One aspect of curating our bookshelves that I love the most is placing our random collection of items between the books while remembering the significance of them. I imagine that some of them will be on our shelves till I’m old and grey(er). We have various things around our house that are true mementos and always take pride of place. I thought I would share half a dozen of them with you.

My Nan is an incredible woman. Still living in her own home at 101 years old, still with a quick wit and still a passionate lover of bluff oysters. I have several items of Nans in our house, but I particularly love this mantle vase. I believe it’s Crown Lynn, but could be mistaken, it’s an aged cream and lovely shape.

We are so lucky that my father, Bruce Foster, has given us a number of beautiful photographs over the years, including two recent additions that I just LOVE. But when I was in my twenties Dad made this incredible handmade book with photos of when I was small. This piece will always have a place on our shelves.

When we moved to our current house we built a studio in the garden. Having never built anything before it was daunting and exciting. We had the wonderful help of Lauren Wong at Studio Pacific Architecture. At the successful conclusion of the process, Lauren gave us this vase that she had made from clay she had collected from the building site at the back of our house. A delightful experience beginning to end.

I’m sure you are not supposed to remove these from the lake shore, so hopefully I don’t get myself into trouble on this one! One part of our beautiful country that we find ourselves often gravitating to is Queenstown. We have had some special holidays in the deep south, and had some great rock skimming competitions on the shores of Wakatipu. Nice memories.

As if I wasn’t lucky enough having a photographer father, my daughter is also an incredible and accomplished artist. We have many of Bella’s pieces to enjoy, but her ‘Rain In Palm Springs’ is my current fave. It has brought to life an awkward space at the top of our stairs and I love walking past it each day.

When I started in real estate Bella was 7 and James was 3. We went from mum being around a lot, to mum working six days a week. To make the kids feel part of the process I decided that after a sale their “commission” would be a trip to a quirky shop on Ghuznee Street. There they sold Dunnys and the kids loved the surprise of finding out what Dunny would be in the box. These two Dunnys have made it to the shelf and are a reminder of the journey.

Six Special Things

Grandma’sMantle Vase

Photobook

Handmade Ceramic

Skimming Rocks

Bella Foster Photo Print

Dunnys