treasures: sage + grey

Is it just me or is it a huge trend right now to have loads of succulents, herbs like rosemary and sage, lambs ears and 'non-floral' type things in bridal bouquets? I'm a big fan, and with the stillness of winter seeming to settle in around me here on the farm I went a-hunting on Etsy for all things muted jade, sage and slate-toned. 

You can see the treasury here. I wish I had somewhere to wear that beautiful vintage gown. Cinderella with no ball!

treasures: a picnic

Inspired by all things woodland, gingham, crawling ants and this little lady's birthday party, I scoped Etsy for my latest treasury offering. You can go here to see all the pic-a-nicky-goodness.

I'm skipping off into the woods to find a bear to share a honey sandwich with...

made for walkin'

I have been on the Etsy-prowl for awhile now for some vintage cowboy boots. Boots I can wear in winter over jeans and tights, or with high waisted full skirts in summer. The trick was though to find a pair which had that perfect worn-in, beautiful colouring of leather. And I think I have found just that.

Is it just me or does the scene from the first ever episode of Friends pop into your head whenever you talk about boots? Rachel walks out on her Mr Potato Head marriage to Barry, telling her Daddy in the process that she 'maybe' doesn't need his money...then proceeds to buy a smoking pair of boots on Daddy's credit card.

"They're my new, 'I don't need a job, I don't need my parents, I've got great boots' boots!" 

Just me? Ok.

Tessa seemed to think I was wanting her to perform for me (or I had food in them-there-pockets) so promptly plonked herself in front of me...

...which caused the off-leash workers Lily and Pippa to come and investigate also...

So for the safety of my camera sitting precariously on the tripod and tails a'wagging violently, I called the shoot a wrap. The ramshackle farmhouse will hopefully be getting a lick of paint this winter so I'm trying to utilise its flaking appearance whilst I can for some rustic images!

I'm fairly besotted with my boots and am toe tapping my way to the nearest ho-down or hitchin' rail...I think this is going to be a beautiful and long-lasting relationship with many adventures for my boots and I.

Have you got a favourite vintage item in your wardrobe?


Boots from MoMoDeluxe
Skirt from Ananya 
Belt from Supre
Shirt from Target


Images by Emma Durkin for Cinderella at Brindabella

treasures: pretty pastels

I am a girly girl at heart, as much as I do think my farm boots are my favourite pair of shoes, my favourite colour will always be pink and I will always have a soft spot for unicorns, Barbies, princesses and chandeliers. So you can see how all of the yumminess here drew me into a world of pastel hued prettiness. Behold...

A few of these items have sold since I made this treasury, but you can see all of these and some more lovely items here.

nesting + baby birds

I am a notorious gift giver. You name an occasion and I will give you a gift to celebrate it! Mr M thinks this is bizarre and unneccessary, setting a precedence of sorts, but I just love to give people things that might make them smile wider. Christmas morning is such fun to see my loved ones open what I especially chose for them.

So when my eldest sister announced she was expecting her third bambino I hot footed it to Etsy (where else?) to snag a baby bird or nest related gift to commemorate the announcement. She already has two precious little girls who are referred to by her and her husband as their 'chickadees'. As she seems to be filling her nest I thought this print by Tracey Lizotte fitted the bill nicely. I had it framed with a wide white mat and in a birch colour to match the tones of the nest. I wrote a message on the backing board and sent it off yesterday to the expectant parents, hopefully to hang in their home as a sort of  family portrait.

Do you buy gifts for every occasion - big or small? I love selecting the perfect gift to suit the intended recipient, with love and meaning behind it.

Image by Emma Durkin for Cinderella at Brindabella.

treasures: winter's arrival

Is it just me or has winter suddenly appeared this week? It seems so sudden - one minute it's all barbeques and hot nights under the fan and now it's slow cooker meals and watching the footy under a blanket! This week here in Thorpdale up in the hills it seems we have been in a permanently misty, foggy, cloud of rain. Brrr...very wintery (and muddy!) My thoughts have turned to hot chocolates, knitted beanies and making soup. Can you tell?

