Friday, April 29, 2011

Bows

I currently have a thing for bows, and am desperatly sending hints for these for my birthday
 And in my fantasty world where money is no object, I want this ring - think I might be dreaming though

What are you currently wanting?
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Thursday, April 28, 2011

Change Table

When I first started planning our babies room, I decided I wanted a Hemnes dresser to be used as a change table. But as we didn't have carpet, there wasn't much point in buying it right away.

Eventually I got my carpet, which meant a trip to Ikea.

Turns out that pregnant women really shouldn't think that they are capable of lifting and building flatpack furniture at 9pm at night. They make silly mistakes and install parts backwards without realising till the very end. Doh!

But I did manage to get the Ikea Hemnes chest built and installed
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Tuesday, April 26, 2011

A Cold Issue

Our house really is quite small, a mere 13sq all up, and the only heating source we have is our wood heater in the lounge room.
(This photo leads me to a totally random fact, but despite all the photos of our house I have, I don't think I have any photos of our lounge room with the curtains closed. This is the best I could find, and it was taken in 2008 when we renovated the lounge room!)

For 6 years we have been adequately warm, however I wouldn't describe our house as 'cosy' in winter. When the husband brought the heater (as we had no heating what so ever when we brought the house - luckily it was summer), he brought it from the Jindara factory down the road from us as a proto-type for a bargain price. Which was all well and good, but it was barely big enough to heat our tiny house, not to mention that it couldn't take overly large logs which meant it often burnt out overnight.

When we found out we were to be expecting a baby this winter, I started to fret about how I would cope in winter with a newborn, a cold house, and a husband who quite possibly could be away for work and unable to bring wood up to the house, yet alone have the time to go and collect it from the farm.

I made the suggestion to upgrade our cooling system to include heating, but was quickly shot down due to the $5,000 price tag. Fair enough, but if certain people had listened to me when we installed the cooling system, it wouldn't have been quite so expensive. But lets now dwell on that. I suggested putting in a gas heater, but was quickly shot down as it wasn't worth having gas connected for just a heater. I can't remember what his justification was against a reverse cycle cooler, but it wasn't positive.

I left the topic along for several months, knowing that if I nagged about it, I wouldn't get far at all. And then one day in March, the husband came up with a genius suggestion - we should have gas connected and put in a gas heater! Well, who would have thought!?!

So, we made the decision to look into getting a gas heater, and rang a plumber to get some advice about it, as neither of us knew anything about gas or what made a good heater. Our plumber gave us two options: a smaller version which would just heat our house, or the bigger (and therefore more expensive) option which would heat our house more than adequately. It wasn't even an option, the bigger heater was chosen and ordered.

Unfortunately there was a wait for the gas connection to be installed, and then the heater, so stay tuned for part 2 of the heating story.
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Friday, April 22, 2011

Showering the Baby

Last weekend my dearest best friend threw me the worlds most awesome baby shower.

Now I admit I wasn't sure what to expect, I am not really the games playing type. And I am the host who worries about every little thing, so having umpteen women in my tiny house was worrying me a little. But I was more than touched that my bestie was going to a huge amount of effort, despite having 3 children to look after, to plan this for me, so I slapped on my big girl panties and ordered some invites.

As we don't know the gender of our baby, I wanted something neutral, and I have a little bit of a green and orange obsession, so that set the theme for the shower. I scored the internet high and low (ie I went straight to Etsy) and found Sweet Bella Stationery, who was more than willing to customise a design to suit our theme.

The husband and I went on a massive cleaning spree, to partially calm my nerves about having so many people in my house, partially as we are in full swing nesting mode. We cleaned, we rushed to finish little tasks around the house, and then we cleaned some more.

And then when I got sick of cleaning, I baked. Which meant that it was the big day! I wish I had remembered to hand my camera to my dear photographer friend Kerry earlier in the day, as I have no photos of all the awesome games we played (which I loved by the way). Kerry did manage to capture the unwrapping of the million of presents that my friends so generously brought us.


Speaking of my dear friend Kerry, she picked up on a conversation that we had many months ago that went along the lines of "the husband won't let me buy a Gentle Giraffe,  so I must retaliate by buying everything else but!" And look what she brought me. I love him (and her) so much.

Our friends gave us so many lovely things, which I am so very grateful for. I never expected to get to this point in pregnancy, and to share this moment with the friends I love so dearly, was more than my emotions could handle.

