Concrete and Honey garlands and paper artwork

One of the things I love best about our abcd meetups (for art, craft and design bloggers), is just how darn nice everyone is. It's a place to make new friends, and connect the dots with online acquaintances.

One of those special people was Nicola from the Concrete and Honey blog, who I 'met' online in 2009 (see my post here). I also got to see in person her fun paper garlands that would brighten up any room, and discover her beautiful paper artwork. Don't you completely love!?!

 

These pieces just make me happy. It takes a well-trained eye to create pieces in just the right colours, perfectly balanced, with just the right room to breathe. Beautiful in a nursery and amazing in a young girl's room as well (or a study, or a cafe, or an office, or a living room...). I bet you are not surprised that Nicola is sweet-as-pie in real life too.
Head over to Nicola's etsy store to pick up a piece of her artwork, and over to her blog Concrete and Honey for endless inspiration.

Images: Concrete and Honey

Spoonful Of Colour stationery and paper goods

My friend Sophie keeps telling me that I need to meet her friend Pascale. I hopped over to Pascale's Spoonful of Colour blog and Etsy store and was bowled over by the totally chic stationery products and paper decor with their bold and perfectly restrained graphics. Do you love?

Pascale's stationery and paper goods range includes greeting cards, art prints and this very special hanging mobile - the Important Things mobile. You can never have enough reminders of the important things in life, and this simple and sweet decor is a winner in my mind.

Luckily, Pascale is hosting a huge giveaway - a set of three Holiday cards, her signature spoon print, and the Important Things mobile, over on her blog. Head over if you would like to win (by13th Dec 2011)!

You can find Spoonful of Colour paper products in the Etsy store.

Images: Spoonful of Colour

Kids Room Ideas: Jonty's Nursery

If you've been struggling with decorating ideas for a little boy's room, come and take a peak at the lovely nursery designed by Jess from Joyess Images and Joyess Designs. There are lots of achievable elements that Jess has pulled together in a fresh, cohesive look. Such clever use of the The Wall Sticker Company decal!

Kids Room Ideas: Miles' Nursery

Would you like to take a sneak peek into a real Australian kids room? Miles is the lucky young owner of this gorgeous room. His Mum Lyndall put much love and thought into the design, incorporating sweet bees with the blue and red colour palette. Thank you Lyndall for the generous information on the details of the room. I'm totally in love with it. These beautiful photos were taken by Jess from Joyess Images; enjoy!

Giveaway: Gorgeous Polli Christmas Wreath

Is your front door looking a little bare? Are you needing a little Christmas Spirit boost for the holiday season?

Well if you saw the feature on the gorgeous Christmas decorations from Australian jewellery and homewares designers Polli a few weeks ago you will have noticed this stunning red wreath. And lucky for us, the very generous Tess and Maja from Polli are offering one amazing red Christmas wreath worth AUD $69.95 to a Bondville subscriber.

The laser-cut acrylic wreath measures 297x303x6mm and will look gorgeous hung from a door, window or mantle, as is, or decorated with ribbons, flowers or berries.

AND, just for entering, you will be eligible for a 10% discount in the Polli online store until 15th December 2010. All entrants will be notified with a special discount code after the competition closes.

All you need to do to enter the giveaway is to subscribe to Bondville (either daily Bondville headlines through Feedburner here, or the monthly Bondville newsletter here), and comment below stating your favourite Polli jewellery piece. So easy! Entries close at midnight (AEST) on Tuesday 7th December 2010.

Rules:
1. One comment per person allowed.
2. Open to all current and new subscribers of the Feedburner Bondville headlines or monthly Bondville newsletter.
3. To enter, comment on this post with your favourite Polli jewellery piece.

4. Two extra entries given for sharing this giveaway with a link on Facebook (note in your comment)
5. One extra entry given for tweeting this giveaway with a link on Twitter (use hashtag #Bondville-giveaway)
6. Please include your email address or a link to your website where I can comment or find your email address.
7. This competition is open to entrants with an Australian postal address only.
8. Entries close 11:59pm AEST, Tuesday 7th December 2010.
9. Winner will be drawn using random.or and notified by email and via post on Bondville on Wednesday 8th December 2010.
10. All entrants will receive a code by email after the competition close date providing 10% discount in the Polli online store until 15th December 2010.

Have fun and good luck!

