Limes Hotel and Rooftop Bar - 142 Constance Street., Fortitude Valley

Four years ago I had just fallen pregnant with my second child. It's not something I talk about a lot because I don't want it to define who I am, but after I had my second child who had just as many medical issues as my first child I resigned from my job to take on a carer's role. So gone were nights out and all my heels got packed away replaced by 'sensible shoes'... We managed to have another child in the passing time and I guess I've really slowly slid into the land of motherhood and anything I did prior to children was a very distant memory.

For that reason I've rarely gone out to places of evening I used to go to a lot before children and had not gotten a chance to visit many places that have cropped up over the passed 4 years on the Brisbane night scene. I've heard a lot about limes and it's always been a place I would have had on the agenda to check out but life was nothing short of hectic here. Lately things have been starting to slow down and I've been able to start this blog and put more into my own interests but it was still a surprise to open my email last week to see an invitation to Lime's Hotels's 4th birthday and Winter launch.

Limes hotel is the brainchild of Damian Griffiths... I really see Damian as quite an inspirational innovator for where he started with his dreams for Limes and grew that into a reality. Pushing the envelope 4 years ago to get this place off the ground and think and dream big with very little to work with is a really inspiring feat to me. Once a block with a an old Queenslander taking residence it was morphed into a small 22 room boutique hotel which was actually the first in Australia to be recognised by esteemed Design Hotels Group. Four years later it's very much still a glittering jewel on the Valley's skyline with it's rooftop bar and cinema.

I got a bit anxious with this invite... I thought to myself how am I, a mother who has pretty much spent the last four years changing nappies and wiping snotty noses going to even fit in here... I'm reasonably shy and reserved when it comes to anything that involves a lot of people and talking. However I've heard so many great things about Limes that I really just had to let my anxiety take the backseat ride and just go. For a first time visit to Lime's I was super impressed. Everyone was friendly and the atmosphere was warm and inviting and I could see that the passion of those who work for Limes was a driving force for their success.

My primary areas of interest in photography are more of a documentary and arts stance. A lot of my work is impromptu and unplanned. I'm not the greatest at posed work but I like to focus on details. Being a natural light photographer who shoots mostly from a documentary perspective I'm always observing and the moment I see that trifecta of light, lines and connection I shoot. This night though Limes definitely gave me a lot of that to work with. I'll let the photos tell the rest of the story....

All in all it was an awesome night and it was amazing to see the way Limes runs like a well oiled machine. If you have ever even had to put on the most minor event you would appreciate how smoothly this ran and I think it was pretty much down to such a great team working for Limes. The cocktails were awesome some of the best I've ever had... Favourite of the night was the Mint and Guava but they were all pretty hot contenders. You have to check this place out it's so much a must for it's awesome drinks and atmosphere. It's places like this that we need to support and appreciate as contributing to Brisbane.