Writer's Block.

Have you been watching this series of The Block on Prime? I'm totally hooked. I have it series linked on my MySky. The only downside to that is having to delete some inspired episodes to fit emergency eps of Dora or Bubble Guppies.. blast it!
This series has been great, with its new 5-night-a-week-extravaganza format, plus the odd boring challenge  thrown in. Having said that though, I find it very hard to fast forward even the most mundane of tasks, for fear of missing out on some hot renovators tip courtesy of the handy host, Scott Cam.
I even delighted in learning how to build and plaster a wall! A WALL!

I won't link to the Channel 9 site, because if you don't want to know who wins, there's no way you can avoid finding out if you go there. Silly me!!
I have my favourites though. I love *almost* everything Josh and Jenna do, with the exception of friday nights living room. That small enclosed space and dark tongue and groove feature wall just didn't fit for me. It definitely made the room look smaller and boxed in. But I hear that is NOT how their finished house will end up looking. Perhaps a wise choice to start afresh (although, where the heck do they find the money?!).

The grey theme they've taken through the house is so light and refreshing, but the reason it works so well is because of the accent colours they've chosen to complement it. From bright pastel pinks and turquoises, to tangerine orange, to crisp and summery yellows; it embodies their young, fun and resourceful designers' aesthetic. It's got spunk. I LOVE IT.

LOVE the headboard and the yellow industrial style pendant lights. Pics here.

Vintage hanging light. Perfect. Pics here.

via sweetseasons.typepad.com

Pendant lights are big on my list of must-haves for this house. I have a nice wee collection of images sitting in my inspiration folder, just waiting for when the time comes and I can finally buy some!!

I'll get around to sharing some of my favourites soon.

I am also on the lookout for some great fabric to recreate the headboard pictured above. A simpler version, but just as nice! It would look super in our bedroom, which is not high on the reno list, but could use a bit of a spit'n'polish to see her through.

Sometimes I curse my love of The Block, because it simply makes me want to buy! And buy more. And MORE! The inspiration and rev up you get from watching it - and thinking, 'hey, if they can do it, I can!'   is a blessing. The longing and frustration it causes when you realise you don't have their cash on tap is a total and utter curse! 

So, I have gone on about Josh and Jenna and how great they are but I totally admire those sisters, doin' it for themselves! I mean, golly - did anyone else just about drool all over the tv when Amie and Katrina brought home their giant floor to ceiling artwork last week?! IN.CRED.I.BLE. I want.
I loved their Mark Tuckey log table too. This man does some incredible things with wood. I've never been much of a solid/exposed woody kind of person, but I could be converted.

Mark Tuckey log table. Mmmmmmm.

This week the kitchen's are front and centre, and having seen a little sneak peek, I'm rather excited about it. I'll just have to put up with the longing and frustration though, because girlfriend ain't gettin' a new kitchen any time soon! I do have plans to make it less eye-bleedingly ugly though. We'll see what happens.

So... who's your favourite?!

Back in from the cold.. kind of.

Ok it's still freezing. But I think I've ignored (..not quite the right word.. um.. 'neglected'? ...that's better) my blogging duties for long enough...!
I don't know what happened to me between February and now... well, that's a wee lie, because I do.. but mentally speaking.. I think my creativity just went off the boil a bit. Then I got pregnant (the watermelon is about how big Baby is now).. and sick.. and crazy busy at work... and then it was winter, and OH! look at all the excuses I just came up with in a matter of nano-seconds!!
That tells me I must be feeling better, or my brain is defrosting. Either one will do :)

Tomorrow I will plan a proper post, when it's not bed time and when I am not living in fear of my 2.5yr old waking and screaming out for us 2 or 3 times in the middle of the night, like she has done for the passed two. I swear, I thought this 'sleep training' business only had to be done once when they were new?! Pah!

