Happy leap year day...if there is such a thing J

No time for too many words today possums

Just pretty rooms

Or unusual ones...

You decide

that one above is the waiting room of a hair salon...cool huh!

aren't these flowers spectacular?

Let me know which one you like best J

images seen on: from the right bank, a perfect gray, design manifest, design sponge, parlour, designing home, summer house, the brick house, the style files, tiny white daisies

p.s. thanks for agreeing with me on my last post...and for letting me in on the whole white spined french book thing...who knew! Not me....although the reason they do it still eludes me J

This, dear bloggy people is a travesty...

An all white bookshelf. It's just plain wrong. When I first saw this picture I thought all of the books had been covered with white paper, and I wrote quite an impressive rant about that!  Which I had to delete when I realised that they weren't covered...that they were in fact books with only white spines. Which, I concede is not as bad, but it's still wrong. 
In my book J
You know I'm a book lover...and this just makes me wonder if these books are really loved for what's inside their covers, or if they're only in those shelves for their decorative appeal. Call me odd, but that makes me a bit sad.
Would you do this?  Would you, in the worst case collect, or if not collect because you already owned them (in which case I'm prepared to cut you some slack)...would you only display certain coloured books to fulfil a room vision? Could you? Should you? 
I really, really hope there's another room in this home with a bookcase full to the brim with books in every colour of the rainbow. But not colour coded...no, not that.... even though I will confess to having done it myself once upon a long time ago. Before it became a trend! 


Thank you for the kind comments on my last post and welcome to a few new readers...it's lovely to have you here in the townhouse, where the books are colourful and placed by height and sometimes category...so I know where to find them! 

Some weeks it’s easy.

This, possums...was one of those weeks J

In fact it was so easy it was almost hard

...too many choices

Apropos my last post

I'd just like to clarify a few things

it's 30 bags in 30 days

but that doesn't necessarily mean consecutive days

nor, you will notice

did I stipulate the size of the bags!

I'm not silly...and yes, I have kitchens on my mind J

images seen on: justb; a life's design; abigail ahern; iced vovos; i suwanee; not my beautiful home (2); real living; the decorista; the handmade home

I stumbled upon a list while I was doing a bit of blog hopping... it was about decluttering. 40 places in the house...a bag of junk evicted every day for 40 days.  Then I started to read The Happiness Project. First chapter...decluttering. Everywhere I look people are chucking stuff out. So I thought I'd better jump on the bandwagon. However, it's 30 days and 30 bags for me...40 being a bit too biblical for my liking!  Here are the first three from a very productive few hours in my wardrobe and chest of drawers over the weekend. With apologies for the very uninspiring photo...

That makes 27 over the next 29 days...easy!  Here's where I'm going to focus my attention:

• kitchen drawers, pantry, under the kitchen sink
• study drawers, cupboard, bookshelves, files (I tackled the wardrobe over the holidays)
• bedside tables
• wardrobe top shelf
• linen cupboard
• bathroom
• cupboard under the stairs
• studio drawers/shelves/wooden chest
• living room storage
• shed
• garage
• courtyard
• car
• magazines

And in a major change to my normal MO...those bags have already been dropped off to the clothing bin! Have you done a major declutter lately? How'd you go? What was the toughest thing about it? Any tips? I'll feel better once it's all done won't I...as long as I don't get chucker-outer remorse J

Hiya!

A day late I know...

Sorry about that.

Actually, make that a week and a day late

There are many things happening in the world of Kerry right now

So the poor old top ten...

which gives me so much pleasure...

has had to slip off the metaphoric radar for a bit

so I hope you enjoy this lot

a bit of a mixed bag, but that's the way we like it right?

...of course it is!

images seen on: spongeg tumblr; brydie brown tumblr; decorology; design files; desire to inspire; from the right bank; gild and grace; interior inspiration tumblr; style files; the diversion project

I’m sorry I haven’t been around much. Lack of posts, very few blog visits, unanswered emails, no top ten last week!

To be honest, I’m a bit fatigued. Lots on my plate and too much on my mind. So I downed tools this weekend and did very little except read in bed, do the most basic chores like washing and tidying up the kitchen, watched tv and crocheted. And fed the vampire slayer of course...unfortunately she's hard to ignore. But I did manage to ignore my computer screen for a very large chunk of time!

first in my 'classic of the month' reads

It’s done me the world of good, but I’m going to toddle off to the doctor this week and get a check-up. And the only reason I’m telling you that is because if I write it here I might actually do it J 

a new ripple for a baby boy

There WILL be a top ten this week, if nothing else! So you have a good one (week that is) and I’ll try to do the same J

here

....oh, and yeah! The blog is two today...thank you for being such wonderful company xox

Morning all. I’m in Brisbane. Working. Hard. Yes, really J

image source

So the top ten will have to wait until Friday I’m afraid. 

I know...it will confuse me too!
Oh ok, just one...

from the right bank

Time to recap what I read in January. Not, I have to tell you, as many as I read this time last year! My aim to read 100 books in 2012 is already looking shaky...but I managed six. 

As always...in order of reading...

Please Look after Mother by Kyung-Sook Shin - fiction, translated from Korean

Choral Society by Prue Leith - fiction

The Stepmother's Diary by Fay Weldon - fiction

In Tasmania by Nicholas Shakespeare - history/memoir

Eve Green by Susan Fletcher - fiction (first novel)

Believing the Lie by Elizabeth George - crime fiction

So, how were they? I have to confess to being an Inspector Lynley groupie so Believing the Lie by Elizabeth George is my pick for the month. It's a big book but I read it in a little over a day. I love Tommy and Barbara. This was a little grittier than normal I thought. If you like crime and you haven't read Elizabeth George, please do. I think this is about the 17th in the series, and yes, I've read them all.

Please Look after my Mother was very sad especially given my parents' situation, Choral Society fun but forgettable, The Stepmother's Diary dark and interesting. I bought and started to read In Tasmania at Hobart airport on the way home. It's a very clever weaving of history and the author's own modern story of an expat's life in his new country, where amazingly he finds he is related to the man they call 'the father of Tasmania'. Eve Green was fabulous, and an absolute marvel of a first novel. I've ordered her second book I was so impressed.

I’ve also decided that from now on, in among all the other reading I do, I’m going to read a 'classic' a month. Do you have any recommendations for me? I've read a few of course but I'm open to suggestions and would love to know what you think. I've pretty well done the Austens though J

Morning all....just a quick one today.  Once upon a very long time ago, in a crocheting world far, far away, I started a ripple blanket for the first born. I am pleased to tell you that it was delivered at Christmas time, and here it is living in its new home...just between you, me and the gatepost, I quite like it!

I missed the whole rippling thing, so I started on a cushion. And here it is, still incomplete, but resting nicely in my new/old indian parat from Lived In Coogee. Vanessa was brilliant. I saw on Facebook that she had some new parats in stock but they weren't in the online store, so she took some photos of what she had, emailed me and hey presto a few days later it was here! So happy with it.

To see a multitude of creative types, head this way...and I'll see you next week. Thanks heaps for this one. I might do some more crochet...or perhaps I'll just read a book  J