Frames Frames Frames

My darling daughter Mila at 3 months old in an antique look custom frame

My husband thinks that I am obsessed with framing things and well he might be right but I just think when something is special (be it a photo, drawing, artwork etc) why not frame it? and why not go big??? I just love supersized frames against bare walls. They are an artwork in themselves.

The dilemna though is...price. In order to go big frames will usually have to be custommade and that means pricey. I hardly ever find a great 'off the shelf' frame larger than an 8x10 inch photo slot. What I have done over the last few years is invest in a few pricey custommade frames but then also raid discount stores and bargain bins for all other frames to even out the cost. I have posted some photos below of examples of frames in my home, you may or may not have guessed the pricey$$$ compared to the bargain bin$......

Set of 3 custommade antique look frames to house these gorgeous shots taken by the massively talented Karen Flett at Photofever. Each frame is about 20 x 30 inches (see above for closeup). Pricey $$$

Custommade frame to house this lovely painting that Kent's grandmother who has since passed away painted for him of his family farm as a young boy. I had it re-framed as a surprise for his birthday. Pricey$$$ but well worth it.

This is the jersey Kent wore when Waikato (his rugby team) last won the Ranfurly Shield (that's a big big deal for any non NZers reading this). This was a xmas pressie and was super pricey $$$ however I also framed some rugby medals alongside it and I did this with some $6 frames that were deep set so easy enough to work my magic on and get the medals to fit in...bargain$.

This is my favorite photo EVER. The frame was a bargain buy at $10. It is actually a certificate frame. So is the one below that I used to frame the sketch my wedding dress designer, Kate Dowman, did of my dress. I'm waiting to blow up a photo of me in my dress to go along side it before I hang this.

These frames were great bargains$ at only $20 each on sale at a local photo print shop. I think there were a mistake order or something. They are at least 16 x 20 inches and do a wonderful job housing my 3 favourite wedding photos.

My latest bargain find $30 on sale at Ezibuy!!! oh how I love a bargain $. The frame is like antique architraving. I'm yet to put photos in it.

This was pricey$$$ but it matches the colours I have in Mila's room so I couldn't resist.

This last photo was neither bargain or pricey if I remember rightly but I just wanted to show how some of my favourite photos are just of the simple things like this close up of the detailing of my wedding dress (I promise I'm not quite as wedding obessed as it might seem).

At the moment even though our house is almost overflowing with frames I have no plans to stop. My latest project is to create a photo/art wall in both Kent's office and above our bed in our bedroom (although I am slightly worried about the frames going south in the night as that could hurt!!). I have to twist Kent's arm on the office wall though. I want it to be all about us and our achievements but he is refusing to let me frame a recent article about him in the NZ rugby magazine about his ability to play professional rugby and run his landscape construction business. Arggggh I'm just proud but he thinks its lame to frame (sorry about that blatant rhyme). Anyway I have been collecting loads of examples of photo/art walls and here are some I recently added to that collection....so pretty!!!

Sourced from Design Formula (along with next 4 photos)

Sourced from cool photo ideas along with next photo

Sourced from apartment therapy.

Ok enough from me. See you soon. p.s I'm so excited by my new followers, including A-M!!!! yah

Olivia :)

Easter Over !

Easter cake before....


.........and after

Well Easter did not turn out quite as expected but at least the chocolate cake (complete with my little homemade nest of eggs!) was a total hit!!

We had to cancel our Sunday family lunch as my niece came down with strep throat and Dad ended up in hospital (his second home) with a few complications following a nasty accident a week or so ago where his ankle was run over by a run away truck (long story). They are all fine and at least this cancellation had one hidden benefit of avoiding another day of constant chocolate consumption.

I've posted some photos below of my table for today's lunch with Kent's family. We had a great time - first with the egg hunt, then a scrummy lunch and then we blobbed and watched 'The Proposal' on box office!! great day.

I wanted a colourful mixed pastel theme for the table and decided to make use of a bunch of different glasses, coasters, placemats etc so very ecclectic. I hung lots of pretty easter eggs from our chandlier. I picked them up in a bargain bin at the Stevens outlet store for $4.50 yah. Due to the little ones in the lunch party I had to avoid a draping table cloth!

table

place settings

hanging eggs

Here is a photo of some scrummy treats made by Kent's sister Melissa - very kiwiana and cool. I totally forgot to take photos of any other food including the most delicious stack of homemade hot cross buns by Kent's mum!! silly me they were delicious.

Also on the lunch menu was:

Rustic pork & sage loaf wrapped in streaky bacon

Homegrown potatoes with a homemade basil & mint pesto

Red cabbage, apple & walnut slaw

Homemade beetroot & apple chutney.

It was super yummy and I'm super full. I hope everyone had a fabulous easter. This week I'm looking forward to posting about lots of DIY projects I have on the go.

Olivia :)

Easter Time

Photo: around my table

Its good friday today and the start of Easter!! Every year this means Kent's rugby today, making use of shops being open tomorrow, chocolate chocolate chocolate on Sunday and then more chocolate on Monday.

This year I am making an effort to make Easter pretty at our house. We are hosting an Easter egg hunt and lunch for my family on Sunday and Kent's family on Monday (schedules could not permit one big lunch together unfortunately). I whipped up these invites using these gorgeous free vintage labels from World Label that were originally posted on one of my favourite blogs a room for everyone.

Check out all these ideas for making an easter table super pretty, in addition to the photo up top (sourced from another favourite blog of mine around my table) and all these other other yummy food ideas found in New Idea and Women's Weekly Magazines...

I'm definitely going to make a cake and attempt table decorations (nothing as elaborate as these images though!) so I will post photos after monday. I wish a wonderful easter to all.

Olivia :)

My First Ever Post!

This is so strange writing a post with no idea if anyone will even read it! But ohwell I must start somewhere. I have to credit the most wonderful blogger A-M at The House that A-M Built for my love of design blogs. She recently finished building her home and its like the coolest thing ever!!! We have such similar tastes (although clearly different budgets boo hoo for me)!! We finished the main build of our house before I got to see her finished project so I was quite disappointed I never got to raid more of her structural ideas before it was too late.


We finished our build in Nov 2008 but I'm still very much in the thick of finishing touches for decor so I plan to use this blog to rant about all my final design choices. Today my hubby and I had to dig out an old photo of the little house that used to be on our property before we sold it for removal and built new. We used to call it our little green dolls house. We lived in it for a few years and loved it to bits. Here it is...

The reason for digging it out is that a wonderful artist Gavin Smith is going to be painting a water colour of it for us. We just recently picked up another painting of his at a fundraiser for our local Family Centre which is an amazing charity that supports new mums with all the tricky little occurances that come along with motherhood i.e how to feed the baby and manage to get some sleep!! I used the centre when Mila was rejecting the bottle and they were amazing. Here is that painting called 'old friends'. I may get Gavin to call our new painting 'our windy spot' given it was the original house here at our windy spot. I plan to hang the paintings side by side and I'll take a photo when its all complete.

Wow my first post is really long!!! Ok so to round it off here is a photo of tonights dinner. It looked so good I just had to take a photo. I had these yummy prawns but nothing else for dinner so I made use of good old pasta. All I added was some garlic, fresh mint and basil, good old watties tomato soup, some parmesan and crumbled feta and a few capers. REALLY yummy and sooo easy :)

Tomorrow I'm going to post lots of Easter ideas (rather late I know) in preparation for hosting Easter Sunday and Monday Lunches.

Olivia :)