It's Monday again, a day that comes around far too quickly for my liking. There was a time in my life that I lived for Mondays...sad but true. But not anymore. Nope, those days are blessedly gone. Quite often I have to work on the weekend. Not as in actually attending a workplace somewhere, but more a case of finishing something to meet a deadline that hasn't been able to be achieved during the working week.
But not this weekend. This weekend I did things just for pleasure, and it was good :)

Friday night was a movie, free, courtesy of a double pass win from the ACT Writer's Centre...the Fred Schepisi adaptation of the Patrick White novel The Eye of the Storm...brilliant stuff.

As soon as we stepped out of the movies I hightailed it across the street to a favourite bookshop The Paperchain in Manuka and bought the book. I haven't read Patrick White since the enforced reading of The Tree of Man in high school.  He's easier to read when you're a bit more grown up I've found. Loving the book. It's scary reading a book after you've seen the movie don't you think? There's almost always disappointment one way or the other, but it doesn't seem to be the case with this story. Movie and book are both excellent.

It was lousy weather on the weekend so I did a lot of reading and I even had an afternoon nap on Saturday. I never do that! It may have been because I was a bit exhausted after hoofing it around the Lifeline Spring Book Fair. I came home with a few pre-loved books...20 to be exact...but such a bargain, ending up at around $4 a book. Yep, definitely a bargain :)

A trip to the Grower's Market near my place on Sunday morning yielded the week's supply of baby spinach, rocket and coriander and some plants for my new veggie patch from Bunnings that I put together last weekend...all by myself with only a few minor injuries involving a concrete paver.

 

And hallelujah the wisteria is finally sprouting. About time!

And last week's poppies hung in there really well and can now be joined by this week's new bunch from the markets...seven bucks well spent.

Do you like ivy? I know some people don't, but I love it. My grandma's name was Ivy, so perhaps that's why. This has appeared over the courtyard wall and there's no way I'm getting rid of it. I'll just have to be vigilant and not sit on the bench for too long lest I be strangled by it!

And the orchid was disappointing this year...a bit ratty, but still lovely in all its imperfection.

And before I forget, because I can be such a lame-brain sometimes, a big thank you to Jennifer, the blog mistress over at A Sampler who gave me the versatile blogger award a few weeks ago. 

Please go and visit Jennifer...she's a writer and a reader (so you can see the attraction!), who, as she puts it "fled the film and TV industry a few years ago to give motherhood a second whirl...". Gotta love that!
I hope the week ahead brings lovely things your way.

If it's good enough for Colin...it's good enough for me! Gratuitous Colin shot coming right up...no need for a thank you...it was absolutely no trouble :)

Boy that was a good movie. You might want to stop reading now...Colin is probably as good as it gets :)
But if you're brave, or just have nothing better to do...a little while ago now I was given this award...

by two very lovely bloggy people and their very stylish blogs...'Cross the Pond and I used to be snow white but I drifted...thank you possums. I have had this once before from Sara Louise...and once again, I'm chuffed! As you would be. That time I told you about my most embarrassing moment...relive it here if you must..or better still go and visit those lovely grantees :)
Then, as you do, I got to thinking about the definition of stylish...dictionaries mostly refer to stylish being about conforming to the modern fashion...which I most definitely do not :)
So I went looking for quotes...and this one grabbed me right down to my ever so stylish Haviana thongs (flip flops for the northern hemisphere)...well it's really hot here and I'm on holidays so don't judge me ok :)

''Style is knowing who you are, what you want to say and not giving a damn.'' Gore Vidal

and this one too...

“Create your own visual style... let it be unique for yourself and yet identifiable for others.” Orson Welles

Oh Orson...you are so right. And, apart from the "not giving a damn" bit (because I do believe that you need to take others into consideration, most of the time) I'm with Gore as well. 
You know how it goes...I'm meant to tell you 7 things about me but what more is there to tell that is publishable I wonder!!
But I'll give it a crack...

1.    My first love was a boy called Kenneth Brown. He sang like an angel to me over the back fence when we were only five...mostly the song was "take me back to the black hills, the black hills of Dakota, to the beautiful Indian country that I love" (why that song I'll never now seeing we lived in a city in Australia!) Very sadly he died one Christmas Eve when he was 19, electrocuted putting up the Christmas lights. I still think about that.
2.   I am an excellent speller. Even before spell check.
3.   I know it's terribly unfashionable...unstylish even (gasp) but I have lots of buddhas in and around my house...15 at last count...they make me feel tranquil when I remember to look at them. I'll show them all to you one day. Bet you can't wait for that. They must have the right face or they don't make it home with me:) My most precious one (not in terms of cost) I bought at Buddha's birthplace in Nepal.

4.   On a related note, I have an as yet unrealised plan to meditate every day. I may be on my way to looking like a jolly buddha but that's as far as my buddhist leanings go at the moment I'm afraid.

5.   I am not, never have been, never will be...a minimalist. You knew that already didn't you? And I have a real love of 'ethnic' things.

