New Pip Boydell Paintings

Just in case you missed out the first time round, I thought I'd let you know that we have 4 new beautiful paintings in store by Pip Boydell.  The middle orchid is sold however, the 4 surrounding it are all currently available.  It will be a first in best dressed situation...
xx
Anna

Black and White Inspiration

A very special friend of mine is passionate about black and white interiors, I love it when we get together because we chat non stop about books, houses and travel, we had lunch together recently and she wanted to know if I had watched the show million dollar homes featuring my style icon Mary Mcdonald, I dont watch alot of TV opting to read instead so I was seriously not happy I missed the series. Lucky for me she has taped all of them, so next week we have having a girlie day of lunch, champs on the sofa watching every series.

One of the most exciting parts of working at St Barts is the people you meet, last week I struck up a conversation with this gorgeous lady, we could have chatted for hours, it just so happened to be my most favourite artist Claire Stening, well I did try to contain my excitement as I have followed her work for years, she is incredibly humble but ever so talented. 

Have a great day x

Pilalle hemmotellut kakarat

Kai tiesitte, että tavaraa sisältävät joulukalenterit ovat haitallisia lapsille?  Näin paukautti norjalainen lastenpsykiatrian professori tänään ja perusteli, että lapsen mieli ohjautuu keskittymään tavaraan, jolloin lapsen vaatimukset kasvavat ja lapsista uhkaa tulla yhä hemmotellumpia. Tavaroiden sijaan lasten pitäisi saada elämyksiä (mikä onkin ihan hieno asia), mutta mikäli joulukalenteri pitää hankkia, voi proffan mielestä lohduttautua suklaakalenterilla! 

Hei haloo!

Minkäslaisia kansanterveydellisiä vaikutuksia jokapäiväisellä suklaan syönnillä sitten on,

kun siihen jo lapsena totutetaan?

Ja kuka niistä suklaakalentereiden suklaista oikeesti edes tykkää?

En minä ainakaan :/ 



Meidän perheessämme on yksi lapsi, joka on allerginen suklaalle ja yksi lapsi, joka ei siedä maitoproteiinia. Yhdelle lapsista suklaakalenterin voisi ruokavalion puolesta hankkia, mutta hän ei halua, kun on olemassa paljon kivempiakin vaihtoehtoja. Yleensä meillä on ollut partiolaisten joulukalenteri tai muu kuvakalenteri, jotta joulun odotus olisi luukkujen aukeamisen myötä lapselle konkreettisempaa. Lisäksi lapsilla on jokaisella ollut huoneensa ovenkahvassa joulusukka, johon tonttu on jättänyt yöllisillä reissuillaan pienen yllärin tai viestin, aarrekartan tms. Tänä vuonna luovuimme ensi kertaa tuosta perinteestä, kun olen nyt kiireinen työssäkäyvä perheenäiti (enkä ehdi öisin tonttuilemaan ;) ja hankimme lapsille nämä turmiolliset tavarakalenterit! Huomenna niistä sitten pursuilee legoja ja muumihahmoja ja jokainen päivä siitä jouluun. Kuinka nuo söötit pienet lelukapistukset voisivat olla mitään muuta kuin kehittäviä, sillä niillä saa kivat leikit pystyyn missä vaan ja kaiken lisäksi nuo pahikset kasvattavat lapsen kärsivällisyyttä, kun jouluun on kuitenkin 24 luukkua ja vain yhden saa avata kerrallaan. Pah, sanon minä. Taitaa olla professorilla itsellä ollut ankea lapsuus eli liian vähän leluja ja pipo kireällä, kun kiristää vieläkin.. Alkuperäisen uutisen voit lukaista halutessasi täältä.

Kaikesta meitä äitejä (ja isiä) nykyään syyllistetäänkin... Ou jee. Meidän perheessä lapset hemmotellaan tänä vuonna piloille Muumikalenterilla, Polly Pocket kalenterilla ja Lego City kalenterilla ;) Eli paluuta ei sitten vissiin enää ole..

Millaisia joulukalentereita teiltä löytyy?

-Sally-

On my merry way...

Finally I am on my merry way as far as the "merry" knitted squares are concerned. But it has been such uphill work. Every time these knitted squares have made an appearance in my blog (and it has been a few!) I have received several questions about their assembly. To which I had no answer.


