bookshelf bliss

Sometimes bigger isn't better. While I adore my massive bookshelf with the ladder, this wee number also holds a place in my heart. My step-father built it for me years ago, and with a coat of paint it fits in beautifully in the study. The pigeon holes are the perfect size for books and also a few knicknacks such as my pretty violette cups - probably totally deserving a close-up of their own.

Now, I know you're keen to check out my desk, but as I don't have a blind and I'm relying on my iPhone for pics it's hard to get a good shot as the desk has a massive window behind it. Perhaps if I shot it at night? I'll try and see what I can come up with.

Anticipation makes everything better don't you think?

oooooh, i absolutely adore the plaza

Excuse me for a moment while I contain myself... I've just found out that Betsey Johnson has designed the Eloise suite in the New York Plaza hotel. Squeeeeeeee! I know one gal who'd just die to spend a night there. It's pricey, but like Eloise, she'd just say "Charge it please".

monday, monday

I'm off to canteen duty this morning - in a pair of shoes that aren't anywhere near as fierce as these Bottega Veneta beauties. After a weekend that just whirled by I'm not surprised that this morning seems to be following suit.

Did you have a good weekend? Delight me with tales of your adventures - pretty please!

film fest

I noticed last night that SBS are holding some kind of French Film Season, so I forced myself to stay up waaaaaay past my bedtime to view La Vie en Rose for the second time. The first viewing is a harrowing adventure - Edith's life took tragic to whole new depths. But oh, the love story between Edith and the married boxer Marcel was just amazing. Looking at this shot of the real couple you realise just how astonishing the casting of this film was. To see the intensely beautiful Marion Cottilard play the extraordinarily aging Piaf was dumbfounding - and oh, did they cast the right sexy kind of beast to play Marcel...

This film will make you hug your children tight, so thankful will you be for their childhood, and it's a film that will stay with you long after the final credits role. Emotional, harrowing, breathtaking and raw, La Vie on Rose doesn't depict a rosy life for the little sparrow - but it does reveal an extraordinary one.

what a day

Well, my girls played beautifully for their last game of the season - they didn't win score-wise, but they really won team-wise. This bunch of girls are just all so beautiful. Their passion and enthusiasm is contagious - I've adored coaching them.

We just had a fabulous party down by the beach with the girls giggling, playing and racing around. If I'm lucky enough to coach them next year I'm going to organise a party at the start of the year too.

The parents gave me a beautiful present - a gift voucher at Essential Ingredient - woo hoo! Oh I'll have fun spending that - and the girls all wrote on a card which was just gorgeous. One of my girls came up to me at the party and handed me a card she'd designed and written which just made me so teary. She told me she loved my positivity and hoped that when she grew up she'd be like me. Higher praise? There is none.

I love the girls I coach. My aim is to make them the best netballer, the best team player and the most self-assured person possible. Some of the skills I'm teaching don't improve their game - but they strengthen their body to avoid injury and when they're older these skills will really come into play. My girls mightn't win every game - but they come off knowing they've done their best and that next week they'll do even better.

What more could you ask for?

time saving tip

Lately I've been feeling bogged down in time-wasting stuff and I've just done the most liberating thing to help save myself. Now, I get a lot of emails, up to 100 is normal, but up to 200 is not unknown. Per day. Checking them, replying, deleting, filing them just takes up time. So here's what I just did - I unsubscribed to about 15 different sites that regularly send me updates - that I really don't use. And oh, the feeling of clicking "Un-subscribe" was just utterly amazing.

I might only receive those emails once or twice a week, but I always feel obligated to read through them just-in-case. Well, now they're not there I needn't worry - out of sight, completely and utterly out of my mind.

friday's flowers

I love Redoute's botanical etchings. His roses always sing out to me. I've got a few vintage prints that are awaiting a hanging either side of my desk with the window separating them - they'll cheer me up no end.

Apparently Napleon's Josephine learned to draw under Redoute's tutelage. Imagine...

phew, friday

Going anywhere fun or doing anything interesting this weekend? My weekend's busy. Tonight we're putting up pictures in the study and bringing in the rest of the books to fill the shelves - squeeeee. Tomorrow morning it's our last game of netball, so we're having a 'party' at the beach afterwards to celebrate the season. My gal's then going to a Mad Hatters birthday party in the afternoon {oh yeah, party central round here...}. We've bought her a hot pink glitter top hat that we're decorating with a pale pink and silver marabou boa and some pale pink fabric roses. She'll be wearing her red pettiskirt to the party so it shall all be totally fabulous. Also found a fabulous pressie in the Disney range at Diva {yep, they had Alice In Wonderland jewels - guess how much I wanted them for myself?}.

Sunday? Who knows. Farmers Markets naturally - I don't feel like it's a weekend without them. Perhaps some baking with my gal - muffins or cupcakes to freeze for the week's school lunches. And lotsa coffee.

You?

girly girly girl

Here's a peek inside my wardrobe. I reorganised it yesterday and thought it was quite amusing that I have, oh, around 100 dresses, 50 skirts and one pair of jeans.

As you can see, I'm also fond of a wrap dress, black and white stripes, green and florals.

i want to ride my bicycle

I'm in love... I think I'll be needing one of these for my birthday - complete with a basket for baguettes at the front.

french chic{k}

Oh, j'adore Emilie Simon. Et tu?

new library

Okay, I know you're dying for it - here's the first peek at my study - with my half-filled library. Oh, it's a tough decision working out what's worthy of inclusion on such a lovely piece of furniture. The salvos are going to LOVE my book donations {after an entire boot-load full on Saturday I'd say there's another boot-load to come: and that's a hatchback boot!}

I am love, love, love, loving my new study. My desk is just beautiful {pictures to come later - remember, I only have my phone for a camera} and I'm so pleased we went with the charcoal carpet {although I may well turn into crazy vacuuming lady...}. The lavender walls are just blissful: pretty, light and soothing yet invigorating - just what I was after.

