August 2012Life Love and Hiccups: August 2012
Life Love and HiccupsLife Love and HiccupsLife Love and HiccupsLife Love and Hiccups

Friday 31 August 2012

Some Very Special Vintage Finds and The Bedroom Makeover is Nearly Done

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I was going through some boxes in our garage that holds some old treasures of my husbands late mum. She passed away when he was 15 and left a gaping hole in his heart. I came along a few years too late to ever have the joy of meeting her, but from what he has told me about her, she sounded like a wonderful, strong and very creative woman and I just know I would have adored her.

In one of the boxes I found some dusty old quilts and crochet doilies, table cloths and blankets. Instant love and under all the dust I could see their beauty. I gave them a gentle wash, terrified that they would fall apart. They didn't and those vintage gems now live proudly in our home.

This gorgeous quilt was made by my husbands Nan. It even had a special message sewn in so no one would ever doubt it was made with love by a grandmother for her grandson.

  
The table cloths had been embroidered by Carl's Mum and the colours and detail were simple yet beautiful beyond words. Be still my heart.
 


I am in the process of making over our bedroom, bit by bit and it is nearly complete. Just something special for the wall, some new bedside lamps and a few extra touches and we will be done.

I was meant to find this quilt. The colours could not have been more perfect if I had gone looking for something to match and I am so thrilled that this piece of my husbands childhood has found his way back to him... to us.








I cant wait to finish this room and show you the end result. Normally I am very impatient and want everything done like super quick. But I have enjoyed taking my time with our bedroom, adding to it bit by bit and just waiting for the perfect pieces of the puzzle to find me instead.

Have a great weekend. Anything exciting planned?

Thursday 30 August 2012

Oh Man I had to Go and Make Another Video Didnt I!

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Oh Good Lord I had to go and make another video didnt I.

When will I learn that cameras and I arent a particularly good combo, unless I have a cocktail in hand ... and then that camera and me, we are making sweet music ... no not that type of music ..... not that type of film either ..... Oh Shut Up Sonia!

Oh Kill me now - Thanks You Tube for the totally glamourous front shot!


As I said I am not tagging anyone in particular, feel free to answer play along in the comments by answering one, a few or all questions, or make your own video or post and let me know about it so I can come and have a sticky beak.

Special thanks to Ellie at Emerald Pie for tagging me. 
If you get the chance pop on over and say hi to that gorgeous Irish gal.

Wednesday 29 August 2012

Instagrammly Addicted!

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 I'm not sure if it is all the inspiring photos and ideas you can get from Instagram, the communicating with other like minded people or if it is just simply that I am a total sticky beak and love a voyeuristic squizz into people going about their day. Whatever my motivation may be, I just love it and once I discovered the joy of Instagram I was Instagrammly addicted.
(yeah I know hand me the cornball award!)

But seriously Instagram - Where have you been all my life. You provide me with yet another fabulous way to procrastinate instead of doing what I really should really - which is probably something completely boring in comparison to wasting time on Instagram ... Get my drift!

Now since there is a good chance I am having a nosy around your photos on instagram, I thought it was only fair I give you a little sticky at some of my photos from the past two weeks.
Yet another thing to adore about Instagram is the ability to waste even more HUGE chunks of time looking back over past photos and dreaming about warm sunny days at the beach, cocktails and good times. What's not to love about a time waster like that?


I use Instagram to not only record memories, but to share things I find stumble across in my day, things that I think to myself "I wish someone else could see this too". And that's the beauty of Instagram, you can share anything anytime from anywhere.
 
There are so many great apps you can use in conjunction with Instagram, you just need to sit down and play around with them to find what works for you.
 
Now I'm not going to reinvent the wheel by attempting to write any tutorials or guides, because the gorgeous Chantelle from Fat Mum Slim is in fact one of the Queens of Instagram and she has already done all the hard work and provided a great tutorial to get you started and help you navigate your way around Instagram.
 
You can find her Instagram 101 guide here, and Chantelle has a whole page on her blog dedicated to Instagram tips and apps and Iphoneography which you can check out here.
 

Are you an InstaAddict too?
Click on the link above and come and say hi.

