Thank You Monday... Kick Up those Heels!

Happy Monday! I'm kicking up my heels in Yippee!

Plus I love these two tone stacked pumps!

A Very BIG THANK YOU to all of you uber Palatially Stylish bodies out there who helped 'kick' Palatial Living over the 200, 000 visitor mark! I tuned in last night ans saw the milestone 'tick over'!

Withou you I would not still be here, seeing your kind comments and visitor 'drop bys' without bouncing out too qucikly! I am so glad you're still enjying my posts on what I see as 'Palatial Living - Grand or Cosy - All Things For Stylish Living' even in some of my stretched absences when family, work and life in general sometimes take over - whenevr I come back to sharing what inspires me through my interior, fashion and garden styles, art, colour themes, product choices, new finds and just what I love - I feel alive again!

So thank you for helping me stay inspirationally & creatively alive!

Stay Palatialliy Stylish!
Love,

images via hoodothatvoodoo, her roaring twenties, tumblr, justanothermasterpiece, crush cul de sac, everly true

Tap Tap Tapping... Working Away.

Ever get that surge of inspiration that keeps you awake well past your 'bed time'... that same feeling that masks the over tiredness?

Well for me that's my creative juices flowing... I was working on a few things, and also sorting & organising my image library, and one thing always leads to another! Much like with reading blogs it's an endless trail of new ideas - just have to keep going!

image via tumblr original source unknown

Today...

Kinda says it all....
I have hit a creative wall, with a massive headache - such moments! I suppose we all have them from time to time! I think that's why I just loved this pic, the colours are already helping!

images via tumblr

ISCD Visiting Victoria!

How exciting - for all of you wonderful southern state neighbours in Victoria [Australia] who love colour, style & design then I have a treat for you! ISCD otherwise known as The International School of Colour & Design are coming to you! Yes - You! ISCD is travelling to Melbourne & Geelong to discuss with you on how you can make your colour & design dreams come true... Join the fabulous Prue Royle - Founding Director of ISCD to work out how ISCD can get you there!

Prue will be in Geelong on Wednesday 13 October from 10am - that's tomorrow so get your skates on!And also on Friday 16 October in Melbourne from 10am.

But make sure you book an appointment with Prue!

ISCD Founding Director - Prue Royle

Check HERE for more details and to make an appointment that could change your life into a colourful & creative one!

images via ISCD

Happy Birthday! x

For my lovely sister-in-law, Kylie, who's always a darling & not to mention an incredibly talented & creative individual! Wishing you a very Happy Birthday today, & for more wonderful days ahead! Enjoy - Love You. S x

Be sure to visit Kylie's fabulous website - Photo/ DVD-Video Editing business - 'Forever Editing' for a professional, personal & creative touch on your image memories - still or moving...

Images from Snippet & Ink [I just love this fabulous wedding inspiration blog by Kathryn]

[New] Book - Handmade Home... Soule Mama

I have just received an email from my Amazon wish list recommendations and this wonderful book - Handmade Home by Amanda Blake Soule -was part of the list! What a lovely surprise to find a book that stylishly shows you how you can re-purpose - recycle - reuse items within your home into other functional aesthetically pleasing items that are fabulous for adults and safe for children... after finding this book and looking a little more into it I further delved and 'googled' about the author - Amanda Blake Soule and found that she has an amazing blog Soule Mama that inspires a following [of course] of creatives of a green influence, a mother influence and a design influence - and some fall into all 3 groups!

I found a wonderfully concise blurb about Amanda & her published jewels, written up on the gorgeous blog Inspiring Mama - by Ericka Taylor (check her out also on JuBella.com - beautiful work) -

Amanda lives in Portland, Maine with her husband Steve and their four children. At her exceedingly popular blog, soulemama.com, Amanda shares details of her daily life as a homeschooling mama intermixed with a range of creative projects that include knitting, sewing, cooking, re purposing fabrics, and much more. Of course, add in her stunning photography and engaging writing style and you'll know why her site has such a devoted and admiring fan base. And that's not all . . . Amidst all of that productive activity, Amanda also managed to write not one, but two fabulous books: The Creative Family: How to Encourage Imagination and Nurture Family Connections (Trumpeter Books/Shambhala Publications, April 2008) and Handmade Home: Simple Ways to Re purpose Old Materials into New Family Treasures - which is release now August 2009.

I feel compelled to thank Amanda, for her beautiful book Handmade Home [& Erika for her book review] for which I have now pre-ordered on Amazon [it is due out August 09 - maybe towards the end of August] and further inspiring me to look around my home - in my wardrobe and sewing cabinet to make stylish beautiful things for living and the little ones [esp. my god daughter's Ella & Charlotte] in my life. Thank you so much Soule Mama [aka Amanda] !

Images from Amazon.com

[Recent] Article: How To Decorate on a Budget...

Australian magazine Real Living - [cover March 2009] Fabulous style & creative ideas without compromising your purse strings!

Thrifty ... designer Sara Silm with her revamped bookshelf that cost less than $200.Photo: Quentin Jones

I am sure that we are all getting very well acquainted with our household budgets this year [and potentially for many more] whilst our economy is taking a downward turn and our discretionary spending becomes scrutinised more than ever... but it doesn't mean the end to great style or re-decorating! There are some great ideas to be had on a thrifty budget - one of my favourite Australian mags 'Real Living' gives just that great ideas & fabulous style on a [shoe string] budget. So just use that noggin' and get creative with your ideas and your dollar!

'How To Decorate on a Budget... '
'...With money tight, a modern style makeover is all about using your ingenuity rather than maxing out your credit card. So we told our experts we wanted great results for less than $500. Read on, they've got your place sorted! ...'

