Ladies, if you want to turn your mum into a super generous octopus with a credit card for each tentacles that she is willingly dishing out. . .

Just pop out a grand child.

My gosh!

To think I went through my studies, bought a car and moved out all on my very own without their assistance.

Yet mention you are having her grand child. .  here is a sapphire ring, here is some wedgwood, here is a . . .

Kitchenaid!

Mum, stop it! It’s embarrassing. Said me, NEVER!

When it arrived, it was a box in a box in a box moment. Have you ever had one of those moments?

Prior to owning this kitchenaid, mixing baking ingredients was a processes of utilising the washing machine top in the laundry and electric beaters or sitting on the floorboards of my living room with the bowl in my lap. You see, my kitchen doesn’t have power.

(I know right? When we were getting the house re-wired, we were suppose to renovate the kitchen first, but in actuality we ended up doing the opposite, I am glad though)

But don’t let it think it stops me! Oh no it does not.

I mean, it is easily solved by a few extension leads.

Look what I whipped up in the new virginal white kitchenaid.

Not the best photograph – it was 11.30 at night and husb and I were eagerly waiting to hack into it.

It is a chocolate cake. I am doing trial cakes for Audrey’s christening, seeing what I like best.

I have made plenty of cake BK (before kitchenaid) but the fact of the matter is, I have a kid now and sometimes standing there beating egg whites to stiff peaks just isn’t going to happen or creaming butter. . . I shouldn’t use my kid as an excuse, full disclosure, I AVOIDED recipes with egg whites and creaming butter, far too hard on the upper body, particularly right side and I have a short attention span, often forgetting why I am standing there. But now, no excuses.

This is my oven!

Go on laugh, But I tell you what. I haven’t had a failure in it. It is powered from the laundry with an extension lead that I interchange with the iron and the microwave before we moved it.

We moved the microwave to another location which is powered from the living room via a power point and now we share it with the kitchenaid.

The only time I had a <pause> moment was when I got a little ahead of myself and doubled a cookie recipe, not thinking that I only have one baking tray that fits in it and fits 6 cookies. But I made it. It might have been an all day effort, but I made it.

Others, namely our family members, all bitch and moan about our kitchen, but I make it work and it will do for a good while.

I commissioned 3 different etsy sellers to create cards with Audrey’s name. The first piece arrived this week.

I’m going to pick the best piece to place in a custom photo album for Audrey.

How can one resist baby clothes. I know my mother and sister can’t. Seriously, nearly all her clothes are purchased by my sister.

Dress and Cardigan for her Baptism reception

These were purchased by me. The trench coat is for next winter!! LOL. I saw it, I loved it and was, most importantly, ON SALE!

$32. It is dead set proper. Check that lining!

And just a sweet little dress for this year’s winter.

Dear little house put a picture up on Instagram and now her blog of her little boys nursery. It is pure genius. I have been racking my brain trying to finish off Audrey’s nursery with the gallery wall, but always apprehensive about the multiple holes in the walls for the countless frames and how to hang them, how to arrange them, what if I get sick of the arrangement? And it was just NOT coming together. The main reason I haven’t done her nursery reveal as yet. Then I saw this:

Huge Light bulb!!! I can move around and mix and match, add and replace to my heart’s content.

  I sincerely hope she doesn’t mind but I am totally appropriating her idea I quickly went to Ikea to facilitate.

On the ledge, One item that will be in prime place is my stripey bow watercolor artwork that I painted.

The frame is from a 2nd hand store. I love its grey and gold frame. I cut a new mat for it and hey presto, re-framed on a budget.

I bought Audrey some stuffed toys. So cute! I couldn’t resist.

Theses toys besides the seal rattle are being packed away in baskets I bought from Ikea

Until she is big enough to enjoy them.

These 3 baskets will be put on top of her wardrobe to hide all her crap, err, toys.

I will be posting a tutorial on the over-sized tags with a free template to download shortly.

The little reverie is 1 month old today!