I should pass on a thank you, too - for had I not been avoiding my bed and browsing the Facebook through half-open-tired-eyes, my vanity may not have gotten the better of me, and I may not be typing this right now! For my eye caught sight of a pic I have used here of bark butterflies, used as the icon of a new blog added to KMB, so naturally, I sniffed and followed...
Low and behold - over at theramblingsofanothermother.blogspot.com, lil ol' me got a mention! And SQUEEEEE! a flurry of late night counter ramblings hath emerged!
Nothing like a bit of ego brightening to set you straight on your path to happiness again - so here I go.

I have the added bonus of having something to actually document too. We are renovating the spare room for The Sitting Tenant, so she has somewhere new and exciting to move to once the New Tenant arrives in December. Nothing too flashy or spensy, but wonderful all the same.

The demolition starts soon, so will post before pics ASAP.

See you lot soon!

Sad times

What a week. Our poor Cathedral City, Christchurch, is all but broken.
It's hard stuff to watch on the telly. And being up here in Auckland, so far away, yet so close, you just feel helpless.
Thank goodness, everyone I know with family caught up in this hideous disaster has had good news. I personally don't have any family down there, and I'm thanking my lucky stars for that - as terrible as that sounds.
From my family to all those affected - Kia Kaha. Stay strong. You're never far from our thoughts xx

I've been so caught up with all this, I haven't felt the need to blog. But I came across something that I loved, so wanted to share.

Am I Art Nouveau?

I love a lot of interior styles, and it's hard to pin down one that I think represents 'me', but this one comes pretty close!

Here's a hint:

Now pop on over to one of my favourite new blog finds, Bright Bazaar, to see more! 

Pretty butterflies

Today I decided that the 70 or so paper butterflies I'd tirelessly hand-drawn and cut out were being wasted living inside that crumpled plastic bag on the 'craft' shelf.  They should be out - flying around! Or, at least, pretending to.... So, I blue tacked them to Lila's wall!
So her bedroom is now adorned with a giant tree, some lovely bird-themed number cards, felt birds, and LOTS of butterflies.
Yes, the loose garden theme is coming along quite nicely, thank you!

A SOFA REVAMP TO STEAL!

Another one from the 'I wiiiiish we had IKEAaaaaaaaaa' (yes, that was a whine) files; Apartment Therapy lead me to this amazing sofa revamp over at Our Mid Century blog.
After hunting for an authentic mid-century sofa and finding that anything new was far too expensive, they got creative.  They found an affordable Ikea Karlstad sofa, with great lines, and turned it into something very mid-century 'now'.
This could be just the inspiration you need if, like me, you've been scouring Trade Me for the perfect sofa only to be saddened when anything half decent goes for a bucket load.

Read how they did it here.

x

The Holiday's Over.

Hello again! 
It's been a very busy start to the year in our household - hence why I've been AWOL for a little too long. 
It started with a dinner party to see in the New Year and our weeks went on to encompass 4 blissful (yeah right - there were 4 x almost 2 yr olds present) days of camping, plenty of impromptu family barbeques by the in-laws' pool, screeds of 2nd birthday parties, and yet more entertaining! I'm looking forward to doing big fat nothing for a while now...aaahhhhhhhhh...!
But because it's a new year and it's that time when we all start thinking about a fresh start, setting new goals and seeking out fresh inspiration - I thought I'd share with you the workings of a good friend of mine who's started this year off with exactly that ethos in mind. 
2011 is off to a fast and frenetic start for the Sokolich's, who since deciding to sell their much loved first home, got to work to make it the best little Waterview cottage the market had to offer - and they did it. It sold it in a week. Not surprising, once you see just what they did, and how much the entire renovation cost. They've shown me just what is achievable even if you don't have hundreds of thousands of dollars to spend. Read on and be inspired!

Michelle and her husband Kim moved into their adorable, but  rustic, 2 bedroom Waterview bungalow in 2003; fresh faced, newly engaged and full of vim and vigeur for the home they would create for themselves and their children to come. 
Flash forward to 2011, and the aging and cramped 1930s house they moved into has been transformed into a spacious and practical, modern, charming 3 bedroom home; full of life's comforts and jam-packed with a growing family's memories. 
With a slender budget of $75,000 ($10k of which was spent having the place re-wired) they took out walls, and even added a couple. They made space where before there looked to be none. They played with the layout and entrance ways, shifting things around almost like it was one of those jumble puzzles that you have to move all the pieces about until they fit properly. And they took out the cole-range. 


