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About Me

Sharing my Love of Cottages with You

About Me

Hi, I'm Katia, I’ve lived in quite a few cottages and it seems I’m drawn to fairytale cottages. Where ever I go in the world I am guided to live my dream life in a magical cottage. I am well placed to share enchanting cottages with you as I:

• have stayed and lived in lots and lots and lots of magic cottages, bungalows, cabins and casitas
• have provided my clients with travel plans and chosen their accommodation for over 20 years
• created personalised travel itineraries with my 'Travel by Design' business for globe-hopping clients
• have travelled extensively for over 50 years
• have lived in 8 countries and visited many more
• have enthusiastically experienced many different cultures
• love the whimsical and enchanted magical side of life, I am a tarotista and love mother earth
• love restoring the forest on our property, creating a healthy ecology and discovering the wonders of nature where ever I roam
• as a travel writer for over 20 years, I am experienced with exploring, researching and communicating the essence of place for you
• as a fiction writer creating her third novel, I love to retreat to private cottages, I have the knack of finding just the right magic at the right time to support my creativity and I would love to do the same for you
• live in a magical cottage in the woods!

Laughing Kookaburras and Midnight Blue Scorpions

About Me - for now, I live in a gingerbread cottage, well, that’s what everyone on the street calls it, but I think of it as a chalet-style cottage. The strange thing about it is that it is nestled in a private valley in the Australian bush. In Queensland. My stories from here are all about kangaroos, wallabies, gum trees and critters like possums, cicadas and scorpions. Small scorpions hiding under rocks, looking like leaf litter, appearing brown, but actually stunning midnight blue when you get up close. Then there are the birds. Laughing Kookaburras. Loud whip-cracking echoes of the Whipbirds down by the creek. Strange cries of Catbirds. Melodious melancholy trills of the Fan-tailed Cuckoo at dusk. I love our cottage in the forest and I look forward to sharing my stories with you.

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Discovering Cottages

Cottages give us our quintessential safe home, our creative and inspirational space. I am going to share all my magic cottages with you and their stories and more. I am going to help you discover your own cottage. In the woods, on a farm, by the sea or in the mountains. Maybe your ideal cottage will be a cabin. In the forest. As a retreat. Maybe you will go there to write your first novel, or your next novel, or for some quiet time. Maybe you will visit for a romantic weekend, or a family reunion, or a girl’s weekend away.

I have found the most beautiful, unique, romantic and stylish cottages for you all around the world. It's what I love to do and I love to share it with you. We love finding romantic places, cosy courtyards, historic homes and stylish quirky designs when we travel. So, I will share our finds with you, artist’s retreats, studios and secret gardens.

Let’s find some quirky, interesting cottages, some whimsical cabins, maybe even a fairytale cottage for you to dream of. And visit for yourself.

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What is a Cottage?

I am so glad you asked. A cottage is usually one or two storeys, no more. It is small, and quaint.

The definition of a cottage varies among cultures, but a cottage tends to be a small, cosy home in the countryside - maybe a summer home or holiday home. Most cottage-style houses are single-story, but multi-story houses can also be referred to as cottages, depending on the context.
Bungalows are cottages; they are defined as one storey only.

Cottages may have many different architectural features including low-pitched gable roofs, covered porches and bay windows. They may have shingled exteriors or asymmetrical features. They have charm, they may be rustic, built of stone and wood. They could have shingled roofs or thatched roofs. They could have cute dormer windows, chimneys and plenty of natural materials like wooden floorboards.

The word 'cottage' comes from the English language and refers to small homes in the English countryside where farmers or 'cotters' lived during the English feudal period. The etymology of the word comes from Anglo-Normal French - the word 'cotage' which meant 'hut', which in turn came from the Anglo-Latin 'cotagium'. Cottages in this time were small dwellings made with stone, with gabled roof lines. They had chimneys and thatched roofs. This is where the quintessential English cottage idyll derived, and many still exist today, with the added feature of beautiful gardens full of flowers.