It feels like a lifetime ago that I was in agony and in a delivery room. Certainly not 1 month ago.

Since I have been blessed with the world’s best baby, I need to get back into the reno’s and the house!

But not before I pick up my new car!!!

This Sunday is Mother’s day! I am so excited. What a total spin out. I am still in shock that this little girl is mine. Right now, as I type, She is near me, but I can’t see her unless I get up. She is as quiet as a mouse and I often forget I even have a little offspring. Bizarre.

Tomorrow I will pick up my Mother’s Day present. My new car.

The husband is quite chuffed at himself. Thinks he is delivering the mother of all mother’s day presents! HEHE I am dork. Well in my eyes, he is.

I am totally spoiled rotten to the core!

So back to renovating. I flip between wanting to work on the living room to wanting to work on our bedroom.

(Plus I totally have to tidy up the nursery and attempt to take some nice pics of it so I can finally do a room reveal, a la the block, budget styles in the burbs!!!)

In order for the living room to progress, It needs me to make some big $$$ purchases, and well, I have just had a baby and now bought a new car, so no!

Back to our bedroom!

Here is a pic of her the other day.

It needs a jaw dropping light fitting, bedside lamps, a vanity, mirror above vanity, my antique chair to be restored and re-upholstered.

For the fabric, I would like a pattern. It needs to take my breath away! I’d love a cheetah animal print in a blue/seafoam colour. So I am on the hunt.

In between the wardrobe and the curtains, that is the area I would like to put my vanity.

Set up an area like those inspirational pictures.

I did have aspirations of designing the vanity myself and have it custom made, but again $$$

and then I was reading the current issue of Belle magazine and see this:

It has that piece of furniture credited and not only is it the perfect proportions, but is $295!! Yep, $295.

That’s some ikea pricing there, without being ikea. Then thinking of changing the knobs out to crystal ones

What do you think? I think, for 295, she’ll do.

Also need new bed head and the wardrobe doors need a face lift. I want to add mill-work and new handles and the whole thing be painted white.

Enough jib-jabbering. I’m tired.

Out.

Ever since getting the coffee table

I need coffee table books!

Like, duh!

But they must serve a dual purpose. They can’t just be a prop, they need to be inspirational with it’s content.

I need a little help with interior design, hopefully these can assist me in decorating.

I have purchased these 4 books

The first book I have had my eye on for a little bit, but then Tina from The Enchanted Home sealed the deal with this blog post.

I love Barbara Barry! I want this lamp (or two) So bad, I have been coveting them for quite a while.

They are from her collection for Visual Comfort.

The last book I have also wanted since I first laid eyes on it. Now that I will have a mantle, the arrangement on the front cover is exactly what I aspire to put on the mantle.

Where to find nice urns for flowers???

And while we are talking about fireplaces, what do you think I should above the mantle on the chimney breast between the 2 sconces?

A photograph, an artwork or a mirror??

My goal is to be a super amazing, can do all mum with an impeccable home. I would love to go to the flower markets on a fairly regular basis and do a floral arrangement that will sit on the mantle.

So I don’t want the colours in that to clash with the picture. So I am leaning more towards a mirror, However, I don’t want to be greeted with my own face every time I walk in that room, or past it in the hallway, when I come out of my bedroom. Because that is what will happen due to its position.

So possibly thinking of an abstract mirror, like a convex mirror. But then that is looking like $$$$. Lovely. More expense.

Also I have NO IDEA why I didn’t purchase Suzanne Kasler’s book!!

(Oh well, hint hint to anyone if you ever want to get me anything!! LOL)

She has done a fantastic collaboration with Hickory Chair Co!

Like hello???

Come to mumma!

I want this quatrefoil chair so bad, possibly two.

This cabinet drives me bonkers!!!

The geometric fretwork. It says it is reminiscent of the 1930′s which is the era of my house. I love that. It reminds me of my cornices in the living room!

She is just a beauty. Please point me in the direction of anyone, anyone at all that makes furniture to this detail in Australia. I would love to meet them.

