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If you’ve ever wondered where Sydney’s most beautiful bouquets actually begin, the answer is: very early.

Ed West, director of POHO Flowers in Sydney’s Double Bay, starts most days at the flower markets before sunrise – a fast-paced, high-stakes environment where instinct, experience, and a good eye matter more than anything else. By the time the rest of us are deciding whether we need coffee or tea, West’s already secured the stems that will shape the day’s order and event arrangements.

POHO has cultivated a reputation for florals that feel directional without trying too hard – structured, but never stiff. In the lead-up to Mother’s Day, we asked Ed to walk us through a typical day, from pre-dawn market runs to the personal habits that happen once the flowers are finally put to bed.

Photography by Ryan Cullen.

Creative projects rarely begin in the same place — sometimes it starts with a concept, other times with a collaboration. Natural Order — published by Formist Editions and documenting 20 residential Australian gardens by Sydney and Byron Bay-based landscape practice Dangar Barin Smith  — is the latter: the result of a longstanding creative relationship between landscape creative William Dangar, writer Karen McCartney, designer and publisher Evi Oetomo, and photographer Prue Ruscoe.

A book we picked up for our shared perspective on nature and design — and quickly became one we couldn’t put down.

Versatile and practical, the LIFE Tote becomes a record of daily practice. Here we document the tools, essentials and small personal constants that make up the day — captured by the Australian creatives who carry them.

The motel is back — and it's better than ever. We’ve compiled a shortlist of understated stays doing the simple things exceptionally well.

Forget the grand lobby and the room service menu. The stays worth remembering are usually smaller, simpler and somewhere unexpected — a sun-warmed motel off the highway or converted retreat tucked into a town.

Here’s our shortlist of partner stays bringing that spirit back with fresh eyes.

A warm-up for the cooler months. This is your shortlist of places bringing steam, heat and calm to the everyday.

From bathhouses to saunas and contrast therapy spaces, communal bathing and heat-led rituals are some of the oldest wellness practices we know, shared across cultures, landscapes and centuries. Today, Australia’s growing network of recovery spaces is reimagining these traditions through thoughtful design and sensory detail.

As part of our amenities offering, LEIF partners with some of the country’s most considered spaces, each shaped by calm interiors and restorative experiences. Below, discover a shortlist of places worth sinking into as the mercury starts to dip.

Yamba was the final stop on our Northern Rivers tour, and after several days visiting amenity partners and the region, the town marked a natural point for us to pause and look back on the trip.

Set at the mouth of the Clarence River, Yamba sits between river and ocean, shaped as much by water as by town life; a fitting place to close out the journey.

For the second leg of our Northern Rivers visit we followed the coast south, from Brunswick’s calm into Byron Bay’s brighter, more expansive register.

We travelled with photographer Ming Nomchong to visit several of our key partner venues, capturing vibrant moments between each shoot — cliffs and coves, still, bright mornings, and spaces designed to hold both rest and momentum.

For our recent Northern Rivers shoot — guided by local photographer Ming Nomchong — Brunswick Heads became our base. It’s easy to understand why: this town that balances salt, sunlight and an easygoing pace shaped, in ways small and large, the entire series.

From here, we moved between beaches, stays and the local institutions we love, capturing the textures and tones that define this part of the coast.

Some creatives arrive at their practice through discipline. Others, through instinct. For the Sydney-raised, Northern Rivers-based photographer Ming Nomchong, her calling has always been the latter: a pull towards light, open space, water and the quiet frequency of coastal life.

For Ingvar Kenne, light is more than exposure. It carries character – reactive, alive. It creates atmosphere, shapes tone. And it introduces resistance: the kind of necessary friction that slows you down, asks you to look again. Through Kenne’s lens light softens, sharpens, conceals and reveals, and gives an otherwise stationary sculpture its mood.

Best known for his evocative portraiture in CITIZEN — since 1995 and ongoing — he has lately turned his lens to landscape in a portrait of [country], a study in presence and place. We invited Kenne to turn his attentive eye to the National Gallery of Australia, capturing our National Sculpture Garden Limited Edition Gift Sets.

What began as a distant restoration dream is now a reality for four iconic Australia Street restaurants — each with its own identity, yet still unmistakably connected by a love of great produce, sustainability, and thoughtful design.

We caught up with Sarah Doyle, Creative Director and founding partner of Paisano & Daughters, to talk about this iconic Inner West strip and shared vision over the past decade to bring Australia Street back to life — starting with Continental Deli, and now including Joe's Tavern, Mister Grotto, Osteria Mucca and Australia Street Suites.

Photography by Hugh O’Brien and Declan Blackall

Founded by a group of creatives, Capybara Bathing is a wellness sanctuary in the heart of Surry Hills. It’s an inclusive space to slow down and counter the rush of daily life.

We caught up with co-founders Natalie Cheung and Rebecca Qin to discuss the creation and vision for the space—bringing together diverse bathing cultures with the playful spirit of the capybara.

Photography by Declan Blackall and portrait by Jes Lindsay.