...and I'm mad for a bit of whimsy...meet Mildred (and ignore the slayer in the corner)

6.   I try very hard not to be a hater but I have two pet hates: use of the word 'hero' in the same breath as sporting (these people are not heroes, sorry) and misuse of the word tragedy in the same way. Someone breaking their finger, toe, arm, or having a cold and not being able to play for Australia is not a tragedy. Glad I got that off my chest. Thank goodness yesterday was Australia Day...I'd be deported if I'd said it then :)

7.   I like the cold better than I like the heat despite growing up not too far from a beach and harbouring a desire to go and live on the north coast of NSW. I will need air conditioning and a pool thank you very much. 
8.   And one extra thing (told you I wasn't a minimalist)...I have dubbed 2011 The Year of Living Frugally...in a mad attempt to reduce my mortgage. This of course doesn't apply to books, learning or travel :)

Crumbs you're good if you've got this far. I would like to pass this on to a couple of blogsters who make me laugh...because as the sidebar blurb says...I do love to laugh...either through their posts, their comments or both. Now that's stylish.

Fun and VJs

Make Mine Mid Century

My Villa Life

Play if you feel so inclined, but no probs if you don't :)
all photos by me...except Colin...oh to get that close!

Sara Louise from the eponymous Sara in le petit village (do you have any idea how much I've wanted to use the word eponymous in a sentence?) gave me the Stylish Blogger award a little while ago...

...and then Melli from Melli's designs (I'll resist using that word again) tagged me.
Don't get me wrong, I love these things but there's pressure involved. Who to pass an award on to; what to tell you that's interesting that you don't already know, and, according to the stylish blogger award, what's secret (and I would also add, publishable!)
So, I turned to this for some inspiration...

No, no, not the Vogue Living (although there's inspiration aplenty in there). See that little yellow box...picked it up at the Post Office...it's quite amazing what you can find there. $4.95 and the pack says for ages 8+, but honestly...how many 8 year olds do you know going to dinner parties...unless it's those kids from Junior Masterchef. But dammit, I'd have them out in the kitchen cooking not sitting around the table amusing me.

Anywaaaay,  what should be the first card that tumbles out...

Embarrassing moment...oh good! But it got me on a bit of a roll to reveal things you don't know about me...so, a little story...

• It was in Papua New Guinea. I was there as the media liaison officer for the Defence Force one Anzac Day in the 90s. We sent a contingent to march. I was wearing a pure white Navy Officer's uniform (quite legitimately as I was in the Navy...well, the Navy Reserve actually). So there you go...'fact/secret' No 1...you didn't know I was in the Navy as well as the Army did you?
• Our then Prime Minister Paul Keating was the main dignitary. I met him and shook his hand. F/S No. 2....much as I admire Mr Keating (non-Labor voters please don't judge), he had a very unimpressive handshake. I found that extremely disappointing.
• Apart from shaking hands with the PM, I thought I should introduce myself to the journos, as I was meant to be their main point of contact and it may have been a bit hard to do the job without saying hi! I rocked on up to the very famous (well in Australia anyway) Peter Harvey...he's tall. Okay, that's a fact not a secret...and it's not about me. Stick with me anyway bloggy peeps.

• I was a bit nervous...he was famous...almost as famous as the PM in fact. Perhaps more. Are you getting the picture? F/S No 4...sometimes I'm not as brave as I could be.
• But up I 'marched' to Mr Harvey (I didn't actually march...even though I was in uniform that would have been far too nerdy). F/S No 5...despite the crochet rock and few hundred other bits of 'evidence', I am NOT nerdy. This is nerdy...

• I put my hand out to shake his...looked Peter in the eye (I'm quite tall too...[F/S No. 6]... so it wasn't too much of a stretch)...and said...wait for it...you'll love this...
• "Hello. I'm Peter Harvey". F/S No 7...I'm not Peter Harvey....he was Peter Harvey.
• F/S No. 8...a crack in the universe (a la Doctor Who) did not appear and the ground did not swallow me up as it was meant to.

• I did however blush a very unattractive shade of bright red. Against a snow white Navy uniform, that's very red indeed, even taking into account the tropical heat. F/S No 9...I blush...still...even at this age.

• F/S No. 10....Peter Harvey had the very good grace to laugh along with me once I stopped blushing and I even managed to tell him my real name somewhere along the way. Fact...yes my name is Kerry....and
• I have indeed told this story at many a dinner party...

Now, enough about me...for quite a while I should think. I would like to pass this Stylish Blogger award on to Jeanne who blogs at Collage of Life and three other places too. Everything about Jeanne is stylish; her photos, her words and most importantly I think...her philosophy. And that's what it's all about :)

I have to tell you...

my house looks like the proverbial bomb has gone off in a corner of it

a small one anyway...bomb that is, not corner

and that's not even counting the space the 22 year old is inhabiting

that,my friends, you can only begin to imagine!

but it's where he creates some rather good graphic design...I'll show you some of it one day...

so how wonderful it is to gaze at all this...well, tidyness and order and tranquility...

sometimes my house looks styled...

but not all that often I must confess

maybe this weekend I'll have a styling blitz

or maybe not...I have a wedding to go to...in a paddock near Tumut! Can't wait.

Where, apart from pondering the joys of wedded bliss (and wondering where on earth I went wrong!!), I will think about who to pass this lovely award on to...and make up reveal 5 secret things about me!

Thank you Sara Louise, for thinking I'm stylish...you silly possum...have you forgotten the crochet rock :)  You must check out Sara in Le Petit Village. Go and meet her, the husband, Fifty, and Honey Jr among others. She is an absolute cracker and an definite must read for moi!

p.s. I actually love the rock :))

images via brabourne farm; collage of life; cote de texas; design sponge; driftwood interiors; greige; la maison boheme; shannon fricke; the design files; the diversion project