The fastest thing to ever happen around here was the cutting down of a hideous palm tree in our front yard.

From the first phone call to him packing up the ute to leave was about 2 hours.

So happy to see that thing gone. It get dropping it’s big branches on our lawn and the neighbours car. We didn’t know what to do with them and it was as ugly as anything.

We finally got our Christmas present! Our steel security door. She is a beauty.

This little porch requires so much work, so much beautification!! I am constantly looking for a nice bench to go where that chair is (there is 2 of those chairs there) and soon we are replacing the door bell button with a brass one.

So much action has been occurring in the nursery, but I best leave that for another post entirely. I have written part one of the nursery posts!

Baby clothes washing has been happening constantly!

(It better be a girl, it better be a girl, look at all that pink!)

I bought a coffee table at the Laura Kincade sale. It is from my favourite furniture makers. The Hickory Chair Co in North Carolina US.

I have been looking for an oval coffee table since 2009. When I was living in my apartment. Both my apartment and this house have long and narrow living areas where a long and narrow coffee table was required. And I always wanted an oval shape as then there were no sharp corners to jab mine or anyone elses legs on for that matter.

When my favourite shop in Sydney announces they are having a floor stock sale, I am right there. (If you are a long term reader of my blog, you know that most of my furniture is 2^nd hand or floorstock, it is the only feasible way that I can furnish my house in the style I would like with the money I have and it doesn’t bother me one bit)
I see a stunning oval coffee table near the door, I can’t see a tag, I assume “Gah it is so beautiful, of course it is already sold to someone else” I keep browsing and look at it from another angle, I see a tag. I mentally prepare myself for heartbreak or cardiac arrest as I slowly turn the tag over to view the price. “Hey now, that is not bad. That is reasonable. . . . . . . .  day dreaming . . . . . .  Oh shit, what will my husband think? . . . . . . . . I can’t, I just can’t walk away from this. I will kick myself forever. How many coffee tables have I seen in the past that I actually want to buy regardless of price, hmm that would be none. . . I’m getting it, because if I don’t get it now, I will come back in a year and buy it full price, so it only makes sense to buy it now, right?”

Does anyone else have full on internal dialogue with themselves?? Please, fess up?? I can’t be the only one.

Laura Kincade wrapped it so nicely and offered a very humble and personable service to me. They even thoughtfully put it in my car in the rain.

It is a wooden table with a bevel glass top and antique silver leaf finish

I bought this table at the same time I bought the sconces for the fireplace

I love wall lights

Just a refresher! The one circled is what I chose!

Can’t wait for them to arrive.

Husband was busy this past week. He painted the architraves around the doors of 3 rooms (our bedroom, the nursery and bathroom 1)

The doors have been removed and he is painting them this week hopefully!

Yesterday was my Birthday!!! I turned a quarter century!! Arghh, wait a minute, wasn’t I 21 just the other day. Here I am married with a baby on the way. What a freak out.

Because there is a baby on the way, I suspect that is the reason I scored such awesome pressies! I was very spoilt!

I love pastels & polka dots, I made no omission of this in my baby shower posts.

Wedgwood polka dot collection.

Obviously my mum picked up on that and I received 2 sets of these plates

As well as the creamer and sugar bowl.

I also got some parfait spoons and cake forks!!!

Now for our kitchen to be renovated and a nice oven, I will bake a nice cake and serve it to you with tea? Who is coming over for afternoon tea?

My sister bought me a beautiful cardigan and TONNES of baby clothes!! They nearly took up a whole clothes airer when hanging them out to dry this morning.

I also got generous gift vouchers, can’t wait to go shopping and buy some expensive stuff I have been going with out.

Husband is getting me the fireplace. I used the baby as bargaining tool and succeeded, little did I know, the poor guy had already bought my birthday presents. He is an organised fellow!!!

He bought me some beautiful new white sheets with the 50cm depth on the fitted sheet (hard to come by and definitely needed for our mattress) Some white towels and some beauty products.

