Burleigh, Byron and Bangalow

Isn't this a great idea! It's a decorative timber cutout above a doorway at the 'Balcony' in Byron Bay. We went there for a quick coffee, which led to dinner... then wine... then dessert. Hee Hee.




We visited some of our friends in Byron Bay who were also escaping Melbourne's cold weather. We were obsessed with their cute little dinning room in the house that they were renting. Lots of windows and an abundance of dappled light.





Oooooooh we loved the Gold Coast Antique Warehouse with all of it's little treasures. I fell in love with this little bamboo tea set.







I spotted some stunning bird wallpaper in the shop 'Lazy Bones', and was desperate to get a roll to cover my walls but unfortunately it was sourced as an off cut off the Internet! We did however buy ourselves a few summer dresses from 'Lazy Bones' in preparation for our summer in Victoria...hopefully sunshine and sparkling warm coastal waters will appear soon!




We jetted off for a quick break north for some much needed sunshine. And of course QLD and Northern NSW did not disappoint. This is a quick snap of my unsuspecting mum looking very gorgeous and tropical about to order us a coffee in Bangalow. My goodness what a beautiful and inspiring little town this is!

Stage 2- The Building of My Island Home

Just wanted to give you an update on how the house is going.. and yes we now have walls! The next exciting stage after the flooring was laid was the frames being assembled and put into place. And oh my goodness on that day the rain did fall and fall and fall. A huge thankyou to the very talented lads and my gorgeous hubby and rastous (our once white spoodle) who worked tirelessly on this day.

Bayside Style the morning after!

What a wonderful day we had yesterday with all of the other stallholders at Bayside Style. We were really pleased to be able to showcase some of our range and meet lots of new customers. It was a long day but it was great to meet lots of other businesses and share ideas. I'm sure the day would have been a great success for Open FamilyAustralia.

A special mention to Mel from Pursells Provisons - I am really enjoying my Rhubarb, raspberry and vanilla bean jam this morning, what a way to start the morning YUMMY. Thanks also to Nancy from Bon Remede, the body lotion smells heavenly!

Bayside Style - Boutique Shopping Event

We are very excited to announce that we have teamed up with Bayside Style to be part of their Boutique Shopping Event held on 9th September 2009 in Heatherton, Melbourne. This Boutique market proudly supports Open Family Australia with 10% of all sales going to this wonderful charity. There will be a variety of stallholders all displaying their gorgeous products - who knows you could even start your Christmas shopping! Come and visit us at Bayside Style - we would love to see you there.

Furnitex and Decoration Design

We had so much fun on the weekend visiting the Furnitex and Design show at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre. We saw some amazing pieces and we totally lusted after everything from Ruby Star. I took some photos of some of the designers on display. Next venture into town will be to the Melbourne Reed Gift Fair and Life Instyle and we are crossing off the days until it arrives!!! Can't wait!

Hope everyone enjoyed the weekend.

xx Evanthe and Faith

The Building of My Island Home

Well then I think I'm beginning to get into this blogging caper unlike my/our attempts at facebook... next we shall conquer Twitter!

Ok then this is the start of my building adventure..... well me saying 'how about we lower this', 'extend that', while by husband actually builds it. I have a vision I tell him and it goes something like this... sort of Hampton's style with a Bahamas influence drawing styles form the Australian coast with a dash of the Mornington Peninsula!

I've started our journey with a photo of our vacant block of land and a photo of our first mow which proved very challenging, a sloping block may have good views but its very hard on the muscles, (mind you my hubby is getting the most divine calf muscles from walking up and down the hill). Next photo shows the boys finishing off the stumps in the lower story and just right of the photo you can see the edge of our suspended concrete slab for our garage of '7' squares!!, which I thought a tad large but I've just been kindly offered a corner store room for Island Collections (hee hee!).

More to come... love Evanthexxx

The Australian House- Vineyard House

The Australian House by Anna Johnson and Patrick Bingham-Hall

How exciting is this........ Our friends came across an architectural book featuring some of my gorgeous hubby's talented carpentry work and on closer inspection found his craftsmanship had featured on the FRONT COVER!!! (I am so so proud). He worked on this house on the Mornington Peninsula for architect John Wardle. The idea behind the post was to depict the winegrower's practice of grafting new rootstock to existing rootstock. It was actually done with a chainsaw because the timbers were so large. The timber is Australian spotted gum, with the bottom timber oiled and the top left natural.

Love Evanthe xx

PS. Last time...but I am so excited for him and soooo proud, what an achievement!