Everyday Joys.

Love the beautiful photography work of Thom that I found yesterday and I must say, it just made me happy. It's not necessarily the technique, colour or the style that caught my eye, but the simple content of the photos - finding the joy in everyday objects and surroundings.

I finally have another Diana roll finished that needs to be developed this week, but I am starting to feel my fingers twitch in the hopes of getting another camera in the near future. So far, I have been loving the effects of the LC-A+ camera, but I am also intrigued to try my hand at the Lubitel 166+. Has anyone used either of these cameras? Or any other Lomography camera that you adore, I would love to hear any recommendations!

Dressing for Spring.

1. Spring Sweater
2. Brilliant Business Top
3. Scallop Trim Lace Shorts
4. Mid Heeled Slipper
5. Plaited Leather Cross Bracelet
6. Pendelton Messenger Bag

A crisp sunny day is definitely something I am enjoying about Spring at the moment! It's lovely to be able to dress a bit warmer for when the sun is out, but still keeping a cardi or jacket close by for that nippy wind. This would be my perfect outfit for a lovely Spring day out. I spotted this sweater from Ruby over at Nicole's blog, Gary Pepper Vintage. Makes me all the more excited for Wednesday morning, as Amanda and I are driving up to Auckland to attend the Ruby show at New Zealand Fashion Week! Bring on great clothes, great fashion, lovely people and road trip!

Better late than never.

Taken with Diana Mini. Features the horse, husband and I, Dane, Liss and Sone. 

Confession: I misplace things all the time, and then hours/days or even months later I manage to track down the misplaced item and think to myself, how did this get here? Okay so yesterday I found a stack of packs of photos which was taken this last year which I've never posted on and have been lying in my drawer waiting for something to be done with them. So as a treat (...and for lack of finding time to search the world wide web for an inspiring post), here it is! See if you can spot the familiars :)
This was taken at the Diana World Tour in Auckland earlier this year.

And of coarse cannot resist reminiscing about our holiday in Fiji as well - warm weather, swimming all day long, sleeping in, good food...what more could you want?

Katie Eleanor.

Model: Jade Nigwood at Bookings Models
Hair and Make-up: Amber Scarlett
Photograpy: Katie Eleanor

I actually had trouble deciding which photos to publish by Katie Eleanor, as there was just such a big selection of beautiful photos! These ones particularly made me rather happy, as it is just so incredibly nice seeing colour again! ...Particularly pink, as the cherry blossoms are just starting to pop out all around town and it just brightens my day a little bit more every time I see some.

Spring, here we come!

Lady Bonin's Tea Parlour.

(Lady Bonin's Tea Parlour via 79 Ideas)

How exciting it was for me when I stumbled across this incredible South African mobile tea caravan, Lady Bonin's Tea Parlour. So stoked to see that my country of birth has such a neat attraction for fellow tea drinkers such as myself. I am in love with the idea, the beautifully redecorated bohemian caravan and their mission:

Lady Bonin’s Tea Parlour started as a mission to revolutionise the tea drinking culture, modernly - ultimately providing a healthy alternative to take-away coffee! Take-away tea!
The idea is to travel from place to place selling modernly and quickly brewed loose-leaf tea in Biodegradable packaging. The product selection also includes varying Ice-Teas and packaged tea in beautifully designed reusable and enviro-friendly glass jars. 

This makes me want to go back and visit South Africa, and hunt down this mobile Tea Parlour!
Tea drinkers unite!

The New Girl.

Threadscene has their latest lookbook The New Girl available for purchase now, and I must say these styled outfits definitely intrigued me to go check out the whole lookbook. I love layered outfits, so I can surely appreciate these looks.  And I must say, the booties with the shorts just look so well matched. This is an online shop I've definitely bookmarked!

One Fine Day.

Photographer: Sara Orme
Stylist: Courtney Sanders
Models: Rosie, Lili and Kitty at Red 11

I absolutely fell in love with this lookbook from Who Wear Footwear for their Spring/Summer '12 campaign, found via Always, Sometimes, Anytime.

Three friends hanging out on a windy and sandfly-rife day just at a beach north of Auckland was the perfect setting through which to imagine English summer holidays in the sixties; stark, sticky outings where the fun is ultimately provided by relaxed companionship, you know, hanging out, shooting the breeze, doing nothing: One Fine Day.

