Update on Daybed Progress

Click here, here, here & here to see the story so far with our daybed.

So when I last posted about our daybed I had cleaned it up & had come to the decision that painting would have to wait till after August (our big holiday to New Zealand). I am defiantly seeing this decision as a huge positive, because I am having some serious trouble picking a  paint colour. So having more decision-making time is something I am quite thankful for. I have narrowed things down to 9 different tones of grey (yep 9, see why extra decision-making time is needed).

Anyway, the big news is that since we are not painting till after the purpose for which it has been purchased is over (somewhere for our housesitter to sleep while we are in New Zealand) we moved the daybed upstairs into the music/guest room. At first WH (wonderful husband) wasn’t sure that the daybed was going to fit through the back door let alone the door to the room that it was going it. Disastrous thought! But I assured him that as long as it could be brought through the back door (which is a big glass door) we could just put it in the lounge room, moving one of the couches into the music room. It was a good temporary solution & we could figure  out moving it to its proper place after our holiday.

But when WH went downstairs to have a look at the daybed he discovered a couple of things; 1. the spring based was held to the base by 4 bolts that could be easily undone and 2. the wooden part of the daybed was held together with screws that also with alittle force (they were painted over) came undone. All this meant that the daybed could be disassembled into 4 pieces, spring base, back & two sides. Making things extremely easy to move upstairs, yeah!!!!

So here it is in its new home in our music/guest room.

You can also see from this picture how not very big this room is. None of the bedrooms in our house are really all that big. Our master bedroom only fits our double bed, tall boy dresser & a small chair.

So that is the latest, in a couple of weeks we will have a mattress & I’ll be able to get some linens & pillows. Can’t wait to have this project already to go.

A Revoloution!

A food revoloution has begun in our house, and its all becuase of this book

(source)

I am sure alot of people are now knowingly nodding right now cause they know exactly why this cookbook has caused a real change in the way that we eat in our household. Like most people weekdays meals are tough, between work, music practise & church commiteements we don’t get alot of meal preparation time. For the last few months I have been doing all the meal cooking in our house with WH being so busy with work, I impemented a weekly meal plan that has worked great (must admit that the last few weeks I havve been very slack & havn’t planned any meals at all & have really noticed the difference to when I was planning meals! Getting back into meal planning this week I promise). Here is where I put our meal plan

I made it out of some of my digital scrapbooking supplies & an op-shop frame spray painted black. I write on the glass with whiteboard markers I just love how well it works (when I rememeber to actually use it!).

Since the begining of the year(ish) we have been watching Jamie Qliver’s 30min Meals on TV & even made a couple of recipes from the show (‘Roasted potatos’ & glazed carrots) we were blown away at how quick easy and above all else yummy things were. So we descided that we had to get the cookbook, thinking that since it was being advertised for sale after the show was over that the book should be easy to find in a book store. Right? Wrong.

We looked for weeks, months for this cookbook. Even asked my sister to keep an eye out (she is great at finding things tthat you are having trouble locating) but even she couldn’t find it. Then a few weeks agao I got a text from my sister saying that her work had just had a book club catalougue come in & it had ‘Jamie Oliver’s 30 Minute Meals’ for $20! From searching the net I knew that the book was worth $50 & I couldn’t get it online for anything  less that $30 (not including postage). So I texted back yes please!!!!! My sister, brother also got a copy each & my in-laws are going to get one too.

So far we have made a couple of indivdual meals & one whole meal. For those who don’t know how these 30min meals work, basically in 30 mins you can make a whole meal, sides, sauces, dessert & sometimes a fancy drink. The recipes are set out in steps; start the beef, then work on slicing the potatos for the side dish, back to the beef, begin the dessert, get the ingredients out for a drink, cook the potatos, finish the beef letting it rest, put the dessert together, finsh the drink & finally slice the beef serve the potatos. Litteraly 30mins dinner!

Also everything is served in serviing dishes not on indiviual plates, so it encourages you to sit at the table and all dig in. The food is simple, uncomplicated & unpretensious. Prefect for the week day meal issue.

Love, love, love this cookbook! Definatly one that is going to get well worn in our house.

It’s here again!

