Farewell 2009, bring on 2010!

Well, it's been an interesting year. I started this blog only six months ago, and a lot has happened in that time (most notably, the Brisbane city guide I had the pleasure of writing for Design*Sponge).

Thanks to everyone who has followed me thus far, and a special thanks to those lovely people I've come to know via internet land (including some in person - you know who you are). 2010 will bring many exciting things - a wedding, two months off work, and learning fabulous new skills like sewing and driving. And, of course, more blog-o-rama!

Until next year...

And even more cute Christmas presents!

One of the items on my Christmas wishlist for 2009 was this set of Russian matryoshka measuring cups by Fred. My parents delivered, and I got my wish!Now I just need to go home and do some baking! Anyone want to come and help me make a cake this week?

More awesome Christmas presents

This one comes courtesy of a lovely work colleague - thanks JB!

He's a black QUALY nest sparrow, and his nest is made out of paperclips. The super strong magnets on the base of his nest hold the clips in place.He also came packaged in this adorable little recycled bird house! The sparrow and his nest are also made from completely recyclable materials.

The first of the awesome Christmas presents

We went to Toowoomba over the weekend for a pre-Christmas visit to John's parents. In addition to finding a few excellent pieces whilst scouring the thrift stores (details to come in a later post), we also exchanged Christmas gifts a week early.

John and his parents bought me this set of Luyesa Design hand bookends. We've been trying to find some great bookends for a while, and John found this set at Mod Cons, one of my favourite Brisbane stores.

The 'hands' are now propping up part of my record collection, with the Camille Rose Garcia-designed cover of a Sympathy Records all-girl compilation sitting at the front.

More Christmas presents to come!

Salt and pepper shakers

Recently my lovely friend Jeni returned from her trip to Paris with these red and white salt and pepper shakers - perfect for my decor! I've done a bit of online research, and the design appears to be inspired by the 'Hug' salt and pepper shakers designed by Alberto Mantilla (from the design collective MINT Inc.).

I'm still in the process of working out where these little guys will live (somewhere in the kitchen, of course), but I'll take another photo when they find their permanent home!

...and some Christmas gifts for myself!

I visited Biome in the city today to buy some final Christmas gifts, and I couldn't help but buy one for myself as well!

I got this gorgeous parkland ivory bowling bag from eco-friendly Australian company Apple & Bee. I also got a little Apple & Bee gift for someone else, but it's already wrapped in brown paper and string so no pictures of that one!

Brown paper packages...

...tied up with string (and a little sticky tape!). Christmas shopping (at least for me!) is now complete! I know John still has a little more to do tomorrow, though.

This year I wanted to go for the minimalist look of brown paper and twine, which I think looks great. As you can see, my silver star on the tree has also changed yet again (since John decided to steal the other one for his work tree - but I think this one looks better anyway!).

I can't wait to play Santa and give everyone their little treats!

Christmas tree update

I just changed the star. Even though it's not perfect, I think this one looks slightly (ok, a lot!) less amateurish!

Our Christmas tree

After many discussions, we decided that John would make our Christmas tree out of some wood from Reverse Garbage. Last Saturday he got to work drilling bits and pieces, and then I followed up with some white and red paint left over from other things we've done.

We've re-used some old decorations that were in the cupboard from last year, so our new 'tree' only cost us a couple of dollars.

A sneak peek of our bookshelves

I always find myself squinting at interior design magazines trying to read the spines of books. It’s fascinating for me to know what other people like to read (or flick through!), so I thought I’d share some of the contents of our bookshelves.

This particular shelf is home to many (but not all) of our art books, with roughly half of them being books that I’ve worked on in some capacity (either editing, proofreading, or clearing copyright – sometimes all three!). My favourite book on this shelf is Banksy: Wall and Piece – it’s a first-edition hardcover that sold out rather quickly. I bought it on the day of release when I visited Tate Modern in London, and paid hefty postage costs to ship it home (still cheaper than paying for excess plane luggage!).

I'm hoping to add some more bookshelf shots over the coming weeks...

New to the blogroll - My Vintage Treats

My lovely graphic designer friend Lisa has just joined the blogging world with My Vintage Treats! Lisa will be showing off some of the fantastic vintage pieces that she's picked up in second-hand stores around Brisbane (and perhaps eventually further afield!), and I can't wait to see what else she finds on her travels.

I am most in awe of the Japanese ceramic pineapple that she acquired from the Lifeline store near my place - I visited there yesterday and found nothing of interest!Lisa is a very talented graphic designer, and we worked very closely together on the Queensland Art Gallery's Floating Life: Contemporary Aboriginal Fibre Art publication. Don't bother trying to buy a copy - it sold out well before the exhibition finished!

