My Favourite Things - Just Call Me Martha

Welcome to the next article in our "My Favourite Things" series. Today's guest post is by the super-fabulous Leoni...or as she likes to say "Just call me Martha!".

We are huge fans of Leoni's work - and we love the intriguing places that she finds her inspiration!

She writes:

"I love styling parties from start to finish, it gives me great joy to see my ideas flourish from pen and paper to reality. When a customer contacts me with party ideas of what they would like my brain kicks into gear and a hundred and one ideas start popping into my head, usually my inspiration can come from an invitation, a piece of fabric or just a simple word that captures the theme of the party.

Quite often I have to sleep with a notebook and pencil next to my bed and it isn’t unusual for my husband to wake in the wee hours of the morning to find me madly scribbling or sketching away by my bedside lamp."

"While I do enjoy looking at other people’s parties and being inspired by them, I find that I prefer to look at other industries for my inspiration. Often I find great ideas by reading interior design or wedding magazines, going to a garden show, looking at book illustrations or art drawings or looking at window and shop displays. You will be amazed at the amount of unusual ideas I’ve come across simply by looking at my local shopping centre window and shop displays, especially during festive seasons.

I try to stay away from “trends”, I do follow some aspects of trends especially if the customer has their heart set on something they have seen, but in general if a trend has been used to death I go in the opposite direction. I like my parties to be unique and different (which isn’t always easy to achieve) and enjoy it when people say, wow, I have never seen that before. Most of my parties are handmade, from the food to the decorations,  I love sourcing different items, textures and materials and coming up with new ways to use old ideas.

This year I see a big trend in printable parties (like last year) with decorations like paper medallions, paper garlands, decorative straws and ruffled cakes on top of the hit list, I’ve also seen a shift from using ordinary tables as dessert tables to using other furniture (especially vintage) as dessert tables, I love this idea!"


You can visit Leoni's blog at: http://www.justcallmemarthaa.blogspot.com/ or check out her Facebook page at  http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Just-call-me-Martha/135227659857933.


Have a wonderful, whimsical week everyone! :) xo