a baby shower - sans photos

it's been a while since my last post - quite a while! i finish work this friday to have a bit of a rest before bub arrives - not long to go now! and yesterday i had my baby shower. i went to all this effort with my thank you gifts for guests and decorations such as pink, white, purple and yellow flowers in simple jars - and forgot to take photos! how annoying. and everyone else forgot to take photos too. i guess that's a good measure of how good a day it was!

i used these party bags from emerald & ella for my thank you gifts - i filled them with chocolates, home made heart shaped biscuits and a home made paper fortune cookie filled with a personalised thank you message - you can find the DIY here.

note to self: next time take photos!

Images - emerald & ella

beautiful bright bentwood

My bargain $20 Bentwood is now ready to make our bedroom it's home, after two coats of paint and plenty of sanding and priming! Here is the BEFORE. I even like it in white..

I'm glad I'm now able to tick this project off my 'to do' list. It brightens up the bedroom and works in well with the Bespoke Press print.

a revamped bentwood - from drab to (almost) fab!

I decided to get my act together this weekend and finally do something about my Bentwood chair....4 months after I first mentioned it! I'm very good at getting inspired, not so good at finishing a job. I get lazy and unmotivated. Maybe it's that 'nesting' pregnancy thing but it had been bugging me that I seem to be good at starting projects but not finishing them. So with some free time on the weekend, I got cracking.

Here's what the chair originally looked like. I had done some sanding months ago here (told you I'm slack!) so this is what I was left to work with.

First step: sanding. I hate the prep work associated with painting! I'm so impatient. 

Once the sanding had been done (which I gotta say I did a pretty good job!), it was time to add 2 coats of primer. I used British Paints 'all in one' sealer/primer/undercoat.

Two coats of primer and I'm ready to paint the first coat of my chosen colour which I blogged about here. I find it really hard to pick paint colours (am I the only one?) but in the end, I went with Taubman's Solar Burst. It's not a sunny yellow, more of a citrus lemon/lime colour which at first I wasn't sure about but now I'm loving it.

Ta-da! After 1 coat of Solar Burst the chair is almost ready to rock and roll!

L is making the chair a new seat cover (from an old laundry door) which I have to prime, clamp on then paint 1 coat. 1 more coat all over and it will be ready to grace our bedroom with its presence! I can't tell you how good I feel for achieving something this weekend...woo hoo :)

if you surround yourself with things you love, your home will make you happy

says Michele Adams from Lonny. I couldn't agree more.

A daybed on a new deck in the backyard could make me very happy! On my interweb search for the perfect daybed I came across Ashley Ann's daybed (via Apartment Therapy and ohdeedoh) which happens to be in her daughter's nursery (total coincedence!). The daybed is dubbed the 'reading pallet bed', made from wooden shipping pallets. The bedhead is an old door.

I can see my dream of owning a daybed not being so unattainable after all! We have a lolly factory down the road always getting rid of wooden pallets - we'd just need some castors, a big single or twin bed and some lovely bedding and cushions.



What I love most of all was that she filled the room with handmade objects, keepsakes such as family photos and gifts given by family such as quilts, art prints, antique handkerchiefs and a mirror which was a wedding gift. It doesn't all match but it works.



And as another coincidence, like the first image in my last post, Ashley hung lanterns to great effect. I love this look and the more I see it the more I want to do it! I don't like the idea of hanging lanterns above a cot, but above a chair (or daybed as Ashley has done) could work..



Find out here how Ashley hung her lanterns.

Images via: 1 - Apartment Therapy, 2 & 3 - Ohdeedoh. All images copyright Ashley Ann Photography.

getting my hobby fill

Hello friends! I hope you had a lovely weekend. I didn't get anywhere with the Bentwood chair but I got really inspired by Amy Moss and her fantastic blog, Eat Drink Chic. Amy has loads of DIY projects (and free downloads) and one that caught my eye were these gingerbread men.

They are adorable and all that's needed is some fabric, cotton, hobby fill, some patient hand sewing (using a blanket stitch) and voila - here it is! It's not as polished as Amy's but it's a start (the head is slightly wonky like someone has taken a bite out of it, oops!). I gave it to my best friend's 19 month old daughter and she seemed to love it! I used chambray fabric and I really love the button! You can buy these individually from Spotlight, along with the fabric.

I also bought polka dot and pink patterned fabric which I can't wait to use next!