Now they're sharing their Destitute secrets to making your money go sooo much further: 


**ARCHITECTS AREN'T THE ONLY ONES WITH GOOD IDEAS. We found a builder who had some really good ideas about what would work.  I think we saved a bomb by doing that.. but if you forgo the architect I recommend paying lots of attention to details like skirting boards in other people's houses and gleaning ideas that way.  

**FIXTURES DON'T MAKETH THE HOME. We saved money on things like taps, the toilet...all those little details that you can spend insane amounts of money on (we had friends that put in a thousand dollar tap!) but if you're on a budget I don't think that's where you need to spend the money.   We don't notice those details on a daily basis, and when people come round they certainly aren't looking at the taps, just the overall effect.
  
**KLEVER KITCHEN ETI-KITT. They can easily cost around 30-40 grand.  We looked around at a few of the bigger companies offering kitchens, and had a few sample plans drawn up by them.  In the end we decided what we wanted and went to a small local cabinetmaker who did the entire kitchen for $7000 (excluding appliances).  Massive savings!
We brought our kitchen appliances/bathroom cabinet at big factory sales and kept them in the garage till we needed them.  Those big sales at places like Ellerslie showgrounds are usually advertised in the Herald, so keep an eye out as soon as you even start thinking about renovating.


**THOSE WHO PAINT TOGETHER, STAY TOGETHER. We painted the inside and outside of our house ourselves. A bit of hard slog never hurt anyone.. (er, apart from her husband!).


**IT'S NOT UGLY, IT'S 'CHARACTER!'. Our beautiful wooden floors were a bit higgelty piggelty - wood going in different directions.  We could have got the builder to lift it out and make it all match perfectly (at great expense) but we decided to leave it in and call it 'character'.  I think it looks fine!

**TILES SCHMILES! Don't be scared of lino!  Everyone was horrified when we said we were going to put lino in the bathroom - the builder almost refused to put it in!  But you will be amazed at what is on offer in the lino range these days.  It was SO much cheaper then tiles and I think looks great.  The builder had to eat his words!

**TALK IS CHEAP. Or at least it is if you can sweet talk your local Landscape Designer into drawing you up a DIY Garden plan! It only cost around $200 for the overall plan, complete with a plant by numbers diagram as well.  He then gave it to us so we could do the actual work.  That way you can do section by section as you get the money - confident that it will all work together in the master plan.

All in all, they increased the value of the house by $200 thousand - so it was well worth it.  They could've gone to town and spent $200k or more on renovations, but would've completely over-capitalised and ended up with zero profit. 



Check out the pictures of this amazing budget renovation and be wow'd! Farewell Waterview cottage - we'll all miss hanging out with you! 

BEFORE: PHASE ONE - The 'we can live with this' slight improvements.

As a start, Michelle and Kim removed the wall that separated the kitchen and dining (pic 1) to open up the space for an open planned living area, and ripped up the old carpet. 

PHASE ONE: AFTER

Below, is the old entrance/dining room (the room off the kitchen) before Phase 2 took hold.

PHASE TWO: The Big One. 

Bathroom/Kitchen/Hallway/Bedroom extension/Extra bedroom added.

BEFORE - bathroom

AFTER 

The laundry tub was moved out to the landing by the backdoor, the old shower (not pictured) was removed and a new bath/shower combo added along with a new modern vanity. They tiled, but didn't go overboard with it. Another cost cutting measure which works a treat! And the vinyl looks great, no? 

AFTER: lounge 

AFTER: kitchen

The kitchen wall where the coal-range sat was pushed back in order to reclaim a little extra room to give the kitchen a nice big open feeling. 

You'll notice there's also a wall where the entrance/dining room used to be, going off towards the door. Well - that, is now this:

AFTER: 3rd bedroom added.

And here is the master bedroom, after a wardrobe was taken out (at the head of the bed) to create more space, yet again.

And finally - the exterior. Check out these incredible Before and Afters!

