Pinning pop-in

Just popping in purely to post these images so that I can then upload them onto pinterest, which I love as an organisational tool. Am very happy creating mood boards for every room of the house.

Can't actually act on any of these redecorating/renovation ideas but virtual planning is almost - if not more - fun as budget is irrelevant. More of a big things, unaffordable pleasures post.

Both these images are from Inside Out's 2012 Renovating and Decorating guide, but don't appear on its website, hence my scanning.

For the record, the bedroom image (it's the bed I'm interested in - Jardan's Leila bed) is from Julian and Louise Thompson's apartment in St Kilda (photography Sharyn Cairns). The bedlinen, which I also love, is from the architect's (Steven Whiting) wife's online shop y10store.com.

Bathroom image is an old one that's got another run, as photographer Sharyn Cairns nominated it as coming from one of her all-time favourite houses (it's in Melbourne and used to belong to Mark and Louella Tuckey, who've since moved to Sydney).

Record straight. Images loaded. Off to pinterest.

Laundry picnic

I picked up my first vintage picnic basket, which I use as a sewing basket, many years ago. The second, the small one on top, came into the house about five years ago to give a home to the tapestry stuff I have, never use, but don't want to part with.

At Rick Rack Retro in Summer Hill on Saturday, I bought my third for $15. I had a specific purpose in mind for this one as there's a space quite high on a laundry shelf that it tucks perfectly into. As it has a lid, I can pull it down without the threat of WD 40, the magnetic window cleaning thingy and its sponges I bought at a shopping centre demonstration that I can't live without, spare oven knobs that I keep for no known reason and suede shoe protector, falling on top of my head. In other words, those random things that need a home somewhere out of sight.

I actually brought home a smaller version for the same price but realised when I got back that the bigger one would indeed fit so The Husband kindly went back to Summer Hill to swap it.

So if you're looking for a similar smaller version of the bottom basket, you know where to find it.

Sandy days

With all the grey skies this summer has thrown at us, I've been lighting lots of candles in and around the fireplace. Pillar-style candles I like to put in vases and jars as I don't want wax cascading over the floorboards like lava flowing over Pompeii.

However, most jars don't have completely flat bottoms so I tip a bit of Sydney sand, available from hardware shops, to create a sturdy base for the candles to sit on. The sand is inexpensive as it's the stuff used to make cement and fill sandpits with.

The sand has even turned one of the slim bottles or containers, which I found scattered underneath our house presumably left there by builders in the 1920s, into something useful.

I'd much prefer sunlight to candlelight at this time of year, but, apparently, the La Nina effect will keep Sydney reasonably grey until the end of summer.

As this is the only type of sand I'll probably see this month, I'll take what I can get.

Floral tribute

2012 has finally reached STSP and I've been celebrating with Australian natives. My absolute favourite botanicals for their sculptural, rough, wild beauty. They always remind me of beach holidays where banksias line the bush paths that lead to the sea.

So when I saw a set of vintage placemats at I Like Birds last week for $12, there was no doubt these were coming home.

It's said that Australian soliders sailing home from WWI could smell home before they could actually see it, thanks to the smell of euclyptus wafting towards the ships on a sea breeze. Don't think that's actually true but a nice myth worthy of the mighty gum tree. And they're as easy on the eye as they are the nose when they're flowering. At the top is a sprig of flowering gum, a bunch of which I picked up at Orange Grove Markets in Lilyfield for $15 (best inner-west markets for flowers by far, in my opinion).

Pre and post Christmas I kept picking up branches or bunches and at one point I was lucky enough to have some in every room. I didn't manage to snap a pic of all the Christmas bush we had around the place, which is unfortunate as nothing else, apart from cherries, says December like it.

The sturdier branches even look good when they're finished, not that I've actually finished with these just yet. They'll be put away and retrieved come winter as kindling for the fireplace. Try doing that with peonies.

We're still in holiday mode here and will be throughout January, so I'll be posting three times a week instead of five during the school holidays.

Hope you're having a wonderful start to 2012.

Paint the halls

What do sensible people do a week and a half out from Christmas Day? They don't get the builder in to rip out the verandah lining boards, tile the verandah roof, replace sections of the back fence and panels beneath our deck that effectively create a shed for us.

