The Trench that was...

When I first moved into my "renovators delight", the first thing I knew had to be changed was the front garden.  I kid you not, there was a great long trench cutting across the yard.  Basically blocking access to the front step.

So one weekend, after rounding up a couple of willing family members, we all rolled up our sleeves and just got it done.

 It meant, digging up weed matting, moving rocks, back-filling the trench, and leveling out the whole front yard.  Hard work!  And it actually took about two weekends.

   

So here what it looks like now..  with some more new rocks and less weeds..

Its slowly taking shape...  I have plans to lay a large amount of pebbles for the pathways first, then start planning the layout of plants.

Can't wait!

Cheerio :)

L

Out with the old, in with the new

My gosh!  I definitely did not predict our part renovated house to sell so quickly - I was anticipating staying there at least 12 months.  The real estate market here has plateaued badly this year, not much selling and buying going on thats for sure.

But the good news is... its sold!!

I am so happy, it just feels like a new chapter of my life is about to begin and its so exciting for me.

To take it one more step further... I have also found and bought a little house of my own. Double gosh!!

Here she is in all her peeling painted glory...

This photo is from the real estate listing, so you can't actually see all the horrible paint peeling on the weatherboards - trust me outside is a train wreck.

I have a painter lined up, and hopefully a new roofed planned too - but I'll update soon with all the details of how this is all going to happen shortly. I take over in the second week of October and I am just so thrilled that it will soon be mine :)

L

A Different Direction

Hey there,

Lots have changed since I posted last..

Lets see,

• Our part renovated house is up for sale...  eeek! (I can now qualify as a house cleaner, hmm)
• I'm on the lookout for a house of my own..
• Oh, and I'm newly separated (long, long story - which I might get to some day) - it just was not meant to be, no matter how many angles I looked at our relationship.

So this explains the title of this post I guess.

Living in a house up for sale is not much fun either...  the constant cleaning and tidying/decluttering is mental..  plus half the furniture is gone now, so half the house is a bit echoey (new word)..  and having to disappear with the kidlets when people want to come through is sometimes tricky too.

Might look back and laugh at all this one day ;)

Oh, but I do have a few furniture projects on the go..  here's part of one of them

It is a necessity to buy thrifty now - I just hope it turns out ok!

I will show how it is progressing very soon..

Cheerio!
L

A small change

Small changes can be inexpensive usually, and these can also give a little bit of oomph to a boring stock standard kitchen.

I'm talking handles here folks..

Our old handles on our pantry came very loose one day, and try as we might we couldn't tighten them back into place. Threaded they were.

Perhaps it was a hint to look for something more simple that would suit the kitchen better. Any excuse really :-)

Here's what we started with

boring smooth rounded handles

And we ended up with these

lovely squared handles

 
so plain so simple, I really like them

Much better now


Very cheap too, $40 for a pack of 25.. free postage.. ebay. It couldn't have been easier really.

These little beauties, although not everyones cup of tea, suit the kitchen better and are a good replacement for now.


We have plans to redo the kitchen in a couple of years, however this involves knocking down a wall to enlarge the space and integrate the laundry into it.  Plus I would love an island bench too.  Oh well all good things...


Cheerio,
L

Our little munchkin!

I've been away for so long, but I think I have found a way to blog easier and faster from my iPad. Yah!

It's still in the testing phase at this stage, and of course I'll blog all about it once it looks like its a success.

Here's our gorgeous girl, the youngest one anyway. And my oh my have the months passed in a blur. This time last year she was still classed as a newborn, ek!

In this pic she is all of 13 months old...

and we all love her sweet face

As this is somewhat of a test post, I won't natter on and on too much

I will say though that the last couple of months have been quite interesting for us, all due to a netball injury that proved more serious than I thought. So after the hurdle of knee surgery 4 weeks ago, and ongoing physio, I feel almost back to normal. Well almost... but strong enough to tackle this blogging thing once again.

And all the learning that goes with it

Cheerio for now!

L

 

Our Carpet Dilemma

Here's the dilemma..  our lovely (used to be) wool carpet is four years old and suffering badly.  Back then we took our time and picked the extra heavy duty kind that could handle the little and big kids.

Now its proven to be a bit of a dud.   boo.

What a waste - this stuff was not cheap!

carpet we thought could handle all!

It flattens and looks worn in high traffic areas - like the hallway and some parts of the bedrooms.

