bangalow snippets

Above are some Instagram snippets from our brief stop over in the adorable Bangalow on Sunday. We have been to Bangalow a few times and I simply adore it. Although I must admit the first visit I wasn't quite in the right frame of mind after jumping out of a plane and bursting my ear drum. All I seem to remember are tears and the chemist! However I am pleased to report that subsequent visits have been filled with a lot more love and wonder.

On our quick sunday trip we stopped in at my all time favourite "junk yard" shop Heaths Old Wares. It took all my might to only buy two purchases, although they were both great beauties and I have some wonderful plans for them! I had a quick chat to Heath as we follow each others blogs. It seems Heath doesn't keep up to date with his own blog (he is no doubt too busy sourcing all his amazing goodies for sale) and his wife is the blog wonder, but we had a good chat anyway! 

Talking of wonders, they had a whole heap of Printers type trays for sale - lots of people have asked us where we have found ours over the years. They can be almighty tricky to find, so if you are after some, quickly quickly, more details here.

Right next door to Heaths is one of my very very lovely stockists One Fine Day. Unfortunately we missed saying hello to the very lovely Eleanor as she has just recently had a very sweet little bubba. But I enjoyed devouring her shop and all her gorgeous papery products - I fought very hard not to buy half of the shop!

We capped off our little trip with a quick lunch at the iconic Fish Heads restaurant where the food was exceptional. As we had Miss Ruby with us we sat outdoors and the little lady played quite the flirt making human friends left right and centre.

Such a gorgeous little town, one of my all time favourites.

valleydale cottage

Hello friends! How was your weekend? 

We had an exceptionally lovely and indulgent weekend - We snuck off for a few days away down to the Byron Bay Hinterland for some much needed rest and relaxation. 

We stayed at absolutely gorgeous Valleydale Cottage which is situated on the most pristine 90 acres of rolling hinterland beauty 20 minutes from Bangalow. I stumbled across this little piece of gold via their Stayz Page whilst I was looking for a little getaway which would not only be perfect for us, but also for Miss Ruby Tuesday as well. 

I kept our destination a secret from Mr H and we were both blown away by the beautiful location, the amazing views and all the super sweet little touches which made us feel truly spoilt. The gorgeous cottage was decorated with fresh flowers, chocolates and chilled champagne awaiting our arrival, with a stunning view which took our breath away. Miss Rubes was also spoilt rotten with fresh water on arrival, doggy treats and a personalised name tag. So spoilt.

We spent the weekend doing a great deal of not much. Watching clouds roll across the valley from the outdoor spa, reading books by the fish pond and generally just taking life easy. With no phone access, no television and just the three of us, it was a truly special weekend.

Flicking through their guest book ( of which their were 8!!!) it seems that we will not be the only ones who will be going back time and time again. It was utterly, utterly perfect!

zara and sam :: letterpress wedding stationery

 

Today's gorgeous wedding suite is a recent letterpress invitation set which we designed and letterpress printed for the gorgeous Zara and Sam who are a Brisbane based couple who are to be wed this coming March at the amazing Maleny Manor in the Sunshine Coast hinterland. We love Maleny Manor - our very own Louise had her wedding there several years ago, and we have worked with many couples in the past who have chosen this beautiful venue for their wedding. With stunning views, a gorgeous combination of modern vintage and impeccable food and gardens this truly is one of Queensland's very best venues.Zara and Sams brief to us was to reflect a little of the beauty of Maleny Manor combined with their colour tones of greys, ivory and blush. Their day will include a lot of beautiful flowers, modern vintage styling and a lot of small inmate personal touches.

We designed and letterpress printed a 2 colour square invitation, featuring subtle ivory floral illustrations combined with classic grey typography. Masses of white space on this invitation allow for both a stunning printed impression as well as a classic yet modern elegance to the design. We combined their invitation with a reply card (with envelope), gift card and information card, which was all held together with a personalised bellyband and housed inside of lined envelopes. We are currently also working on gorgeous place settings and menus for their upcoming day!

We wish Zara and Sam the most magical of magical days on March 10th, we will be thinking of you and cannot wait to see the beautiful photos of your day!

xox

precious

This little lady is growing up so fast. She came for a visit on Sunday - we laughed, we ate, we took photos and we stuck heart stickers all over the ourselves. Love!

nicole & ryan :: letterpress wedding invitations

Late last year we had the delicious pleasure of delivering these beautiful letterpress wedding invitations for Nicole and Ryan. Based in the gorgeous Kiama of New South Wales, this adorable couple was planning their April wedding to be held at the Moana Surfrider Hotel in Honolulu, Hawaii!

We have actually stayed at this incredible hotel in the summer of 2010 (you can see our blog post here). We did a small squeal of excitement when we heard from Nicole and Ryan that they were to be wed at this historic and incredibly beautiful venue. We had serious envy and it was a beautiful moment of fate.

Their brief to us for the custom design and letterpress print of their wedding stationery, was a design which complimented their soft garden romance with soft pastels and sweet tropical relaxed elegance. We commissioned gorgeous hand lettering and combined this with a serif typeface (in lower case for a sweet relaxed feel) combined with a complimentary lower case script. The design featured a sweet vintage light ivory ink floral illustration and masses of white space which not only allows us to achieve an optimum print impression, but also excludes a air of sweet sophistication.

Their suite included 2 colour invitations and 1 colour information cards bound inside of an outer 100% cotton ivory envelope with our scalloped address labels. Just lovely!

