Bye Bye Christmas

Farewell Christmas and hello 2014!  Man alive, it is almost February. Bit late for a Happy New Year isn't it. How did that happen? Regardless, I hope you have had a lovely break filled with love and laughter. I love the Christmas holidays. Always have. Sun, food, beach time, family, friends. 

So my first Christmas Day as host was a success, despite all attempts by the weatherman to ruin it. As you know, it was the first time in the history of my family to have a cold lunch - massive deal. AND, wouldn't you know it, it rained. All I wanted was to sit under our newly installed shade in the yard, drink champagne, eat prawns and engage in the usual family banter in the sunshine. Champagne prawns champagne prawns, repeat.  Alas, it rained so the party was moved into the half finished carport and it wasn't the warmest of weather. Boo. So we didn't end up sitting outside for as long as I hoped and the backyard games that I had planned didn't happen either. Argh well, better luck next time eh.

A definite highlight of the day was our tree. As part of the day I requested that everyone wrap their gifts in "neutral + white" theme. Not because I have OCD, but instead of the mess of that cheap ugly Santa paper, (that makes for awesome missiles come the obligatory paper fight afterwards mind you), we had a beautiful tree with gorgeous looking presents under it. I wasn't sure how my request would go down with the extended family, but in actual fact, what happened was that everyone loved the idea and putting that extra effort into the wrapping, extended the joy. Which was awesome. 

My mother-in-law took out the prize for best looking presents. She hand cut(!) and designed the reindeers, snowmen. She made sleighs out of cut cereal boxes and covered with brown paper!  She is one clever lady. A cold English Christmas on her mind. So clever.  

Below is a snapshot of our day and my wrapping the last two pics, which I loved doing - those air dry clay ornaments were awesome.  Will be doing those again next year for sure.

The man on the BBQ, that's my brother. He was cooking under a beach umbrella in the rain - legend. Those cooked prawns on ice, that was only 1/3 of them - we had 4 kilos! Whoops. May have over catered. Those salads, I will be sharing some of those recipes soon. Too darn good not to.

What did your day look like? As wet as mine?

Here's to another fab year. Hope yours treats you well.

PS - I have fixed the commenting capabilities on the blog now.  Thanks for your patience and letting me know. x

Sneak Peak...

Little Baby A is 5 months old now. Cannot believe how quickly time has past us by. He had his first solids this week too! WHAAAT?  I know, crazy! It feel just like yesterday that I was leaving for the hospital. Loved my birth! Is it strange saying that? The below photo definitely captures the feeling of the moment and actually my birthing journey with Little A.  In this photo, I was in labour and we were about to leave for the hospital. Let the fun begin!

Now that little A is well settled in, one of my favourite parts of his development is watching his little personality coming to life. He is such a happy little guy. We have really been blessed with another chilled out baby. How lucky are we. So in the quiet reflective moments of feeding at 3am, I think over what I can do to make his room feel a little more him. As a result, I have been piecing together different ideas for a few months now. Below is a sneak peak. I am super excited to finish it and get it up on here to show you.  Just have to make a few finishing touches.

I am actually planning on doing a full post of both the boys rooms soon.  Little man's room was completed before we brought little A home to give him time to get used to his 'big boy room'. Thankfully he made the transition really well. He loves his room. I love his room.  So keep your eye out, post coming soon.

I am also excited about a new post series I will be doing. As having children can often change our world, I am interested to see how people's homes have also adjusted. This new series is called "Living with Kids".  Coming soon.

Sneak peak into Little A's room below.

The week that was

How gorgeous is Spring!  I feel an absolute lift to my spirit now that a few layers of clothes are shed. What is it about taking ones clothes off that makes us happy? Ha!

We have been doing good on the house front. A new garden bed and painting the west side of the house are the latest projects undertaken.  The race to get the house painted is apparently with the weather. It HAS to be done before summer really hits as painting on the western wall in the sun will be a bee-arch.  So, I am a weekend widow. Can I complain?  Don't think I really should as he is working on our home - still!

Here is a snapshot of the last week.

1// So our cottage was built in the 1950's and in that time, the house has been painted once. ONCE! We know this as the paint on the western wall was simply peeling off. We are also doing a sneaky... well not sneaky so much as smart. So the rest of the house is a really dark blue, almost black. Love it but if we painted the western wall this same dark colour, summer would be unbearable due to the absorption of heat. So we are painting it white, to help reflect the heat.  Sound stupid?  Hmm, maybe. It can't be seen from the street, so we don't really mind. Hopefully the plan works. ANYWAY back to this pic... Before you paint, you have to wash. Washing requires water and where there is water, there is the opportunity to make mud. And what does every little and big boy in my family love... muddy puddles! These two kids were having so much fun jumping around and splatting mud on the walls that I couldn't help but try to capture the moment. Daddy is always so much fun!

