A slice of home

I have moved from Newtown recently - over the bridge to Mosman temporarily - and I miss my lovely home a lot, especially all the wallpaper. It's been a necessary move as I need to invest all my spare cash into the new wallpaper business, but I think about the space I have left behind quite frequently. As you can see from the photo above, it's a special home and a real shrine to wallpaper! I have posted the Flannel Flower Damask design in Black on White previously, which is in my hallway. It's a powerful design, but it works well? Of course, I am starting to think that the Gum Leaves (above) will work well in leafy Mosman ...

Photo credit: John Paul Urizar

Shady ideas

I wanted to share how much I love my new light shades from Shady Designs http://www.shadydesigns.com.au/, who have custom-made some drum shades using some of my wallpaper. Lisa and Arif are so clever - they did a simple shade covered in black fabric, and used the wallpaper on the inside. It looks amazing in my stairway ... the perfect match to the Flannel Flower Damask design in Black on White. Sooooo dramatic!

Inspirations

The last week has been such an amazing journey through the Blogosphere. The designs from my company, Moore & Moore Wallpaper, were featured in a high-profile international blog, Design*Sponge (Moore & Moore on Design*Sponge) last Friday and I have only just started to catch up. We have been receiving inquiries from all over the country and increased traffic to our website by more than 1000% - yes you read it right!

Phew! Other design blogs have also picked up the Design*Sponge article, which is flattering and so the other benefit from the publicity has been that I have spent some time over the weekend and on Friday looking at some of the other beautiful design blogs around. So many dedicated people! So many gorgeous images! I simply love Table Tonic and Absolutely Beautiful Things

It made me get exciting about this blog and I promise that I will be posting some of my inspirations - design, fashion and food-wise - more regularly.

Why stripes are still inspiring

I just love our new Ticking Stripes wallpaper ... so classic, yet the addition of vertical lines just gives them a little twist, I think. I am thinking of using the Taupe Ticking Stripes on my staircase; it will be a wonderful way to add extra interest to a dark corner, plus it will cover some of the imperfections in that wall. Wallpaper is perfect for that! All the wallpaper retailers I have spoken to say that stripes are perennial favourites with wallpaper customers and I know this design is going to be one of our biggest hits.

 http://www.moorewallpaper.com.au/ticking-stripes.html

Designing woman

The Moore & Moore wallpaper business is up and running! The website went live just before Christmas with all the launch designs and 13 initial stockists. We have had very positive feedback about the site, which is simple and elegant (in my biased opinion). It has been such fun working on the site with a great team of people - Rose Russell from RGC Design and the photographer John Paul Urizar.

Here's one of the launch designs - the Gum Leaves in Black on White. I think it manages to look contemporary, yet still retains some classic elements. The designer, KT Doyle has allowed the leaves to "float" down the wall, which is very effective.

We have had a lot of interest in our designs from the decorating magazines, which is very encouraging. At least three magazines are looking at running stories on Moore & Moore and I hope this will lead to lots of orders. More details coming soon ...

Still cooking, but wait, there's more!

Life has been wonderfully busy lately - I worked on the lovely new cookbook from the Good Taste team - Cook!, which came out yesterday. It's for sale at Woolies and various newsagents, and I thought it was a great project. I have cooked many of the recipes in there and can highly recommend it. My favourite? The Lemon & Chilli Chicken - just the right amount of heat and the citrus tang was fabulous.

However, my next project is the big one - my new wallpaper business! I know, it seems a different thing for me to try, but it combines my love of design, my passion for business and my knowledge of print. I think it's meant to be!

It has been so exciting and fun to be part of. I have been working on developing a range of Australian-made and designed wallpaper to sell to retailers and on the web. The designer, KT Doyle, has been a delight to work with and I think we have created some beautiful work between us. I've attached a sneak peak at the first design - all comments welcome.

New designs will be posted over coming weeks.

To market, to market

I just love a market. I have been to many of the great markets of the world - the flea markets of Paris, the Spitalsfield markets in London and the Boqueria markets of Barcelona (http://www.boqueria.info/ and apparently the best food markets of the world). It's always a memorable experience and some of my favourite treasures have been found amongst the junk. A vintage brocade jacket from London, French prints from a little village outside Carcassonne, coasters from Spain ...

I am a social person, so I think it's something about meeting the person behind the product - whether it is a zucchini, or a beautiful piece of vintage fashion. I like to chat, to pour over the goods and find something that is unusual, hand-crafted and perhaps unique.

At home, I head down to the Everleigh Markets here in Newtown every Saturday morning and it's become a weekly ritual that I adore. There are so many stalls I have become addicted to and I enjoy re-discovering old vegies as well as beautiful organic produce. The meats and cheeses that I find there are amazing ... and I can't stop raving about the potatoes! How can something so simple taste so good?

The markets are in the old railway paint shops as part of the Carriageworks complex and are open from 8am to 1pm every Saturday. It's a proper farmer's market, so the people selling the produce are the people who grow it. They know it well (and can be relied upon for a little chat and some great information).

It's all best taken in with a croque madame from Bird Cow Fish (thanks Alex) and a coffee from Toby's Estate - both regulars. Bliss!