Removing the verandah lining boards revealed the house's original 90-year-old slate roof along with the accumulated 90-year-old dust. (I'd save the slate roof if I could but it'd be as effective as standing under a deciduous tree branch in a winter's storm.) The front of our house looked as if we were having a white Christmas - that's if white Christmases were black.

Even though this doesn't sound like much fun, it actually is for me. Out come the paint charts and off to visit my favourite paint shop, Annandale Paint and Wallpaper, personally run by a husband and wife team just down the road. It's a double win with them as they stock my favourite paint brand, Haymes, another family run all-Australian company. (I see Haymes is running ads in all the major magazines announcing being given a gong by Choice magazine for having the best coverage. Good for them.)

Anyway, while many of you may look at my paint choices and see sludge, I see a lovely mix of naturals that will have parts of the work disappear into the garden while others just blend in with it. And the charcoal trim colour isn't even there yet. (Dulux Malay Grey, Whisper White and Linseed, for anyone interested.)

Best of all, though, Rob the Builder will also perform a little Christmas magic, by completing all the work before disappearing on the 23rd just like a jolly toy-making elf.

And Santa will have a much better roof on which to park his sleigh on Christmas Eve.

I heart Christmas

I wanted some slightly padded hearts to tie onto Christmas presents this year, but didn't want to involve the sewing machine as wanted to curl up on the couch at night under a blanket, thanks to the coldest start to summer in 50 years.

So, during the day, I traced a large heart-shaped biscuit cutter onto two pieces of fabric, which I then cut out with pinking shears.

In the evening, I sewed around the edges with embroidery thread, leaving a gap at the top, into which I stuffed a few feathers from an old cushion insert. Slipped in a piece of ribbon, finished the stitching and then put buttons on either side so that the hearts are reversible.

The cards I made during the day, with bits and pieces I pulled out of the craft cupboard. Apart from the doiles. I picked up a pack of 250, made from biodegradable sugar cane pulp, for about $4 the other day at The Essential Ingredient. I see many an experimental doily project coming up.

The Child was inspired and now wants to make cards for her friends. I didn't expect her request to make variations of my doily card as her grandmother, my mother, is quite the doily abusing decorator and thought The Child had been scarred for life. When I sewed doilies onto a vintage blanket to hide a few holes, she thought I'd gone mad.

But she's come round. I have a convert.

Hallelujah.

Flying high

Despite having enjoyed a long weekend, woke up in a grump thanks to the decidedly non-spring weather that has ruled, if not ruined, the school holidays so far. Little did I know that, waiting for me on the doorstep, was a little ray of sunshine that had winged its way from the other side of the continent.

Inside was such a vision of beautifully selected birdiness that I would have chirped, if I could.

After reading about my cockatoo teatowel cushion, I knew Kylie was sending a vintage teatowel but I didn't know she'd prettily wrap a thoughtful collection of avian beauty and send that too. All the bits and pieces will be shown here eventually, but this painting with its rustic frame just couldn't wait because the colours are bright and happy, unlike the sky today. Even nipped outside in my pyjamas (after checking neighbours were nowhere to be seen) to cut a few bottlebrush flowers from the street trees in celebration.

While writing this, a couple of blue wrens, east-coast cousins of the bird in the painting, were flitting about in the tree outside my window.

Thanks Kylie, you really did make my day.

Coffee break

Today I'm putting to good use the old tin I picked up last weekend as it's time to tidy up the home office in preparation for the school holidays.

While I have quite a lot of freelance work due, I've organised it so I can take the next two weeks off.

We've got time on our hands, the weather is stunning and there's a camping trip in the wind.

Work is the last thing I want to think about right now, which is why I love boxes. Out of sight, out of mind.

Have a lovely weekend.

Bottled charm

Would you believe me if I told you these were my latest market finds? Well, the cotton lace tablecloth is but the set of six little milkbottles tied together with string are from Bed Bath N Table, $14.95.

The lovely shop assistant told me someone had come in and bought a bunch of these to use as centrepieces for a vintage-style wedding they were organising.

As I'm not planning a wedding any time soon, I'll either use them for cut herbs in the fridge, for pens and pencils on my desk or, of course, filled with small flowers cut from the garden.

Or maybe The Child will get a jasmine/pen organiser combo surprise on her desk when she comes home today.