Shoes...always sometime I am in need of! And don't these gorgeous pictures just make you want to splash out and buy a dozen pairs? Oh just me?

Drive.

Our weather this last week has just been absolutely amazing and the sunshine has done wonders for everyone's mood! Today after work, Neil came and picked me up and we decided, hey let's start the weekend with a sweet treat from Gloria Jean's and then go home (as I have quite a bit of work to catch up on before heading to the Gift Fair next week, eek! Exciting!). However, Neil decided to take a different route home and we ended up driving the back country roads. It was actually quite refreshing to see a bit of the country side and made me appreciate New Zealand so much more!



We ended up looking down this long stretch of road with beautiful farm lands on both sides and just an atmosphere of complete serenity. It took a few shots for Neil to decide to actually look at the camera, but we got there in the end :) I absolutely LOVE this Threadless shirt of his, eventhough he thinks it is a bit girly - I totally think he pulls off the butterfly!



I was brave with this outfit, as I have never tried wearing a shirt over a dress (yes, everything else was in the wash, but the dress was too cold just to wear by itself). But I actually attempted it, so put together a LBD with a buttoned shirt over the top - I suppose the dress really just ends up looking like a skirt anyway. Didn't quite work well until the belt was added and created more of a figure rather than looking like a sack! So yay for being creative with the clean clothes that was left in the wardrobe! I think it's time for some washing this weekend (why do I always leave it for the weekend when I just want to relax?)!

Dear Summer.

(Benedict)

Dear Summer, it's your old friend Ilana.

I am just writing to tell you that I miss you dearly and would like you to come visit soon. I know it's only a few more months till I see you again, but you see, all this sunshine is just teasing me at the moment and makes me reeeeally look forward to seeing you and share in happy times with friends!

Please don't be long!

Oh and when you come, could you please bring along some ice-cream too?
I would love that!

See you soon,

Yours truelly,

Ilana.

Today is a good day to start.

Today I felt rather productive. Some of you might know a month or so ago I bought a cheap second hand screen printing frame so I could start to do some projects myself. Well...the frame has just been sitting under my bed gathering dust until I decided it's about time I actually learn the art of screen printing. Now obviously there is a proper way to screen print (burning the image onto the frame)...however I am being cheeky and trying a cheaper way of doing it by cutting out a stencil. So today, as a trial run, I cut out a very simple image on a transparent paper and will be using that on the frame. This weekend I will dedicate the time to actually trial it for real (just need to go buy me a squeegee and some inks). So fingers crossed friends, I am hoping this works! Will share the results with you later.

Najo Cutout Leaf Necklace. Najo Peacock Ring. Najo Feather Earrings.

Also sporting some of my favourite items in store at the moment - cannot get enough of the Najo brand! Wowza, I would like to please take home the whole cabinet's worth of stuff!

If any of you lovely folk have any advise for a young aspiring screenprinter, please do share! I want to see how it goes with this stencil, but if it fails I will need to invest in a proper UV light and some emulsion to do it properly. Eeek! Fingers crossed!

Inspiring Interior.

As we get closer to the end of the year, I cannot seem to help the anticipation growing of Neil finally finishing his studies! Oh the joys of a full time income next year will do wonders for our little home, as I have so many ideas brewing in my mind of what I want our decor to look like.

One thing I know for sure is that I would love an array of art pieces and photography on my walls (including this adorable bunny print by Debbie Carlos). Which is why I took a fancy straight away to these beautiful interior shots by Thom, as it embodies so many of the things I would like: frames, books, chalkboard, cameras!

Alice by Emily Winfield Martin.

These art prints by Emily Winfield Martin are absolutely gorgeous! This is her version of Alice in Wonderland through illustration and I think she did such a wonderful job. It goes without saying that I completely fell in love with the White Rabbit, of coarse, as anything to do with bunnies and rabbits I am sold out to.

You an order prints by themselves, or buy the handy pack of 12 postcards to get the complete Alice In Wonderland collection.

Laura Makabresku

(Laura Makabresku.)

This is going to be a busy couple of weeks coming up friends.
Don't you think August becomes the busiest month of the year? Or is it just me?
So going to try to make the most of some early nights (yeah right).