More shots to come later - maybe I should ask for a camera for my birthday...

trying to control myself

I'm beside myself. My carpet's being laid today and tonight I can get my study in order. Oh, bliss! The whole study renovation's taken place so quickly I barely feel that it's real. Oh, but it is...

As part of my planning for our French holiday next year I follow a few Frenchies on Twitter - including French Vogue {oooh, la LA} which is where I found out about Karl Largerfeld's photography exhibition {that's his work above}. C'est magnifique.

souper douper

The other day I bought a rather bland butternut pumpkin. We had a little of it roasted with our beef on Sunday night, but it was immensely unsatisfying. So today, as I nearly froze to death, I thought I might as well make some pumpkin soup with the stuff.

To up the taste factor I sauteed a brown onion in olive oil until translucent, then I added a diced slice of Spring Hill Free-range bacon {from the farmer's markets - if you ever see Spring Hill meat please buy it - and not just because it's from my favourite holiday house in Burrawang!}. Then I diced the pumpkin and a peeled potato, threw them in for a few minutes then added a litre of chicken stock and a good amount of ground black pepper.

This simmered for around 30 minutes and then I popped in the stick blender to puree it all and that's it. No cream, no milk, but the tastiest, creamiest pumpkin soup ever. {I reckon it's the bacon that made the difference - everything tastes better with bacon...}

what's cooking this week*

Brrrrrrrrrrrr. Well, that was quite the storm we had last night. Wild rain and winds so strong it blew our wheely bin right across the yard and into a rose bush {luckily a very recently pruned rose bush so no real damage}. It's still raining and very frosty, so that's going to influence this week's meals.

For lunch today I'm going to cook up a pot of butternut pumpkin and bacon soup. Mmmmm. For dinner? Well I'm thinking a beef stew with dumplings and herbed potatoes.

Wednesday: my last netball training session for the season: Chicken curry in the slow cooker served with rice, garlic naan and wilted greens {we didn't get around to making this last saturday}

Thursday: French lessons: spaghetti bolognaise will do just nicely

Friday: home-made pizza

Saturday: pork and cider casserole, cauliflower and broccoli au gratin

Sunday: Roast chicken dinner - with roasted parsnips and carrots along with the usual suspects

Monday: Late game of netball - really late - so an early dinner. I'm going to try Maxabella's pasta bake.

Tuesday: Lamb and green bean stew, pumpkin mash and garlic-sodden greens.

What's on your plates this week?

*Thanks Beth for reminding me that, yes, today is tuesday not wednesday...

perfect paint

Having done a fair bit of painting since moving into this house {gal's bedroom once, hall twice, living room twice and study once} I can say that the right paint makes the world of difference. We painted our living room in a deep, rich red and the paint we used was a nightmare. Thick, goopy and yet with little coverage. However, the British Paint we've used in our gal's room, and in the study have been magnificent. The colours are lovely and just a dream to apply. Should you be crazy enough to consider painting your home, may I suggest you give British Paints a go.

lucky numbers

There cannot just be one shoe of the week this week as I've reached quite a milestone post. Guess how many?

One thousand, five hundred*. I know - apparently I never shut up. I think it's because I work from home so I don't have any workmates to turn to and say, "ooooh, guess what?" so you're all effectively my workmates. Want to go grab a coffee?

So, for your viewing pleasure this morning I've selected a range of shoes from net-a-porter - there's "Shiny!", "Lacey", "Bows!" and "Scallops!" {the edging, not the mollusc} for us all to delight over.

Now, I'm off to count down the seconds till Wednesday afternoon when my carpet is laid and my furniture returns, or is placed, in its rightful position. I'm looking forward to actually being able to walk in a straight line and not have to squish between things to find something I need. Oh, and to be able to open my bedroom drawers more than 3cm. OOOOH, and to have a completed study - that's my real dream. Bliss...

*Or, alternatively, it could be 1450. I swear to god that yesterday blogger told me I was up to 1499 but today it's told me a different tale. Oh well, the shoes are cute, and 1450 is still a damned lot of posts...

weekend wonders

Now, for those who've been asking the big reveal of my study will be on Thursday, or maybe Friday of this week. The carpet's getting laid on Wednesday afternoon and then we'll start moving the furniture into the room... I'm a wee bit on the excited side. We painted the hall yesterday, and will spend the morning laying another coat of high gloss on the skirting boards, chair rails and picture rails {so much to paint in a Victorian home!}.

Next thing is we'll need to paint the frames of most of the pictures that go in our hall white, with maybe the odd antique gold mixing it up. We'd love to have a gallery effect in our narrow hallway - don't you just love groupings of images?

parisian delights

As I'm always looking for an excuse to travel to Paris, or extend my stay, so hearing about what must be the most magnificent idea ever has got me hankering to celebrate my birthday in Paris one year. Cinema au clair de lune is an outdoor cinema that travels around arrondissements in Paris in August. Oh yes please!

happy weekend

Hello, how's this for a late post? Sorry! Last night was all about the painting - we've now completely finished the ceiling and cornices and have a coat of lavender on the walls - and I'm sooooooooo glad we've gone with the colour. Oh it's happy, oh it's pretty. Now we've just got one more coat to do on the walls... before we move into the hall... I know, it's addictive stuff this painting business.

Photos to come soon. In the meantime, regale me with what's going on in your world. I'm keen to peak into a weekend that's not sodden with paint fumes.