Family/Dinning Room

weekends #5 & #6, this is the largest room in our house with 3 large windows & 3 doors. it is 81/2 metres x 31/2 metres. again this room was yellow & as it is a very sunny warm room i decided to go for cool colours. 

2 days just on all the architraves with 4 coats of gloss Antique White USA.

our window frames are aluminium & are cream, now they look dirty cream against the white but thats ok 

 the colours for this room came from the Nippon Naturals colour chart. the wall with the cut out over the kitchen sink is called Sea Urchin kind of a grey sand colour

the other 3 walls are Ocean Wave

 it took me fri, sat, sun then the following fri to paint. i gave the walls 3 coats as it is a high traffic area.
the 3 Jarrah cabinets in this room are all custom made by 'A'
this room is our family room, our dinning room & also a computer area

New Paint Bed 2

weekend #4 son number 1, one very bright yellow room with a whole stack of holes from pins & nails to fill

Tip: a single bed fitted sheet will fit over the door. top to bottom & will not slip off

white gloss trim & the new wall colour is from the Dulux range it is called Zuni
as you can see its a very dark Aqua.

he did not want me to paint the floor or the wardrobe/bedroom doors so friday morning to saturday afternoon to complete. moved back in by 4pm

Craft Room update 2

my old bookcase now distressed white, giving/gave away one whole shelf of books & magazines

shelves with the draws, i have not sorted it all out yet so it will be changed around when i get some more time

this was my computer table. it is a square dinning table that was once round & painted dark green, i striped  & hand painted the dolls about 15 years ago & its still in great shape.

this is my new computer table, i came home on monday night to find it already set up. 'A' had the boys at work make it for me after work on monday. its fits very nice in the corner & its heaps smaller. the flat screen is also new to me 'A' got himself a bigger one. this is my first flat screen & i like it, my other one was one of the old giant ones that take up most of your desk hence the dinning table.

Craft room update

my new room colour is called Harbour from the Nippon colour book with a gloss white trim, the floor is a large terracotta tile not my taste but goes with the blue. i am going for all white furniture with red as an accent.

except for my high work tables they will stay as they are.

the cube shelf you can see 'A' made me a few years ago i have a matching pair, they have six draws between them, they sat in that spot 'above' side by side. i decided i didn't want it like that any more so 'A' cut  the top three shelves off one them & screwed it to the top of the other.

i think it works better like this it takes up less floor space. i also painted my book shelves white to match my kitchen dresser.

i have some custom made furniture that i will post about tomorrow.
as you can see in the other pictures my room has a pretty large window, double glazed so it keeps it cool in summer but in winter when the sun is lower it warms this room up very nicely but also makes it very bright so my computer screen is hard to see. so yesterday i had spotlight out to measure up for some roller blinds we already had three installed in out dining family room  & they are great. as spotlight had 30% off i ordered one for here & one each for the boys rooms at $659 all up. they are fabric block out roller blinds & the colour is called Palm Beach so an off white with a brushed stainless long the bottom.
i also painted another room this weekend & son number 1 is already moved back in but more on that later.

Paint every weekend

last weekend was the 3rd weekend in a row that found me with paint brush in hand, this time it was my craft room.

dont mind the mess, i had been cleaning out heaps of stuff & putting it up on Freecycle. well that will account for a little of the mess the rest well it has pretty much been a work in progress since we moved in, when was that again oh yes 2 years ago.

our whole house is/was painted 3 colours, pink in the main bedroom, mauve in the bath & toilet & yellow in every other room, needless to say i am not a fan of yellow any more.

it took me until lunch time on the friday to empty the room, boy do i ever have a lot of stuff.

by friday night the ceiling was finished & one coat on the walls,[ but not this colour]
but what colour you might ask, well you will have to wait till tomorrow night to find out. ok maybe a little clue it is a cool colour & goes well with red.

every thursday i have been buying 1 or 2 tins of paint i plan on painting every weekend until i am through the whole house or until im too tired out & will need a rest.

New Paint

new paint makes tired & old look happy & clean
the last 2 weekends i have been in the land of rollers & brushes.
as some of you may know i have a mauve bathroom & toilet with those lovely small square tiles on the floor. last year we put in a new white toilet through the scheme that sydney water had going. so out went the mauve toilet & a shiny new white one came to live. in our bathroom we don't have a window, we do how ever have a skylight & a fan. the mould problem in the bathroom was getting out of control & spending a couple of hours once a month cleaning it was just ridiculous. so a full friday de moulding the ceiling then a saturday painting it & today came the nice new wall colour called Harmony from the Nippon retro colour chart. Green & Mauve really do go well together. its still an old bathroom but now it looks clean & until we can afford to put in a whole new bathroom this will have to do.

Time for a new read

ever since we redid the kitchen i have been looking for a clock & i finally found one.

the things it had to have were numbers as i hate roman numerals & it had to be Red.

