Christmas!

While I cluck disapprovingly at shopping centres and department stores that start putting Christmas decorations up almost before the second half of the year arrives, I secretly wish I could get away with it too. 

I love Christmas. Love, love, love. 

So it was perhaps somewhat inevitable that a rainy weekend resulted in us fetching the tree and decorations from our storage unit. They aren't all up. But they are here and can be put up whenever the mood strikes. I think the chances of holding out until December are slim. 

Perhaps a little more Christmas craft may push us over the line? So far we've just done wrapping paper but I think next weekend may involve baking and some hard core Christmas crafting. 

Just around the corner...

Spring is so close I can almost smell it. Blooms, beaches and a birthday. My favourite time of year.

Nell

On ANZAC Day we said goodbye to our precious golden fur child, Nell. It's hard to put into words how much we miss her. The house feels more than a little bit empty without her by our sides and in our laps.

As with every loss there's been a series of heartbreaking 'first' since she's been gone - the first walk without her, the first shower without her curled up on the bathmat, the first morning in bed without her, the first time automatically getting three treats out for the dogs, the first time not automatically getting three treats out...

She was utterly incomparable. Incomparable in every single way. What we wouldn't do for one more day of snuggles with our golden shadow.

Run free beautiful golden girl. In the words of Puddleduck, you'll be in our hearts forever.

A spot of rearranging

Some gratuitous living room pictures - because it's been a while and because I have been rearranging (again!).

One year in our nest

This last weekend marked one year since we first moved into our nest.

The bones haven't changed since I took the shots on our first night here, but as you can see from the shots I took on our 'anniversary' it's a little more finished one year on.

I wonder what another year will bring?

Gah!!

One of my pendant lights has started to give way at the top. Not quite as dire as it pulling the cord out of the ceiling (a very real fear we had when hanging them given the weight) but distressing nonetheless.

I've had a go at mending it today and will rehang it when Mr Puddleduck gets home - fingers crossed! I'd really prefer not to have to make a new one.

Old Lady

Look at this lovely old lady. Isn't she just crying out for some TLC?

Project - Kitchen rearranging

The layout of the kitchen has been bothering me for a while. The benches running under the louvers just weren't quite right. I had to keep them totally free of anything in order for the kitchen to look decent when I looked through from the living area. They also blocked some of the view through to our deck.

I also didn't like looking back inside and seeing the pantry on the wall. I can't quite put my finger on it, but it wasn't quite right.

So it was time for a change.

The benches are now on the wall where the pantry was. I love them there for the main reasons. Firstly, if I don't clean up after dinner until the next day I can't see the mess on the bench from the living room. Secondly, I can use the far end of the bench for storing chopping boards as appliances. Finally, it looks better from the deck and gives us much more room. All it needs is a nice bright print for the wall.

The pantry is now next to the fridge and that's working quite well too.

You might also notice I have ditched the little blackboards. They were cute and I loved them, but they didn't cope well with the inevitable grease. So we've put up some glass to act as a splash back.

Having used it in the new layout for about a week, I think this is pretty close to the layout we will use when we get around to putting in a proper kitchen. I also really like the effect of the yellow in between the stainless steel of the fridge and oven. Definitely much better than just against a white wall.

Project (kind of) - Dollhouse

I had grand plans of making a dollhouse for Puddleduck over the holidays. My plan was something relatively minimalist - some Ikea Expedit bookcases forming the frame and internal walls. We even went so far as to get one of the units (Puddleduck chose the black-brown wood) and start sketching out layouts (do dolls need bathrooms?).

However, I then stumbled across this dollhouse reduced to just over $100 at Anthropologie. It was too good a bargain to pass up - especially when I realised not only would they ship it to Australia, it would only cost $25 to ship it!

So we waited patiently for it to arrive. I think I gave myself some sort of repetitive stress injury as I obsessively refreshed the tracking information. FINALLY it arrived.

The construction nearly did my head in - at least six hours all up. I came to the conclusion that while the Brinca Dada flatpack workmanship was far superior to any IKEA flatpack I have come across, they really could take a leaf out of IKEA's book when it comes to labelling and describing pieces.

Anyway. Here is the end result. It's a huge hit!

Lunch dates

Little Miss Puddleduck is heading back to preschool next week and will be there for three days this year, not two. When you throw in ballet, swimming and play dates it leaves precious little time for Mummy and Puddleduck to just hang out together.

