Bring on summer Melbourne...

This is my two year old having a great old time at the beach this morning. I was pretty stoked with the fabulous weather that Melbourne decided to grace us with today and couldn't resist a walk (and play) on the beach. 

I'm one of those people that manages to find something that I have to have, whether I'm out shopping up a storm or quite simply going for a walk. Roadside finds mean just as much to me as forking out too much for a great pair of boots. Yesterday's bike ride with my adventurous and for want of a better word, 'spirited' four year old left me running out of a protected park area with some branches that had "fallen" off a tree. Not sure what the tree was called but the pretty branches found a home in an old apothecary bottle in the kitchen. 

P.S Excuse the constant change of out header logo! I have just discovered how to do all these things and I'm having a bit of fun. I'll try and leave it alone for a while whilst I go and learn about the other hundreds of things a blogger should know!!

Split-pants and more - out and about in Beijing.

menacing looking fruit

loving orange everything this season

street life

ready to ride

the girls testing out the public exercise equipment

something scary on that skewer!

market delicacies

leaves glinting in late autumn sun.

local fruit stall 

a tasty Chinese lunch, baozi, jiazi and mifan (dumplings, buns and fried rice)

the bustle of the street corner vendor

temple ceilings in the park ooze colour and history

dumpling stall

cheeky autumn leaf thrower!

at the exercise hang out

gorgeous autumn colours

haw fruit skewer

sweet fruit candy stall

Hi In My Cabinet'ers,

The kids and I have been having a ball today out and about on the bikes in our stunning Autumn weather. Talk about constant inspiration through exploration...love it!

First stop - our local and glorious Ritan Park, where we always expect the unexpected.

Toddlers waddling about with glee in the latest in split-pant fashion (oh yes, have seen it all, from denim studded bumless wonders to the warmer Winter-weight padded trewsers)...these little cuties MUST be feeling the crisp autumn breeze these days! Time for some nappies please parents!

Fruit stall goodness... bursting with colour and crazy shapes, they just scream - eat me!!!!

new friends 

 Old-timers (and us!) bending, stretching, scratching, twisting, swaying and flexing on the public exercise machines in the park. What a brilliant idea. So social. I chatted away in my faltering Mandarin to a lovely lady who knowingly predicted tomorrow would be "feicheng leng" (in other words, freeze your .... off cold!)

Starting a community autumn leaf fight with our "very newly" acquired friends and starey ex-pat gazers. (cue: a LOT of long lense cameras at the ready to catch the crazy loud Kiwi kids dousing each other with crispy leaf goodness!)

Street-side snack food, Beijing-style on the offering...aromas floating down the fulou (side road) to entice us closer. mmmm yummo, what to choose? Noodles in every possible combination imaginable, jiazi (dumplings), baozi (pork buns), skewered fruits glazed in a sweet hardened candy, sweet corn cobs..keep it comin'!

A cluster of wrinkled and happy friends huddled in a circle heartily belting out a traditional folk song, complete with perfectly-timed sashaying moves and accompanied by a Chinese flutist.

Lily on her favourite climbing tree

We stopped and soaked it all in. The kids were, as usual, mesmorised, even after two years of being here and seeing such scenes as part and parcel of our daily life in Beijing, we are still moved, still fascinated, still challenged to cast aside our Western preconceptions and social restrictions and embrace the often startling and unique Eastern point of view.


Wonder what tomorrow will have in store for us....till then,

xE

What's on your kitchen bench?

Tidying up my kitchen over the weekend left me wondering if other people have as much stuff on their bench tops as I seem to have?? Don't get me wrong, I'm happy with my 'stuff'. Some of it serves a purpose and some of it is just a collection of random things I've gathered over the years that have managed to find their way to my kitchen.

However, it's certainly different to the good old toaster and kettle on the bench that I grew up with. The current trend seems to be that these 'necessities' are mostly being hidden away, unless of course they are seriously good looking toasters that still get to hang out on the bench :) People are now putting all manner of other paraphernalia out on display whether it be on the bench or on exposed shelving.

I have tried to be minimalist in all areas of my home but it just doesn't seem to work for me, so I say bring on the junk shop finds, plants, books, old school wooden chopping boards, gorgeous artworks/vintage signage and trays full of anything ranging from bottles of olive oil to candelabras!  Tx

Picture of a little corner of my kitchen.
The Wooden Bird Board is timber table-ware and part of a set of four by Bonnie and Neil.
Bonnie and Neil are a Melbourne based studio that create lovely handcrafted items for the home. Check out their great things at http://bonnieandneil.com.au

Shop 'till you drop- literally!

I'm proud of my home. My home is my sanctuary. My home is in Beijing, also home to millions. Like most people here my home is an apartment, shared with my wonderful family on the 29th floor of an orange and brown 90's style building. After arriving from New Zealand with little more than our suitcase and hand luggage to call our own, we entered our white square box of a home here and set about making it comfy. Provided with "modern Chinese" landlord owned furniture, (sofas, beds, cabinet, tv stand, tv and bed side tables)in non-descript browns and creams, we promptly set off for IKEA to reinvigorate the eerie clinical, minimalist (not in a good way) look of our new pad.

