Books and bookcases for decoration

This mornings weather is perfect for curling up with a good book. I have woken up to a wet looking Sunday and just want to grab a coffee and book and spend time in rooms like these....

I would love to have a room with bookcases covering one wall. I also love the colour books add to the room and I personally not only have a number of bookcases around my house but have piles of books too as decoration.

I am hoping though that the weather fines up as I have a fence to paint today. We got a new back fence put in early in the week and as the posts are untreated needs to be painted quick smart (photos soon).

Also just as an aside, I am now on Pinterest (see icon in sidebar) and I have 'pinned' a couple of bookcase photos there too. I am loving it as a great way to collect images for inspiration.

Hope you are having a great weekend.

G

Wrap around deck tour

Our wrap around deck is finished, well built at least and so thought it was time to share, so come along for a tour warts and all.

 

Now this deck was started late October 2011 and has only just been completed in that the roof on the pergola was put on last week. I can not believe how long it has taken but there have been reasons such as drainage issues, Christmas break and more. So considering it has taken so long and I have mentioned it in a few posts, thought it was about time I shared pictures, even though we still need: to finish oiling the deck, painting the pergola and getting some wooden trims put in. 

This is where we sat and had our coffee this morning while we watched the kids playing in the garden.

This is the view from where we were sitting.......

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Now once I finished my coffee and got out of my chair and walked to the edge of the undercover area this is the view.....

 Then perspective from the garden....

And moving around the corner down to the laundry....

Looking back from the laundry door.....

So there you have it. We love our new deck and so do the kids. As you can imagine they love to run right around it out the sliding doors next to the dining area and right around to the laundry. I love the fact too that I can sit at the dining table or in the family room and watch them play.

Hope you are all having a great weekend as you can see from the photos, here in Melbourne it is a beautiful sunny one.

Also if you want to find out what Hubby and I spoke about over coffee this morning - A Coffee Chat - Too busy for child's play?

Friday inspiration - winery, cafe and gardens

This weeks inspiration for my house and garden comes from my visit with Hubby to Mornington Peninsula wineries, cafes and gardens.

I love the rustic almost Tuscan look of Montalto winery pictured above, with olive trees framing the entrance and then in wine barrels scattered around the winery. All around the weathered wooden tables pictured above were vegetable and herb beds and then sitting at one views of the vines. It was all very inviting and we just had to try some of the wineries Pinot Noir which they are renown for.

Then to the amazing Heronswood property with a gorgeous cafe within a thatched roof cottage style building located at the back of the garden. The same garden where they get their organic produce from to make the delicious food served at the cafe. And for the coffee drinkers amongst you the coffee was organic, fair trade and very easy to drink.

How great is this table with the herbs growing in the middle.

And again olive trees scattered around the place, can you tell I have a thing for these wonderful trees? Now just have to plant one at home in a wine barrel.

 After relaxing over lunch we wandered through the the gardens and admired the main house.

I loved the feel of this place and will be trying to capture some of it at home especially in the garden, so stay tuned for how I try to weave some of this magic into my garden at home!

Autumn view

This is the view from our open plan living area. A view of this spectacular Canadian Maple tree changing rapidly from green to red. Now with the extension and new wrap around deck this tree has really become the centrepiece of our garden.

And though still Autumn the weather in Melbourne has been very wintry the last few days which I am strangely enjoying (as hate Winter itself). To read more visit A Coffee Chat.

Sunday - a coffee chat

One of the things I wanted from our renovation is to create a house for entertaining. So now that we have finished our major building work we have started having friends over regularly for coffee, wine, dinner, or all three.

I love my coffee so much so that after my little boy was born, baby number two, we invested in an Italian coffee machine so that I didn't have to juggle a baby and toddler in cafes every morning just to get my flat white.


The coffee machine is now three years old and still going strong. It not only makes great coffee but has provided a good reason for many friends to pop in and have a chat. It is amazing how much can be talked about over a cup a coffee with the topics varying from 'wow I need this as the kids aren't sleeping' to a look through home mags together and a chat about latest design trends, to discussion on the latest political polls.


With this in mind I have now created a new blog - A Coffee chat -please check it out and join in.

By the way our roof is finally on the new pergola and the wrap around deck finished - photos to come soon.

Hope you are having a great weekend and Happy Easter.

G