The Greatest Love Of All

Hi Guys,
Whitney once sang that the children are our future, I belted that tune out as a 10 year old in spite of the fact that I have 0 singing talents and I am sure I drove my parents crazy, Today I know my future will, at some point be in their hands. This is why I whisper lovingly into each of their ears when the others can't hear and say "you're my favorite, don't tell the others". I figure which ever one ends up choosing my home will believe my words and pick out something nice, at least my fingers are crossed that will happen. To clarify I don't really have a fave but there are plenty of days when I have a least favorite depending on who has or hasnot done what.

I can honestly say that while I love many things I do, within a short period I hate it. In fact I think I would haveto say there are only a few things I still love and until now my deepest DIY love was my patchwork chair.

This DIY was actually Jule's idea and it was BLOODY BRILLIANT, sorry but it deserves that kind of praise,

So those who have been around here for a while might remember a few craft rooms ago I had this table.

Then I covered it in houndstooth contact paper, which I did like but I missed this particular dining table so a few months later I ripped off the contact and placed it back into the kitchen

One evening, the night after the new peel and stick vinyl floors were laid, I went out when Jule's came up with an awesome idea. He took the scraps and off cuts from the flooring and placed them on the glass to imitate an old farmhouse wood topped table.

You see a few days before I was leafing through a Country Living or something similar when I saw an iron and wood table, it was only about $3500 and I fell in love, I showed Jule's and declared it to be my ultra dream table.  Anyway one night out I go and when I get back there was the newly covered table, he made it look pretty with candles and everything. I went out of my mind, fell in love (with both the table and Jules all over again, he's a keeper). Can you believe that the wood is in fact peel and stick tiles? I'll tell you now, I had a recent termite issue and the pest control guy was stunned, this guy inspects wood for a living peeps!

This top holds up to anything my lot can throw at it and believe me, if you have seen a four year old at a table that is quite a feat! I LOVE IT.

So since I work real quickly these days, 8 months later I took my old wooden chairs which the kids over the last 15 years had pretty much rendered them to the ugliest chairs on the face of the earth and painted them up.

My goodness can't even begin to tell you how thrilled I am with this dining set. My suburban country style home is coming together and for this all I spent was $15 on paint WOOOT!!!

She truly is a beauty, so in honor of my lovely lady I dedicate this song to her, take it away Whitney




Thanks for reading,

Mel xo

Ch ch ch changes

Hey there,

Well I said I would be back in a week it's been two, however a few net issues, by that I mean the kids streamed that much netflix I ran out of data..and by kids I mean me and Jules.

Anyway while we are on the subject of Netflix, I must tell you that it only came to Australia in March and how excited are we!! I have been reliving all my fave shows from the 90's and most recently Ally McBeal. In one episode her therapist suggests a theme song, and I actually thought, hey I need a theme song, but then it was too hard to pick just one, so I've decided to score my life, yes I am a total dork!

Change is the theme this week because there have been quite a few here and I thought I would bring you up to speed on a few of them.

The entry, it began its sad life looking like this

Then I went on a red and white kick, what I discovered is while I love it on Pinterest I can not live with it. I also realized that in order to stop making things over I had to really decide what do I like so I left it, for 13 months.

Also I am somewhat cash poor so these new makeovers had to be pretty much free and I had to love it, here she is. 

With the exception of the flooring which I will discuss more in the lounge, the make over came to the grand total of $28.10, mirrors free from my sister, table free from my uncle, large pink bottle 10 cents two smaller pink bottles $7 at a vintage market. A bit pricey for what they are but when you fall in love you fall in love. and $21 for the candles which I use because, it seems silly to buy them then not use them, they burn for about a month lit each evening when the little two go to bed. 

Now the lounge it was terrible with that carpet.

Painting the floor seemed like a great idea, but oh my goodness it turned out to be terrible. I got chipped and dirty and was so cold. It was worse looking than the carpet, I actually cried more than once.

The rest of the iron furniture was pretty but the glass tops also became putrid with the kids touching it all the time. Nothing ever looked clean.

Then we were watching Better Homes and Gardens and he was using peel and stick tiles, woah they looked fantastic, so off to Bunnings we went.

I will honesty say it has changed my life, that might seem over the top but I was so embarrassed, not only did I feel depressed every morning as soon as I saw it as it was but I didn't invite anyone to my house for over a year. 

The faux fireplace, I love I still don't know whether to paint it or not, but one of the lessons I learned on my break was if in doubt just wait. It still looks pretty.

Last year I said I dreamed of a country cottage filled with quilts, well why can't I have it now, they do say love the one you're with. The coffee table is on my not sure list too so we wait

I went with a clear glass vignette for under the television so as not to distract when we are watching tv.

There is a wooden bench under there, it will be painted once I decide on a colour, the artwork will go it's just not right for the place.

One day I am going to get a white sofa, however for now I choose to cling to the last remenants of my sanity and cash and keep my brown leather couch. Just yesterday I spotted some cushions I love so they're on my list.

