Love a Red Carpet- Kooshka Hair Mooloolaba Salon Launch

Never one to shy away from the Red Carpet, last weekend I got all frocked up in my favourite LBD, thank you The Little Black Dress Empire,walked tall in a pair of supermodel heels and headed to New York!

New York After 5 to be exact and I didn't have to use too many air mile points from Noosa to get there either. The Glamour stakes were high, the camera lights were flashing and a gorgeous Bartender in a white tuxedo was handing out Martini's and Champagne like there was no tomorrow.

We were celebrating with the sassy New Yorker and adopted Sunshine Coast Gal, Daniella Saville as she launched the opening of her new Kooshka Hair Salon in Mooloolaba. The dress theme was New York After 5 and VIP guests felt the slight pressure to show off great hair!

The crowd was fabulous, the room was bustling, always involved in the most fashionable events on the coast, this time Daniella was throwing her own!

Why doesn't every event have a Red Carpet, a photo booth to make your own magazine cover magic moment and a Redken Gift Bag to take home? Love your style Kooshka Mooloolaba, your New York Glamour & not to mention your chandeliers.

So that was last weekend's adventure. This weekend? Stay Tuned! It's wine STOMP time. I am living the dream and stomping on grapes in the mountains at Flame Tree Vineyard STOMP festival. Music, wine, food and a wine stomping ritual led by Grecian Goddesses on the blog next week at Noosa Life&Style...

Find Kooshka Hair at 1/20 Brisbane Road, Mooloolaba or by calling 5444 7715

Visit the Kooshka Website here

Master Stylist & Redken Colourist Daniella Saville & her team at Kooshka are professional stylist's for Fashion Week Australia, numerous Magazine Editorial Publications, Fashion Launches, Film, TV & Commercial Shoots.

Read my earlier post on my makeover with Kooshka here

Photo images thanks to Studio Republic
Event Styling by Min Swan & her team at White House Celebrations

Embrace the Rain

It wouldn't be a tropical paradise here if it didn't rain. The countryside wouldn't be full of green rolling hills if it wasn't wet.

So even though it makes the everyday run around a bit more of a challenge this post is to remind you to embrace the rain..it really is beautiful.

Just change the way you look at it. We may as well embrace it as it's looking like it may be planning to stay a while. Which means I get to do one of my favourite pastimes.

I love falling asleep listening to the sound of the rain...

Sharing some of my favourite rainy images to inspire you to be crazy and go outside just to get wet...

Kiss in the rain...

Look up...

Laugh and go dance in the rain with your children...

Remember how amazing it was to taste the rain when you were a kid...

Dress for the occasion...like in these gorgeous red Hunter boots - perfect for stomping through those puddles...

Speaking of beautiful..

Couldn't resist throwing that one in to brighten a rainy day!



Just remember we are lucky because somewhere else someone will...

Because rain gives life. All this glorious rain will make things grow..

There is one more golden lining...Waving goodbye to my 5 year old daughter on her first day of school tomorrow.. maybe nobody will notice my tears through all this rain...

xxx


Images via www.pinterest.com, www.weheartit.com, www.barnesandnoble.com,www.sonubabby.blogspot.com

The Long Summer Escape

Well it's been a long summer and I have to admit I really did escape...my first Summer in Noosa. Tomorrow will be the first anniversary of arriving from the long drive up North and turning the key to this magical place and starting my new life. Tonight I tried to catch a tiny green tree frog in the kitchen, it was making a bed in a crimson Zinnia flower I had pulled from the garden and I just once again thought how things have changed.


Dreamy days spent on Noosa Beach, seeing a dolphin crest the wave just past where I swam, Kangaroos jumping across the water in a shallow lake where we play, camping next to a crystal clear creek in the mountains nearby where my daughter jumps in a rockpool. Turtles, catfish and a sleeping python curled in a tree surround us and you know what? There wasn't the smallest urge to go on Facebook, or write a blog, or pick up a phone...

It was the ultimate retreat. I think that is what January here will be. The month I turn into a recluse...leave civilisation and see what happens and see what I dream and think...I think that is what we all need - time to dream and think and just be...


Time to picnic in the countryside....

Time to read and get lost in a fantasy world...fall in love all over again...

For me now... it's time to begin, to write...2012 will be an adventure worth writing about..The Year of The Dragon and now, it's become, today, the first birthday of my new life as caretaker of this hill and life in a whole new world...

Happy New Year - it may be late, but maybe, like me you have been busy in your own world and are just ready now to come out of that magical summer spell and start the year anew.

Here we go..may it be a good one - with all you want it to be....


Images thanks to www.pensare.tumblr.com , etsy.com, grelgedesign.blogspot.com , vi.sualize.us

The Utimate Christmas Classics playlist & a reason to be thankful on the hill..

What is it about Christmas music and the old time classics that just transform life into a perfect holiday movie? A dreamy, timeless state where all you can think of doing is feeling all warm & fuzzy inside. I love Christmas music and these holiday favourites are some of the best. Even in the Tropical heat of Noosa it's a Winter Wonderland and I'll be singing Santa baby drinking French Martini's come Christmas Day.

