To Do List

After reading Rebecca- from beautiful square feet's to do list,  I started compiling my own.  Of course, majority of the items on my list will never get checked off! But, hey at least I've got good intentions, right!?!

These are the rooms we are working on right now, we do have other rooms (like a bathroom!) but there's sooo much to do in them, it's not even worth writing it all down!

And, I should also say, lots of these things are just ideas, I'm bound to change my mind a million times!!!

THE LIST

Bedroom

• Get a chest of drawers.
• Make jewellery frames like this.
• Get a new lamp shade or recover the one I've got.
• Frame watercolour paintings.
• Get bedside tables and lamps.
• Get a floor lamp for corner.
• Replace door frame.
• Replace curtains with blinds and sheer curtains, or even different coloured curtains.

Front Room/study/entrance/sitting area

• Finish undercoating.
• Paint the ceiling.
• Paint the walls (if I can ever decide on a colour!!).
• Finish and re install the skirting.
• Figure out window furnishings (curtains? blinds? Arghhh!).
• Get a couple of chair (love these ones!).
• Paint and maybe wallpaper bookcase.
• Kids area?
• Hang wedding photos.
• New entrance doors.
• Get a desk.
• Lamps for cube shelf thingy.

Kitchen

• Tile splash back (of course I'll have to decide on tiles first!).
• Tear up old lino and finish timber floor.
• Finish off pantry and fridge cabinet.
• Get a new door.
• Blinds? Roman or holland?
• Floating shelves, like this?
• Paint walls.

OK, so I think that's it for now. I'm tired just writing it down!! Sorry to give you such a wordy post, with no pictures, even though the pictures I put up are normally pretty bad! But, it was good to get all that down, and hopefully I can start crossing things off!

Thanks Rebecca for inspiring me! :)

Spray Painting the Lamp...

Hello There!
Since I got my new lamp, I've been unhappy with the colour of the shade. It's cream. I don't like it.

This morning, I decided I needed to change the colour of the shade. I have a sleeping 2 year old on the couch, so a shopping trip was out of the question.

Sure,  I could just wait, that'd be the smart thing to do, but, I really want a different coloured lamp shade. Now.

I remembered that I have a tin of black spray paint in the shed, and I decided to have a go at spray painting the shade. It's not fabric paint; just regular flat black spray paint. Maybe not my best idea, but, nothing ventured, nothing gained! (or something like that!)

I took off the lamp shade and ducked outside, the moment I started painting - I wished I had not.

Oops...

I kept going anyway, and after a few thin coats, it was looking a little more promising.

I rushed it inside to see how it looked in place. What's that? Drying time? No, are you crazy? The paint says 'quick dry'!

Back in place, I think it looks ok...  

It could be worse. A gloss paint probably would have looked better, but me = impatient, and I used what I had!

I guess I can say it was a successful experiment? I'm pretty sure I will replace it anyway, but for now I definitely prefer the black!!

Oh, and I should add, the shade is back outside now; I guess quick dry doesn't mean instant dry! 

Do you prefer the cream or the black?

Have you inappropriately spray painted anything lately?

The search is over!!

I've been looking for a lamp, a hammered metal lamp.
Something like this;

Or, this;

I googled, I Ebayed, I couldn't find anything locally. Anything I did find, was WAY out of my budget!
So, I gave up.

Then, while looking for something completely unrelated to my silver lamp dream, I saw this from Bunnings!!

Bunnings! Are you kidding me! I go to Bunnings for paint, or garden hoses, I didn't even think to look there for a lamp!
(I'm new to this, so I'm not sure if I should add that Bunnings didn't sponsor this post? If they would like to, they can, although I'm not even sure what 'Sponsor this post' means! Like I said, I'm new to this!)

So, of course, off I went to Bunnings to have a little look...  I left with this...

If you are thinking it doesn't look like the one in the link, then you are right!! When I got there I saw this one sitting prettily beside it's Morooco friend and, I liked height and shape; the creamy shade doesn't really do it for me; but that's easy enough to fix!!

This is how she looks like this in her new home (The shelves will replaced with a chest of drawers, hopefully soon!)