After having finished all the squares, and having stared at them for weeks on end, I finally took the plunge and started stitching them together. Just like I had done with the grey blanket (crocheting them together, maybe with a contrasting colour, was discarded after some time´s contemplation).


I do find it difficult to get a neat result. Stitching the vertical seams is easier, as I can always use a matching colour. But the horizontal seams are worse. I have been told that if an exact colour for stitching is not available, use grey. In this instance I considered light blue to be the next best thing...


I still find the stitching uphill work, but I do like the finished look so far, so continue I shall... merrily! I would love to get this finished by Christmas, but from where I stand it does not look promising. I shall keep you posted.


(The lovely roses in these photos were given to me by my lovely hubby on my lovely day yesterday).

as close as I'll get this year...

These gorgeous snowflake decorations are as close as I'm going to get this year.... to seeing snow in this hot Southern Hemisphere December and to seeing my ever-growing collection of snowflakes displayed on my Christmas tree.

We are moving to Melbourne for a couple of years and are packing our bags and heading off mid-December. It is very exciting to be on the move again - we have been in Brisbane now for 5 years and that is the longest time we have stayed in one place. My husband has a place on a project down in Melbourne for a couple of years, and while I'd possibly prefer Switzerland, the south of France or Mauritius (unfortunately they weren't options!!), Melbourne is a great place to live. It will also be fantastic to be close to Joy and our other family members who live down there. So, as you can imagine, with all the boxes to pack, end of school concerts to attend and trying to keep the house tidy for rental inspections, putting up the Christmas tree is the last thing on my mind.

I thought I would include these photos of my Christmas tree from last year, so you can see what an obsession with snowflakes looks like! At last count, I had over 600 different snowflakes, collected from all around the world. I stick to white and silver snowflakes, but am not fussy on the material they are made from so have plastic, glass, pewter, paper, wood and beaded snowflakes. In case you are wondering what I do with all the precious decorations the children have made over the years, we also have two other, smaller trees (one for the boys and one for the girls), which the kids get to decorate (and redecorate!) themselves with all our colourful and handmade ornaments. This keeps all of us happy!

Before we head off to Melbourne, I will be setting up our mondocherry stall at the Boutique Markets on Friday 9th December (special Twilight Market 5pm - 9pm) and Sunday 11th December (Christmas Market, 8am - 3pm). It will probably be our last market in Brisbane for a while so make sure you come down if you want to see our designs in person.

Chanel Brisbane 2011

Last night Brad and I attended the glamorous Chanel party/parade at Old Government House.  We were greeted by a man in a white golf buggy who drove us down to the lawned section where a fabulous white painted platform had been installed.  There were so many people we knew and it really was such a lovely party.  My favourite champange, Perrier Jouet flowed on and on throughout the night.  Unfortunately the photos I snapped on my i-phone didn't really turn out very well but you can see that we had a wonderful vantage point.  Our seats were front row at the end of the catwalk...AMAZING!!

Oh and here I am just before we left.   I wore black of course.  My eyes look red and very tired...obviously a sign of absolute exhaustion...it's been a big year!  I can't wait for the holidays!

Thanks Chanel for inviting us to your beautiful party.  We had a fabulous time and dinner with FF and Mr FF afterwards was fab too!!
xx
Anna

Julemarked på Norsk Folkemuseum

Snart er det julemarked på Norsk Folkemuseum på Bygdøy igjen.  Jeg skal naturligvis være med i år også - det blir ikke jul uten!

De to første helgene i desember er det marked fra 11.00 til 16.00 - altså 3 & 4 desember og 10 & 11 desember. 

Velkommen til en hyggelig handel!

muffin tray advent calendar...

I've decided to re-do an idea we had for an advent calendar a few years ago as my way of counting down the days until Christmas - who says the kids should have all the fun?! Created from a mini-muffin tray (which just happens to have 24 holes), number stickers and my favourite Lindt Ball chocolates, it is going to be a way to give myself a little treat every day in what is often referred to as the "silly season". You could, of course, replace the Lindt with other chocolates or little gifts.

My aim this year is to make the run up to Christmas as fuss-free and stress-free as possible so I have more time to enjoy making crafts with my children, eating all the yummy food and enjoying time spent with family and friends. Roll on December...!

Volume III

About one and a half years ago I very nearly closed my blog. But before doing so I had my blog printed out as a blog book. Which turned out to be two whole books (after then 3,5 years of blogging).


