A little piece of beauty each day - 74 Lime Lane

Since I seem to be singing the praises of blogs I have found lately, I would like to bring your attention to another spectacular blog. 74 Lime Lane.  This lovely lady is an Australian (she states regional Australia - NSW somewhere from what I can work out).  I love the way she came up with the name for her blog:

Why 74 Lime Lane? ’74 is the year I was born, lime is a favourite colour and lane because of the alliteration and the idea of an “address”. Hence, 74 Lime Lane. My Hubby got me the sign in the first picture (Logo) made for my birthday not long after I started blogging.

74 Lime Lane is a cornucopia of beauty and sensuality for the visual senses.  I visit this blog daily at the moment for a special dose of gorgeousness in what can sometimes be a dreary day. 

Kellie has a fantastic vision when it comes to photography, and if she designed her blog and shops herself then she is also a talented designer (if she didnt, she sure knows how to pick a good design!).

Do yourself a favour and sign up for her newsletter the lime time digest. She sends out a free calender page every month and other morsels of deliciousness. Its a good read. I look forward to this little piece of email every month.

I have actually purchased one of her calenders too because they are just so gorgeous! I have a set of her mini cards and they are just so darling. I originally got them to use as postcards to send away, but Im going to have to buy another set because I need to keep them for myself. She has an etsy store and a made it store and she regularly updates the things she sells - mainly photos, cards, post cards, printables. All things of luscious beauty.

And if youre into free stuff (who isnt right?!), her blog is full of it. Free downloads, Freebie Fridays, Regular giveaways (she has one on at the moment for her Blog Birthday), and she does regular profiles on other blogs and artists and creators and crafters. And they are all just gorgeous too - I love reading profiles like that. Thats why Im posting about people like that. For those few of you who stop by here.

So what are you waiting for? Go look see...

Oohmoon - what a fabulous Idea

I love this site. Ive only recently found it and its just such a great idea. How cute is the name? Ooh Moon.

Its a seriously cool blog where she has an illustration that is downloadable for free every day for a single day (after that day you pay for it). Based on childrens illustrations but I love them too. I think they are just funky! And this week shes doing Owls! Whoohoo! Or should I say Whoot! 

Im going to print these ones out and put them on my walls with my other owls. No Im not obsessed.....exactly. What makes you say that....

Tea Dresses & Naughty Shorts

http://naughtyshorts.blogspot.com

Recently I have fallen in love with the vintage style of 50s style "Tea" dresses. Yes me and the rest of the world I know. Problem is, Im not small and svelte.  Im a larger variety lady. A true hourglass. Translate, big boobs, smallish waist, big bum & thighs.  Which is fine for me to wear Tea dresses. If I could only find them in my size. Under $400.

I was desperately hoping that Rebecca Williams from Naughty Shorts would have my size - she goes up to a size 16. Thats one of her dresses in the picture above. And her dresses are just so lovely that I really have to have one. Alas, her larger sizes are not available yet. She has assured me she is working on larger patterns and will soon be able to custom sew a dress for me. YAY.

If you love tea dresses go check out her dresses and other items made of vintage fabric. She has made her pattern herself and she sews them all by hand. You choose the fabric, she makes your dress. And she is so reasonably priced - under $100!  She was recently profiled in Frankie so Im guessing shes going to be majorly busy for a while so get in quick if you want a dress this season.

lutterloh mini pattern

For me - Ive resorted to deciding to sew my own.  An ambitious aim because my sewing skills are still fairly basic. And the patterns I have decided to use? Vintage Lutterloh patterns.  Ever heard of Lutterloh? Its basically this system where you use a special miniature pattern and a special tape measure and draw up your own patterns to your own size. You take your measurements in specific places, and then translate that to a number which you use with the special tape measure and then using the mini pattern, you draw up a big pattern specifically fit to you.  Sounds cool huh? I found it at a craft show last year but you can buy online. Comment if you want to know where and I will point you in the right direction.

