A touch of Orange

The weather in Orange is getting cooler and the trees are starting to change colour.

I got my jacket and scarf out last week and the heater was on.

The colour orange reminds me of autumn so I though I'd share some autumn inspired pics.

Enjoy!

Image found here, I just love the cosiness of the knitted cushions

and the leaves on the wall are perfect for an autumn interior. 

Image found here, loving the pops of Orange via the throw rugs.

Image found here, the turquoise looks great with the orange

Image found here,

the natural textures and colours in this room along with the orange accessories, just perfect!

image found here, I love how the walls are famed to match the picture frames.

image found here, The orange and the pink together on a white background... just lovely!

Image found here, what a great way to bring some colour into the house!

Have a great week,

I hope that where ever you are you are enjoying the colours of the season.

xx

Craving

Pregnancy does strange things to your body and also to your taste buds,

I have never liked Vegemite

for those of you who have never tasted it

Vegemite is very salty and not very nice!

My husband on the other hand loves Vegemite.

Last night he had a late night snack of Vegemite on toast and jokingly offered me a bite.

I surprised him and said yes!

Then I shocked him (and me) and promptly ate one of his pieces of toast with Vegemite!

Guess what I am having for morning tea today....

Yep, Vegemite on vita wheats!

Have you ever had funny cravings 

or found you suddenly liked something you used to really dislike?

Have a great day!

xx

PS. Thank you for all of the wonderful comments you guys left me on my last post.

We are really thrilled and excited about our news

and I am looking forward to sharing the experiences with you.

Hopefully I won't bore you silly with pregnancy/baby talk though. : )

Miracles

I am sorry, I have developed a bad habit of disappearing for a while

and totally neglecting my blog.

I have all of the usual reasons too busy, lots happening etc...

But the most exciting reason by far is that I have been feeling lousy due to this little one!

For those of you who have been around for a while you know that we had a pretty traumatic miscarriage late last year and so we are thrilled to share that all is looking well with this new pregnancy and we are praying that it continues that way!

So please forgive me for my absence and bear with me for the rest of this term, 

I have a few commitments that will ease off after Easter and then, hopefully, I will have more time to spend with you!

Have a great week my friends.

xx

PS. Baby due 23rd September 2011 : )

Autumn Rain

Welcome to the first day of autumn!

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 and what a way to start the season,

with lots of rain!

image here 

I like the way that colours can look more vibrant when they are wet

 I don"t mind the rain...........

in moderation

It can be a nuisance if I have a lot of running around to do

But I wouldn't mind so much If I had some cute accessories

 image here

image here 

What about the whole matching outfit!

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Or some stylish heels?

image here

Whatever your first day of Autumn/Spring brings you

 I hope you are having a lovely day.

xx

A touch of Pink

Good morning My Friends

I am still alive, for anyone that was wondering!

Just a bit busy doing life.

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Today is my MIL's birthday

and her favourite colour is pink

 image here

Today's post is for her

 image here

 image here

image here 

image here 

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I hope to have a bit more time to spend here soon,

Until then, keep well.

xx

Watoto Restore Tour -Child Soldier No More

We went and watched the Watoto Restore Tour - Child Soldier No More performance last night and if you have an opportunity to see it I highly recommend it.

We went with our Youth Group and they were all impressed with the performance, however it is recommended for children over 10 years old as it is a very confronting performance particularly the opening 15 minutes or so.

You can find out more here

and the tour dates here

I hope you are all having a great weekend.

xx

Thankful 4

My dear friend Lisa has started Thankful 4 on Thursdays and I think it is a great idea for us to stop and remember all that we have in life to be grateful for.

If you would like to join in too, you can!

Just pop over and visit Ledamae

I have so much in my life to be thankful for but this week I have been feeling a little tired so I am particularly thankful for my Wonderful Husband who makes me a coffee every morning and makes lunch for both Nicholas and myself and he makes sure that we get out the door on time.

I am also very thankful that I work with a great group of people who are really flexible and don't mind if I am late to work every now and again.

I am also grateful that thanks to my family and work I was able to cut back my hours this year and I have a bit more time to myself to rest or catch up on other things that would normally keep me up later at night.

I am thankful that I have a beautiful boy who helps his Dad clean up after dinner so that Mum can put her feet up for a while and relax.

I am also thankful that I have a comfortable bed to climb into every night.

Oh and I am very thankful to both my gorgeous boys for the new quilt cover set that they gave me for Christmas!

I love it, What do you think?

(P.S I am thankful that I have a selection of cushsions to choose from because after seeing these photos I decided that I needed to switch my '&' cushion for something abit lighter in colour)

What are you thankful for today!

