Green & White Dining Style

A couple of weeks back I posted my new dining room cabinet with a neutral and white palette... well I've changed things up a bit and it's now a fresh green and white look... since summer arrived about 3 months late I figured I might as well make the most of it feeling so warm and bright. I think it's probably time to do the ol' switcheroo again though now that it's turning cooler. Thinking a rustic autumn palette may be in order. This is the very reason I wanted a unit like this so I could have fun mixing it up!

Here's wishing you a lovely weekend!! And especially to my clients Tait & Nikki who are getting married today... it makes me so happy when the sun is shining on a client's wedding day!

Natural & White Dining Style

You've probably gathered by now that I love throwing different things together and playing with the styling and then photographing it. Outside of the invite design, it's just something I love to do and am really just experimenting with it all to be honest. I recently found this fabulous white sideboard unit for our dining room which is the perfect piece to display all my 'bits and bobs' on, and of course I have to play with different colour schemes on it. The plan is to change it up every couple of months with different colours/items, although I must say it seems to take me far longer to do in reality than it does in my head. Anyway this is how it started... all yummy and neutral, but it's recently been changed so I'll share those pictures with you when I get the chance to take them too.

A colour story - Apricot & Red

I had so much fun working on this colour story for {MAG}rouge!! Inspired by the amazing Mangosteen fruit, I love the combination of the rich red with caramel, apricot and peach tones. I had this gorgeous apricot floral fabric that worked perfectly with them and from there it took shape. Don't you think this would make for such a pretty wedding colour palette?... and that's coming from someone who is not the biggest fan of red in weddings.

All photos by Ruby & Willow

Christmas Decorating and a Happy New Year

If you haven't already gathered posting is going to be on the light side for the next couple of weeks. I'm not back on deck officially until the 16th of January... woohoo!! 2011 was such an overwhelmingly busy time for me, I really need some time out to work out how to take Ruby & Willow forward. Don't get me wrong busy is great, but not when it means you can't operate as efficiently as you'd like to be. So I need to work out how best to manage the stationery side of things together with my new commitments with {MAG}rouge... which is a project I absolutely love working on. I may cut back a little on the amount of jobs I take on with R&W... again, just trying to make it all work. I also lost all the time I had to simply browse through blogs, magazines, to get inspired and do my own little creative projects so in 2012 I want to ensure I have more time not only for that, but simply to 'smell the roses'. When my last job went out the door prior to Christmas, I sat in the sun in a deckchair, (thankfully it was one of the handful of sunny days we've had this summer!) in my garden, with a book, and was practically in a state of euphoria over just being able to 'sit and be'. Then I even pottered in the garden, without the stress of knowing I had to rush back to get things done. I need to do that more... it's good for the soul, to just take time out.

Most of the time this year I've felt 10 steps behind, like I'm always playing catch up, and never quite on top of things, and to be perfectly honest, I really don't like that feeling! I've always been one to work better under pressure (yep best school marks were on projects started the night before!) but I seriously need some things to change going forward. For one I need to become far more organised! Two; I want to focus more on design, which is afterall what I got into this business for, which means having help to do all the tasks that I'm not so great at (that's quite the long list!!). Three; I want to spend more time building the letterpress side of Ruby & Willow, which I haven't been able to spend as many hours on as I'd have liked to so far. Four; this little ol' blog may be due for an overhaul... again something I'm still considering. It is what sparked the whole {MAG}rouge thing, but it's still part of me rather than the team as a whole so I need to work out how it's going to sit going forward. I'm also going to be taking on sponsors in the New Year so if you're interested in that please flick me an email. This is something I've been asked about several times over the past year or so it's time to take that leap. I'm super excited about where {MAG}rouge is going... and holy moly our next cover shoot... well that seriously takes the cake... beyond thrilled with what we have lined up!! 

Before I go I'd just like to send out a huge heartfelt thank you to all my lovely readers who take the time to visit each day and leave lovely feedback and comments both here and on my facebook page. I appreciate all of you so much! And to all the fabulously talented vendors and people I've met through not only this blog, but facebook and twitter, I've loved getting to know you and I hope to have more time in 2012 to interact and work together.

