More bedroom changes

I played around with what I already had in the house and swapped the old table in our bedroom for this one. I think it looks much better.

Then I wandered off to the op shop where I picked up this for $15. I think I'll make a frame for it.

I've had some great advice over at The Decorating Forum so stay tuned for more tweaks. I'd also love to hear from you if you have an opinion on what colour/s I should paint the fireplace......

The one day bedroom makeover

Do you ever just get sick of the sight of something? This morning I looked at our maroon bedroom walls and decided I couldn't stand to see them anymore. So I did what all good renovators do - I painted my bedroom on a whim.

The maroon was awful. It made the room so dark and it didn't go with anything. It was made even worse because I actually chose this colour when we moved in more than five years ago. But if truth be told I hated it almost as soon as it was done. It was a massive mistake and I learned quickly never to try to copy a magazine design without really thinking about it first.

I've added some before and after pics below. I can't get over how nice it looks all white and I'm questioning why I didn't do this years ago. All in all it took about 5 hours, which is pretty good for such a dramatic transformation.

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER

A few more after pictures....

Give away chair cover pattern

I haven't sewn a single item in my life. In fact, I take pride in the fact that the high school I went to in year eight didn't even have 'Home Economics' as a subject. Despite my clear lack of education, I recently decided that I would try to make a cover for my wing chair.

The whole project lasted about the length of time it took for me to purchase the pattern. As soon as I got it home and opened it I realised the error of my ways. I couldn't make sense of the pattern, let alone contemplate actually making the cover. So I gave up.

Luckily the Aussie Dollar has been strong lately and I just so happened to find the Sure Fit website. A couple of clicks later and I had purchased this gorgeous cover (plus a matching sofa cover and an ottoman cover.) I'm so lucky to have a lovely American friend who took delivery of my order and posted it off today. I have everything crossed that the product is as good as it looks in the pictures. 

Stretch faux-leather wing chair cover in Ebony

If anyone would like the unused pattern please post here. If more than one person wants it then I guess I will just draw the 'winner' out of a hat. Here's a pic just to show you what you will receive. It's been opened, folded up and packed away again. (It looks better in real life, the light has washed it out in the picture.)

Sometimes you just have to wonder....

A 21-YEAR-OLD man has been charged by police in Ipswich for allegedly tattooing a penis on a man's back - instead of the image he had requested.

The 25-year-old victim had been visiting the man, a professional tattooist, at his home in Bundamba last Wednesday when he was talked into getting a tattoo.

He wanted a yin and yang symbol with some dragons, but was instead shocked to discover the 40cm tattoo was of a penis with an obscene slogan.

He now faces considerable cost to have the image removed.

Police said the tattooing followed an argument between the men, during which the professional tattooist allegedly took offence at something the other man said.

The victim has also alleged he was punched and thrown out of the house following the tattooing.

The 21-year-old is due to appear in Ipswich Magistrates Court on November 15 charged with two counts of assault occasioning bodily harm and one charge relating to the Public Safety Act.

Article


Now here's a pretty picture to get your mind off that visual. Picture courtesy of Decorpad.

Window cornice/valance?

Does anyone in Australia know of a place I can buy ready-made window valances? The website this comes from calls them 'window cornices' but I'm sure that's not what we in Australia would call them.

Incoming

TOP PRIORITY FOR IMMEDIATE BROADCAST

SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING

for DAMAGING WIND, FLASH FLOODING and LARGE HAILSTONES

For people in the
Southeast Coast and parts of the
Wide Bay and Burnett and
Darling Downs and Granite Belt Forecast Districts.

Issued at 5:40 pm Sunday, 24 October 2010.

Severe thunderstorms are likely to produce damaging winds, very heavy rainfall, flash flooding and large hailstones in the warning area over the next several hours. Locations which may be affected include Gold Coast, Toowoomba, Brisbane, Coolangatta, Ipswich, Moreton Bay and islands, Boonah, Beenleigh, Oakey, Caboolture, Pittsworth and Jondaryan. 

ALDI chair

Clearly the buyers at ALDI have been reading our blogs. Look at the lovely chair they have on special from Thursday. They are even referring to it as the Cape Cod Chair, won't A-M be pleased.

That's the problem with ALDI, you think you're going there for a $2 pasta sauce but you come home with everything else and forget the sauce. (Did I tell you about the time I bought the cycling shorts for my non-cycling husband?)

