I'm still alive!

I did some rearranging in the study/sunroom, and swapped

out the plant from the bathroom to the little side table.
Morty doesn't appear too pleased about it.

Omg, I can't believe that in my last post I couldn't believe it was mid April. And now its MID JUNE. Holy cow!

Good news is that Delaks is growing quite rapidly. I've been up to my eyeballs in work, which can be a little stressful at times, but I'm certainly not complaining! I've just finished up on some beautiful wedding invites - a trifold, bi-lingual invite with pocket and 2 extra cards. All of the folders were hand cut and folded, as was the information in each panel. They ended up so beautiful and stylish in cream with a gold shimmer.

Creams and golds with accents of lucky red and purple,
difficult to photograph but divine in real life!

I have a big website which I am about to finish which has been eating up all my time (day and night) since... well, since mid April. That hasn't allowed much time for doing things around the house, but there have been a few small home improvements squeezed in here and there which I will update you on soon, as well as some exciting events in the neighbourhood that I'm dying to tell you about. As soon as the big website project is done, I am going to take some time out and do some projects I've had on my mind:

• Revamping the back deck - this is in progress, but we have big plans for out there
• Painting a wall with some wide blue stripes, you'll have to wait to see where!
• Creating some bulldog art (hopefully it turns out as I'm envisioning)
• Adding to my etsy store - I have some great ideas for new products and some improvements to my current items
• Finally purchasing some chairs for the empty space in the lounge room
• Possibly creating a library a la this one in Real Living magazine (see the black and white shelves in the middle of the last picture?) instead of the Expedit, it has served me well but I am slowly trying to de-Ikea our house
• Also from Real Living magazine, adding some decorative molding to my walls similar to Michelle from Rubie Green
• Redesigning my own website
• Blog about all of the above and more! :)

To tide you over until then, here are some gratuitous Morty photos:

Seriously, could this dog be any cuter?

Why yes, yes he can!

READING: M-A-Belle - Michelle is so inspiring, she's my age and she has a fabulous international company selling gorgeous eco friendly designer fabric. And she lives in Manhattan.

LOVING: Guy singlehandedly starts dance party totally cracked me up today (via The Small Joys)

INSPIRING: It seems the youngsters over at This Young House had the same stripy wall ambitions as I do!

COMING UP: I still owe you a freebie don't I? It's coming, I promise!!

Catch Up

Gee whiz, time is absolutely flying at the moment - can you believe its mid April already? I swear it was Christmas just last week...

I've got quite a few exciting things to catch you all up on! Firstly, my little Etsy store has been coming along nicely with a few sales already :) Thanks so much to everyone who has purchased from my store, it makes my day each time I get an 'order' email! And a HUGE thanks to Al Ain Notebook and Baby Daniel and Us for featuring my bookplates on their blogs, you guys are gems! :) I am hoping to get some new printable items and paintings up there soon.

Speaking of paintings, I also received some pics of some of my commissioned paintings hanging all the way over in Ireland, its such a thrill to see my work on someone elses wall... in a whole other country no less!

My paintings - in Ireland! via Sixblackdots

I've also been working on some wedding invitations and I'm quite pleased with how they turned out:

And a detail of the invites is at the top of the page

I think the hit of yellow (a piece of the brides favourite painting, Klimt's The Kiss) on the envelope liner is a winner.

I also had a huge clear out over the past couple of weeks and sold everything on ebay. Can you believe I had over $400 worth of stuff just hanging about? Neither can I! With my windfall I shouted myself to the blue ceramic kettle I've been dreaming of (pics in situ soon), a (faux) Chloe bag in my fave shade Martha blue for a total steal, and a sensational trench coat as its getting rather chilly these days. And I still have some moola left over! :)



READING: The Brick House - sensational style... and it totally cracks me up!

INSPIRING: I am determined to earn enough money as a freelance designer to go to New York for my birthday this year, so this Ork print is now right above my computer as a constant reminder what I'm working towards. I know, its a crazy business goal to have, but it works!

LOVING: Layer Tennis: finally a sport I can get into ;)

COMING UP: I have a FREEBIE to download coming up over the next couple of days, so stay tuned!

