MERRY CHRISTMAS

To you and your family, I hope you have a wonderful day however you may be spending it. We will be in our own home this year with my family around us!
As we are spending the festive season at home I have put out all my decorations this year to enjoy. I have quite a few photos of all that I have been setting up. Things are getting really busy in our house leading up to Christmas as in everyone's home's I would say! This weekend hubby and I are going to finish all the painting in the kitchen... not looking forward to that but it has to be done. Once I get that out of the way I will finish off some Christmas present shopping and then start doing some cooking for Christmas week so I can relax! All while I am still working my real job during the day...arghhhhh! I do have 17 full days off though which I am looking forward to!

Fresh greenery this year for the mantle with simple candles

looks very pretty with the lights on

I found these cute little chalkboards to label the kids' stockings

I upcycled these little beauties from the cheap shop with new ribbon!

my table centre

Our big Chrissy tree that the kids decorate (Im getting a new one next year its looking a bit tired)

these decs are over 30 years olds passed down... very kitsch

these are a new addition to my collection

under my kitchen tree!

Flynn's tree (my son)

We have had these little reindeers since I got married 15 years ago!

A bit of Christmas cheer added to the kitchen! lol

I wish you a Merry Christmas and travel safe if your travelling xx

Carla

STUDY TIME!

...Or should I say "blog time, pay bills time, work time". These would be only times I use the computer and office, since the the ipad and iphone are attached to me practically 24/7, however I do miss the good old times when you'd sit at the computer to get online! The kids use this space to do their homework more than anything now.
Gee, looking at this photo (I took on an inspection of the house) it was such a long way off to how it is now! We are two weeks off our 1st year anniversary of living in this house, and I am happy with how it looks now. It has come such a long way from the beginning! I saw the potential in this place and it's paid off, I'll forgive you if you wonder how I ever thought I could transform it! haha

the arrow points to the 'spot' I have transformed to my office

just a desk with an old chair

then I bought the 'ghost chair'

I moved the office to a new space in the house and it has evolved over 6 months...

my office now

It's such a pretty space now that it has found its home

my love of Ikea on display here...lol

Another project complete! and onto the next...
I hope to put up my Christmas decorations tomorrow, anyone else already done theirs?
Carla

POP OF COLOUR

As I slowly wait for the finishing touches to my kitchen re: pantry door, paint, Oh the tiles went on today.... they look amazing!! so excited. I'll sneak in a pic in this post! Anyway as I was saying... while I wait patiently for the last few things to be done in the kitchen I have been doing a lot around the house such as moving furniture and finishing off my study (which you will see in my next post), painting what's left of the stained timber windows to white, framing pictures and hanging them and changing up the linen on my bed for the coming summer! When I saw these pillowcases from AURA I fell in love, I thought they would be the perfect pop of colour to go with my white linen and greys in my bedroom. I was fairly lucky to get them as they have now totally sold out of the whole range. They are reversible too with a nice soft grey on the back.

Peony pillowcase in 'saffron'

Yes, I need to buy the other lamp, I bought one to try and still haven't got the other...

When I get sick of the yellow I will turn them around!

'my things'

The print above the bed means quite a lot to me and I actually based my colour scheme for the room around this. My Mum had it hanging in her room and so did my grandmother it is at least 30 years old!
It has the most beautiful colours in it - all dusty blues, sage and mauve with the greys and bright white doves.

I'm on the look out now for a nice throw to match in for the end of the bed, just for when we still have these cool nights like tonight!

as I promised a quick shot of my tiles....

Well I am now off to that very room - to bed!

Carla

ps. Jamie's 15 minute meals are great!!

THE SOFT REVEAL

sorry about receiving this post twice, blogger had been playing up tonight. I am trying to get a post up and I have had major issues including this latest post being deleted!! (lucky I kept a back up copy) but in order to put it back in line I had to re-post. Watch out for my next new one after this! thanks..