He took me out for dinner as well.

This is a pic of me before heading out the door.

It is getting closer and I am getting BIG!!!

I pottered around the nursery this morning. Still looks like a bomb has hit it since the baby shower. I am trying to find a spot for everything. This is the spot I have chosen for the nappies. Stacked in a corner.

“That’ll do pig, that’ll do”

I love saying that. I love that movie!!!!

(Does anyone know what movie I am referring to?)

My wallpaper is yet to arrive.

It has hindered me from starting other projects in the nursery, as I wanted there to be some consistency and match items with it.

With 3 weeks till the baby shower, I am majorly freaking out. I kinda wanted the room looking pretty spiffy. Anyways, life goes on.

Hopefully it will arrive tomorrow. Then on Tuesday I am going to buy my curtain material. I want to make curtains like this.

Where the top fifth is one colour and the rest is another. I just can’t figure out the colours!!!!!

Help me. I am taking suggestions.

On Friday I bought a light fitting for the nursery. We are on major budget now (because I want to start another costly project in a different part of the house and with that to consider) I decided to buy a cheap fitting from masters.

Tah Dah! It is a capiz shell pendant.

You can call me excellent at being pregnant in the most sarcastic tone.

I hung this light myself on the top step of my step ladder! Very big no-no’s for a third trimester preggo.

I don’t love it, but I do like it. Ideally I would like it to have a nice canopy and a chain, but beggars can’t be choosers. I ended up with this option, because it was deemed “D.I.Y” on the packet, It just simply plugged into a batten holder, which is what this room had already! I wanted to make it easy on my husband as his do list was getting longer, and the days are getting shorter. But it was supplied in only one length of cord, which was far too long, even though we have tall ceilings. So the husband still had to strip the wires back and cut them etc etc! But that didn’t take long. Then when he went to re-hang it did he finally ask, Um how did you have it hanging if I am on the top step and I am taller then you and I am still reaching up!

Ahahahhaha. I coyly said, the baby helped me.

I also like the light fitting because it looks similar to this ~$3000 beauty from Oly (Available at Coco Republic)

Another thing that arrived this week is my Lorca fabric. (Needs an iron)

(as well as a roll of Sanderson wallpaper, I just had to have it)

I have just (lazily) moulded it around a throw cushion. It is so exquisite. Silk with huge embroidery flowers.

Still tossing up to make another cushion for this chair in a velvet.

Like this?? A round cushion?

I watched my husband painfully paint one for the sides of the cot with a brush. He managed one coat of primer on one side of a cot in one weekend!

BABY SHOWER, LESS THEN 3 WEEKS AWAY!

I told him to stop and to go and buy a sprayer. He has done so now. Let’s see how that works out.

There are so many other projects to work on! Arrgghhh. Stress out.

I still need to plan my baby shower, sew my curtains, sew 2 cushions, sew a cot skirt, sew my nursery curtains and do my change table!!

Possibly work on the gallery wall for the hallway and the nursery!

Way too much! I feel overwhelmed!

Ok guys, I need colour suggestions for the curtains. White cot, wooden wardrobe, beige wingback chair, green and pink cushion & lavender change table (If it ever arrives)

On the babymoon, I visited a 2nd hand shop in Huskisson. I spotted this ceramic bundt tin, I was smitten.

I baked a carrot cake in it. The recipe said it would take 55 to 60 mins, it took 2 hours!!!

But it still worked out in the end.

On to baby, Look at her cute little jackets! The first 2 are Christmas presents from my Aunty. The last one is from Nanny Pickle. Such a cute brand. It has a little hoodie.

This one is my fav. I purchased this on the babymoon in Ulladulla from Mrs Higgins. It’s pure wool and hand knitted. For a whopping $24. Other baby stores sell acrylic blend cardigans, made in China fro $49.95!!! (Yes SEED, I’m looking at you)

Again on the babymoon, this time in Berry. I bought these very cute, super tiny booties. Merino wool, handmade in Berry.

