The Selby

I hope everyone had a delightful weekend. 

Today I thought I'd share one of my favourite websites...

The Selby

Anyone else have a Selby obsession? I have had to come to terms with the fact that I must be a voyeur hahaha! I just love seeing inside other people's homes! I find so much creative inspiration just looking inside the homes of other creative types.

Here are some of my favourite pics from their website:

This Parisian home belongs to sofía achával & thibault de montaigu

 This home belongs to inès de la fressange, Paris

This home & these ruby slippers belong to elisa nalin, Paris

 This Sydney home belongs to emma balfour, andrew cowen, bruno & elliot

 I looove this bathroom...

Belongs to nicolas malleville & francesca bonato, Mexico 

I want one of these old cabinets...

Belongs to sébastien gaudard in Paris

The Brooklyn residence of dustin yellin

 Just had to add him in there - I have a slight owl obsession (hubby does too)

From the NYC home of keith abrahamsson & kate young

 I love this image...

This is the Mast Brothers Chocolate Factory in NYC

rick & michael mast 

Yep, those chandeliers are shaped like octopus legs - freaky!

The home of adam wallacavage in Philadelphia

Need something slightly more glamorous?

The NY office of alexander wang 

The NY home of tom wolfe

6 of the 7 deadly sins 

alessandra torresani, LA

 daniela kamiliotis, NYC

I hope you've enjoyed these images. All images from The Selby website. If you're feeling low on inspiration for your home, be sure to check out The Selby, you'll be stuck on their site for hours - I was!

~ Clare x

Happy Mother's Day

The sun is shining today in Sydney. Perfect weather for Mother's Day. 

My sister & I took our Mum out for a champagne High Tea today to show her just how much we love her! We went to Euro Lounge and had such a lovely time.

Image from here

Image from here

My favourite place for High Tea (not to mention their late night supper or even just a cocktail at the bar) is The Victoria Room in Darlinghurst. We didn't go there today as we decided to go somewhere closer to my Mum and Sister (I live much closer to the city - they live about 45 minutes away).

   All images from The Victoria Room

Isn't it beautiful? I love the British-Raj decor.
Happy Mother's Day to all the Mum's out there!

~ Clare x

La Vie en Rose

I like to  live life through rose-coloured glasses.
So today I'm dreaming over these images below, believing that one day I will have my own similar interiors...

 Image from Kikette-Interiors
I'm in love with those big old arched doors 

Photo from fox-nahem associates
Feeling blue? Don't think so in this powder pretty blue living room

Image from Kikette-Interiors
Yes please!

Image from designersguild.com
Duck egg blue - so pretty

Image from Architectural Salvage
Imagine entertaining on this rustic balcony?

Image from dreamhomedecorating.com
I could curl up here and read a book right now.

 Image from Apartment Therapy

Speaking of La Vie en Rose, have you seen the film? I've always loved Edith Piaf, so I was dying to see the film when it came out and it didn't disappoint. If you haven't seen it, rent it out. Marion Cotillard's  performance was heart-wrenchingly beautiful.

Marion for Dior. Simply stunning.
Image from here

Here's to living your "life in pink"

~ Clare x

Wedding Bells...

Oooooh Monday again - grrr! Hopefully everyone had a lovely weekend. I had a lazy one. Caught up on some much-needed sleep.

Since posting all about planning my hubby's 30th birthday, it had me thinking about other major events I've planned and decorated. So I decided to do a little post about my wedding, which (I can't believe it) was actually 3 years ago now....

As a young girl growing up in a sleepy little suburb, 1 hour's drive from Sydney city, I always told my Mum that as soon as I grew up I wanted to move to the city. She simply replied "I don't blame you." As soon as I became engaged (and after a girls backpacking trip through Europe) I moved in with the then-husband-to-be-now-husband to a tiny little shoe-box sized apartment that had stunning harbour views. Naturally we got sick of not having enough room to swing a cat after about a year, so we moved to a larger apartment, still with lovely views, just not quite so spectacular. We now still reside in this apartment and love it!

Anyway, to cut a long story short, I knew that my wedding had to be on Sydney Harbour as it represented the dream I had always had as a little girl. So I'd like to share with you a few pics of my day...

