Meeting Jenny and a Faux Fuchsia sighting

I've been making the most of my new-found freedom now Son#3 is at Kindergarten. Anyone want to meet up for a coffee? Just let me know!

Today I met the gorgeous Jenny who writes The Five Year Project and owns Jitta Jack Homewares. She and her hubby are renovating a Queenslander too. Jenny had some spare brass window fittings that they no longer needed and she kindly offered them to us for our renovation. What lovely people! We organised to meet in Paddington for morning tea.

I wasn't too sure how I would recognise Jenny...When I arrived at the restaurant, I had to explain to the waitress that I was meeting a friend but I didn't know what she looked like...like it was an online date or something (I suppose it was!). But I found her easily.

Anyway, the poor waitress had this massive chocolate smear on her face that no one had pointed out to her. She was so embarrassed but was grateful to be told. I took the smear as a sign that the food must be good; which it was.

Jenny and I were having a great old chat over coffee and cake. And then Jenny told me Faux Fuchsia had entered the building.

Faux Fuchsia is Brisbane's, if not Australia's, most popular blogger...but you never ever see her face on her blog. The Courier Mail calls her a "cult blogger". Jason had a Faux Fuchsia sighting in 2010 that you can read about HERE. It's very funny.

So, you'll hear two versions of today's FF sighting. One is the truth and the other is totally fabricated. Can you tell which one is which?

FF sighting version 1

'Are you sure? How do you know?" I whispered quietly.

An immaculately presented blonde in an ankle length blue and white chevron dress pushing a bugaboo pram was escorted to her seat by the formerly chocolate-smeared waitress.

"It must be her. Look at the hair. Look at the pram; it has a Missoni cover. Who else could it be?" Jenny responded in hushed tones. Clearly, Jenny knows her high-end Italian textiles.

"Oh, you're right. It is her. No way!" I gasped.

The social media junkie in me instantly reached for the iPhone and tweeted with shaking hands.


"OMG. Faux Fuchsia is at the same cafe as us. Should I say hello?"

Jenny texted her sister in Melbourne too!

The call out went as far as Victoria and Wagga Wagga about whether we should interrupt Faux as she was innocently minding her own business. And the resounding response was yes.

I would've chickened out because I'm painfully shy, but Jenny was completely brave. After we had paid the bill Jenny initiated conversation with Faux. I was completely flustered. I couldn't keep my eyes off Faux's hair.

She has amazing hair. I wanted to touch it but that would've been totally weird, right? And her baby is just beautiful. He was rocking the military look in some camo shorts. Extremely enchanting.

Faux was perfectly lovely, not minding the intrusion at all. And if she did mind, she disguised it very well.

Afterwards, I read all the tweeted questions from Faux's cult followers on twitter. "Was she eating carbs?" "How were her nails?"



I'd make a poor detective because I didn't notice any of those details at all. I was just star-struck, like I had just met the Stig without his helmet.


FF sighting version 2


Jenny and I smiled and nodded when Faux was seated at her table. Faux smiled back and exclaimed loudly.


"Oh, I know you! Brismod. Dahling! How are you? How's that handsome old Jason going with the renovations?"

She came up to our table and couldn't stop talking to us. 


"Love the Australian Modern publication you've been promoting on your blog. I've already bought my copy at the Paddington Antique Centre. Here it is. Could you please autograph it for me? Love your work! Retroliscious."


Speaking of which, tonight is the last night to enter my competition for your very own copy of Australian Modern. Leave a comment HERE to win!



p.s Thanks a million Jenny for an enjoyable and eventful morning. And Jason will be beside himself to get some new brass window fittings!! xx

p.p.s Lovely to meet you Faux!! And Jason will be beside himself to know that I met you! xx

Fun night at the Australian Modern launch

Australian Modern is well and truly launched.

What a fun night and many thanks to those who came along. Chris and Susan certainly know how to make their guests feel welcomed and are very generous in opening up their spectacular mid-century home to new people. Everyone also went home with a copy of Australian Modern which is now available HERE.

And I was so pleased to finally meet a few Brisbane blogger friends who came out of the woodwork to attend. It was like I already knew you guys...I'd like to send a shout-out to the handsome Ross and Mark from Pantone801 , EL from Home and made daily who is just lovely and the gorgeous Nat Duncan from Precinkt. It was great to have a good chat and finally put a face to the name.

