The beauty of the SALE!

This time of year EVERYTHING is on Sale and usually I would desperately want to buy up big but then you have to figure out whether you actually need the item and are you really saving money?

This year I have tried to be slightly smarter with my buying, this morning I have just about finished my birthday shopping for the year. Simple really - Mimco has a sale 50% off and then today they took an extra 20% off items. Perfect, jewellery for everyone this year so although I have just outlaid a rather large amount of money all at once I am actually saving because usually I would spend twice as much on each person.... lets just hope their tastes don't change between now and their birthdays.

I also waiting out the Christmas period and only brought my Christmas decorations after Jan 1st at 75% off. So instead of paying a whopping $9.99 per bauble I ended up paying about $2.50.

Also at lunch today I am off the the Vera Wang home section in Myer, I hear they have some amazing silver photo frames at 80% off.... I'm sure there is a wedding or two to attend this year and this will be perfect or even a house warming and we have plenty of those.

So all up SALES don't have to be about restraining yourself you just have to be smart ... and have some storage space for your pre-bought items he he he... thanks mum!

Finally, on a non shopping note (A lot of my posts seem to revolve around shopping) I would just like to advise that we have had finance pre-approval last Tuesday and then yesterday the block valuation came back ok too - so by Friday we should have finance approval and very very soon you should start seeing construction pictures!

Inspiration

On Saturday I was wandering around a furniture store and came across these lovely industrial letters and had this sudden thought - wouldn't it be amazing to mix them with something else as a bit of wall art???

But what - what do you hang on a wall - oh oh oh - a clock. Now for the word and it has to have an O in it.... that one is easy.

Love.... what do you think, I was thinking in the upstairs sitting room, it would be a lovely pop of colour and would look great with my huge world map and some cool Britannia cushions?

Should i buy them.... may keep searching for the clock - I think it needs to be white and industrial!

Guess What I Found

Oh yes again this week I found my scales at the morning markets.... it was heavenly, walking through the markets in the sunshine, coffee in hand and then I see this lovely red glint in the next row.... could it be, oh yes. Of course I didn't want to look to interested so I casually made my way around until I was there and guess what - The owner had dropped the price from $60 to $50. Now I don't know about you but I'm not one to bargain and yet I did it

"Excuse me, would you take $40 for these?"

"If you give me $45, they are yours!"

Sold and the scales are mine. MINE MINE MINE!

I can't wait to put them in my kitchen, little bit rough, little bit old and yet I am totally completely in love with them! YAY

Its All Becoming Clear Now

For a while I have been trying to communicate my ideas and design thoughts but its really hard because I'm not 100% sure exactly what I want - How do I mix new with old, how do I make something old fit in with our young modern life? Well before Christmas things got a little bit more interesting with me buying a lovely old Queen Ann desk for my bedroom. Totally lovely, delicate and pretty and in so many ways perfect for me (Although husband tried to stand on it the other day to get to a top shelf in the garage - Honey look at those legs.... do you really think they will hold all your weight?)

I adored it but was unsure how to coordinate this with the rest of my bedroom furniture (I have not yet bought yet) and then I saw this picture and it all came together beautifully. This is what I'm trying to achieve.

This is the quilt I have brought and obviously I'm adding the lovely maps behind the bed, I am having a dark grey shag pile carpet and 2 lovely armchairs (still trying to figure those out) so hopefully you can start seeing where I'm going with the space? Beautiful blues, greys and soft whites, it should be a calm luxurious space... hopefully. The question is, will it all blend together cohesively of will it look like I'm trying to hard?

Are We Being Brain Washed by the Media?

This is just a little thought I have been having over the last couple of months but do you think that perhaps the home decor / design magazines / pictures are becoming more and more like the fashion magazines featuring stick thin air brushed beauties half the worlds woman aspire to be? See I saw the picture above and I wanted that. I wanted the beautiful calm sedateness of it all and thought - why cant my house look like that.

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Then I started really looking at it and felt a bit put out. Here is what I saw - there is a lamp on this coffee table that isn't plugged in. Its just sitting there looking pretty and I thought - how totally impractical and I actually felt ripped off. There is a little blue tea cup on the fireplace, this isn't so obvious but its really not practical in today's society, you you really want to be dusting it every single week because with something like that you know its going to be hot real estate to everything floating around in the room.

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Finally the chair - beautiful chair, very pretty and then I saw the small little wheels. Firstly I would be afraid to sit on it with tiny little wheels like that - I would be scared if my little dog sat on it for that matter and secondly can you imagine what wheels like that are doing to your lovely wooden floor?

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It sounds small and silly but do you think perhaps magazines are giving us unrealistic design ideas, things we will never achieve and if we do we will have to work damn hard at keeping it that way!

Cutest Thing Ever

Ok not alot of writing today because I am blown away with this DIY project.

I want to find a vintage suitcase just for my little Lacey.

Tell me this is not the most adorable thing you have ever seen!

New Year's Resolutions

Welcome back one and all and sorry for not really being there that last week before Christmas. Yes our house was broken into and our car and lots of other things were stolen. It was a drama filled time full of paperwork, assessors and new car smells.

However everything is finally sorted and life seems to be back on track ... slightly.

Anyways I am a big one for new years resolutions. Every year for the past 5 years my husband and I have only one resolution and that is to get rid of or simplify debt. 2010 was the year we finally achieved that goal so this year I had to put a bit of thought into my resolution and I have settled on three. I know three but still - this year I have three resolutions I am going to try very hard to stick to.

One - Be fitter and lighter than I was last year!

It may seem like a bit of a cliche but I think you have to understand, I have never in my life like, done or even thought about exercise, I love food and almost married to pasta. I have the type of body Nigella, although I am happy to say slightly less wide and I love myself.. mostly. However this year I want my life to be slightly healthier, I want to make smarter food choices, I want to enjoy spending time outside being active and I would love to have a bit more energy ... so for me this is quite a big deal.

Two - Make this year less drama filled than last year!

If you read my blog regularly you will notice that my life tends to be slightly .... drama filled. I would love for one year to complain about nothing happening. I want a year of no emotion, no ambulances, police or fireman, no insurance companies or crying family members.

Three - Make more of an effort with my friends!

This one i kind of stole from a friend who has the same trouble, it very easy to get wrapped up in everything in life and when you have a quiet moment just crash on the couch with a book instead of thinking and making time for your friends so I am going to try and resist the urge to slouch on the couch and go out for coffee and obviously no cake (See resolution 1) but maybe ... bugger fine just coffee with skim milk!