Or maybe I'll cut the string and have 6 little bottles to add to the collection hanging above The Child's bed.

Blooming marvellous

More than a month ago I made The Husband stop his car as I'd seen some branches by the side of the road that I wanted to bring home. He wasn't particularly happy about it as he's a bit precious about his little French car, but I insisted.

I dragged them down our hallway, not caring I was scraping the walls as I went much to The Husband's and Child's amazement, and then cut them to size. Shortly after I used the branches in a previous post to display some crochet and then did nothing but occasionally change the water.

Much to our surprise, the branches, or sticks as the rest of the family refers to them, have bloomed at the same rate as the trees outside. The flowers and leaves are starting to get a bit droopy now but I'm wondering what the rest of the buds will do.

We'll see.

If you're reading this...
Kylie, thanks so much for yesterday's plant identification. I'm seriously considering growing the Orange Trumpet Creeper over our back fence.

Heart felt

Have finished the woolly wire addition to the mantelpiece nature-table, and I'm pretty happy.

After twisting some garden wire into a basic but wobbly heart shape, I twirled some wool around it and then got out the trusty hook and double crocheted over the entire shape to add some texture.

While I suspect my heart doesn't strictly meet the found-objects old-school nature-table requirements, the wool is non-dyed naturally coloured yarn - there are five grey suffolk sheep staring at me from the band around the ball to emphasise this point - so I'm including it.

Heart-felt thanks to the scary yet slightly confused-looking sheep. So unlike The Cat who assumes everyone wants to take her photo.

See what others are up to in their creative spaces today here.

The best of winter

Went a bit retro primary school on the weekend when tidying up the lounge room turned into fiddling with things, as it often does. Everything was taken off the mantelpiece and we introduced a bit of a nature-table feel to it. (The wooden cow was made by The Child in her technology and design class at school.)

It's lovely at night with the fire blazing below and the candles twinkling. It's a work in progress, as I can see it needs another element, which I'm working on with some wool and wire. If all goes well, I'll post a pic later. If all doesn't go well, I'll forget I ever mentioned it.

As we're heading into the third of the six coldest weeks of winter, it's fun to embrace the weather rather than fight it. We sat in front of the fire yesterday afternoon, cups of tea, warm milk, freshly baked cake, Cat snoring. Perfect afternoon.

The nature table approach (a rather fancy term for leaving sticks, stones and leaves lying about) is starting to encroach upon other parts of the house too. We visited the house some friends have just bought on the weekend and came home with a bunch of rosemary from an enormous bush that grows in their garden. I love rosemary used in a vase just for how it looks but don't often get my hands on big enough bunches.

The rosemary love doesn't stop there either as when it starts to dry out we'll either use it to cook with or throw it on the fire. Smells good, looks good, tastes good. Is good.

Harden up

Popped into High Tea with Mrs Woo in Paddington a couple of weeks ago and left with this handprinted linen tea towel, $26, by Laughing Bird, a little studio based in the Blue Mountains area of NSW. Native flowers with splashes of teal blue against lineny white was just too much for me to resist. So home it came.

It's now hanging in my hallway on a pretty ordinary coathanger until I source something better, but it does the job for now.

As the linen is quite stiff, the tea towel is hanging nicely but some wouldn't. If you'd like to do something similar, try the old stylist's trick of using masking tape to line the edges at the back as this gives a bit of structure or body.

If you've ever bought Oxford pillowcases (the ones with a border all round) and wondered why it didn't sit perkily on your bed like it did in the glossy brochure/editorial/ad, now you know.

Forever friday

Friday is my favourite day of the week. It's the anticipation of two entire free days that lay ahead for the whole family. Reminds me of preparing for a holiday.

I like to get the house spruced, with fresh bedlinen, clean towels and a bunch of eucalyptus scenting the air. Even the Cat's barkcloth-covered beanbag that lives in front of the fireplace gets a shake and air in the sun in readiness for tonight.

The favourite grey linen apron in the top pic was bought at Merci in Paris, as I like to pick up everyday homewares to remind me of places. Things I'll touch and use all the time. Travel can be a weekend in Orange or a night in the Blue Mountains. Doesn't have to be an exotic location at all. But we were lucky enough to go to Europe last year, from where I also brought home dishcloths (yes, for washing up) from Muji in Rome.