Make sure you stop in to visit Lisa and check out her Thankful 4 post too

and better yet you can join in as well!

xx

Kitchen Makeover

I have finally managed to get organised enough to show you the progress on the kitchen! I would love to say it is all finished but there are a few little things left to do. So if you notice the couple of minor items that still need to be finished please just ignore them. If I don't share with you now I have a feeling that these little jobs may take another few years to complete and I will never end up sharing our kitchen with you!

Behold.... the after!

and now the before...

It looked like there was a wall oven once upon a time that must have died and instead of replacing it the alcove was patched and a convection oven was put in its place.

The rangehood and the stove top were so filthy we decided then and there to rip them straight out and buy a new oven. We did that before we moved in.

The kitchen sink looked like this when the tenants moved out!

It needed replacing but it had to wait

We discovered that if we sprayed the sink nightly with bleach it looked clean for a little while!

My wonderful father in law got stuck straight in and replaced our splashback tiles.

We had a wonderful crew of family members helping us out for a few weeks before we moved in. They helped paint the house from top to bottom among lots of other things.

A year later and this is what the kitchen looked like, new splash back, new oven, new lights (almost finished), cornice waiting to be finished and ceiling still needs some patching.

The benchtops and the cupboards were a pale pink, we had a hole in the benchtop from where we ripped out the stove and we still had the horrible glass chopping board built in to the bench. It was crooked and was pefect for catching crumbs. Oh and we still had the horrible sink.

We decided to add some interest to the breakfast bar and to the end of the cupboards where our bins sit (above and below)

We decided to snazzy it up with some panel board. My Wonderful Husband cut it to size and used some adhesive to stick it up in place. I got the job of painting it.

The cupboards all got painted white as well!

I actually worked on these during the winter so it took a few weeks for me to get them all finished, I had the doors and drawers laid out on our dining room floor to dry.

We finally got our new sink and tap.

I spent ages trying to find the tap that I wanted and I finally convinced my WH that we needed a retractable hose so it was easier to wash the pots and pans!

In the end I found one we were both happy with, from Ikea.

The benchtops are bamboo and they are from Bunnings.

We bought three tops and WH cut them to size.

I didn't do much at all as they were very heavy. WH had to do most of it by himself.

I did help measure but that didn't work out very well : (

I found some new handles online for half the price that they were in Bunnings so I was very happy with that!

The Bamboo benchtop needs to be oiled in order to protect it, we started with just 2 coats.

I'll just keep an eye on it and oil it as required.

So what do you think? We have still ot a few bits and pieces to finish off but it is mostly done!

We are happy with it and very happy with the end cost!

Lots of shopping around helped keep the makeover cost to a minimal.

Quick breakdown of prices if you have any questions please ask, I am happy to help if I can.

Tiles - free in garage when we bought the house, leftover from bathroom.

Ceiling and wall paint  - was bought for the whole house 

Oven and rangehood - great deal $3000. Stove top is gas, oven is bi-energy so we can use gas or electricity.

Light fittings - $42 each x 3 = $126

Benchtops - $1700

Cupboard paint - I used door and trim paint that we had bought in a huge tin to do all the doors and trim in the house.

Panel Board - can really remember but no more than $50

Sink - on clearance at Bunnings $50

Tap - $249 from Ikea

Additional plumbing items for under sink - $60

Cupboard hardware - $90

Adhesives and fillers etc - $150

Labour - Nil, my WH has proved to be very handy, he had no probs with the plumbing and FIL was an electrician so with his guidance WH was able to wire all of our new lights and powerpoints himself. How lucky am I?

I think that is about it, of course if you don't have all of the tools you need to invest in these and I must say that we have spent a small fortune on buying all the right gear but we figure that we will be doing it all over again one day so why not?

Total cost (roughly) $5,475

I hope you like our kitchen makeover, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Have a great week!

xx

Just a quickie

Hello to all my faithful friends who stop by to make sure I am still alive!

I know I have been really slack at keeing up with my blog

but I have been visiting you all, just not always leaving a comment !

Sorry : (

I though I'd share a quick makeover I got round to on the weekend,

ok a few weekends ago, last wekend I was painting lattice....

Yuck what a tedious job!!!

We bought plain lattice to use as screening in the yard

and as a support to grow some star jasmine on

but we wanted white lattice so in order to save money

we bought the cheaper stuff and decided to paint it ourselves.

It takes forever with the spray gun and is very messy with a brush,

believe me I tried both and I still have lots more left to paint.

Anyway.. back to the quick makeover

We bought some $9.99 lanterns from Ikea a few weeks ago in an industrial silver

we wanted them white,  so out came the spray cans of glossy white paint

 and voila!

in next to no time they were done!

I took out all of the glass from the lanterns and set up my portable spray booth,

after three light coats of spray paint they were done!

We bought 6 of the lanterns to use in our new outdoor area

(which I will show you one day soon),

  I used one and a half cans of the spray paint.

and the best thing is it only took an afternoon to do!



Don't you just love quick makeovers!

xx