Win a $1000 shopping spree with AURA

To celebrate the release of our new Spring Summer collection we are offering one lucky winner a $1000 Shopping Spree with AURA! Thats right $1000 to spend on your favourite AURA products! For your chance to win head over and "like" us on Facebook and click the "WIN" box.  Then visit www.aurahome.com.au and "like" your favourite product. Good luck everyone! 

Jaipur visit

When we arrived home from India this trip I actually wondered if there was any possibility that I would be lucky enough, or brave enough, to ever live in such a marvellous, mysterious, yet confronting country. With every trip I see more and learn more. I am fortunate enough to visit India twice a year and this must have been about my 30th trip! But this trip was different, I travelled with Jess, our Aura Sales and Product Co-ordinator. What a fabulous trip we had, the excitement of seeing the very first samples of our new Spring/Summer 2013 collection being hand crocheted, printed and woven right in front of us. We travelled to Delhi & Bangalore and also to Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan where I have only been once before on holiday with my husband around 7 years ago!

Entering into the old city in Jaipur (founded in 1727) through the gates is always an emotional experience, immediately inspired , this is a city like no other! Jaipur is known as "The Pink City" and the locals are required to repaint their houses a terracotta colour to ensure it stays pink! We had a great visit to the City Palace to see some jaw dropping hand carving and painting!

Then off to the Johri Bazaar, this gentleman was very happy (we believe because he totally over charged me - oh well :) after walking around the back streets lost for a while it was worth the assistance! Johri is full of Jewellery and textiles as well as amazing colours and smells!

Some hard bargining was done with these 2 fella's and we ended up with 3 beautiful cutwork coverlets to take home at a great price, hand wash all the way I'm afraid! Chai anyone!

  Our amazing rooms at The Royal Heritage Haveli above and below! 

 

We were lucky enough to watch hand knotted rugs and block printing - what an art! Such beautiful work and the colours just shone in the sun!

Now that we are home we are looking forward to receiving all of our beautiful new samples for our next AURA collection! And I will definitely be returning to Rajasthan...

Our brand new Maison Ruffle Bedlinen has just arrived!!

Our new Aura Maison Ruffle bedding has just arrived! "The Sky is not too much to ask. Why let your bed be earthbound when you could sleep on clouds? Maison is the cumulus of slumber, a soporific whisper of cotton and linen gently drawing you ever closer to the land of nod. Clouds it seems are no longer the preserve of angels.
Available now - Queen Bed Quilt Cover $219.

Emporium Magazine

A lovely shot of our new Maxwell in Artichoke in the latest Myer Emporium - Spring magazine, and below some new range cushions and coverlets. Its great to see new products arriving in the stores as the weather starts to shine!

Say hello to Spring with Sienna Caribbean!

Isnt she lovely! Our Sienna in Caribbean has just arrived - The Breathtaking Blue of tropical lagoons, Sienna in Caribbean is an island hopping adventure. A Sultry, dreamy Peacock Blue meets the florid overgrowth of ancient jungles, entwining to create a quite bedroom oasis lapped gently by exotic tides.
See more here.

Real living July issue

The Real Living July issue is out now and I was pretty excited to see this gorgeous shot of our Inka bedlinen in Smoke! I have been tossing up whether to get Inka for home and its a done deal now I think this looks great - and Im loving the Mustard wall back with it. Thanks Real Living! 

Zara finally here

Well the day has finally arrived that Zara has blessed us Melbournites with her presence, heres a shot taken in the city today of the crowds looking pretty excited and looking like they dont mind abit of a wait! With the newly renovated Myer and David Jones and now Zara - there's 3 good reasons to start shopping in Melbourne city centre again! 

Food styling

The AURA team where pretty excited this season (especially me) to have on board the very talented Claire Flynn - food stylist extraordinaire for our recent shoot. I thought I would share a few behind the scenes shot of Claire's glorious food that was used to prop our brand new Tablelinen collection. I can't wait for the new range to arrive and to share all of the beautiful shots with you, and maybe if Claire is kind enough, a few recipes as well! 

Needless to say we were not hungry this day of the shoot! Claire's advice on roasting veggies is to lay them on baking paper - saves alot of washing up!

Is there such a thing as too much Chocolate Flan? I think there might have been for me - but gosh it was beautiful, imagine it topped with hazelnut's and cream hmmmmm. Below the amazing Chicken Pie that Hubby and I ate for dinner, perfect winter warmer food. I had to try to reinvent the Pastry top after we gave back the stunning copper cookware on loan, so I will definately be asking for the recipe on this as my pastry certainly didnt cut the mustard! 

And what a good week it was!

It's been a busy couple of weeks in the AURA office organising our next shoot and last week we had a fantastic time shooting our new Spring/Summer 2011 collection - I love our photoshoots, the pleasure of working with a team of very talented people to make our new designs come to life! Lots of love and emotion goes into the designing of our ranges and it is wonderful to have a team of people that understand that passion and feel it too!

 

The hours of work that goes into a photoshoot before the shoot and during the shoot is amazing. The most exciting part for me is when each shot is being set up and then that final look through the camera and the sigh of wonder at the beautiful creation that has been made. And I promised I wouldn't put the team photo :( but you know who you all are - thanks for such a wonderful job team - you rock x x 

Myer - Now A World Class Department Store

Today we ventured into the Myer Melbourne store, the grand opening was on Thursday night, the atrium has finally been unveiled with streams of light flooding the store - well done Myer it is truely amazing and we now have a world class department store in Australia!

 

This is one impressive view, its been a long time since we have had a department store with windows let alone a view of the Melbourne roof tops above and below. These images are on the way up to the top floor.

Oh is that an AURA bed I spy, yes there she is the new Inka Fig in all her glory! And below our fabulous new AURA poster that is up in the store - loving it! 

If you havent been into the city for a while do yourself a favour it is a fantastic store with some great cafes, and a Champagne Bar! Go Myer we are impressed!!