Ottoman sofa bed

The first part of the office 'upgrade' is complete with the arrival of our ottoman sofa bed this week. I was a bit nervous about purchasing a custom-made piece of furniture on eBay, but the experience with Sydney Lounge Specialist was wonderful. We weren't quite happy with the standard Wortley and Warwick fabrics offered by the store, so after two rounds of samples in the mail we settled on Wortley 'Hustle' fabric in Carbon colour.

The sofa was made in Sydney from sustainable Tasmanian pine, and includes a ten-year warranty on both the timber frame and the foam. We paid extra to get an inner-spring mattress instead of a standard foam one, and the trampoline base also includes timber slats for extra support, so our visitors should have no reason to complain.

I couldn't resist buying some new cushions to celebrate. These are all from Target, who really seem to have stepped up in the homewares department.

I'll add more photos in the coming weeks when the room is a little tidier!

Baked rice puddings

Last weekend I tested out my new ramekins and made some delicious individual baked rice puddings.

The Vinyl Living tea towel was a lovely birthday gift from a lovely friend for my birthday.

Design*Sponge Brisbane city guide update

Remember the Brisbane city guide I wrote for the Design*Sponge website back in 2009? I've just recently written an updated version, which is now available to read on the site here. This much more comprehensive guide also includes a link to a Google Map with all the highlights pinpointed. Handy!

Do leave a comment to let me know what you think, either here or on the Design*Sponge site!

Heart for Art

Some of you may have seen the post on my other blog a few months back about little-known overseas aid organisations. One of these organisations was Project 18, which is run by the Sunshine Coast's Cate Bolt. Project 18 is dedicated to a range of humanitarian and conservation projects, including Foundation 18, a girls' orphanage in Indonesia.

Today, bloggers around the world are getting the word out about Heart for Art, explaining how ordinary people can make an extraordinary difference in the lives of the little girls living at the orphanage. All you need to do is make something crafty and send it their way! You might even get a little surprise in the mail in return. If you'd like to get involved, you can send your art projects directly to Cate Bolt:

Cate Bolt
Attn: Heart For Art
PO Box 239 
Glass House Mountains, Qld 4518 
Australia
If you're in the UK, you can direct your package here:
Lerner Farrington
Attn: Heart For Art
18 Suffolk Rd
Lincoln, LN1 2UG
UK
If you're not much of a crafty person but still want to help, there are so many other ways you can assist Project 18 in making a real difference in the lives of these kids:

• sign up for their web hosting services
• make a purchase from the Project 18 shop or Etsy shop
• buy a ‘brick’ of Fairtrade chocolate and help build a ‘chocolate classroom’
• make a one off, or regular monthly contribution directly to Foundation 18, Indonesia
• grab a banner or button from the Project 18 website and add it to your blog or website
• follow Project 18 on Twitter and on Facebook
• participate in Auctions for Education.

For more information about Heart for Art, email HeartForArt18@gmail.com.

Nundah City

After having brunch today, we noticed a newcomer to the vacant shops in Nundah Village. We're now lucky enough to have a fabulous retro/vintage store in our suburb! (Although, I must point out that the owner hates the terms 'retro' and 'vintage'.)

Nundah City is owned by Steve, who was behind Rotten Records in the city and Kleptomania in Fortitude Valley. Now Steve will be selling records, furniture and other homewares right in my neighbourhood. If anyone's keen, he currently has a set of bright orange Kartell nesting tables! I was super tempted myself, and probably would have caved had they been red, white or black.

He also has a replica of a Kartell magazine rack, which is a yellow version of the one I own.

I'm pretty sure I'm going to be spending a lot of time looking around Steve's shop in the coming weeks!

Movie ticket giveaway: Big Mamma's Boy

Thanks to Madman, I have five double passes to give away to a preview screening of Australian film Big Mamma's Boy.

The screening takes place at Hoyts Stafford 10 Cinemas next Sunday (24 July) at 10.30am.

To enter, just leave a comment before 5.00pm on Monday 18 July, and I'll pop tickets in the post the next day.

Birthday flowers

During the week it was my birthday. It was the first birthday in a decade that I haven't spent at my old workplace, so the day was tinged with a tiny bit of sadness for me (given that the last decade equals most of my 'adult' life). I did, however, get to catch up with some wonderful friends for a picnic in the park today. Much eating, drinking and chatting took place.

I got some great birthday gifts from my husband, friends and family, many of which I will share in a blog post soon. For now, here are some lovely flowers given to me last weekend by my mother-in-law.

Origami flowers

After patiently looking for more than a year for something suitable to place inside our Dinosaur Designs vase (gratefully received as a wedding gift), I bought these origami flowers from Hideyo at the Finders Keepers markets over the weekend...