we holiday in the spaces of our home.

as i dust off my laptop keyboard and log into blogger, i notice it really has been some time inbetween my posting. my poor laptop has been weighed down with new seasons of new girl and the walking dead and after a week without internet, some crazy storm behaviour and a little visit to funky town, i really wasn’t keen to share my mundane happenings with the bright and beautiful blog world. instagram has been on fire in the past few days however, capturing a delicious saturday spent with two of my favourite creatives, seen me baking up a gingerbread scented storm and eagerly awaiting five days of family fun which starts THIS friday. i’ve been craving some family time after a few weeks of 8 hour sewing sessions and overtime action at the gallery and becoming overly impatient from this whole waiting to move overseas game. i’ve missed checking in with you all, so i promise to get back into it once the new exhibition opens and things begin to settle on the lead up to christmas. i won’t be having any time off over the holiday period as my  family will be spread across the world again and the overtime dollars are needed to fund the planned  frivolous flea market jaunts that are getting me out of bed of a morning. well, that and the fact that temperatures are soaring and we have officially welcomed summer to queensland. more christmas baking is planned for the coming weeks, including rocky road and some more of the terribly addictive gingerbread whoopies. not only are they the cutest looking treat (i describe them as a cupcake sandwich for goodness sake!), their spicy aroma and treacle toned appearance is enough to bring any savoury favouring soul to their feet. packing has also been keeping me busy and i am now officially onto my 600th kilometre of bubblewrap. the packing process has been going swimmingly and only a few pangs of sadness have surfaced. luckily there is enough space in my parent’s storage unit for my 15 or so crockery and fabric filled boxes, a 70’s egg chair and a few pieces of my grandparent’s furniture....but everything else? sold or donated. it’s been an incredibly uplifting experience letting go of so much ‘stuff’ and i have never felt so sure about something in my life.  5 months on and i am still beyond excited about the adventures that lay ahead. i’ll leave you with a bit of instagram love for this balmy tropical tuesday. keep cool friends.



two of my favourite girls flaunting their amazingness.

flowers by above favourite.

my sister working her magic in the afternoon sun.

sunday leftovers.

the time has come to pack these babies away.

they're great for packing too!

some dutch treat love from the boy. 

my belly is smiling.

a sweltering day topped off with a beautiful sunset.

my heart.

my heart is a champion wanderer. it's not too frivolous or flirty but definately has it's favourite places where it prefers to spend it's time. for the past almost 3 years it has regained it's independence, lent itself to my job and my love for vintage and allowed me to be continually inspired by what life has to offer me. since returning from europe in july, my heart has been working harder than ever before. i have never felt so alive and so sure of where i will be heading next. tonight i booked a one way ticket to london. on february 20th i make my way to london for a week, see my best friend and family, test the job waters and then follow my heart to rotterdam. who would have known that this would be what my life had in store for me? i have no concrete plans, but with some dollars in my pocket, a thirst for letting my creative side run wild and a heart bursting with love, i can do nothing but go with all my heart. i at least owe it that. 

nara love.

pattern love.

goma love.

floral love.

bike love.

new hangout love.

shoe love.

neighbourhood love.

home.

we holiday in the spaces of our home. one of my favourite lines from a kylie johnson poem. my home has always been so important to me. whether it's lying in a bed under a mountain of vintage floral for longer than expected on a sunday morning, baking up some gluten free treats, catching up with my dearest over tea/skype or rearranging my newly discovered treasure...it's the simple happenings occurring within the walls of my home that make me happy. i spent today with my beautiful sister, just hanging out and baking, chatting, instagramming and sorting through my treasure. we ate too many friands and chatted the day away. soon i'll be looking for a new home, exactly when and where is still undecided. i often wonder where my heart will want to reside. does it even have to decide just yet? for now i'm hoping i'll be reincarnated as a dahlia, adoring my latest $9.50 opshop purchases, dreaming of time in holland and paris, baking up new treats, seeing deers in clouds, finding super cute baby clothes and slowly welcoming summer into my home. 

kit.

