Hello week...

How was your weekend? Ours was sublime with utterly perfect summer weather. Thanks to a nice young man at the Apple Store my laptop, and mouse are now working properly. Technology don't you love it when it works, and condemn it when it doesn't! The boys and I are once again "just-three" with R currently somewhere in southern Colorado taking part in this! Seriously why drive or fly when you can cycle? Madness I say, but if one is going to have a vice....well let's just say it could be a lot worse. Right best get on. We have the end of year class picnic this evening, and I need to prepare our contribution. A task fraught with stress due to real (or perceived) Mummy-one-upmanship over what your contribution says about your home life and your overall approach to child-rearing ;) I hope your week is off a to a grand start. Have fun!
ps: one of my all-time favourite things is sunlight glistening on water. It gives me such a feeling of inner-peace-and-joy. To me it is perfection.
Image from Ruby Beets.

Pumpkins...

How was your weekend? We went pumpkin hunting on Halloween and found these! Our pumpkin carving attempt was not bad for first timers. Turtle & Mu have the day off school tomorrow - so we're off to the movies. Have a happy Monday.

Weekly what:nots...

Goodness it's hard to believe another week has rolled by! I hope you've had a lovely one. We've been busy with camp organising and so forth. I must admit I will miss Turtle & Mu when they head off next week. To help life the spirits, here's this weeks what:nots - I hope you enjoy them!

Is this a turkey? It appears in the feature on Carolina Irving's home in Lonny. I'm not exactly sure what it is but it's rather nifty all the same!

The perfect new bag for Fall.

Seeing this dress from Requiem Spring 2010, reminded me of

this beautiful green dress from Atonement.

I adore this sweet posey of flowers from here.

Have you visited Terrain? They have a fab collection of all things house and garden-y, including this great clam basket, and lovely carrot hand cream.

The perfect industrial bookshelf - found here.

A non-profit that distributes community-grown produce to low income people free of charge. A brilliant idea well worth sharing and supporting!

Images from Lonny, Piperlime, Style.com, Design Sponge, Terrain, European Antiques, and Produce to the People.

Tardy, tardy, tardy...

We've been busy with this'n that and the days just seem to get sucked up and disappear. And this week Turtle & Mu have Friday off, so to all intents and purposes tomorrow is our Friday. The good thing about this though is we get a three-day weekend - hooray! And in other exciting news our new chairs arrived this morning and we are rather pleased. Next on the list is the sofa.... So while we're on interiors and the like here are some inspiring images.

I love this 'Wall of Curiosities' in Kevin O'Shea's NY apartment.

A simple, and pretty way to store things.

The perfect solution for a desk in the lounge. Not too big and not too small.

Fabulous shelves found here.

Simple and elegant seen here.

And how can one mention interiors and not mention Lonny!

Images from Design Sponge, You are my Fav, Cookie Magazine, Desire to Inspire, Ellen Silverman, and Lonny.

Portland love...

It's official - I've fallen in love with Portland! There are so many interesting, beautiful and inspiring things. Do you ever have that sense of belonging somewhere? I'm in awe of the small businesses and endeavours people undertake here. And as for the scenery - jaw dropping. Some recent discoveries include...

Ink & Peat - A wonderful collection of homewares, furniture, flowers, and objets d'art.

The Japanese Garden - Beautifully tranquil and proclaimed as one of the most authentic Japanese gardens outside of Japan it is one of my new favourite places.

Lark Press Printing - Tucked away over on N Williams is a lovely letterpress printing studio and retail space.

Laughing Planet - Scrum-diddly-umptious, wholesome, quick-service cafe. And there's one just a few blocks from our wee home. In fact there are so many great dining options here - our new family plan is to try a new one every Friday night - yum!

The Oregon Coast - One word - sublime! Oregon has such a diverse range of scenery and ecosystems. Put simply - jaw-dropping

J Crew - OK so not officially a Portland exclusive but I love it all the same.

Turtle & Mu's new school - Such a wonderful place - we feel grateful that they get to experience such a warm and inspirating place.

There are so many more things, places, and people I could go on for ever...

I hope you're having a lovely weekend - what:nots will be posted later this evening, and I'm aiming to update the 'our house' set on Flickr with some pics from our home away from home.

