Bella...

This dog cracks us up every day...

Chair Vingette

I still love this retro chair from Freedom. It's my favourite chair in the house, but it's always looked a little bare. I've added this canvas above it, a cushion and a lamp, but I still feel like it's missing something. A little side table perhaps?

Then and now….

The House, 2015

The House, 2016

I take loads of photos of every stage of the house for a few reasons. Firstly, it's just nice to have a record and every now and then I'll go back and have a look when I'm feeling in an historical mood.

Secondly though, it's for motivation. I've learned that building/renovating can be a long, arduous, frustrating and at time, demotivating process. Sometimes you have to look back to see how far you've come, especially when you hit a roadblock.

The beginning of the year is always a bit of a melancholy time for me - have I done everything to the house that I said I would? Am I where I said I would be at this time of the year? 

I took some new photos and compared them to this time last year. I'm no where near where I thought I'd be, but we've definitely made progress and I'm going to be happy with that. Life is busy, really busy, and when you're doing everything by yourself, mostly by hand, it doesn't leave much time. So I'm going to be happy with the progress of the past year and start setting some goals for this year.

Most of the progress has been at the front of the house, which has been on my wish list since we built. The fence is up and painted and I'm really happy with it. It was painful to paint, but we got there in the end.

Driveway 2015

Driveway 2016

The plants in the garden are going really well.  I started planting at the end of Winter, and while Spring was slow, the heat of Summer seems to have agreed with the plants and they've been growing like crazy these last few weeks.

Side Garden, 2015

Side Garden, 2016

This year the goal is to complete the subdivision and get the spare block on the market and complete the works underneath the house. Watch this space!

Under the stairs vingette

This is my first attempt at a "vignette", which in interior design terms means "a collection or arrangement of items in a pleasing manner". Not to be confused with the vignette in photography, which I learned about in film lectures at uni, or vinaigrette that you use in dressings for salads.

Anyhoo, this is the empty space below the staircase. It's a pretty narrow space and I'd always planned to put a console table and artwork there, but I could never find anything that I liked that fit the space. I've done a few posts on this space previously here and here.

I'd actually always planned for a walnut console table and never even considered glass. But I saw this table on Gumtree for a really good price and when I did the measurements it was a perfect fit. The art above it was also a bargain and one I'd had my eye on for a long time. I snapped it up as soon as it went on sale for 1/8 of the original price. The rest of the items are a dwarf fiddle leave ficus (I'm so obsessed with these at the moment) and some photos and vases I already had.

I thought the section below the table was looking a bit bare, so I put these baskets with some magazines in it. I'm still on the fence as to whether it works or is just a bit too much. Any advice would be appreciated!

Feed me Seymour!

I don't know about you but one of the goals in my life is to have an indoor plant that's the same size as me.

*Tick!*

This is my new fiddle leaf ficus and it's HUGE! I bought it from Gumtree for a seriously unbelievable price from someone who had over-ordered. I saw one of these in a shop in the Valley for $180 and it was half this size. I paid less than half this price so I'm one happy chick.

The seller was in the Valley and my fellow plant-loving work colleague grabbed one for each of us and dropped it into work. I had to carry this thing from my office, down Queen Street Mall and back to my car. I got so many stares, which is ridiculous, I mean, haven't you ever seen a girl take her giant plant for a walk?

I've put it in the main entrance way, which is the absolute perfect spot aesthetically and horticulturally. It's indoors and has lots of natural filtered sunlight. It was pretty root bound so I repotted it in this charcoal pot which looks stone, but is actually plastic, which is fab cause if it was stone the whole thing would have weighed a tonne and there's no way I would have been able to move it.

I love this plant sooooo much! It's totally transformed the entrance and makes me smile every time I walk down the stairs.

Oh and I've named him Seymour. You know…

Remembering...

Every year on this day we remember the floods that engulfed our little home and started us on this house project journey. 

Every year on this day something special happens to remind me that there is always a silver lining, that good can come from adversity.

It's only a small sign, but this spider lily bloomed for the first time since I planted them as bulbs. It was a lovely and pleasant surprise because it's very late in the season and I wasn't expecting it to bloom at all until September.

We're still on our project journey and these little things bring a smile to my face.

It's been five years and signs of the flood are gone, but never forgotten.