Nuts ... in a nutshell | The Update

I don't have much time for anything these days. Updating the blog......4.5 months after having our baby girl!! Yep, she is 4.5 months old now and very consuming *cough* I mean, cute!!

Our renovations have been on the backburner for a while (time and budget). Although, hubbie is on holidays for 2 weeks next week and is building a wall! He is fixing up a wall downstairs -- shall be interesting to say the least.

I will be hopefully getting some time to paint the feature wall I have wanted for soooo long next to our wood heater (see previous post). However I think I have changed my colour choice to "Port Ridge" in the River Rock.

When I get 5-10 minutes or low and behold, 1 hour to myself...I'm usually racing outside for a break in the garden. Not much worth photographing yet as the weeds have taken over and I need more plants (I get most of my plants for free through relatives and waiting for my birthday or christmas to rock around!)

Here's one of my feature pots that is doing well -- it started with only a little handful of succulents and I have a little succulent nursery happening by pulling off leaves and restarting the shoots and breaking pieces off. It's fun and rewarding as they grow fast. I have a 2nd black glazed pot that matches this exactly (same statue and everything) but the succulents having filled the 2nd pot yet.

I had a quick look back to my past entries on this blog and I have seen many slight changes to reflect on. Will have to update some new photos.

The mailbox garden looks different again. The spiky plant has been moved and a bird of paradise next to the rock....plus additions.....and the semi circle garden near our front porch steps (along the pathway) is totally different. Still works in progress......WORKS IN PROGRESS...story of our lives!!! Everything is on the go and everything is pretty much incomplete. Oh, do I feel alive. It's certainly not boring. It's rewarding after the exhaustion.

I still haven't posted the renovation on our bedroom -- but that's because it's not finished. We're not totally happy with the room colour -- our colour choice turned out to be too yellowy creamy. So we're going to repaint again someday (on the list, but probably at the bottom of the list). We have to yet install a long shelf on one wall (we have the brackets but need to select a feature piece of hardwood). Plus I am yet to do my feature wall artwork. So our bedroom is pretty much a blank canvas. Oh, yeah, and I also have to do up my dressing table. It needs a buff or stain to bring it back to life. So much to do in one room..and right now it looks like a crammed hermit shell. We have bubsy in our room for now so crammed in with a cot, change table as well. And there's another project to finish....the baby nursery!

Mailbox Garden

Backyard | The Rainforest Garden: A loooong way to go yet

Please turn your sound on for all the birdies!!!!

At about 19 seconds in, you can hear the "rainforest bird". Mum thinks it's a whip bird...??I'm not sure.....am currently trying to identify it (amongst the lorikeets, the crows, and whatever else you can hear squarking)

It's not until we look back at the first photos we took of the house when we moved in....that we realise we have actually made a difference. I still have a long way to go. I want lush, full, packed to the brim gardens....a wonderland & a secret garden.

This is only a corner of the garden. I will feature more soon. I will show the whole backyard in one view, before and after. (currently we have a huge pile of tree loppings in one corner so I will show and tell after the cleanup!)

Before:

During:

WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE NOW!

Current (April 2009):

| Huge roos |

[Click image to view bigger]

We've had some lovely rains in the past month. Lovely for the garden. Not so lovely for the twice a week lawn mowing. eek.

The kangas are back to feast on the new grass shoots after a recent tractor slashing behind our house. They have been here in the late afternoons as the sun is going down munching away, and we were very surprised to see about 6 down the back the other day.

My camera batteries have died but I took this on hubbie's mobile phone camera. A few kangas we haven't seen before .... and they are HUGE. Big muscly, mean, serious looking male kangas. I didn't get close enough because I was too scared!

| Front/Side Patio |

BEFORE: [Click image to view bigger]

DURING: [Click image to view bigger]

GROUTING: [Click image to view bigger]

AFTER: [Click image to view bigger]

Well if you want to get technical, it would be the side patio/porch (not exactly "front"). Our "front" door is really on the side of the house in relation to the street front. I look out our front door and towards the side of the neighbours house (luckily there is an narrow easement of lawn between us).

The cobblestone effect tile was part of our wedding present from my husbands parents (my in-laws). The patio tiling was started the week before our wedding, early April 2008 (whilst my inlaws were up the week before the wedding - a very busy time). Hubbie and his dad worked out the whole plan of attack and then cut tiles down where needed and completed the stairs. It wasn't until much later in October when the inlaws came back for hubbie's 30th birthday that they finished tiling the whole patio....and then finally on McHappy Day - November, hubbie and I spent the day grouting between the tiles.

We still haven't worked out what kind of update we are going to do with the ralings. The metal cat has been moved to an tin/iron awning on the side of the house "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" (will post pic sometime in near future).

Really want some nice pots and a garden bench to go on the porch. Like this.....

| Woodheater |

BEFORE: [Click image to view bigger]

PREPPING THE WALLS: [Click image to view bigger]

Note: The tradies assistant is bludging on the job .....hehe...the cat..... luckily I wasn't paying either of them.

