checking in

Just a quick one today to say hi, and I haven't forgotten you all! We've been quiet on the DIY front the last few weeks-and not because all of the painting turned us off! We had a weekend away in lovely Yamba, I've been writing school reports (so I have spent what feels like every waking minute while not at school staring at the screen-hopefully almost there!), last weekend was absolutely full, and this weekend is my birthday-30!!!!!

What a beautiful view to wake up to in Yambo

Gorgeous Angourie-the site of my first ever 'surf'!

Stormy seas while the boys surfed

Yamba is an awesome town-I loved it! Amazing (and cheap!) cafes-Beachwood Cafe is INCREDIBLE-we came away with a cookbook. Highly recommended! Irons and Craig was fantastic for breakfast too. Both offered different options than your usual fare.

I have some Christmas DIY in the works and more painting very soon!!

Hoping everyone around SE Qld is finally enjoying some much needed rain. We didn't get any until Saturday, and unfortunately it bought some cricket ball sized hail with it. Our house was fine, but I was at the hairdressers, and now need a new windscreen, and have some big old dings in my car too. Not ideal, but it's all insured, and can't change it.

it's alwhite: part 2

The french doors are done (well one of the five sets of french doors), but we've also had the white paint out on the front verandah railings. It has to be the most frustrating of painting jobs, fiddly, time consuming and boring, but now it is done I love it, and kind of want to start on the other verandahs too!

Don't mind the few missing posts-they wont be missing for much longer

I love gardinias-I will be so sad when ours finishes flowering-one of my
favourite smells

A few befores to remind you of the creamy, pinky yellow that is no longer

Painting on the other railings won't be happening for the next few weeks though due to a crazy end of year coming up at work (reports, finishing up and moving classrooms) and a few things on over the weekends.

Do you hate railings? Any tips to make it less painful?

it's alwhite: part 1

I've said it before, and I'll say it again-It's amazing what white paint can do. I was a bit negative on painting last weekend, but every time I've caught a glimpse of the finished product I've felt re-energised-even for the other railings!!

Starting the doors that day ended up being a fairly spur of the moment decision-what do you want to do tomorrow? I might start on the doors, and apart from the sanding dust in the house was fairly pain free. We took them off their hinges, sanded them and the door frame back, taped the glass, 1 coat of primer, 2 coats of white paint and rehanging all in a day. We started pretty early-no daylight savings in Queensland is good for getting started first thing in the morning.

Sunday was touch ups, removing the tape, scraping the glass, and a few more touch ups when needed. Every time I look I find another bit I missed with the razor!

Here are some before to remind you of what it used to look like.

And an after to leave you with. Thanks for all of your opinions when I asked whether we should varnish or paint. They look amazing, and I am so glad we decided to go white. I just needed to make sure other people didn't think I was making a mistake!

The front verandah is certainly not done, but a few hours and a bit of paint over the last few weeks have made such a difference.

quilt shopping

I've been hinting about the need for a new quilt cover for our room for awhile now, but L didn't see the need. Although I still like the one we have it is only a Queen size for our Queen bed, and I would like it to be King size. We recently bought a new bed for downstairs, so I figured it was a good time to shuffle this one to another bedroom, and have a nice new King sized quilt on our bed. Plus it's been about 2 years-time for a change. L came on board as recently he has had a few crazy dreams about spiders and snakes in the bed and is blaming the patterns on the pillows. It would be ok if he didn't start trying to kill them by whacking them!

I've had a few ideas, and I'll check them out in person over the weekend.Initially I was all about colour and pattern. We already have a plain white quilt cover in the blue bedroom, and our current quilt cover is mostly white too.

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But I think I have changed my mind, and will go for white, and bring in colour through sheets, cushions, blankets  and other items like art and books and pretties. Considering we still have to paint the room, and don't really have a full plan in mind, and the fact I keep changing my mind might make this a much wiser option.

I would love linen, but it's probably out of our budget at the moment. But I can dream...

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Hmmm, it's definitely time for us to do some work on our bedroom.