Front Deck

Our house faces west so our front deck is prone to the full brunt of the afternoon sun. When Adam bought the house the previous owners had lacquered the deck and lacquer/full sun do not go together!

This is particularly bad patches. It was peeling and accumulated dust easily, a mess really!

Adam had been waiting for a chance to sand and oil it himself but like every other job, has no time. He got a quote from the handyman who painted our house and it was $250 for labour plus materials. It came to about $500 in total. We had to move all the deck furniture inside!

The sanding progress.

The finished product after being oiled. It is great that it's even tone, but I don't like the colour of it! We are hoping to stain it with a different oil so it isn't so light/yellowish. Or maybe I'm just used to the old way it used to be! 

A couple of living area shots!

Just while I'm posting away, the gallery wall is getting bigger and bigger! I just adore it, I love having these beautiful pictures to look at.

I also purchased some new lamps from Recollections, they had two for one. I also picked up a silver bamboo frame from Botticelli House for a wedding picture. I love having all the pictures around instead of on the computer. Spotlight also had a sale on their feather inserts, so I bought a couple and have some striped fabric (from East Coast Fabrics) for Mum to make some cushion covers when she gets the time. All little changes but exciting nonetheless. 

Madeline's Room - More bits and pieces!

As always, still buying bits and pieces for the unending project that is Madeline's room. My latest purchase is a $10 bedside table from Gumtree. Have to love that!  It's perfect and solid, nothing a good lick of paint won't fix.

I also purchased some crystal knobs from ebay to fancy her Ikea Hemnes drawers and now her bedside. 20 for $23.10 (including postage) - I'm holding my breath hoping they are ok!

And while I've been catching up on old magazines, I love this girly room - the yellow looks so fresh - I'm half tempted to paint the bedside yellow! I could always give it a try?! ;)

And lastly, a new addition to Madeline's picture wall, a pink heart mirror from Kmart for $5. Can't beat that!

Planning 5 years ahead!

I'm catching up on my library magazines over the long weekend and have madly been taking photos as I go. Am I alone in this?! I'm surely crazy.

I have lots of ideas swirling around my brain for when we do a downstairs renovation. Am in the collecting phase. I also don't want to wish the next 5 or so years away because really, we are lucky to have a beautiful home already.

I love this office/study space. So functional.

I am obsessed on either black wooden (faux or otherwise) floors, or herringbone floors. 

We will also be installing an internal flight of stairs so I have been daydreaming about those. American styles seem to draw me in, I love the sweeping bottom on these.

I also love this landing with a spot to decorate.

I started to draw rough plans to start to map out what would be ideal (Adam is a big picture man and likes to leave the details until required where I like to obsess (sometimes confused with worry) about the details a long way ahead of time. The rough plans were exactly that, drawn in texta on coloured paper! I thought surely there would be an easy app to use - sure enough, I used the free MagicPlan and came up with a pretty good plan of our home as we are now. I'm working on downstairs at the moment. It is so easy to use!

I just love doing this sort of stuff! Does anyone else enjoy it?!

Console tables and vignettes!

I notice a common thread between my Pinterest living areas and the below image is sheer perfection in my eyes! To add texture to the room (apart from the fancy lights) they have used throws and cushions and vignettes on tables with greenery, vases etc.

We don't have a coffee table at the moment, nor do we have any lighting apart from the ceiling lights.

{image via}

Another gorgeous image that inspires me! 

{image via}

So my little brain has been busy trying to work out how to incorporate the above, firstly, on a budget and secondly, for it to be kid safe. I remembered that we used to have a console with glass tops and it was banished downstairs to the man cave - so I dragged it upstairs (has ply wood where glass goes) and just plonked some things on it to see if I liked it there and how it affects the room.

Of course I love it there. I'm hanging to get a much better lamp (possibly cover a shade) and some other bits and pieces to put on top. Maybe a rattan tray instead? And my first bit of coral! Haha!

I'm just leaving as is for a while and I might paint it or do something to it but for now it does the job!

Hawaii Dreaming...

This photo was taken in August 2012 from our room at the Hyatt Regency Waikiki. We had a 15 month old Maddy in tow and we shopped, ate and swam our hearts out.

We had planned to put travel on the back burner for 5 years until the kids are older (and met some financial goals) but my Mum suggestively mentioned that she might travel to Hawaii for Christmas 2014 (along with a few other friends and family). I wanted to instantly but knew the 'plan'...

Adam surprised me by saying he was keen to go if I could fund it with my part-time work. Saving is not my strong point (spending most definitely is haha) but this opportunity is too exciting to pass up. 

A lot can happen in 12 months so we will play by ear but I can't help but dream a little Hawaiian dream... 

Spot of sisal!

Thank goodness for the enabling power of social media (again)! A nursery retailer posted on Instagram that she bought a sisal/dute rug at Spotlight for the small sum of $24.50. She was on her way to Freedom to purchase something similar in size and texture for $300! It is 180cm in diameter.

Without a shadow of a lie, I had been looking at the same sisal/dute rugs at Freedom or even importing some from online, so this discovery had me dash to Spotlight first thing on a Monday morning! (And I wasn't the only one!)

So Will has one in his room (shelves still waiting to be painted!)

And I have another in the entryway. Wouldn't the table from Boticelli go perfectly? Sigh. 

It was very serendipitous and I'm very grateful for the absolute bargains!