More birthday goodness: Jewellery and accessories

How lucky am I?! This year I got so many fabulous gifts, including some from people I totally did not expect one from. It certainly makes me feel very special and loved!

As many of you would know, up until my recent visit to Finders Keepers I was experiencing a total brooch drought. Then, I won some more brooches (amongst other lovely things) from REread. Then, my very special friend Shilo added another one that I adore more than all of the others put together: an acrylic shiny red feather brooch from That Vintage. Shilo shares my love of birds (she loves checking out the weird Australian species, while I love putting bird symbols all around my home), and she also knows how much I adore shiny red stuff.

Image: That Vintage

On the weekend I also received an extremely thoughtful gift from my friend Jeni, who knows all about my Ethical Clothing Pledge. Jeni bought me a chameleon clutch from Biddy Bags, which is a local social enterprise that connects socially isolated nannas who get together to make lovely little craft items to sell. The crafters also get to keep over half of the sale price of their items, which is just wonderful. My clutch also came with yet another brooch - a cute little crocheted flower with a button.

Image: Biddy Bags

Then, I received a lovely little surprise in the post courtesy of Irene. Irene is currently visiting Indonesia and was unable to come to my little gathering on the weekend, so she arranged for me to receive a big set of origami paper badges from Pannikin. The really funny thing is that I'd only just discovered Pannikin jewellery last week when I was at Bleeding Heart Gallery, so it was an amazing coincidence to receive a little package in the mail from Holly only a couple of days later.

Image: Pannikin

Finally in the jewellery and accessories department, I got a new Polli black canopy necklace from my husband John. He has quite a knack for choosing great, quirky pieces that suit my personality, for which I am very grateful. This pendant is my second Polli piece from John.

Image: Polli

I received my other present from John early this year when I was sent to a five-week hula hoop course. I had no idea that I was going there until we arrived at the door, and I was a little freaked out to say the least. However, it turned out to be great fun and something that I want to continue doing. Plus, I got to keep my shiny red hoop as well!

Image: Polka dots, side view (Flickr)

Tomorrow, I'll update on my final batch of presents from some equally special friends and family - all stuff I received for the home. Thanks again to all of the awesome people who helped to make my birthday week special!

Birthday week over, now for some books!

Now that my birthday week is officially over, I thought I'd share some of the lovely presents I got. There are too many great things to mention in one post so I'm going to spread them over a few this week. To start with, here are some books I got from my parents and parents-in-law.

I asked my parents months ago to get me the gigantic Taschen New York Interiors book. I already had the mini version, but having seen the giant coffee-table size in a book store I just had to have it! I'm yet to have a good flick through, but I don't think I'll be taking it to look at on the train to work!

Images: The Design Files

The second book I got was Tossed and Found from my in-laws, which is a great book full of great (and sometimes really weird) stuff made from discarded junk.

Images: Apartment Therapy

I'll be sharing more of the wonderful accessories and homewares I received over the coming days. I did have a great birthday week this year, and particularly enjoyed spending Saturday night with some special close friends.

Woo, I got an award for blogging!

My good friend Shilo over at Yikes Machine was granted the Versatile Blogger Award, and it has now been passed on to me. Thanks Shilo! This is my very first award - how nice! Check out this weirdo octopus multi-tasking!

In order to accept this award I need to tell you seven things about myself, and then pass the award on to some fellow deserving bloggers. So, here goes...

1. I am 'owned' by four guinea pigs. All of them have been adopted from the Australian Cavy Sanctuary, who rescue and re-home piggies who have often been mistreated or can't be cared for by their owners any more. I've had guinea pigs for almost nine years, and my current girls are named Harriet, Poppy, Gertie and Liesl (Liesl is Gertie's daughter - Gertie came to me as a very young piggy who had been impregnated far too early in an irresponsible breeding situation). My four piggies are an absolute handful at times, but I love them all dearly. This is a picture of me with my first piggy Esmerelda, who passed away two years ago at the age of six-and-a-half. Esmerelda was a breast cancer survivor - she had a large mammary tumour removed when she was three.

Image: Giulio Saggin

2. I am a dual citizen of Australia and the UK. Both of my parents were born in England and moved here in their teens, which means I'm entitled to dual citizenship. I have both Australian and EU passports, and the only downside is that they're both unstamped - I enter and leave the UK on my British passport, and enter and leave Australia on my other one. Thus, no stamps!

3. I'm seven years into completing a degree that will take eight years. When I got my current job in arts publishing, I started out as a trainee and had only completed two-thirds of a Diploma of Editing. I got to complete a Certificate III in Business Administration as part of my trainseeship, and because I've worked full-time since then I totally missed out on university. I've been studying my Bachelor of Arts via distance education (majoring in Literary and Cultural Studies, Film Studies and Australian History), and the end is now in sight! I'm now also completing a Certificate in Interior Decoration and Design just for fun.