DURING: [Click image to view bigger]

FEATURE TILE: [Click image to view bigger]

AFTER: [Click image to view bigger]

Excuse the barrel...it's our firewood barrel and has ugly plastic bags of pinecones in it. hehe....I want to decorate with a selection of indoor plants in it for the summer months....but haven't gotten there yet!

Our woodheater was looking every bit the 70s or 80s or at least...very old! (Mind you a look on the Norseman website, they still sell a model very very similar!)

We bought the tiles (still have quite a few boxes left) on sale with an "end of lot" tile clearance about 6 months ago (or more). We didn't really know where we would use them but bought them anyway. Got them home and we decided they would look perfect around the woodheater. We only recently selected the feature tile. A polished marbley rock looking feature tile in small squares....the look is very much river rock or bush rock which compliments the feel of this house. (you will see in future posts we have a stone look front porch and bush rocks feature in the garden)

Hubbie has been on a bit of a renovation rampage lately. I think he's wanting to get a heap of stuff done before the baby arrives.

He tackled this one weekend.....and gosh, when he starts, he doesn't stop. I think he only stopped for a feed and toilet breaks. I mostly saw the back of his head that weekend. The tv was blaring "Lord of the Rings" (some extended version boxset) and hubbie was trance-like between the tv and the tiling. 

We are very happy with the outcome. This is the second tiling thing hubbie has done (first was the front patio) and he did that with his dad (who lives 2 states away from us). Hubbie did a great job. I did a great job of staying out of the way! haha. (I helped grout and clean the patio but there was not enough room to help on this project so I kept well clear)

We are going to paint the wall to the left of the woodheater which should be a nice entry statement. Hubbie has primed a small section of the wall (can see the white bit to the left of the tiling). He did this prior to tiling...thinking ahead. We cannot decide on a wall colour. I love Dulux "Berryfield" River Rock textured paint. It compliments the tile colour and moreso the tile grout and would continue the theme lovely. Hubbie wants a more caramel colour. I don't think so. The saga begins...

| Tulip Chair |

I got this chair yesterday for Valentine's Day.

I had spotted it in a secondhand store about a month or more ago. I really wanted it, but we were only going for a drive and we were broke. Not even a spare $15 for the chair. Oh, the heartwrenching pain when you see a beautiful bargain and you have to walk away.

Anyway, I was retelling this to my mum and dad and said we'll go back (it's a 30 min drive away) sometime and it might still be there. I had a garage sale to even fund going back and getting the chair. Next time I was talking to dad, it must of come back up again and dad says "oh, I rang them to see if they could hold it...but they don't have it anymore" (my dad is awesome like that, I don't even think of those things, I just wallow that someone probably already bought it the next day) Dad says "yeah, I was talking to the man, he used to live in [insert our town]" and "he didn't have the chair of that description"(I then checked the description with dad and proceeded to giggle. Dad had thought the "tulip chair" was a wooden chair with a big tulip cut in the back"  [insert buzzer noise.....erm, wrong). I was like "noooo, dad, *giggles*...it's a metal chair, scrolly looking and retro colours with a beautiful fabric seat with little tulips all over it". Dad was like "I got it very wrong". And we just giggled. 

Dad was going to go down that way in a few days and he was going to go back in and check for us. (he ended up cancelling his trip, so the talk of the tulip chair trailed off for a bit).

Fast forward to yesterday.

Hubbie and I decided to go for a drive to go to the movies an hour away. (we saw "Ghost Town" which I recommended favourably. Very funny). We stopped by the secondhand shop on the way. We get momentarily distracted out the front door by a cute grey kitty that looks just like our grey kitty "Asha".  I hadn't seen her yet when hubbie goes "There's Asha"....and I go "Whhaaaat??" looking around (almost ready to panic that the cat had stowed away in our car for the drive and we had let her escape into another town.....eek)...but alas, NO. Phew!  It was a cat without a collar but looked just like ours. Same size/relative age from an uneducated guess. We thought it was freaky because it could be a very wild possibility that they were brothers/sisters if they got the cat from [insert our town name] RSPCA (only 30 mins away) ...so possible. But I was too wussy to ask. I'm usually ok with laughing at myself and others laughing at myself and asking silly random questions but as soon as I stepped inside the store, I was on a mission.

Mission Tulip Chair.

I went to the spot and looking around and saw not one, but two Tulip Chairs. What? I only remember only seeing one (but I'm not really that observant sometimes). I say to hubbie "Wow there's two!!" So we inspect both to see which one is better. I really want them both, but don't have need for both. I want the one to go in my craft nook/office. I currently have a beautiful timber fabric/padded seated chair but it's in blue tartan and it's tacked on with a million studs so I am not even going to attempt to recover it. 

So hubbie picks up my chair and as we walked past a few more chairs, I spot another tulip chair! They are breeding. So we quickly stop to check it's quality. Nope, I want the one I've already picked. 

Purchased for $15

Bargain!

Plans: Going to repaint the metal. I like the burgundy colouring but thinking of replacing the glossy cream bit for the green of my feature wall in the craft nook. (and will match the green/burgundy of the tulips).