Autumn (on my desktop at least)

One thing I always struggle with at this time of the year is the season change, or lack thereof.

Living in sunny Queensland means that whilst it's a bit of a year-round paradise, there is no noticeable transition to Autumn. We don't have many deciduous trees , and there isn't really a chill in the air until, oh mid-June!

Sometimes I channel Fall by baking and throwing a little more cinnamon around with abandon, but it's still a little too warm to even do that. And decorating with pumpkins is a definite no.

I thought maybe a new Autumn wallpaper for my phone or desktop could be the way to go, so I checked out the lovely work of illustrator Lisa Rupp. She's shared an autumn design right here, and you can find her full set of wallpaper freebies here. They're such sweet florals in pretty color palettes, there's at least one for every season.

Do you have obvious seasons where you live? Do you love it or not?

Too long between drinks

Hands-up who's a drinker out there? Yup, pretty much all of you (well, I hope - I can't imagine I've got much of a teetotaler audience).

I love a drink. And unfortunately, as I get older, 'a drink' is pretty much as much as I can handle.

I went out for a long overdue girl's night with my bestie on the weekend, and lo and behold, got completely off-chops, rotten, smashed. I blame the combination of not enough food that day, and a couple of poor beverage choices. (To be honest, there weren't that many good choices.)

This girl. She really truly makes me laugh, and she makes a hangover worth it. Unless you're a mother though, don't read her latest blog post. Ugh.

The night started with a gross combination of lazily-made and slightly bitter espresso martini for Trainee Mama, sickly-sweet lychee martini for me, then a terrible bottle of vinegar masquerading as an over-priced Sav Blanc. I should've known that bartenders weren't going to be my friend when my first drink of the night arrived without the fresh lychee garnishes that the Hen's party at the table next to us received. How rude.

'Scuse the gigantor forehead. These snaps were taken after martinis and bad wine. I'm surprised they're even in focus.

I wore Witchery high-neck dress, coral Samantha Wills earrings (my faves, from Trainee Mama), and good old sturdy Target wedges. You'll have to trust me on the description, because neither of us remembered to snap an outfit photo.

I'll spare you the finer details, but we actually had a blast. We were on a bit of a hunt for a decent guitarist (didn't find one), a good atmosphere for peoplewatching, and a dancefloor. We finally got our groove on at the Surf Club (yes, it's divorcee central, but no dirty old men hit on us) and danced for 40 mins before heading home. Party animals we are not.

Waking up on Sunday morning, I felt horrendous and also slightly surprised that I even woke up at all. I couldn't stomach a cup of tea, and had to pull up after just one Gingernut biscuit. I love tea and I love Gingernuts (by the packet). I put a biscuit in my mouth, gagged, and threw it out*. The tea likewise sat on the kitchen counter until the milk curdled and I poured it down the sink.

It was pretty much downhill from there. Sleep, bathroom, sleep, bathroom, and so it goes.

I spent this morning, puffy-faced and sweaty, hiding behind a detoxing green juice. Dear liver, forgive me.

Peta managed to look a little more glamorous than me doing the same thing this morning!

I now remember exactly why I don't go out often, and when I do, I offer to be designated driver. 

Anyone else get a little wild this weekend? Perhaps the #foxinheels attendees felt the way I did yesterday morning?!

*In case you were wondering, I did manage to stomach three Gingernuts by 8pm. Thank the biscuit gods.

I had SUCH good intentions of getting a cute outfit post out of this night out, but because we're neither committed style bloggers nor photographers, we both completely forget. Nevertheless, I'm linking up with Kimba Likes Wardrobe Wednesday, so you can see what everyone else wore this weekend!

Ladies who lunch

I find it amusing when people assume that I don't work.

You'd be surprised at how often I get asked, 'So, you don't work at all?' Literally more often than not, when I meet new people, they think that I'm a lady of leisure.

I shouldn't be upset. I guess it means that I look well-rested, relaxed, and not at all stressed.

It probably also means that I spend a little too much time sharing my leisure activities on social media. I blame Trainee Mama.

Peta and rarely do anything together without at least one of us sharing a pic or three on Instagram. (But honestly, who's surprised when we've got this little kidlet with us, looking adorable and camera-ready all the time?)

Confession: the kid flew down this slide so fast that I didn't catch him and he bumped his head. We both giggled and he was fine.