It's gone from this:

To this:

I think they did an amazing job, so that's why I had to share. Thanks so much to Michelle and Kim for letting me feature their gorgeous first home on my wee blog. I'm looking forward to the next project they're let loose on in a few years time! 

In the meantime - please pop along and visit Michelle's blog here. Have a cuppa, a read, and be into win some lovely edible giveaways! My very own Birth Story will be gracing it's pages very soon!

x

And then it was over..

Another Christmas has come and gone, in the blink of an eye. And what a lovely one it was! We had a lovely time relaxing with family, eating, drinking and lounging pool-side. For once I was glad is wasn't a scorcher too - it was just nice. 

I hope you all had a great day! Did Santa bring you what you wanted? Did you eat your weight in trifle and pav... again?

While the babies in our family were well and truly spoilt (some might say it was a little OTT - but will we ever learn?), the big people in our household didn't do too badly either; not that I was expecting it - but thank you so much to my lovely Mr DD, who got me the new Arcade Fire album and The Exquisite Book, which i'd been going on about for ages (it really is awesome)! 

Jolly's aside, Christmas really is less about the gifts for me, and more about the planning; the preparation.
The tree, the wrapping.. the FOOD.
It means pouring over the menu and carefully choosing each component.. and finishing off with a delectable and triumphant dessert with which to get your guests salivating in anticipation! But then, what will accompany your incredible creation? There can't just be one.. and what if it's not a traditional trifle or pav? Can you even have Christmas without one or the other?! Holy messing-with-convention, Batman! I suppose you've guessed by now... for me, dessert is KING.
This year, as my star attraction, I went with a by Annabel Langbein: The Free Range Cook. It looked absolutely mouth-watering on the tv, and surprisingly easy... well SHE made it look easy. Of course that translates to: easy for me too (eerr, in theory)!
This first attempt was successful, apart from the bit when I didn't know what my own oven settings were and accidentally cooked it on Fan-Grill, and it ended up a flat, charred mess of a round. Queue attempt number 2: and the odd panic aside (I would make for great telly if I ever dared enter MasterChef.. my tanty's would become that of legend, i'm sure) it turned out perfect!! Strawberry Lemon Puff - I salute you. You are glorious.

To go with this - as if there wasn't enough to fit in, I made some family friendly chocolate truffles. They were supposed to be mint infused, but for some reason they weren't as fragrant as I'd hoped, so they ended up just being freakin delicious plain chocolate truffles coated in nuts and cocoa. It was so muggy when I made them, that they don't look particularly pretty, but OMG they were amazing! Mmmmm..

But wait there's more!! 

Chocolate overload here we come!! I present - Nigella Lawson's Snow Flecked Chocolate Brownie - which would've, if i'd remembered to take a photo, looked like this:

photo via bloguez.com

It was good news for our family in the end though. I actually forgot to take the Brownie down to our Christmas hang out on the day, so we took it to Boxing Day dinner at a friends instead. Great with left over trifle, it turns out! 

I now weigh approximately double what I did on Xmas Eve. Remind me why I let that Zumba auction on TradeMe lapse the other day? 

If only wrapping presents (and unwrapping, for that matter) burnt as many calories. I'd be a lean Mama machine in no time!!!

Here's a peak at how my Present-wrapping with scraps production line turned out: 

The silver paper in the middle is a wallpaper sample I couldn't find another use for. 

I made paper cut of stars to use as decorations to brighten up my brown packaging paper, and printed out some free labels! Paper doily's also make great labels, and scraps of fabric add a splash of colour too.

I'll never ever be one to take my presents to the Gift Wrap stall at the mall to be quickly covered up, like someone sprung running from the bathroom to the bedroom without a towel, in a panicked rush. And even though at my age presents are the least important thing about the whole day, and the season,  I still love the look of childlike glee that springs to your loved ones' faces once they've ripped through the layers of a lovingly wrapped parcel, to be greeted by something they've been secretly hoping for aaages. It just makes me melt inside! 

This was the last thing we saw before we went to bed all cooked, wrapped and sewn out, on Christmas Eve..

Excuse the blurriness...

A happy and safe holiday season to you all!