from the garden

Good evening!

Just sharing a sweet little bunch of flowers I picked today. I am so enjoying this Spring weather and spending time in our garden which is absolutely abundant with growth.

  Enjoy.

I'll be back in the morning with a little furniture makeover.

Fiona xx

Tilba Tilba and Central Tilba

After my blog post yesterday, I was feeling a little homesick so I thought I'd share a little more of the beautiful countryside of NSW's Far South Coast where I grew up. When I drive home to Eden via the coast road, I always take the 3km detour off the main highway and drive past Tilba Tilba and Central Tilba.  The countryside around these two little towns is some of my favourite in Australia. I also love the countryside around Candelo but that's on the inland roads home.

Tilba Tilba and Central Tilba are two tiny little heritage towns with several quaint cafes, gift shops, local pottery, delicious local cheeses and a great bakery. These towns are just south from beautiful Narooma. Although sometimes when I turn off the highway but don't even stop at the towns (Depending on the time I'm making and how quiet the kids are being) - it's the winding roads, rolling hills and green green grass that I love. 

I find I breathe easier in the country. 

I love the little local communities where people know each other and say hi and genuinely care for one another.

One day I was laughing to a friend and saying I should have married a farmer. Because of my chickens and attempts at growing vegetables in my little inner suburban backyard, she replied "Fiona, you are the farmer!"  

My little lush backyard and the beautiful friendly community of Lilyfield keep me sane - it really is my little slice of country life in the inner city suburbs - but every now and then I get itchy feet and start searching "rural" and "coastal" on the Domain website.

Are you a big city gal? or do you revel in the delights of open countryside?

Next time you are driving somewhere take the tourist route! Some of Australia's most beautiful towns and countryside have been bypassed by the highways but they are worth checking out.

Fiona xx

White Painted Bedside Tables and a Rose

I hope you all had a good weekend. I had a hilarious night out with old university friends at a ball on Saturday night. The ball was at the beautiful MacLaurin Hall in the university's main quadrangle. It is all such beautiful old architecture. Gosh it's good to catch up with long time friends. I'm not sure we leave it so long in between seeing each other. I need to make some plans....

Today's painted furniture project is nothing that will rock your socks off but just a good practical solution to out-dated furniture. I gave these sweet bedside tables a new life with my trusty white paint. 

These bedside tables were a very reddish brown - in my haste to transform them I forgot to take before photos. They had a "cedar" coloured stain that was dated and a bit scratched. I was asked by the owner to update them and make them fresh. We decided against distressing them and seeing them all finished I'm quite glad. They really have a lovely classical shape and I think they look beautiful just how they are.

The beautiful single pink rose was a lovely gesture from an old Greek flower seller in the city the other day. It kind of made my day - he handed it to me and told me I was beautiful (not in a sleazy way but so friendly and kind, I loved that little boost!).   He was such a lovely old guy and I ended up having a long chat to him. He'd actually worked in my home town of Eden about 45 years ago (before we even lived there, just before I was born it turns out) and he thought that it was one of the nicest, most friendly places he'd ever been. 

So I'm treasuring my little rose, this sweet gesture of kindness, as it wilts and fades...and thinking of the friendly people in my home town and lovely old immigrants who now sell flowers on street corners.

Has someone made your day lately with a little surprise? Have you made someone else's day with a nice surprise. I think I'm inspired to go do a random act of kindness today for someone...

Fiona xx

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Painted White Wicker Bedside Tables

I finished these little wicker bedside tables I was working on.  I know I say it a million times but paint (and in particular white paint) has the ability to transform your furniture. I just love seeing vintage furniture come alive again under my paint brush. Well in this case, under my spray can! 

These vintage wicker bedside tables had seen better days and I spent quite a bit of time cleaning them -they were incredibly dusty and one even had an old cigarette caught up in the underneath. It was quite revolting. Once they were all clean I started the repairs. You can see in the photos at the bottom of this post that the wicker was quite unravelled in parts. I wound it back tightly into place and used my glue gun to secure it. 

 

I then sealed and primed these by brush but just found it incredibly time consuming and fiddly. Getting my brush into all the wicker nooks and crannies was hard, I kept missing bits and couldn't get in deep enough into some areas.  So I checked with my best friend Google and all the advice was to spray paint wicker.  I bought a few cans of Dy Mark Revolution Enamel in a semi gloss white. It has done a great job on giving these tables a good coverage, no runs and an even gloss. I also changed the handles over to these lovely ceramic ones (one of the original ones were broken)

And here is the before photo. (although I have over exposed it - the downside of playing in the manual zone of by camera and not checking my shots before I painted them). Oh well you get the idea.

I hope my client is happy with them when she picks them up later today.  Weirdly I'm always a bit nervous when painting someone else's furniture  It's an extra pressure even when I know I've done exactly what I said I would and that I'm sure that the final product looks good.

