a single man

we watched this beautiful movie last night, and loved it. have you seen a single man? definitely one to add to your netflix queue!

I must say my queue is looking quite healthy these days thanks to the suggestions I got here :)

photo here

happy friday!

although I haven't done all the things on my list I'm happy to report that my mini vacation at home is going swimmingly :) I've been organising and creating and best of all relaxing!

this weekend I plan on doing much of the same! and we are heading off to the city for the Renegrade Craft Fair and the Alameda Flea market - very exciting!

how bout you?

I hope you have a wonderfully relaxing weekend whatever it is you're up to!

photo here

wall collage

well it's taking some time to grow, but my wall collage in my hallway I talked about here, is coming along nicely :)what do you think?

orange

for the sake of orange :)photo here

what would you wish for?

today I am officially on holiday! I have today and tomorrow off, so essentially a four day weekend - woohoo!

Bryce and I usually spend our days off packing as much fun and adventure as we can into every last minute and head back to work feeling tired from our holidays - this week I have taken 2 days off work to stay at home and just potter around the house, but I must say this morning I am feeling at a loss... I have so many plans and just don't know where to begin, every where I look I think yes I can do that, oh and that and fix this and paint that, isn't it funny how when you are given the freedom of time it feels like a burden? like I must spend it wisely!

here are some things I have in mind:

go for a massage

finish the filing

paint my sewing table

redesign my blog

break in my sewing machine (I got for christmas and haven't used yet...)

organise my closets

do you ever feel like that? what would you wish for if you had 2 days off?

photo here

Cooper says hi

and happy hump day :)

I took this shot of him at the Vet Dermatologist the other day - yes he's an expensive allergic doggy - but we still love him :)

anthropologie displays

I know I've said it before, but wouldn't it be great to be the visual merchandiser at anthropologie??? here are some shots I took at my local store over the weekend... swoon.

love you, madly

as we speak Joan is putting the final touches on her make-upDon is contemplating over his glass of whiskey. neat.
and Betty is just being beautiful melancholy Betty...
but at 10pm they all are back to play... and unless you've been living in a shoe under a rock, you'll know that the 4th season of Mad Men starts tonight!

and if you've been anywhere near banana republic these days you'll know that they're casting a role on Mad Men and you just could be the one! Check it out here.
My favourites so far are Nadine, a Real Ad Girl, Jeff, and Joan's sister Colleen :P but I'm not sure I'd want to go behind the magic of mad men, I think it might ruin it... what do you think?

happy friday

well my friday was cut short today when the fire alarm in my office started going off and everyone had to evacuate the building at about 3:00pm... I took that as a cue to pack up my laptop and call it a day! as I was driving home I heard we'd just had an earthquake, so I guess that's what set the alarm off - not that I felt it (it was only a 3.5).

the sun is shining here and I have 2 sleepy puppies at my feet. we are looking forward to hanging out at home and making some more progress on the house and garden this weekend.

what big plans do you have?

whatever you're doing, I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

xo

Kate

ps - I took this photo using the ultra hip hipstamatic app on my iphone, while we were driving last weekend :)

virtual vacation - New York

following on from my yesterday's post about helping me come up with travel suggestions for my cousin Deb who is coming all the way from Perth, Australia in a few days for a month long round the US trip - let's start with New York!

I have been to New York 3 times and still haven't seen half of it, as I guess is true of all places we visit - which I guess is why I am a fan of living in different places, it's the only way to truly see a place... but, I digress.

I've done the carriage ride in Central park, been to the top of the Empire State building, visited Times Square, Chinatown, dined at chic cafes in SoHo, and seen shows on Broadway, but I know there are so many more things to see...

So I think the best way to do this is split this up into places to see, things to eat, and stuff to do.

let's start with tourists attractions in New York - which ones do you think are must sees versus hours of waiting around for an anti-climax?

Olivia gave me some great tips on:

Rooftop bars (sounds so cool and hip)

• 230 Fifth
• Plunge @ Hotel Gansevoort
• Dream Hotel

Secret/Prohibition Bars

• The Back Room
• Little Branch
• PDT (Please Don't Tell) - you go to a hot dog cafe and then step into a london phone booth and a door will open:)

Good Eats

• Buddhakan
• Alta
• Pastis
• Ariba Ariba
• Norma's

Where else should we send her?

photo from Natasha here

want to plan a virtual vacation?

