Posts Tagged ‘orla kiely’

dear santa,

you know, and i know, that i’ve been REALLY good this year. so lets stop this messin’ around and howsabout you bring me some of these treasures on my love list?


i’m not sure i even need to TELL you why i want this brooch by ‘friends with you’?! its just cool! and i have several lapels going unadorned at the current time.

books! books! books! i can never ever get enough. this christmas i’m wishing for:

the les mason epicurean magazine exhibition book, by the narrows gallery
20th Century Pattern Design by lesley jackson
and v&a pattern: pop patterns by oriole cullen

just when i think i’ve had enough of the stem pattern, along comes a bright yellow bag to prove otherwise. the orla kiely stem sparrow bag really needs to be in my wardrobe, and more often, on my arm.

all you need is love. in pin brooch form! a souvenir brooch from gemma’s bright signs show is just what i need to keep my OTHER lapel cozy.

and now my son is too big for blocks i suppose i have to just call these alexander girard blocks an executive desk toy? better become an executive quick smart!!

so thats just about it for me, santa. oh and if you could just go ahead and drop in a couple of airfares to new york via tokyo that’d be greeeaaaaat.

i keep forgetting to take pictures for ‘what i wore’ style posts,  but don’t worry, i have been getting dressed on a daily basis! instead i’ve decided to belatedly get on the ‘what i haul around with me on a daily basis’ bandwagon. exhibit A, the handbag:

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i’m guilty of being a polygamist bag owner, but this one just keeps me coming back. it was my first orla kiely ebay score and i think it could be my favorite (shh, don’t tell the other bags). its really big, but almost never cumbersome. it stays on my shoulder without needing constant adjustment and it was big enough that i could smugly claim to be one of those mamas not carting a nappy-bag around. and just look at it and tell me it not exactly the bag i should own – its pink and red and boldly floral. its the bag-ification of me i reckon! so what fills this vast coffer?
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red & white and feelin’ all right – clockwise from the top! my business card holder, my passport (its not that i’m constantly on the lam, i don’t drive so its my only ID), current reading matter, the great white wallet, and the marc jacobs heart compact mirror keeps me looking elegantly disheveled (ok so maybe its just genuine dishevelment).
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my fabulous starry eyed sunnies. i love these babies. they’re a little bit 60s cats-eye and a little bit 80s jem and the holograms. i have no designer clothes so i like to splash out a bit on nice accessories i can use almost everyday. the glasses are by chloé and the style is called tilia.
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iphone and headphones! i love these headphones because they’re good for music and hands free calling/blocking out shouty kids. they’re made by boosted and were a lucky ebay find. iphone cover is kate spade and was a present for myself in san francisco.
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keys! actually, more key rings than keys. i just wanted to feel like a big grown up with a big bunch of keys.

the touch-up purse with one rogue eyelash. no idea where the other one went to.. but at least i’m always prepared to dress up clockwork orange style. also pictured: mac blotting powder, chanel ‘rosedrop’ lipstick (my day-to-day shade), and listerine breath strips. all of which make me that much more pleasant to kiss… otherwise: troll city!
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we’re literally scraping the bottom of the barrel here.. an empty japanese kit-kat box which was generously given to me by a friend (it wasn’t empty when she gave it to me! yum!) and which i’ve yet to throw away. and my bag bag! which is to say its a bag in a bag that is in my bag for when i don’t want to be bad and use a plastic bag, rad!
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and last of all i have to share the silliest thing in my wallet: my sanrio store membership card. i keep it up front with my healthcare card for kawaii emergencies!!
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i hope you’ve enjoyed this tour through my handbag. if you would like to contribute something to my wallet please exit through the gift shop tee hee!
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this isn’t really late breaking news, but its taken me aaaages to get around to posting about the changes i made to my son’s room. its no secret that’s for sure! if you’ve seen my apartment therapy home tour shots you’ll be familiar with all of this already, but oh sweet lordy do i love talking about makeovers! can we get a before…?

nothing intrinsically wrong with that ‘before’ pic. it was a very nice calm and minimal babies room. i went with an aqua, lime, and orange palette largely inspired by the rug you see. the changing table was the same that i was changed on when i was a baby, and it was made by my great grandfather during the depression (from orange crates). don’t worry the cabinet has been moved into another room where it will take on its seventh life as a guitar bench. and there’s the wee little guy, back in the day, i think that was taken when he was one year old. and what about the ‘after’ shot…?

TA-DA! there is a sideboard where the cot was! and a bed where the change table was! and a bunch of different stuff! working from left to right we have: ikea storage ‘bins’ holding toys and supplies (painted in nippon paints ‘bamboo’ color), a second hand sideboard scored from my friend’s shop (the top was pretty rough so it got a lick of paint ‘satsuma’ by nippon paint, to be precise), the print on the wall above the sideboard is by shinzi katoh, and the smaller print on the wall is ‘gama go’s critter boat’ by tim biskup.

the bed was actually the first thing i bought. i found it in a thrift store and thought it was such a sweet, perfect ‘first bed’. from that point i put the room together really gradually. i had a folder on my desktop and a photoshop file that i used as a digital mood board. i took photos of what we already had (the prints, the clock, the chair) and then worked out a palette and ‘theme’ (i was inspired by the yellowing colorful illustrations in vintage kid’s encyclopedias) and then added the other furniture as i discovered it. i would search very generally on etsy and ebay for extras using very general terms that fit my theme, eg “vintage woodland” and if i found something intriguing i’d drag the pictures into my mood board to see if they worked. it was just trial and error and patience. but i enjoy putting rooms together so much, and this was such a special project. i adored my bedrooms, growing up, and i wanted this extra special first ‘big kid’ room to be as fun and cute as it was functional. storage was an extra special consideration seeing as previously all the toys had lived in our lounge room!

