Saturday, March 31, 2012

Happenings and catchup

I got distracted by life - sorry. So this is going to be a quick catchup of what's been happening.


Had a weekend at Coolum a couple of weeks ago and it poured the whole weekend. Total washout. Just to make it worse we had gone camping with friends. Thankfully we'd stayed in a cabin but there was still an inordinate amount of time walking through torrential rain and sheltering under leaky tarpaulins. On the bright side the boys got to sleep in bunk beds for the first time and they were beyond excited!


Table update - I decided to keep the table. Apparently it didn't actually come in the other colour anymore. Now that the rug has arrived it looks much better. I realized that the main problem was that the table colour clashed with the floorboards but now that the rug is down that's not an issue anymore. Now we are waiting for the chairs - it'll be another eight weeks till they arrive because they placed the order as bar stools instead of chairs... sigh...


Ooohh, and my light fitting from Pottery Barn has arrived. Fantastic service. Can't wait to put it up but I'll have to wait until the cabinet maker installs our new book shelves first.


Alex was in his last Easter Bonnet parade on Friday. Apparently when you get to Year 3 you're too old for all that stuff. How sad. Eoin managed to join in as usual and even scored a cuddle from the Easter Bunny.

It's a beautiful morning in Brisbane and we're off for breakfast at the Cliffs Cafe at Kangaroo Point followed by a walk along the river.

T


Thursday, March 22, 2012

Fabrics

There is a whole world of fabric out there.  Last week I went fabric shopping with Tracey from Porchlight Interiors and got to visit all the secret designer fabric hangouts.  It's all pretty arcane with modest exteriors leading to an Aladdin's cave of treasures, their own language (colour ways, colour story) and they all seem to know each other. Needless to say - I loved it!

The fabrics available are unbelievably beautiful,  and many of them are unbelievably expensive.  $250 a metre????  Tracey kindly guided me to the more modest end of the spectrum where we found some lovely fabrics and I purposefully kept away Schumacher's siren call.

I particularly loved some of Thibault's fabrics.  Never thought I'd be a pink kind of girl,  but I do love it with green.

Thibaut

As well as price, there were a few other considerations. Firstly, as I'm the only female in a house of males, it couldn't be too girly.  So, no to pink and big florals.  Secondly, it had to be kid friendly, so no white/pale coloured backgrounds.  Finally, I didn't want it to look formal.  I want a nice, relaxed and comfortable look.  This is what we ended up selecting (excuse the bad photography).


From left to right:  Curtain option 1, curtain option 2, fabric for two armchairs by the window (sigh) and seafoam material for cushion. 

I ended going with Curtain option 2 as I thought the room would need an injection of brighter colour.

It's all slowly coming together.

T
xxx

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Paper Art

Another addition to our small art collection. Today I received two PaperCut artworks that I'd ordered from Hardwick and Cesko.


The detail is just amazing. PaperCutting is an ancient Chinese folk art thousands of years old. They are individually hand drawn and cut.
Now to find them a home and get them up off the floor!

T
xxx

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

What's in the box?

Finally got around to tackling the boxes containing the dining room table. My wonderful dad came over to help as it weighed a ton and there was no way I could lift it myself. It felt like unwrapping a Christmas present and by the time I got through all the layers there was a wonderful solid wood table in the WRONG COLOUR!

Heart sank. I had ordered this..,

And instead I got this...

I like the one we got but I think it's too 'country'.  
What do you think?

T
xxx

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Deliveries

Yesterday when I came back from work there were a couple on deliveries waiting for me. On the back deck were two boxes from Temple & Webster and in the dining room, another two boxes with my much anticipated new dining table.

I decided to start small and tackled the two boxes on the deck. The first box had a lovely new occasional table that I bought to brighten up our rather dark living room. Our very practical dark brown, leather sofas may be child proof, but don't exactly make the heart sing. So a bit of shine was exactly what the room needed.


Time to turn my attention to other, rather larger, box. This had me a bit confused as the other item I'd ordered was a temple jar. So what could be in that big box? That's right - the largest temple jar you've ever, ever seen. So completely oversized that I spent yesterday breaking out into hysterical giggles every time I looked at it. I've no idea what to do with it. I had planned to put it on a table or bookshelf but that's obviously not going to happen. Anyone want a huge temple jar?

And the moral is: always carefully read the dimensions when shopping online!

Will hopefully have the dining room table assembled soon when I can get someone to help me.

T
Xx

Thursday, March 8, 2012

Mail

The new Australian Home Beautiful just arrived in the mail. I've managed to resist the temptation of reading it so far but am looking forward to sitting down with a nice cup of tea for a leisurely read. Love the blues and greens featured on the front cover.


I can also spy a painting by Martine Emdur - one of her underwater series. Can I tell you how much I love her paintings? Would some kind stranger please give me $40,000 to buy an original? Ok, how about $1500 for a print? Pretty please?

Koukla was kindly helping me study.
I haven't blogged lately as I decided to return to study and complete the last four subjects of my Masters.  However my conviction lasted about two weeks until the reality of it all became apparent:

Finally getting the kids to bed and instead on sitting on the couch with a cup of tea and the latest episode of Miss Phryne Fishers' Murder Mysteries having to write assignments..

Having it constantly on your mind that you really should be studying and not taking the kids to New Farm Park.

Nope, don't think I'm ready for it yet. Maybe when both boys are in school.

T
xx

Saturday, March 3, 2012

The day after

Well, my prediction was correct.  The cake was delicious but it's resemblance to a LEGO brick was highly debatable.  Thankfully 7 year olds are an easy audience.




In fact Alexander got a real LEGO birthday cake at the LEGO centre.  Heaven on earth for 7 yr old boys.




It's sweet the way that Eoin still likes to make things pretty with flowers and trees.  The older boys were all making starships and space bases.

  

So another birthday done.  Thankfully I have until October before the next one. Plenty of time to regroup and recover - and work on my cake decorating.

T
x

Friday, March 2, 2012

The night before

The cakes are in the oven, the boys are in the bath and the dishes are waiting to be done.

Tomorrow is Alexander's 7th birthday party. Hopefully I will produce a cake somewhat resembling a LEGO brick and that is also edible. I have found in the past that design and substance don't usually coincide in my baking.

Off to do the washing up and the party bags!

T
xx