It's not exactly what  I was looking for (It's not metal, or hammered, and I kind of wanted a black shade)  but, it satisfies my desire for silver and shiny, and, it also satisfies my desire to keep some of our money in the bank!!

Any suggestions for shade colour? Like I said, just up there ^, I was thinking black, but I'm still not 100% sure.

Exploring Elegance

YHL posted this Ethan Allen quiz and, of course, I headed off straight away to find my signature style!

Choices like these,

 Got me this result;

Knowing nothing about style, I thought this sounded pretty good! But, this was the only 'Explorer room' that my inner compass was drawn toward (explorer; compass, get it? OK, note to self, don't try to be funny!)

So, of course, not happy to settle with that diagnosis, I started the quiz again! The results are in.... drum roll...

I think this one might be a little off too, I doubt anyone would call me (or my house) elegant!
Maybe the problem is that I have no real style! I don't think I have decided yet! 

Either way, I really liked these rooms from the Elegance experience!

What's your signature?

Bedroom Before and Progress - Be prepared!!

Our bedroom is currently the least scary room in the house, so I thought it would be best to start there, and terrify you with the bathroom and lounge once we know each other a little better!

Let's begin with the 'Before' pictures; but be prepared, it may make you cry...

Ready? Are you sitting down? Ok, here goes!

*insert chilling scream here*

Yes, this is our bedroom. Yes, we actually live in this house!

Let me explain; room by room,  we are replacing all the ceilings in the house, tearing up all the old floor coverings and finishing the lovely timber underneath! This shot is, in reality, also a progress shot, but with very little actual progress!

But... it does get better; we finished the ceiling, we cleaned out the junk and sanded the floorboards. We undercoated, we painted. You get the idea; we did stuff, a lot of stuff!

This is what we have now.

Better, right?! 

(messy bed and all!)

The picture (a watercolour painting by a very clever 6 year old I know and love!) won't stay where it is, but will feature, along with it's twin, somewhere in the room.

I have a bunch of other things to put on the walls, I need to get bedside tables, and lamps, but any progress is good!!!

There you have it, our bedroom as it is today!! 

What do you think of the transformation so far? Have you made any progress today?

Inspirational Pictures

I am planning on showing you some of the house, but while I'm getting that ready, I thought I might share a few of my favourite inspiration pics! 

I really love this - I've got plenty of kids art and certificates I could fill the frames with!

(I'm sorry, I can't remember where this one came from)

This room is so great, but the rug is especially gorgeous from - me oh my!

I would die for this shower, unfortunately we don't have the space - this one comes from Nancy Hugo

And, the last one for today is a kitchen - another flickr find, from Sarah (girard312), just a link for this one! :)

So, these are some looks I love, I may never achieve them, I may change my mind tomorrow, but I love them today, and wish my house looked like any one of these! Anyone out there want to share their own inspiration with me?  I could always use some more! 

First Post Ever!!!

How exciting, my first post ever!!! I guess I should use this post to introduce myself and explain why I started this little blog! But, first I want to say thanks to The Background Fairy and The Cutest Blog on the Block, for having so many awesome, free backgrounds, banners and other stuff!!!

Hi!!! My name is Megan, I live in sunny QLD, Australia. I have two cute kids, one cute husband, and one not-so-cute dog! Here's the kids, since they are a lot cuter than me, or anyone else in the family!

Our house is most definitely a fixer-upper (is that a word?), so renovating is somewhere near the top of our to do list, not the top, but it's top ten, for sure!

My family finally got sick of hearing about my hunt for the perfect lamp, and, they got tired of answering questions like, "Which colour do you like best?"

So, the idea is I have somewhere to spill my renovating/decorating guts and, maybe some day someone will listen!

I have no idea what I'm doing most of the time, I'm pretty sure I have no sense of style, and I am the World's Worst Housewife, hence the title!

But.... I'm working on it! So if anyone's listening, well I should say, reading; sit back and enjoy the very slow journey to a 'Newly Renovated Messy Little House!"


By, the way, I found the perfect lamp!! Hmmm, there's an idea for another post! Here's what inspired me originally, love each of these, and mine is nearly as good!