Category: Booth Camp

Valentine’s Day at North Harbour!

Welcome to this week’s North Harbour Blog. This week we’re celebrating all things love in honour of Valentine’s Day – we’ve even got some heart shaped chocolates on offer in the sales office!

 

As I know many of our readers enjoy a good historical story I’ll begin with the origins of Valentine’s Day. The history is obscure, and further clouded by various legends but its roots are in the ancient Roman festival of Lupercalia, a fertility celebration commemorated annually on February 15. Pope Gelasius I changed this pagan festival into a Christian feast day circa 496AD, declaring February 14 to be St. Valentine’s Day.

Which St. Valentine this early Pope intended to honour remains a mystery as according to the Catholic Encyclopedia, there were at least three early Christian saints by that name. One was a priest in Rome, another a bishop in Terni, and of a third St. Valentine almost nothing is known except that he met his end in Africa. Rather incredibly, all three Valentines were said to have been martyred on February 14th.

Most scholars believe that the St. Valentine of the holiday was a priest who attracted the disfavour of Roman emperor Claudius II around 270AD. According to one legend, Claudius II had prohibited marriage for young men, claiming that bachelors made better soldiers. Valentine continued to secretly perform marriage ceremonies but was eventually apprehended by the Romans and put to death. Another legend has it that Valentine, imprisoned by Claudius, fell in love with the daughter of his jailer. Before he was executed, he allegedly sent her a letter signed “from your Valentine.” Another and probably the most plausible story surrounding St. Valentine is that he was martyred for refusing to renounce his religion.

It was not until the 14th century that this Christian feast day became definitively associated with love. According to UCLA medieval scholar Henry Ansgar Kelly, author of Chaucer and the Cult of Saint Valentine, it was Chaucer who first linked St. Valentine’s Day with romance.

In 1381, Chaucer composed a poem in honour of the engagement between England’s Richard II and Anne of Bohemia. As was the poetic tradition, Chaucer associated the occasion with a feast day. In “The Parliament of Fowls”, the royal engagement, the mating season of birds, and St. Valentine’s Day are linked:

“For this was on St. Valentine’s Day,  When every fowl cometh there to choose his mate.”

Over the centuries, the holiday evolved, and by the 18th century, gift-giving and exchanging handmade cards on Valentine’s Day had become common in England. Hand-made valentine cards made of lace, ribbons, and featuring cupids and hearts eventually spread to the American colonies. The tradition of Valentine’s cards did not become widespread in the United States, however, until the 1850s, when Esther A. Howland, a Mount Holyoke graduate and native of Worcester, Mass., began mass-producing them. Today, of course, the holiday has become a booming commercial success but is no longer a Christian festival as it was removed from the Catholic Church’s liturgical calendar in 1969. According to the Greeting Card Association, 25% of all cards sent each year are valentines.

And what could be more romantic than getting married?! (Don’t answer that, cynics). Adding to the growing list of services you can find at North Harbour we are very fortunate to have among our growing community a wedding photographer and a professional cake maker.

Stewart and Emma Pullen are the proprietors of SEP Photography with Emma also running a cake business, Pure Indulgence Cakes, so between them they can take care of two extremely important parts of anyone’s big day!

cake slices

We caught up with Stewart to find out more about their businesses and what brought them to North Harbour as opposed to other property developments in Brisbane.

“We chose North Harbour for a lot of reasons. Firstly, the first time we drove into the development we felt a real sense of community. The whole estate looked great, from the park and the display village everything seemed very well planned out. Speaking with Aidan in the sales office was also a major reason, he had a lot of helpful advice and went above and beyond to help us purchase our first block of land.

We also attended a few events at North Harbour where there were jumping castles and BBQ’s in the park and even the movie night, we met a few people and everyone seemed to be very proud to be a part of North Harbour.

We were inspired and decided to make North Harbour our home. From the moment we signed the papers there has been no looking back and we know we made the right decision.

