You CAN dress a bed with Op Shop pieces

You CAN dress a bed with Op Shop pieces

Yes indeed you can. 

Our downstairs bedroom had become a dumping ground and I could stand it no longer so I decided to set myself a challenge to see if I could decorate using mainly recycled pieces.  I do believe that good interiors evolve over time so it is definitely a work in progress.  We originally had a double bed that guests (and husband at times lol) complained about their feet hanging over the edge, so we were lucky to acquire a queen size when we bought out Rough Diamond.  We already had the queen size doona so first purchase was a plain white doona cover - actually very hard to find in op shops so I found one that had a white backing so just decided to flip it over.

I love the idea of mismatched cushions - I particularly love the blue and white print and at $1.50 really how can you go wrong.  The colourful one is actually not an opshop one but at $8.00 from Target it is just as cheap.  The middle cushion I am not totally happy with and it will be replaced when I can find the right one (ideally I think the contrast of a white fur would look fab here-what are my chances of finding that!).

Last week I was stoked to find this Country Road Woven blanket for a whole $5.50 - admittedly it had a few pulls, nothing that a bit of time and small scissors couldnt fix.

I stumbled across this quick little dipping DIY on Instagram and decided to do it on the 3 little bottles I picked up for $2 - I quite liked the uneven edges but I think next time I will use masking tape to make straight lines - this dipping could be done with absolutely anything - I would love to do it with some timber and white paint!

 

Just need to get some single stems to put in these.

As I said this is definitely a work in progress - and I will continue to see if I can do the whole room with recycled pieces - I think it adds so much more character.  I would love to know what you think!

Have a fabulous Tuesday
Mel xx

Blog School Lesson 2 - Brainstorming Blog Ideas

Blog School Lesson 2 - Brainstorming Blog Ideas

Firstly welcome to my lovely new likers, thank you, you have absolutely made my day!!!

Thursday night saw Lesson 2 of JustB Blog School.  Our homework was to brainstorm ideas for future posts.  So pen and my beautiful blog book in hand I went about jotting down all the ideas that I have for this space (gee it felt good to get them out of my head).  I wrote down everything that came to mind and then categorised them in to the following;

All things Op Shopping
This was primarily the reason for my blog to share all my fabulous finds, posts in this category would include, my tips for opshopping, designer labels to look out for when opshopping, doing an opshop shop focus, of course sharing my opshop finds, upcycling and DIY with opshop pieces, and sharing upcycling inspiration.

Fashion and Beauty
As a lover of both of these it wouldnt be right without this category!  Posts would include what I wore, online finds, purchases, my beauty bag, product reviews.

Favourite Blogs
This is where it all started for me - Table Tonic was my very first blog I started following so I would love to share all the blogs I love checking into regularly.

In and Around My Home
This is as it sounds, and includes our newly planted veggie patch!  This would also cross over into another favourite category;

Interiors
This really does make my heart sing.  I am planning on doing an Interior Design Course next year through the local Tafe and would love to share what I learn on here!  Also I would share Interior inspiration I love, Interior books I love (may have purchased one today!!!), online Interior stores, and of course much more.

So there it is - not sure at this stage if there will be a designated day eg Fashion Friday for each category - will need to give that a bit more thought.  I would love to know what you all think and please if there are any ideas you think I could use please let me know.

Have a fabulous Sunday

Mel xx

Off to Blog School

Off to Blog School

Hello lovely people, hope you are all having a fabulous week so far!  I think Pip Lincolne of Meet me at Mikes must have known I was struggling a bit with this blogging caper as she has started a blog school called JustB Blog School.  It is a fantastic site where bloggers of all capabilities can come and ask questions, share tips and get lessons on blogging in general.  Lesson One was 5 questions which I have never really asked myself but probably should  have before I started blogging.  I thought I would share my lesson 1 answers with you all!

Why do I want to start a blog?

