I’m in awe of the talent of leading stylists. A room or photo shoot is pulled together with apparent ease. It looks so good, it looks so easy but as we all know from our own attempts there’s a great deal of talent, call it a good eye or god given ability, involved. Here are some of my favourites from the portfolio of Tim Ebneth.

Whatever happened to the house plant as major decorating feature? Only a couple of decades ago a living room wasn’t complete without its own jungle or forty year old bonsai fig in the corner. Light weakly forced its way through a forest of african violets which had colonised kitchen window sills around the world and spider plants brooded sinisterly in macramé slings in every second bathroom. And those pom pom grandma flower arrangements? Are they now as dead as dodos? This week’s retro revelation comes from Decorating with Plants and Flowers, Creative Home Library, Meredith Corporation, Des Moines, 1972. Perhaps we don’t have to go to the extremes of years past but is there a little room in your house for our leafy friends?

It’s Sunday afternoon in Australia as I write this and my whole weekend has flown by. I could not honestly tell you what I have done but it involved lots of running around and not much achievement. I managed to finish the new covers for my rattan chairs but forgot to pick up the new foam cushions. I’m making do with the old foam base and a ticking cushion from another chair. I’ve tried them with a book and a cup of tea and they are surprisingly comfortable. I also spray painted my cane plant stand and entertained ideas of a jungle of ferns inside my living room. I chickened out (thoughts of water spills) and it now has a home on my patio with my other plants. I have heard a little rumor that Kim is busy painting her dressing room. Glad she is getting something constructive done this weekend. As for me, it’s time for a nana nap. I’m exhausted!

WINKS – weekend links. Here we list what has come in during the week, things we’ve found and things we think you’ll want to see. If you’d like to see your blog or website featured email us and if we think it fits with our readers we’ll link you. (It’s been a quiet week in blogland. Wish I could say the same thing about the “real” world.) So what’s in this week?

• The Shiny Squirrel has lots of fabulous new art in store. (I love it when I get the Shiny Squirrel email.) Head on over for new work and new artists.





• Rob emailed us. “I wasn’t sure if you had the chance to check out Ann McGuire’s new blog, ColorBuzz, which is all about color and the inspiration behind choosing a paint color. Ann is the founder of BeeHive Studios and a Valspar color consultant. Your readers may also be interested in submitting their makeovers to Valspar’s site, which features a new makeover every couple of weeks or so. They can link to the makeover section of the site by clicking here.”



• New blog by Amy who emailed (and graciously featured my work). “Pikaland is a blog about living the illustrated life having all manner of things made by illustrators/artists that’ll fit in nicely with one’s home, such as prints, stationery, toys and the like! I’m constantly finding new inspirations and wares from artists’ and illustrators’ works that are available for sale, and so I thought I’d gather it into a place where I can keep them all together.” Good luck Amy. I love the artists you have featured so far.



• Jordan Cappella lucite furniture designer and blogger has a new venture Fiore Culture offering personal floral designs for all occasions. Just in are these eco chic natural and fibre wood bases. Jordan when will you have time to party with your empire growing so fast?



• “Hi there! This is Joel Pirela from BlueAntStudio.com. We are proud to present the new series on the never ending saga of trying to educate and inform people about the lovely designers from the Mid Century era. The museum series features the work of designers from the ’50’s with iconic proofs of their work in the furniture area and also in the sculpture/architecture/wall art. Right now, we are featuring the work of Harry Bertoia, Jean Prouve, Charles+Ray Eame
  s, Eero Saarinen, Eero Arnio, Arne Jacobsen, Verner Panton and George Nelson. To make this introduction even sweeter, we are offering on them our “now famous” 2 x 1! Any combo you want…. 2 MCM or Museum Posters, 2 Designer’s alphabet, 1 Poster + 1 alphabet… your choice! Even the New Museum Edition is included!” Love Joel’s work (and the blog) and it’s a great offer! Find out more details here.
• Finally a shout out to all etsy store owners in Brisbane, Australia. A meet up has been arranged on Saturday 15 March at 11 am in West End’s Avid reader bookshop! Further details here. (Thanks GreenEnvyDesigns.) I’m so excited to meet some of the BrisVegas etsy divas that I thought I’d share some of the artists and crafters who have promised to be there.
  kuber
  wiki’s lessons
  mousykat
  AlmaB
  Laetitia
  jellygnite

Haven’t even got to my relaxing long weekend at Moonlight Head Lodge and I’m thinking of jumping a jet to Los Angeles and booking into the legendary Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. Young Hollywood old Hollywood and outoftowners like me. Let’s get a suite and star watch and pretend we’re the next big thing. In my dreams I know but oh what sweet dreams!