We wish Nicole and Ryan the most beautiful beautiful day in Hawaii in April, and make sure you say hello to Moana for us, we sure do miss her!!

a trip

Hello friends! I have a favour to ask today - Have you been to Japan? We are planning a visit in May and are starting to work out a little itinerary for our our 20 day stay. We've booked the above Iwaso Ryokan on Miyajima island which came with fabulous reviews and are starting to explore other places to visit. At this stage we are looking at visiting Kyoto > Nara > Hiroshima > Takayama > Tokyo however our research so far has shown us that accommodation for the Spring months seems to book out very quickly!!

Have you been to Japan? Any favourite places to visit, stay and dine?

feeling blue

Some recent instagram photos for you taken over the past few days - it seems that blue is very much my colour of choice at the moment! Image above, our espresso making skills are still much a work in progress, but devouring our attempts each afternoon surely is the most loveliest of ways to learn.

Over the past few days we've been busy making our vintage map envelopes. These beautiful atlas pages have the most lovely of lovely colours -  it is so hard to not let my mind wander and dream of far away places while making these.

This nasty looking storm rolled in yesterday afternoon - and then rolled back out again. We were all set to buckle down the hatches and that sky tempted to scare us, but at the very last moment it took its glory out to sea instead.

And finally a little snippet taken this morning. Not being one to much "accessorise" my fashion, my little collection now lives hanging off this old bird cage. One can't print and wear pearls at the same time, but laying in bed and looking at the collection is quite lovely. The beautiful little love hearts were a lovely gift from a beautiful friend and can be found here.

our home featured in House & Garden magazine!

 

I am terribly excited to let you know that our home has been featured in the latest issue of House & Garden magazine which hit new stands yesterday - It is hard to believe that this day is finally here!

We have been renovating our humble abode for four long and expensive years. It sure was a love/hate relationship which we first started renovating - you can see early shots here. It has been a very long, but also lovely and satisfying journey.

Last year we had a few magazines approach us after seeing some of our progress shots here on our blog. After many months of working to finish off lots of last bits and pieces, we had a shoot in August by the ever talented combo team of photographer Maree Homer & stylist Kate Nixon. It was an amazing day of seeing what goes on behind the scenes of a magazine shoot. Lots of people asked us if they bought in extra props and furniture - and other then a collection of pineapples and some beautiful flowers (thanks Louise!), the shoot was all of our house as is. It was a very lovely day with two very talented and inspiring ladies.

A few weeks later, we were treated by a visit from the very lovely journalist Amanda Ducker all the way from Tasmania. We sat around the dining table and chatted for hours about life, love, letterpress and renovations in our 1935 original timber queenslander - Another lovely day with tea and many laughs!

Heart felt thank yous to Maree, Kate and Amanda and the team at House & Garden - It was such a great great joy!

map magazine feature

Earlier this year, I was contacted by the super lovely Mikki Brammer from Map Magazine who asked if she could do a feature on myself and my journey with Bespoke Letterpress in their February/March issue as their local dreamer success story. It was such a lovely joy to meet Mikki and over a cup of tea in our lounge room, we had a lovely chat and shared a few giggles.

Yesterday I was beyond excited to find a copy of the latest Map Magazine in my mail box. Mikki has done such a beautiful job documenting my journey and it bought tears to my eyes reading her perfectly written and researched story. Ever since we moved to Brisbane all those years ago, I have loved Map Magazine, and now it is such a humble moment to find my journey in their beautiful pages.

If you're lucky enough to be in Brisbane you can find Map Magazine in a fabulous number of locations featured here, and if not, the amazing people at Map also publish their magazine online so that you can ready the entire magazine here, as well as an online article of the story here.

So very thankful.

xox

cheree & mitchell :: letterpress wedding stationery

 

Late last year we had the pleasure of designing and letterpress printing stunning letterpress wedding invitations for Cheree and Mitchell who are based in Sydney, NSW. They have an amazing day planned for next weekend, with a ceremony at the incredible Centennial Parklands and a reception at the Sydney Opera House.

With a theme planned of unrefined glamour and a touch of bohemian - with a  relaxed elegance created with masses of linens, french lace, cut crystal, weathered timber tables, chandeliers and candles - their day sounds like an unbelievable visual feast!

They commissioned us to design and letterpress wedding stationery as a beautiful introduction for their day. We in turn commissioned a hand lettering calligrapher to design a hand written script to best reflect their day, coupled with a classic serif in upper and lower case combinations, combined with a subtle ivory peony illustration and masses of white space for an element of sophisticated glamour.

Their letterpress wedding suite included 2 colour invitations (black and light ivory ink), as well as letterpress reply postcards, gift cards and a detailed map to help guests navigate the tricky Centennial Parklands, all packaged inside of lined envelopes - just gorgeous!

We wish Cheree and Mitchell the most magical of magic days next Saturday!

happy birthday

Today is our little misses 6th birthday. We went for a special beach walk this morning, followed up with a check up trip to the vet. Probably not the funnest way to spend a birthday, but she is currently outside devouring a great summer snack - a great big frozen block of ice which we froze with a dash of beef stock for some yummy doggy flavour - so I am sure the vet trip (and needle) is long forgotten.


If your a sucker for puppies, I have gone back and found some early photos of Ruby Tuesday. We still call her our little miss, but she sure was a super little miss back then. Her coat was a lot lighter, her ear hair (and lions mane) not yet crazy and her blue puppy eyes were adorable. She was such a cute little thing. She still sometimes thinks that she is a puppy and likes to act like one a lot of the time - I haven't yet had the heart to tell her that she is now middle aged!