Any water marks actually stain - ??? I'm gob smacked on this one.

And we're left with carpet that never actually looks clean, or good.  Very annoying to say the least.  And I may be weird, but whenever I'm walking around the house I always look at the floor (just so I can pick up any bits and pieces visitors may notice) - so things like this stick out for me.

Now we've both had quite enough...    either we check the warranty on this, see if there's anything we can do.  Or we decide to can it completely, and look at other options.

On a positive (and there's only one I can see) we can go ahead and start painting the trims without worrying too much about the carpet.
So, a yay for paint!

Now the other options I mentioned is where I'm at (for today anyway), and also where I'm a bit stuck.

Replace the carpet with carpet..   go back to the floorboards (too messy for us with a bub in the house)  -  what other options do we have?  I'm not sure...    I definitely need inspiration and new ideas.

So if anyone is reading (anyone? insert echo here ;) )  I would love to hear your ideas.

Cheerio for now,
L

An Owl for Amy

We're slowly working bit by bit to turn a small bedroom into a (hopefully) beautiful nursery for Amy.
This is the wall behind the door - which also hides her change station.

I'm hoping to build up a small collection of prints, photos, art (& nicknacks!) on this wall to captivate her imagination...  work in progress :)

We finally went frame shopping in town this weekend, and found a couple of lovely plain white ones for the etsy print we bought for Amy's room.  My idea behind it was to get two identical frames to hang on the wall that would ground the (future) collection in some way.

The barn owl prints at JPG Photography (etsy) are so beautiful.

Our print has this lovely metallic sheen that seems to turn it into something magical.  Its so difficult to describe, I hope my photos do it some small justice.

there's a lovely metallic sheen to this print that you're missing ;)

I also had a photo of Emily at the beach enlarged too.  This image was modified to look like a watercolour/drawing in photoshop.  I did this a couple of years ago now and had the print in storage ever since, just waiting for the opportunity to hang it up.  (I simply followed an online tutorial to create this effect)

Emily loves that its hanging in her little sis' bedroom!

So here they are side by side.  I can't wait to add the next bits...

Cheerio for now!

L

Amy's Room, in progress

Just thought I'd post a few photos of baby Amy's room in progress.  I'm loving it much more after I put up the bunting on the window.  A lovely lady from Little Kitten Homemade in the UK (an etsy find) made this bunting after I decided on the colours, pistachio and pink, and picked out the fabric patterns (loving that polka dot!).  I also had another one made for Emily's room, which I'll be writing all about in a seperate post soon.

The idea here was to improve the look of our blinds, boring as they are, and give them more a 'girls room' feel. The pelmet here also needs a good dose of white paint - but all in time no doubt!

Using what we have:-  We bought the blind four years ago, they were expensive (for us), and not many colours to choose from.  So for now we are stuck with it, and need it to work with what we have in the room.  Prettying it up a bit was what I had in mind.

pelmet and window frame both need the dose of white paint here!

Owls are definitely a little theme I'm going with in her room, I also have a beautiful print I found on etsy which I have yet to put up (but will detail that when I get to it - still waiting on a frame) - its very magical, so I'll post the link too.

Owls for Amy!

We have a canvas above the cot that I bought from Typo last year, on sale for $20, but hubby and I have agreed that its not working (and looks really flimsy) - its not often we actually agree on something!  So I'm definitely running with that, and have found a lovely wall decal (etsy again - you can see my obsession) at a very nice price, and thinking about ordering it as a replacement.  So details on that idea soon.

time to go oh flimsy canvas!!

And finally the other wall in this room is made up of a built-in closet (old and dated), desk and shelving.  All in need of some TLC of course.  Paint, new doors and hardware.

I wish painting was like photoshop sometimes!

I'm going to need a ton of white paint for sure!

On the upside this room is quite small, around 3.5m x 3.5m, so painting shouldn't be too bad (hopefullly??).  Furniture placement (and purchase) have to be carefully considered in here too.  We have decided to complete the painting and put up some pictures before anything else gets added, you never know something might occur to us that we've never tried before - we're open to all suggestions.  (any great ideas for a small space?)

As things get done (or put up!), I'll keep you posted!

Cheerio!
L

Small beginnings...

The little miss loves to set a 'special' table at dinnertime. With a few candles and flowers in glass bottles. It made for a very nice Easter table, and she was proud as punch. Little miss says the best thing about setting a table like this is blowing out the candles at the end, and I couldn't agree more - birthday cake candles all over again!