Score!

Here's the reason my husband is so ingenious at saving us money (and the reason our neighbours often regret moving in next door.)

One tractor which didn't go a week ago, now noisily restored and ready to finish our landscaping work (when the rain finally stops.)

Police line do not cross

The Gas Man is a genius at re purposing and he's often on the hunt for items most people would throw away. He recently headed off to an estate clear out and when he arrived home he explained to Big Boy that 'a man died and now we have some of his things.' Big Boy's reply 'Dad! Are you a suspect?!'

 Set of three Tip Top bread tins. No idea what to do with them- any ideas?

 Original cheese mould. Now holding my bits and pieces on the kitchen bench.

And the best score of all- enough timber to fix our rotten verandah.

Advice needed

This lamp is what $12 buys you at the local tip shop. I need to work out what kind of shade to put on the top  and I'm willing to buy a shade and cover it myself.

What shape do you think the shade should be? And what colour fabric should I use? (The lamp base is dark brown and it will be staying where it is so it needs to match nicely with the room.)

Toowoomba

I've been working in Toowoomba this year and was lucky that my October visit coincided with the Carnival of Flowers. The whole family tagged along for the weekend the last time I was up there and I convinced them that 5.30pm on a cold, wet, windy Friday afternoon was perfect flower viewing weather. Not surprisingly there were no crowds to contend with.

 That's a train hedge, or a hedge train whichever takes your fancy.

Glorious home across the road- what a magical view they have for a few months each year. In typical Toowoomba fashion the house next door is a weatherboard 'let's turn our house into four units' house complete with mattresses in the front yard.

Library

I promised some pictures of our new 'library' space so here they are. At the top of the stairs is a corner that is quite a dead space. I decided to use these two bookshelves to create a nice space for our books.

I'm a little disappointed as the bookcases don't 'butt' together nicely so if you have any suggestions to remedy this I'd love to hear them.

I haven't finished arranging the shelves but you get the picture. (I've also just noticed that Big Boy has placed a few items on the shelves while I wasn't looking...

Wet weekend

It's been a very wet period here in Brisbane and I've noticed a lot of other bloggers have used the time to get organised. It's so rare to have this kind of weather here that most of us would normally rather make the most of the day rather than declutter or organise our homes.

I absolutely love the rain and I'm enjoying wearing comfy jumpers and staying inside. I'm not enjoying the mountains of washing that are waiting for me though.

So what have we been up to here? Well I've been organising, decluttering and rearranging. My two main projects have been my lounge area and new 'library' space. I'll share the lounge pictures today and the library tomorrow.

This cupboard was given to us by a friend who had been asked to store it for a family member. Said family member never came back and the rest is history. Total cost to us $0. It's been hiding in my laundry waiting for        space to be ready in the lounge. The nicknacks I've collected over the years and I'm so grateful to now have a designated area to display them.

Note that the cupboard colour is exactly the same as the window? Once the window frame is painted white I think it will pull together nicely.

Moving forward

This will be a bit of a miscellaneous post. I'm currently sitting in a room waiting for my students to arrive to train them in the art of Change Management. Hang on I said students didn't I? Silly me, that should read 'student,' singular. Yep, just the one today and just for the record I have requested that the universe conspire to ensure she decides today isn't the right day to attend a course. (Of course I'm hoping she's won lotto or been whisked away on a trip, nothing bad!)

Moving forward...

So I'm sitting here making mental plans for life back at the house. In my mind I keep saying the phrase 'moving forward' and I've noticed it slips out often during training. Unfortunately Julia (Gillard) stole it for use in the election campaign so every time I say it I hear her divine voice in the back of my mind. My second favourite phrase is 'blame the process not the people' so if you hear Julia throw that one around you'll know you heard it here first.

Moving forward...



My ever resourceful husband has picked himself up a tractor and has worked on it this week to get it going. Now that's it's going we can embark on the next phase of the yard makeover. I've told him this weekend will end with a retaining wall, vegie garden and a back yard with no old sleepers or piles of rocks. If we can achieve this I'll be a happy camper. In fact I'm so excited I cleaned the pool this week. (It's a rarity, I hate that job.)

Will keep blog land posted about our efforts over the weekend. Til then I'd best figure out if I have a student!