It’s Week in the Life time again. For those who have just said “A week in the what!?” click here to read my post from last year. Week in the Life is a concept by Ali Edwards (click here to read her post about what Week in the Life is) where you document one whole week of your life. It is like a modern time capsule a snap shot of your life at a specific time.

I participated last year and I love how it came out. Here are a couple of my layouts from last year

Last year my Week in the Life project was quite picture heavy, I think that maybe this year I will focus on one or two pictures & more journalling. And whether I go totally digital or totally tradition or a mixture of the two. I do enjoy participating in this project & will be posting as I go along. Still got plenty of time to decide on how things are going to look & be done before things begin. This year a Week in the Life begins 25th July & goes till 31st July.

Travel Tips

In August myself, WH & my sister are taking our exciting & long-awaited trip to New Zealand. It will be my & WH’s first trip overseas (which just adds to the excitement). Having never traveled overseas before I am not sure what to expect or what we will actually need. Luckily I have been coming across some great tips on some of my favourite sites. Thought I would share something that I came across today on Re-nest.

The Top 10 Things To Carry With You When You Fly

(I have changed the list slightly to suit my needs, click here for the original article)

1. Notebook, pen & pencil

Might seem alittle strange, especially if you aren’t the type of person who likes to write about experiences, I am that kind of person. For me this will be my travel journal. I love to document my thoughts & feelings about the experiences that I am having. Since this will be our first overseas trip I am sure I will be writing up a storm.

2. A Scarf or Shawl

I feel the cold, always have. And anywhere with air-con never seems to have it at any temperature other than freezing. Planes can be some of the worst because of the amount  of people in such a relatively small space, all those people create warmth then the aircon is turned down making it freezing! I will also be dressing in layers, since we will be going for our winter temperature 11 degrees lowest day time temp to New Zealand winter temp around 3 to -1 degrees ouch!

3. A snack or food of some sort

Some nuts, trail mix or something else small. Make sure that it is something that you will eat all of it. There are regulations for what can and cannot be taken across borders. Also good to check what is allowed to be brought food wise into the country you are travelling to (and from).

4. Lotion

Something that I have never thought of, but will defiantly being doing. In winter I can get terribly dry skin, especially on my face & hands, and aircon again doesn’t help me. A small tube of lotion is defiantly on my list!

5. Paracetamol, IBProfen & Antihistamine

Nothing worse that getting a headache & being stuck in what to be honest is not the quietest or darkest places to be having a headache. I also always get block ears, no matter if I don’t have a cold or even the slightest symptoms of a cold. I think that it is allergies that are set off by the aircon (there it is again, air con causing problems), so I have been taking an antihistamine before getting on a plane & I have no problems.

6. Audio player & earphones

What I didn’t think of is that having some form of audio player means more that just having your own choice of music to listen to, you can down load podcasts & audio books.

7. Chewy lollies

This again is all about my blocked ears, chewing helps alot when you are in the air with blocked ears.

8. A small bag to carry all the little stuff

There is no point having a small bottle of lotion, medication & other small items if you can’t find them. A small bag will keep everything together in one place & make it easy to access what you need.

9. Something to read / E-reader

Depending on what you prefer to actual hold a book or magazine or you own an e-reader. Having something to read is essential. We have a tablet computer that we will be taking with us, I might still take a book or magazine with us just because both myself & my husband will want to use the tablet computer on the flight.

10. A waterbottle

Again something that I didn’t consider cause when you fly in this day and age you can’t carry a full water bottle through security, but you can carry an empty bottle then fill it inside the airport. Being hydrated is important, stops the skin from drying out or getting a headache from dehydration.

Daybed story cont.

Since winning our new daybed on eBay I have been promising a better picture of our purchase. The one I showed in this post was too small and you couldn’t really see what it looks like. My post yesterday showed a sneak peek of our new daybed. Yesterday I spent an hour cleaning of all the dirt, mud, dust & cobwebs. I found that it needed a paint job cause the paint was stained from use but it was in great condition & other than a few spots needing filling I am so happy with the condition.

