Winning isn't everything

.........................but it sure is fun!

I was the lucky winner of not one but two giveaways. The first one was a $45 voucher for Buyster rugs that the lovely Anna from Lona de Anna hosted.

The 2nd win was a $50 gift voucher from Buyster that the very talented Belinda from Nest Design Studio hosted.

Both of these generous ladies have amazing blogs and they are definitely worth a visit. Anna is studying Interior Design and Belinda is an Interior Designer specialising in Nurseries and children's rooms.

Maree from Buyster was very helpful and accommodating and I was able to combine both vouchers in order to purchase a rug. I finally made my decision and purchased this one.

Once I made up my mind Maree took care of all the details and placed the order for me. My rug arrived within 3 days, how exciting!!!!

I wasn't sure how the rug was going to look in our house. We haven't replaced the carpet in our house yet and it is disgusting! We get it cleaned and within weeks the stains start coming back up and look horrible. I wanted something to cover up the ugliness until we get around to replacing the carpet. I ordered the biggest size it came in!

I am really happy with it but the animals have strict instructions to stay OFF! Light coloured cat and dog hair doesn't look great on black!

See that coffee table book? I finally got around to doing something (not a lot) with our wedding and honeymoon photos. We didn't get a Wedding Album made up straight away as we just had too much going on to concentrate on it properly and well....... we still don't have one!

But I did order a Coffee Table book of some honeymoon photos as a trial run,

I was really happy with the way it turned out,

The colour is good and the program was easy to use to upload the photos to.

The only problem I had was that given the size of the photos it took an awfully long time to upload them and I actually gave up the first time I started because of my lack of patience.

Seeing as I was so happy with the quality of the book I ordered a canvas from the same people.

We've been married two and a half years and we finally have one hanging up. It isn't that we forgot about it, we found it really hard to decide on a photo that would look good in twenty years time and that we would still enjoy looking at.

I am not 100% happy with the way it is hanging on the wall and I need some height on the left hand side of the photo but for now it will stay as it is.

I need time to convince WH!

Thank you again to Anna and Belinda for their great giveaways and to Buyster for their generosity.

Have a great Wednesday!

xx

My Sweet Prints - Huge Sale!!!

The lovely Janette is having a HUGE sale!

Her designs have been featured in New Idea, Shop4Kids and she has been interview on TV for her Made it store! Janette is a very talented and generous gal who is offering blog readers only a massive 40% off storewide!!!

Janette has a blog

My Sweet Prints

An etsy store

My Sweet Prints

and a made it store

My Sweet Prints

Go and visit her at any one, or all of these places!

Hope you are having a great Tuesday!

xx

All things Spicey

I hope you all had a lovely weekend. I had a productive weekend and managed to get a few of my smaller projects finished so that I can share them with you all over the next few posts. I found these cute spice jars at the local thrift store and they were $4 for the set of four. Not a great bargain but as soon as I spotted them I remembered Maria's Anthropologie Set of Spice Jars that she featured here.

What do you think?

I was pretty happy with the way they turned out.

I spent some time yesterday rearranging in order to fit in my new copy cat spice jars.

My Nicholas is on holidays this week, he is lucky at this time of the year to get an extra week off school but unfortunately I don't have any time off these holidays and given that the public schools are not on holidays yet there isn't any holiday care programs running this week. He has a slack mum who isn't organised and that means that Nicholas gets to come to mum's work for the week and hang out there! It isn't all bad we have a great tea room with a TV and DVD player and he can lay on the lounge and read or watch a movie or play the PSP or he can embrace the opportunity to learn all about the joys of banking ; )

Just a reminder if you haven't already entered Laura's first giveaway you should go and have a look at her gorgeous cushions.

Laura is giving one away in order to celebrate the opening of her etsy shop.

Laura has a lovely blog called My Summerhouse,

you only have a few days left to enter her giveaway here.

Hope you all have a lovely week.

xx

Di Henshall

I recently came across this designer as I was researching and thought I would share her with you.

Di Henshall is a UK qualified Interior designer who has established her business in Noosa QLD Australia since 1988. She has won many awards particularly in bathroom and kitchen design.

What first caught my attention was the bold use of patterns in this bedroom combined with a very simple layout and bedding.

I love the Chandeliers and the mix of patterns if the wall paper and the chair upholstery. I really like how she has balanced the patterns with very unfussy furniture and table settings.

I am liking the repetition of the curve from the wall paper in the side table and of course I love the flowers.

Here are some more pictures of Di's work that caught my eye.

If you want to see more of Di's work you can visit her website here.

Have a great day!

xx

Catching up

I have been catching up on some weekend blog reading and came across some great giveaways I thought you may like too.

The first one is over at Twig where you can win an apron from Anthropology amongst lots of other goodies.

For more details head over to have a look this one closes June 23rd so you don't have much time left!

Sarah from Flourish Design and Style is having 11 days of giveaways and currently she is giving away a set of boxed gifts cards designed by the talented Mariska Meijers. Mariska also has a lovely blog that you can visit here. The winner will be announced on July 5th so go over and have a look at Sarah's lovely blog.

This gorgeous giveaway of vintage business cards and vintage recipe cards is hosted by the lovely Jojeana from Secret Garden Cottage. Jojeana has a lovely blog and is definately worth stopping by and having a look.

Finally I want to introduce you to a wonderful new blog that I had the pleasure of finding recently. Laurie opened her home decorating service called Bella Inspirations in 2007. Laurie's blog is also called Bella Inspirations and it is definately worth a visit.

It was Laurie who introduced me to the great application from Sherwin Williams that I used to virtually paint the house last week. See here. Laurie makes beautiful table runners.

If you haven't discovered Laurie's blog yet go over and visit her at Bella Inspirations.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a great day

xx

Giveaway and giving gifts

I would like to introduce you to my new friend Laura, Laura has a gorgeous blog My Summer House and now she has her own etsy store.

To celebrate the opening of her store Laura is giving away not one but two cushion from her line. You must go and check out her blog and her store. Laura's designs are just beautiful!

I hope you all had a lovely weekend, we had a trip to Newcastle to visit our newest nephew. He is just gorgeous and we really enjoyed our short stay! I don;t have any photos of him to share yet but you might enjoy these!

I love putting together and giving gifts and I thought I would share this one with you.

I needed some bottles and some pebbles and

if they just happen to double as candles even better.

Pretty soap is good

I really love candles, you can never have too many!

Some shells

scrubby stuff

start putting it together strategically

Fill the bottles with luxury bath products

Layer them attractively

All ready to enjoy by the lucky receiver

Do you like buying gifts for people?

Do you find it easy to choose something special?

Have a great Monday.

xx