Wardrobe Wander: girls day out

After turning off the highway and winding up a road edged with typical Tasmanian bush, I arrive at Lisa Kreemers' house.
Her home is tucked away in a private bush enclave.
On a wet Sunday, I'm greeted by the statuesque art teacher and mum to Isabella, Inez and Isla.
Today, Lisa's husband is keeping a low profile; it's a girly day and their "I girls" are a captive audience to the fashion and photography that is about to unfold.
After a welcome cup of coffee, we all scurry upstairs to raid Lisa's wardrobe.
Lisa is an online shopping queen and avid bargain hunter, and from her wardrobe she pulls out frock after frock, hats, animal-print pieces, shoes and bags that she has scored online and secondhand.
Big names - Marc Jacobs, Pucci and Diane Von Furstenburg - hang alongside Asos pieces, colourful kimonos, a gorgeous royal blue velvet vintage opera coat and lots of leopard; the girl LOVES leopard.
Jewellery sits in colourful piles and hangs grouped together.
Lisa also makes her own lovely felt pieces under the name The I Girls.
Not surprisingly, the I girls were also keen to get among the action.
Tiaras were donned and little feet clomped around in mum's high heels and Lisa's bags were swinging from tiny arms.
While they've got quite a few more years of tearing around in crazy self-styled mismatched outfits, Isabella, Inez and Isla have got a great wardrobe full of stylish pieces to look forward to stepping into. If they're lucky, they might just inherit their mum's great laugh too.

The vintage opera coat and Lisa's new Peep Toe heels, which turned her already tall frame Amazonian. Fabulous!

Inez helping her mum work out what to wear. Inez lurves fashion.

Asos leopard frock. I loved it and plan to jump online to buy the same!

Leopard bag from London.

Lisa paired her much-loved Tony Mora cowboy boots with her Our Lady of Guadalupe skirt.

The Marilyn print is by Phil Hayes.

Isla is drawn to an animal-print Glomesh bag - naturally!

Love these vintage Gucci-esque heels.

Handmade felt necklaces from Lisa's The I Girls.

Pucci makes everyone smile.

All Matchbox Cars should have glamorous animal-print roads to drive on.

Divine Art Deco drinks trolley. Love the original green bakelite wheels. Style extends beyond Lisa's wardrobe and throughout her home.

Isla, Isabella and Inez.

Lisa picked up the Snelling chair, which she had an upholster add webbing to, for an absolute bargain.

What's this!?

Lisa Kreemers kicks off Triple Cee's debut Wardrobe Wanders.
I'll uploaded tomorrow. Promise x

Lisa and Isla. Cute.

Big-ticket items!

I put $50 on the dresser I had my eye on, which I posted on Thursday.
I might even do a trade with the seller; I have some cool stuff that I increasingly don't really have room for. Next up: a new TV and a new couch.

I'm rather taken by this piece from Oz Design Furniture.

And while on the topic of couches and sofas, I thought I'd throw in this image (from Apartment Therapy)...I love velvet sofas, but with my menagerie, it'd get wrecked pretty quickly!

Captain of industry

I have a lovely weekend planned, starting with dinner tonight.
I plan to check out one of my favourite secondhand stores tomorrow, plus i'll do some garage sailing and I'll keep my eye out for some good industrial goodies a la these two photos from Apartment Therapy (my go-to site of late).

On Sunday, my debut Wardrobe Wander is going to happen - yip yip! Thanks to Jeana Sohn and Natalie Joos for the inspiration.
Watch this space...

Camille Cregan Closet Visit.

Erin Featherston for Tales of Endearment.

Dresser to impress

I stumbled across a lovely dresser on the weekend.
It needed a bit of work (nothing major), so I passed it up.
Now, I can't stop thinking about it.
It's the right height, it has lovely mid-century modern lines and had 4 or 5 shallow drawers (too deep drawers lead to mess and a Bermuda Triangle-effect on clothes - believe me).

This lovely legged side table, from Apartment Therapy reminds me of the piece I plan to purchase this weekend - if it's still at the shop :/

A re-Freshing road trip

Fresh is a little piece of Melbourne-style cool right in the middle of Launceston. I had two great Genovese coffees there on Saturday morning along with couscous porridge (I know, it sounds awful, but it was delicious), with bananas, dates, almonds and coconut milk.

Thank God they've left the lovely tiles and other original shopfront trimmings.

I love this sign. Fresh shares the street with the Tasmanian Greens office. Maybe they have a problem with some of the political party's supporters?

Lots of laminex and retro furnishings makes me happy. And Grace Jones on the sound system made my day.

All the while, the Jag sat patiently glistening in the morning sun for my return and safe passage back to the Coast. But not before a quick trip to Bunnings and the fabulous Kings Meadows City Mission where I stocked up on secondhand toys and bits and pieces for jewellery. Yay!
Thanks Jag. I'll wash you.

Change of address

One of my favourite blog sites has a new and good-looking home.
Fashion stylist extraordinaire Natalie Joos' Tales of Endearment has left blogland and moved to webland.
She seems to have access to some of the most stylish women and their fabulous wardrobes - lucky girl - and with a camera (and her good eye) invites us to take a peek inside too. Fabulous fun.

Here's a photo of Natalie (taken from her site), in a fabulous vintage '60s frock, arriving at the launch party of her new website.

This is the address of her old site.

Which holds the archive of her original shoots, such as this cool collection of Poppy Delevingne.

It's on the table

I've had this late-'60s-esque colourful floral ceramic serving platter stashed in my kitchen cupboard fof a couple of years.
It's now on display and doing double duty as a coffee table hold it all for candles, flowers and things I like to look at.

All you need is flares

I love flares.
Always have.
Always will.
Well, there was one moment around 1985, during a holiday stay, when I distinctly recall having no other option but to wear a pair of purple corduroy flares that belonged to my cousin, and not being very happy about having to wear said flares. Wish I had a pair of purple corduroy flares now.

All images courtesy of I Love Wildfox.

The writing is on the wall

A kitchen seems to be the natural habitat for a blackboard wall.
My kitchen doesn't have enough expansive wall space that will suit, plus, being at the southern end of my house, it's not the sunniest of places (except for a rather gloriously sunny few minutes around 3pm-ish in summer).
But a studio or office would also be a good place for a blackboard painted wall. Unlike the kitchen, that's doable.

This photo courtesy of Apartment Therapy.

The light time

It's 12.57. Time for a lit up letter S!

Photo courtesy of Apartment Therapy.

The tooth, the whole tooth and nuthin' but the tooth

A missing tooth or two are strangely appealing, but society mostly dictates that teeth ought to be straight, white, even and without missing neighbours.

This still from Jeana Sohn's debut Closet Visits film, is proof positive of the gap-mouthed look's appeal!

On a high note

High ceilings are just the bomb, aren't they!
I read a great tip this week (from Kelly Wearstler, I believe), if you want to make your ceilings appear higher than they are, paint them a dark shade, black maybe...?

Anyhoo..this room - from my go-to girl for all things home style: SF Girl By Bay, doesnt' need any extra help in the height department. Lofty indeed.

Project one-day

Agghghhh!! The tiling is finished and the bath is back in my bathroom.
The longest renovation E V E R! - I'll post photos very soon, promise.
Meantime, my mind has moved one spot down the to-do list and this photo has inspired me to THINK (not do, yet) about painting white the ugly wooden window frames and sills in my dining room. I know it's a sin to paint over beautiful timber, but the time-worn stuff around the windows in my dining room is not worth preserving.

Thanks to the always stylish postings of SF Girl By Bay for this image.