here’s a view of the million dollar rug! its not really that valuable, i bought it from urban outfitters and it arrived a very different color to the one online so i spent about its equal value just getting it to be the color i wanted! ugh.

so after i worked out i was going for a vintage woodland, nature, kinda theme i could. not. believe it when i found this sheet on etsy! its a smokey the bear single sheet, in great condition, that i’ve turned into a duvet cover. its got that lovely soft vintage sheet feeling, but i sewed it to a new plain white sheet to give it some extra thickness . i still can’t believe my luck! my son loves pointing out the animals on the sheet and reading all the fire safety messages. the cushions are ‘orla kiely for target’ napkins set i picked up on ebay.

here is one of my woodland patchwork prints in its natural habitat! now you know what informed my choice of colors for that print… its all about me, baby! also pictured is a leaf print by ubiki, from etsy.

the sideboard was a real score. my friend was closing down her shop to set off on a world adventure, and so i kindly offered to relieve her of her shop counter, and here it is! a freshly painted top, and a new lease on life. it now holds lots of boxes of smaller toys and games in its shelves, and some smaller clothing items in its drawers.

some woodland-ish trinkets my son corralled into his room. funny how little people take ownership of certain things. he’s just claimed my whisk as his own recently!

the bedtime story chair has a very new and lovely cushion on it from arthur’s circus! the chair and the bed frame are both painted in nippon paint’s ‘wainscot’ color. its a nice, very 70s brown. the chair was one of my grandma’s kitchen chairs, so its really cool it gets such an important role in this room.

can you believe i found some squirrel bookends at my local housewares/gifty shop.. these babies are keeping us safe from a total book-alanche. we have an avid story-listener on our hands!

and finally, on the wall at the foot of the bed, by the doorway, we have a little cluster of art wall goodness. the dreamy lab partners prints (and the matte stephens’ bear monster) frame the ‘moon in my room’ light. father christmas brought my son the moon last december and so every night we check out what phase the moon is in, and adjust the light accordingly. it makes a really pretty nightlight and educational tool.

as i mentioned, a lot of the things we already had around the house, and the other furniture brought in is half ikea, half second hand so i’m quite happy with the thriftiness vs practicalness balance.

so there we have it! from nursery to nearly four years old! my son loves his room and even after a couple of months of it being all set up he’s still thrilled to have a room of his own, with character and interest, and that’s the big triumph for me.

helloooo friday! how has your week been? mine has been average, but bookended with fun days, which is not a bad way to have a week. let’s look at the photographic evidence, shall we?

first up, my make up case caught my eye this week and i had to take some photos of its lovely pattern. it really is this musk-candy pink, and its plastic paisley covered! pretty fabulous. i bought it about ten years ago and for a while it held the overflow from my everyday makeup bag, but i’ve recently restored it to pride of place as the main bag. fascinating information. maybe just look at the pretty picture.

while visiting my friend yesterday i snapped this picture of all the cool vintage products she has displayed in her kitchen. isn’t the box of ‘clover’ soda bulbs sweet?

i’ve loved orla kiely’s products ever since i saw them in a UK newspaper in 2002 and pinned the article on my tiny bedsit wall, dreaming of one day in the distant future i could have a bit of it! so i’ve bought a couple of her bags from ebay, and i’ve pined over all the other products i couldn’t afford or get … until now! yay! triumphant fanfare! its pretty rare i buy a ‘luxury product’ but i bought some sheets to use for visitors staying with us. after opening the box i think i almost would’ve bought them for the packaging alone. isn’t it gorgeous? on the right is the complete package: a sturdy box with a cardboard band to keep it closed and show product info (it says on this paper that the packaging is designed to be re-used and who could resist?!). in the middle is the package contents: a card explaining what this pretty thing is, then a plastic cover ‘etched’ with the stem design to keep the sheets nice. on the left is the inside of the lid, with the orla kiely logo. the boxes are really nice and sturdy and i can’t wait to find new life for them on my desk! if only all packaging were this nicely considered.

another purchase that arrived this week was the cutest of cutie pie shirts i found on etsy. the kid doesn’t get any vintage clothing because, well, he decimates every pair of trousers that pass his way, and any tops end up with spaghetti stains even if we don’t even eat spaghetti!! but i saw this shirt and fell in love. it worked out cheaper than the ‘nice, going out’ shirts i’ve bought for him previously anyway and how could i pass up some ‘sturdy togs’ for my junior?!

pom poms! words just can’t express how great i think these flowers are.. no words. pom poms!

yesterday was really fun, my friend and i visited a few very cool shops (and took some pictures to show you next week!) and then stopped for afternoon tea at ‘grigons & orr corner store’ cafe in north melbourne. australia’s corner stores are referred to as deli’s or milk bar’s, and this cafe is styled to be like an old style milk bar, where you could by shakes and bags of mixed candy as well as milk, eggs, bread and other staples. on their counter was this jar of australian childhood favourites ’100′s & 1000′s’ cookies. mmm lurid pink icing! this cafe was such a sweet mixture of vintage charm and modern deliciousness, though i did giggle at their  menu when i saw SPAM served with truffle oil!

here is a view of the shelves behind the counter at grigons & orr, i love that there are old display items mixed with fresh, modern items you can purchase. how cool is the old pepsi six-pack?! if you’re in melbourne pop in for some tea and an incredible portuguese custard tart (seriously the best i’ve ever had!).

wishing you all a very lovely and relaxing weekend. i’ve decided to stop work, and pack away the computer for the weekend. here’s hoping it’s a good decision!