Go here to check out my winter-chill busters.

treasures: farmhouse easter

As I am fairly Etsy obsessed, and after discovering the new Etsy treasury re-vamp, I have been dabbling in making my own little collections of things I find on the holy-grail-of-handmade. I must warn that it is highly addictive and loads of fun - so much vintage, handmade, indie goodness! So much fun is it in fact that I have decided to make a regular series here on Cinderella at Brindabella called 'Treasures'. Hopefully it will be weekly but like all things I might go through fits and bursts of inspiration.

I hope you enjoy my first effort, inspired by a rustic farmhouse Easter season. Lots of little cotton tails, fresh eggs, carrot tops, burlap and woodgrain. Right up this little bunny's alley.

Go here to see it in all it's glory.

treasure hunting

Etsy never ceases to amaze me, it is such a huge 'movement' and as I'm sure any Etsian knows, if you come across people that have never heard of Etsy it's like they are from a different planet. You're either in or you're out. I am very much in, in deep Mr M would say as random packages arrive in our mail box!

With the re-launch of their Treasury feature Etsy has launched a whole new website, featuring a nifty and fancy looking tool to scroll across the top 300 rated treasuries as well as search using keywords, colours, curators or themes. Quite simply it's bloomin' fantastic! So many collections of such prettiness, I love seeing how people group things together to create beautiful collections that have me ohhing and ahhing.

Simply typing in 'farmhouse' and clicking search brought me a plethora of goodies that were making me overdose on all things Cinderella at Brindabella-esque. Here is my favourite from Fairyfolk, entitled Farm Fresh.

It got me thinking about the paint colours we want to use on the exterior of the farmhouse, as well as subtle accents in my country kitchen and Brindabella signage we want to put at our front gate entrance to the farm. Our roof is red corrugated iron and I am hankering for a fire engine red front door to match. Our main exterior paint colour we would like to be a soft putty colour with a grey undertone (not too pink, not too yellow, just neutral). I am loving at the moment the addition of a charcoal dark grey (think like Provincial Home Living's logo and graphics) which might just be the winner for the background colour of our Brindabella sign down at the front gate.

Have a happy Wednesday, I am off to study for my blogging e-class I am involved with at the moment, it is utterly inspiring and wonderful working with a bunch of very talented like-minded ladies!

silver spoon swooning

With the dawn of Autumn yesterday and waving good-bye to Summer (who never even seemed to arrive - rude!) I am really wanting to get cracking along on a veggie patch to go alongside our ramshackle farmhouse. 

I want to grow rambling pumpkins, beans and sweet-peas, root vegetables like turnips, beets and carrots to make winter soups and have sky-high corn with happy sunflowers waving alongside. Ideally we are thinking of 2 or 3 raised beds which will go over near our shed, alongside the new fence and next to the chook pen. Oh yeah, we have to build that too!

 

I spied these gorgeous silver spoon garden 'stakes' from Daisy Chestnut - and I must say that they would add the perfect amount of country charm and vintage whimsy to my (so far) imaginary vegetable plot. Or to stick in the little terra cotta pots I have lined up in the garden shed, empty and sad, waiting for some herbs to live in them. 

One day soon...yes soon...my mind is swimming with visions of hollyhocks, foxgloves, peonies, cosmos and violas miraculously taking over my garden.

I hear that the sunshine is visiting us this weekend, perhaps we will make some headway in the garden? Fingers crossed.

All images via Daisy Chestnut.

where there is hope

{ image }

My thoughts and prayers are with the people of Christchurch today. I'm thinking of all the mothers, all the sisters and daughters, all the husbands and wives who are awaiting news. Good news, bad news, any news. The unknown must be all consuming. Sometimes mother nature can be a right old bitch.

a very brindabella christmas

To say that I was excited to finally have a Christmas tree in our home was an understatement. If you can remember in previous years I have had to make do with a few spraypainted gumtree branches in a vase for a Christmas tree of sorts, mainly due to a severe lack of space in the cottage where we used to live. But this year? Oh no this year we live in a full-blown, proper, adult size house!