Better than snowdomes, to me.

Fabric screensavers

I have some pieces of vintage barkcloth that are too lovely to be hidden away in my stash where I hardly ever see them. So I photographed them to use as screensavers on my computer.

I noticed an option on Google's home page that lets you select one of your own photos as a background, which sparked the idea of using fabrics. This probably isn't even a new option as I'm not what you'd call an early adopter in the technology stakes.

Finally I've found a way to use these pieces without having a project in mind and scissors in hand.

And if I do cut them up I'll still have them whole.

To paint or not to paint

Picked up these three frames on the weekend with the intention of painting them all the same brightish colour for the Child's room. Trouble is, I feel guilty at the thought of destroying old photos and I appreciate the worn, knocked-about quality of these pictures as they are. They have a history and are a link to a past, albeit one that's unknown. That would all be wiped out with a paintbrush and new prints.

The bottom one doesn't bother me as that just contains a collection of photocopied bits and pieces from a magazine but the other two are photos of a wedding and a school class. Both were precious enough to someone to frame.

Trouble is, my home is not a museum and I have no place for them as they are. Besides, they're dirty and spotted with mildew. Which just makes them sadder as they've clearly been neglected for a long time.

Fifteen dollars for the three seemed a bargain on Sunday but now I wish I'd just picked up something characterless at Ikea. To paint or not to paint. That is the question...

Mission accomplished

The stripes are finished. Took 3.5 days due to various mishaps. The art is still to be hung, which is another project as old frames have been bought and need to be painted before we can start fiddling with arrangements. We're tossing up between lime green and coral for the frames to give the room a bit of zing. The Child will hand down her Solomon-like decision soon.

Here, the area above the picture rail has been painted and the old stripes obliterated with a couple of coats of Whisper White.

The lines of the old stripes were easy to see (yes!), so made placement of the masking tape easy. Mishap one: ran out of masking tape on a public holiday.

Newman's Eye half strength goes on to form the stripes. Mishap two: the far right wall didn't work out. At all. When the masking tape was removed so were large swathes of every coat of paint the wall has ever seen since it was built in 1926. Peeled the lot back like an over-ripe orange until I reached bare wall. Looked more like a Tuscan outhouse or turn-of-the-century Surry Hills slum. Quite fetching and an effect that turns up in a lot of photo shoots but not quite what we were aiming for. A Fail, as the Child would say. So that wall is now a solid blue.

I like to think of it as the return of the feature wall.

Works for me and, more importantly, the Child who loves her new room. Operation stripes declared a success. Mission accomplished.

Operation stripes

Painting of the Child's room begins today. The colours have been chosen and all the furniture pushed to the middle of the room and covered.

First step will be painting over the old stripes with the white paint. I have all my fingers and toes crossed that the lines of the old stripes will still be visible underneath so that all I have to do is run masking tape along them and paint the blue stripes on.

If not, I'll have to measure the stripes again. Please no.

Private party

I like to fiddle about the house moving things about just because it makes me happy and, possibly, because I have trouble keeping still for too long if the sun is up.

Today, though, I walked past my craft cupboard and realised all the little things that had been popped on top without much thought had their own little thing going on. Bit like a private party. I honestly didn't move a thing before I took the photo.

The jug is filled with left-over ironing water, the camellias are prunings from tidying up the garden last week and the lamp base I'd bought at a school fete for $1, for which I made the lampshade, because it was too good to leave unwanted at the stall.

Proof, I think, sometimes doing nothing is best of all.

(If you're reading this, ignore the last line Husband.)

Off my trolley

The Bronte Tram in Waverley isn't on my regular list of haunts, not because it isn't lovely but because of its location. I think that's going to change after picking up this metal trolley.

It's the perfect dumping spot for keys and mail in the hallway and has provided a place for the family straw hats that we grab on our way to the beach (clearly they're going to be there for a while).

Make no mistake, it's not artifically distressed. It was FILTHY, which I didn't even notice when I bought it as the dirt blended in so well. Luckily there was a break in the weather as after scrubbing it on the deck I took it into the garden to hose all the muck off. It was either that or putting it under the shower, and what's the bet the Husband or Child would have come home unexpectedly at exactly that time.

After towelling it down, I even used the hairdryer on it to completely dry it. So it may be distressed but it's also really rather pampered.