Wow, another Friday has come around. Please 2012, do slow down.
Here is my ”weekly moment”. A single photo with no words, title or caption, from the past week that I want to remember and savour forever. Something simple, yet special to me. 
Wishing you a fabulous weekend. It’s going to be a hot one here so we’re looking forward to lots of trips to the beach and it’s also our 7 year wedding anniversary on Sunday xxx
Liza xxx
Hi I know, I know where have all my regular blog posts gone?! I think I may have somehow lost my blogging momentum the past couple of weeks. Actually maybe if I’m really honest here with you, perhaps it’s more the fact that I’ve had too much on the go for what I can manage to keep up with it. I really didn’t think adding one more thing to my regular week would cause too much disruption. But, it’s definitely thrown me off-balance, sent me into a bit of a head spin, and thrown my weekly to do’s out the window!! Michael would also add emotional melt downs, yes plural, to this! I think my expectations of myself along with raising a young family are probably still a little out of whack. Ok, yes a lot out of whack. Will I ever learn? Probably not. I just can’t help it you guys, my enthusiasm always way outdoes my abilities. My mind is constantly on the go with ideas and projects and things to do and people to see and ways to inspire and share some love and kindness with the world. There’s so much, I need about 10 lifetimes to do it all.
I must say though this Hello Soul Hello Business is an incredible e-course. It’s certainly taking every little bit of energy, thought, and enthusiasm to keep up with it and all that it entails. I do love the enthusiasm it generates. It’s quite an addictive course, if a course can be addictive?! But it’s just that – addictive. It’s completely distracting me from everything else I would normally do in my regular week. I want to be focusing my time, heart, thoughts and energy on HSHB 110% of the time.
Anyway apart from being distracted by this incredible course I also got a little distracted by tea and chocolates and conversation with my best friend tonight. A rare treat to spend time with her. It’s so warming and special when we actually have the opportunity to enjoy uninterrupted time together. So, on with my links, did I mention I’m just a little distracted lately…and the countdown to midnight is on…
Craft Victoria. One of my favourite past times of living inner city was enjoying a weekend wander about the city. I happily spent hours wandering the streets and hidden laneways of Melbourne. Every visit would bring a new discovery, a new experience, and usually a shared conversation with a new friend. Craft Victoria is one little place of beauty and inspiration found within the streets of Melbourne, now on Flinders Lane. Craft Victoria was actually established in 1970 as The Craft’s Council of Victoria, and came about due to the worldwide interest in craft. You can read more about the Australian craft movement here.
Today Craft Victoria’s mission is “to bring together a vibrant and sustainable contemporary craft and design community in Victoria and nationally, which represents, promotes and celebrates all craft practitioners”.
Craft Victoria hosts talks, exhibitions, festivals and showcases new student work and emerging designers and artists. It also has such a wonderful collection of Australian Designers and Artist’s products and artworks found at their very own shop which you can also view online. And yes of course they have a blog too. 
Here is one of my current favourite incredibly talented Australian crafters featured here at Craft Victoria.
Goldenink Porcelain Bangle. I love the work of these two girls, Abbey Seymore and Katherine Wheeler. Their collaboration is perfectly complimentary. One designs and illustrates whilst the other creates the final piece. You can read more about these talented girls here. I just love our Australian jewellers and admire many, but the work of these girls is beautiful; soft organic forms, sensual materiality, and fine contemporary detail. These truly are hand crafted pieces. They remain on my wish list (o”
It’s just slipped past midnight and Flynn has awoken from his slumber, Michael and I have both tried re-settling him, so he’s currently in our bed with Michael awaiting Mama to come and join them…will our nights of non-waking toddlers ever return? Sweet dreams everyone, I guess you’ll be reading this one tomorrow!
Liza xxx
Hello happy Friday everyone. Tonight I’m posting my ”weekly moment”. A single photo with no words, title or caption, from the past week that I want to remember and savour forever. Something simple, yet special to me. 
Wishing you a wonderfully, relaxing weekend, have fun!
