Jumping on the orange bandwagon - new Orla Kiely towels

Although I said that I was going to do a further "Tasmanian" post I thought I would just show you my orange towels. (Hotel post to follow soon though).


Orange seems to be the new colour I thought it would be quite appropriate.











I bought this whilst in UK at Christmas, and in the sale too. Love Orla Kiely and especially her homewares. I thought these taxi motif towels were really gorgeous.

Whilst in UK my friend Stuart of FONTAINE Antiques (http://www.fontainedecorative.com/) told me that I was pronouncing Kiely ALL WRONG.... I was saying KEELEY well apparently it is KYLIE (like our Australian homegrown Kylie). You learn something new every day.

Above here they are in all their orange cheeriness!

Wonderful.

For more information about Orla's wonderful bits and pieces go here http://www.orlakielylcom/

Tasmanian weekend (Part I) and Happy Australia Day!

Today in beautiful Australia it's a national holiday to celebrate all that is good about this fair land. And there is much to celebrate - the only negative thing I can think of about living here is that it's such a long way from anywhere - certainly from family and friends in UK . Anyway, I thought it fitting to post about Tasmania today - there's quite a bit to tell about our weekend away - so this is the first post.


The map above shows where Tasmania is exactly. I have to admit that before I came to live in Melbourne (Victoria) I didn't really know where Tasmania fitted in. As you can see it's an island to the south of Victoria.

Very beautiful countryside - this was about half an hour out of Hobart and Hobart is situated on the southern tip of Tasmania.

Photographs above and below show the top of Mount Wellington.

If the day had been clearer (we were above cloud level here) we could have looked down onto the city of Hobart from here.


And what a beautiful city it is....

There's a market held every Saturday with much local produce..... Just look at those beautiful Georgian buildings behind - my most favourite style of building ever...

Lots of lovely garden plant stalls.

Fresh vegetables artfully and neatly arranged.

Next few photographs show the beautiful houses I came across whilst wandering round Hobart.

Pretty as a picture. Sweet fence and cascading roses.

Black and white Georgian number for all the lovers of this colour combination and there are a few of you out there in blogland, I know - me included.

Smart grey front door and again, lots of white roses. A winning combination.

And lastly part of the building that our hotel was in. Our room was beneath the "'S" in the word Jams. I'll begin the next post starting with the hotel because it was quite probably one of the most interesting and intriguing places I have ever stayed in. Think I told you before that it was a converted jam factory it really was amazing and quite unique.

"Happy 'Straya day" to all my fellow countrymen (and women, of course!)
Enjoy....

Birthday - and our weekend destination

Today is my birthday and this morning Mr SE surprised me with a number of lovely and thoughtful gifts including a book about Hobart.... He also gave me a card with an itinerary for the next 48 hours or so and tomorrow morning we are off for a little 'tripette' to Tasmania.... Such a nice surprise. I had no idea he had been plotting and planning.

And, we are staying here...

The Henry Jones Art Hotel. By all accounts it looks rather wonderful and I am so looking forward to it.

Promise to take lots of photos and let you know all about it. Anyone that has been to Hobart I would welcome places that you think we shouldn't miss!! (The MONA gallery is already on my list)....

Happy weekends to all .........

Favourite paint colours

I really love the colours from the Paint and Paper Library range. They are perhaps not so universally well known as say Farrow and Ball but their colours are just gorgeous and the quality of the paint is second to none. David Oliver (photograph to the left) is Design Director of Paint & Paper Library based in Chelsea, London. He studied Fine Art, sculpture, painting, printmaking, photography and life drawing at the National Art School in Sydney where he developed his knowledge of twentieth century art. His work has been exhibited in Dublin, Madrid, New York, Sydney, Stockholm and London. Collections include the V&A Museum and the British Craft Council. In 2007 he completed his first book PAINT & PAPER A Masterclass in Colour and Light, published by Conran Octopus UK and Rizzoli USA. David unique sense of colour, demonstrated by his innovate architectural colours shades, has earned him the nickname the "Rock Star of Colour" or "The Prince of Paint" .....

Hmmm, quite a dish too (maybe because he's an Aussie?!!) which is of course nothing to do whatsoever with my decision to reproduce his photograph here on the blog for you all to see !

Anyway, back to the paint! A photograph above showing one of my all time FAVOURITE colours from the range - namely TARLATAN. It's on the wall on the right in our teeny little galley kitchen in our cottage in England. It's a sort of grey-taupe colour and looks amazing with white china as above. Yes, those are the very same gorgeous bowls that I coveted ever since I went (last October - see THIS POST) to Daylesford Organic shop in the Cotswolds. My dear friend J read that blog post and gave them to me for Christmas! What a lovely surprise. I know, - very lucky.


Should you wish to learn more about Paint and Paper Library - just go here http://www.paintlibrary.co.uk/ and you will also find that this month TARLATAN is featured as colour of the month.

Any paint ranges and/or colours you find yourselves using again and again...? Please do share.

A celebration for the Octogenarian of the family, or Dad's 80th Birthday party !

As I'm sure you all know, one of the main reasons why I went back to England over Christmas and New Year was because my dear Daddy reached the grand age of 80. So, here are a few of the many photographs that were taken during his celebration evening in London.





As you can see it was quite a large family gathering. It was a fabulous occasion....

There were speeches (of course) - left is my eldest niece during hers and to the right a photograph of my father replying. Needless to say there weren't many dry eyes whilst this was going on. I was the worst offender and unfortunately immediately had to repair my carefully applied (courtesy of my DD) makeup.

Dad's eleven grandchildren above all spelled out the name of his favourite footie team!! (Very lucky that he has 11 grandchildren, his own little football team!) Do you remember I have written about mini niece before? That's her on the right at the end, holding the 'N' - she is now 4!! My DD is number 3 in the line up holding the 'U' - she's wearing the dress we found in Singapore if you remember that post.

And here they all are, the grandchildren again with my parents.

Mini niece, Daisy with Mr SE. She was an absolute angel all evening - really enjoyed the whole time - no tears or whines even when it became way past her bedtime!

Myself, (yup, that lace dress has been rolled out again, - reckon it has done its cost per wear duty many times!) my father and my niece / goddaughter who lives in Melbourne too.

And lastly, the birthday King with his Queen, my Mother.....

Such a great evening and a wonderful celebration - a very happy occasion indeed.

Fireworks from London and a HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Sorry that my New Year greetings to you all are rather late, nevertheless they come with my best wishes to everyone for a happy and healthy 2012.

We saw in the New Year in London with my parents so we were ready and in place for the celebration of my father's 80th Birthday on January 1st 2012.Mr SE and I went outside and watched the fireworks which were absolutely amazing...... I took loads of photographs and this one above is one of my favourites.

Will post about Dad's birthday next time as again in rather a rush getting ready to fly back to Australia once again. How quickly the time has gone. Next post from Oz.

With thanks and huge appreciation to everyone - those who follow, those who read and maybe don't ever comment and those who have wonderful blogs that I follow. You all, as they say, "Rock my blogging world".

Lets hope it's a good one.