4. Because I read all day editing books and then do a lot of reading for my degree, I don't get to read much. I don't really want to. Instead I like to read bite-sized articles in magazines. Perhaps when I finish studying I'll find the headspace for books again - I do seem to own a lot of them...

5. I love brussel sprouts. For my birthday week I treated myself to some very expensive organic sprouts, and I can't wait to cook them tonight - pan cooked in stock with parmesan cheese and balsamic vinegar.

6. I once spent quite a lot of time making origami cranes. I decided to complete the 1000 cranes project, and probably completed about 800 before I stopped. I had to throw most of them out when we moved house, but I have kept a shoebox filled with some. I love cranes so much that I have some bone china ones in my living room, and I've have committed to teach Shilo how to make cranes while she's still living in Brisbane.

Images: Have You Met Miss Jones?

7. For over three years I've sponsored a child from Pakistan named Fazila through Plan Australia. Fazila is five years old currently and is still too young to write me letters, but she does sometimes draw pictures. When she was two she sent me a drawing of a rabbit - not a face with big long ears, but a side profile of an actual sitting rabbit. I was very impressed.

Ok, now that's done I need to pass this award on to some others. So, without futher ado, I'd like to award the following bloggers who have made an impact on me for their fabulous and versatile content.

Being Tazim (fabulous blogger from Canada)
Cerebral Excrement (seriously, how can you not love haikus?!)
Olive and Joy (lover of interior design and decorating from the Gold Coast)
REread (local Brisbane recycler of children's books, turning them into brooches and stationery)

Your turn!

Wallpaper panels: How to make them!

Some of you might remember the gorgeous Florence Broadhurst wallpaper panels that Terese from designed to a T gave us as a wedding present.

Lucky for you readers, because Terese has an online tutorial for how to make your own wallpaper panels just like mine!

Image: designed to a T

Check out the step-by-step guide here, and be sure to follow Terese's blog for more DIY tutorials. I'm particularly looking forward to some ideas for using my Florence Broadhurst fabric - although I may still be too scared to touch it!

Baked rice pudding: win!

Yesterday afternoon when I returned home from reading magazines in the local park, a little voice in my head told me to make a rice pudding. I wasn't much of a fan of rice pudding as a child, but for some reason I really wanted some yesterday. And I didn't want any old sloppy rice pudding, but the baked kind with eggs in it that sets like a baked custard. I searched the internet for the easiest baked rice pudding recipe, and I succeeded!

My baked rice pudding was absolutely delicious, and was everything I hoped it would be. I intend to make it at least once more before winter draws to a close. I served very generous portions with warm blueberries, and will be partaking in the leftovers after dinner tonight. Or perhaps FOR dinner tonight...

Winter flowers...

I'm normally not one to waste money on fresh flowers, but when we did our grocery shopping earlier this week there were quite a few reduced bunches in great condition. The yellow roses were only $1, and the lilies were $3 - about $30 worth! The lilies have started to open up over the last day, and although they're making me sneeze a little they're still pretty...

Favourite Things Project

As if I don't have enough to do, I've decided to participate in the Favourite Things Project being run by Tazim (from the Being Tazim blog).

I may not participate in all 52 weeks, but I'll do as many as I can. For the first week, Tazim has asked participants to talk about iconic things they love about their country or city. So, I'll talk about two things I love about Brisbane.

Firstly, the Brisbane River. I'm not sure why, but I really enjoy walking over the river across a bridge, or taking the bus and looking out the window. I'm super excited that I'm taking a CityCat out to lunch tomorrow to celebrate my birthday early with John's parents. Since I've lived in Brisbane, three new bridges have been built in the city over the river (one of them even opens this weekend!). As I don't yet drive, I'll show you the my favourite pedestrian bridge - Kurilpa Bridge, which I walk over twice a day because it ends up right outside my work.

Images: The Architectural Review

The other thing I love about Brisbane is the growing trend towards to handmade, particularly all the fantastic markets. We now even even host the Finders Keepers Markets twice a year, which used to only be presented in Sydney and Melbourne. These markets are held in the Old Museum, which is a beautiful building to visit.

Images: Mark Lobo for Finders Keepers

Image: Ralf Regeer for Our Brisbane

The trend towards crafting does not end with markets. The start of winter also meant the launch of the I Knit Brisbane, which saw knitted and crocheted creations pop up all over the city. Here are some creations from Rogue Cosie and friends, at the end of the Goodwill Bridge (another pedestrian bridge).

Image: Rogue Cosie

If you'd like to participate in the Favourite Things Project, sign up at Being Tazim! To find out more about cool stuff in Brisbane, check out my Brisbane city guide on the Design*Sponge website.