the power of white

I was so inspired by the image of Eleesas lounge room and how she puts together her rooms. She speaks to us about painting her room white.  I wanted to inspire back with shots of our country house renovation. Especially the power that simple white paint can have

lounge ceiling before

lounge ceiling after

plus a new central chandelier

looking from the lounge into the kitchen

before painting the doorframe and ceiling

after

looking from the kitchen into the lounge

during rendering the brick walls

the same view after painting and rendering

If you have painted something white recently (even if its not an entire house) Id love to see it!

 Dont hesitate to link back to here. Lets get out our paint brushes ladies!

things that make me happy

watching my newly engaged son with his fiancee...

they talk every moment of the day

fixing random rock walls...

 even if its in a car park in northern Ireland and ill possibly never see it again

having only my dog for company....

hes very quiet

watching my son skate...

even if he does get disappointed for not landing it

having a nice tidy kitchen to stare at...

 for longer than half an hour

jumping in the pool with my kids to take strange underwater photos ....

even when we laugh til we swallow water

(gratuitous)

knowing Ive been to Paris...

while wearing a vintage fur coat my husband found for me while I was asleep

standing immersed in ancient gravity defying architecture...

even though I was soaked through from a freak Barcelona downpour

this man eating...

hes a real foodie and he loves to cook for me

seeing a rainbow appear when we had just celebrated our 25th anniversary of the day we met

having a son who loves to dance...

and looks pretty damn good in a suit I might add

knowing that out of all of the photos....

 my son chose to put this one of us on his facebook profile picture

ps. let me know if youd like to see more from the bottom of the pool.

We have about 100

im still laughing

You have to see this! I wonder if youll find this as funny as i did? How did this lady come up with this idea? Its inspired to say the least. Ive kept this to myself for a couple of weeks but now i just have to share and take the good with the bad.
 Will you think im an idiot for laughing at this repeatedly? ( i go here whenever i need to laugh)
 I mean out loud shocking cackling until my family leaves the room. I just think they are secretly jealous of my great sense of humour and freestyle abandon.

grandbaby

I realise that ive only recently posted my favourite shot of my grand-daughter. But that was before my daughter sent me this one!

She suits vintage clothing so well and were very pleased about that. Its my truest passion you see.

quilt-along

Have you heard the good news over at Soulemama?

I Have To Say is hosting a fantastic quilt-along and ive found it just in time to see the first weeks to-doings.

Im going to add these fabrics to the one I have already started for Mali, my grand-daughter. Im slicing into it as we speak. I blogged about this piece I had started here. It seemed silly to start a new one ( i hope thats not cheating, ladies)

a neat stack

 and then

 I start throwing them around to see if I want to delete anything

nothing so far

I especially love the unexpected black

and the small pieces of coffee for a vintage feel.

 Its never too late to join in though if you need to think about it for a bit longer or, like me, your kids arent back at school and you have the book/uniform thing happening this week.

Be sure to check it out before you make up your mind!

moisturising body bar recipe

Check out this very inspiring lady and her recipe for a homemade moisturising bar. She has a fantastic blog about all sorts of things. She is one very busy and inspiring woman.

I only found her after she left me a comment. But ill be following her from this moment on. Thanks so much for visiting, Tricia!

Im always off to visit your blogs as soon as I know youve popped by.

beach walks

Waratah bay beach has that rare beautiful serenity and these images show it as the sun was setting one evening. We loved it here and want to return soon.

flea market finds

Here is a painting I came across while I was interstate recently. Just $8! I should have included the frame in this shot, oops. Has anyone else found something that they couldnt leave behind thinking by hook or by crook im taking this home. I dont care how hard this is to get on the plane! This painting is nearly a metre long. The glass got cracked in the corner but this happens alot in my place.