Location: The Pontoon

A cruising glass ballroom on Sydney Harbour

Flowers: My favourites ~ Casablanca Lilies

Made by a very close friend's Mother, Sharyn Kelly

The bridesmaids had Lisianthus

I kept the tables very simple and only decorated with flowers.

As much as I love going crazy with table decorations, our venue was fairly extravagant, so we decided to just keep it very simple & let Sharyn do her floristry magic.

For anyone in Sydney in need of an extremely talented florist....

Sharyn Kelly e: sharyn-kelly@hotmail.com

She's the sweetest woman ever! And so talented!

Transport: La Dolce Vita

The name says it all really....

Yep, that's me trying to get out of La Dolce Vita and onto The Pontoon in my wedding dress - scary! I made it by the way - phew!

The Cake: by Sweet Art

I was a little sick of seeing all the same cakes - plain white with flowers on top. I wanted something that had a vintage yet decadent look to it. The team at Sweet Art created this velvety-looking beauty for me. It was actually the best cake I have ever tasted!

If you live and Sydney and have never walked by the Sweet Art store - you have to! They're located on Oxford St, Paddington and every time I walk by, I just have to peek through their window...

A sneaky pic of us girls...

Thanks for stopping by & letting me share my day with you.

~ Clare x

My nieces & nephews

All photos belong to Looking Glass, please ask permission before reproducing in any way.

Brydferth Giveaway on Sweet as a Candy

One of my absolute favourite blogs, Sweet as a Candy, is having a giveaway.

Head on over to Federica's blog to win a Romantic Rosette Headband from the designer Brydferth (which means beautiful in Welsh). While you're there, check out Federica's blog. This Italian beauty from Bologna has great style and is such an inspiration. Her blog is definitely worth a read...

~ Clare x 

Photo from Federica's blog Sweet as a Candy

50s Pin-Up Theme Birthday Party

"Goodness gracious great balls of fire" I sure hope everyone's having a delightful Saturday! Sydney is overcast today, so I think it's perfect blogging weather. I'm staying indoors for now with a coffee in hand.

Today I've decided to show you pictures of my hubby's recent 30th birthday party that we themed 50's pin-up style. We both adore Gil Elvgren's great American pin-ups and decided that this was the best theme to carry throughout the party.

I had giant Gil Elvgren pin-ups printed and hung outside....

I decorated around the gardens with pink flamingos...

I had the cake made up with as a guitar shape (yes my husband is a guitarist) with a collage of edible Gil Elvgren pin-ups iced onto it. The cake was perfect, I was so happy with how it turned out. It was made by Cake By Kate. She really did the most amazing job and it not only looked good but tasted phenomenal too!

As you can see from the 1st cake picture, I decorated all the tables with 50's ashtrays and had old fashioned cigar boxes with cigars in them for the smoking guests. I also scattered the tables with Marilyn Monroe drink coasters and little 50's advertisements.

Dann was the biggest help. She helped me all day with the decorating and the food preparation. 

Besides the usual red/white wine & bubbly, we also served strawberry daiquiris, which I called "Pink Flamingos." We served up all sorts of retro style food, such as finger sandwiches,  celery sticks filled with cream cheese & chives, meatballs, cocktail frankfurts, deviled eggs, mini quiches, devils on horseback, stuffed mushrooms, an assortment of mini cakes & tarts, and plenty more.  

Here are my berry parfaits that I made to look like little "diner" style sundaes:

You can't really see the napkins very well there, but they were these hilarious 50s style pictures with cheeky slogans on them.

Linda so graciously did my makeup. Here were the styles I sent her for inspiration:

MAC makeup. Image from here

The ever glamorous Dita Von Teese

Image from here

Isn't this photo just decadent? Makeup Forever.

Image from here

And of course, the ultimate pin-up gal, Bettie Page

Image from here

Here were some of the funny 50s advertisements we had up on the walls:

Image 1 from here

Image 2 from here

Image 3 from here

Image 4 from here

Image 5 from here

We had plenty more, but some are too cheeky to pop on the blog!

The party was a hit, even though it bucketed down with rain and I couldn't decorate quite as much as I wanted to, but who cares? My hubby was so happy and had the best night.
He dressed up as a 50's nerd, very Buddy Holly. I went as a pin-up gal. We really has a great night!

I will leave you with a quote from my favourite, Oscar Wilde:

"To get back my youth I would do anything in the world,  except take exercise, get up early, or be respectable"

Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray

~ Clare x