If you have old furniture that is still solid and in reasonable condition but is dated or not a colour you like, have you thought of painting it? You can always find someone else to paint it for you. Me of course for all you Sydney-siders, Sandy from Paint Me White in Brisbane/Gold Coast and Karen from Restyled Vintage near Port Macquarie are all good starting points.

Are you a fan of rattan/wicker? Do you prefer it au naturale or painted?

Fiona xx

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What I'm working on

Hi, I'm going to be a little light on blogging this week as have a lot of consulting work on at the moment and some exciting prospects for that coming up which I'll share if they eventuate. It's been a juggle this week as I am also painting some bedroom furniture on commission. Two lovely pairs of bedside tables both to be painted white. One set I have painted with chalk paint and waxed for a beautiful velvety smooth finish. I've only got in progress photos but will post finished photos later in the week.

These bedsides are a lovely shape and look so fresh and pretty white. White paint is such a great way to update your furniture.The transformation always pleases me!  In these photos I still have more coats to go as you can still see that the top of these are patchy.  I paint with the drawers pulled out fully but as I'm painting them in the middle of my lounge room floor I pack it all away at night (it makes my husband much happier!)

I am also painting a wicker set of bedside tables. I have given in and bought some spray paint as they are so fiddly to paint!  I have done 2 coats of primer by hand and tomorrow will spray the top coats. I also spent about an hour repairing the broken unravelling wicker.

I was going to go to the furniture auctions yesterday. I popped in on Monday on my walk and found some amazing pieces but decided I already have a bit too much on my plate so I definitely don't need to buy more furniture to paint.  I'm trying to make my life more manageable and I think the furniture makeovers and blogging everyday is going to have to give a little (for the time being anyway).  

I did take a couple of photos of things I liked as I would love to paint this French buffet. And if I needed a kitchen bench I would have been bidding like a pro on the one below. Divine. It doesn't really show up in my crappy iPhone photos but the legs are painted in a soft grey.

Something extra that I have added back into my day is regular exercise and eating well. I have been hopeless since Mum died (and subsequently gained weight, when I was trying to lose it) but have decided it's time to be good to me and take care of me so started running again this week and I'm reducing the amount of refined carbs I eat (bread mainly). I have been getting up at 6 am heading around the Bay - it's such a beautiful time of day and I'm appreciating seeing the sun so early. Now just to be consistent...  I'm very good at being full on and starting things - not so good at longevity.

...so I'm off out the door for another run.  

see ya!

Fiona xx

My Girl's Bedroom Makeover

The other day I shared that my kids now have separate bedrooms and I showed off my son's bedroom makeover. So here is my daughter's new "brother-free zone". She is loving it and has become quite house proud of her new space.

With only one bed in here I was able to swing the furniture all around and put the bed in the centre of the room, rather than jammed up against the wall. It also means that the French chest of drawers is centred along the wall and we have space to leave the electronic keyboard out so the kids are practising more regularly. 

There is also now room for a bedside table and lamp. Both these are vintage finds. Ha, ha - what in our house isn't a vintage find! I think they look so sweet together.

The window bench is used to store books and the dolls' house I restored for my daughter's fourth birthday. She still loves having it around.

  

This bedroom is very serene and pretty. I haven't got a photo of it but the light is a beautiful milk glass pendant light and the ceiling is ornate with pretty bows and flowers. I always like sleeping in this room. Even in the height of summer it is cool.  To the right of the bed in the photo below there is a big bank of built in wardrobes that I had built. I added mouldings to the doors and painted them white with a lovely Porters' Paint. 

The framed cross stitch is beautiful and very special. My sister who is very literary but not that into craft made it for my daughter. It has her name on it and birthday. My sister had it framed with vintage skirting boards. The boards are a creamy pink and suit it perfectly. 

Sources:

Frilly White bedding: Linen House at Adairs

White Bedside: eBay, painted by me

Striped Louis French Armchair: Reupholstered and painted by me

Woven Balloon Back Chair: Reupholstered and painted by me. The link includes a tutorial.

Angel Lamp: Vintage find, painted by my aunt

White Mirror and vintage lantern: markets finds

White French Chest of Drawers: Auction, painted by me

Tissue Pom Poms: tutorial here

Hydrangea painting: painted by my grandmother, given to me for my 10th birthday

Heart Cross Stitch: sewn by my sister for Sasha's birth

Curtains: made by me

As with the rest of our house, the whole room has been pulled together with preloved and vintage items I have painted and restored. If you are on a budget; or just like me and prefer good quality old furniture rather than made in China (or Vietnam more likely) reproduction stuff; then this is such a good way to decorate your house.  I recentlly blogged my tips on how to paint vintage furniture.

It is much easier to make a bedroom look good when it is just for a single sex - ie a girls' room or a boys' room. If you've got both a son and a daughter sharing a room, how do you decorate it nicely? I found it very difficult when my kids were sharing. I'm very interested in hearing from you on this, please leave your comments below. 

Hope you all had a lovely weekend.

