A bit like Christmas ...

I'm a Christmas baby, well the night before Christmas, so for me, birthday's are a long time coming! Because even though I love my birthday and the fact that I get what feels like a two day celebration, that's it for the next 363 days! So, I often entertain the idea of a mid-year birthday, to get me through the next 6 months. Somehow though, I  never get round to it. But this week I've been feeling like a child waiting in desperate anticipation for Santa to come down the chimney. Why? Last weekend, I chose my first purchases from Etsy.

When I think about it, this is really the first time I've shopped online. I've booked and organised travel online but I've never done any online shopping in a big way. But now, I can't tell you how excited I am to be waiting on the few bits and pieces I selected. Some are coming from the US and some, like the cards, from closer to home. It's amazing how such a simple thing could give me so much pleasure! Each day I feel a delicious anticipation for what might be there to greet me when I arrive home from work.

And today, I received these gorgeous cards from the Melbourne company inaluxe :::

I bought a set of 3 birds. This one is so sweet.


And a set that included this lovely image.

And this one.

Very keen to get something else from them, their designs are so wonderful. And a nice touch - they added a few extra cards and wrote a lovely little hand written message on a mini card. That's the sort of thing I really appreciate.

So, I'm very happy with my first mid-year birthday present to me. Looking forward to the rest!

Today ...

The sky was blue ::: The sun so warm :::

I went for a walk at lunchtime and saw my first blossom tree ...


Spring is nudging it's way in.

Although, I've had a sneaky extra spring this year, in April, while away on our US trip. Whenever I wear the perfume I bought while in New York, it brings spring (and NY!) wafting back to me.

{all of these shots are from our last day in New York - we spent it wandering through Central Park. The very first image is of a local community garden near our hotel}

It seems like there has been a subtle shift in the seasons, even though it's sooo cold at the moment. Tonight while driving home I felt like I had a sense of us swinging out of winter. There was a different feel to the air somehow.

But sitting here tonight, my mouse hand feels icy, and the air in the house feels colder. Anyone who knows Sydney will know that we generally don't heat our houses with central heating, instead relying on space heaters. I have a lovely restored (fake) coal fire in the old cast iron hearth (my feet are toasty, even as I type)

Other rooms need a heater to take off the ever prevalent chill that creeps into these old semi's, especially when you have floorboards all the way through the house and no ceiling insulation. In summer the house generally stays nice and cool if you keep it closed up, unless we have a string of really hot days when it will then heat up and stay that way. We also don't have air con, relying on wonderful ceiling and floor fans and a breezeway effect down our long hall.

But summer seems such a long way away right now, although not so much when I catch up with all the summery posts out there in blogsville, from the northern hemisphere. I read a lovely one today, over at Fresh milk delivered daily. So simple and evocative.

Tomorrow, it's forecast to be 15 - that's pretty cold for us! But as long as it's sunny and blue like it was today, it's not too bad at all.

My Etsy Front Page!

As mentioned, one of my treasuries was selected for the front page of Etsy. It was laid out differently {original here} but here it is ...

Silver fox has a red letter day

• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Red Riding Wolf - Ready...

  Lazymuse
  $75.00 USD
• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Original Hand Drawn Ill...

  michelemaule
  $15.00 USD
• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  You've Gotta Have H...

  ellemoss
  $30.00 USD
• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Scarlet Red Pure Cashme...

  yystudio
  $368.00 USD
• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ON SALE Fox and Bird Lo...

  inaluxe
  Sold
• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Flowers. 3pcs. Red and ...

  HMCreativeSup...
  $6.00 USD
• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Baby Fox Ring

  axelhoney
  $190.00 USD
• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  The Bleak House 8x10 print

  TheVoyagers
  $20.00 USD
• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Rainy Day Letterpress C...

  letterpress
  $4.00 USD
• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Fox with a Letter- Limi...

  bluedogrose
  $20.00 USD
• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Fox's I Love You He...

  SmoothFox
  Sold
• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Coral and grey glass br...

  easternhoneybee
  Sold
• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  F for Fiesta Art Postcard

  beauideal
  $9.00 USD
• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Hugs and Kisses Pop-Up ...

  tracychong
  Sold
• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Tin-Fold Pen. Dip pen, ...

  fluxplay
  $38.00 USD
• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Silver Grey Smoky Hand ...

  Nastershum
  $12.00 USD

Fabric art

Found some wonderful images from the talented Louise Bourgeois who died this year (at the age of 99 I think!). I was interested to read that her family moved further out of Paris to run an antique tapestry restoration business - I wonder what amazing tapestries she worked on as a young woman.

The images from the book, Ode de la bievre made me think immediately of patchwork. I was reading Kaffe Fassett's Passionate Patchwork this morning (I borrowed it from the library) and all I could think of was that there is so much to learn about colour.

I would love to get hold of a copy of both of these books. In the meantime, I will keep gazing at these images to see what I can learn from this beautiful work.

Louise Bourgeois' limited edition art book.

{found originally via all the mountains}

Bag art

Amazing Nutsa Modebadze. They all have a character that is so immediate. :::

Etsy Front Page - woo hoo!!

I'm so excited! I created a treasury collection (one of many!!) a few days ago and guess what? It was put on the front page! Only trouble was, it happened in the early hours of the morning here, so I missed logging on and seeing it. Never mind, there were lots of lovely, warm comments to read through.
The thing to remember is that these treasuries are only as good as the beautiful items made by all those talented Etsians out there!
My treasury is called Silver fox has a red letter day - I'll add an image of it tomorrow.
The name came from the colours - it was all silvery grey's and popping reds, and a few key images started to tell a story, so then the title just came to me. Anyhow, it was a whole lot of fun putting it together.
Confession time, I am a teensy bit obsessed with Treasury East at the moment. It's sooo much fun thinking of a theme and finding all the beautiful items to tell the story ...
So much so, I had to take an enforced rest day today - my hand was getting a little sore!!
Anyhow, hope you enjoy it and all the wonderful items in Etsy.

A walk through West Elm

Dipping into a new site tonight, West Elm, gathering more ideas for the house. I'm concentrating on bedroom, mirrors and hall at the moment ::: {found via Simply Grove}

{Here's a floor mirror - I'd like to put something like this near the front door, from here}


{very affordable little shadow frame from here}


{nice little black and white boxes, just what my husband needs to keep his watch, keys, etc in, from here}


{another lovely bedroom idea, I love the taupe wall colour, and the fireplace with layered frames and mirror, from here}