Wednesday, August 12, 2015

At home

Lilyfield Life white laundry

Hello from a less than impressed Charlie getting a little bath this morning after a muddy walk.  

hello from me too. xx

These last two weeks I have been attempting to sort out some of my to do list around the house.  Getting there slowly. Tomorrow the plumber is coming to move a pipe in the backyard which means we can then sort out the paving for the basketball area and re-turf. I will be happy to have my garden looking less like a building site.  I did spray paint a little cast iron outdoor set. My sister gave me these 9 years ago as she no longer had room for them. They were faded hunter green and I've wanted to paint them for years but never made it a priority. It was such an easy and quick job. Kicking myself for leaving it so long but better late than never, hey?

Much more chic in black.

How to paint outdoor metal chairs

so much better than before. 
Don't you love paint.

before - paint your metal furniture

It's been a fortnight of doing things I've been meaning to do for months. I got my wedding rings fixed after them being cut off my hands 4 years ago when i shattered my wrist. I went to the osteo this morning for my sore hip and it is just so tight that it's inflammed in the joint. I have made it worse by painting furniture sitting on the floor - I'm going to have to change that. I also got my hair cut (by Nina at Access Hair) so long over due. I looked like a witch. I won't leave it 18 months between haircuts in future. I'm on a mission to take better care of myself at the moment. I need to remember to even breathe some days...

I've also been sorting out our lounge room. Playing with furniture arrangements.  I love it like this ->

Lilyfield Life formal lounge room with chandelier and fireplace

So formal but the lounges stick out a bit into the centre of the room and then on the TV side of the room we'd have the formal furniture that's not so great for lounging in so I moved it back. I like this arrangement below but I need a new rug instead of those two stuck there together.  I did paint the console over in the far corner also. I've been meaning to do that for months.

Lilyfield life french style lounge room

We had friends (4 adults and two little kids) over last night for dinner and the new layout worked well. Lovely to be able to have a drink by the fire before a meal. Very relaxing. We had such a lovely meal together with the kids all playing at the table during the meal and everyone happy and relaxed and good conversation. 

When I bought the console I was able to buy it for a great price as someone else had painted it very badly -it was a battleship grey and the paint was all peeling off. I painted it in a soft limed muddy white.

french style white painted console

I have also sorted out the globes in the chandelier. Harder than you would think. Because there are so many globes, I need them each to be very low wattage to be under the total rating. I also need them to dimmable so we don't light up the whole of Lilyfield. Globe technology is improving all the time but currently the globes I wanted are $20 each and often fail so I will wait a couple of years before making that investment. In the mean time I'm using 7 watt oven light globes. I think they look lovely and at $1 each that's a great saving.

Lilyfield life formal stair case white and timber and panelling

french chandelier

from underneath looking up - such a piece of jewellery for the house.

french chandelier

Still haven't sorted out bedroom curtains.  On the to do list. Beach towels are working just fine till summer comes and we need them for swimming :)

lilyfield life white wardrobe built in

My kids are growing up fast. We have a birthday this weekend which I'm a little nervous off - lots of kids in the house but they are lovely friends and I'm sure they'll have fun.  I've just received a letter from Sasha's high school for a uniform fitting appointment. I think I'll have a few tears seeing her head off to high school. Slow down growing up my babies...


I am trying to sort out my work life balance. You'd think that working from home it would be easy. I know I don't work nearly as hard as a lot of people but it can get away from me and I don't take a lot of time for myself so this last week of doing some things for me and my family has been very restorative. 

How do you go with work life balance? - Í think its a bit of a fallacy myself. but that's for another blog post...one that's been brewing in my head for years.

Fiona xx

lilyfield life console painted

18 comments:

  1. beautiful renovation Fiona, just stunning. (and love the new hair cut)
    You do so much for other people and are very generous so definitely take some time for yourself
    much love
    Tanya

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  2. I like what you have done so far! It does take time!

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  3. Hi Fiona,
    Your home is looking so beautiful - restful and comforting, like a home should be.

    I was wondering about your chandelier. I bought two some time ago, and haven't yet installed them. When you say, you need the bulbs to be very low wattage to be under the total rating, do you mean the whole light fitting has one total maximum rating allowable? How did you know what value that was? I can't see anything on mine which says that. I was just going to try and add up the individual bulbs to roughly what would be a comfortable light level/requirement for the spaces in which I put them. (ie if a 100 watt - incandescant - would be sufficient, I'd just try to find bulbs which would provide that, in total). One of ours will go in the stairwell (if we can ever find a keen electrician!), and the other over the dining table. I'd be very grateful if you could offer some advice, please.

    Thanks Fiona, Cheers, Liz.

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    1. Hi Liz - basically I know because of my engineering degree (electrical) . So handy sometimes :)
      You need to keep the total wattage between 240-400 watts depending on the light fixtures rating. The rating should be imprinted in a code on the main wiring. Be aware that light is measured in lumens and not wattage. Depending on the type of globe you use the same watts can produce different amounts of light. My chandelier has 21 globes so to keep the total under 400W I need each globe to be under 20 watts . I couldn't find halogens under 28w and the LEDS that are low wattage aren't dimmable or are very expensive. So I used incandescent oven lights at 7w each.

      Does that all make sense. Your electrician will be able to help you. How many globes does your chandelier take?
      Cheers Fiona

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    2. Oh thanks for that very detailed reply! Very much appreciated, and yes, it makes perfect sense. Who knew? Not me, obviously! Our lights only have 8 bulbs each. I just don't want it to be like Broadway, nor like the back streets! Could be a real trial and error process.

      Thanks again, Fiona.

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    3. 8 globes is not a problem as they would have to be pretty high wattage candle gloves to be over the rating. Is it on a dimmer circuit. If so, just make sure your globes are dimmeable. Not all LEDs are. LEDS are the lowest wattage lights and very long lasting - basically you will never need to change them but they are expensive in the dimmeable range. The non dimmeable ones are cheaper. You can also get lovely halogen ones as well. Good luck with it all.

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  4. gorgeous home Fiona...everything takes time..and I am sure your curtains will eventually be gorgeous too. Can you tell me what breed of dog is Charlie? I just want to cuddle him!

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  5. lots going on and i t all looks beautiful!!! love your haircut, too!

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  6. Everything you turn your hand to is so beautiful. Well done xx

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    1. Thank you so much, it's been a long time sorting it all out

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  7. No wonder you have even quiet lately. So busy! So beautiful. Would you mind telling me where you got those beautiful armchairs from? Julie

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    1. Thanks Julie, my aunt gave me then, she's had them for over thirty years. They need recovering but are so comfortable

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  8. Such a beautiful home ye have created. Fabulous hair cut !!! I so need to do it too !!! But fear the scissor happy cutters !!! xx

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    1. I am definitely going more often. My hair was terrible and so long that I couldn’t reach to brush it properly!
      Go get yours cut!
      Fiona x

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Thanks for taking the time to comment! Sorry if you have trouble commenting, you can always email me at lilyfieldlife@bigpond.com