We have chosen Stylemaster to build our home, we had never seen one of their homes until we visited North Harbour and we were blown away. We were impressed with the finishes and the designs and to top it off Chris in the sales office was an absolute pleasure to deal with. We cannot wait to see our dream home all finished.

We are due to move in the middle of 2017 and cannot wait. We already attend a lot of the events held and make use of the park. Every time we are at North Harbour we don’t want to leave and just want to be in our new home already!

Our photography company is called SEP Photography, we started out approximately eight years ago as just a hobby to take photos of the kids and it just took off from there.

We now employ two staff members and travel all across Australia and overseas photographing weddings. We also spend a lot of our time capturing family’s and life’s special moments like pregnancy.

Photography is something we are so passionate about, especially wedding photography. To be a part of something as special as someone’s wedding and to be trusted to capture those memories is a huge honour.

Emma’s business is called Pure Indulgence Cakes. She has been doing cakes for approximately four years within the family business but has recently expanded into her own business. She specializes in all cakes from cakes for corporate meetings to birthdays and weddings. Samples of her work can be found on her Facebook page.

We will operate our businesses at North Harbour which is another reason why we chose North harbour, high-speed internet and ease of access to the highway was a must for us.

We would also invite people to contact us about any of their photographic or cake needs. We would happily provide North Harbour residents with special deals.

You can find us on Facebook, Instagram and also at www.sep-photography.com.”

Have a wonderful Valentine’s Day and if you’re looking for some romance ideas check out what’s on in the Moreton Bay Region. Keep an eye on Facebook for details of our upcoming events, the next one is B105FM and DannyBoys food truck on Saturday February 25th.

Part of our commitment to being one of the best property developments in Brisbane is holding these regular community events. To ensure you don’t miss out visit www.northharbour.com.au, sign up for our email and SMS updates and find us on Facebook. These events are open to everyone, not just our residents, and are free of charge. We look forward to seeing you there!

 

North Harbour is a property development on the northside of Brisbane. Our Sales Office and Display Village (with 35 display homes) is open seven days a week, 10am-5pm. For more information regarding available land for sale or to make an appointment call Aidan on 5433 1111 or email .

Stylemaster, IKEA & More as we enter February!

Hello and welcome to February. Yes, already! As promised, in this week’s Blog we’re going to be focussing on interior styling, particularly new trends for 2017 and where to source these products.

 

Stylemaster

Whether you’re planning to build and furnish one of our houses for sale in 2017 or bring your current furnishings up to date there are a LOT of designs out there to choose from. If you’re looking for some ideas, real estate website Domain.com.au has released its 2017 trend predictions with some slightly surprising entries: cork tiles anyone? Terracotta is making a comeback, with jewel tones and dark green the colours to watch. Apparently fiddle fig leaves are out (which is good as I didn’t know what they were but have learnt they are of West African origin) and olive trees are in, as in INSIDE the house…if anyone goes with this option I’d be interested to hear how it works out.

If you are planning a build this year but you’re not quite sure about the process then do we have a great tip for you. Queensland’s most awarded builder, Stylemaster Homes has a fresh approach to building a new home with the launch of the Walk Right In collection. A collection of 29 single and double storey designs where all you have to do is move in………. everything is done.

Jeff Piconi, Managing Director said, “Stylemaster has continued to take up the challenge of declining affordability. Having been awarded Queensland’s Affordable Housing Winner in 2015 and 2016, we have further enhanced the opportunity for new home buyers to gain a foothold in the fast-moving property sector with Walk Right In. It’s the no fuss solution to building a new home”.

  • All Walk Right In home comes with exclusive extras as standard:
  • Internal and external move in packs
  • Fixed site costs (up to H2)
  • Steel frame
  • Colorbond roof
  • Render and paint to front façade (where applicable)
  • Driveway, path and porch
  • Caesarstone kitchen benchtops
  • 1200mm wide X 2040 high hinged designer front door
  • Alfresco entertainment area
  • 2.0KW Solar PV Cells
  • The inclusion of carpets, tiles, air conditioning, dishwasher, light fittings, turf to front yard, letterbox, clothesline, flyscreens plus more………

Stylemaster will even assist to pay the rent while the home is being built and all homes come with the Quickbuild guarantee from 14 weeks to practical completion.