I wanted our Christmas decorations to be homely and feel like they suited us, so burlap was definitely on the cards (come on, we're potato farmers!) as well as lots of natural linens to go with our new curtains and couches in the lounge, kraft paper and bakers twine for the gift wrapping and a few pops of traditional red.

The stockings are made from burlap with a little linen tag which reads 'love' and are stamped in red with our initials: Emma, Matt and of course Tessa! The bunting banner is made from natural and red linen with a cream crocheted edge and reads 'peace'. I re-purposed our traditional wreath (which you may remember from last years Christmas at the cottage) to hang above our highly attractive old oil heater which I affectionately call 'The Vulcan'. This blast from the past heater is hopefully going to be ripped out and we want to re-instate an open fire if possible. We will have to get the chimney checked, but fingers crossed by next Christmas we will have a much prettier scene once we come up with a solution for those hideous bricks and tiles in front.

Our Christmas tree I decided to put in the corner of the dining room, so we can see it from the couch at night with the twinkling lights on. I was a bit worried that it might dry out and die quickly from being in this room with the giant windows but with the crazy wintery weather we've been having this has hardly been a problem!

The tree itself we bought off the local soccer club which sell them as a fundraiser each year. Can't wait to get some new curtains for this room and give it a lick of paint!

The decorations were all mostly Etsy sourced - natural twine and red crochet stars which I would have loved to make myself (note to self: learn to crochet in 2011), I am in love with the burlap, white and linen ragged balls and there are also some clay tags in there somewhere reading 'ho ho ho' and 'sleigh bells'. The white baubles I bought locally and the very crooked angel is an Etsy find, which I love as it is made out of a corn husk. Clever and agricultural! Perfect for us. Now if only it would sit straight on the tree...



My three French hens were also vintage Etsy finds (and are actually quails but hey), after Christmas they are going to either stay on the mantle or fly away over to the built-in bookshelf on the opposite lounge room wall. I painted the backing board of a wooden picture frame that we already had with chalkboard paint, in the process covering my engagement ring with black goo! Add some candles, some whtie peonies in one of Mr M's Dad's old milk bottles and there is our very first Christmas here at Brindabella.

Merry Christmas!

christmas cards 2010

Cards from Notes by Red Letter

This year I ordered cards from Etsy. Well I did last year as well...but the year before that I took a super dorky photo of me, Mr M, a very small baby Tessa, Lily, Buddy and a puppy Pippa on the motorbike at Ythanbrae. That card I am pretty sure is still stuck up on the filing cabinet at the Yea post-office!

Next year I am very much looking forward to having the same surname as each other so we can stop being like Madonna with only first names! Although I'm fairly certain we won't be doing Christmas cards next year with the wedding preparations...

Do you do Christmas cards? Do you receive Christmas cards? And if you do, do you feel obliged to send one back? That was Mr M's thinking, I disagreed. And how many times do you think I ruined the back of an envelope writing "Ythanbrae" Murrindindi instead of "Brindabella" Thorpdale?!! Gaaah!

you learn something new every day: love mae

My favourite wall decal store of all time, Mae, is the current featured seller on Etsy. Exciting for Aussie Etsians I know! It was great to get a glimpse behind the scenes and the story of who Mae is and how their gorgeous (fabric!) sticker designs come about. Nice work ladies.

Now if only I had a laptop for those cute fabric letters....or a little girls room to decorate with woodland creatures like Louise did for her baby girl Scout. Precious I know. I would love to have the washing line of clothes in a laundry too. Hmm yes please.

You can get some Mae-lovin' on their Madeit store or Etsy store, or visit their blog here. Perfect Chrissy presents for little people with too many plastic toys!

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three red apples

I have stumbled upon the most gorgeous Etsy shop, Three Red Apples. Mention embroidery hoop artworks and you have my complete attention, add some pretty colours, quirky illustrations and you have me swooning. I love the use of different textures, especially with doileys and laces, threads and yarn on natural linen and raggy scraps. Yumminess.

{ images }

will you be my bridesmaid?

The decision of who would stand by us on our wedding day was an easy one.

