House Inspiration: Wall Treatments and 3D Printing

I wouldn't mind this over-sized Magnolia on my dining room wall.  From what I can gather it is the dining room of a Missoni home, taken from a house tour on this Russian interiors site.  The slate look on the wall is actually decorative plaster and the flower is a 3D cut from ash wood.  I thought the flower looked like it was made from plaster, but it makes sense to be made from a light material - you wouldn't want it falling off and knocking out your dinner guest.  There is soo much to love about this image and colour palette...

Speaking of 3D digital crafting... have you heard of 3D printing?  Ebay has recently launched an app called Ebay Exact which allows you to order custom 3D printed items, pretty limited at this stage.  Once people figure out what to do with 3D printing (apart from make guns) I think we will see it creep into mainstream design very quickly, although Scientists are already freaking out about health risks!  

See also: 

3D-Printing Poäng: 7 Critical Facts You NEED To Know

Shapeways - Make, Buy and Sell products with 3D Printing

Real Weddings: Feather Hair Piece - Handmade in Canberra

One of my customers - Alex, an Australian bride who got married in Quebec recently sent me a link to her lovely wedding photos by Canadian photographer Ben Kane.  Alex looks just beautiful don't you think, I haven't seen feathers featured like this on a gown and I really love it.  Alex found me on Etsy and took the time to send some really great feedback which I always appreciate.

My vintage inspired feather hair piece has been one of my best selling pieces and sadly I only have one cream, one off-white and one black vintage feather pad of this quality left!  My supplier no longer stocks these pads and I haven't found anything that matches this quality as yet.  Here it is again if you missed it on a Brazilian bride, worn slightly differently.

See more stunning photos like this one above on Ben's blog.  If you like this piece or have favourited it on Etsy, get in quick before they are all gone.

Pod Park: Canberra Arboretum

The pod park opened in Canberra's Arboretum last week and we popped by on Monday to check it, with half of Canberra it seemed. Anya was fine going up into the big acorn which has the longer slide although she said she got pushed around a bit.  I'm not surprised as there were far too many kids in there, they needed crowd control something chronic. 

To his dismay we only let Josiah go on the the smaller acorn and slide which he ended up loving and went on over and over again, try telling a three year old the big slide is not a good idea!

The Banksia nut section is for the younger children, full of sand and musical instruments.  They have a few rock walls and climbing ropes dotted around the outskirts of the acorns and a large rope area behind that which was cordoned off when we visited.   

It is a wonderful park which we will go back to but I was super concerned about safety in the craziness of our visit that day.  I myself couldn't wait to get OUT of there.  I don't usually have a problem with crowds but I think the combination of frazzled children and frazzled parents did my head in.

The park is open 9am - 4pm and is just outside the visitors centre.  Judging by it's popularity it seems Canberra (or just the Arboretum) should build a few more of these parks!  We are off on a little holiday, see you in a couple of weeks.

A Simple Lesson in Gratitude

On the weekend I read an overwhelming and challenging post on Ann Voskamp's, (author of New York Times best seller,"One Thousand Gifts") trip to Africa.  Later on that day my children had exceeded their quota of whining and the moment, "it's not fair" had escaped from my daughters lips I decided it was time to put 'fair' into perspective!

I pulled Anya aside and shared parts of this post with her.  We looked at the images of  the woman who had malformed feet, the children dressed in rags and a bucket of white ants that little Anna had carefully caught for her family meal.  I was pretty choked up at this point as I tried to show my five and a half year old daughter that life is VERY fair for her, (it was a good reminder for me too).  We compared the floor of our house to the mud floors in the images, we looked at the difference in our clothing and our food.  Anya listened intently and reflected on how happy they looked despite their circumstances, she was especially shocked about the white ants, and rightly so.

We then went on to talk about our sponsor kids in Africa and ways we can help others but also to be very thankful for what we have and to try not to complain!  I don't think it is ever too early to teach our children about gratitude, empathy and giving.  I have been challenged more than once to not only give from my excess but to give sacrificially and I wish I could say I do it effortlessly, I don't.

Our children are the next generation of leaders and doers and personally I would love to see them help to give kids like Anna food in her belly and a hope for the future. 

Ann Voskamp is also an advocate for Compassion, who we sponsor one of our children through, we also sponsor through World Vision.  Compassion have a fantastic holistic view about child development which benefit entire communities.  There are many agencies who do fabulous work with third world countries, I just wanted to share about the ones I know and love. 

I was genuinely grateful for my bowl of leftovers that night as I though about those belly's in Africa and I'm hoping my daughter was too. 

Photo: Ann Voskamp

Designer Spotlight: Visual Artist, Kathryn Godwin

Visual artist, Kathryn Godwin works as Senior Display Coordinator for Anthropologie in North Carolina.  Kathryn was kind enough to share a little about each of her window displays that I have featured here today.  A lot of Kathryn's window displays are within the company's desired theme, but her inspiration and interpretation.

The Coral Reef Earth Day window is full of exquisite details don't you think?  The coral reef is made from coffee filters, paper, twisted plastic wrap and cotton buds (Q-tips) dipped in wax resulting in a gorgeous effect.

Also for Earth Day is this spectacular cork tree!   The size is pretty impressive and so is the time it took to construct, which was around five to seven days.  A wooden frame was made, covered in chicken wire and the corks adhered to the frame.

This is one of my favourite displays, a very cool tapestry of teabags.  It is a clever use of one product, used multiple ways and repetition on a large scale delivers an amazing result.  Kathryn looked to an inspiration from college for this window and dyed the teabags with fabric dye.  


I have often wondered who the clever people are behind these incredible window displays.  This would feel like a dream job for me!  Seriously, if we had window displays like this here in Australia I would spend a lot of time just sitting outside staring and trying to figure out how they made it all :-)  I think you will agree that Kathryn's fine arts degree in Studio Art, a fabulous imagination and a great eye for detail is a winning combination!  For more inspiration head on over to Kathryn's website.

Book Review: Ruby Who?

 

After seeing the short film "Ruby Who?" by clever creatives, Hailey and Andrew Bartholomew of You Can't Be Serious fame, I was delighted to buy a copy of the book.  I am donating one copy to Anya's school library in the hope that it will be chosen over barbie and my little pony books.  I slap my forehead every time my daughter brings one of those home.

 

Ruby Who? is a story about a little girl who re-discovers her identity and realises she doesn't need everything that everyone else has in order to be herself.  "I like to be me" is her final realisation.  The book is filled with quirky, fun illustrations by Alarna Zinn and it is an easy, happy read and concludes with a great lesson. 

We haven't really faced this issue at school yet with Anya but a walk through the shopping centre certainly brings out a lot of, "I want, I want".  This book is a great conversation starter and currently on sale for only $19.50AUD.