August Empress

Over the last few days I’ve been soaking up this book with enthusiasm, Chris Guillebeau’s ‘The $100 Startup‘ is full of great stories, inspiration, advice and easy steps to action a more fulfilling path to a new or better business. Seriously, once I made it to the end of the book I had jotted down pages of notes and possible ideas. Only a few might become a new service or product upon further development, the underlying concept of the book is to just get started, and launch as soon as possible, with the passion and skills you already have. And because it’s such a great book, I want to give another person the opportunity to get their hands on a copy.

This giveaway is open to anyone worldwide and will close on the 29th May 2012, I will announce the winner on the 30th May 2012.

*This giveaway has now closed*

The lucky winner is: DANA F! Thanks to your comment you have won a copy of this book, congrats!

When we first moved out of home 5 years ago we needed to buy the usual main pieces of furniture for our rental – couch, bed, dining table etc. Like many other Aussies who don’t want to spend a fortune, we dropped into Super-Amart, where everything comes in either chocolate brown, black or white. Everything we bought was chocolate brown. These items have served their purpose, we’ve been in our new house for almost a year and a half and I have been aching to replace all the chocolate brown since we moved in.

First thing to go, the dining table and chairs. I did want to reuse our tabletop as the base for creating a new wooden patterned tabletop. I originally thought of creating a chevron pattern, but it would have been more difficult to do and chevron seems to be a passing trend. Checking out brooklyn to west made me consider a more timeless pattern that still incorporated diagonal sections.

Lucky for me, my partner is a carpenter. He took care of cutting up the lengths of pine, nailing them to the old tabletop, and finishing off the edges of the table with his super skills. My job was to fill the holes, sand it all down and coat it with danish oil for a natural look. I did want to use a light coloured wood for more of a Scandinavian feel (and obviously avoid more dark brown), so pine was the most affordable option. It is a soft wood though, so it’s probably not ideal for a high traffic area and kids.

The new tabletop was paired up with Vike Moliden table legs from Ikea, and four white replica Eames Eiffel dining chairs. We did cut down the length of the original table to suit four chairs. I love the result! I have many more projects in mind, I will be recycling two of the old chairs, and I’ve bought some chalkboard paint for another idea, more on that to come in the next couple of weeks.

A collection of beautifully simple things:

1. Chrome Slide iPhone Case from Shop Bop
2. Woodland Slumber Canopy Bed from Anthropologie
3. QLOCKTWO Wall Clock from Amazon
4. Neon Circle Plywood Screenprint by Sandra Thomsen
5. Walnut and Porclein Desk Catch All by Farrah Sit
6. Cantamanyanes Wine Label Design by Enserio
7. Gold Flatware 5 Pc Set from West Elm
8. Black Trim Clock from Freedom
9. Lacquer Bath Wastebin from West Elm

Adoring this bright and beautiful floral collection this week:

1. Bobby Floral Blazer from Esther Boutique
2. Photo by Luci Everett
3. Flower Bed Tumbler from Love Mae
4. Klimoppe with paper lamp moth light from Studio Snowpuppe
5. Fleur iPhone case from Society6
6. Wildflower fabric tape from Freckled Fawn
7. Floral garden art print by Stephanie Ryan

Keeping a journal is a wonderful way of tracking memories, inspirations, dreams and achievements. With all the gorgeous craft supplies available now you can make your journal colourful, vibrant, handmade and personal, something you will keep and look back on for a long time. Kikki.K not only has some great products to do so, but I love their blog and pinterest board which features over one hundred ideas for things to create or write about in your journal. Here’s just a few of them.

Images via Kikki.K

A room without books is like a body without a soul. ~ Cicero

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about how to turn one of the walls in our living area into a full wall of books. Should I line up a few cheap ikea bookcases, install rows of shelves from the floor to ceiling, or custom build our own design.

One thing is for sure, I have a long way to go in building up a collection large enough to grace this big wall. A loooong way to go.

Image Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

These are some books I currently have in my pile to read.

• The Last Brother – Nathacha Appanah
• The Tiger’s Wife - Tea Obreht
• The Quiet Room - Lori Schiller & Amanda Bennett
• Open City - Teju Cole
• The Sense of an Ending - Julian Barnes
• Swamplandia - Karen Russell

What books are you currently reading or have enjoyed recently?