wedding dress and this and that

Sorry I've been a bit slack this week with posting. Have spent a lot of time in front of the computer with work, and have been trying to sort some wedding things out, which hasn't left me much time or motivation for blogging. 

I ordered my wedding dress yesterday, which was exciting and nerve racking!! As was going into a bridal shop on a Saturday. Alone!!! The last few times I went during the week in the school holidays, and there was maybe 1 other bride with her mum in there. One bride had had about 8 girls with her!! I had narrowed it down to two, but pretty much had my mind made up, tried them both on, went and had a tea down the road, and went back and ordered it. I loved it the first time I tried it on, but it was different to what I thought I would get, and everything I had pinned and cut out of magazines. But 2 months on and having tried on a dozen other dresses, and it was still my favourite. It felt comfortable, and I loved it. 

I'll have a different belt though. That is one of the last BIG things I had to do for the wedding. Less than 6 months to go!

While I was in Brisbane I also dropped in to a friend's 30th birthday party, which was nice. Drinks and games in the park, catching up with lots of old friends. I am sure things got messy later in the night though. 

L and watched Silver Linings Playbook last night. It was good, and lots of good performances, but I wouldn't rave about it. I also thought the ending was a bit predictable and rom-com tied up in a bow, when the rest of the movie wasn't. Last week we saw Zero Dark Thirty, which I would rave about. I thought it also had amazing performances, good amounts of drama-and Drazic!!!

The sun is finally out, so we are hoping to get the decks done next weekend. If the rain stays away the wood should be dry enough. Fingers crossed!

a new name

I decided to rename my blog. As much as I adore the beach, and drink tea by the gallon I wasn't a huge fan of the name, and didn't feel like it had any actual relation to my blog, or what I was writing about. In fact, due to the weather and closed beaches, I don't think I've been to the beach since I started blogging. 

My blog is about our blue house, with a mixture of our life and what goes on. Hopefully the new name and address make that a bit clearer. I think it might give me a bit more direction too. 

Thanks for reading!!

lounge rooms switch-ups

Our lounge room has had a few changes since we moved in a year ago. We REALLY need some art on the walls, and a new rug. We won't do anything about them until we paint though, and get rid of the awful purple. 
I'd really like to paint soon, but  it's going to be a big job-lots of chipped and flaking paint on the trim, and the walls need some work-some filling and sanding. Being old paint we need to check if it's lead too. 

A big, empty room

Looking back from the window

And from the other corner

 When we first moved in we had the lounge facing away from the kitchen.

I think the cushions were  from Adairs a year or so back, the blanket is a beautiful mohair one that used to be my Mamas, the couch and recliner is from Freedom, my grandpa Maxie made the little bookcase. 

The rug is a hand me down-the only piece of carpet in the house. The chest was a gumtree find-it's beautiful old hardwood, and the tv is on a coffee table that we got cheap from someone who does up furniture. 

Here you can actually see the coffee table/chest

When the kitchen island took forever to arrive we tossed up getting a different one that was a bit bigger, so I moved the lounge room around a bit to make more room. It has stayed like this ever since. It seems more open, even with the island in that gap. 

Before the island went in

 I also got some lovely new cushions-a bit brighter and more colourful. 

We have big plans for this room. Eventually we would like to knock out the little wall (its about a meter wide) behind the small bookcase and open up the lounge, dining and kitchen a lot more. It blocks a lot of light, and I like the idea of openness. I think it will be load bearing though. We are also considering (a long way into the future) of closing up the opening into the hallway, and  putting in low cupboards underneath, hanging the tv on the wall, and having shelving around. That's a long time down the track though. 

We are looking into some floating shelves between the window and tv, and putting some art and photos onto the wall behind the couch. 

What do you think? What do you like? What would you suggest?

more blue room

Thanks for the feedback from our spare room. I thought I would give a little update to the room, answer a few questions, and give some detail shots.

Doona cover and cushions

The dresser I did up. 

I got a little over excited on the distressing I think. I will eventually go back and put another coat of paint on. As soon as I did it, I was all "PUT IT BACK! PUT IT BACK!!" I should have thought beforehand-less is more. I was over it and frustrated by this point, so just chucked it in. 

I mentioned in the last post about DIYing a bedhead. Unfortunately it wont be happening in the short term-We would need a new base for the bed, and it won't fit into our budget a the moment. :( The current bed frame has a 'foot' on it, and I don't think we could cut it off without impacting on the structural soundness of the bed. Basically if we cut the leg posts off below the metal foot, I don't think the legs would be stable enough. 

BUT, in saying that I would love to do this idea from the Feb 2013 Home Beautiful.

Sorry it's sideways...

I made it bigger so you could see... Aren't I nice?

Terrible photos-white on white on white-but it is pressed metal (often used as splash back) glued to a MDF backing, with a wood frame, all painted white. You can't really see the detail in this picture, but it is really pretty. 

Or a pretty standard wrap batting and fabric around some MDF and staple. They are pretty common these days. Either way, I think it is a while off. 

 

Meanwhile, this is our current window coverings. Expensive. My 2 year old nephew visits, and needs something to block out the light for his sleeps. As you can see by the glass, privacy isn't an issue. Our bedroom has zero window coverings at this stage. I like waking up naturally to light-although in a QLD summer when it gets light at 4 in the morning it is a bit less than ideal!

A few people mentioned the weird box things next the the cupboard. Here's why. The first picture below used to be a hallway once upon a time  but they turned it into some stairs when they built it out. The VJ wall on the right backs on to the cupboard in the blue room. When you turn right to continue down the stairs you can see what happens to the roof. This is where the stepped boxes come into play. The little ledge that runs along the left side is floor level of the top floor. 

