DECORATE: Living Inspiration

I have my eye out for ways to decorate our new house! This house has an L-shaped open plan living space in a similar configuration to ours, reversed.

I really like the arrangement of the fireplace, with the TV above it. The heater is built out and there are low lying cabinets either side. That is something that we could consider for the living area of our open plan space.

We also have double sliding doors at the end of the living space. Ours will be a chunky commercial frame and we have specified a thicker, better insulating glass than the standard so it should provide us with light and a view of our garden without letting in too much heat!

Our kitchen island will also provide a breakfast bar and I am looking forward to being able to potter around in the kitchen with friends perched on the stools to chat! Our current kitchen is a separate room and it is difficult when you entertain to maintain engagement with your guests. The downside of course is that I will not be able to let dishes build up in the sink as they will be on view!

We have the same general layout of the kitchen with the awning windows on either side of the hotplate and the pantry and refrigerator in the return. We also will have two colours for our kitchen cupboards and drawers.

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Weekend of shopping!

I had a big weekend of shopping this weekend. Well, big compared to my recent habits! I have been pretty conservative lately and trying to save some money to pay for and kit out our new house. Mortgages are very scary, and we currently have two.

On Friday night I went home via the city malls. On my way to Myer I stopped at Pulse Urban and checked out their stock. I was very excited to see that they sold Australian Labels that are made in Australia, and including Maiocchi, Dogstar and Lush. I tried on a vast variety of clothing - skirts and dresses and cardigans - and ended up purchasing myself two merino wool cardigans. The first is long sleeved and a bit drapery and royal blue and black striped. The second is short sleeved and black, more for the in between weather we should be having right now! The cardigan label is Isla and they are made in New Zealand. The website on the tag is designer textiles.

Following on I headed to Myer where my mission was to buy tights. I had a $10 voucher that expired today and so I was determined to use it. They handily had a sale on their hosiery - 30% off if you bought three items or more - so I took advantage. I bought some funky tights from two labels, Levante, made in Italy, and Columbine, also made in New Zealand! Awesome.

After the excitement of being able to buy clothes that were (hopefully) not made in a sweatshop, I looked forward to the Angove Street Festival today. E and I made it our destination for this morning. The festival was fairly busy, with a rock band at one end and a ukelele spectactular at the other.

I added to my list of locally made goodies and bought a funky woolly hat from mel p designs, some onesies lovingly wrapped at Future Shelter and some lovely t-shirts from inuk designs.

Now I just have to wait for the weather to cool down so that I can wear my new cardigans, tights and woolly hat! I love my wool clothing and I am excited as it seems that there is a much better range of choice available. Although perhaps I was just never looking in the right place.

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Winter is coming. Maybe!

This morning I woke up and saw that it had rained on our balcony. Yay! I figured that was a good enough excuse for me to pull out my winter boots.

The forecast was for 21C and so I dressed half for summer (the top half) and half for winter (bottom). Halfway to the bus stop the sky started to weep and my decision not to wear a jacket on my walk seemed rather foolish.

The cooler weather is not meant to last and we are back up to 29C on Sunday, although perhaps the 30+C days are gone for this part of the year. We shall see!

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Angove Street Festival

This weekend I will be hanging out with my sister E at the Angove Street Festival. It runs from 10am to 4pm on Sunday 10th April, at Angove Street in North Perth. The shops will be cranking and the Perth Upmarket is making an appearance.

What more could we want?

More information on the market here.

Impulse buys - tights!

I just randomly ordered some tights! Sight unseen and no idea if they are any good. I am now looking forward to them showing up, and the weather being cool enough to wear them.

I was inspired by this post and a sense that winter might finally be on its way (although you would not know it with the temperatures that we have been getting here - consistently over 30C!)

Tightology boast that their legwear is made in Australia using organic materials. The packaging is 100% recycled. So many boxes are ticked!

Here are the two styles that I ordered. I was not brave enough to order the green and so I went with the more conservative red.



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C's Mum is a wizard with her needle and I am lucky that she has turned her hand to Delicates bags! These are perfect for putting your lingerie or delicate clothing into before running the washing machine. She had previously given me the butterfly bag, and on the death of a couple of the cheap supermarket bags that I had been using (my underwear used to just fall out of the rips!) she was kind enough to make me some more, of varying sizes. Thank you!