In a cottage building, windows are typically small, with traditional casement or leaded glass. Decorations may include window shutters or window boxes. Doors are most likely to be rustic, wooden, and the effect is welcoming and calming.

Inside a cottage, you might find exposed wooden beams, low ceilings, and a snug, warm layout. Fireplaces are common, adding to the cosy character of the home.

In other places, small rural houses have different traditions. Most small local dwellings are made from local materials, so the traditional houses in each place differ in construction, architecture and features. Yet they all resonate with the place and capture that essence we are looking for - rustic simplicity, quaint homeliness and whimsy.

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About Me - Magical Places to Share with You

About Me - in my travels to find whimsy and magic I include cabins, bachs, bungalows, lodges, casitas, huts and homes in our wide range of magical places. But each one must have that special something, that je ne sais quoi. I call it whimsy.

I call it magic. I call it enchantment. I want you to be drawn to it, imagine yourself there, feeling safe, creative and homey, feeling witchy and divine. Feeling cottage-ey.

I share revamped dovecotes, restored bridge houses, gardener's cottages, restored stables, barns, repaired gate houses and more. There are bothys and casas rurales, there are refugios and studios and cortijos. Cute chalets, perfect posadas and homey holiday homes, vibrant viviendas vacacionales. Relax in a round house or a rondavel. Lounge in a lodge. In some mountain locations, you will need to bolt to a B&B for comfort and warmth, or experience an eco-lodge.

Let's discover fairytale cottages, storybook cottages and Queenslander cottages. But what are they, you ask?

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What is a Fairytale Cottage?

About Me - to me, a fairytale cottage is a magical cottage where you might feel enchanted, and there is also an architectural style called 'fairytale' which derives from modern fairytales made popular in the twentieth century, such as 'Hansel & Gretel' and 'Snow White'. If we look at these fairy tales, which are stories to scare and to teach moral lessons to children, most go back to those published by the Brothers Grimm in Germany in 1812. But these derive from much earlier tales and oral stories, which can be traced through many cultures across centuries. Think about the symbology across these stories, which have developed their own modern styles and popularity in the modern culture, including movies.

• Hansel & Gretel Cottage
• The Gingerbread House
• Snow White's Cottage
• Witch's Cottage
• Rumpelstiltskin's Cottage
• Little Red Riding Hood
• Goldilocks and the Three Bears
• 'There was an Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe'

I explore all of these and find some spooky or enchanted cottages, in the woods or down in a dell or across the creek or next to the castle or where ever those small huts exist with fetching whimsy, I've found them for you to explore and experience.

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Your Cottage

There are so many proud and enthusiastic cottages owners working on their beloved homes every day, living in them or getting them ready for visitors. They might be B&B's, or lodges, mountain cabins, horse ranches or holiday homes. They could be seaside shacks or beach bachs. These we will also explore together and share. I look forward to hearing about your enchanting cottage.

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What is a Queenslander Cottage?

About Me - one of my favourite styles of cottages, these originate in the state of Queensland in Australia, made of timber and raised up to avoid the heat, these character-filled homes generally have one storey and vast verandahs. Typically the verandah wraps around the home. They are built with a corrugated iron roof, and withstand the sub-tropical and tropical hot climate of the area. Traditional homes have steeply pitched roofs, gables and many decorative timber elements. This style of home began to be built around 1840 and is still popular today. We love the timber floors, the inside-outside living and the coolness of being off the ground. This was essential when we lived in Paddington in Brisbane, an inner city suburb of rolling hills, gorgeous cottages, art galleries and cafes. I've found some lovely homes like this for you to visit and discover.

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About Me

I'm Katia Luz, sharing my bushland cottage. Discover enchanting, charming, whimsical cabins and cosy places to inspire your dreams. Bon Voyage!
About Me.