I have two sisters, Mr M has one brother, he also has two best mates from school (one of whom we both lived with at different times in Melbourne during uni days), Elisha who I have been best friends with since we were born was always going to be my maid of honour and our dear friends from uni Tyler and Kate who were married on Black Saturday with the world's worst best man (Mr M and I had to rush back to Ythanbrae due to the fires) had to play a big part in our day.

The decision was easy, but I wanted a very unique way to ask my bridesmaids. There are numerous 'Will you be my bridesmaid?' cards and gifts around, I did some searching, but I wanted something that was uniquely me and set the tone of the personalised, handmade wedding we have in our minds.

I had dresses made in a cream satin (our wedding colour scheme is going to be very neutral and natural) from this lovely lady on Etsy. I'm not entirely sure what I want for the bridesmaids dresses yet but I know I want them to be vintage Mad-Men style so I had two wiggle-style dresses and two full skirt styles, two strapless and two with scoop necklines and short sleeves. I went on a hunt down Barbie lane in Target for dolls that resembled my sisters and friends - little did I know how hard it was to find brunette Barbies! I then made tags using the fonts and ink colours we want to use throughout our stationery which read:

'I love you more than I love Barbies { which is a lot } Will you be my bridesmaid/maid of honour?'

I was quite Barbie obsessed when I was a little girl so my sisters appreciated the enormity of the love! And here is the result...

the countdown

The countdown is on. If you were not aware I am a Christmas freak. There is nothing I love more than the smell of pine needles through the house, twinkling lights, wrapping presents, writing Christmas cards and telling my nieces stories about Santa and his reindeer.

One of my favourite Christmas traditions as a child was the idea of 'the coundown' and all that comes with advent. I loved helping our family parish priest light each candle on the advent wreath at church and of course I loved the chocolates that came out of my cardboard advent calendar every day until Santa arrived. 

Here are some of my favourite advent calenders from etsy this year...



Farmhouse garland advent calendar kit from Oh Hello Magpie



U-fill magnetic advent calendar from Polka Stripe Studio



Natural advent calendar on oatmeal cotton from Dear Adam



Mini bags advent calendar garland from Peppermint Fizz



What's your favourite holiday tradition? Can you hear the sleigh bells yet?!! I'm thinking it may be too early to put up a Christmas tree just yet as it might die before December 25th...but maybe *gasp* I could have TWO trees?!! Yaaaay!

tuesday's object of desire

Oh hello. Where have you been? You might be mistaken for thinking Tuesday's Object of Desire has been on a looooong holiday, well it kind of has. But it's back! Enough of that wedding stuff, must focus...

 

Finding a gem which was not wedding related amongst my Etsy favourites proved challenging but I had totally forgotten all about these precious bowls - aren't they cute? I think they would make the perfect Christmas present for a fussy child, or a family of three! Head over to Laura Walls Taylor for more fun ceramics.

{ The Bedroom }

You may remember way back when I detailed some ideas and inspiration of my vision for the master bedroom here at the cottage. The idea was natural and neutral, minimal colour, white linens contrasting with our dark timber bed and bedside tables with perhaps some burlap or wicker thrown in for some good country style measure. Well here is what I've come up with...so far, I think I might need some more finishing touches but I'm happy :)

Our bed and bedside tables once belonged to Mr M's sister and admittedly I'm not their biggest fan. but I don't hate them either. The bedside lamps I bought at a discount store for $15 each. They are a nice simple shape and are white - not much to dislike there! Our quilt cover is a white and creamy taupe coloured thin stripe, although in these photos that is hard to tell. The underside is a thicker, more nautical stripe which we alternate between. Quilt cover is from Adairs.

 

The cushion is from Etsy seller The Home Centric and I love it. It is made from a lovely linen fabric and is adorned in a scalloped pattern with mother of pearl button-like beads. There are so many other cushions from The Home Centric I want but I am currently on a cushion buying ban!

The 'All You Need Is Love' print is from (Melbournian!) Etsy seller The Love Shop. Again, so many prints I would love from here but I finally settled on a chocolate background and had a matt made for it to go in a frame I already had. The frame used to be black, I gave it a quick white spray paint to tie it in with the white linen and lamps. I did intend to wrap the matt with some linen or burlap fabric, as the colour is not at all what I intended. A project I might still do.