So as a small token, I wanted to give thank you gifts to each of the lovely ladies that attended. I debated for many weeks what to give, eventually deciding on little jars of lollies. I was going to fill them with Skittles (my favourite candy of the moment) but it took far too many to fill those Ikea jars. Then it was Allens Freckles, but that was too tempting and I ate the test packets. And I didn't have the time to get to the bulk lolly store, and it would be too expensive to get them at the supermarket.

So I needed some sort of candy that was readily available, and reasonably priced when brought in bulk. Enter the humble solid mini easter egg!
Aren't they pretty all lined up with all their coloured foils? To top them off, I made little tags for each jar with a thank you message.


So there you go, I have made it to the stage in pregnancy where I had a baby shower, which now means we are on the homeward stretch. It is starting to get scary now :O
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Thursday, April 21, 2011

Do you love chocolate?

I loooove chocolate, and so does my mum. So when thinking of a birthday present for her, I remembered a friend telling me about a walking chocolate tour in Melbourne. Fantastic, the walking would counteract the chocolate consumed, meaning it was a guilt free present!

A quick google search found me Chocoholic Tours, where I was amazed to learn there were several options. I decided on the Chocolate Lovers Walk, which took us to Lindt (my favourite), Haigh's (my second favourite), The Chocolate Box (my mum's second favourite), and KokoBlack (her absolute favourite!)

To mark the day as a special occassion for my mummy, I decided to make it a suprise - which meant that she was only told to wear comfortable shoes, bring water, and an umberella. I picked her up and we drove to the train station, boarded a train, and took a short stroll up Collins Street, all whilst she kept making guesses as to what we were doing. She guessed the zoo, Luna Park, going to a day spa, going to high tea, and going to a play. Her final guess, as we stopped outside Lindt, was shoe shopping. She spotted the shoe store, but failed to see the giant Lindt bunny.
(I so wanted to take him home, but he was $100, and I didn't think the husband would agree as to his essentialness)

Anyway, because she was starting to head towards the shoe store, and the tour was about to start, I told her the news, which she was ecstatic about. Some tour highlights included:
Ever seen a pregnant rabbit? 

I love the Collins Street KokoBlack store, it is so beautiful.

What was even more beautiful was the chocolate mousse and cake. It was devine! The pregnant bunny may have eaten half their mums cake too.

Both my mum and I raved about the tour to the people on the train on the way home, and thoroughly enjoyed every moment of it. If you are ever in Melbourne, and have a spare 3 hours, book in for a chocolate tour - well worth the walk!
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Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Changing Houses for Clothes

I am changing out my regular house stalking this week for clothes stalking instead, just in case you want a bargain too!

I recently started to think about packing my hospital bag, deciding on what to put in it. Don't get me wrong, I am diva who thinks that post birth will equal high society fashion, but I wanted something that I was comfortable in that looked nice too for photos.

So for my hospital bag I decided on some black yoga pants, some basic singlets and tops, and some cardigans. I am quite a fan of cardigans, and have many, but I wanted something new to wear that wasn't the same old thing I had been wearing for most of my pregnancy. Which was kind of handy, as good old Jeans West was having a sale on some of their styles - 2 cardigans for $50! How could I go wrong???

So I picked up the both of these,
(in peach and red) 
(in melon and cream)


So now my hospital bag is mostly packed, sitting in the office ready to go. The only thing missing is my new dressing gown that I am eyeing off for mothers day, and a pair of slippers from Peter Alexander.

And if you, just like me, are after something new and reasonably prices, hop on over to Jeans West and check out their sale, they had some quite nice things there for next to nix!
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Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Top 5 Easter Products

As promised, I took one for the team, and sampled many Easter products this year, to come up with the Top 5 Easter Products of 2011. You can thank me later :P

1. Cadbury Crunchie Rabbit

2. Darrell Lea 100's an 1000's Egg

3. Haigh's Trout

4. Lindt Gold Bunny (the $3.99 version, not the $100.00 version)

5. Bakers Delight Hot Cross Buns
I don't think my testing is done though, what do you think? Do you have a favourite that I haven't tested?
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Monday, April 18, 2011

Such Beautiful Linen




I love beautiful linen, and Serena and Lily do not disappoint. Such beautiful things!

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Friday, April 15, 2011

More Owls

I really have a thing for owls, they are just so cute!


Hammer and Thread has the tutorial on how to make this cute little fellow! Head on over and check it out!
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Thursday, April 14, 2011

Winner Winner Chocolate Dinner!

I am running a little late today, I thought about the competition ending last night around 7pm, and then prompty forgot about it until I was considering if 9am is too early to chow down on a mini easter egg (I decided it was). Opps, sorry about that!

