Ready

For the first coat. Here we go!

New York, New York

...and Disneyland!

I always knew we were going to travel overseas for my 30th birthday, but we hadn't decided where. A nasty fall and a fractured coccyx (snowboarding) meant a snow trip to Japan was out of the question, and right on time, flights to New York went on sale!

We had a 3 day stopover in LA, and spent our time in Santa Monica, which was lovely! If you are heading that way, I highly recommend the Holiday Inn Santa Monica - fabulously located (halfway between Santa Monica Pier and Third Street Promenade -where all the good shops are) and quite economical too. We only decided to go to Disneyland at the last minute, but I felt like it was something I had to do...growing up, Disneyland was one of places you dreamed of, but never really thought you would see. So we went, and it was so much fun.

We then spent 10 days in New York. Sounds like a long time? It' a big city, and we only saw a very small part of it, despite spending every single day and night out in it having every possible experience. Heres a little checklist for you!

• Times Square


• Bike ride in Central Park


• Pretzel from a Street Vendor


• Ice Hockey (New York Rangers vs Toronto Maple Leafs)


• Broadway Show (Spiderman!)


• Empire State Building


• Huge pizza slices


• The subway (one of my favorite things)


• Brooklyn


• Wall St


• A purchase at Tiffany & Co


• Pastrami on rye from Katz Deli


• Halloween


• Statten Island Ferry


• Anthropologie


• Brooklyn Bridge


• Boat tour around the island of Manhattan


• FAO Schwartz


• The Flatiron building


• Kate Spade


• Hangin on the corner of 52nd and Broadway (its a line from a song, and what started this whole crazy plan)


• Starbucks


• Shopping


• Zeppoles


• Soho (we spent 5 nights in Soho, and I could have stayed forever)


• The High Line


• Chelsea Markets


• Hells Kitchen


• The Natural History Museum


• Dog run


• Mexican food


• A cupcake from Magnolia Bakery


• Guggenheim


• The Marimekko store

And many many moments, fleeting, but precious and never to be forgotten. In fact, there is a whole lot more, but I'm not sure reading a list for hours would fascinate you!

Tell you what - leave a comment on any one of the above (or anything else you can think of, New York related!) and I'll see if I have a picture of it to share!

Another hint?

Does this pic help?

Trinkets

These 2 boxes are currently residing on my bedside table! Can you guess what was in them? And the location of our recent holiday ... Where both of them were purchased?

Yikes!

Where did I go? I've just figured out how to blog from my phone, and use Instagram....find me under gentlemay... So hopefully I can return to this www community.

Front hallway

Way back, ages ago, I showed a moodboard for our front hallway. My wonderful Dad did all the work, as planned, and I have decorated it and redecorated over time, and this morning, I switched a few things around...again! I love this version, as it has a few significant touches.
Just in case you had forgotten - I am still learning to take decent photos. Judging by this photo, I still have a lot to learn!I painted the stripes ages ago...early last year I think, and I just love them. The cabinet is as planned, and stores our CD collection, board games and Molly's leash. The large empty frame has been sitting in the door to our spare room all week, and it adds some dimension here. The gold framed certificate is my husband's graduation certificate (Manufacturing Systems Engineering = nerd burger!), and I love the way the gold warms up the space. The morrocan lantern has been everywhere in this house, but this has been its longest standing location. We light candles in it which are always the last ones we blow out before bed. The light shade is this one and we have a matching one at the other end. I love the casual feel they add to the hallway - I think the chandeliers I originally wanted would have been too fancy for this house. The rug hides everything, and the little trunk with my handbag on it (which just happen to match the whole scene perfectly!) was my Mum's knitting box and sat in the living room of the house I grew up in for years. She just gave it to me recently, and I will love seeing it every time I walk in the front door.
The timber statue (can you see it against the dark stripe) was a wedding gift, and the yellow-y thing in front of it is actually the original light shade from when our house was built. They are too precious to throw away (I have a green one also!), because they are part of our homes history.
I took this photo sitting on our bed ( I am actually loving the unpainted, unstained, untreated timber of the doors we had installed as part of our major renovation recently. I am considering leaving them this way!) and you can see how well the stripes work with our dark charcoal carpet.