Somehow in the sunshine of this week, everything changed when the unthinkable happened - our littlest angel Ruby Two Shoes was diagnosed with Pneumonia. Christmas was suddenly looking rather dim. The world wasn't so magical after the longest most worrying night of my life watching our baby trying to merely breathe. Our Christmas cheer was replaced by a hospital emergency department where I realised again just how precious life is.

After a rollercoaster of emotions we are all so thankful to be back home together and so grateful that Ruby is recovering well. Christmas just got even sweeter after such a scare.

This playlist is again filling the house with old Hollywood cheer. We are making wreaths and piling gifts under the tree. My family is gathering, the kids are counting down and soon these world famous tunes will be the soundtrack to our day. For my Grandmother in her mid-nineties and our little precious Ruby and to all of you - here's to everyone sharing a magical Christmas Day...

Enjoy the preparations, the anticipation and especially your loved ones...it's all a part of the spirit of Christmas and don't you just love looking around at it all and getting swept away?


Playlist thanks to www.hiphipgingin.com

Ikatan Day Spa - A Balinese Paradise in Noosa

There are lots of hidden gems tucked into the wildness around Noosa. My new favourite? A peaceful sanctuary in a magical garden setting where you can enjoy life in the style of a Balinese Princess. Just ten minutes drive from Hastings Street you will find the Ikatan Balinese Day Spa just off the Eumundi-Noosa Road.

Ikatan Spa promises to be a place of tranquillity for Body, Mind and Soul. In this fast-paced, fast-tracked world it can be hard sometimes to live in the moment and just breathe. At Ikatan from the moment you wander through the gate you enter another world.

A spa treatment in a Balinese garden sounds like a perfect escape and on making my booking at Ikatan, I couldn't help but imagine I was headed for a far off place, with minimum travel time and no passport required..

On arrival at the Ikatan reception, I was greeted warmly & offered the choice of champagne or Iced Tea. I already felt like a much welcomed guest of an island resort who will definitely be staying a while. When you get the chance to escape to a tropical hideaway you should embrace the pleasures in life and naturally I chose the champagne.

Deciding to sink further into Bali style, I purchased my own slice of Ikatan to wear post pedicure and take home. My new Batik Island Flip Flops will help Ikatan to raise money for a Balinese Street Kid Orphanage, a project dear to their hearts.

Life doesn’t get much better than walking through a tropical garden being led to a Balinese pavilion champagne in hand. The only task is to relax on a daybed and take in the surrounds. A tranquil pool lies next to the pavilion in which I would enjoy my chosen treatment - the Ikatan deluxe pedicure.

A tropical Hibiscus flower lies as if in offering outside and Balinese handmaiden statues gracefully caress the Koi filled pond . Sitting back on my daybed with my feet lovingly placed in a Zen bowl of calming water, I felt like I was on my own beautiful island. I was so relaxed and calm, this was an island I could stay on a long time.

Subtle music floats through the air and a large glass wall next to me lets me watch the paradise outside. Beautiful white gardenia flowers spread across the ground. It is all so wild and green and fertile and seems the perfect match to really awaken all your senses and finally just breathe...

Occasionally a goddess of Ikatan wanders past along the garden pathways wearing Batik trousers and bearing trays of refreshments to hidden destinations throughout the rainforest. As my feet are lovingly restored, the atmosphere of this peaceful secret garden and the soothing sound of a small fountain lulls me to another level of relaxation.

Butterflies dance and small birds come down to drink from the pond next to my daybed – it’s like you are a part of the garden, the nature around you keeps going and immerses you in this much slower and more detailed world. You are conscious of minutes stretching – our fast-paced world completely forgotten inside this Balinese retreat.

The sign no mobile phones or children ensures this solitude and quiet time is all for you and nothing will disturb your inner Zen as your attentive therapist caters to your every whim.

My feet were massaged, exfoliated and buffed to perfection. Not long into my treatment they took on a polished and pampered holiday glow. At one stage my ankles and heels were painted with a nourishing poultice with the gentle strokes of a paintbrush. This was definitely heaven and I could have easily drifted off to sleep and missed the huge lizard that wandered past the window in the rainforest outside.

If you were coming with a partner or girlfriend you are welcome to bring your own bubbles for post relaxation and pre-order a delectable Meze platter for two to enjoy in your own sanctuary of the garden. I think this is a perfect excuse to stay longer – after my treatment I really don’t want to leave.

As I am gently led back along the path to reception in my batik flip-flops with my perfectly polished toes, I pass doorways and wonder at what bliss some lucky person is experiencing behind it, and start planning my next visit to this little Balinese village of peace.

The owners of Ikatan have created something really special. Their love for the Indonesian island of Bali is apparent in the environment they have created and the ingredients and treatments on offer at the Ikatan spa.