Peta and I enjoyed a lovely lunch together on one of our mutual days off (we only have one or two of these a week), and met up with a local friend we'd met through Instagram.

Lunch was at One on La Balsa at Kawana, and it was the perfect place for a coffee, a meal (Peta's salad looked amazing!) and a sit in the sunshine. After a chat with Lara, Peta and I headed across the road to let Ned run some energy out in the park - and we managed to have a bit of a play too.

Caroline Morgan dress from Stella boutique in Mooloolaba, Target wedges (similar here), Jag belt, Rayban sunnies, Forever New earrings (similar here)

Playtime and coffee by the lovely Mooloolaba Harbour. I know we say it a lot, but how lucky are we to live in such a beautiful place?! 

Do you ever get the chance to lunch with your girlfriends on a weekday? How decadent does it feel?!

The home office makeover - part 2

Do you remember the 'before' shot of our home office? It really was horrible. And by horrible, I mean impractical, poorly organised, and not an inspirational place for my husband and I to work from at any time of day.

Now that I have the flexibility of working from home, the shared home office needed to be so much more than it was. I trawled Pinterest (find me someone considering a room makeover who hasn't), I flipped through IKEA catalogues, and we both talked for ages about what we wanted and needed this space to be.

I knew I wanted the desks to be white, and I wanted to get two side by side, instead of one too big to move; and they needed file storage. The large desk and return we had been using was ridiculously useless, way too deep and offered very little in the way of storage. In the end, the result was simply that neither BB or I used the home office. I knew I wanted desks that had at least one other matching piece (ideally a storage piece) or something that would be incredibly easy to match office furniture to in the future. After some searching, BB and I found two very simple white laminate desks and a matching console from Empire Office Furniture, and decided that they would be perfect. The best part? For a small fee on top of delivery, they would put the furniture together in our home and move them into position right where we wanted them!

The horrendous 'before' photo. I honestly don't know how BB perched all his office gear on the end of that return, while my jumbo desktop computer took up all the corner space. And yes, we have two printers!

Once we had the desks and console in the room, I set about getting organised and decluttering both my space and my head space. I was so fortunate enough to have been offered a Home Secret gift voucher for helping with this, and oh my, how it helped!

My desk can usually look quite cluttered when I have a lot going on – there are notes scribbled on multiple notepads, piles of paper I'm referencing regularly, unfiled receipts (my husband's pet hate!) and a general mess.

Welcome to my new and improved functional office!

Now I have files for all my receipts and paperwork, a stack of notebooks that I’ll use one at a time to write everything in – no more scraps of paper, and just one small jar of pens. Did you notice the big tub I was using to store pens (and everything else) before? It just confirms to me that the more space you have the more you accumulate. I didn’t need all those pens, scissors, nail polish (?), and empty spectacle cases on my desk.. Best of all it looks like the workspace of a someone who enjoys spending time there.. . being organised doesn’t have to mean working around a boring aesthetic.

The top of my desk may have been a mess, but it’s the shallow drawer under my desk that became the dumping ground for anything and everything. I’m too embarrassed to show you the junk drawer before… but I’m excited to show you the ‘after’ shot. This excellent tray with compartments holds all the bits and pieces and now the drawer is an organisational dream!

The drawer tidy makes a world of difference (so does cleaning out the random scraps of rubbish apparently!), and I love the little flat tin with all my green clips. It started out as a lovely notecard tin from Home Secret, but found new life in my drawer keeping the dreaded paperclip monster from breeding!

I used to stick things randomly on the wall next to my desk, now I'm shopping  for a much more practical magnetic whiteboard - I want to use it for important notes, as a moodboard and for inspiration. The green Aladdin carafe (with a cup for a lid!) is another addition to my workspace that I love because I've found that I am hydrating a lot more now that I have water close at hand.

Clockwise from top left: a very functional and fun water carafe with a matching cup/lid; bulldog clips can be my best friend; a divinely-scented Florence Broadhurst for Circa Home jar candle (I've seen these for well over double what I paid at Home Secret!); and the very groovy soda bottle crate - propped on one end, it makes a really unusual shadow box!

Washi tape is the best office labelling tape ever, it's almost an addiction.

The top of the printer houses a stack of A4 wallets that I’ve labeled with washi tape for fast and easy filing of everything that lands on my desk. I have no excuse now to go back to piles of paper, and the little notepad is perfect for a quick visual of things to do first thing in the morning. One of the other useful things I've done is stock up on supplies like Sharpies, notepads, paperclips, staples, and bulldog clips. I’m usually scrambling to find something right when I really need it, and that's such an inefficient way to work.