The first level of stairs

Look at that lovely green. Hope those weird boxes make a bit more sense now-so you don't hit your head. 

Blue room list
Buy chest of drawers
New bedhead
Replace boob light with down lights and fan
New doona cover
New rug
Window coverings (ok-not done... :) )
Hang art (and buy)
Hang mirror (and buy)
Bedside tables
Paint the cupboard doors
Repaint (although this will be one of the last rooms we get to, I like the colour)

Oh-writing that list shows me that we still have quite a bit to do... 

outdoor furniture

Another rainy weekend-it was lovely at first, but we have all of these outside jobs lined up to do-deck and painting-and just can't do it! Oh well-at least the grass is looking good. 

This is our amazingly comfortable outdoor setting we have out the front. Our real estate agent gave it to us. It was left at a property, and the new people didn't want it. It cost us a carton. It's incredible, well made, heavy and it is lovely to eat breakfast there in the morning, or read a book, or have a nap... 

The only thing I don't love is the cushions. Doesn't really go with the house. I'm looking at recovering them, but because of the size of the cushions we need a lot of fabric. Like 15 meters of fabric. Everything needs to be cut length ways, so there will be a wasted 30-40 cm of fabric left over, for the whole 15 meters. Annoying. This is what I would like them to look like...

source
the amazing house that a-m built - love her design choices, and that she is not only Australian, but also from QLD

Source

source

Outdoor fabric is so expensive too-especially 15 meters of it. The best price I have found is about $27/m, but I would get a discount of 12% and free shipping, so that is about $370. But still a lot. Especially with a wedding to pay for. Another option would be to get a heavy drill fabric. The couches are undercover, and you can usually sit on them while it is raining and stay dry, but in crazy weather and wind they can get wet. I could then wash them if they were dirty, or possibly even scotch-guard them, to protect them a bit more. I can get that for about $10/m from Spotlight. 

I might get a swatch of the outdoor fabric and see what it is like. 

Dirty windows

I have honestly cleaned these windows 4 times since Christmas. That photo doesn't even capture how dirty they are-this constant rain and wind is leaving dirty drips all down them. I'm waiting for the rain to stop now before I do them again... 

Have you been covering furniture? What would you suggest?

the blue room

Yay-internet is back! It's amazing how much I rely on it now! I'd go to check a recipe, or a random fact, or check facebook. Nothing. After a month of it cutting in and out, and hours on the phone trying to get it fixed and saying that it wasn't out modem, reconfiguring it didn't work last night, so probably wont tonight either..., before it finally, completely died, someone finally came out today and fixed it.

Funnily enough, the room in our house that is the most 'done' is our guest room. It's a really nice room, and if it didn't have such a small cupboard we probably would have almost chosen it as our master bedroom. I'm really happy with it. We need window coverings, but other than that, if nothing changes for a few years then all good.

Our spare room

The weird box cut outs are a bit weird. They had to cut out some of the room for the head space for the stairs they added in when they placed the old house onto the new downstairs. It's a little odd, but works as a kind of bedside table.
The cupboards are awful. Why they didn't pay a little more for white or mirrored doors is beyond me. Instead they left them as this weird uncoated chipboard. To be in their mind....

This looks over the top balcony

When we first moved in our room look like this. An old doona cover, on a rug that was left here from the previous owners (you can see it rolled up in the corner) in a photo above. The bed was a hand me down from a friend who moved overseas. Nothing too special.  Actually, looking back I don't like it al all... Making do with what we had.

 It didn't stay like that for too long though. Same bed, and same prints, but have moved.

The doona cover is a plain white textured one from Target. I picked it up when they had a big sale. I picked up the cushions the same day-also from Target. The rug was crocheted by my darling grandma. The drawers are from a local op shop. The top was in bad condition-it had a burn and some stains, so I painted the top. Preblog, so no pics :( Sorry.

It's not going to win awards, but I thinks it's calm and relaxing.

It needs window coverings-it's quite a bright room, and gets afternoon sun from the far window. I think I will probably get white roman blinds.
We've recently got rid of the old 'boob light', and replaced it with some down lights and a fan. I'd also like to make a new bedhead, but that would mean buying a new frame for the bed, so it's probay down the line a bit.

What do you think? Would love to hear your thoughts!

Edited to add-I meant to say that painting those doors is right up there on our job list. Just working out the right products to use, and waiting for some sunny, dry weather!

just a quickie

Grrrr.... We've been having problems with our Internet for the past month, and this weekend it decided to die entirely. I also ran out of phone data as I have had to use the net in my phone at home! So have been dying without Internet-a good test though. Hopefully it will be fixed tomorrow.

It was so nice to see the sun pver the weekend-altbough it's gone now, and we are meant to be getting anotjet 100-200 mm of rain. we managed to achieve a lot having no net, and the sun out!

We were given a heap of new plants from L's cousin who works at a wholesale nursery. Lots of trees-just need to work out what to do with them all now! Photos to come!

We decided on a wedding ceremony venue-we've moved it slightly, and I am much happier with it. 

I think we have decided on a hall table-wood, Tasmanian Blackwood, 2 drawers. Beautiful! 

I had a girls might last night (too much champagne and a sugar coma after dessert!!), and we had breakfast with friends this morning. So much for a quiet weekend!

Just thought I'd drop in quickly. Thanks for reading-hopefully be back up and running in a day or so, with lots of pictures! Sorry about any dodgy formatting or spelling too-so much harder on a phone!!!