I am so glad they had the vision to bring to Noosa such a perfect piece of paradise and can't wait to sample more. The Tropical Luxe style of Noosa and the Island Style of Bali is a marriage made in heaven and the setting and decadent spa treatments on offer at Ikatan has seen it listed as one of the top five Best Destination Spa Experience in Australia in the Australian Travel Awards.

If visiting Noosa without transport, Ikatan will personally transfer guests booking a minimum 2 hr treatment to and from your hotel.

Ikatan also offers a decadent High Tea in the gardens with a package of spa treatments for the ultimate girly gathering, birthday celebration or bridal party. There is also has a range of couples packages for those looking for a romantic holiday escape to Bali, Ikatan Style...

Visit the Ikatan Website here

Ikatan can be contacted on (07) 5471 1199

Find Ikatan Balinese Day Spa at
46 Grays Road,
Doonan - Queensland - 4562

Open Monday to Saturday 9am to 6pm - Sunday by appointment

For more spa stories check out Would you pay for a fish to eat your feet in the name of beauty?

The Sunflower Rampage & How Wild Does Your Vege Patch Grow?

Our new rural life in Noosa means we are the proud growers and gatherers from our new adventure - The Vegetable Patch. Moving from Sydney, this was our picturesque, country lifestyle dream!

In this dream life we imagined growing sunflowers to shine over what would be our Garden of Eden. Yes! We had grand plans and those giant sunflowers would be the crowning glory of our vegetable garden dream! We couldn't wait for them to grow and when they did, well, that big, beaming face of yellow sunshine was just too gorgeous to be true.

There is just something about sunflowers. They create such a stunning, happy view. We grew them from seeds and felt a motherly love for our new friends..It was all just so perfect on the hill...

Then today...tragedy...

Our morning walk to the vege patch gave us a nasty surprise...That beautiful face of sunshine & joy had been hacked off and eaten. Its mane of yellow flowers munched on..It’s happy face pecked into..Two of our Giant Sunflowers had been attacked!

The harmony was broken, my idealism shot! This could happen to a sunflower after waiting so long to see its big happy sun shine, something could just damage its beauty only a few days old and take our joy away? It's wild out here and in the land of Sunflowers and idealistic farming dreams- we are a little unprepared and always in for a shock...

Today I ran into a friend who commiserated with our Sunflower massacre event and explained they had to cover their stunning sunflower faces in plastic bags!??? What!?? Not quite the picturesque dream I was hoping for! So now in our garden their lopsided sunbeams greet us with the message that anything can and will happen in the garden, reminding us it's just not meant to be perfect and to really enjoy the beauty of what is in front of you now - It might just be stolen or eaten tomorrow!

It's not all bad news though here from the patch. Our gorgeous Zinnia is in flower - a riot of purple magic in our sea of green.

These flowers may be too dreamy perfect but the rest of the patch? Well it's all gone kind of wild. I would love to tell you it was some kind of experiment to see what would happen if we let it run free? How much would flower and what would thrive?

But...I admit, the real reason was a trip to Sydney for a too fabulous party and a catch up with the girls. It seems you can't do that if you're a farmer and now my manicured vege beds are overgrown, bolted and out of control. I do plan to take charge soon, but it is really such a lovely mess...

Cherry Tomatoes tendrils have latched lovingly onto towers of rocket and sunflower stems..No trellis needed in this wild garden..

The corn didn't make it but what is thriving grows over it - it's an ever-changing picture of life we love to wander through each day...

I realised today a garden is a piece of art you can create that is a constant moving canvas. Never ceasing to inspire and amaze..

Just like this little village of beans - a miniature world of food..

Our cucumber vine climbs steadily up over the trellis. I never knew cucumbers had spikes when they grew? The cucumbers enormous...

The Zucchini’s are monsters...

The lettuce unpicked has become a triffid like tower with a flower like crest - I love what happens when you let it all go...

It’s a living salad with a random Ginger plant that has broken through

Pulling Bok Choy leaves to use in our stir fries was a golden moment but now..Anyone seen a Bok Choy Flower? Well here you go...Our Bok Choy hearts grew skyward and it all looks like something new...


So our sea of a vege patch is abundant and chaotic and we ramble through it finding cherry tomatoes in the undergrowth and maybe under that pumpkin vine a pumpkin...

Today may have been the scene of a sunflower crime but it was also the day we found our first Ginger Flowers of the summer...

Tropical passionfruit growing on the vine..

This garden is always moving and changing and yet somehow magically reassuring.

It's so beautiful and alive. It's said if you want to fall in love forever, start a garden....although I might add, don't get too attached to those sunflowers...

So now I know what happens when a vegetable patch goes wild and now on our minds is a much bigger defence plan. It's time we started thinking we need a Scarecrow for this garden!

Except they all look kind of scary..Which I guess is kind of the point. Ours would have to be female and beautiful. A kind of rustic farmer life size doll. Just a small new challenge in our rural adventure here on the hill!

Does anyone out there have any tips for making a beautiful scarecrow? The joy in life is finding yourself doing things you never imagined you would do...