These shelves are going to a be work in progress, and I'll often play around with the smaller details. I love keeping thoughtful items and gifts from lovely friends on them. The hand bookends were one of my favourite finds at Home Secret - so kooky!

Seriously, how great are these hand bookends (and less than $20 too), I've seen them at other homewares stores for $49, so that was a huge budget win!

Important note: Thank you BB - your supremely level shelf-hanging skills are appreciated.

Home Secret pride themselves on their excellent motto - big brand homewares without the designer price tag. I can certainly vouch for that! I managed to pick up gorgeous styling and organisation pieces from Jonathan Adler, Filofax, Yankee Candle, and Florence Broadhurst for Circa Home for a fraction of what I'd have paid in other stores*! And it's not just home decor, the kitchenware section is to DIE for.

I can't imagine a home office without photos of my favourite day, so I was thrilled to find this white photo frame at Home Secret - perfect for three small wedding photos.

I’m inspired now that I have our home office well-organised. We have good filing systems and storage solutions. It’s wonderful to have a fresh start to keep me sorting, filing and organising on a daily basis and not let things get out of hand again, and I love having an empty white desktop to work on. I achieved all of this decor and organisation on a budget of less than $300 at Home Secret, and I'm thrilled with the result.

It wasn't just the desk that received a makeover, this palm-embroidered cushion is both comfy and cute. 

Remember the white console I mentioned? It's doing a fantastic job as the 'stationery cupboard' of the room, everything is really accessible, and there's extra space on top if either of us decide to spread out our paperwork. The funky owl is actually a tealight holder that BB chose from Home Secret, and it fits perfectly into this room with all the fresh and fun touches we added!

Now, that's not all... stay tuned for a future post to see how I beautified BB's side of the room with some more Home Secret finds!

Doesn't it just look so much better now? (And a scented tealight in my favourite candle votive, a gift from the sweetest colleague I've ever worked with makes it just perfect!)

If you work from home at all, is your space beautiful and inspiring, or have you let it get out of hand a little? 

For more great home office inspiration, especially if you like a little vintage style... head over to Trainee Mama to check out how she turned an old-school ironing board into a desk. Seriously.

*Because Home Secret have such high turnover in their beautiful stock, there's no guarantee that when you visit, the same brands will be available. Saying that, I've recently spotted Esprit, Country Road, Sheridan, Vera Wang (seriously!), Le Creuset, RACO, Cuisinart and Jamie Oliver stuff at less than half the price of Myer and David Jones!

**This post is in collaboration with my all-time favourite homewares store, Home Secret. As always, I only partner with brands that are a good fit with my blog and my lifestyle.

Want more like this? Sure you do, get Katy Potaty via email and go into my monthly subscriber draw to win a Glasshouse Fragrances candle!

My Favourites - Furbish

Ok – I have a confession to make…I think I am officially an adult.

No, I can't yet remember what day the bins go out, or that yes, I need to actually buy milk regularly to have milk regularly in the fridge. But... I'm into houses. I no longer pick up the latest celeb mag at the checkout, I pick up Real Living. 

I am also mad about home and design blogs, in fact I think I might have a little design crush on Furbish Studio. They have got it going ON over there. Owner Jamie Meare’s blog I Suwanee is one of my daily reads, and her posts of clients homes that she's worked on are simply beyond!

They are some kind of genius when it comes to mixing bold patterns and bright colors. Ikats, animal prints, chinoiserie, waspy florals, tribal kilims – you name it they got it! I love that they have fun with their designs and aren’t afraid to add a brilliant punch of humour, with kitsch accessories and super-cheap finds from discount department stores. (Because if my house says anything, I want it to say 'I'm funny'.)

Take a look at some Furbish-ness in all its glory:

 

images via: I Suwanee, Lonny, and Furbish Studio

1. Large Bug Drop Earrings $95 / 2. Palm Leaf Tray $75 / Gold Petal Sconce $348 / 4. Scalamandre Greek Key Trim Pillow $199 / 5. Rattan Bar Cart $175 / 6. Kate Spade Party Chatter Coaster Set $20 / 7. Floral No. 4 Print $32

Do you have favourite online homewares stores I just MUST check out? How often do you switch up a room with new accessories?