Simple Things

Sometimes its simple things that make me happy - look at these amazing glass jars / bottles I found in my all time favorite store "Empire" .... the colour and the imperfections make me want to fall on the floor and swoon!

PS. Swooning is one of those totally old fashioned romantic terms that I just adore .... that and love letters. If someone wrote me a love letter I think I would have to swoon... sorry my love ....

More Changes

Why is it that when I finally have something sorted my lovely hubby decides to throw a spanner in the works... a good spanner but still, I'm finding it very hard to finalise this holiday when we keep bloody changing it.

So we are now going to Munich ... for Oktoberfest. Yes correct, me the gal who drank beer with a straw last time we attend an Australian version much to my husbands disgust! (See pic above if you don't believe me!)

Now I haven't been before, I don't know much about it so any details anyone can give me on what to expect would be much appreciated.

Storage and Display

Over the years we have travelled and collected different artifacts from where ever we have visited. Until now they have been packed away in boxes waiting ever so patiently to be unpacked and displayed properly. The thing is - to really do it properly you are probably going to have to have built in display units and that is where it gets quite overwhelming.

I think the display cabinet will be put into the lounge / dining room and I will try and make it match the two built ins I am having done in the recesses.

The recess closest to the kitchen will have a half height wine rack with a lovely stone top. The rest of the space will just be one lovely big mirror.

The second recess will have again a half height cabinet with doors as sort of a makeshift bar again with a plain stone top however above that this one will have built in cabinets / shelves for all my lovely glasses. I found this image which is exactly what I am trying to achieve there.

Finally the display unit for my little nick knacks .... I am thinking something along these lines but the thing is - where do I put it. I have this lovely wall backing onto the alfresco which might be an option but my other thought is to have it sitting in the middle of the room creating a floor to ceiling divider between the lounge / dining room? Which one do you prefer?

Green Thumb'd Gal

Walking around my block on the weekend I was actually quite surprised at just how much outdoor space I have .... Its kind of amazing that I am going to have space for a pool and a little bit of grassed area as well as a bloody big vegetable patch.

The thing is the more space you have the more green you have to fill it with ....

I want to use espaliated fruit trees against the wall I am building blocking out the neighbors from hell....

I am also going to have two olive trees near the alfresco and the pool area is going to have a lovely frangipani and pebbles.

I know I'm going to have a lovely grey paver done in almost like a polish concrete... the pool is either going to be black or a green so I'm definitely getting there.

Here are some of my other inspiration photo's

Progress - Baby Steps

So today its about the house .... My house! YAY - I just love saying that. Anyways so not alot is happening on the house front but they are taking baby steps.

My pantry has finally been fixed!

For those who dont read regularly the pantry was too small. This is my only real screw up in terms of layout and I wanted it fixed. Builders said it wasnt possible ... then after arguing it was but it was going to cost us $3,000 dollars! Heart attack right there but we said fine, its important to me so we signed over our loves for one teeny tiny little wall and door move..... and then we waited.

Well they have finally done it, they moved my wall and it took them less than a day but at least its done.

Looking at that lovely 2.6m of space I now how opens up so many possibilities. Here is what I have decided on.

I am having two floor to ceiling cabinet units like the ones below and then im going to have half units around the corner and then overheads as well. I am going to have a plain white benchtop for all my lovely glass canisters and then im going to paint the wall between benchtop and overhead units with blackboard paint a bit like below?

What do you think? Will it work? Have i got enough storage .... final question, am I obsessing over a pantry.... hell yeah!

The Romance Is Dead

Not long after I wrote the ridiculously mushy email about how much I miss my husband he has to go ahead and ruin it.

Oh yes, hubby managed not only to destroy all the lovely romantic feelings I had but even managed to replace them with a sense if rage and injustice at his unfair and perhaps even brutal comments over the phone.

You see - he called me frivolous. He said I had a way of always finding something to spend money on. Obviously you can imagine at the end of his little lecture I was seeing red and it isn't fair because when he is away he can just hang up the phone and I'm left there, angry and upset and I cant even give him the silent treatment!

So obviously not only do I vent to you on here but I decided to write him an email to set it straight. Now usually I would say ... wait till you calm down before you do anything stupid but to be honest... if someone called you frivolous you would want to kick them in the shins too right????

So this is what I wrote.

"To My Darling Husband

From our recent conversation it seems you may be unaware of the value of living. Obviously not cheaply but comfortably and definitely not excessively.

I feel that if you become aware of what things cost you may not lash out verbally every time you see a figure that involves more than two digits!

So here we go – the value of money in 10 easy steps

Number 1 - A Soft Serve Cone from MacDonald’s $0.50c

Number 2 - 2 Litres of Milk $4.87

Number 3 - A basic office takeway lunch $10.00

Number 4 - Basic Surf Tshirt $40.00 approx

Number 5 - 60L’s of petrol $80.00 approx

Number 6 - Dinner for 2 somewhere nice $120.00 approx (in Perth)

Number 7 - A flight to Melbourne $320.00

Number 8 - Shire Land Rates for a year $1200.00

Number 9 - An overseas Holiday  $10,000 - $15,000 not including spending

Number 10 - The cost of upsetting your wife 50% of everything! "

Obviously this is just a tongue in cheek way of me telling him how displeased I was with his obviously unjust treatment of me .... and it worked. I received a very nice apology and I'm getting taken out to dinner next week.

Moral of the story .... Words hurt.... even if they may be slightly true, not that I'm saying I am frivolous but I will admit its a possiblity .... oh yes and the other moral ... unhappy wife, unhappy life even from 12 hours away! 

I Think Im A Closet Romantic

Ha - that title is funny in so many ways!

Firstly I should say, I adore my husband and cant imagine anyone better to spend the rest of my life with ... (except perhaps George Clooney but lets not go there on the off chance he does read this) however let me make this clear. I don't believe that relationships are all flowers and kisses and teddy bears. On occasion I don't particularly like my husband and I'm brave enough to say .... I'm sure there are times when he doesn't particularly like me.

HOWEVER - I think either I'm still drunk from the weekend or perhaps hiding somewhere is a closet romantic.

Now let me tell you where I'm going with this. So still focusing on my dressing room my original plan was to have a series of fashion plates displayed on one wall like these below.

 I love this idea and have wanted to do it forever .... BUT - and this is where the closet (get it dressing room / closet) romantic bit comes into it. What if instead of fashion plates I use pictures ... and yes it get worse. What if I use famous kissing photos.

Ok now you get where I'm going. I just really love these photo's. I can imagine the spontaneity that would go into these photos and maybe I should be bringing a little bit of that into my bedroom ... obviously not in plain view but what do you prefer ..... fashion plates or pictures of love!