Images from Ink & Peat, Portland Japanese Garden, Lark Press Printing, Laughing Planet Cafe, J Crew.

Hello...?

Oh dear I seem to have taken a much longer break than I ever expected. Things certainly haven't been helped by a lack of internet. Although we arrived in Portland last week, we have only just been 'hooked up'. We are however settling in and Turtle & Mu have started their new school. And although we have moments that are rather disorientating, it is all overall an exciting wee adventure. Must go - lots of lovely bits and bobs coming soon - promise!

Monday, Monday...

Just skyped R - he's in New York and sounds (and looks) all sleepy. All this travel sounds so glam but in reality it's not all that fab and is really tiring. Especially when one bounces about from place to place like he does.

Turtle, Mu and I made chicken burritos a'la Donna Hay tonight - yum! Which reminded me of the new (well newish) and utterly lovely Donna Hay General Store in Woollahra, Sydney. Oh to have one in our little city....

Among the many exciting things about our move to Portland I am looking forward to revisiting some really lovely stores such as the beautiful Oblation Papers & Press located in the Pearl. From the minute you step inside you are in stationery heaven!

Well time for bed - Mu has a 'make a gingerbread house' class tomorrow so we need to be up and out bright and early. A small shock to the system after a week of very lazy starts! I will post tomorrow on some more lovely Portland stores - promise.

Oh and I am over-the-moon-in-love with my new MacBook - sigh - how fickle we are 'twas only last week I was missing my old laptop....

Images from Jillian Leiboff and Oblation Papers & Press.

What a day... or not

Still feeling rather ick. Had a very slow start and was helping Turtle & Mu reload Garage Band when my laptop died. And I mean died died - as in the hard drive died! Disaster! A trip to see the super friendly and helpful people at Magnum Mac (who are ever so patient when I use terms like 'the little square face thingy'). My poor iBook I'd had her for years - I mean years - and sadly she is no more..... Much to Turtle and Mu's utter amazement we came home with a sparkling new MacBook Pro. The look of sheer delight on Mu's face was priceless. And thanks to Mr Time Machine everything copied over super easily - hooray!

On an entirely different note I was thinking of my Mum today (probably 'cos I'm ill), and the time she came to see me and much to her horror I was in hospital. Once she knew I was OK, and the colour had returned to her face, Mum bounced back and made a classic Mum comment "I know they're hospital pj's Annabel, but that green really suits you you". It always makes me smile. Speaking of stunning green things - I came across these beautiful beads at Madder & Rouge this week. They are made from acai seeds by this uber eco company called Escapulario.

Sadly no riding today - too ill.

Image from Red Magazine UK.

Feeling a bit blue...

It's been a bit of a blue day. Perhaps it's the cold, grey, wet weather.... Dropped Turtle and Mu at Spanish and pottered about in the local bookstore. I found a lovely book Grace Kelly: A Life in Pictures by Pierre-Henri Verlhac. To quote Publishers Weekly "Kelly's radiance, both on-screen and off transcends the pages".

I also found the magical This is for you by Rob Ryan. A romantic and touching story of thoughts and dreams. Each page has been cut out of paper using a scalpel, sprayed and photographed. He has an etsy shop where you can buy his amazing work, plus a great blog.

Back to get the boys and home to find an invite to a Simon Ogden exhibition opening at Bowen Galleries. Simon uses the colour and patterning of 'found' materials to make wonderful collage compositions, like Minevois Flower (2006-2007).

Images from Amazon, Rob Ryan, and Bowen Galleries

The great cookie caper....

My weekly bake-a-thon is still going strong. Although the last batch of cup cakes weren't a roaring success. Mu & Turtle stayed up late decorating the last batch of cookies - yum!

Gotta rush - boys have started Spanish after school on Tuesdays and it's a mad dash across town to get there in time!

Happiness...

I love, love, love this quote - it is such a humbling reminder. I've just spent the night with Turtle & Mu at my Dad's. Yay it is so good to get outta town and have a change of scene. I plan to spend time this evening sorting out this blog, and becoming more organised about posting. More then.

Holidays past...

Some holiday beautiful images - Huahine, Tahiti last year sheer bliss!

South Wairarapa, New Zealand 2007 with Turtle & Mu. I love that coastline!