2// We have a new green friend in our bathroom. The Boon Frog Pod. Hello friend, welcome!  I got so sick of toys lying all around the bath with no place to go. I searched for some good looking options. Mr froggy is what I found.  You can also get a lady bird.  I thought the froggy was super cute. Like him?

3// When we installed litte man's new cubby, we covered the old ground level veggie patch. As we couldn't live without a veggie patch, we had made a Colourbond one, colour which matches the new roof! Ha! We spent months building up the quality of the soil, mulching, composting, fertilising. Finally we planted it out and finally we are seeing some results. This pic is some of my yummy spinach. The leaves are massive. So proud! The eggs are from my neighbour who drops them over each week. Such a sweet man. In return I bake for him. The tomatoes are from The Beaches Market. I am there each Friday. A lovely way to spend a Friday morning. What a great morning feast!

4// Now these babies are amazing. Sugar free, wheat free, gluten free, can be dairy free. Amazing right!  The original recipe is from Teresa Cutter, I have just added some fruit and sprinkled coconut ontop. 100% guilt free pleasure.  Below is the recipe. If you can't eat nuts, head to her website, she has some great substitution ideas too. Go knock yourself out!

150g (or 1.5 cups) almond meal
1/4 cup good quality cocoa
1/4 macadamia oil
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
1 tsp baking powder
2 tbsp honey
60ml of your choice of milk (almond, cows, soy)
Handful of frozen organic raspberries
Sprinkle of coconut

Add into the one bowl and mix. Add fruit last so they don't break up. Pour into patty cases or pans and bake at 160c (fan forced) for 20mins. Done when skewer comes out clean. note: the fruit makes them moist, gooey almost. For real cake texture, leave fruit out. It is just as yum.

Hope you are having a fab week!

Bedroom Inspiration

So we have been in our cottage 2 years in December. Crazy how time flies! When we moved in we didn't buy any new furniture - to be honest we didn't need to. We were living in a flat, yet it was jammed packed!  Friends always teased me about having too much furniture in there.  To me, I knew that living in a flat was short term in the big scheme of things, so if I was going to spend the money on a great piece, I wanted for it to also fit in a house. So yes, our flat was squishy! ha!

So our bedroom in the cottage. I won't show you a picture because really, there is not much to show. We actually diy'd a tuffed headboard when we were in our flat which I looved.  It was in raw linen too, but when we put our life in storage while we renovated, damp invaded our belongings. Wouldn't you know it, my headboard, my shoes plus some other bits were ruined. Seriously, there was about $2,000 of shoes absolutely ruined! Yep, I did cry.

So a bed without a headboard... to me, it looks a little bare... or does it?

Below is some inspiration for our new boudoir.  Might not be the very next project we undertake, but most certainly it's on the list.

Enjoy.

Image sources // 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 /

I have even more on my Pinterest page. So many beautiful ideas, not enough bedrooms to makeover! 

Project :: Wooden Step

Living among the gum trees, often there are tree loppers around the neighbourhood cutting down/pruning trees.  Being at home, I hear them often throughout the day, especially now it is Spring. A few weeks back our neighbours were the people making use of loppers services. *insert little happy dance* I heard them start work, but left them to their own devices for a little while. As soon as I heard that sound of the wood hitting the metal trailer, I was out there like a flash.  They were nice enough guys and as giving away a few stumps would actually reduce the weight of their load, they had no problem in losing a few. They were even kind enough to offer to cut some stumps to the exact height I was after, thanks fellas!

So what was my plan with these babies?  Well, to be honest I was going to use them in the yard as stepping stones for the boys up near the cubby (currently we have about 10 others sitting patiently waiting for the same role... it's on the list people!) But instead of getting the aborists to carry the stumps all around the back, I had them drop at the front so it wouldn't be so easy to forget about them, like we have the others. 

So ideas were tossed around for a little bit; seats for when we get the deck done, little coffee table for the deck... then I watched little man drag his yellow Ikea step ladder to the bathroom, I new what we had to do.

So here lies the evolution of a tree stump to a wooden step that gives a sweet little boy the leg up he needs!

Thank goodness for the skill of Mr English. Is there anything that man can't do?  I tell you!

