Old verandah lounge

 Lately I have been working on this old lounge.  I pulled it completely apart and sanded it right back, painted it with Bondall and put it back together.  I recovered the cushions when I first got my hands on it using this purple cord, it is quite faded in areas now and needs doing again!  The verandah walls are also freshly painted in Hog Bristle, the deck needs attention too.

I have put my old tea towel cushions on it and have made a rule to sit on it 2 times a day and drink tea. 

Before and After Concrete and Garden

Some more before and after photos of our yard.  Here is the back play area with the mango tree, tyre swing, tramp and sand pit.  Stevo and I poured that concrete with our bare hands and a concrete truck! 

And here is the before. Including the spare shed which we called the 'lean to'.  You can just see a glimpse of it around the corner of the house in the pic above.  That tree fern got ripped out and the garden and then we did the concrete.

Here is another before.  Those were our baby chickens we got for Christmas.

and after...  We made those big concrete pavers with the excess concrete, actually Mum did those.  It's a bit hard to see, but we poured concrete with Mary River stone for the aggregate (think that's what you call it) and as we laid the concrete I threw in some big stones.  Then after it set (more wrong terminology!) we ground back the top of the concrete to reveal the rock and a smooth surface, kind of riverbed-ish like.  Then we sealed it and it still looks great.

I have a collection of Broms happening thanks to Mum.

With the excess concrete in the truck, we poured a nice footpath, slab area to the clothes line, made those big pavers, concreted the inside of the chook yard and the landing at the gate and made an awesome potting up concrete slab attached to the big sheds. 

Super Cute Little Girls Art

This was mine!

...and so was this. 

Actually they are both still mine, but live in my Lilly's room and one day they might live in her daughters room.  They are both in original condition, same frames as I remember and so lovely.  My Mum had good taste, that 70's era.  The little girl is actually a painting and I always thought it was me, it was painted by someone Mum knew.  We just need to get Lill's room done and find a permanent spot on the walls for them.  p.s. Miss Lilly took these photos.

Vintage Tea towel cushions

I love love love these!

the backs are just as unreal as the fronts.

This calendar Australia map one is my favourite.  I've had this tea towel for a while and finally figured out what to do with them.  The year was 1977 on this tea towel.

Here is the back of my favourite.  I put a zip through the backs under a secret flap.  The zips are just as awesome, the one in this cushion is bright green.

This is a patchwork number using scraps of favourite bits.

this one is a mega map cushion.  It was a small square tablecloth with native animals in each corner.  The kids like learning landmarks when they lounge on them!

I've got my hands on a few more vintage tea towels to add to the collection and also some brand new souvenir tea towels which are equally as daggy as the older numbers.  I am on the lookout for a groovy split cane lounge/daybed for these cushions to sit on for a non tv watching part of the house, a good spot to read I am hoping!

Tissue Paper Pom Pom's and a freshly plastered wall and Cake Pops

 I made these gorgeous decorations for Christmas and they are still going strong.  Thinking about making a fresh lot.  I used Martha Stewart's tutorial and changed it a bit to make it a bit simpler.

 Here is a bit of house improvement action for you.  Check out the awesome arrow patterned bricks!

They are now safely covered in plaster forever more.  It was a dusty few days inside that's for sure.

After it was set, Stephen painted it in Taubman's white on white and hung his new tv on the wall.  I still need to figure out lights.  The only lighting in there is 2 'retro' wall lights and the funny old light on the bottom of the fan.  The wall light switched on in the picture is staying but I need to choose a new actual light (really want chandelier sconces but not sure).  The other wall light which is the black spot on the new wall might one day get in the way of furniture I might move to that wall, so I am thinking of getting some paper lanterns and wired in above this area.  Who knows! 

Just for fun, here is a pic of our first cake pops.  Lilly got the Bakerella book for Christmas and my darling Aunty also gave me a copy.  These were very easy and lots of fun, I think we made them too big and we really need to get our hands on some real 'candy coatings' instead of dipping them in melted chocolate.  But these tasted pretty good and something different from the old cupcake. 