I don't want to keep you all waiting forever and ever for me to reveal our new kitchen, so here it is!! There are a few missing elements which are coming very soon. I would have loved for it to be totally finished and perfect for the post but I think we did amazingly well to achieve this in one... yes ONE week! I am exhausted but was well worth project managing the whole thing myself to achieve this result in such a short time. All the tradies were amazing especially my dad the builder. We still have the painting to do, the tiled splash back, pantry door and the flue and cover. A new floor is on the agenda for next year, it was not able to be saved, it was patchy and we came across a concrete slab where the old combustion stove would have been, this set us back a day ripping it all up and putting in a new substrate.
We have been using the kitchen for a week now and I just love it! Especially the deep stone sink (I am so glad I went with this it doesn't leave any water marks and is scratch proof) the induction cooktop is a breeze (boils water in a minute and just wipes clean), and I love all the soft close mechanisms on doors and drawers. We have opened it right up by knocking out the wall. Now I can cook while the girls sit at the bench or dining table and do their homework, before there was a wall separating the dining room and we didn't really like spending time in there.

before

before

destroying!

dusty!//!

A big change!

So there it is, I am going to have a few weeks off! By then the tiling will be done and I'll be ready to paint. I will keep you updated and do a BIG reveal once it is totally finished!

Carla

KITCHEN UPDATE

Our new kitchen reno starts in just over a week! eeeek, so excited, I have designed and drawn it up myself, so am a little nervous, but I have a wonderful cabinet maker making and installing it and a wonderful builder doing the rest...thanks Dad!

I have finally chosen everything for the new kitchen... I will share with you today the samples!
I am going for a fairly modern/eclectic look, I want it to fit into my modern country (with touches of provincial) house, and if I stripped it back and changed my style it could totally work with contemporary. I am going all white with no handles and no overheads, adding a warm timber shelf with subway tiles and a little bit of mirror too. Open hutch style shelving will also accommodate the dinner sets and glasses etc... that we use everyday.

There will be some fairly major changes and it will double in size. At the moment the kitchen is tiny with no bench space and no storage.

Now these before photos are a little scary, excuse the mess we were having a craft day the day I took these but I'm not making excuses my house often looks like this on weekends. I have not bothered with the kitchen or dining room decorating because we have been waiting to demolish since we moved in!

I cant wait to get rid of these high and low benches because they just gather junk!

 The wall into the dining room will be knocked out... here we have started to rip up the floor

 This dining room will become part of the kitchen with a bench right along the back wall.

My rough drawing of the before and after plan

This pic here is similar to our end product, we have a load bearing post like this also..

the mixer I have chosen

my schock stone double bowl sink

Polytec Chamboard gloss benchtop (above) with polar white gloss cupboards

I like the tiles bottom centre but haven't bought these yet

sample of drawers similar to mine

bar stools

Clean lines, timber shelf plus gooseneck tap.
I love the rug and will probably have one seen as the kitchen will be so long.

 mirror splash back in my hutch?

We are working flat out for a week to get it in... but I envisage it to take a few more weeks before final completion... I'll keep you posted!

Carla x

NESTING!

About four weeks ago I was asked to feature in the Saturday edition of our local paper 'The Bendigo Advertiser' in a weekly article called 'we nest'. The one page spread is about a local Bendigo person who may be an artist, a designer, a collector or just a local personality that has an interesting house and story to tell. I was a little nervous knowing I was going to have my home photographed and be interviewed, it's still really evolving and is unfinished but oh well... I am chuffed to be recognised after nearly 5 years of living and working as an Interior Designer in Bendigo. I am privileged to have met and now call a lot of my clients friends! Thanks everyone for your support!

For copyright reasons I haven't got a hi-res version of the article to post but I can't see why I can't post a 'photo' of the article?? So the quality is bad and I have had to take snapshots of the full page so that you can actually read it!

So that's it folks... it turned out ok!

Have a great week

Carla x