Finally... I had some fun with my Christmas decor this year so thought I'd share a little of it with you. As you can see I steered away from the red and gold and went with a fresh, slightly woodsy look this year! What colours did everyone else go with?

Happy New Year everyone!! xoxo

A colour story - Emerald, Teal & Yellow

A few months ago I started having a play around styling various props I had with my stationery, and photographing colour stories of them... just experimenting for the magazine and myself I guess. And really just having fun with it. I absolutely love doing this and hope to find the time to do a lot more in the future. Would love to know your thoughts on this... do you think this should become a regular series? Does this inspire you for your wedding at all? Or just in general? Feedback is always welcome :-) It helps me learn!!

On my table...

Happy weekend!! Do you have any exciting plans? We were SO incredibly lucky to have been given tickets to tonight's semi final of the rugby, so we're off to that which should be fun!! And we potentially have tickets to the big game tomorrow too.... will find out later today! I've gotta say it's all getting a bit nerve wracking thinking about the result of that game!! Aside from that I have a lot of work to get through as well and a few things to do around the house.

I've decided that I need to start making an effort with dressing my dining table. I have lots of things tucked away that don't see the light of day often enough, so I'm going to make a conscious plan to change the table setting every couple of weeks. And I'm SO excited to be getting a new dining table soon which will make it even more fun! Have a super weekend folks xo

Pretty white spring ranunculus...

I've been playing around with a few personal projects lately... and I thought these were just too pretty not to share. Whilst I'm no photographer, I do love it and I'm pretty happy with how these turned out. I will have a lot more of these type of posts coming up in the next few months... all driven by colour really as that seems to be something I'm asked about a lot... colour styling that is.

Blue & White French Country Dinner Party...

A couple of weeks ago my lovely friend Erin of Sparkle & Hay featured this shoot from a dinner party I recently styled and I thought I'd also share it on here today. It was a French style Raclette Party for a 50th birthday party, and I'm sure you've probably guessed but the fabulous rustic style macaron tower was beautifully crafted by the amazing Judit from Artisan Cakes, as well as the rooster cookies, and the stunning photography was by Jasmine from Sutherland Kovach. I just love working with these ladies!! We were going for a country vintage feel inspired by the amazing blue toile fabric. To keep it interesting I combined it with a ticking cloth for that quintessential French look. I love how the blue looks with the greenery (note the amazing rustic florals by Annie Oxborough) and the olives!! The invitations were printed on kraft to add a rustic appeal, and the menu's had guests names attached using my favourite item... mini wooden pegs. I even branched out and did some DIY for this shoot... I had a wooden frame (kindly made by Judit's husband I should add!) which I covered in foam, and then the toile cloth before tacking chicken wire to the back. This was used as a board with guest name tags on and would be fabulous as a seating chart option at a wedding. This was such a fun dinner to style and I  have since had my dining table set up like this I loved it so much!!

Sneak Peek: Picnic Shoot

A few weeks ago I had the honour of meeting Sofia & Andre of the always impressive Brancoprata team from Portugal. They were here to shoot the wedding of Steph from Bubblerock, and whilst their time was extremely stretched we didn't want to let the opportunity slip to get together and have a little fun. To say it was incredibly rushed and we were unprepared would be a bit of an understatement... and the elements were against us with a crazy windy day, but in the end we surrendered to it, made the most of what little we had and had a fun afternoon in the park. This is a little sneak peek of it and there are a couple more over on Steph and Sofia's blogs. I had such a blast working with you all and it was fabulous to meet fellow bloggers from the other side of the globe!!

Baby Shower Sneak Peek

A sneak peek at the baby shower I styled and hosted for my friend over the weekend, with some fabulous cookies/desserts by Judit Meron from Artisan Cakes and photography by Greta from Vela Images.... more to come at a later date!

A photo study | Peonies & Washi Tape

My lovely friend Kristi posted a little teaser of this yesterday so I thought I'd post the complete study of the lovely peonies I brightened up the house with on Friday. Kristi asked for a photo and it turned into a very impromptu photo shoot - I think I was just excited about having a house with lots of light finally cause trust me I NEVER turn things around that quickly!! But they really were too pretty not to document! I am utterly swamped this week, just keeping my head above water but hoping to get ahead of the game over the next couple of days!! Happy hump day everyone! Kx