Tuesday 28 August 2012

And a New Room is Born out of Boredom!

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I have been foofing around the house again. Cause that is what you do when you are house bound with a child who is recovering from surgery.

I get bored very easily with rooms and I like to redecorate areas of the house by shopping what I already have and making some new bits and pieces to boot. Its a female thing my husband and his friends tell me, and that's okay by me but I have to tell you that I have three little boys who were pretty happy to be on the reciving end of my recent bout of foofing.

We have this kind of nothing area at the top of our stairs outside two of the boys bedrooms. I call it a nothing area because it is just this weird void with an equally weird window that you have to stand on the couch to see out of. It is a sunny weird void though and cosy at night time too. So I thought it would be the perfect spot to make the kids their own TV / Playstation den that I too can hide away in occasionally when they are tucked up in bed.


The instructions from my boys were very basic "Please don't make it too girly Mum". Meh easy as!

I used my Super Easy cushion pattern to whip up some cushions with left over material I had lying around. Okay so one of the cushions has the word kisses on it, but if that's the only really visible  throwback to girly, I did alright in my books.


The Barn Stars were a bonus. I bought them ages ago for under $40 bucks for all three from a homewares clearance and then I promptly shoved them behind a door when I got home. As per usual, I totally forgot about them until I was scouting around for things to use in this room. See there is merit to my madness of stashing my purchases.

 

I'm thinking it needs a wall of full length soft billowy curtains or something to break up that back wall and hide the weird window shape. I guess I'll have to start googling how to make curtains now and add that to my every growing project list. But for now these little lanterns hung under the window put off a cute ambient glow at night and adds to the cosiness.

 
The fabric canvas I did a few weeks back when I did the cushions and was again using left over fabric. You can find out how I made the easy canvas wall art here if you are interested. It was a super quick, super easy and super satisfying little job for a project junkie.



And so my friends the moral of the story is ..... ummm ...... sometimes cabin fever can be conducive to getting stuff done and shopping and stashing can be a very fruitful and rewarding practise!

Do you shop and stash?
What's the best thing you bought, hid and rediscovered later?
What colour curtains do you think this room needs?

Monday 27 August 2012

Nothing Tastes Better Than That First Bite!

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Nothing tastes quite as good as that first bite. OK I lie, the second and third and everyone thereafter are pretty damn good too, but they taste even better when you are seven and you made those Cupcakes all by yourself.

After the madness that was last week with my little boy Flynn's operation, it was nice to just spend the weekend pottering around the house and not doing anything much more important than baking cupcakes.
 

Sammy was determined to make these for us and I was determined not to eat them.

He smashed his goal, and I failed mine. My willpower sucks.


There are major benefits of being the chief Cupcake Chef. You get to lick the spoon. Yup that glorious gooey spoon is yours for the taking and ideally you take your time licking it clean in front of drooling siblings, just cause you can.



He ploughed through a mountain of homework to get his hands on to these. They were off limits until every last spelling word had been completed and every last sentence neatly written up.

Bribery and corruption runs rife in our house. Just keeping it real folks.

And after all that hard work there is only one thing left to do. 
Eat those cupcakes like a boss!



On another note, our little Flynn is doing beautifully. This brave little guy powered through his surgery and not a single tear was shed.

He has informed me he likes the Magical Sleepy Gas and that we should get some at home for when his brothers are hogging the PlayStation. Mate if that stuff was legal for domestic use, kids bedtimes would be a zillion times more peaceful and less stressful for Mums and Dads all over the world.


We just wanted to say thank you all so much for your gorgeous messages. I read every single one to Flynn and he couldn't believe that so many nice people wrote especially to him.

From the bottom of our hearts - Thank you.

So what's news with you guys?
Did you totally rock that Weekend?

Thursday 23 August 2012

A Guest Post from the Gorgeous Desire Empire

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Well Hi There and Happy Thursday!

I'm going to be away from this little blog of mine for a couple of days as I have a certain little munchkin who is heading into hospital for some surgery and he is gonna need his mum to take extra special care of him. But I'll be back next week and in the meantime I have a special guest post today from a lovely friend of mine - Carolyn from Desire Empire.

