While I was cleaning up the guest quarters getting the space ready for my next guest, I found this little beauty accidentally left behind…

It is from the story of the converted church hall by Michelle Young and I. If you look closely, you can see the reflection of the original stain-glassed windows in the little black glass vase. I found the vase (well, ’70’s tumbler more like it) in an op shop in Sydney somewhere. This is actually my favourite shot from the series – I am a sucker for reflections, and anyone who works with me will no doubt have heard me say way too many times, ‘what if we try shooting it through this mirror?’. Again with the rolling eyes.

pilfered from Uncle Beefy

Who doesn’t love a quote? Pia obsession confession #1: Quotes. If someone gives me a book of quotes that’s it, anything I was doing goes out the window and I am stuck in that book until I get to the last quote. I am truly obsessed by them – I mean, they are tiny little pieces of art are they not? They make you think, question, ponder, wonder, and instantly fly you someplace else. And what’s more, if you have one of those freakish abilities with memory you can pull them out of your head to really bring home your story at your next dinner party. Instead, my story finishes with something like this, “and yeah you know, it is just like that guy said, you know, that guy, his name starts with an S, you know, everyone knows him! Anyway, he said something like, ‘fish with a man and you eat with…’ no no hang on, it’s ‘be a fish and eat for a day’ I mean no, sorry, it’s…). By then everyone’s eyes have rolled so far into the backs of their heads that I am surrounded by a table of zombies grappling to fill up their wine glasses to dull the pain.

Actually I’m wondering now whether the eye rolling just starts the moment I start a story, not necessarily when I end it. Hmm. Food for thought.

Anyhoo, I stumbled upon Uncle Beefy’s cool blog who then lead me to Compendium, a Seattle based company who’s mission is this: “To inspire, educate, motivate and celebrate the world we love and live in. We will strive to set an example of hope, passion, and creativity in everything we do—from the products and programs we create, to the ways we can make a difference for our clients, customers and community.”

Right on! Love finding companies with these goals. From what I understand, they are the guys who make all those journals and books, and postcards with cool quotes. You will have noticed already that I love to throw in a quote or two in my stories (like in Handy Hints numbero uno), and I have already a list of some great French ones I’ve learnt that I will be sharing with you so you can show them off at your next dinner party (I will try to give some pronunciation tips too, so you don’t look like a complete fool to the guest who’s secretly fluent in French). But for now, I will leave you to ponder this oldy-but-a-goody, you may even be able to find a slot for it at tonight’s soirée…

Before I kick my current guests out of the guest quarters (joking about the kicking, they have been the best of guests! although rather quiet, I am sad to bid them bon voyage), I wanted to leave you with a story of shots Michelle and I worked on together a little while ago. It is an old church hall in Sydney converted into a loft home and photographic studio. So much fun to play in I can tell you – the owners had many beautiful old treasures for me to work with. My favourites were the grammophone, the old dial up phone and the owners fabulous array of framed photographs.

I also wanted to dedicate this post to Jo at Desire to Inspire – Jo just so kindly gave up a number of her secret treasure troves in her home town for me as I needed the sources for an upcoming shoot. So these shots are for you Jo, hope you find some inspiration from them, and I have attached a little living treasure for you at the bottom!

Lola was born in Nigeria and is heavily influenced by her history and African roots…

“I got interested in fashion because my grandmother is a designer, she designed traditional Nigerian clothes. That was my first introduction to fashion”

Her stockists are dotted across the US from Houston to Hollywood, as well as in Japan. For more info, click here to visit her website.

I first spotted Lola’s work on The Tattler, posted here.

Olivia from LaLesso is currently in Kenya, she commented on my article yesterday and I just wanted to share it with you:

“Only 2 out of 6 permanent tailors have been able to make it back to work and we have helped them to move their belongings to safety and they are ‘camping’ in the workshop until things settle down. Kenya is the most wonderful country and the people so warm, it is all so undeserved. We can all only hope that peace is restored soon.”

Thanks for taking the time out to respond Olivia – we love LaLesso and we love Kenya!