I bought this rug AGES ago. Just haven’t put a pic up. I bought it from HALI. Dank St, Waterloo. On sale. It is for the hallway. Now if I could get the fringe to sit flat.

I also finished sewing my curtains, ages ago. I am most impressed with them! The fact that they worked out, I sewed them, they look great! I just can’t get over it. I am beside myself with pride!

Next up is to make baby girl curtains for the nursery!

This Marimekko fabric frame has been leaning against the wall, perched on top of the couch for the best part of year. It is now finally on the wall!

Hello everyone!

Just popping into my blog from the comfort of my babymoon.

I am currently 27 weeks pregnant and stealing 10 glorious days away with my husband in New South Wales south coast. Enjoying and savouring every last wink of sleep. I know this is the very last we will receive. . . . EVER!

I know I have kept you hanging long enough with the reveal of the babies gender, so here you go!

A little baby girl.

Once we return from our sojourn we both have a very long to do list to complete before the arrival of our baby.

I have a mobile, a quilt and curtains to sew.

I also have my IKEA hack to work on. (Still waiting on my lavender sisal wallpaper. I placed the order on November 30th!!!) I even received an email saying order by December 5th for pre-Christmas delivery. . . . . . hmmmmm

Lets not even go there in regards to the samples order I placed on Nov 20th. If I don’t receive either of these items, be prepared for a name and shame blog post. I so far DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS COMPANY!

Anyways, look at my fabric stash. I have purchased all these fabrics at 3 patchwork shops on the babymoon, clearly the worst has happened.

I have finally turned into my mother!

I also need to do a 2012, year in review post. I want to look back at a glimpse at all the things I have achieved last year!

Here’s to 2013 and being even better then the last!

Let’s end this year with a bargain!

A lamp for the nursery.

The other day I spotted the Oly lamp in Coco Republic and instantly fell in love with it. But not $810 in love.

It was very cute and suitable for a whimsy nursery.

Then today, at a stock-take sale in the shopping centre, out of the corner of my eye, I see this gorgeous lamp from My House.

It was $199 down to $140. I snapped that up, plus it has more birds LOL.

Pretty chuffed with myself.

Also while at Coco Republic, they had my Cabot wing back chair for sale (In another fabric) for $3095!!!!

I paid $800. OHHHHHhhh yeahhhhhhh!!!!

Gotta love that.

Stay safe and wishing you a great night. I’m staying in with my husband and we are kicking back.

I have an empty hallway! I have frames. They need to be hung.

Solution, a gallery wall.

Here is the empty walls, (Sorry, all mobile phone pictures today)

The corner there on the right is where my front door is.

The gallery wall will extend from the wall my front door is to this door (My bedroom door)

On the other side of my bedroom door is another bit of wall.

Should I be adding frames to this section of wall here?

Here is the rest of my hallway! There is my now empty console table, where I previously had the frames leaning.

On the angled wall I am going to put a big long artwork that I need to make!!!

This is the layout I am thinking.

Feedback please!!

Is it too structured? With that central horizontal line being straight and unbroken?

5 of the frames I purchased yesterday are from my favourite 2nd hand shop!!

They are in great condition. I am going to take what is in them out and cut new mat boards and put photos that my husband and I have taken!

Except for this one!!!! I just love it. I am keeping this original watercolour. Just re-framing it with new mat board!!!

I feel like I have seen this corner in Sydney. Does it look familiar to anyone else (Sydney-siders?)

One day I hope to see it and go AHHH HUHHH!!!! Standing in front of it!

I can’t wait to take it out. I hope it has a date on it somewhere!

These are the left over frames.

I might put these on that spare wall or keep them for the nursery.

Check that out. Pressed pansies! How cute! I will just put a new mount around it. There is a few blemishes.

.   .   .   .   .

I picked up 7 frames for $60! Just need to buy some white mat board and a bevel cutter!

Oh and pick some photographs with my husband.

And lastly, give everything a good clean!

Poor husband, he has to hang all these. Glad it’s him and not me!!! LOL