The only down side to the Lutterloh is that while the pattern is pretty cool, Im not so wonderful at not having instructions. It does come with a basic instruction booklet for how to sew most things. I just need to marry that up with the pieces that I have right? Well, I will see how I go.  I have chosen a dress or two from a vintage lutterloh pattern book I found from ebay. This book was written for the system in the early 50s (yes this pattern system has been around that long) and it has some seriously cool patterns in it. True vintage.  I jsut hope it translates to my size cause aparently ladies waists were a lot smaller back then. What, did they not have fat people back then? Im thinking thats a little bit of propoganda myself. But I will try. I have some old cotton sheets Im going to use for the muslin so I will keep you updated!

Vintage Lutterloh pattern

Why has it taken me so long to find this blog/site?

Indie Fixx.  I love it. Lots. 

I found it through another blog that was advertising their free online magazine - Joie. Which by the way, I loved so much that I paid for it (you have the option to pay $2 for it if you want to contribute - so I did - Ive paid a lot more than that for magazines that I didnt even like in the end. And I happily pay $10 odd for Pepermint or Frankie so $2 is nothing). I cant remember which blog it was (darn it) cause it was a random blog that didnt really hold my interest too much. But it led me to Joie which led me to Indie Fixx. Bless.

Seriously, this site is chock full of creative and arty goodness. Im in love and plan to spend quite a lot of time rambling around in its archives.  I suggest you go do the same!

Go Penguine Go!

This just made me laugh so I had to share. I suggest you turn the sound off - its naff.

A Rainbow Staircase!

Check this out - its a rainbow staircase in a super modern house in London.  I read about this house first on the blog Jeannie Jeannie.  I love the Jeannie Jeannie blog because it has the most gorgeous modern design posts. 

I love to dream that I can afford some of the items and houses she finds. And the art pieces she  shows are inspirational. Its design at its very modern best in my opinion. Not to mention the paper products - you all know Im addicted to stationary of all types.  I would highly recommend having a look at this blog.

But Back to the House. How seriously Cool is the staircase and the slide back down?! Though I agree with Jeannie I think - cushions are a must. 

And personally Im not sure I could deal with the kitchen floor when Im in need of my coffee first thing in the morning.  Looks like a fun house to visit though.

HEADACHE

Ive spent the last couple of days suffering with a massive headache. I think its the storms 'cause Ive had a massage and taken LOTS of tablets but it all just tones it all down not removes it. 

Unluckily my boss got a headache yesterday too so while Im really sorry for her pain, I was glad 'cause it meant I could stay in bed an extra day. So Im feeling much better than I was.

Though I am considering going out and yelling at my really 'considerate' neighbour who has decided to mow his lawn at 6.30am. WTF?! Seriously!

I hope y'all are good and all my flood affected friends are OK.

QLD - Perfect One Day, Under Water The Next

No Im not meaning to be a Smart-Arse.  Im sitting in the middle of it all. Just a quick note to all my friends and family - Hell, Thomas and I are OK. We are cut off - water all around our little estate turning us into an island. But we are not going to actually flood ourselves. 

We will lose power when it peaks because our substation is just down the road and in the place that is about to go totally under water. So anyone that is worried - we are fine. We might just be out of communication till it all goes down. 

We will be rationing the phones once power goes off cause we cant charge them so if one doesnt work, try the other.

I hope all out there are well and safe and for those of you who are not, my prayers are with you.

Its Sunday Im in Love....

Yeah I know. The real quote is "Friday" but I didnt find this site to love on Friday. I found it tonight - Sunday!

You HAVE to check out this gorgeous site -Upon a Fold and blog. I mean seriously how gorgeous are all those paper goods. Now if you know me at all you know I have a real weakness for stationary of all kinds. Yes even the mundane. I can spend an hour just wandering around in Officeworks and we all know that is not the most gorgeous place. I spend way too much money in Kikki-K and Typo. And now I have found another Australian paper goods site to spend my non existant money on (there goes New Years resolution number 5 - save more spend less). This site has so much that I want. Now. Oh man, I really do work to feed my shopping habit dont I?

I was particularly blown away by these paper rings. Now I would suggest that rather than wearing them they are art pieces. But how very clever and beautiful are they?

Im in Love with this site. Ive already ordered something (of course).