I am such a bad blogger and took no photos of the evening!! So many people went to great effort with their retro op-shop clothes too. My flammable frock was like wearing an inbuilt sauna. I swear I shed a kilo from wearing that thing...which is why I will be wearing it all the time now.

Chris kindly sent to me a few snaps of the night, so have a squizz here...

Door girls. Check out the pineapple jugs on those girls! 

Susan and Chris - a makeshift tiki bar in the courtyard...
the weather was rainy and miserable on the weekend. boo!

Moi and the boys from Pantone801. Jason said Ross looked like Ralph Fiennes...

Chris and entourage  - KA and Mr Tikibeat (Australia's finest tiki carver)

And for those who couldn't make it to get their copy of Australian Modern, make sure you enter my competition to win one. It is open world wide, so just leave a comment HERE to go into the draw.. 

Study before and after

Another room down. 

Jason found the study to be the most frustrating room to work on because it was poorly constructed in the first place. Nothing is square and it was rough as guts. 

It still is, but that's an old house for you. It would quickly lose its appeal if we tried to make it into the Taj Mahal. It's come a long way though from how it used to be.

The only thing left to do is to source a suitable light fitting for the ceiling. Anyway, here are the after shots. 

View of study from the sunroom.
The architraves around the windows were replaced and made to match the rest of the house.  The two chairs are Danish Quality Furniture (DQF) which were made in Brisbane.

New brass fittings (which caused so many tears last week) on the old casement windows 

quad was used around the walls as skirting  - to seal the gap from floor board to wall.
Jason built floor to ceiling book shelves last year in a dead space in the corner of the room.

We've centred the desk under the window when we decluttered the study.
We also moved all the electrical points lower to the ground, there used to be one power point at waist height near the door. 

It's nice to be able to open the two doors of the study to get a nice breeze on hot still days.

A fresh coat of paint in the study made a world of difference. We used Dulux wash and wear for the walls
and gloss white for the doors and windows. We scraped the cream paint off the old door knobs. Jason then polished the copper plate

 And here are the before shots:

This photo was taken just before we moved into the Sow's Ear in 2009.  It's very crude in its construction.
On our first inspection of the Sow's Ear there was a large wardrobe blocking one of the two doorways. It was used as a craft room but it was basically a junk room.

Bodgy wood work

We put the desk close to this wall because of the lack of power points in the room. We also had a set of  book shelves on the other side of the desk

We've put these shelves in Jason's hobby room under the house

It's a gorgeous room now - such a pleasure to blog in the new headquarters.

P.S The Australian Modern giveaway is still open. Make sure you leave a comment to win your very own copy. Open to all world wide. HERE

Australian Modern Giveaway!!

 Guess what I have in my grubby little hands?

Two copies of the new Australian Modern which will hopefully end up in the hands of two lucky Fun and VJs readers.

article about Meadmore Furniture in Australian Modern

It's hot off the presses. There's 66 pages of Australian mid-century goodness. From articles about Googie architecture to Clement Meadmore's iconic corded furniture to Paris fashion arriving in post-war Australia; there's a bit of something for everyone, even those who aren't mid-century enthusiasts.

even the ads are cool

So how do you win?

Just leave a comment on this post. This competition is open world wide and you don't have to be a follower to enter. If you leave an anonymous comment, make sure to leave a contact email so I can contact you. Entries close Tuesday 31 January at midnight (AEST). I'll announce the winner on Wednesday 1 February.

Good Luck!!

And if you can't wait that long to get your own copy, just click onto the Australian Modern website HERE. It has the full list of launch dates around the country and local stockists.

p.s For those who are attending the Brisbane launch. I'll be there, wearing a paisley frock. Can't wait to meet you all.

Study photos - more progress

It's very nearly finished. These photographs were taken yesterday. Jason's still fiddling around with the window hardware tonight. He can't seem to leave them alone..

The doors haven't been painted yet, nor do we have a light fitting but apart from that it's close to being finito. I should be able to move back into blogging HQ tomorrow after I clean the floors.

Disregard the disarray you see in the photos. Things are a bit all over the place at the moment but I thought it would be good to show you the layout of the study.

The study taken from our sunroom

The study taken from our front entry

This shot is taken from the study. You can see it has two entry points which makes it a nice little home office.

 And in breaking news, Jason's favourite work shorts are tearing to shreds. He may soon have to go shirtless and short-less!

impersonating a castaway with his poor old shorts