I'm thinking now that the chillier winter months are settling in, this neglected blog may get some much needed attention..

One month on and only one post, sorry I've been lying low.

Here's another op shop oily. The texture and detail is really lovely and I won't tell you how much...

Ok, ok, $8!!! I think my future picture wall is coming together.

Oh yay! I gots me an army bench from max watt's industria - looking pretty perfect in the hallway.

Illustration by Emma Leonard

Some garland making for the festive season..

I found a lovely home for it on some driftwood precariously perched over the picture rails...

Probably not the safest idea!

hello there...

I scored these kelim cushions (sort of free) with a rug purchase..

We needed a new hallway runner and sadly as the Loom ones are some what out of my budget, who else to turn to but my trusty friend ebay.. I am sure the seller thought he was off loading his dodgey left overs but I love the vibrant pinks & orange. Winner!

my weekend, my casa

Lunch with the girls was good and bad.

The company and view was beautiful. Lunch itself and service was comical. My gnocchi was so under cooked it was like eating clag glue dumplings. So bad. Next time it will be a packed lunch on the picnic tables.

We finally moved the lounge room back into the front room.

JD worked his Macgyver magic and fixed the heater (for now) The door still needs handles and another coat but I couldn't wait any longer.

A brief trip to the Sunday markets for bunches of poppies and honey. JD's brother and wife and nephews' popped round for a visit. So cute, they had us in hysterics. I didn't get round to making that lemon tart that I'd been promising everyone at work.

inspired by..

patric johnasson :: 2 & 4 by me :: the marion house

Some bits and pieces for the lounge room; a new light and some cushions which had followed me home some months ago but only recently got round to snapping some pics to share.

A some what productive weekend... JD spent most of today in the garden weeding, mowing and planting the ornamental pear trees his parents had given us. I started painting the spare room, which up until now had become the forgotten room - you know the corner or room that becomes the dump and deal with it later room. I painted over the bottom blue half of the previous owners yellow & blue coastal paint job. Eeeek! 3 more walls and 2 more coats...

weekend randomness

The weekend was very random. a civalised work gathering ended up at a vodka bar and dancing to the wee hours. Mum visited today and found me in a lazy state and in contrast JD was being all handy looking rather impressive drilling this and fixing that round the house.

We walked Archie to the beach. Seriously that dog is impossible, he went at the other much bigger dogs and just could not cope with the cyclists.

I'll try my first attempt at coq au vin tonight and to add to the randomness I'm making lemon slice - just because..

Hope you had a nice weekend.

Little bits around the house from our trip, hat from UO and New York in a bag from Muji. Feels like forever ago..

all white now

image by me

I'm beginning to forget what our new place looks like...

Thankfully the pre-settlement viewing is tomorrow. I haven't thought much about where or how to arrange furniture in the rooms and where to place my dust collectors. Oh well I'll slowly slowly get round to it.

I'm starting to feel a little bit more organised about our trip and have typed up a little spreadsheet of places by area (arrgh, crazy virgo!!) but still so much to do. Eek, only 11 days to go until we fly off.

farewell flat

The last couple weeks we've been running around completing odd jobs which have been on our to do list, like forever. Funny, how we get complacent. I have cleaned and re-cleaned the same surfaces a zillion times more - getting a tad carried away I think.

I have pared back the knickknacks (would you believe I love colour, although it's lacking in these photos) and have put the 'excess' furniture into storage for the rental inspection. Our kitchen looks boring, but I figured best to keep the benches clear. We've had those baskets for a few years now, if we were to stay I'd replace them with galvanized ones.

On our last night, with bare rooms except our bed, felt like our very first night there 8 years ago. A restless sleep and a belly full of nervous butterflies.

one old arm chair

JD's dad made this arm chair from scratch some 30 years ago. It sat in his work shop window and then for many years in his shed. When we moved out we added it to our mix mosh collection of furniture.

It's incredibly comfy and often after a hectic day I've fallen asleep in it.

Maybe one day we'll have it upholstered. But whilst still undecided on what fabric to use, I do love it as it is, all worn out and beaten up..

anyone seen my diary?

Small A5 Yellow Kikki-K. Dammit where are you?

I mad list jotter. Religiously scribbling in my diary. I am a Virgo - nuf said.

In the meanwhile, our entrance hallway blackboard doors, normally reserved for shopping lists and 'nag' board will have to do.

More on our entry hallway when I've spruced it up a little.

oh christmas tree

I dragged this in off the side of the road on the weekend.