Painting

 Here we are painting at long last.  This is the back verandah part of the house. 

 We are using Taubmans all weather exterior in Hog Bristle.  The trim is going to be done in Stone.  Both Dulux colours.  In this picture, they have painted the part of the wall in front of them and cut in around the windows.  There is not alot of difference between the new paint and the old cream, but I think overall it will look much nicer, esp when the besser blocks downstairs are done too.  In the far right of this photo, you can see the try out paint colours and obviously none of them are even close to Hog Bristle! 

Our House Before and Our Original House

Howdy, I'm still here!

Lately we've been working hard on the house.  I have shown you snippets of what we've got going on here before.  Here I showed you the before and after kitchen shots.

 Here are a couple more angles of the BEFORE.

And I need to stress, this is  the BEFORE we moved in shots.  I took a stack on one of the inspections, renters (whom we nicknamed the SQUATTERS) were living here.

 Here is an outside shot out the front.  That besser block leaning over wall went not long after we moved in and it was replaced with a link brick wall.  Much safer than this leaning over thing, although the amount of muscle it took to get down, I doubt it was going anywhere.

 Come on, look at this!! This is the laundry window sill, who does this! Who has mess like this, yuck!!  And check out the jungle outside.  All of that jungle is gone now.

 Another kitchen angle, the arch is gone, that stupid cupboard is gone, the brown tiles are gone.

 Looking from the dining area towards the kitchen and the arch that is now gone.  All the curtains and pelments went the day after we moved in, that was fun pulling them down.

 Back to the laundry, which is downstairs and here is a bike in the downstairs bathroom!  There was another actually standing up on its wheel in the actual shower!

That's probably enough for now!

I am hoping to keep motivated and show some AFTERS in my blogging efforts this year.  To help keep us on track, cause sometimes this whole moving from picture perfect suburbia to daggy buying someone elses problem pretty acreage can get you down!

See pictures below for what we left behind...we built this house in 1999 and sold it in 2007.

 My Mum and I covered this old lounge setting.

 The photo above was taken from the cubby house that Stephen built. Gee we miss that cubby house.

 The front door and my cat Pinkee nearby.  Loved that house.



snippets of Christmas so far

 Christmas hexagon made on night shift, a tradition of mine now it seems- making hexagons on night stinking shift.

 My best friend and I have sewed up a storm of Christmas singlets this year, which we have mostly sold!

Lots of Christmas singlets

 The ladies version.

 Lilly's Christmas dress and Christmas cupcakes.

This orange and pink turned into a bag for Lilly's teacher and matching zippered purse, the colourful fabric at the bottom of the pile turned into a wrap skirt for me and Lilly with enough left for Lill's teacher who wanted one too- just have to actually make that one yet!

Gingerbread Christmas trees, just for the fun of it.  We also made gingerbread teddy bears, about 50 of them actually.  They were pretty yum!

Pretty Christmas

Here are my pretty Christmas decorations I've got happening in my busy kitchen.  Rather than spend a fortune, I decided this  year to work with what I've got!  I've got quite a few cupcakes stands, so I put them to good use!

So beautiful, and with $3 LED battery powered lights from Kmart, they look super special.

a collection of good things made

I've been busy lately, end of year approaching, working lots but fitting in time to make stuff!

I made this colourful button necklace for myself and I just love it.

this purply pink one was a gift

and this purply blue one was for my Mum.

new cupcake wrappers, really like these, these cupcakes went to kindy

decorating the dinner table with old china and doilies for fun

last week we made pikelets with melted choc and 100's & 1000's for afternoon tea-that's a treat

Fathers Day pavlova

made lots of beach towel shorts for fun

possibly the most awesome useful beach bag in the whole world with unreal Ikea stripes.  This thing is lined with the same stripes, has a pocket, a key loop and extra reinforced straps.  Fits everything we could possibly need at the beach and is easy to wash.  Very happy with this bag, have needed one like this for ages.

a couple of cute appliqued suits for a little baby born recently

my favourite little bird.