I adore the beach and anything coastal and so its only natural that I lurk around the many beautiful coastal and beachy blogs. I met Carolyn through blogging after I recognised some of the photos of local places she posted on her blog. We discovered we lived very close to each other and arranged to catch up and we have been buddies ever since.

That's the thing about blogging, not only do you get to view the world through some else's eyes, and learn through some else's experiences, if you are lucky you make some fabulous friends along the way too.

Carolyn also has a Facebook Page you can find here, so when you have finished drooling over her beautiful beachy home you can pop over and say hi there too!


Hi I'm Carolyn from Desire Empire 

The lovely Sonia has invited me here today to meet her wonderful gang.

blog about the goings on in our lives here at the Beach House and how I was a fabulous mother until I had kids, about the rocky road of marriage and how it all hangs together by a thread at times.

My back drop is the beautiful  Australian coast and a cute little post war Beach House, which my husband, Mr Beach House and I, have brought back from the brink of oblivion over the last 7 years. My blog has lots of styling and crafty posts but also what us salty types get up to socially, gastronomically and architecturally, as well.

As Sydneysiders we live the majority of the year outside and so we have decks front and back here at the Beach House.  I recovered this old cane lounge from the side of the road, painted it white and jooshed it up with some blue and white nautical stripe.  We love to sit out here for drinks on a balmy Summer afternoon as it's quite cool and shady.


This is our back deck, which faces north and is a gorgeous place to be in Winter. The living room opens up to the back deck via bifold doors.  I can often be found out here playing tablescapes or sitting in that Adirondack chair over there, pouring over cookbooks, dreaming up elaborate menus for our next round of entertaining. Or sometimes just hiding from my kids, who are fondly known around here, as the Beach House Brats.


Here's a shot of our living room back towards the kitchen.  I went for an all white kitchen with very clean lines.  I usually do all my renovating with resale in mind and this kitchen was no exception. Funnily enough now we have fixed up the house, I do really love it and think we will be staying here for quite some time.


We entertain lots around our kitchen island bench.  Usually I do small drinks parties with lots of casual food and beautiful wine.  That's me in the black dress.



I also like to collect lots of nautical vintage pieces and they are all over the living room


This is the other end of the living room.  That winged back chair so needs to be recovered and is on the to do list.  The vintage surf board on the wall was used by my father in the 60s and is another of my loves.







Recently I redid my daughter's bedroom on a very tight budget.  You can see more pictures of that project and how I did it here


My son's room is next on the to do list, but he wants a Minecraft  theme and I want red white and blue nautical, so shall we say it's still a work in progress


As we live in such a beautiful area, I take full advantage of our surrounds and love nothing more than setting off with my camera in search of interesting shots for the blog.  I love how these local boys  are having loads of fun together.  I'm not sure what their mum's would think though.  It was pretty rough that day!!! 


I love to craft.  I made all the art work for my daughters bedroom make over


and I love to bake and decorate cakes.




I painted this surf board with chalk paint and it now bares all the menus for our parties.


So why don't you pop over to Desire Empire to say hi. I have lots of links in my side bar to some great family recipes and my craft and coastal styling ideas.  Let me know you popped in and I'd love to visit you back.

Thanks so much Sonia for having me over today.  I loved introducing myself to all your lovely readers Son








Wednesday 22 August 2012

And So I have decided that next Birthday I'm turning 5 Again!

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There is nothing quite like being 5.

Life has not yet become complicated and the most stressful thing on your plate is deciding whether to ride your scooter or tackle the bike again.

Everyone you meet is a new friend to be made and fairies and pixies live in your back garden.

Spidey is a hero and the only war you know about is the one you are about to have with your brother because you used his new crayons without asking.

You can get away with falling asleep where ever and when ever you want and someone will always carry you to a nice warm bed when your legs are too tired to work.

You can still fit on your mum's lap for cuddles and you are light enough for Dad to hold you upside down and swing you around like an aeroplane.

Your dance card is chockas and weekends are often a spent socialising with friends, going to parties and eating cake.

Sunrise is your favourite time of the day, it brings new adventures that you simply just cant wait another moment to begin.