I have visions of how this can turn out brilliantly or.... hmmm, we'll see!

new dust collectors

I kept telling myself no more, but I couldn't resist. The op-shop was having a half price bric-a-brac sale, and this ceramic vase has such lovely texture. The oil landscape is only 9cm x 20cm and is a cute addition to my growing collection.

Speaking of dust, I spent the whole of today vacuuming, mopping and got lots of housework done. A pretty darn good effort given the big Saturday night that was had.

the weekend

What glorious summer days we've had, it was sooo incredibly tempting to run away to the beach...

But then friends and family would have endure my 'i have no kitchen blah blah blah' winging for another 6 months. Thankfully progress was made this weekend.

slowly, slowly getting there...

Next time I won't announce my make overs - I'll just show before and after pics when it's done. Mind you, I warned progress photos would be few and far between. The sad thing is, it's not even a full renovation, just a facelift.. Like I said, we're slackers.

Still need to paint and I am on the look out for a kitchen island or breakfast bench.

Winge, winge, winge: Currently having cold showers and washing dishes in the bathroom basin

the weekend so far..

Last night, friends and I had dinner and drinks at Movida. Yuuum. Completely over ordered and still managed to squeeze in churros and a citrus custard for dessert. Oh my, deeelicous.

Afterwards we saw Sarah Blasko at the forum. What can I say, she was spectacularly ethereal.

Today JD and I worked a little more on the kitchen (kitchen? what kitchen...?) On the way to Bunnings, I stopped off and checked out a school trash n treasure market. I bought this "It's love that makes a house a home" cross stitch for $2. It's strategically placed amongst the crumbling bricks and mess in the kitchen.. I spose a little cheesiness never hurt nobody.

Going to see a movie tonight with the boy.

morning mess

This is our couch in the morning...

Relatively comfy but it gets rather squishy between JD, Arch and I... and it ends up looking like a lumpy mess in the morning.

can o' worms!

Yup opened another can of worms!

I diverted my short attention span off the kitchen and started working on our spare room/office. Given there's only certain things we can do to the kitchen during the week after work hours - eg. we can't drill into brick walls or re-wire so we've been stripping back and re-painting the spare room for the last week.

So before there was one long dark stained floating desk from one wall to another along the window. Whilst it was really nice to have a big work space, with my sewing machine down one end and JD's computer down the other, it limited the furniture layout. It became a storage nightmare and eventually became a junk dumping room.

Sanding on the balcony!

Stripping back paint off the windows & skirting

JD attaching the timber boxes onto runners for handy drawers

My trash n treasure stool

I love timber boxes

I know, it looks 'very Ikea' but the dark table top was looking too heavy against the new floors, repainting it white has opened the space up and makes the room look much bigger.

More pics to come - I'll be adding my collectables and set everything else soonish.. Well, maybe after the kitchen is done!

cabbage flowers

So I ended up getting the Jorun rug from Ikea yesterday. Currently having a play around with it in the lounge room.. Still unsure, it may be too matchy matchy with the sofa, but I like the pattern.

On the way home I stopped past the flower wholesaler and bought these awesome cabbage flowers. I probably should have attempted a more artful display but gave up.

Yay! The metal frame for our coffee table has been completed and is being dropped off this week. Remember I was ranting on about it back in April, I'll take a pic on the weekend of its new steel legs.

our floors

As much as would love to keep a visually attractive blog, and ideally would prefer not to show the hideous state of the floors before.. I've decided to "keep it real" and show the warts and all.

Before: The kitchen with the ever so lovely vinyl glue.

Before: The yellowy orange lounge room:

After: The kitchen

After: The hallway

The floors are actually not as glossy as they appear in the photos. This was taken before the satin finish was completed. Overall happy with the result, although I could have gone a bit darker. But JD really didn't want to and as he happens to live here too, his opinion was permitted :)

I seriously harassed our floor guy throughout every step and process, popping by to reiterate what I wanted and ensuring he understood. "Not red, no orange.. No yellow.. Satin, yes, yes walnut..." Sheesh what a ball breaker I am! Lucky he was very understanding and super patient.

home..

Holy frick, it's been a long one and a half weeks. I am exhausted.

Work has been crazy busy at trade fairs and whilst it's been absolutely divine staying with our lovely friends, I'm ready to go home.

The floors are finally done and I'm itching to get back and start arranging the furniture. Perhaps go searching for some new rugs.. And maybe a new sofa to make better use of the space in the lounge room, likely to be a simple shaped modular.

With a completely bare apartment, it's my clean slate. With a blank canvas, I'm feeling inspired to do some new things... Not a good idea to distracted - must stay focus on finishing the kitchen!

Maybe a 'before' shot - a snippet of the lounge room...

Old fold out beach stool/ make shift foot rest - another Camberwell Market buy