Its lovely to see her take such pride in this, and can tell this is just the beginning. Watching her style the little flowers and foliage, so so proud. I forget how much she's grown.

with her masterpiece!

Very nice!

 

How much does the pink plastic cup rock?

so sweet!

We have this vine growing on our patio with such pretty flowers, from spring to autumn - I love it, not so sure the husband is that impressed, it does tend to take over a bit. The purple flowers attract the biggest bumblebees I've ever seen. And perfect for our table this evening.

I'm thinkin, my next foray in online shopping will have to include a table runner - looking at these photos, something's definitely missing. I could also do with more candles and holders, look out Dusk... hope there's a sale on!

Well, must sign off, a good book and bed are calling.

Happy Easter!

L

An Order of Jam

Received a surprise delivery yesterday - a box of my Gran's homemade jam.  Flavours include quince jelly, raspberry, brambleberry, red currant, apricot and plum.  Around ten in total, and looking very moreish!

What a lovely reminder of a woman that enjoyed the art of homemade.

Her jam was legendary!!
And now are the last jars I'll ever receive.  My husband keeps asking when I'll start using the jam, but for whatever reason I'm hesitant to open them.  I just can't.  So I'll keep taking pictures of them for a little while yet, till I get up the courage to have a little on toast.

The wooden box I have them in is a wonderful little gem that we found when we moved into this house.  My husband was actually using it to store powerpoints and electrical gear downstairs in his workshop - silly man, didn't he realise what a vintage treasure he had... nope, and probably thinks I've gone a bit daft too.

The box has such a wonderful worn appearance, I'll be most certainly featuring it in a lot more of my photos.  I can imagine it sitting proud on a floating shelf in the sitting room, holding all sorts of bits and bobs (and books) - or even on the dining table with a load of lovely white candles!


Cheerio!
L

Filing Cabinet Project - Finally Finished!

Hiya!

After what seems likes ages I've finally finished the filing cabinet project.

Looking back, here is what I started with. An old, veneer, filing cabinet from Officeworks.

oh, veneer! what can we do with you?

I know, I could have easily bought another on the cheap, but I was up for challenging myself.

I wasn't sure how successful it would turn out, and whether it would fit in with the whole home office redo.

But here's how it went...

Undercoated..

Two coats of Zinnsers waterbased primer

Topcoat for the draw fronts...

I decided to try and insert a 'fun' element (onto a boring cabinet) by painting the fronts with chalkboard paint. Now that we have a new little addition to the family - I think its time for furniture to multi-task (if possible).  We went with Porters Paints, and still have quite a lot left for other projects - thinking feature shapes for the girls rooms, not sure.. might ponder for a little while longer.

added a little white to the chalkboard paint = lovely grey!

Topcoat cabinet sides and top...

Here we used Dulux Antique White USA semi gloss, two coats - we have used this shade extensively throughout the house and thought the cabinet would blend in very well.

New handles..

I love these old fashioned shell-like handles, so much so I bought two extra for when we tackle the small writing desk.

What about a hook and little bucket to hold all those pieces of chalk?  Might add that to the side if theres room.

Let me know what you think!

Cheerio for now!

L

Missing you!

Whilst pregnant with Amy last year, I lost two very special people in my life. I think about them everyday, and wish desperately that I could see them one last time. How I miss you both, my Gran and Grand-dad.

Emily & Gran

So I thought, it might do me some good to write a little bit about them every now and then, to document my memories (before I lose them) and as a little bit of therapy. I hope to one day look back here, read this and remember.

So here's a snippet..

It's funny, I'll always remember the smells around their house when arriving for a visit - a beach smell mixed with home cooking a roast with vegies, or baking a lovely batch of rock cakes. I hope I never forget that smell! A hug and kiss from gran, a wave to grand-dad out in the garden, then into the kitchen for a cup of tea and a biccie ( and a chin wag of course!)

The house always smelled amazing, so fresh yet old fashioned at the same time, and I loved being there. There I go talking about smell again, perhaps I have a sensitive nose, but I have always been driven by scent (I won't count the number of times I've bought a new book and the first thing I do is stick my nose into it to smell the new pages - weird? Yes, very).

I never realized how heartbreaking it could be to lose someone so close, I must be so naive having reached the grand old age of 36 and not lose anyone so close. So I never could understand.