Happy Day!

Autumn came in to battle, and Summer went down without a fight! Its a happy day here in the Limecello househould, where Autumn and Winter are our favorite seasons. Today was a new sofa/ottoman bed in lovely linen and white velvet stripes, first soup of the season and a glass of red wine - bought for cooking but better for drinking! Oh, its such a happy day!

GingerBoy

Friday night I headed into the City (Melbourne) - via train, for a FANTASTIC meal at GingerBoy with some of my favorite girls, including these 2 - Alice, my sister and Katie, my gym/champagne/foodie buddy. This is a restuarant I highly recommend. We were warned that due to our group size (7 people), we would have to have the banquet, for $70 - including dessert, not including drinks. The big advantage to this method was that we didn;t have to make menu decisions - the wait staff just asked if there any dietry requirements (1 vegetarian and 2 no seafoodies), and proceeded to bring out course after course of deliciously flavoured, Asian hawker-style food. a couple of stand-outs for me were the green papaya salad, whic had me longing for another Vietnam adventure, and the pork belly curry, which was so rich - and right at the end of about 27 dishes, that I could manage one morsel! This dish whole fried Nemo (no, not really, but that's what we called it), looked amazing when served, and tasted even better. The lovely waiter stripped it off the bone for us, and the flesh was soft, silky and delicious, with a finishing crunch! Dessert...well, they say pictures speak louder than wordsWe received 2 of these platters between the 7 of us, and we all managed to find room in our full bellies to empty them! Delicious! Drinks weren't cheap (bottles of champagne were around $60), but really, it wasn't a 'drink-y' type meal. Focus was on the food and I'm so glad I could enjoy it all with a clean palate! We are already figuring out when we can go back! This is my first non housey foody type post. What did you think? I am hoping to improve my reviewing and word-y skills as part of my new 'must blog' plan. Help me out by being honest!

Good blog posts

As in...I need some. I think about things that would sound interesting/intelligent/funny, but when I sit down to blog, it comes out all convoluted and awkward and I end up soundling a 15 year old teenager who just drank their first gin. And I'm not - 15, that is, nor am I drinking my first gin. That was ages ago...I still love the stuff though. And often I see stores or things online that I think others would enjoy. Then...I just don't blog them. SO I think I may try and expand my thought process a little. Instead of focussing purely on my house, I am going to try and incororate other things into this blog. Other things I love, and maybe even take pictures of! For instance...

Food

...which I love. Passionately. Really. This was my lunch a few weeks ago, shared with my Mum and my sister (see below!) I love these snacky/deli/picky type meals. But I also love going out to eat. So I might try posting about that.

Family...

...I see mine a lot. I love them. A lot. And we do fun things together. Both of these pics were taken recently, on a trip to Lorne (with my Dad, Jeni, my sister, her husband and me. Mr Limecello couldn't come...sad., and then one to Daylesford (with my Mum and Sister. Girls weekend!). So I might share them with you.

Holidays... ...I am not well travelled. But I am working on it. We went to Hawaii for friends' wedding not long ago. Loved it. We went to Vietnam last year...I also loved it!

And all sorts of random thoughts along the way. Now, what do you think...are you still interested? Is there anybody out there?

P.S. I am also trying to take more photos...and better ones. Its a learning thing.

I'm back

Sunday evening at my place...a snapshot! Stuff on the dining table (that I promised pictures of about 4 months ago!), unpainted plasterboard behind the couch, church pew that needs sanding and staining. But there are so many things in this picture that I love, I can see past all of that. I think I have finally accepted that our home...wherever that may be...will always be a work in progress!