Another thing I want to do this year is get back into the long lost art of snail mail letter writing. I find it really satisfying recieving little bits and pieces of joy in them mail. Do you remember the thrill as a child to recieve a letter from someone unexpectedly?

So I am sending them out because I need to share that love.  Ive joined a postcard swapping site called postcrossing and regularly send off postcards to strangers. And recieve them.  Its such fun.  Im going to gather all the physical addresses of all my friends - even the ones that I havent spoken to in a long time, and reconnect with them via mail. Some will say WTF? and others will get the same sort of joy that I get from recieving some love in the mail.

So if youre out there and want a piece of mail love - just leave me a comment with an address or even safer - email me directly at leisa@moonshinedesign.com.au and I will send you something! I promise.

One last paper related thing - you really need to grab a copy of this free download of a Calender. It is SO COOL!

Ok. Ive had enough rain now thanks.

 Its still pouring up here in Queensland (Australia). So much so that my front lawn has turned into a fish pond. Literally. The first photo is my front path from the front door towards the road (ie getting in and out of the house). It has been routinely filling up with water when it pours because the water volume is just too much for the drainage in our front lawn. So we have to wade back and forth.

But thats not the worst. Its been a pond now more or less for 3 weeks. So of course the Cane Toads are LOVING IT. And so, my new pond is now full of Huge tadpoles. I kid you not. There are so many I can just reach in and capture them in my hand. And when the rain comes again the water raises over the pathway, and yes the Tadpoles go with it. Thus the second photo - thats the tadpoles hanging around outside my front door. Looks like gold fish or something doesnt it. Somewhat amusing when you have to walk through them.

Im not quite sure what to do about it yet. I cant let them live unfortunately (I hate to kill ANYTHING. Even spiders - I only get at them if they jump on me). Cane Toads are an absolute menace and they have no natural preditors here in QLD. They kill all the native frogs and lizards and if youre not careful your dog (they get poisoned by them if they try to chase them and get one in their mouth). So I will have to work out a way to kill them without killing my front lawn and without killing the rest of the environment.

I really hope all my green tree frogs are in the back yard.  I know none of these are my Green Tree frogs cause the tadpole is much larger than a baby tree frog - we see them regularly here. They are so cute. Around the size of my thumb nail (not that I pick them up of course). These tadpoles are already about the size of a 20c piece. Gotta be Toads. Sigh.

Pantone Colour of the Year - Honeysuckle

OK so this year Pantone has decided that their colour of the year is Honeysuckle.  Are you like me and thought a honeysuckle was a yellow colour? Nope, its pink. Methinks this colour of the year is not overtly original. But I guess in reality no colour is in the fashion industry so why not go with Pink again. At least it is popular right?!

Pink and I have a love/hate relationship. Sometimes I love it, sometimes I hate it. Fortunately for my skin, it always loves me. And in Pantone's favour, at least this is a strong pink and not some pastel baby pink (bleh - no offence to anyone intended).

I wonder how they come up with the colour of the year. I kind of understand how they end up a trend in clothing as far as style goes - one of the designers does something, puts it on a cat walk, the fashionistas go gaga over it (no pun intended), and then all the chain stores pick it up and run with it mass production style.  So it starts in the brain of someone going - lets try this.

But how do they pick a colour trend? Other than in a similar way to the above - that designer so and so has used it in their collection.

Maybe its based on ink levels. "Hey Mr Pantone, its Dougs Dyes here. We have a serious overstock of pink right now. Think you can shift it for us?"

Chuckle Chuckle.Yes I AM overtired.

Happy New Year! Welcome 2011

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! Welcome to 2011!

I will hopefully start to blog again this year and keep you up to date with all the things I find and do.  Hopefully it will be interesting for you. As part of that I will be reorganising this blog profile - sorting out the gazillion blog links I have into something more manageable (there are SO many fabulous blogs to read out there).

I will also be writing more and updating my other blog - Prismatoria. So if you are interested in an amateur fantasy story land, then please hop on over there and see whats happening.

I hope that you all have had a great holiday season and I will 'speak' with you all during the year!