictures in the hallway

above : canvas covered with Matthew Williamson wallpaper and gems above our bed

        

above : artwork (robot kid painting by me and the other one by Lila), framed greetings card and owls in the girls bedroom

above : the girls party outfits and Lila's shopping bag

    

above : the outside passageway wall 

above : wooden antler head, robot print and retro clock in the living room

above: greens and blues, photos and butterflys above my chest of drawers in our bedroom 

above : Lila's artwork in the girls bedroom

above : origami paper stars hanging above Rose's cot 

above : paper heart garland hanging from the window in the girls bedroom

birthday week

Last week (and the one before) was an exciting, exhausting and emotional - well for me in any case-  time around here. Both girls celebrated their birthdays within eight days of each other. Our big girl turned four and our tiny girl had her first birthday...what?! I have a four year old and a one year old...how did that happen so fast! We had lots of cake, smiles, presents and party fun. Lila is now the proud owner of her very first bike. She has completely shocked us by proving to be very adept and ultra keen, having never shown much interest in cycling or her wooden balance bike she is now tearing around like she's been doing it for years and is super keen to go to the park behind our house every afternoon to ride along the paths with her friend Rory. Maybe it has something to do with the fact she has a shiny pink bike with streamers on the handle bars? She is so very proud of it.

Rose throughly enjoyed her first experience of cake- interestingly she didn't approach it head first to emerge with a face full of icing as Lila did on her first birthday, but took the more conventional approach of picking it up to eat it. Organising their joint party was very fun but also majorly stressful when the reality hit that we would only have thirty minutes to prepare everything and decorate the venue before everyone arrived. The first guests were therefore roped into helping us hang streamers and put out the food! The birthday girls and hopefully everyone else too had a super time, so it was all well worth it in the end. 

     

 

 

 

birthday balloon // meeting Daddy on his lunch break for a little birthday celebration // Lila and her bike // the party spread // birthday cakes // opening presents // Lila trying on her ballet outfit from her Auntie Jo // tiny happy girl // sparkly candle // in the park