Fiona

Corners of my house this week

It's been a funny old week, with the long weekend and my husband also taking Tuesday off work and then the kids being sick for the rest of the week. I can't quite believe it's Saturday already and that the school holidays are almost over already. I'm not really ready for it. I had planned lots of fun things to do with the kids like the beach and walks and sailing on a tall ship and we haven't done any of them yet.  At least the kids are almost over their colds and slowly bouncing back (although still coughing all night which is driving me slightly insane).

Stock last weekend

Here are some photos I've taken around my house this week. A lot I've already shared on Instagram. I love the IG community - it's very friendly and creative. I actually sold some furniture via instagram yesterday. Merilyn, who's Instagram photo stream I love, came over to pick up the piece and we ended up having coffee and discovering we had so much in common (I even was in the Airforce with one of her old boyfriends - he was to die for good looking!! Lucky her. LOL)

Remnants of the stock by the end of this week

Looking at these photos of my kitchen makes me want to get out the cleaning cloth. It's definitely not as neat now after a few days stuck in the house with sick kids and friends over for a very late night of homemade pizza and red wine last night (and the muscat even made an appearance!) I think I'll do some baking first today and then clean it. The kids are slowly getting their appetites back and I'm sure by tomorrow they will be ravenous to make up for the days of barely consuming anything.

The beautiful jug (not the IKEA enamel one, the little one) below with the colours on it was my mother's and somehow ended up here but I think my sister will want it so I'm just enjoying it while it's here. It's so pretty especially with the yellow jonquils next to it. The little round container next to it was a collars and cufflinks holder that was my grandad's. it's got his initials painted on it and I love it.  The tassel is one my mum made - it's enormous and would have taken her a long time to make. Mum had incredible patience (when it came to sewing, perhaps not when it came to her daughters...) and things like this. that she has made. are just amazing to have around my home to remember her by - not that I really need external things for that as she has been constantly in my thoughts lately. I am missing her very much.

Have a great weekend, and good luck for the back-to-school onslaught of Monday. I'll have to make sure we have fresh bread - it's been lovely not worrying about packing lunch boxes for a few weeks.

Fiona xx

My Boy's Bedroom Reveal

Our house can be a bit of a moving feast at times. Our kids regularly swap bedrooms, mainly because our third bedroom is pretty awful - it originally would have been overlooking the back garden but years ago the previous owners extended the house by tacking the lounge room on to the back of the house. When they did this, they never changed the third bedroom's windows and so it looks into the lounge room. There was also a handful of other dodgy things they did with the house but thankfully we've rectified most of them.

This room is also in the middle of the house, away from the other bedrooms and is surrounded by the kitchen, dining, open study and lounge room so my daughter found it too noisy to sleep in. About 2 years ago we turned it back into a toy room and the kids shared the lovely second bedroom. However recently my boy asked for his own room and as he's a great sleeper, he's taken over the room with no troubles.

We went shopping for a new doona cover for his bed as he had been using one that had been mine when I was a little kid. It's so threadbare but super soft. My boy was set on a Union Jack cover to match his lights and we were able to find one on sale.

When this room was a toy room I had the Ikea Expedit cabinet full of toys and a desk that the kids never drew at, preferring instead to spread their mess all over the coffee or dining table to be close to where ever I am.  So I'm selling the desk (just a cheap IKEA number that I was never fond of anyway) and I've tidied up their toys and books. All my daughters novels have been moved into her room.  We have a lot of books in this house. I look at some blogs with their beautifully styled bookcases with minimal books and loads of pretty stuff and think we'd never be able to achieve that look as most of our bookcases are double stacked already.

And of course the biggest piece of furniture in the room is the painted French armoire. It has 4 good sized drawers and a lot of hanging space in it but I think I'm going to have to add a few shelves into it as he has more folded clothes than hanging clothes.  At the moment it is piled high full of our linen (we don't have a linen press - on the list for our future renovation), I'll swap it over later in the week.

My boy is right into AFL at the moment and is delighted with the Swans win last weekend. He played Auskick after school this year and it was such a well run program. He's now collecting football cards and spends ages memorizing facts and players. Such a boy thing!

So while this is such a crappy room with it's lack of external windows and sloping floor and middle of the house location, I think we've managed to make it look half decent and hopefully there'll be no more room shuffling until we're ready to renovate!

Sources:

Union Jack Doona Cover: Bed, Bath n Table

Union Jack Lights: Typo about a year ago

Armoire: auction, painted by me

Cubes Storage: IKEA

French Chair: Painted and Upholstered by me

Curtains: Vivalino (gift from my aunt)

Bedside cabinet: made by my Grandfather

Sydney Harbour painting: painted by me years ago

Flower painting: inspired by Katie Daisy, painted by me and my daughter
Kites on top of the wardrobe: $5 from Bali (and yes I probably paid too much!)

Do your kids share rooms? Are you forever changing around rooms?

Fiona xx

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