Constance Winner

Using random.org Leonie is a the lucky winner of Constance. Leonie can you email me with your address on janinastoolbox@gmail.com and Fiona will get a green brooch out to you.
Congratulations!!!!



Leonie said...

HI Janina,
oh these are so cute, red, green, red, green? how do i choose? i think the green would be my favorite for sure. Take care.x
October 27, 2010 10:11 PM

The best of Halloween

After spending 3 years living in the States and celebrating 3 fabulous Halloweens, I am so pleased Australia is finally catching on to a purely fun, non present driven celebration. In Geelong there is a great trick a treating walk down Pakington Street that my kids start counting down for the day after Halloween.

Here are some of my current favorite images from this spooky time of year.



images by sweetest occassion


image by sadie days photography


image by twig and thistle


image by glorious treats


image by Party Perfect



images courtesy of Swank Sweets

I LOVE these and if I didn't have the Baby Market on this weekend and wasn't packing to move I would soooooooo try this...maybe next year. If you go to Design Sponge there are more photos and a 'how to'

Happy Halloween and Happy Weekend everyone.

Fabulous Constance Giveaway

The lovely Fiona from the fantastic Tree Party Designs is giving one of her Constance brooches away to one of my lucky readers.



Fiona and I both dream about having one of Constance's friends residing in our back yard one day. Sadly neither of us currently have space but one day we will....sigh

So all you have to do is hop over to Tree Party Designs etsy shop here and let me know which product you like best and whether you prefer the Green or Red Constance.

If you are not familiar with posting comments, if you don't have a google account you can use anonymous but don't forget to give your email address so we can contact you. You have till 7pm Sunday Night to enter.

Wedding Envy

This wedding just takes my breath away. It is at the wonderful T'Gallant on the Mornington Peninsula, one of my favorite areas. I got married close by at Lindenderry.

I happened upon these stunning photos by Jonathon Ong. The event was styled by styled by Georgie Kay from Gorgeous. Take a look at some of her other events, just divine.

Enough from me, the photos say it all.

My Eat, Pray, Love Experience

just over 3 years ago I went to my beloved Bali to meet my best friend Greg and his partner Marcos who live in Argentina. I had been reading Eat Pray Love before I left and completed the Bali section on the plane. Since I was going to Ubud for a week and was having some personal problems I decided I simply had to see Ketut Liyer and Wayan. The taxi driver knew exactly where to take me. We had to wait a few hours in the heat before my time came. There was another foreigner and a few locals ahead of me. Ketut held my hands and told me my marriage was ending which in my heart of hearts I already secretly knew but it did take another 18 months before my marriage collapsed. I had tears streaming down my cheeks and was quite emotional so I don't remember much except I would start my own business (tick) and that one of my children would help me with it. I am in the photo below with Ketut and his wife.



My next stop was to see Wayan the healer which was most definitely a life experience. It was a 6 hour extravaganza which Greg also did with me. It started with having to fully disrobe and wrap myself in the teensiest, tiniest sarong. I am not the smallest person so felt quite silly and uncomfortable. After being scrubbed and washed down we then lay down on a massage table in a room where there was about 6 other people. So there I was naked in a shared room with young boys massaging AND in view of the passing traffic in the street if they looked up. Lets just say it was very very confronting. It took a while but I did eventually relax and succumbed to being massaged for hours sometimes by 2 or 3 people at a time, hot lemons were rubbed up and down my spine. Every now and then Wayan would come and do her magical healing stuff. I drifted in and out of consciousness. When it was finished I had to go downstairs in my tiny sarong where a very relaxed Greg gave me a funny grin. A young girl took me into the wash room and to my surprise stayed with me. She got a bunch of leaves and washed me all over, she then indicated I spread my feet apart and put my arms out and said in the only English I heard her speak "I now wash your vagina". I stared out the window at the chooks in the yard and imagined Greg receiving the male wash and had to try and hold my laughter in. Wayan then fed us an amazing lunch. It was a great experience but not sure I would do it again. Not a great pic but this is me with Wayan.
I saw the movie last night and no it's not as good as the book or the best movie in the world but I enjoyed it and dont understand why it is being canned. It just so happened that when I was in Bali again last year with Greg and Marcos, it was being filmed. I tried to do some Julia and Javier spotting and had my zoom lens at the ready but no luck.

I did enjoy seeing beautiful Bali and the area I know so well that I have been going to for 20 years. Here are a few more of my favorite Ubud images.