We've had so much fun together over the past year just enjoying one another's company. I'm really going to miss that - especially after the lovely school holidays we have just had.

So she and I have decided that we are going to be ladies who lunch one day a week. We'll go somewhere together, order something scrumptious and just 'hang'. No phone, no ipad - just chatting. We went to the local pub last week for our inaugural lunch and it was lovely to just chat. She is so incredibly observant and insightful and her curiosity is insatiable (mummy, WHY are we warm-blooded?). I love that I get to spend time with such a special little girl.

Some Christmas odds and ends

This little bell has been in my family for as long as I can remember. When I say 'in my family', I mean it was my grandmother's and used to hang on her tree along with lots other other shiny, pretty bells. My cousins and I would sneakily appropriate them on Sundays when we would visit her and reassign them to our trees at home. You know, steal them. Charming children we must have been. I'm not sure why, but the allure of these bells was too much to resist. I distinctly remember the great lengths we went to to sneak into the lounge and nab them. 

So for many years it would hang on our tree at home (I'm sure my parents were delighted with a yearly reminder of my childhood thieving) and when I moved Mum handed it on to me (read: I took it with me along with quite a few other decorations).

I hope it lasts long until Puddleduck is ready to move out and take it with her.

I mentioned in my pendant light post I was making paper chandeliers for Christmas decorations - this is one of them hanging in the front window.

Puddleduck, Mum and I also got a little bit crafty and made some decorations out of borax crystals and pipe cleaners. As it turns out, when you mix hot water and borax and suspend pipe cleaners in the solution overnight, it will crystalise around the pipe cleaners and create 'crystal' decorations. Very cool.

They don't withstand a lot of touching and the ones we used food dye with tend to 'bleed' a little, but all in all a very fun activity and something I think we will do again next year.

Experimenting ...

My apologies for another post with no real purpose. I'm experimenting with the Blogger app ...

So, here's a photo of my recently pimped fridge. I'm actually on the hunt for removable wallpaper in just the right pattern to cover it with, but in the mean time these postcards will do!

Project - pendant light

I should know better, but I was randomly googling recently in the hope of finding some hints on how to make a paper lantern chandelier to hang as a Christmas decoration and I came across coffee filter pendants. Instead of sensibly 'pinning' the images and going back to the task at hand, I thought "Oohh, what a great idea. I should try that. Now."

I became a teensy bit possessed with the idea so I set off looking for coffee filters. Not as simple as it sounds in this brave new world where coffee machines use pods instead of filters. I did track some down online though (thank you Officeworks) and ordered two thousand. Yes, two thousand. At the time I thought I was over-ordering.

Full of crafty enthusiasm and armed with my trusty glue gun (actually, the glue gun was a new purchase but it sounds more poetic to call it my trusty glue gun - and by the end of the project it had certainly earned the moniker) I started. 

At this point I was still enthusiastic - as opposed to the dogged determination that took over about a thousand filters later. It's that middle bit of the lantern that breaks you. You can glue and glue and glue and you'd swear you hadn't covered any more of the lantern than you already had.

 

Anyway. 

I got there in the end.

And I'm pretty happy with the result. Of course, having done one, I had to do the other one too. Sigh.

Before and after - kitchen

We finally, finally found our stash of before shots - taken before any demolition or removal of old desks and shelves happened. They have eluded us for ages - filed away safely - so I'm a bit excited to finally have them back. Expect the before and after posts to come thick and fast now. Consider yourselves warned.

This is a picture of the bedroom that became the kitchen. There was no internal access to the room - only this door that was accessed via and grated gangplank over the internal courtyard.

The view out from the bedroom to the courtyard.

On top of this contraption custom built set of drawers was the previous owners mattress. Behind that back wall was the only bathroom in the house (now our upstairs powder room). 

There was one long, thin rectangular window letting light into the room. I think it is fair to say he would never have had a problem being woken up by the early morning sun.

This is the view back out to the courtyard now. The wall where the bench and louvers are is the wall he had his bed against.

(You know how I've said I am always rearranging? Well, I've since turned the outdoor table so it runs the other way. I think it gives us a little bit more space outside.)

The louvers let an enormous amount of light - as well as breeze - into the kitchen. Even without the glass doors to the courtyard the kitchen would be full of natural light all during the day. It's beautiful to be in.