We spent around $300 on the floor which isn't bad really, everything else was already in the garage apart from the mantle I bought last November $50 so $350, not over the top considering it was the floor.

What I can say is I'm much happier, the floor really did make a difference. I am inviting people over again and I don't wake up dreading seeing the eyesore that were those painted concrete floors. Others have had great success, but I will never try anything like that again. Those peel and stick tiles have been down 8 months, they are super kid friendly, easy clean and quite frankly the best money we've spent on this place.

So there's an update and of course this is my theme song for the week, take it away David Bowie



Mel xo

Well long time no see!

Hello,

You may remember e from such blogs as.....this one.

So what happened, well life, kids and all the family stuff and I just didn't know how to fit it in, then time went by and I kept thinking I don't think I can go back after this much time. Truth is I hadn't done much in the way of crafting, time had been short even for that.

I also hadn't spent much time reading blogs, although I do follow most on facebook so I know what's been happening, and I really missed my blog community and I missed my creative outlet.

Cut a long story short I decided I'm not dead, I can come back at any time and as for having time to do anything well I am setting myself a goal of one post a week, really that's probably enough to motivate me to do or share things I have done around the the house.

Really if I'm honest we have spent the last 6 or so months fixing the mistakes I had made over the last 4 years, I'm really excited to share that and a few lessons that time away has taught me.

Here's a sneak peek, until next week.

Thanks for reading,

Mel xo

Happy New Year!!

Happy New Year, my friends it has been a while since I last posted and truthfully this year it has been hard coming back.

We've been doing all sorts of things, including being chased by dolphins, seeing the "real" Thomas the tank engine, and time away at the beach, which left me with a severe case of sunburn.

It's been a lovely start to the the new year but more exciting we've ( and by that I mean Jules) have done a massive DIY project. By far the best transformation to take place at the mansion.

At this point our beautiful sunny weather has turned very grey and wet. We are having the craziest summer, it was hotter than hell with bush fires, two days later torrential rains and flash flooding....Melbourne weather truly is the strangest thing!

I just wanted to pop in and say hi before I try to catch up on my blog reading.

May you all have the best year ever

Mel xo

Summer, School, Silly Season and the Fantastic Plastic

Hey Guys,

It's been some time since I posted so I thought I would give you a quick update and let you know I am still alive. It's been the most crazy couple of months, so here is a quick run down.

I bought a fireplace about a month ago, couldn't wait to decorate the tree and hang stockings....been so busy the only thing that has changed in this picture is the vase of flowers. Yeah the tree is still not decorated, mantle not done and stockings not yet hung.

My Elizabeth graduated primary school last night, I am so proud of her and she is very excited to be starting high school next year. I can't believe she is going to high school it makes me feel like she's growing up too quickly.

We've done some fun end of year activities with these two little rug rats. Max was hilarious, after this picture he tried to unwrap the faux presents, yep we were those parents, the ones dragging their kid off the tree. Honestly though, it is kind of funny.

Why am I so busy, because of this, for those who don't know I am selling Tupperware, I started back in October and it's just gone gang busters. I seem to be constantly out of the house. I've found it to be the best fun I have ever had while making money and it just keeps growing. Which for me is a good thing. I want to redo my floors and have that extra pocket money to do all the things I have wanted to do in the house that have just been out of reach.

However, it has left me with exactly zero crafting time, between my parties and the housework I haven't done a single thing. I've hardly read any blogs and done absolutely nothing on my own, so I have decided to take a Summer holiday. The boys have already finished for the year and Elizabeth finishes at the end of the week and come February I hope to have a better idea of how I am going to manage my time.

I'll see you all after Christmas, so have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Thanks for reading,

Mel xo

Sticker Place Mats - Building Fine Motor Skills

Well hello there!

It feels like forever since I have done anything lately, well blog related, at present I seem to be running around everywhere. I remembered something the little two did a while back and they had aan absolute ball. Please mind the photos they were never intended for the blog, but hey what the heck I might as well share it.

We've been working on our fine motor skills, some of us are a little uncoordinated...truly they get that from me, I am the sort of person who trips over imaginary lines and you should see my attempts at learning crochet, disaster. Anyway I'd been researching things the kids could do that would be fun but help build fine motor skills, and I discovered playing with stickers was really good for them.

They had a lovely afternoon of sticking stickers onto painted wooden place mats, then I just sealed them.

Good, cheap fun, just like me, since I have done nothing Christmassy and my blog license will be revoked, lets all just pretend that they're Christmas stickers.

So what have you all been up to? I feel like I have been neglecting my online friendships, honestly not intentional and I miss you guys so much!

Thanks for reading,

Mel xo

Roadside Stool Makeover

Hey Guys,

So things have been bouncing along here at the mansion. I haven't had much time for anything although IU have managed to score a few amazing items, which I hope to get poictures of very soon. In the mean time here is a guest post you might have missed during the year.

This post first appeared on The Thrifty Rebel

Sometimes I think my neighbours know I am going to take their roadside trash. You see I found five of these wooden stools on my neighbours front lawn ready for pick up. 