JACKPOT!  numbers, red & its made of wood. it was priced at $29 but when i went to pay for it it came down to $11 how cool is that.

i think it goes very nice with my duck & apron/bag rack

Angus & Robinson is closing down so they had 40%, 50% & 60% off, this little lot cost me $72
they are what i call easy reads & as i catch the train every day i go through a lot of books.

Sally Girl

i was at a scrapbooking site & found a, make a magazine cover
this is one of my fav photos, Sally Girl was following a lizard & she got some fluffy seeds on her head
super easy to make, took longer to find the photo than to make the cover
[no lizards were harmed in the making of this cover]

Stamps

over at Tickled Pink Stamps they are having a new release of stamps some one new to go with my fav stamp Lilith his name is Lestat
i dont have copic markers, id love to have some but at between $9 & $10 each i think ill stick with my water colour pencils.

Yard Work

two days of yard work, yesterday it was just Sally Girl & i, 'A' joined us today. pruning mulching & planting, needless to say im now had it so a leisurely afternoon for me, but first some pictures
ok no pictures blogger wont let me, so maybe later

two orange trees, one is a Lanes Late & the other is a Valencia

the people next door pulled all the jasmine off the fence so now they can see all the way down our yard from their back veranda, to say im not pleased is an understatement so i have started to plant agapanthas along the fence & the first of a row of Grevilleas, far enough away that they cant cut them from their side.

these are the Lilliypillies i planted a while ago they are full of new leaves, they are down near the compost bays we put in when we first moved in. i am hoping to grow them to fence height.

Tea Time with Waltzing Mouse

Tea Time

Waltzing Mouse Stamps is celebrating its 2nd birthday with a tea party.  It's open to everyone, and you only need to bring a teacup, or a tea bag, or a slice of cake to join.  Here is the link

For me its all about cute cup cakes

i used my new Martha Stewart Score Board to make the patty pan, its pretty cool i like it a lot :o)

New Look

as you can see i spent some time this afternoon changing the look of my blog, i dont know if its finished yet but its not to bad. how ever in doing so i have now lost all of my link list. so if i had you as a link on my side bar it would be great if you could leave me a comment so i can re add you to the list. and anyone who is new leave me a comment & ill come over & visit you :o)

Simplicity Costume

Sewing Day

yesterday i pretty much spent the day making this Reaper costume for 'S' he had an 18th Halloween B'day party to go to last night. i think it turned out pretty good.

the pattern is a Simplicity Costumes #9887

Crochet

 Crochet Blanket

just the right size for the couch to keep the chill off. 

i made up these squares last year & they were just sitting in a basket waiting to become a nice warn blanket. it was going to be a single bed blanket but i didnt want to make a heap more squares. last saturday  i layed it out & found i needed 3 more squares to finish it off.

it is a 9x7 patch about 68" x 48".

i didnt want to just sew it all together i wanted something more so on to you tube i went in search & i found a tutorial for a continuous five

chain flat braid Five Chain Flat Braid 

so on sunday i sat down & pieced it 

all together, took me pretty much 

all day, i like how it turned out, i 

will be using this method again. 

Happy Days

im on 10 days holiday & do i ever need it. i hurt my back at work on Tuesday & have been on a no lifting ban. i really do hate asking people to do things for me.
yesterday i made this canvas board, it makes me smile.

Garden Notes

Garden Notes
20kg of Potatoes dug up 

these are just a few that were drying in the garage

Sweet Corn coming on a treat


we have had a lot of rain here in the last few weeks, its good & bad. good because rain is always welcome, bad because a lot of my fruit has rotted & gone moldy before it was even close to ripe.


2 weeks ago i planted out another 2 rows of potatoes & they are already up to knee hight, thank you rain :o)
we have a load of granny smiths on the tree this year [mmm apple pies]


the Rhubarb has gotten out of control 


a couple of months ago i bagged up the fig tree & now i have figs just about ready to pick plus a whole heap of babies just coming on


looking out my window i just counted 47 white cockatoos down the back, they are truly a pest of a bird, they eat all of our fruit & make a huge mess, not to mention the cones they drop out of the pine tree down the back [look out below]


our two giant blood plum trees did not get any fruit this year but a small one in my front garden was loaded, we managed to get a few before the baby magpies finished them all up. they were small & super sweet.


for those of you who know about our solar panels you might be interested to know that our first bill was $123.86 & our second bill was $3.25
that makes you want to worship the sun :o)

New Year

Summer and the Days are Easy
well here we are again before i knew it another year has passed me by.
it seems everybody is busy with house renovations, crafts, family & just generally living life.
as for me, well i have been busy too, got my self a second job, so now i work monday to thursday & then fridays, saturdays & or sundays at night, usually only two out of the three nights, close to home and the extra money has come in handy. i have been offered a full time job but at the moment i can only handle the 3 nights a week and i dont want to give up my day job just yet.
 i am now on 3 weeks holiday, oh heaven, i have just been lazing around since the day after boxing day. my new Red Stripy hammock in the shade of my 2 plum trees is my new favorite place to hang out with or with out a book, snacks, long cool drinks and my Sally Girl for company :o)
the only thing im not liking is the hot weather