Hannah & Higgins

This is the house where Higgins lives in Stockholm with her owner Hannah. Another example of a Swedish home just oozing with life and personality. Filled with a mix of gorgeous flea market finds, home-made furniture, and lots of Ikea pieces, it has a lovely homely feel.

Because it's only a small home, much of the furniture has been made to fit the space. The coffee table is made out of boxes with Ikea candle sticks as legs. The drawer handles are Ikea Linsdal knobs. The drawers which hold remote controls, among other things, are covered in fabric to give a patchwork look. This could be achieved using wallpaper off-cuts too. The pot on the table is wrapped in yellow yarn, the old lampshade brought to life with a lick of yellow paint, and an Ikea mug adds another splash of yellow. A montage of frames echo the colours in the sofa, including an Ikea Ung Drill frame. I love the cute little Russian dolls, and the Enchanted Tales print behind is, yes you guessed it, available from Ikea.

Picture Source

Blog Award

I have recently discovered, and started following a gorgeous blog called Wishful Thinking. Meghan is a South African living in London and engaged to her high school sweetheart.
Her blog is a diary of sorts offering a little glimpse into her life, and also to showcase all the amazing things she finds in the big wide world of web. 

Today Meghan was sweet enough to give me a fun blogger award. The award calls for me to share 7 things about myself, and then spread the love by awarding it to 10 other bloggers.
So here goes...

1.) Glass half full! I'm a bit of a 'Polly Anna', always trying to find a positive in every situation. I can't think of anything worse than going through life grumbling and complaining.

2.) I'm passionate (some may say obsessed) with colour & pattern. It just makes me happy!

3.) I love to run. Well, it's probably better described as jogging at a nice, leisurely pace.
I have to have hills on my run, I get bored on the flat (that's due to growing up in hilly Wellington). My favourite song to run to is off the Rocky soundtrack, "Eye of the Tiger" by Survivor - I picture Sly running up those steps and punching the air - so motivating!

4.) I'm a typical Libran - easygoing, idealistic & peaceable, but can be very indecisive.
I loathe cruelty, and also conflict, so do my best to cooperate and compromise with people. On the Chinese Calendar I am Year of the Dog, and my ideal partner is a Horse!

5.) I'm a real girly-girl, but two of my fav tv shows are quite hard-core - "Supernatural" and "Sons of Anarchy". I have to admit, the main attractions are Dean Winchester in SN, and Jax Teller in SoA ;D

6.) I like happy, easy-going people. My ideal evening spent with friends would be dining alfresco, champagne, music and laughter.

7.) One of the best parts of my day is sitting down with a cupper to catch up on my fav blogs. I never tire of them, and am constantly inspired. I love that I've made so many 'cyber' friends from all around the world through blogging.

Now I pass the award on to 10 other special bloggers, so they can repeat the process. xxx

• Abbey from Gild and Grace

• Santa from Homestilo (I know you got one from Meghan too - you're so popular!)

• Annie from Annie Loveridge Interiors

• Amy from Milo and Mitzy

• Laura from Kit & Nancy
• Marina from Iced Vo Vo's

• Rachelle from The Blue Room

• Christall from Maisy & Grace

• Sasha from One White Apron

• Melissah from Scrapbook

picture sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 & 9

Current Crush

I recently found a cute little shop called Down to the Woods. They place an emphasis on whimsy and the desire to enchant children and recapture memories for grown-ups.
I particularly love their Little Lamb Felt Garland, described as a 3m String of Joy.

A new online mag called EST recently used some of the garlands in their first issue. How amazing is the styling, and look at that beautiful horse! Read more about it in their blog.

I think my most favourite thing is the Cloud Factory. We have our very own Cloud Factory here in Napier. Well it's actually a fertiliser works, very smelly and not at all pretty. But it puffs great clouds of smoke into the air, and our daughter Mia is convinced that this is where clouds are made. So she has named it the Cloud Factory, and that is what it will always be called now! I love that she has turned something not so nice into something lovely, and for that reason I think I will have to purchase one of these little beauties to preserve the memory for me.