i've been back in australia for just 11 days and my heart already seems to have packed itself back up, destined for faraway places. there's no sign of escapism here, as my love for australia is truly hard to top but ever since spending valuable time with my british family, wandering the familiar streets of london town and getting a taste for the dutch and danish lifestyle, my heart just won't sit still. my head feels the lightest it's been for ages and i feel ready to take a leap of faith and make some changes. i'm letting go of some possessions (don't worry trudy, the johnson collection isn't going anywhere!) and lightening my load at the same time. opportunities have presented themselves and new faces have enlightened my outlook. a certain woman has also made me look long and hard at the year ahead and i have made the decision that she will be in it. this brings me to the lady in question, my incredible nanny kit. chatting over tea, ham sandwiches and the odd bakewell tart, has truly nourished my heart. the more time i spend with her, the more i begin to realise that we are 2 sensitive, soft skinned, sometimes stubborn, peas in a pod. i get her now more than ever before and i don't think i can ever do our relationship justice by trying to put these feelings into words. my grandmothers have always played an integral part in my life. it was therefore a given that my blog would be dedicated to these two incredible women. i spent the first ten years of my childhood living in australia having my nanna, nancy and my pa, max closeby. i hold some of the fondest memories close to my heart and those continue to inspire me today. relocating to the UK at the age of 10 until age 20 meant i was able to spend a beautiful 10 years learning to bake and craft with my nanny, kit. my grandfather charlie, although sadly passing too young, has left a huge impression on me and the woman i am today. family has always been number one for me, and so this post i dedicate to them, wherever they may be in the world and especially to my nanny kit, one half of that incredible driving force that continues to inspire my personal endeavour ‘kit & nancy’ every single day.

some special belongings in my nanny's flat.

london 2012.

every time it was mentioned that i'd be globe trotting over to the UK for a few weeks in june/july, the subject of the olympics always semed to present itself. thankfully, this trip had nothing whatsover to do with a sporting extravaganza. it was about reuniting with my most beloved, it had been almost 7 years since i was last in their presence. i was an emotional mess before i left, i was unsure of my nanny's health situation and so mountains were made out of mole hills and as the leaving day approached, i was left feeling deflated and nervous. the excitement had been supressed and i wasn't sure what feelings would be greeting me on the other side. a 24 hour flight is never appealing, no matter the opportunities that lay in waiting at the end. i was blessed with a seat on the 7 hour jaunt with copious amounts of leg room, next to a cute faced and well behaved 4 year old. the 13 hour flight post 3 hour standby at singapore was nothing less than horrible. stuck inbetween two serious faced germans who proceeded to fall asleep as soon as we boarded. i swear one of them used me as a pillow for at least 3 hours of that flight. this is when thoughts of family and friends and my english childhood was good enough to stop by and save me from this awkward plane sandwich. this was inbetween filling my eyes with horror films and copious amounts of the walking dead. it had me utterly engaged and probably too frightened to sleep. helped pass the time perfectly so i am offically converted. an hour on the tube once hitting heathrow, lugging my vintage blue suitcase minus rollers, a headache that could have been granted it's own life and soon enough i was greeted by my beautiful bestie's face at her local station. it instantly made the whole experience worth it. to avoid napping i made my way out into the city as soon as i'd refreshed and unpacked a little. within minutes i was walking the streets like a local. the familiarity of the tube and weekends spent trawling oxford circus made me feel immediately at home. it wasn't long before h&m, anthropologie, m&s and topshop were in my sights. the next day read very similar, with vintage shopping, orla kiely loving and cupcake consuming in covent garden. i was home and i was in love. spending saturday wandering markets, visiting vintage heaven (literally), afternoon tea taking and dancing till 2am all whilst having my bestie by my side was pure bliss. i was in the state of mind that i'd only hoped i would be settling into, and i was really loving it there. sunday was my family reunion. first stop was meeting my gorgeous sister at liverpool street, and then onto columbia road markets for fresh flowers and a vintage poke around in brick lane. being caught in the biggest downpour ever experienced made us laugh beyond crying as we made our way to the reunion. a beautiful morning i will never forget. arriving at my aunty's house would be the first time i'd seen my parents in a few months and my english family, who i'd spent ten years with growing up and it soon became the day that i settled a piece of my heart in london permanently. it was tears-a-plenty central when my parents arrived with my nan. it was a day filled with love, conversations, kisses & cuddles, cups of tea, cupcakes, my aunty's famous sausage tart, scotch eggs, a late bbq, behaving like a 5 year old with my little cousins, photographs, champagne and trifle. i have never felt so blessed to be part of my family. today, i still sit here beyond belief that i was able to share in such a special day. i left that day knowing i'd return, and that this time it wouldn't take me 7 years to do so.

