A Heart Felt Thanks & Happy Holidays!

Well, it's Christmas Eve, much excitement fills our house. I'm sorry for my absence yesterday, Mark and I had the wedding of one of our closest friends over the weekend, down in Wellington.  It was one of those epic weddings - the most incredible location, fantastic people, we danced and laughed the night away, and even got to channel some Katniss Everdeen with a spot of archery, clay bird shooting, and knife throwing.

I'm heading to the lake for a few days to recharge after an extremely busy and exciting year. I will back with you early January, and look forward to bringing you massive doses of colour and inspiration. Thank you so much for all your loyalty and support over the year. Feel free to leave a comment or email me anytime if you have feedback or requests for blog content. 2014 is a great reason for exciting new content.

images via here and here

Wishing you and your families a wonderful, sparkly Christmas, and happy holidays. If you're on Instagram, pop over and visit me. Merry Christmas xxx

Black, White & Yellow | Three Ways

Black and white is such a classic pairing - it's light and dark, yin and yang, opposites attract. You can't go wrong with black and white, but sometimes you just want to add a splash of colour, and what better colour than yellow?! Yellow and white are so fresh, and yellow and black are strong, but put all three together and it's beautiful harmony. Often all you need is a splash of yellow to add that touch of warmth.

Mountains wallpaper by MissPrint

Bottles by l'atelier des garçons

Hector 3 seater from Big Save Furniture

Roco Magazine | Issue Seven

The latest Roco Magazine is out, and I'm thrilled to be featured in this issue. Based in the UK, where they are in the early stages of winter, the magazine is brimming with inspiration and a beautiful, moody colour palette.

Each issue Roco chooses a blogger to showcase their favourite room. My home office is in the corner of our living room, and since I spend so much time here, it's really important to me that it's a space I enjoy being in.

My computer is always surrounded by interior books and magazines, and I love to have fresh flowers when I can. I like things that have a function as well as looking good, and my little swan in a bow tie is one such example. He's very cute, and his head is also a pen that lifts on and off - always handy.

I love creating little vignettes, and they're ever changing.

In the opposite corner to my desk is my hanging pod chair. If I can manage to take five for a cuppa, this is an excellent spot to chill out, although I sometimes have to fight the kids and the cats for it!

Our living room has been created in my favourite colour palette of blues and golds with a hint of pink. It's a lovely, relaxed room where we often hang out with friends and family. The kids like to sprawl on our large window seat which overlooks the Botanical Gardens. We often get flocks of white doves from the gardens flying by which is always spectacular, and in the distance the sea shimmers. I love this room.

Mybuckett

Have you discovered Mybuckett yet? It's a fabulous new concept in shopping. Design guru and global adventurer, Peter Reid, has sourced many amazing products from his travels around the world and brought them together in one place for our shopping pleasure. I've always admired Peter's style, from when I first discovered him at his Auckland design store, Republic. He shares my love for unique and eclectic pieces that help make a beautiful statement in your home.

It's not just the pieces that are unique - Mybuckett is the only store in the world designed with generosity in mind. As well as enjoying your newly purchased products, you also get the opportunity to give back to charities and loved ones. Here's how it works... 

Once you make a purchase you receive a 20% giftback. 10% of the value of your product is returned directly to your Buckett to use as discounts on future purchases; or you can choose to donate any portion of that 10% to a selection of New Zealand charities. You then gift the other 10% to your Mybuckett friends, and hopefully they'll return the favour! How great is that?! Retail therapy just got even better! Here are some of my favourite products...

There are two great Christmas specials running at the moment, so it's the perfect time to get that last minute shopping done. Spend $150 or more and receive a FREE 3ft Fluro Christmas Tree. Purchase a one-of-a-kind Spinning Globe and receive a FREE 7ft Fluro Christmas Tree. These are guaranteed to bring joy and vibrancy into your home!

Fabric Wall Dots

I'm thrilled with the latest addition to the Cush & Nooks online shop - these gorgeous fabric wall dots come in 40 and 60cm diameters, and can also be pre-ordered in an 80 cm size. Designed and made in Australia, they're fantastic quality and look really striking on the wall. I've put a couple up at our place, and they look amazing. The cool thing is that they are removable, so if you're renting or flatting you can take them down without damaging the wall, and take them to your next place.

Catherine Kwong Design

I recently discovered the work of San Francisco based designer, Catherine Kwong, and fell in love with her sophisticated, elegant style. Mixing modern with vintage, Catherine's rooms boast beautiful furniture and art pieces, and exquisite textures, including favourites of mine, velvet and brass.

I've never seen so many swoon-worthy chairs! I'd like every single one to come and live with me (and the shoes too!). Go and explore Catherine's website for more of her brilliance.

Farmers Gift Globe

How's your Christmas shopping going? Are you one of those super organised people who has it all sorted early December?! If, like me, you're still ticking off that list and need some help, I've got a fantastic app for you to try. It's called the 'Farmers Gift Globe' and it's designed to ease the stress of finding the perfect gift for every member of the family. 

So fun to use, you simply select the age and gender of the recipient, and your price bracket, and the globe will choose a Farmers product to suit. If you want another idea, click 'shake again' and a new product will appear - great huh?! You've got to try it out.

After trying the globe out for myself, and brimming with gift ideas, I headed into our local Farmers store in Napier. The plan was to pick a gift each for my three young daughters.

My eldest has just turned 11, and is all about music, movies and pop stars these days. The makeup and perfume department has some amazing gift sets, and I got some fabulous advice from Christine, one of the beauty consultants. She showed me the huge range of perfumes, a lot of them aimed at the younger market. It seems every pop star has their own perfume - Taylor Swift, Nicki Manaj, Rihanna, Justin Bieber... but the favourite in our household is Selena Gomez.

That was a good start, but I wanted to check out the toy department upstairs before I made any decisions. I only got a little bit distracted on the way - lots of cute things!

Right, back on track... every toy imaginable is available at Farmers, and there truly is something for everyone. My two youngest are twins, and will turn 9 early next year. They're very much action girls, who love the outdoors, and anything to do with water.

After agonising over the choices I finally decided on a pretty impressive looking water gun each. I know they'll love them, as their friends have one, and this has provided hours of fun in the past. So as not to feel left out, I bought a smaller version for big sis and headed back to get her the Selena Gomez perfume also.

Happy days, I can't wait til Christmas now and to see their faces when they open their presents. Make sure you check out the Farmer Gift Globe, which can be found on the Farmers Facebook page. And pop into your local store for lots of brilliant gift ideas.