A while back my blog had its 5th anniversary, and I thought it was about time to order my 3rd book. And so I did. The book took some time to come, but here it is... Volume III of the saga of Mias Landliv!


I am sure Mias Landliv will one day cease to exist (at least online... unless, as an old biddy, I will continue to blog about the goings on in the old people´s home... Somehow I doubt it!). But with these books Mias Landliv will not be completely gone, and I will have a lasting memory, a diary really, of all these blog years.


I have ordered my books from Blog2print. If you order your book before the 30th of November you get a 15% discount. My "Volume III" is a hardcover book, has 270 pages and cost about $106, including shipping.

Parties, Weddings, Installations...

Over the weekend I met a reader from New York at a party for my soon-to-be cousin-in-law.  She said that one of the things she loves about me is that I always let my readers know when I am going away from the blog or not going to post for a few days.  Well, I must apologise to her and to you as I seem to have been missing in action since last Wednesday with no such notice of absence.  I'm unsure where all of those days have gone to...

So, what have I been up to you might ask?  Well, I won't delve into every single detail however, here's a snapshot of a beautiful bedroom I just finished for a lovely teenage girl.  It was an absolute delight working with her and her mum.  I think she is the most polite, effervescent and happy teenager I have ever met. 

The day we installed the furniture into her room, I took her some dahlias from my garden which we arranged on her antique bedside table I found for her.  On the other side of the lovely upholstered antique French bed we placed a Stuart Membery chest of drawers.  I love the mix of furniture we chose for her room and I must admit I found it very hard parting with the antique bed.  However, I know she will cherish it and that makes me very happy!! 

I wish I got some better photos...I seem to be always saying that but I'm always in such a hurry.

This week is a very big and exciting week for my family as this Saturday my cousin is getting married to his beautiful fiance Phoebe at the most divine property in northern NSW.  We have family flying in from Canada, Sweden, New York, Holland and interstate.  Everyone is coming together which is just so exciting.  I have been given the lovely job of arranging the flowers for the tables.  I am using  the beautiful dahlias and zinnias from our garden which is very exciting.  I can't believe how many flowers we have.  It's quite amazing and so thrilling to be able to use my own flowers for my cousin's wedding.

Oh and tomorrow night is Chanel.  As an update to my post from the other week, Chanel called today to ask for Brad's last name.  Maybe they read my post!!xx

Anna

x

50 Most Stylish!

Congratulations to my very talented friend Tracey of Noba White Label for being voted the top 50 stylish women in Brisbane,  The Sunday mail is one of the most viewed papers in Brisbane, I couldn't wait to get my Sunday paper to check it out!! 

1. adventti ARVONTA

Osallistuminen on PÄÄTTYNYT! Suoritan arvonnan piakkoin.

Ensimmäinen adventti alkoi hurjalla myrskyllä.
Tuiskua ja kylmää varten tarvitaan glögiä, pipareita, kynttilöitä ja ihana viltti, minkä alle kääriytyä.

Suloinen sisustusputiikki Tilpehööri haluaa tarjota teille lämpöisen arvonnan.

Suloinen vaaleaanpunainen, sekä vaaleansininen muffinssi fleecepeitto arvotaan kaikkien osallistujien kesken.

Arvontaan voivat osallistua tällä kertaa kaikki, anonyymitkin. Muista vain jättää jokin tunnusmerkki itsestäsi.
Kommentoimalla saat yhden arvan, toisen jos olet lukijani. Kolme arpaa saat jos edellisten lisäksi linkität avoimessa blogissasi.

Arvontaan voit osallistua 27.11-3.12.2011.

ONNEA kaikille arvontaan!

Min versjon av porselen/nøkkel kombinasjonen

Inspirert av et bilde jeg fant på internett fant jeg fram en fin tallerken og tok en dypdykk i kjelleren. 

Jeg mente bestemt jeg hadde samlet sammen en del gamle nøkler.

Omsider fant jeg dem da - og her er de. 

Her er forresten flere inspirerende bilder fra nettet.  Jeg kom over en blogg med smykker - laget av potteskår og nøkler osv. 

For å få til dette må man vel være sølvsmed kanskje?

Ta en titt på denne bloggen: http://dishfunctionaldesigns.blogspot.com/