Instead of just being thrown on like the rest of the crap these were neatly tied together making it easy to carry 2  at a time. When I asked if I could have them, he smiled like he had been waiting for me and said of course.

I only needed two of them for my craft room so I gave them a couple of coats of chalk paint. They need something else, I was thinking grain sack, but for the life of me I could not get them to line up and it was peeling the paint. So I left them white until further inspiration hits and the paint cures

Then Tuula invited me to play,  inspiration hit and I got the paint out again, TADA pink seats, but even better that, the stools inspired something else that caused my very mild mannered husband Jules to freak out!!

and if you're new here I have already posted the makeover that had my husband wondering whether or not he was living in the Barbie Dream House here.

Thanks for reading

Mel xo

Oven Baked Bread, Without Kneading!

Hi Guys,

Can't believe I checked out of bloglandia for so long! Lately life has been going a million miles a minute and I just haven't had any spare time. I have been trying to catch up with all the happenings but aty this point I am so far behind if I haven't said hi in a while I am coming. Since I haven't been doing much in the way of crafting or DIY I thought I would share a guest post from earlier in the year.

The post first appeared at With a Blast

Now I must admit, I am not a fan of cooking but I love to bake and one of my favourite things to bake is bread. Before you say baking bread is hard and annoying and time consuming, what if I told you all you have to do was chuck it in the bread maker and then get on with your normal routine then come back to it when you're ready to bake?

That's exactly what I do. Using my bulk bread maker recipe which you can find here

Ingredients - Add to bread maker in the exact order.

3&1/2 cups of Bread Maker Mix - recipe for bulk mix here

2 tsp of Dried Yeast

1 cup of Mixed Dried Fruit

1 tsp of Cinnamon

1&1/2 tbs of Olive Oil

1&1/4 cups of warm water (just slightly warm to touch, water that's too hot will kill the yeast and your dough won't rise 

Now I think you all know how to pour stuff into a bread maker but I like to use the dough setting rather than the bread so I can have these rustic free form loaves. Once the bread maker is set, go shopping for an hour or more, your bread will sit quite happily in the bread maker until you're ready to come back to it.

First spray down the tray, really well or use olive oil to oil the spray. I like quick and easy so I just use the spray, and dump the dough onto the tray.

Wrap it in plastic wrap but allow room for the bread to rise, leave it in a warm place then go and have a coffee or do something fun.

Come back in half an hour and it should have doubled in size.

Bake it in a moderate oven 180 Celsius or 350F for approximatly 30 mins. Be aware that this does depend on your oven, mine is brand new and it's exactly 30 mins, my old oven was dying and running very hot I found 22 minutes was enough in that oven. Isn't that bread just awesome.

Then slice it up and watch it disappear in front of your eyes. My 5 kids can eat 2 loaves of this for afternoon tea between them. (I admit two of them are teenage boys and never seem able to fill their stomachs)

Truly delicious and almost no work! you can shop and sit around drinking coffee because this is pretty much a waiting game and don't forget to check out my bread maker mix, it is seriously the best thing......since sliced bread. (bad joke lets all groan together)

 Or come and follow me at any or all of these places.

    

Mel xo

My Perfectly Imperfect Experiment - The Patchwork Chair

 Hey Guys,

I am so, so , so excited about this chair makeover. It's not perfect and I made heaps of mistakes but you know what I LOVE it.

Remember this thrifted chair, yep awesome design but let's be honest it's a bit dark and dreary

Then I started seeing patchwork chairs on Pinterest, I fell immediately in love, however they were all for sale, (around $1000) dollars and I had no idea how to turn that idea into a DIY.

Then I thought, blow it, I have all this free fabric that my neighbour gave me, it was from a friend of hers who sells patchwork fabric. She always collects the samples once the line is done, and I just started cutting squares using my Big Shot. Check the link below (*affiliate link)

                                                              />

Can't tell you how awesome it is, cuts through 8 layers at a time and I had my squares cut in an hour!!!

Stitching these pieces was looking like a nightmare until I found this tutorial from Sew Mama Sew, AMAZING!!! It took me less than an hour to sew the main fabric.

Then it was time to pin and get the sides cut, that was the part I found really difficult, it is so not perfect but who cares I still love it and I have learned a lot from this chair to try with the second one.

This bad boy came out more than a few times while trying to place the pieces, exactly where I needed them.

By this stage I was just thrilled, I really could see it coming together.

I painted the arms and legs using white chalk paint from the EZE2Paint range from Canterbury Blue sold here, totally paid for it myself, but I just adore her and her paints!

And then stapled it on. There are a few lumps and bumps but I think it makes it more beautiful in that shabby chic kind of style.

DIY Delight or Disaster? Oh this my friends is a total delight. I'm not sure I have ever had a project that has truly come together with so much love. In spite of the short cuts I took with the cutting and sewing, this took a LONG time, mistakes and seam ripping aside it was worth every minute, I adore it! The chair is perfect like it was made for me, the new cover, isn't perfect but can I tell you, it's beautiful anyway. It makes me smile every time I see it and that can only be an absolute delight!!

Thanks for reading,

Mel xo