my beautiful nanny kit soaking in her birthday celebrations.

we feasted on incredible cakes...

and drank copious amounts of tea.

the birthday spread.

peonies at columbia road.

london knows flowers, i was besotted.

i wanted them all.

reunited and loving it.

some of the delights that confronted me in brick lane.

bethnal green beauty.

so GC.

i'd been looking forward to this weekend alllllll week long and maaaaaaan did it not disappoint. i packed the car with some of kate's goodies that she'd left here pre-travels and used the task of taking it down to the storage unit as an excuse to pay a visit to some of my favourite coastal oppies. it was the most beautiful clear skied morning so i picked up my youngest sister/partner in crime and we hit the road to the sounds of some old skool rnb. first stop was one of my old haunts that my bestie and i used to visit inbetween uni classes and sometimes instead of. it's a giant warehouse of pre-loved goodness so you're always bound to leave with a treasure or twelve. within approximately 3.5 minutes i had johnson, retro plastics and a villeroy and boch stunner in my basket. a whopping total of $5 was handed over and off we went to opshop numero deux. now this oppy holds a precious place in my heart as again, it was a local favourite of mine and my bestie's and also the daily stop off after work when i used to zoom around the coast in my 1975 volkswagen kombi. that's right, you heard me...opshopping and kombi in the same sentence, dreamy, no? the ladies are always having tea and cake out the back and the men put out front to handle sales are always so charming. i just love going in there for a trip down memory lane so when my ferreting neck deep in the fabric tower resulted in me pulling out a bundle or two of vintage floral linen, it was icing on my oppy cake. it wasn't even midday and i'd found johnson and vintage floral. you'd think i'd be done, but not just yet. staying on the sentimental note, i can never pass up a fossick through the little rspca oppy just around the corner. my beautiful family dog is an rspca gem so i never hesitate to swap dollars for pre-loved goodness in their stores. bessemer, pyrex and a floral apron were on their menu for me. this treasure hunting game soon became hungry business so it was only appropriate that a stop off at my favourite coast cafe was next on the agenda. my trusty partner in crime and i were treated to the most amazing sandwich of all time, delicious coffee and a caramel slice to share. my instagram feed was treated to some of the best eye candy around in the short time we spent there. it was finally time to honour the very reason that instigated the coast trip and so we cruised down to kennards and packed away our family treasures. an oppy i hadn't visited in a little over a year came to mind soon after so we hauled ass to sneak in a short 20 minutes of treasure hunting before closing time. boy am i glad we bothered. i was rewarded with the johnson motherload and could no longer contain my excitement. the shop ladies laughed as amy documented the whole discovery process. i was beside myself. taking the heavy load to the counter was empowering until i proclaimed my surprise at the well priced treats to the slightly dazed saleswoman who responded with, 'well, it's hardly fine china.' it may not be fine china lady but it's priceless in my eyes (and a million others it seems!) i kept this expression of disbelief to myself, of course. nevertheless, it's pre-loved status changed to much-loved in a heartbeat and my following post (full of treats galore) will cement just that. some europe clothes shopping and dinner at my favourite sushi hangout was the perfect end to a glorious day spent on the coast. the gc gets a mixed reception up here in brissie but the amazing oppies, trips down memory lane, perfect lattes with a side of vintage wallpaper and smiley mayo faces on sushi always ensure a piece of my heart stays down there.

all systems and skies were go.

the drawer lining of a marvellous bit of oppy furniture eyeballed at stop one.

THIS occurred at stop two.

stop, ummm, i've lost count...resulted in this behaviour.

perfect decor in my idea of cafe heaven.

the perfect lunch.

my cutie pie sister.

latte face, do not disturb.

sushi finishes an ace day.