Liza xxx
This week I have some links for the guys I know that read my blog, yes you’re not alone ladies (O”
image courtesy of the Smith Journal
First up is the Smith Journal. A very new quarterly magazine purposely designed and edited mainly for men. It’s aim is to slow you guys down, get you to stop and take some time for yourselves to enjoy a little reading about everything from stories about people, photography, film, travel, architecture, adventures, science, music, food, art…yes and a whole lot more. It looks pretty darn smart too. Volume 1 is out now and Volume 2 is to be released in March 2012.
image courtesy of Green magazine
Next up is the Green Magazine one of my husband Michael’s favourite mags to read. Green is all about sustainable building projects. Everything from new homes and renovations to garden projects and innovative projects using recycled materials. I also love the feel of the paper that this is printed on and the matt print. I’m often sneaking of with it to read for myself too. Michael enjoys it for the crafted nature of the featured building projects and it’s exploration of using common building materials. The latest copy is available to order here.
image courtesy of Duckfat
The last of my links for you guys today is Duckfat which was launched by the Duckfat team late last year. They’re new to the field of collectables, industrial design, art and paraphenalia but they’re certainly in the know for spotting a good find that you’ll just have to have in your home or office. In fact their finds are so hot that they’re often selling from their Facebook page before they’re even advertised on their official website! So don’t be the last to know, go check them out now…here.
I hope you guys enjoy these links and the girls too of course. I’ll aim to mix it up a bit too in future with my featured weekly links of inspiration. Enjoy!
Liza xxx
Hello, hello, apologies for my late post and missed posts. This post has loads of photos to make up for it I promise X Here’s the first of many (o”
My lil boys Tully & Flynn have both had a bout of Gastro since late last week, so I’ve been kept busy with laundry, bathing, holding buckets, cleaning, nurturing, cuddling, reading and singing to, and taking care of my lil ones day and night. Never fun seeing them so sick.
looking pretty tired after no sleep Friday night
Tully said to me yesterday afternoon “I don’t want to be sick anymore Mama, please make Tully better.” All Mama’s should be given magic wands with the birth of children, breaks my heart hearing him talk like this. It also makes me even more aware of such difficult, heart wrenching times parents of very ill children must face daily.
unusual for Tully to fall asleep during the day
On a happier note I have a newly completed painting to share with you today. I finished this last Thursday.
I love the shifting layers of colour and the beautiful patterns I’ve created on the right. Can you find the heart? I still find these small canvases so hard to work with. Once they’ve all been used I don’t think I’ll be buying any more. I’ll just paint big and bigger.
I know it’s actually the start of the week but as I missed last weeks “weekly moment” and “weekly wrap up” I thought I’d post a few photos from my past week for you today as a bit of a catch up. With the cooler weather we’ve had this past week I’ve enjoyed cooking from one of my favourite cookbooks “Super Natural Everyday”, by Heidi Swanson. It’s full of great recipes, but also images that make you drool and feel like you just have to cook!
We enjoyed a Wild Rice casserole on Tuesday night which to me is just good, hearty, nurturing soul food. Think wild rice, brown rice, mushrooms, cheeses, thyme, sage…
And over the weekend we enjoyed baking and eating a Buttermilk Cake which I substituted the suggested plums for seasonal white nectarines and fresh blueberries.
Michael always makes a really good coffee each day too, actually this is my saviour most days. To think now I never used to drink coffee! Each day the two of us look forward to this little ritual of sitting down together with a beautiful cup of smooth, creamy coffee in hand and a few moments to share. Don’t worry we don’t always eat cake (o”
Earlier last week the boys had fun giggling and shrieking playing under the parachute with Daddy. It was pretty funny watching Flynn’s gorgeous white blonde hair become static. 
Tully enjoyed a beautiful walk through our local nature reserve earlier in the week with Michael. He’s definitely an outdoors soul, and loves the freedom of exploring in the bush. 
He enjoys not having to hold hands, always leading the way, finding flowers, leaves and pods to bring home for Mama and exploring the trails, crossing bridges, and looking for lizards. We’re very lucky to have this gorgeous walk run off our street along the creek. 
Michael and I also decided at the end of last week that we need some us time. A weekly ritual, just the two of us, quality time, once again. So after we drop the boys off at daycare we’ll head off for an hour together to enjoy a lovely early morning walk together along our local beach. 
We’re with each other every day at home but it’s not really quality time together as such, more so doing time, so this shall be very much treasured us time. 
Michael’s still not keen on the walking and wants to go for a run instead. I replied, ummmm that’s fine but there won’t be much talking coming from me, more like gasping for air! I haven’t ran properly since I was 8 weeks pregnant with Tully!
These photos were taken last Friday when we enjoyed our first walk along the beach together, just the two of us. The sun wasn’t shinning but it was beautiful and calm and uplifting. And…we got to talk continuously without Tully yelling repetitively at us ”excuse me Mummy & Daddy…!” 
Here’s hoping my little munchkins are back on track again now and our days find their natural rhythm again. Wishing you all a great week ahead and o o ooooo Happy Valentines Day for tomorrow xxx
Hi everyone, it’s the middle of the week and I was just thinking how I need a little extra inspiration mid-week to keep my own momentum going sometimes as I’m sure you all do too.