Before & After: Study Bookcase

I had a couple of pics of this up on my Flickr a while ago but I realised I never posted about it here! I have a white Billy bookcase in my study/sunroom, tucked neatly into the awkward corner between the door to the kitchen and the french doors out onto the deck. There is not a lot of storage in our house, and with me running my little business from this room and the hubby studying his MBA at the same time... well, lets just say the junk had piled up in the bookcase.

So I took the time recently to do a bit of a spring clean and tidy and its so much better now, both to look at and find things in!



Here are the before shots - not nice at all. Textbooks and pens and stationary supplies and folders and paperwork everywhere!





And here are the afters: the folders all lined up nicely, stationary tucked into the little white boxes and paper supplies neatly filed into the magazine holders. The plain cardboard box on the top shelf was a cheapy from Ikea and holds all those annoying little electronic bits and pieces - mobile phones and chargers, adapters, extra cables etc. I wrapped the box in white paper, with a panel of blue striped scrapbooking paper on the front to tie in with the other blue items.

The blue fabric covered document tray on the second shelf was from Target, marked down from $20 to $8, and I also bought the matching mouse mat for my desk for just $1!

And I know theres been a bit of a backlash against colour coded books, but you can't deny that it makes Physics and Calculus and assorted other textbooks look damn fine ;)

Its amazing what a difference a simple tidy and organisation can make, and its so easy to find everything and keep it clean when everything has its place.


In other news, the recycled plastic rugs I bought on ebay for out on the roof terrace and back deck have arrived and they look fabulous! My only tiny worry is that Morty seems to have developed a taste for the rug on the back deck, he's already nibbled a small hole so I hope he doesn't destroy them. The back deck is currently a bit of a blank slate so no pics just yet, but I'm thinking with my economic stimulus payment from K Rudd I'm going to get a lovely outdoor lounge for out there. And all I need on the terrace is a shade sail or umbrella, and then I can show you its final before and after as well.

PS. I have added a new item to my Etsy store - printable bookplates & bookmarks :)


READING: The Brick House, a fabulous renovating/decorating blog I've just discovered via Apartment Therapy. This gal is the thrifting queen - so many wonderful midcentury pieces on a budget of less than $100 per piece, including a beautiful George Nelson light fixture for just $6!

INSPIRING: This post on Modish (via Avie Designs, also a HUGE inspiration at the moment), such a pick-me-up during a crisis of confidence.

LOVING: Kelly Giesen (website and new blog and a great set of shots of her place on Flickr), also via Apartment Therapy. Her fireplace/TV storage shown below is to die for, I wonder if I could do something similar in our place?

Kelly Giesen's TV/fireplace, via Flickr

Open For Business

Well, it's taken me a while but I'm finally on the Etsy bandwagon and I'm absolutely thrilled! I've had so many ideas floating around in my head lately, so I decided its about time I got some of them out and into the marketplace. So far I have one item in my shop (my 'You Rock' printable gift card set), but I will be adding more over the coming week or so.



So here's where you come in - is there something you would like to see in the Delaks Etsy store? I've had some requests for the bird paintings as seen in my living room, so I will have some original paintings and prints of those up there soon. I'm also thinking some wedding invitation sets, personal stationary and some fun birthday invitations. What do you think?


In other news, I missed out on a pair of white leather Wassily chairs on Ebay last week and I'm a bit sad about it. They went for $172, not that much at all and I should have bid but but my thrifty side kicked in and I chickened out at the last minute... which I then immediately regretted. We have house guests staying over the weekend and I really want the house to be 'finished', so I am thinking I may have to try and strike a deal with my favourite reproduction place and see what chairs I can find. But happily a blue/green glass bowl I recently found for $2 while out thrifting is in Home Beautiful this month in their 'Style Hunter' feature for $16.95 :) Score!




And a big Hello to Monique of My Little Humble (check out her fabulous purses!) and Catherine of Little Glowing Lights (just plain fabulous!), now added to my Aussie blog list on the right.

READING: I've just discovered The Dieline, a fantastic blog of high end packaging design. Total designer eye candy.

INSPIRING: fffound, an oldie but a goodie - I could spend hours clicking through all the interesting images

LOVING: The Presets Apocalypso album - track 11 'Anywhere' is divine, it gives me goosebumps everytime