We once moved into our new abode and happily spent the afternoon hanging all of our favourite pictures to make it feel more like home, only to be woken in the middle of the night by a huge crash. The picture that had decided to fall was another one that I brought back from my camping trip to tasmania, (yepp another attempt to get it through online baggage experience) Idiot. Not to mention how hard it was to camp and carry around a painting. It looked lovely in the dappled, slightly too green, light of the tent. Yeh right.
The main attraction of the painting in question was the hundred year old glass.
 Did you know that glass is fluid, meaning it never quite hardens? Thats why old glass looks the way it does. I have never replaced the glass because I cant bear to put something other than the perfect glass back.

Oh and here is something else I got excited when I found recently

the sky was purple

We had the most beautiful and unusual colour of the sky a few nights ago and I forgot to post it at the time. It was purpley pink.
 We all trapsed outside to gaze at it. It was the kids who alerted us in the first place.
 I just had to take a photo of my roses in this light.

This is my favourite image (to date) of my grand-daughter Mali. She looks so serene. I wanted to share this image purely because of the well of feelings that seeing a baby sleeping can evoke. Of course im a bit more moved by this than you will be. ....

Cozy corner

Cozy corner
Originally uploaded by Trisha Brink Design

Dont you love it when you see an image that makes you want to leap out of your chair and grab the paint brushes? Rooms that have the feel good quality that give you the inspiration to redecorate your house in one day? Thats how this image made me feel. Seeya!

kitchen envy

Feast your eyes on this lovely kitchen. Id definitely bake a lot more if this was where I could be.

a project for winter

I know its hot but I found this gorgeous project you may like to make for winter at bloom. This lady spins her own wool, so inspiring. Im a slow knitter so ill need to begin early.

beach walks

We live right near the beach so I endeavor to visit there when no-ones around for some quiet contemplation. Here are some favourite pieces of old crockery that had washed up. The blue and white willow piece my son found for me. These sit on my kitchen window sill as the sun hits them every morning.

finds

I had to run some errands the other day and was pleasantly surprised to be parked near an op-shop I hadnt got to yet. It had re-opened after the holidays and had some real finds. I didnt really need another jug but...it was love at first sight.
These are childrens records for reading along to. Much too good to leave behind, I thought.

my place

At my place today I had some visitors. Tilley put on her new dress.

She had been waiting for

quite some time to choose it. She tried on some of my other things as well . A perfect little model for me. Thank you Miss Tilley

For Mali

This is the start of a quilt for my grand-daughter, Mali. Im making it in a very unconventional way. Ive sewn the piece that you can see here and it has reached the size of half a single bed.

Now im going to chop it up into six or eight pieces and join in some other co-ordinating fabric. Im off to look in my cupboard but ill post some update photos of the process in a couple of days, if anyone is interested. And I know I should have ironed it first but I was in a bit of a hurry to post it.

cloud and skies

Our trip to Snowy River country

Taken while we were driving to the next fishing spot

Gorgeous high country of Australia

shop update

I forgot to post these little pants I made for my shop update the other day, so here they are.

Two gorgeous vintage cottons that i have held onto for years! And some of the usual hand embroidered doilys for pockets, with my handmade bias-binding for edges. Ive been cutting lots to stock up

As its the holidays there have been quite a few people in and out at my place and Ive had some nice comments already.

patterns, patterns and more patterns

I have been madly making patterns for my childrens range that Im putting into a shop here in melbourne.

Ive had the flu for the last three weeks and it has been challenging to stay focused. On the other hand it may have been a blessing in disguise to be so housebound.

Just when I was on a roll, excuse the pun, I ran out of rolls of paper having gone through two. Ive had to search high and low because I think the holiday season depleted supplies of brown paper. After searching for a good week or so Ive finally found some more brown paper at a shop that is fifteen minutes away from me and across the highway! I was delighted to discover that he had four extra wide rolls and silly me had been sticky taping like crazy to get the right width for my larger sizes. Feeling happy that I dont have to do that any more! I made the poor man in the shop promise to order in some more cos ill be back in 2 weeks.