My cousin Deb is coming to the US in a few days, and is going to be in New York, Chicago, Orlando, Nashville, Dallas, Vegas and San Francisco. She'll be spending just over a month touring round and has been asking me for months for ideas, and me being very lame am only just getting around to it (yeah, I know - I suck)... anyhoo, I was thinking that we could have some fun and plan a virtual roadtrip to these places and come up with some ideas of cool things she could do (making up for my lack of planning ahead) what do you think???

so here is where you guys come in - I need recommendations on fun things to do in all these cities, then I'll post (over the next few days) some of the things I have come up with and we can add it altogether.

Here is her rough itinerary:

New York - 1 to 9 August

Chicago - 9 to 14 August

Orlando - 14 to 18 August

Nashville - 18 to 21 August

Dallas - 21 to 24 August

Las Vegas - 24 to 28 August

San Francisco - 28 August

Depart Los Angeles - 5 September

and technically it's not a road trip because she is flying from city to city, but that gives extra time in each place :)

Los Gatos Shakespeare Festival

Saturday night Bryce and I met Cody and Melita in Los Gatos for gelato and some Shakespeare in the park

well not actually Shakespeare, we saw Treasure Island (by Robert Louis Stevenson) but good fun all the sameon a beautiful summer night, with an intimate audience, it was a fun way to spend a Saturday night

and if you're local I definitely recommend checking it out

I mean where else can you have your photo taken with pirates! ah haar :P

Inception

we saw this movie last night and loved it! you should definitely see it, if you haven't!

a potted garden

remember that little shelf I rescued from the junk heap? well I have put it to good use as my herb garden/ potted plant spotI was able to rescue a bunch of old pots from around the house that were left here from the previous owners and am happy with the way it's turning out

I finally became a cool kid...

and I am totally loving my new iPhone 4 :)

sunset magazine give-away winner

and the winner of the 1 year subscription to Sunset magazine is Amie from Abbey Cat Chat! what with all that stiff competition Amie, I'm sure you're thoroughly surprised at this point :P

send me your address and I'll hook you up :)

cupcakes and caravans

what could be a better combination than caravans and cupcakes?

how about cupcakes + caravans + rustic outdoor wedding??? doesn't that sound like perfection?

I came across these gorgeous lovelies at oh joy and was instantly in love. check out the flavours of cupcakes though, wine based, chocolate based and vanilla based, there must be over 100 different flavours... Enjoy Cupcakes - how could you not!?

sunday brunch

avocado, bacon, poached egg and melted cheese on top of an english muffinwith freshly squeezed orange juice (from our tree)= perfect Sunday brunch!

happy friday

this is a photo of a tiny hummingbird I took the other morning while out walking with Bryce, Coop and McKenzie - I love hummingbirds :)

here's wishing you a wonderful weekend full of sunshine and things you love!

kisses

Kate

sunset magazine give-away - last day

don't forget to get your comments in by end of day tomorrow for the 1 year subscription to sunset magazine I'm giving away - details at the bottom of here

photo here

u is for...

today I am excited to be participating in one sydney road's alphabet walk blog hop, which is a photographic challenge to take pictures of things inspired by a certain letter of the alphabet. when I signed up I got the letter U, which at first I couldn't think of much, but thought I would get a flood of inspiration eventually... let's just say that it took some thinking to come up with U's but it was definitely a fun challenge!

thank you Piper for hosting such a fun blog hop, and thank you Hannah, Helen and Bryce for helping me come up with creative U's. and don't forget to see all the letters of the alphabet here

strawberries

over the weekend we finally got to the nursery to buy some vegies as we'd been planning for a while, and we also got these deliciously sweet strawberries. my nanna would grow strawberries in her garden when I was a kid and it was always fun to find the red ones and eat them straight off the plant, just like hunting for treasure!for my birthday Cathy and Gene gave me this great hanging basket that is perfect for my strawberries so the snails can't get them

and after seeing planters that had strawberries growing from the top and the sides I decided to try it out myself

and it was pretty easy to do. I bought this moss liner and cut holes where I wanted the strawberries to grow from
and after putting a small amount of potting mix in the bottom to support them I carefully fed the plant through the holesthen covered that over with more potting mix
and planted the last 2 plants in the top
and ta-da!

we've already eaten some of the strawberries and they are so sweet and juicy! yum

thanks Cathy and Gene for the great planter, once we have the garage finished we're going to hang it on that with the great hanging piece it came with :)