Think outside the square
A recession leads people to focus more on their homes, rather than less, says Chrissie Jeffery, owner of No Chintz soft furnishings. "People aren't going out as much. So they're not going to allow their houses to get too shabby - it's the one place they can entertain." But on our meagre budget, she warns: "Don't fall into the trap of going into a shop and buying something! You're not going to get furniture that's decent and will last a long time for that money." So resist fast-filling a room with budget items. Like slow food, slow decorating pays dividends. As long as you've got a chair to sit on, take time to select pieces you really love.It's not only financially smart to choose things of quality you know you will love for a very long time, it's also the greenest choice because you won't be repeat buying and creating landfill.So, when looking for inexpensive solutions, the time is ripe to extend our decorating gaze beyond those seductive designer showrooms.
"Often what we think we need is sitting right in front of us, or in a charity store," says Sara Silm who co-owns decorating consultancy, Making Beautiful. In fact by buying second-hand, you will often score better-made pieces than something shiny and new in a budget furniture store. "Auction houses and garage sales are a great place to shop for original and interesting pieces at a great price," Silm says.

Get involved
Often the most rewarding projects are the ones where you put in a bit of physical effort. Jeffery says you can make your dollar go a lot further if you're prepared to put in a bit of effort by either painting or sewing. "In Australia, it's the labour cost that really makes things expensive," she says.
"You can change a whole room really cheaply just by giving it a coat of paint," says designer Mia Asker of White Design. Consider this: a four-litre tin of paint - enough to paint an average room - costs about $65 (depending on the brand)."If the wall is in good condition, as long as it's clean you don't need to prepare it, you can just go over the existing paint," says Dulux marketing manager Ken Virtue.
Consider paint as a way of updating a piece of furniture, says Silm. "Just recently I painted a bookshelf (destined for the tip) in a beautiful French grey and covered the back board in a printed dark grey wallpaper," she says. "My husband returned home from a business trip and thought I'd been shopping!" The price? Less than $200.
So when looking at a tired piece of furniture, be creative and imagine it anew. "Paint or limewash an existing piece in a neutral tone. Or why not go all out and paint it raspberry red, pea green or silver?" Silm says.
Another great big-impact option is wallpaper. Some of these are extremely pricey if you're doing a whole wall but Asker recommends looking for end-of-line wallpapers at paint and decorating stores (see Source Book) for the cheapest options. For another budget-smart option, you can get the impact of doing a whole wall by using one large piece of wallpaper and framing it. "It looks great above a bed head," Asker says.

Go for the soft option
New cushions are a great instant style fix. And if your decor tends to neutral shades, then it's time to bring in a colour punch. "Pick a colour scheme; whether red and yellow or something like pink, burgundy and plum," Asker says. "If you buy some cushions, then purchase some toning vases - you'll give your room a whole new flavour."
You can buy cushions off the shelf for as little as $5 at factory-seconds stores. But once again, to make your investment something that lasts, it is worth spending a bit extra. You can buy reasonable-quality cushions with plush feather inserts for about $100 each.Another good option, if you have some great, useable fabric offcuts, is to get an upholsterer to make cushions for you. As a price guide, an good upholsterer will generally charge about $40 a cushion.

Get crafty
If you can sew, then you can create everything from cushions to curtains to upholstery. You can brush up those high school sewing skills with an evening course and you can even buy a basic sewing machine online for as little as $30.Another smart investment for the crafty decorator, if you're keen to do-it-yourself, is a staple gun. With this simple tool, all manner of projects suddenly become possible.
"Small upholstery jobs are not an unreasonable DIY venture," says Silm. "Teamed with some great fabric and some shiny nickel studs, you'll have a transformation that's incredibly impressive and also very rewarding.
"Start with the seat pad of an old dining chair. A 50-centimetre square piece of fabric, some wadding, a staple gun and upholstery tacs will get you going." If you haven't tried anything like this before, then you'll find the web is a great source of instructions for how-to projects.

Personalise your walls
Yes, the DIY shows are full of make-your-own wall art. The key here is scale and proportion. One large-sized canvas, wrapped in fabric, can create an impressive room feature. Silm is a fan of the graphic fabrics at IKEA.
"At $9 a metre, they're great value, not just for curtains." She suggests creating a series of smaller frames and covering them with the same fabric.
"Use a staple gun and wrap them around a canvas from a $2 shop for instant art. Repeated on a wall in two rows of three or five - they look great," says Silm. If anyone in your family is handy on a computer, then digital art is another great way to give a room real punch. (Try black and white images for maximum chic)."Or take any abstract images that you have on file," says Silm. "Then all you need to do is email the file to one of the many shops that can print off the image as a canvas. A 24-inch (61-centimetre) by 36-inch (91 centimetres) canvas is as little as $260." So what is stopping you? Now, no matter what the size your budget is, there is no reason why your home shouldn't look well turned out.

BEFORE and AFTER
Artist Olga Kaydanov reinvented an outdated piece of furniture through the simplest of means.
"I tore all of the fabric and stuffing off and was left with a box made from very cheap wood," she explains on her blog gingerandgold.typepad.com, about the ottoman overhaul.
"The box was full of imperfections and pencil marks. I liked that very much and wanted to add something extra to make it look even more like a shipping crate. I cut stencils from printer paper and stencilled the numbers, letters and symbols onto the box with regular black acrylic paint."
To finish, she added leftover MDF inserts to make a new lid, varnished the entire piece, added upholstery nails and screwed in the new legs to create a funky talking piece.

Article from SMH [Sydney Morning Herald] 29 January 2009