Why? Is the most pressing question you have, the answer is not so important, you'll forget the answer by this afternoon anyway, but it keeps them talking to you and that's all you really want.

You can wear what you want, when you want. Style is a personal choice and if you wear something that makes you feel like a rockstar, then that's all that matters. There is no such thing as being overdressed or undressed for the occasion.

Pretty much any problem can be solved with cuddles and cake.

 Do you remember being 5? 
If so what was your favourite memory of that time?

Tuesday 21 August 2012

Just in Case You Didn't Know ..... I am a Self Proclaimed Total Nutjob!

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OK I'll admit it, I'm more than a little superstitious. Add to that a mild case of self diagnosed OCD and on any given day I am pretty much waiting for that van with the men dressed in white, carrying very unflattering straight jackets to arrive at my door.

I blame my grandmother and my Aunt, they were both very superstitious and I think some of their genes obviously leaked into my DNA.

11 years ago we took my Dad out for a surprise 60th birthday lunch and as he sat surrounded by his family including his new little grand kids he wistfully proclaimed "It doesn't get better than this".

A few days later he was in a coma with a life threatening illness and I was running up a massive phone debt by ringing his mobile phone over and over again just to listen to his voice.

Fortunately for him and us, it did get better than that and he eventually came out of his coma and slowly but surely recovered, but damned if he or anyone in our family is allowed to stare wistfully and utter those words ever ever again.

And so my already over indulgent fascination with superstitions grew to epic proportions.

Shoes! Flipping Jimmy shoes cause me never ending amounts of grief. Don't ever put shoes on a table or they will be the demise of their owner. And whatever you do - don't leave them on the floor any other way than with the soles touching the ground or the owner may turn their toes up. I have no idea where that one came from, but geez it does my head in when certain little kids chuck their shoes and leave them lying around any which way but with the soles touching the ground.
 

I tend to prescribe to the more ridiculous superstitions, cause that's just the type of lunatic I obviously am. Here's some of the more ridiculous superstitions I can't seem to get past.

Take your Christmas tree down before the New Year starts as it's bad luck to have your tree up more than once in the same year. I think I blame my Nan for that one, I'm not 100% sure though so Nan if you're reading this on the shared computer at the back of the bingo hall in heaven, please don't be offended if it wasn't you - Clearly I also inherited your memory. I don't know what this one means for people who put their trees up for Christmas in July. Most likely nothing because I am totally full of crap!

I never use my kids as an excuse to get out of doing something if its not legit. For example, "Sorry I cant come today because my kids have head lice", means that if I am lying about the said head lice now you can guarantee my kids will be absolutely crawling with the little buggers within days. 
 
God help me if a charity is collecting money outside of my shopping centre. I just have to cough up cash cause if I don't, then someone I know will be struck down with whatever the charity is raising money for. Doesn't matter if it is the Junior Cub Scouts, Girl Guides or one of the many fabulous organisations raising funding for Cancer. I don't want my loved ones to die from choking on a Girl Guide Cookie.

Touch wood when you say something or talk about something you don't want to happen. Struth Ruth I have splinters in every finger from the amount of frigging wood I touch in a day. And yes touching my head totally counts if there is no wood around.
 
I have to blow up bad thoughts in my head with a bazooka. My middle son takes the blame for this one, or actually his therapist does as it was her suggestion when she was working through his anxiety issues with him. (Are you really surprised any child of mine suffers from anxiety?) Now whenever a bad thought comes into my head I have to stop what I'm doing and grab a big imaginary bazooka and blow the thought to smithereens. 

I cant help it if I need actions and sound effects to help me with this one and yes I agree a grown woman with here eyes shut, pretending to blow up non existent objects above her head whilst making phu phu phu phu phu sounds in the middle of Kmart is a little random, but that's just the way I roll.

I could go on and on with my list, but I wont because I have so much to get done this morning before the white van arrives and well quite frankly I think I have probably freaked you out enough for today.

Oh by the way,  just a heads up - if you delete a chain email before you read the first 3 words, you'll be exempt and a piano will NOT drop on your head in the next 24 hours. Just Saying!

Do you have any superstitions you indulge in and care to share?
Want to be my roomie at the Looney Bin?