Images: Polli

Australian Christmas 2010: Mozi

Crazy. It's only 7 weeks until Christmas.

When I think about Christmas, I don't dream of snow and reindeer and holly and fireplaces and mugs of Glühwein (although how nice does that sound!). I think of eucalpytus wreaths with red and white ribbons, beach shacks filled with blue and silver baubles, cricket and bbq's, mangoes and prawns and cold sliced leg ham, sunscreen and everyone on the beach in santa hats, summery red and white Christmas dresses for little girls, refreshing cocktails and of course the heat.

So I thought it only right to share with you Australian-designed Christmas ornaments, decorations and goodies that I know you are going to love. This post features Bondville favourite Mozi. Keep an eye on the site for more to come over the next few weeks. Enjoy!

Love all the fabulous pieces from Mozi including hand-painted papier mache baubles, recipe tea towel, O Christmas Tree candle, calico ham bag, mug, apron, linen embroidered hand towel, triple-milled soap, tin dove lantern and tin water pitcher. My favourite? The water pitcher! How gorgeous with a few simple twigs popped inside and some special decorations. A simple and chic Christmas tree alternative.

Find the Mozi Christmas collection here in the Mozi online store.

Check out posts about Mozi on Bondville here.

Images: Mozi

Wall Stickers For Kids

My dear friend Estelle asked me for my wall sticker recommendations for her son Karsten's room. Here are some of my favourite Australian wall decal designers. Let me know if you have any more:

love mae
I have a love mae Christmas tree and the quality is great. Easily removable and repositionable and I like the matte fabric finish.

Mooo
Vinyl Wall Design

The Wall Sticker Company
My friend Linda has this sticker collection on her son Luke's wall and it looks fantastic.

Little Chipipi

My Munchkin Home

Stick Meon
Includes this must-have limited edition from Bondville favourite Aunty Cookie.
Bosco Bear

For Walls
Wall Sticker Shop

Trends: Tissue Paper Flowers

Ava's bedroom from My NY Life.

Blue tissue paper flower pom pom instructions from Martha Stewart Crafts.

Harper's First Birthday party from Likely Design.

Charles and Nadia's wedding from OnceWed.

From Kiss The Groom.

Wedding table from Martha Stewart Weddings.

Back in the day, we all loved fairy lights for special events (weddings, kids parties, engagements, baby showers, birthdays etc). Then it was cool to use Chinese paper lanterns (still is!). Now bunting is huge. But could dahlia-like tissue paper flowers be overtaking as a decorating trend?

Great minds think alike, and in my web travels this week I noticed these gorgeous paper tissue flowers on quite a few of my favourite sites. I just did a quick search for them, and it looks like they have been gaining popularity for the last 12 months (perhaps not coincidentally after they were featured in Martha Stewart Weddings magazine).

According to Pink Paper Peppermints, these flowers are a traditional Mexican art form. You can find a feature on Martha Stewart Weddings and downloadable PDF instructions on Martha Stewart Crafts to make your own tissue paper pom-poms (and you could previously buy a tissue paper flower kit through the Martha Stewart Craft store). The tissue paper pomanders at this wedding ceremony are a very cost-effective and beautiful alternative to flowers. And Australian textile designer Danielle Stewart's wedding features gorgeous hanging poms. There is even the PomLove Etsy store dedicated to selling tissue paper flower kits.

I just love the look of these flowers and the upside is huge: you can pick exactly the colour you want, they never die, they don't need water, and you can make them yourself! I think I'm going to have to retire my paper lanterns and make some for Sophie's 2nd birthday next week. Have you made them yet?

Home Decorating Magazine Article Wishlist

I devour home decorating magazines, but every issue I think about the 2 articles that I wish had been written for me:

1. Nighttime decorating. Most of us work during daylight hours, so get to enjoy our homes in the dark. And most home decorating photos are taken in daylight with lots of light, so everything looks gorgeous. I'd love to see story spreads shot exclusively at night, with info on how to make your home attractive after dark.

2. Decorating for renters. Many of us are also renters and are unable to do any renovating or simpler measures such as bolting shelves onto walls. It would be great to see articles on how to makeover a rented house or apartment with restrictions such as: not being able to paint, restricting the number of items that can be hung, floorboards that can't be altered.

Image: chatirygirl at Flickr