If you are looking to take on a project like this one, here are some other bits that you should know:
a | The stool was left to dry for a few weeks in the garage before and after it was shaped
b | We used a belt sander to tidy up the edges and sides a little
c | We purchased some wood sealer from Bunnings so the stool would be suitable for a wet area
d | We also purchased some of those cute little felt feet that you have to hammer in. It means that the little man can drag this thing around without fear of scratching the new bathroom tiles!

Pretty cool uh!  We are pretty happy with the end result!

Hope your having a great week!

Baby Bathroom!

I was recently blessed with a beautiful bundle of pure joy, a second little baby boy to join our family. He is simply divine. Similar to his brother, yet so different. A happy soul nonetheless. When discovering I was pregnant, we discussed going through the Public vs Private system.  We could go private (yay, 5 days in hospital and no toddler to chase) or we could go public and with the money that would otherwise go to the OB, we could renovate our 70's bathroom! #WINNING!

With my first baby, we went private. Didn't at all like the OB we choose (tip: read lots of forums and speak to lots of friends to make sure the decision on your ob is the right one... I was greatly disappointed) and thankfully we didn't need him.  Little man's birth was great (I did a Hypnobirth) and Mr English played a massive role in keeping me present during the long birthing journey. If this birth was anything like the last, all I needed was Mr English and we were good to go! So public we went and HELLO new bathroom!

So the beautiful bathroom above.  Oh man, where do I start?  Tiled vanity top which was tiled over chipboard or particle board.  Think stinky stinky stinky after 30 years of water splashing into the unwaterproofed grout that no amount of bleach could rid of. It was probably the worst part. What we really liked is incredibly high ceilings, but it was tainted a loovely yellow colour, tobacco yellow as Mr English would call it thanks to yellow glass windows. It didn't help that the walls were yellow too. But at least we had natural light in a room that is in the centre of the house. The shower was a step in/up 900 x 900 bath, so when you were in there, you could see over the screen and curtain.  Strange feeling actually. Our linen cupboard also takes up a corner of the bathroom too which makes a small bathroom even tinier.
When deciding what we were going to do with the space, we figured that if we do end up filling all the bedrooms with kids (the cottage is 4 bedrooms), we might have to go up and it would make sense that this space that the bathroom now occupied would be a great spot for the staircase. So on a number of fronts, we didn't want to spend money where we didn't need to should this bathroom be pulled out in a few years time but we were also limited with the space we had to play with. There was only so much we could do. We could squeeze a full sized bath, but would have to rejig the position of the door. We could shift around the layout, but that would mean laying a new concrete floor and altering the plumbing. Too much we decided. We wanted this bathroom done in time for the new baby!
So what did we do?

All new tiles, got a shiny new vanity with stone top, new loo, new 900 x 900 bath and shower screen and so many mirrors that this tiny bathroom would look huge and bounce around even more light. I knew what I wanted. I had been collecting inspiration forever! We even used a timber rafter from the old part of the house that we pulled out as a feature wood element. Love that we could up cycle.

Below was my inspiration. Pretty sure I found them on Pinterest.

What does it look like now?? See below.
We installed a built in cistern loo. This allowed us to use the entire back wall as mirrored cabinets. A storage wonderland for a cottage with next to no storage! It also streamlines the amount of surfaces that can get dirty/dusty because lets face it, who likes to clean!?

So there it is, my baby bathroom!  Going public was definitely worth it!

Busy busy worker bee!

I had a look at the last time I updated my blog and it was months ago!  So much has changed since last time I have written.  My little man is crawling and we have sold and bought a house!  Well, truth be told, it was actually the other way round!  We bought, then sold.  Talk about stressful and not something that I am wanting to do again any time soon.  Loads going on!

Yes - we have a house!  A diamond in the rough, that with a little love and a hell of a lot of attention, we will get it up and looking like it old self in no time!

It is an original weatherboard on the northern beaches.  It is really my dream house.... well, the house it has potential to be is.  So, I have been busying myself choosing floorboards, doors, carpets, weatherboard and paint!  I do have to say, this process is one that I have been dreaming about forever.  Renovating my own home... but I think the process has somewhat been tarnished by the stress of selling our unit.    So glad it is finally over!

My beautiful boys.

It is funny, in living in my unit for the past 3.5 years, we have actually completed quite a few DIY projects.  I have been busting to put up on this blog... I don't know why, but I almost want to wait to show you what it will look like in our real home, our house. Weird... I would have never of thought that had we not been looking for a house.  Our unit is awesome.... but it is not a house. I guess it is something fun to look forward to.

Another thing that I am busting to explore is the type of garden that will suit my little family and our new home.  I had so many ideas about what I thought I wanted, but now with the opportunity to actually do it, I am finding myself heading in a different direction.   Oh so much to think about.  Watch this space!

Via