Autumn - Winter 2010 shoot

Here we are working hard - well we were for the rest of the day! We have just photographed our Autumn/Winter 2010 collection - I wanted to create a totally new contemporary look that we havent done before; dark sexy walls and a much more relaxed lived in look (but not creased!) We shot in the studio and I think the look is just brilliant - its totally cool and so so different to what you see - heres some sneak peaks at the set up behind the scenes for you.

Thank you to everyone involved!

Top shot - Deb Mclean iphone photography

Sunday breakfast

I love Sunday breakfast! I think we have been inspired since the Tapas Dinner party and our whole week seems to have been Spanish influenced! Me cooking and husband reading the Lonely Planet Spain addition I brought for him for his birthday. Perfect poached eggs (helped by buying the freshest eggs we could find) on chick peas and truss tomatoes, garlic, parsly, sweet paprika and cracked pepper - hmm lovely...Simple little stoneware bowls 0.99 at ikea! We also brought matching side plates for 0.99 and buying black iittala plates to go with it all..im liking soft natural creams and stone colours with black and olive at the moment.

A special wedding in India

A beautiful Indian wedding missed

I have a very special friend in India that I have known for over 12 years - on Sunday he and his family celebrated the wedding of his son Anuj and his new bride Ambika - congratulations Anuj and Ambika it looks like a truly wonderful evening was had and we do wish we could have been there to share it with you. All our best wishes from Australia xxx

Spice Market Love

We are lucky enough to have been blessed with our own Melbourne Spice Market Restaurant - thank you Greg Malouf! Recently I visited the Spice Market which was fit for a Sultan! But truly a very funky Middle Eastern Bar, Tapas, Night Club experience - check out their cool website! I love the music!

Bring on the tapas

I have finally done my first cooking course - my girlfriend and I got ourselves along to The Essential Ingredient in Prahran with the lovely Matt McConnell from Bar Lourinha and it was great. On the menu was various Spanish and Portugal inspired tapas dishes - we were put into groups of 6 to replicate what Matt had demonstrated to us at the start of the class - obviously by the photos you can tell that I was

quite taken with the Spanish Tinto Cocktail as well as the food. To try out our new skills we are having our first Tapas dinner party on the weekend!

Myer gets funky for Christmas

Here's some shots of our Myer Sydney City store - set up for Christmas - I haven't seen our AURA cushions displayed quite like this before - good on them for having abit of fun! I think it looks great.

Congratulations Matt

Congratulations to our lovely friend Matt Sheargold who won the design pitch on Monday at the Corporate Culture showroom in Chippendale.

Design pitch is a group of designers who pitched a new product for export, with the winner receiving a trip to Milan next year!

Matt had ten minutes to make his pitch to the audience to demonstrate that his product was the best. Designs presented included a foldaway sustainable house to be used in disaster relief, a dolls house, lights and furniture. 

Matt's winning design was his fruit bowl, pictured above, his bowl divides into six pieces and can be used for all kinds of different fruit and foods. The pieces are cleverly held together by magnets. Matt is on his way to Milan in 2010 courtesy of Corporate Culture. 

Matt designed our AURA first instore concept in the Myer Sydney city store with stunning results so good luck Matt and we hope you return to us! 

Look what just arrived

Our lovely new notebooks just arrived - we have had these A5 sized notebooks covered with our latest Winter 2010 bedlinen collection fabrics - they are pretty cool and abit of a nice accessory to have.

Babushka measuring cups

Babushka measuring cups - Hmm left it until late but I need to find these for a friend for her birthday - how cute are they!?? Shown here in a spread from the new Real Living Christmas issue they are from Douglas and Hope in Melbourne - im on the look out and hopefully will find them soon - if not they could definately end up being a good Christmas Gift!

Amazing weather

Its been crazy weather we have been having in Melbourne for the past week - Warm and sunny during the day and wild storms during the night - I took these images the other night as I was trying to sleep. Strangly beautiful. Something to do with Halloween maybe???

Mt Cook inspiration

Beautiful foliage in Mount Cook - New Zealand. I took these shots on a trip I did to NZ and it was one of the inspirations for our AURA Haven range - the colour and strength of the foliage sitting neatly within the greyness of the rocks - just beautiful and so peaceful - it has to be one of the most beautiful parts of the world.

Beautiful Work Mitjili

Pretty excited we have just brought our first work by Mitjili Papurrula who is a fabulous Aboriginal artist from Haasts Bluff - the style of the work was developed off her father and is the story of the spear straightening ceremony taught to Mitjili by her mother. Mitjili’s distinctive style is based on her father’s country, also called Uwalki, an area west of Haasts Bluff near the Kintore Ranges in the Northern Territory.

Characterised by red sandhills, bushes and trees it is here that the spearwood trees used to make spears, are found. As custodian of the Kulata Tjurrkupa (Spear Dreaming) and representing the female side of the Dreaming, Mitjili depicts the trees (Watiya Tjuta) which provide the wood for the spears.