Cheerio for now,

L

 

iPad Test

Testing posting from ipad

 

Introducing Amy

After a long time away..

I can finally introduce our little angel

Amy

In this pic she's all of 3 months old. 
And we love her dearly!

The first 3 months were so hectic, morning and night, she certainly kept us on our toes.  We also had an unexpected extended hospital stay of two weeks, the poor little mite had jaundice then anemia.  So I have some very interesting photos of a very yellow looking baby.  It all took time to pass, thankfully we have a lovely healthy baby now.

I'm hoping to now continue with weekly posts to my blog - I've a fair bit in the archives now, so lots to chat about :)

Til then ...

Cheerio,
L

Baby Update

Well its finally time...

I'm off to hospital later this afternoon, and hoping all goes well.

A baby will no doubt shake up this ol' house!!

As a side note, the filing cabinet is all painted and ready for handles.  I did have a bit of a hiccup with colour for the draws (basically, it was yuk!), but with a bit of a colour update its all come together quite well.  I can't wait to show you, the power of paint really is amazing.

I will post the play-by-play when I get back.  Though it might take me a while to get into a routine with baby.

Please bear with me - I won't be gone for long :)

Catcha soon,

L

Filing Cabinet Project - Undercoat

Its slow going around here, but I've finally finished the undercoat for the filing cabinet.

Two coats of zinssers.. plus a bit of putty for filling in the holes from the old handles.
(my pregnant body can only do a little at a time!)

This room I'm painting in is our storage/rumpus room downstairs.  At the moment winter is just starting to take hold, and its too cold to paint outside now. 

I've finally settled on a plan for this here cabinet.  My plan is to paint the draw fronts a different colour, which I will detail more in my next post, and change up the handles too.

Now that I'm on maternity leave I finally feel able to finish off this pesky project - and stop the pile-up of paperwork around here.

So cheerio for now  

& look out for my next post over the next day or so :)

L

Learning about ISO

This weekend I'm learning about using ISO, so I thought I would share a few shots I've been experimenting with around home. This lovely yellow rose I received for mothers day.

f/4.0, 1/40

f/4.2, 1/80

f/5.0, 1/100

f/6.3, 1/160

Really is fascinating. If you're into that sort of thing. The higher the ISO the grainier the picture, each increase is twice as sensitive. With each photo I also noted the fstop and shutter speed whilst I only changed the ISO in Program mode.

Now... whats next on the list

Cheerio

L

Filing Cabinet Project

I've decided to drag this old dated thing upstairs for a facelift for our home office.  I'm hoping a splash of white paint and new handles is all it needs.

Its previous home was a little hidey-hole under the stairs.  But I really do need a filing cabinet upstairs for all our bits and pieces.

As you can see our home office area consists of just a small section of wall in our sitting room.

And I've decided to have a go at updating this little area myself - without buying anymore new furniture, and basically using what I have at home.  I just hope I'm successful!

The first step is to update the filing cabinet.  Then move onto the desk - more white paint I think!

So to work I go.

Cheerio for now!

L

Loungeroom Photo Update

Finally, an update on the progress of our loungeroom!

before we moved in, 2008

in progress, mid 2010

and now (April 2011)

Hubby worked so hard with the brush, and I tried to do as much as I could. And now I think we are both happy with how its turned out so far.

We will be looking at bringing in a footstool/pouffe too soon (possibly for my swollen ankles in the coming weeks), but I won't hold my breath! How I love these moroccan ones:

And some last finishing touches I would love to add are; artwork/mirror/photos on the walls, new cushions, side table makeover. All in good time (and money) I suppose :)

Cheers,
L

Loving Saturday Club Mission 4

Last Saturday, I tried to fit in the 'Loving Saturday Club' mission for the week that Sarah has running from www.abeachcottage.com
I don't think I fulfilled all the requirements for this one, except the part about shopping for flowers.

Unfortunately I was in a such a hurry - it was an hour before guests would start arriving for the baby shower.

I decided to buy a small bunch for my baby shower, which already came packaged for display, which was really lovely.   So I could just plonk them on the table, as is!

Next time I hope to be able to foof a little with more flowers and have a few scattered around the house - they just give a room such a lovely feeling...

ps. apologies for the droopy flowers, it was a little while till I had the camera handy for a quick photo 


Cheerio!
L