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

Blackboard easel for decoration and Happy Birthday

This blackboard / white board easel from IKEA has become a bit of a feature in our new living space.

As can be seen in my previous post we have a long white wall joining the kitchen and new family area. The easel now sits proudly in the middle of it and I am finding it works really well to add that personal family touch.

We have written menus for dinner, had kids drawings and written special messages on it.

Like today it is my gorgeous Mum's birthday and my five year old decorated the easel accordingly. Mum is over from Adelaide helping out with the school holidays, which I am so grateful for. My Mum gives me so much help and support. Happy birthday Mum!

Hoping to get more pictures on this wall .......

It is also nice with this visit to have the inside of the house almost finished and a bedroom for my Mum to sleep in away from all the noise. She used to sleep in the lounge on the fold out sofa bed.

Anyway will show pictures of new bedrooms soon just want to get a bit more decorating done.

A blank canvas

Well after a break finally back and starting to enjoy the house, slowly sorting out rooms and decorating.

I have been away from the blog and even getting online outside work for the past month due to illness, being away from our house so we could get boards sanded and polished and then just getting re-settled. It has been a difficult and busy time and we are now finally coming out the other end.

So I thought initially I would share some photos of what I call 'the blank canvas' we came back to after two weeks away (well after I cleaned all the dust). And over the next month I will do some reveals, before and afters, as we settle back into the house.

So in sort of a logical sequence - as you walk in the front door and down the hall slightly first door on the right is the living room....

Then walk through the living room and look through the French doors to the dining area....

Next more in the dining area you can see the servery through to the kitchen and out towards the new family room....

Looking out the stacking doors to the garden, were we hope to have the alfresco deck built very soon.....
Turning around and looking back towards the lounge......

If you walk straight down the hall from the front door and not turn off you end up in the kitchen so in the next photo you can just see the corner of the kitchen island bench....

Looking back from family room to the kitchen (which is high on the list for re-doing).....

So that covers most of the living space. Later I will show you the new bedrooms, bathroom and laundry.

The end of October will be a year since we started the renovation and here's hoping by then I will be able to have a renovation warming party, well that's the plan anyway.

Beautiful prints

Day two of Blogtoberfest (find out more by clicking on the image in the sidebar). As part of this for the month of October I will be posting everyday something that makes me smile.

So something that makes me smile is beautiful prints to decorate the house and My Sweet Prints has a great range of these. And if you buy any this weekend you get 20% off. Click on the image above to find out more.

When I grow up

My four year old daughter announced today “I want to be a drawer and cutter when I grow up Mummy.”

This statement came about fifteen minutes after a conversation of what she could be when she grew up (obviously having thought about all we said). She wanted ideas and so hubby and I came up with many with explanations of what the job would entail. So we started with Doctor, Vet (she is a caring child) and then moved onto things such as Architect as she loves to draw houses particularly at the moment.

We then suggested a designer and explained how she could decorate rooms and move around furniture (something she does a bit) but her response was “I would get too tired if I moved furniture all day.”

So after this conversation she obviously gave it a bit of thought about what she likes to do most which is definitely drawing and cutting things out – a drawer and cutter (so maybe an artist or fashion designer). And this is fair enough, considering she is averaging about ten drawings / paintings or cut and paste pictures on her kinda days, this would suit. (Ideas on what to do with children’s artwork in my next post.)

As for my two year old boy, if I go by his favourite activity, I think a demolisher would suit him.

It will be interesting to see what happens, but if they are anything like me they will change their minds many times, even once they have grown up!