I used to keep my cookbooks on the benchtops, but because we don't have huge amounts of bench space I decided they would be better off out of the way on a shelf. Until we put in our permanent kitchen, this wall was just wasted space so it was the perfect spot.

This shot gives an idea of the 'temporariness' of the kitchen. Nothing is built in and the oven and dishwasher just sit side by side. The wooden board on top of the dishwasher is a handy bit of extra bench space for when I'm cooking. It's surprisingly functional for all its temporariness, so we're no longer in a rush to get something built in.

The wall above the oven has seen several incarnations and this is the current one. Puddleduck quite likes to get the blackboards down when I am cooking and doing some drawing. Which suits us both. Actually, I suspect part of the reason I quite enjoy our kitchen not being 'final' is that I get to change this wall whenever the mood takes me.

Gratuitous flower photos

I don't think it is any secret that I love flowers. They hold such happy memories for me. I remember visiting my grandparent's house and Grandad was always growing something. Every time I see gladioli or old fashioned single gerberas I think of him.

Similarly, my Dad has always grown roses, pansies, sweet peas, gladdies, chrysanthemums, carnations and a myriad of other plants and flowers. Even in the NQ heat and humidity he perseveres and our house was rarely without his beautiful blooms.

I think the first time I realised how beautiful hydrangeas were was when we visited my Uncle and Aunt in Melbourne when I was about 12. They had massive bushes out the front with huge heads of flowers. Gorgeous. I'm trying to grow my own now ... I've not killed them yet.

Peonies are another favourite. I love them at every stage of their unfurling. From tight buds to flopping petals revealing the bright yellow stamens. Our peony plant remains - shockingly - alive, although hasn't flowered since we've moved to Sydney. Poor thing.

Roses are so classic and David Austin roses are simply magical. They are both beautiful to look at and beautiful to smell. My local flower man always has some in stock and I can't resist them. The heady scent of rose in the mornings after the house has been closed up for the night is one of my favourite things. It's amazing how it wafts around the entire house - even outdoors.

Here is my own meagre rose offering. Our first crop of Pierre de Ronsard. They mightn't grow quite like weeds as they did in Canberra, but I hold out high hopes for my little roses this year.

Halloween ... and Christmas

Halloween doesn't seem as big in our new suburb as it did our old one, but we still managed to celebrate ourselves - and even carve our first pumpkin. Now that Halloween is over, however, it's definitely the countdown to Christmas.

I'm a huge Christmas tragic at the best of times, but the thought of our first Christmas in our new house is inordinately exciting. I'm struggling not to whip the decorations out right now and decorate the house.

It's our third Christmas in Sydney and the first we can actually use our big tree. Gosh I hope it hasn't gone all mouldy! Mr Puddleduck is - I suspect - heartily sick of me 'workshopping' ideas for where we should set it up. By workshopping I mean yammering at him about possible spots while pretending to take on board his thoughts. I mean I really am interested in his thoughts, but I just know he's not quite as fussed as I am.

There's no actual point to this post, just, you know, random excitement about Christmas!

Before and after - Bathroom

It's been a little while since I have done a before and after and as we finally discovered the photos we took before the strip out and demolition, I thought it was a good time for a bathroom before and after.

The agent described the room that became our main bathroom and ensuite as the house's kitchen. The basis for claiming it as a kitchen seems to be a strategically placed microwave and access to a sink just outside the room. It brings to mind contract law classes at uni when we learnt about 'mere puffery' in relation to the subject matter of a contract.

A more accurate description of the space is 'the panic room'. You'll see why in a minute.

This was the shelving that was dressed as the kitchen. To give the stylist who dressed the property for sale credit, the shelves were enticingly stacked with Le Creuset  pots as if to say "of course this is a real kitchen. It's full of fancy french cookware." Never mind that there was nowhere to actually cook.

This is the microwave that made the room a kitchen. Kind of them to leave it behind.

This is the ceiling in the room. It's padded. Yes, padded. Can you see the wiring in the top right hand corner? Now to be fair, I suspect it was used as a sound recording room, but you can see why I call it the panic room, can't you? Especially as the door couldn't easily have been knocked down to get into it from the outside.

This is the room now. Our main bathroom. No more padding on the ceiling and it's actually a functioning bathroom. As opposed to a non-functioning kitchen.

The vanity has replaced the shelves.

Instead of wiring as thick as your arm we have a shower.

And the bath now lives where the microwave used to.

Just a little bit different.