So, I thought I’d start-up a mid-week post that purely highlights some lovely web links that I myself love and want to share with you all. I’ll aim to do this every Wednesday from now on. I might post a couple, or I might post a bundle. I may accompany a link with an image and description, or it might be up to you to pop over via the provided link and take a look for yourself. It all depends on how much time I have at hand, but I really felt the need to do this as I keep discovering so many fabulous new links of inspiration which I’d love to share with you all. Please do share your feedback on this initiative with me. I’d love to hear from you. And if there’s any links you’d like me to share then please do let me know. For now enjoy.
So here goes, todays the first day of my “link love”.
The Creative Womens Circle was initiated in 2004 by Interior Designer Dearne Herrenberg who decided what a wonderful opportunity it would be to bring together a small group of creative, talented, woman who are establishing small businesses of their own, in aim of sharing inspiration, ideas, and know how together in a collective, like-minded group. Later in 2009, Graphic Designer Tess Mecabe who was regularly involved in CWC took over the organising of events, membership and online presence. Tess organises guest speakers to present to the group about six times a year in Melbourne which provides a great opportunity to network and socialize with other creative woman and also gain some insight from the guest speakers. This is a Melbourne based group, however, Tess welcomes the input of international readers and is open to discussing new ideas. There is also a great blog that often has some very interesting and inspiring articles such as this one for instance which was such a timely reminder for myself this morning.
Tess McCabe. Image courtesy of CWC.
Kinfolk…what is there not to love about this beautiful title for this inspiring website and journal?! In short I love it! Natural beauty, nature, inspiration, recipes, people, places, experiences, make sure you check it out! They have produced a magazine and a beautiful blog amongst other delights. Here’s just a little look of something else from this link for you. My toddler Tully loves watching this short film, over and over and over again, enjoy xxx honey-harvest
“Kinfolk is a growing community of artists with a shared interest in small gatherings. We’ve created Kinfolk as our collaborative way of advocating the natural approach to entertaining that we love.”
You also know my other passion is gathering friends together to share beautiful food, togetherness, love and laughter. I am always on the look out for delicious recipes and foodie inspiration. Roost is full of inspiration for food, gathering and when I pop over there I always feel a sense of calm, the much slower pace of life that I so love and enjoy. Take a look I was drooling over this beautiful post and recipe the other day!!
I hope you’ve enjoyed these little places of inspiration.
Liza xxx
Wow, what a week! There’s been little rest or sleep or down time this week. I’ve been up, I’ve been down, and my heads been spinning around and around. And yes my desk is cluttered and covered in mess again! This is how it looks right now.
There’s been more and more inspiration and learning to do over in Hello Soul Hello Business. It was only week 3 and it really feels like years of learning already. Life learning, business learning, soul learning. I am so impressed by this course and can highly recommend it, yes even before I’ve completed it! 
I spent half of Wednesday painting and progressed a little with much frustrated dabbling, mess making and finally a little more work on a now completed painting that I just adore. You can read all about that over here. I did name it after all as some of you kindly pointed out to me ”Little Wonder” and it is now for sale here. 
I’ve been organizing and working on preparations and registrations for Flora Bowley’s Melbourne Bloom True Workshop in June 2012. WOW she is in hot demand! This workshop was announced Friday morning and by the afternoon I had a shortlist!! There is now a waiting list in case there are any cancellations. I’m amazed at the swift response for this workshop. I think it was a great initiative of Flora’s to establish and set up her fabulous new e-course “Bloom True the e-course”. This will enable so many more to experience her incredibly inspiring approach to life and her unique intuitive painting process. The e-class starts tomorrow and I believe registrations have now been filled, however, she will be offering this e-course again later in the year, so do keep a close watch over on her website if you are interested. 
What else has kept me so busy and inspired this past week…I somehow kept up with the washing and housework for a change, hehe, busy yes, inspiring no! I have noticed something curious, I’ve been doing a lot of mindless sketching whilst I’ve been listening to audio for my class or while I’m sitting thinking about something for class. I seem to draw randomly when I’m thinking about things and pondering ideas and dreams. I’ve also been noticing more and more the micro detail of the ordinary environment all around me. Michael keeps exclaiming “what are you looking at?”
The latest edition of Paper Runway arrived safe n’ sound in my mailbox on Tuesday which I was super excited about…I havn’t had a chance to even flick through it yet, but I’m really looking forward to finding some down time this week to take a peek! 
Michael picked up a new job on Saturday morning too and I so love this barn…what an awesome studio space this could be…ohhhhh to dream of my ideal studio space…one day it will be.
Liza xxx