It is totally solid wood with a metal spring mattress base (springs are also in great condition), having now had the chance to have a good look at our daybed I have changed my priorities for the work that needs to be done to it before it gets used in August. I first thought that I would have to get the daybed painted asap, but now I can see that a coat of paint can wait till after August when we will have more funds & time.

So the priorities for our daybed are getting some fabric to cover the springs protecting the mattress from getting snagged or stained from the springs, getting a mattress (being the daybed has a spring base we can get away with a simple foam mattress to save some money) & finally pillows & linens.

As for colours I am leaning towards grey for the daybed, white sheets, blue blanket with yellow & blue accent pillows. Kinda like this image that I found as apart of my searching for inspiration (just with a grey coloured daybed and a blue blanket on the mattress)

Our Daybed Story cont

Finally here are the photos from our trip to Toowoomba to pick up the daybed that we won on eBay. It was such a wonderful day, sun shone the entire day until after we picked up the daybed in the arvo. A huge storm started brewing so we raced home (at the speed limit) but we were lucky leaving the menacing clouds far behind.

I used two photo masks from the Design 365 – Color kit 2 (currently 35% off till 26th June 2011)

My weekend

Another Sunday has come and gone, that’s the weekend over for another week. Well….not really. For our family anyway. WH works Saturday’s so gets Sunday Monday off instead. So our weekend has only just begun! Today we decided to have our monthly lunch date down in Caloundra, it was a lovely restaurant called Amici Cafe. We went here for the Relay For Life fundraiser dinner a month or so back (where we won our big TV! Still unbelievable that we won that). I had a lovely creamy penne & mushrooms pasta, serving size was perfect for me ate the whole thing. WH had a steak burger, which he said was probably the best one that he has ever had! We ended our lunch with a delicious cheesecake for dessert, peppermint with mint slices crumbled between layers of creamy cheese. Yummy, yummy, yummy.

When we got home we thought we would take advantage of the verandah clean-up I did on Saturday. But when WH opened our outdoor umbrella he jumped backwards & rushed back inside. This is what was inside

I took this picture while crouching as close to the verandah floor as possible & hiding behind a chair. I am quite allergic to wasps so wasn’t in any way interested in getting bitten. Now this particular wasps have caused us problems a month or so ago, when they built their nest under our bbq. I got rid of them by spraying them with the hose. I h-a-t-e using chemicals, I just don’t believe in them, both myself & WH have asthma which can be triggered by chemical use around the house & I have dermatitis which again has its origins in chemical use. And I really don’t like killing insects, not because I am squeamish but because when I was doing my Environment degree I learned all about how insects pollinate all sorts of important plants, including food crops. But these wasps had to go…..and die. I took the above picture while he was out buying insect spray.

We have had a beautiful weather all weekend & enjoyed being out in the sun this afternoon. Tomorrow we are hitting some paint store for paint swatches for my daybed project. I think that I have narrowed my colour choice inside my head. I don’t want to share yet, incase I change my mind.

Saturday is here again!

Saturday means two things markets & gardening. Today I bought a bale of sugar cane mulch & a bag of potting mix & really got suck into a few been meaning to do jobs in our backyard. I re-potted some of the plants that we have on our back verandah (click here to see the pots before) then decided to do something about the overall state of our back verandah. I don’t know what happened, whether it was our wet natural disaster filled summer or just neglect over the last year or so. But the state we had let our back verandah get to was just embarrassing.

Our verandah is a lovely big space, it would be nicer if it were alittle wider. We are fortunate enough to have 3 big trees that provide shade during summer (sometimes you do wish they weren’t there during winter but that’s ok), 2 lilypilly’s (1 at the very far end of this picture & another to the left of this picture at the bottom of our stairs) & a mango tree.

This is our outdoor dinning area, probably the only place on the whole verandah that is usually always nice and clean. During summer when it’s not raining, we eat lunch & dinner out here. It is also a lovely place for breakfast in Autumn & Spring.

Here are the pots that I replanted, I am going to get some decorative mulch to pretty them up & help to stop the pots from drying out too much in summer (sometimes you have to water daily during the hottest days).

