Lighting.

I love the way that lighting can create warm, cozy and inviting living spaces. I remember as a young child, requesting a lamp in my bedroom because the overhead light was too stark and made my room seem cold and blanched.

A night light with a difference. The x-ray light below is not everyone's cup of tea, but most people love it. One visitor thought it was a strange choice, but I think it has a certain industrial, old medical, charm and you don't have to put an X-ray up on it. We have also put up lovely Japanese rice paper, children's art work and other things that work well.

I love Ikea! The lights below are cute, cast a warm and safe glow and can be kept on all night in the kid's room without being too bright.

I have featured this light shade before. Made by my beautiful artist friend and we luckily scored one.
The Moroccan light fitting below is exactly the same as one in the film Casablanca. I remember watching the film, then getting very excited to see our light shade. Perhaps it's the very one??

We found this Nouveau chandelier in an op-shop in Melbourne. It is made of heavy, gilded metal. We forked out a whopping $80 for it!

The little flocked angel lamp below was bought in a bargain shop. I love it; it's cheap, it's plastic, but it is so sweet and quite classy, I think.

My Nanna's deco lamp made by my Poppa's electro plating factory.

The Tiffany lamp below is a favorite. We found the shade at a garage sale in Toorak and it is made of plastic panels in a metal frame. I couldn't believe it and I love its fakeness. My husband put it on a genuine Tiffany style Arts and Crafts base, so it looks really great. I still think it looks like glass and even up close you can't tell.

The light shade below was found at our local op-shop. It is a Japanese back pack basket for carrying fish or other goods. We took out the base, turned it upside down and hung it over our kitchen bench. It cost me $10.

A Chinese wooden possum lamp. We still haven't found a really great shade for it yet, but want a fringed, round little fabric red one. We might be lucky.

Shelves.

Some shelves from our home. We keep adding more and more shelves, mostly to accommodate our large book collection. There's not much wall space left in our house.

I love this little wooden bear below. I also love the book cover. We display our children's art works everywhere too because they are beautiful. You can see a few of my collection of Alice in Wonderland books. I will post about those in the future.

Our son's collection of robots below. I'm so glad that he collects such tasteful things (he also collects Beanie Kids, but they are tucked away in baskets). This is only part of his collection. He has some very strange robots including a bizarre canary yellow one that sings a Korean national song in very high pitched English and another terminator style one that shouts in a scary voice "You are under arrest, put down your weapon...3...2...1...FIRE!!!" and our daughter used to think it said "You are under A DRESS!" It is one of our son's dreams to go to Japan and see the real Asimo.

The lovely owl vase on the shelf below was made by one of our fave potters, Leon Saper who's work we have loads of. He's a potter who lived in Cottles Bridge and used to sell at the St Andrew's Market when we were teenage hippies and used to sell our wares there too.

Book shelf below that we have had for ever. It's completely out of date and not that attractive, but it has all of the children's growth measurements down the side, so we don't want to throw it out.
The shelves in this cabinet below are loaded with lovely Australian Pottery (another post for the future). And if you look at the top right shelf you will see a plate that is a 17th Century tin glaze piece that was found in an op shop in Prahran stashed in a pile of plates, for $2.50. It is a museum piece that would sell at auction for near to $1000 (at least that's what the Sotheby's bloke said when we took it to him). Bargain.

The shelves in our little alcove study that my father in law calls la petite bibliothèque.

You can just see part of my very large recipe book collection (yet another post for the future).

Kitchen shelves below.

NQR is QR by me.

Well I am a bargain junkie and every time I go into NQR, I wonder why oh why I've only just discovered this little grocery treasure trove. You know I think I was an NQR snob, thinking that everything in the shop would be dinted, missing labels, over the use-by date, bad quality or just rejected food from real shops. I've had my eyes opened and now I'm a convert.

Admittedly you have to shop with a discerning eye, but I never fail to find a little gem and some items I only buy there, like my Australian extra virgin olive oil that is divine. Take a look at what I have found recently at my local NQR, all well within the use-by date and all delicious.

Above: Lovely Organic chocolate.
Above: King Island yoghurt lots of use-by and about half the usual price, Canadian blueberry and Maple syrup; very cheap and fantastic on pancakes. Free-range ham, Jamie Oliver spice mix, Organic sugar-cane lollies, My gorgeous olive oil (love the label too) and some Ponzu soy sauce which is delicious and makes a great Japanese salad dressing. Oh and some yummy coated peanuts.

Owls again.

Some more owls from around our home. Some are by well known designers, others are probably mass produced. All cost hardly anything and were found at op-shops and fetes.

I don't know who made these lovelies below, but they are some of my favorite things. These were bought on ebay.

“The crow wished everything was black, the owl, that every thing was white.”

William Blake

Below is an owl candle lantern, looks very pretty with a tea-light candle in it.

Below: a glass owl found at our local oppy.

A tiny owl that lives in our shadow box.

This owl is by Stig Lindberg for Gustavsberg.

“He respects Owl, because you can't help respecting anybody who can spell TUESDAY, even if he doesn't spell it right.”

A. A. Milne

Owls

Owls from our home.

We didn't set out to collect owls; they just sort of found us. They emerge in every fashion trend in various forms and interpretations and stages of abstraction and decoration throughout the decades, don't they? Our 15 month old can already say "Owl, hoot-hoot".

As I wander through our house, I realise that in fact we do have a lot of owls, so many that I'll have to do two posts to fit them all in.

Below: a wooden horned owl.

Our owl at the window.

A little owl water whistle.

Gorgeous hand carved wooden owl from the U.K. I got it around the corner at the local oppy.

1970's owl, a great example of the style from that era.

Below: June Arnold bronze owl. This sculptor designed a fountain at Fitzroy Gardens Melbourne and our bronze owl was one of her prototypes .

The owl below was found by my husband in our back yard last Saturday.

A little pottery owl found at an op-shop.

Gus and Betty McLaren pottery owls.

Cornucopia: The beauty of food display.

Our weekend house smells constantly of brewed coffee, often of a big stock bubbling (from organic bones bought at the market), a cake baking (if I have the time), the Sunday morning pancakes that I'm not cooking, but get to scoff . Oh, and the gorgeous, sweaty heady smell of our 15 month old who still has that caramel, new, sweetness unique to babies.

I remember Sharon Osbourne saying in an interview, that she never cooked in her kitchen, that they always ordered food to be delivered. When asked why she explained that she hated the smell of food and cooking in her home. There was something very unhappy about that statement. There is nothing I love more than the smell of food cooking in our home; it is what adds warmth, depth and coziness to our abode and it is very happy-making for me.

I have a penchant for food labels. Many are so attractive, little pieces of Art and put together they make a colourful tapestry that excites my eye.

Food is beautiful. It is so nice to arrive home from a trip to the market with loads of seasonal fruit. I think it looks lovely displayed in pretty bowls.

Pretty Vintage Aprons

Just some of my collection. All found at op-shops and worn regularly, especially when baking.

Above: A gorgeous design of skittles in a 50's fabric.

Above: I think this is a late '70's piece.

Above: This is my favorite, showing a scene of Sydney and the Harbour Bridge.