We attended the Casa Luna Cooking School which was fantastic. We started with an awesome Market tour, I so love the colors, smells and sounds of the market. We came back to Casa Luna for a beautiful breakfast before cooking the most amazing feast. This is me with Janet De Neefe, an Australian who runs the cooking school and the beautiful Honeymoon Guesthouse where I love to stay.








I think that was the most epic post I have ever done. Hope you enjoyed it. What did you think of the movie?

Op Shops and Garage Sales

Not only do I love Markets but I am partial to a good garage sale and finding a great op sho . There is nothing quite like the thrill of a fantastic find especially at a bargain price. Someone Else's trash is most definitely always another persons treasure.

My wonderful Mum is an excellent finder of awesome things. I put her on the hunt for some great vintage material and voila she arrived with some truly amazing finds.

and look how great they go with the vintage stash I am collecting for my next quilt which will either be for me or for the girls. Very happy with that lovely piece of blue chenille I found at Philip Island over the holidays.


For the huge price of $1.00 I picked up this tray that I have attached to my wall with blu tac. It makes me smile.

Toy Story 3 (?) had a troll in it and my kids thought it was hilarious so look what I found as well as a couple of other cute dolls I could not pass up.

Has anyone had any great op shop bargains recently?

My Weekend Market Finds

Well I have had an amazing market weekend. On Saturday I went with one of my besties Pamela to Adelaide to check out Bowerbird Bazaar especially after hearing so many glowing reviews. It lived up to the hype, a wonderful vibe in an old disused theater. There was great background music and some great food, wine and beer. Of course the stallholders were awesome, so much amazing talent in one place. I also got the chance to say hi to some of the fabulous Piccadilly stallholders. I could have spent a fortune but controlled myself and bought this awesome dinner rules tea towel from almond tree frames. We already live by most of these rules in our house. I am planning on covering a canvas with it and hanging close to the table for all to see.

I also picked up this gorgeous hanging bird hair clip holder from little luv. How unique and clever and how adorable is that vintage fabric.

I have added lots of lovely things to my ever expanding wish list, way too long to list here.

Today I went to the first Melbourne Finders Keepers Market held at Docklands. Over 150 stalls of amazing talent and again lots of people I knew. Here I totally fell for this Vintage Dress for my girls to share. It was from Miss Haidee who hails from Tasmania. I am a sucker for Vintage Fabrics, anything embroidered, Birds and Doilies and this little number has it all.




Then I stumbled across the story book rabbit and completely swooned. The impossible part was choosing just one item but this won and will take pride of place somewhere special in my new home. How totally adorable is the business card?


For anyone who knows my vintage caravan obsession and my love affair with Constance will know that my heart skipped a few beats when I discovered these beauties. Fiona the designer from tree party design and I are kindred spirits in that we both dream of having a relative of Constance living in our backyard one day.

I now need to lay very low after my indulgences until I get to shop at Piccadilly on November 28th.
Did anyone else make it to Finders Keepers? Did you buy anything interesting?

How good would 1000 hugs feel?

When you live in blog world you sometimes see the same thing over and over and it is always very refreshing to see something unique and quirky. I was contacted by a lovely local gal Kell who told me about a lovely project her and her 3 children (and she has twin girls like me) are doing over on 1000 Homes of Happiness. I love it, totally warms my heart and soul. They are making 1000 origami homes that they are going to leave around local places as little hugs from their family. Isn't that just super adorable?

Kell talks about meeting a woman who was never hugged as a child. i cant possibly imagine the emptiness of that. Me and my kids are all major huggers, anywhere and anytime. What about you? Do you love a good squeeze? what do you think of Kell's idea?

I am just hoping and praying I am lucky enough to stumble upon one of these treasures.

French Chicks on Bikes

Here we go combining many of my loves,a groovy bike, France, lovely clothing items and how about shopping in a market on your bike. Heaven!!!! What a great photo subject Gil Garcetti has chosen. I may be a little closer to getting my dream bike hopefully in time for Piccadilly in November so I can show you all.

and just quietly I think kissing a cute boy on a bike in Paris would be pretty damn nice.

A seriously Cool Way to Tell The Time

The picture says it all. Incredibly sleek and cool with a matching price tag. This little beauty can be found at Beigert & Funk

I have been a bit quiet here in blog land as it has been school holidays and I was a lot busier than I had anticipated. So it is back to normal again and you should be hearing from me more often.