She has a whiz-bang sewing machine that embroiders the pretty patterns and text you see on the bags, and she coordinates the cotton with the zips. How awesome is that?

Floundering about

This was me yesterday. Floundering about! I had one of those days at work...

This is a truly unusual creature. Check out its eyes and mouth.

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Ensuite: After

With a bit of elbow grease and planning the ensuite underwent a transformation. See here for its previous incarnation.

We updated the browny tan tiles with a blue charcoal floor tile and white wall tiles. I like it a lot better and it makes the room look much cleaner.

We replaced the corner vanity with a smaller unit. This had the advantage of using a lot less space in the room and means that we can at least now dance around each other! The toilet is now dual flush and the same unit that we installed in the upstairs WC as well as was already installed in the downstairs powder room. We had a new mirror installed above the vanity.

The shower has been updated and a glass screen installed to give it a cleaner, sleeker line. The towel racks are in the same place as we had already previously installed racks, we have just updated the hardware.

The ceiling looks so much better! We have had the ceiling and cornice replaced as the previous ceiling was mouldy and extremely thin. C managed to poke his finger through it in parts! The fan is new and the light fitting as well. The skylight was existing but has been painted to match the ceiling.

A birthday breakfast

I was invited to breakfast this morning with K&B's family to celebrate LittleA's birthday. It was so lovely to catch up with everyone. I managed to sneak in under the "family" banner and I am not complaining!

Breakfast was at Blue Water Grill in Applecross. It is such a lovely spot, and we were outside with a 180degree view of the river. Nice! I was conservative and went for the Continental Breakfast and with that you get grilled asparagus, smoked salmon, cerealsm yoghurt, fruit and cheeses. There was more than enough variety to keep me happy and I was glad to give the hot food a miss.

It would not be a birthday celebration without cake, and K made LittleA an awesome work of art!

It seemed a shame almost to cut it, but cut it she did and we all tried to fit cake in after our massive breakfast.

There is an awesome playground at Heathcote, and it was jam packed full of families enjoying the facilities. After breakfast we wandered around the corner and watched while LittleA dragged her Nana under, over and through the structure. Oh what fun!

I took some time out to enjoy the view. What bliss!

I took a punt and rode my bike to breakfast this morning. I was hoping that there would be somewhere for me to chain my bike! Thankfully there was one rack around the side of the venue, but there was not a lot of obvious spots that I could see to park your bike. I think that I should ride more frequently to events, as our weather encourages it and it will get me moving and out of my car.

Ensuite: Before

Our current ensuite is a small room. When I bought the unit, it was untouched from the eightes. The vanity chipboard was slowly disintegrating and the ceiling was growing mould and the paint was bubbling due to the lack of reasonable ventillation. The toilet was dual flush and a bit blah and the room was just a little tired.

The ensuite is an L shape. It works well enough in a limited space but can be quite squeezy if there is more than one person in the room!

When we took the vanity out, we discovered that it was harbouring mould as well, so it was just as well that we have replaced everything in the room! The only original piece is the skylight.

Corner vanity, a little too shallow for decent storage and taking up a lot of space in a very small room! There were mirrors above both leaves of the vanity.

The shower is to the left of the vanity, and in its own little alcove.

The toilet, single flush and stylish, to the right of the vanity. The door shuts in front of the toilet, and there is not much clearance between the two!!

The ceiling before. The paint that had been used had a sand texture. C tried to sand it back but we soon realised that it had deteriorated too badly in parts and had the whole ceiling replaced.

The long way home

Tonight I went around to E's place after dinner to spend some time with her. She had suggested dessert or a walk and I thought that sounded like a nice idea.

When I got to her place I realised that she meant to walk to dessert, so off we went! We passed a stack of Dockers supporters making their way home from Subi Oval, and I guessed from their lack of enthusiasm that Freo had probably come second.

We did a lap of Oxford Street in Leederville to scope out a venue, and ended up at Greens & Cock. I counted 21 different cakes in their display cabinet, an impressive selection! The Chocolate Cherry Meringue Torte caught my eye and we shared a slice and a pot of tea.

The photo shows how it was served up. I kid you not! Three layers of meringue filled with cream, chocolate chips and bottled cherries. We were both disappointed in the meringue, E's assessment being chalky and overbaked. Still, we got out sugar fix and a good cup of tea to catch up on the week that has been.