Working in conjunction with North Harbour, Stylemaster will be offering a vast selection of fixed price house and land packages for all budgets.

In addition, Stylemaster’s esteemed multi-award winning designer Sharon Piconi has offered her expertise and experience that has distinguished the company as the leaders of Style. Sharon has meticulously specified and prepared colour pallets and interiors that guarantee your home will be on trend and sure to maximise individual lifestyle requirements. The signature façade options will ensure your home has ultimate street appeal.

Visit one of Stylemaster’s four display homes located at Fitzroy Street, North Harbour, Burpengary East or visit walkrightin.com.au.
And if you do buy one of our new homes for sale you’ll be pleased to know that furnishing your home got much easier last year when IKEA opened a new store at North Lakes (15 minutes down the Bruce Highway from North Harbour).

IKEA has just released its new collection for 2017 which, as is their niche, specialises in clever ways to maximise space and save homeowners time. As they say, “IKEA PS is for the fiercely independent. For free-thinkers who refuse a work-eat-sleep-repeat life and who give convention a wedgie. Not asking for permission or approval. Choosing freedom and the possibilities that come with it.

“And that is exactly who this IKEA PS collection was designed for. Because who better to appreciate a folding sofa that can hang on a wall, or a pillow that becomes a quilt, or a self-watering pot that helps keep unattended plants alive for two weeks?”

Whether or not you’re interested in giving convention a wedgie you can view the 2017 IKEA collection here.

Something helpful IKEA also does is to offer their IKEA Family Members (free to sign up) free workshops and events, excellent for those interested in interior design. For more information visit the IKEA website.

Also at North Lakes (and Morayfield) is the newly impressive Kmart. Offering cost-effective furnishings to get your home looking fresh and fashionable, Kmart is hard to look past if you want that new look without splashing the cash.

And if you’d prefer to see this year’s trends enacted in person you can’t go past our many gorgeous Display Homes. We have 35 Display Homes from 14 local and national builders, each professionally styled. The Display Village showcases the houses for sale at North Harbour and is home to several award-winning designs.

We’ve had our first winner in our new promotion! As we mentioned last week, anyone who completes a Registration of Interest form in our Sales Office from now until Sunday 26th February will go in the weekly draw to receive a $100 Fuel Card to spend at BP. If you’ve previously visited North Harbour you’ll be aware that the local BP fronts our land on the Bruce Highway (between Exits 146 and 150) which makes filling up very handy. This promotion is only open to NEW enquiries and terms and conditions apply, see www.northharbour.com.au/terms-conditions-north-harbour-competitions/.

We’ll be drawing one card a week for four weeks so you have until the end of February if you’d like to be in with a chance to win. So, if you, a friend or family member are interested in finding out more about the North Harbour community it’s a great time to sign up. Congratulations to our first winner, Annie Cheng, thank you for your interest in North Harbour.

Next week we’ll be in the sharing the love with some Valentine’s Day facts plus what’s on around our beautiful Moreton Bay Region for our nation’s day of romance. Have a good one!

North Harbour Sales Office and Display Village (with 35 display homes) is open seven days a week, 10am-5pm. For more information regarding available North Harbour Houses for Sales or to make an appointment call Aidan on 5433 1111 or email . North Harbour is a new property development at Burpengary. For more information on the project visit www.northharbour.com.au.

To keep up to date with the latest news and info, sign up for our email and SMS updates and find us on Facebook.

*Any product pricing and availability referenced in this or other North Harbour articles are accurate at the date of initial publication and are subject to change at any time without notice.  Please contact the North Harbour sales team for further information.