Florence Broadhurst wallpaper

A HUGE thank you to Terese for dropping off this gorgeous Florence Broadhurst 'Aubrey' wallpaper on the weekend. I'm going to think for a LONG time before deciding what to do with it. One idea is to customise some boring Ikea furniture with it, but I'm not too sure as yet. It's quite a large sample - over a metre long and about 70 centimetres wide.

Anyone got any ideas?

New art

After a bit of a delay, I finally received my new Shepard Fairey print today. For those who missed my initial post, I bought one of the Adopt-a-Pet fundraising prints. Unfortunately I missed out on the first blue-and-red edition, but I got hold of the nice gold one. In person, it's actually quite neutral, which is nice - I was worried about finding a suitable location for it here!

Now I need to save up some money for professional framing. In addition, I've also had a Kozyndan print awaiting framing for about three years. I bought it because it depicts a place very dear to me - Newcastle in the UK, where my dad is from. One day it will live on the long wall that runs along the living room. Here it is, as well as a couple of details.

Kylie and John's 2009 Christmas tree - vote now!

I'm determined to create my own Christmas tree for the second year running. Here is what I came up with last year:

John didn't like that one very much, so yesterday I created this one out of an old design magazine:

He isn't too sure about that one either. I could try creating one a little more tree-like, sort of like this one:

I'm also thinking I might try my hand at making an entirely cardboard one. I really like the one made by the Cardboard Christmas Tree company - how hard could it be to make one myself (perhaps sans pop-out decorations)?

And here is my latest creation - a use for just a few of our many books, with a choice of toppers.

I need opinions! Vote now! The tree with the most votes will become our 2009 Christmas tree.

The typewriter has arrived!

This morning after we went to Northey Street Organic Markets to pick up the week's fruit and veges, we stopped off at Annerley to pick up our orange typewriter. And here she is:

I did a little bit of testing, and I really need to learn how to use a typewriter! It's such hard work when you're used to computers! I'm going to stop playing with it for now in case I break it, and I won't mess with it again until it's had a service.

I thought it would look good sitting with some Penguin Classics, and Darth Vader seems to fit in as well. John may have different ideas when he gets home, though!

Other than that, I spent a few hours today taking some shots for my Apartment Therapy house tour submission. Fingers crossed it all pans out as planned!

The Finders Keepers markets

Today John and I visited the first ever Finders Keepers markets in Brisbane. So much to see and so much to buy!

I went with only $100 in my purse (as I knew it would be far to dangerous to take any more than that) with the primary aim of buying Christmas presents for friends. I succeeded, of course, but I can't tell you what I bought, since several of the gift recipients are readers of this blog.

I also got some hair clips for myself, a housewarming gift, and a nice little present for Bonsai Foi/Ms Fiona Lee/Mrs Fiona Taylor, who celebrates getting another year older tomorrow. Happy birthday Bonsai - come back from Melbourne town!

If you're in Brisbane, there's still time to visit the markets tonight, and it's also on all day tomorrow.

A blast from the past...

We were in Fundaberg (sorry, Bundaberg) over the weekend for my sisters engagement party. While I was looking on my dad's computer for some pictures to on the digital photo frame I bought as a gift I came across these real estate photos of our unit before we bought it! In all the excitement at the time we forgot to save copies for ourselves.

I have a sneaking suspicion that the agent placed a few props in these photos, such as the moving bowl of fresh fruit, the flowers on the lovely plastic dining table and the photo frames with nothing in them next to the bed (behind which the wall was FILTHY when we moved in).

What do you think? Does it look better now?

Oooooh, a typewriter!

I just won this fabulous machine on ebay - a cute little orange typewriter that just happens to fit with the colour scheme of our wedding! The plan is to set this up on a table in lieu of a guest book. My parents are worried that a lot of people won't 'get' it, but I'm sure it will work out fine.
I might take it to the typewriter man in Alderley for a new ribbon, and to see if he can fix the question mark key...

Vignettes

I think I'm slowly getting better at creating vignettes around the home. A few days ago I shuffled some things around on the book cases, and ended up moving miss Fiona's birdie gocco print to the stack of old books I set up last week. I think it's finally found its permanent home, right near my recently acquired owl print!

It's also suddenly dawned on me that I've managed to collect a lot of bird things - they seem to be congregating a lot in the living room and bedroom (such as the bone china origami cranes, bone china mini bird feeder and Fiona's wedding invite, not to mention the flying ducks!).