Anyway, keeping on topic (something I find very hard to do these days), the Random Number dodad tells me that Number 9 was the winner

Who just happens to be the very lovely Bettina! Congratulations chickie, I will be in touch to get your address to send your chocolate goodies to.

And thank you to everyone who entered, I hope you have an awesome Easter with lots of goodies. I will be back with a list of my top treats in coming days - these things require serious research you know!


(PS - I wonder how long the chocolate keyboard would last in my office? Pin It

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Painting

Urgh, painting will be the death of me. Not only is it incredibly hard to get down to floor level when you are 31 weeks pregnant, it is near impossible to get back up with you have SPD. Which is why this task took me several weeks to complete.

Ok, so this task was a long time coming, waaaay back in December 2009 we painted our office, with the intention of painting the trim when the carpet was replaced. Finally, it is time for the carpet to be replaced and the skirting boards to be painted the same colour as the rest of the house rather than hideous green. Just to refresh your memories, it looked a little something like this


The husband has been working away a lot recently, which meant I often found myself bored of a night time, and one particular Wednesday night I decided to paint the office. The carpet was still in there, but I had these nifty little carpet savers. Turns out they were more of a hinderence than help, so I gave up half way around the room, but I did manage to paint the door frame and door, so all was not lost.

So at 8pm on a cold Friday night a few weeks later, I decided to make the husband rip out the carpet so I could finish painting. You know, because 9pm is an ideal time for that. I got the first coat on that night, and a few days later finished the second coat.

 Notice the cables - this household does not function without a phone or internet, both of which are required to be in the office. I can live with an iMac sitting in the dining room, but no internet for several days? It as impossible as me giving up chocolate for life!


Now I just need the carpet people to come and do their thing.
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Monday, April 11, 2011

Artwork

I never wanted to have a nursery that was filled with babish pictures, I wanted a room that would grow with my child into toddlerhood, and early childhood.

I settled on the following two series from Zoobabies - Paolo the Fox and Yuri the Bear.

I am still trying to get the right frames, I decided on Ikea square white Ribba frames, however when I went to Ikea they were all sold out and couldn't tell me when more stock was to arrive. I went back a few weeks later and they now tell me they have been discontinued.

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Friday, April 8, 2011

Quilts

I was so excited the day my fabric arrived from FatQuarterShop that I rang my mum and asked if we could start my quilt that weekend. Luckily she was on days off, and was more than willing.

A looooong three weeks later she presented me with this beautiful sight


Isn't she amazing? I love it
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Thursday, April 7, 2011

Easter is Coming Giveaway

April is here, and to celebrate Easter, I have a give-away for you all.
I recently made a trip to Koko Black and picked up this adorable pencil tin filled with goodies. It contains 6 solid milk chocolate eggs, 2 white chocolate bunnies, and 4 caramel chews - all of which don't contain my bite marks (I brought myself the same tin so this one was safe for you guys!)

All you have to do to win this is to be a follower of my little blog, and leave me a comment. I will leave the competition open until 8pm Wednesday 13th April 2011. I will draw a winner using the random number thingie and announce the winner on Thursday 14th April.

*Entries only open to Australian residents - international shipping is beyond my comprehension these days. Pin It

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Sick

Being sick really does suck, especially when you can't take anything for it.

The lovely husband, being the caring sharing kind of man he is, nicely gave me his cold on Sunday night. Just what I always wanted - a cold when I can't take anything for it. Uncharacteristically, I called in sick, as I knew that I was better of spending the day home in bed resting.

The only thing about spending the day in bed, is that it is pretty boring when you are awake, so I moved myself to the lounge, but soon decided that bed was more comfortable, even if it was boring. Which is how my bedroom came to look pretty similar to my office

Thank goodness for iTunes content!
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Monday, April 4, 2011

The Robe to End All Robes

The arrival of carpet meant that the door for the robe could be installed - much to my delight.

Much to my disgust we quickly established my husband was drunk when he made the frame for the robe, as the door frame differed significantly in width at the top to the bottom. Lets just say there was a tantrum, a screwdriver thrown, and a person who vowed never renovate again.

My mood was made slightly worse when the door was planed down which requires me to paint the bastard thing AGAIN! That job is still on the "when I calm down" list.

However, eventually we ended up with this

Which hides all of this (and more)

My mum tells me this is the largest baby robe she has ever seen. Clearly she hasn't seen my plans for our next house *hides*.

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