Now for the awful bit

Before

The wooden table was given to us as a wedding present 6 years ago, it is starting to fall apart so I wanted to move it downstairs to use as a potting table. But when I tried to move it, it started to fall apart in my hands. Since it was probably going to be in pieces by the time I was able to get the table downstairs I decided to take the easy way down.

Saves trying to figure out where to put the table, it store in much less space then it would have. All the wood is actually in pretty good condition, turns out the table was just held together with these small nails that couldn’t hold the table together with the natural expansion & shrinkage that the table underwent while it was on our verandah. I have store the pieces away & am thinking of making a bar for underneath the kitchen window across from the bbq….maybe.

After throwing the table off the verandah I got out the broom & gave the whole place a good sweep. Thankfully this was pretty much all in needed, then I moved a few pieces if furniture that sort of float around the verandah as they don’t really have a specific place.

After

Much improvement. This year we are going to be getting a fire pit, this is where I envision it going. I really like this part of our verandah, from here you look out on to this

That is one of my favourite parts of our little town, it is ponds that are surrounded by parkland with bbq, playground, flying fox & skate bowl. I have been going to the ponds since I was a child & have seen quite a few changes so far all good. Many picnics, bbqs & playdates have been had at the ponds. Though if I don’t get my act together and trim the big lilypilly tree to the left I think my view is going to disappear.

Also got a whole lot of mulching done, went through the whole bale of sugar cane mulch that I bought. Never, ever done that before I can tell you. I am so thankful that during winter we have a period of slow growth, it is really helping to get the weeds under control. By the way, check out that sky! Beautiful winter’s day or what!

Greek key inspiration

Still haven’t set down how I want our daybed to look (click here for the full story), but I was reading Little Green Notebook this morning and found inspiration for another piece of furniture that we have around the house. In our spare room/music room (where the finished daybed will eventually live) we have this small cupboard

Again it is a piece that we got from my husband’s work, someone returned in because it had some damage so we got it at a big discount. My husband has another cupboard that he wants to get rid of at the store that we can get at another great discount. The one that we have now is full of shelves, it holds cleaning supplies, vacuum attachments & extension cords. In its current location it is next to impossible to access, cause of the ironing board that sits infront of it (for the picture I had to move the ironing board).

Once the daybed goes into the room I am going to move this cupboard & add a second cupboard (without shelves, for our broom, cobweb brush, mop & bucket). The front is pretty plain (extremely plain), I havn’t put any thought into improving the look of the cupboard. Until this Greek Key Dresser on Little Green Notebook.

(click)

 There are some other great examples of this Greek Key design in the post on Little Green Notebook. Defiantly gives me something to think about, after I have completed the daybed of course!

A collection of family memories

This past weekend was the Queens birthday weekend, so there was a public holiday on Monday. Monday was also the day we did the 6hr round trip to pick up our daybed! More on that soon I promise, I have to go through and edit the photos.

This evening I was reading Jenny Komenda’s blog Little Green Notebook & she did a post about her collection of artglass paperweights. It was a lovely nostalgic post about her Grandmother (who also collected artglass paperweights) who emigrated to America from Sweden when she was 19 years old. It is such a wonderful story, especially the part about the bitter apple! Click here to read her post & learn about the bitter apple.

I loved how the best thing about Jenny’s artglass paperweight collection was the connection with her Grandmother, so I thought that I would share my collection with family connections.

Last year myself and WH traveled to see his Grandparents before Christmas, it was a quick & interesting trip (it was the beginning of what would be our States worst natural disaster). WH’s Grandparents have taken a big interest in my WH’s love of photography, so they gave us their old cameras. It was a lovely & thoughtful gift.

Since then I have bought one camera & my mother has given me her old camera. I love how everytime I look at these cameras I feel the embrace of our past generations who shared the “snap happy” mentality. My Father has said that I can have his old camera too (if he can ever find it), that would be a special thing to me to have. My Father was in the Navy from age 16 so the places that his camera would have gone & seen.

I am not the kind of person who can generally just buy something to have it on display in our home, something just decorative. But the things that I do have that a purely decorative are things that I have been given by family members, I think that it’s that connection to different family members that makes them feel right in my new family’s home.

Do you have a collection with family ties or something special around your home that reminds you of a family member?