IKEA on a Saturday and Sunday in Beijing really is an experience to be missed. Think packs of people jostling for aisle room, toting young babes in arms, scratchy screaming toddlers, grandma and grandad and the lady of the house, teetering on high heels (seriously!) on a buying mission from hell! Times that picture by 10's of thousands and you've got some sort of reality of our shock and dismay at making a gigantic newcomer mistake. Our plans of whipping through the aisles grabbing pillows and styley cushions in bright hues, modern prints for our walls and cool kids stuff was scuppered in one foul blast of sheer humanity.

So... if you can't beat 'em, join 'em I always say...firmly planting my two year old in the trolley to wail to his hearts content, dragging my four year old and her assortment of picked up off the shelf "isn't this pretty Mummy?"goodies, searching in vain for my seven year old, who had decided to park up on one of the cosy-looking kids bunk beds for a power nap, and cajole my less-than-happy, moaning husband to continue following the seriously ridiculous yellow arrows that were like some sort of holy grail towards the exit. Said holy grail happened to take the form of a queue like no other that, like most non-existent queue's in China, took an organic form consisting of shoulder barging, elbow prodding, back shoving and dinky maneouvering to shuffle towards the check-out girl - who most definitely did not greet us, (or anyone else) with a friendly smile. By this stage my now very vocal family,(and not in a good way!) were well over it and ready to snap.

Options buzzed through my brain...dump all and escape, be mature and patient and super-mom like and distract my kids with technolgy (cue i-phone goodness!), eye-ball the check-out girl with "my family are going to snap and it might not be pretty for you girly" look or just simply turn around and blame my husband for as many things as I could think of, which turned out to be a really silly, but oh-so-satisfying option! I believe my slightly OTT tirade consisted of something like this: your idea to drag us to IKEA on a Saturday...dragging us to China... your idea not to not send more of our house things over... leaving the toilet seat up, insist on wearing your ugly brown clodhopper boots to work...so got to get your hair cut...hey....come back here while I'm trying to blame you for everything...!!

There are many morals to this story: definitely don't go to IKEA in the weekend, don't take your children, do rely on technology to pacify your kids when your back is against the wall and always be nice to your husband!

Read http://inmycabinet.blogspot.com/2011/11/little-bit-of-pretty.html for more Beijing stories to brighten up your day and check out our home decor blogs about products soon for sale in our online homewares store and sent straight to you! http://inmycabinet.blogspot.com

A little bit of pretty...

I have absolutely fallen in love with Oriental Fans, silk umbrellas and bird cages. They are just so quintessentially Chinese without being OTT in the bad taste department. It's just a case of using them cleverly to accent a room with a little bit of pretty. I have a green cage that sits pride of place atop my cabinet in my lounge and a gorgeously painted natural timber fan above our bed to create a romantic, oriental feel in our bedroom. I plan to buy a set of delicately painted silk umbrellas to hang in the girls bedroom...so cute. (although I wouldn't be adverse to hanging one plumb against the corner of the lounge ceiling either...will post a photo when I get around to doing it!!)

A touch of romance with butterfly designs, birds and cheery-blossom, these items, still used by locals in the towns and cities today, have both a practical and aesthetic use. Chinese woman of all ages continue to cool themselves off in the shade with all manner of gorgeous silk fans and shelter their famed porcelain skin with stunning umbrellas. On a sunny day, it is not uncommon to pass literally hundreds of women toting their favourite umbrellas, crocked delicately towards the sun to fend off the rays....I find it so feminine, so endearing. Elderly men take an early morning stroll to the park with their pet birds in exquisite antique bird cages and hook them up on a branch for the birds to tweet a chorus to their hearts content (the Chinese equivalent of taking your dog for a walk, perhaps?!)

How to use these decor items in your home?

Hang the umbrella upside down from the ceiling of your kids bedroom (or a set of them), pop a bird cage on top of your dresser or hang in a forgotten corner of your bedroom or lounge to provide interest, beauty and a talking point. I bought my large embroidered-look timber slat fan in a tiny village in Southern China, made famous for their fan-making skills. It was fascinating to see an entire village of people, as we wandered the age-old dirt streets past their homes, tracing out the fan shape on wooden templates, deftly painting the designs on the fan in their street-front shops and perching on tiny wooden stools to drink lu cha (green tea) whilst waiting for the fans to dry in the sun. We bought ours from a lovely man who invited us to sit with his family and share his pot of tea. Priceless, really.

xElla

Bell Jars and Glass Domes

I have a little collection of these in my home and would probably have more if not for the  often hefty price tag that tends to go with them here in Melbourne. Mine have mainly come from eBay and various op shops (I am a self confessed op shop addict!)  I even managed to get one back from NZ in my suitcase after a trip home last year. The reason I went to all the trouble was that it was $4. Basically a massive bargain, therefore well worth the effort. 

A picture of a few of mine on a sideboard next to my dining table.

Anyway, they have been seen in many an interiors mag over the last few years and are still popping up all over the place and being used for a multitude of purposes. At one stage, the most popular choice seemed to be to fill them with anything dead, taxidermy was having a major resurgence! However, I have also seen them filled with photographs, ceramics, jewellery, flowers, plants, keepsakes and various other quirky objects. I currently have both photographs and candles under mine but no doubt there will be something different next week as I feel a bit of a reshuffle coming on! Planning on having some bell jars in our little shop so watch this space. Enjoy the pics, most of them found on Pinterest.  T

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