This is 'my side' of the bed - with my beloved Real Living and Country Style magazines neatly stacked. The lovely 'A' and 'Z' wrought iron bookends were a gift from a work friend when I left my job earlier this year. 

  

A stack of interiors and photography books sits on my bedside table. On Mr M's side is a stack of three coffee table books which I was published in as a photography student, Fujifilm's Site Unseen. I love their spines, the repetition and the perfect contrasting colours for our bedroom.

On the opposite wall stands my overhauled wardrobe, lovingly brought back to life with a few coats of paint, some textured wallpaper and new knobs. You can see a glimpse here of the light fixture which I have featured here before - unfortunately it hangs extremely crooked as we shortened the cord. The curtains were existing and since I didn't fancy forking out mega dollars to replace them in a house we don't own (and they are good quality and I actually quite like them) they were the base for my natural and neutral theme. An old industrial fan, a white eiderdown and wicker picnic basket sits atop the wardrobe and an Ikea stool with my riding boots next to it. 

I hope you liked the little tour of where I sleep, to see where some others sleep go here to join in the 'my place and yours' fun. 

{ Sara + Abraham }

Don't you love it when you stumble across something or someone on Etsy, fall in love/obsession and then wonder how on earth you didn't know it existed before? That happened to me earlier this week when I was searching for a beautiful handmade card for my niece Ava's upcoming birthday. What I found was Sara Tams' shop sara + abraham...further digging showed that Sara actually had an amazing website with loads of personalised products from birthday invitations and personalised mummy calling cards to melamine personalised bowls and art prints. 

  

I love, love, love all of sara + abraham's olliegraphics products - how cool is it to choose all of the features of your favourite little person to make a truly personalised gift? Now, all of my nieces have fairly similar features: brown hair, blue eyes, light skin (like their Aunty Em!) but I have friends with children that have distinctive red hair, blonde curls or glasses. What a great present to get a little red head boy or little girl with glasses to highlight their beautiful individuality?

  

Sara was lovely enough to answer a few questions for me...

What is your background? How did you start creating, designing and selling? I majored in business management and bounced around from job to job, never really finding anything I loved doing before becoming a stay-at-home a mom in 2003. I really enjoyed being home with my children, but after a few years I needed to find a creative outlet. I taught myself to use Adobe Illustrator and started selling religious-themed artwork on Etsy. I began receiving requests for invitations, thank you notes, and stickers, so I continually updated my product lines based on feedback from customers (I still do!) You are a mum yourself - how do you juggle family and work? I've found that it's all about prioritizing. There are some days that I have a lot of work to get done, and sarah + abraham needs to be my main focus on those days (luckily my husband also works from home and is able to help out with the kids). On days when I don't have a lot of work to do, spending time with my kids and husband becomes my top priority. I also like to try to get at least some exercise every day, but lately that's usually a walk or bike ride with my family. We always go to mass on Sunday mornings, and I try to work as little as possible on the weekends. Household chores are not a priority, and we almost never watch TV anymore. What is sarah + abraham's best selling product? Definitely notepads! "A Note from Mom" and Teacher Notepads are my top sellers. Do you use or own any sarah + abraham products yourself in your family? I love using mom notepads for sending notes to my kids' teachers, and I really love my PSA Essentials return address stamp. I've found that Mommy Calling Cards come in really handy when I'm dropping my kids off at a play date or a birthday party and I want to leave my cell phone number. What is it about your business you love the most? Definitely the freedom and flexibility of being my own boss – being at home with my kids and deciding for myself when I want to put in long hours and when I want to do the bare minimum and spend the rest of the day having fun with my family. What have you found to be the best promotional tool or advertising? Etsy! I was hoping that once I had my own website up and running for a while I wouldn't need to sell on Etsy anymore, but I still get a lot of traffic from Etsy.

Thanks Sara! To check out more of Sara's work:

{ website }

{ etsy shop }

{ blog }

{ facebook }

{ twitter }