We took a different route back to E's place and it seemed to be the scenic route. We walked alongside the freeway and random roads until eventually we recognised the Northbridge tunnel. Leederville to West Perth via Northbridge. We both needed a bit of exercise anyway and it meant that we could talk for longer.

As you can see from the photo Perth streets are extremely busy at 10pm on a Saturday night. Cranking.


I suggested to E that we should sample all of the cakes in the display at Greens & Cock. Not all in one sitting though. That would be a good excuse to get out for a walk and chat. Stay tuned.

Friday Night Fondue

The remnants of our first Chocolate Fondue night of 2011!

In contrast to the last one, this time around was about the biscuits rather than the fruit! We had marshmallows, chocolate teddies, lemon creams, biscotti, caramelised onion biscuits and licorice, with some apple, nectarine and grapes thrown in for good measure. It was a fondue feast!

I bought Fair Trade chocolate again too, from the Oxfam Shop. 200g each of milk chocolate and dark chocolate did for the five of us, although I am sure that we could have managed to make it through more.

I am lucky to work close to the Perth Oxfam shop and can pop there quickly for tea and chocolate and any other goodies I wish to buy from them! The tea that we are provided at work is pretty nasty. I usually bring my own in from home but last time I ran out I headed to the Oxfam shop to try their wares!

Unwrapping South Perth

I gave the markets last weekend a miss (Perth Upmarket and Made on the Left), and saved my enthusiasm for the Unwrapped market in South Perth last Sunday. It did not disappoint!

E dropped by after work and we walked down to the market. C lasted about five stalls before he decided that it was more exciting to go and buy potatoes and E and I kept going. Have I mentioned how much fun it is to go shopping with my sister? For the record it is excellent fun!

Angelo Street in South Perth was transformed into a bustling market place, and the clothing stores that we went into were jam packed with people. The market was part of the South Perth Fiesta, and there was a stage set up with fashion parades and entertainment.

It was great to see lots of interesting stalls that we had not seen before. There were familiar wares and new bits and pieces! We both found pieces to inspire us. I have a new blouse by TipToe, we both have greeting cards by Elbie Sparks and E has a tote from Sideline. We were also inspired by Truso and many more of the stall holders.

The next market is coming soon at the Angove Street Festival on the 10th April in North Perth.

Quarterly Update: Goals for 2011

Without even checking up on my Goals for 2011 I am fairly confident that I have not achieved any of them. Yet.

A five day weekend is coming up at Easter time. C is working so I will have time on my hands, and I think it will be a great opportunity to try and knock a few of my goals off! I am going to aim for the following three:
2. making a skirt
3. rejuvenating my footstool
4. making macarons

Hopefully I have enough time to organise the bits and pieces I will need for these three times, especially the fabric for reupholstering the footstool as I plan to purchase it online.

2. A skirt
My list of items to make a skirt includes:

• a pattern!


• fabric


• Mum's sewing machine


• thread and accessories etc


• the expertise of C's mother for zips etc

I think that a pencil skirt would be nice, the majority of the skirts that I own are A-line. So, whilst that could possibly be easier to make I would like to add something new to my wardrobe.

I did a whole semester of sewing when I was in Year 8. I have actually made a dress at one point in my life but it has been a long while since! This will be a real challenge.

3. My footstool
My list of bits and pieces to rejuvenate the footstool includes:

• fabric to reupholster


• fabric for the underside


• trim


• Spray paint


• sandpaper


• new cushion

I also think that I will need to deconstruct it to see how to put it back together.

4. macarons
There is not too much early preparation required for this, I should be able to buy the ingredients on the Easter weekend. My biggest is to determine what flavour I wish to try!

Bathroom blues

Yesterday C decided that it was time to get moving on renovation of our bathroom. It is the last room in the house to be touched!

This morning as I left the house to catch the bus I was greeted with the remains of the vanity and our mirror, waiting on the verge to be collected.

We purchased all of the tiles and fittings last year before we renovated the ensuite, so it is just a matter now of organising all of the parts.

We have a new vanity and basin, new taps and fixtures, new tiles and will be getting a new mirror and a partial shower screen. The bath we are leaving in place and going to get it refinished.