-to be a member of a wider community and develop new friendships
-to have a running record that I can go back and look at as time goes on (like a diary)
-share information with my friends

What do I want to give my readers?

-easy lighthearted reading
-share my love of blogs and blogging
-a glimpse at ME (this part I am struggling with - not sure how much information to share - I guess I will work it out as I go)

What do I want to achieve via blogging?

-as per question 1 - develop new friendships with likeminded people
-greater understanding of social media
-open myself up to any future opportunities if they arise

What strengths do I bring to my blog?

yep this one is hard! Still trying to answer this lol

What do I want to learn more about?

just to name a few;
- SEO (search engine optimisation)
- increasing readership
- using plugins
- taking good photos

 

I am thankful to Pip for starting this school - it is comforting to know there is a place I can go and ask stupid questions without judgement (well hopefully lol) and also get some knowledge I can use on this blogging journey. 

Look out Flickr, Linkedin, Feedburner I am all over you!!!!!!! (well maybe not yet)

Enjoy your week.

Mel xx

Sass & Bide, Yoga and other loves this week!

Sass & Bide, Yoga and other loves this week!

Hello lovely friends, hope you are all having a fabulous week!  Here are a few bits and pieces of my week so far.

I eagerly awaited the arrival of the TNT van today delivering my new Havaiana's - they are a special edition collaboration with Sass & Bide.  Admittedly it is a bit extravagant paying $50 for a pair of thongs, but hey, how can you go wrong with black, leopard and the famous gold star and I think cost per wear will be quite low seeing as my poor old bunion feet will be living in these this summer.  You can find them here!
http://www.sassandbide.com/eboutique/accoutrement/havianas.html

Tonight I finally returned to yoga and I realised just how much I have missed it and need it!  I have done a few forms of yoga over the years with the most recent form being flow with the beautiful Miss Em.  I started with Iyengar which I loved - this style gives you a great foundation and it is a very detailed form, you start with a basic class and then when the instructors feel you are ready you progress to the next level, I did particularly like the challenge of head stands, shoulder stands and hand stands.  I also tried Bikram last year which I also enjoyed but this is more a workout style of yoga and not so much relaxing - old stress head here really needs relaxing and this is why Miss Ems is the perfect style for me at the moment.  I love the feeling of calm that comes over me during and after yoga - the challenge is to try and get that to carry over into everyday life!!!!!

I discovered this gorgeous garland a while back and decided I would make one with the tissue paper I picked up at the op shop.  Would you believe the hardest part for me was step 1 (tutorial I used is here), which way to fold the paper first lol - I have only done a few as they are quite time consuming, I have done white so far and I think I will add a metalic and possibly a pink - thought this would be fun for Miss C's bedroom - funny enough the kids rooms are the only rooms I feel comfortable adding colour!

Thought I would share with you my Ikea fluff and how I styled it.  A dear friend picked it up for me in Melbourne - in time I would love to update the chair to an Eames rocker but this will be suffice for now (especially as the chair cost me nix).  I picked up the cushion at Big W last week for $9.00 - I just need to find a storage solution for all those Real Living mags sitting underneath!!!!

In case you were all wondering I haven't had much luck at the op shops recently - hence the lack of blog posts on this topic.  I visited a couple today and even willed myself before I went in to find a hidden gem (you know like what they mention in the book The Secret - if you put it out there then it comes back to you) unfortunately it didn't work on this occasion!!!

Bring on next week - Pink tickets go on sale!!!!  Tell me who is going?

Bye for now
Mel xx

The Preparations Begin!

The Preparations Begin

Firstly I will allow you time to pick yourself up off the floor - I know it has been nearly a month since my last post.  Just when I have grand plans to increase my number of posts something happens to throw me off course-I have had a bad run with sickness the last few months (nothing horrible just the flu and 2 head colds in 3 months) and unfortunately my desire to blog goes out the window.  Anyway I am not going to place any great expectations on myself or comitt to a certain number of posts but I do hope to be here more than I have!!!

As most of you know this Saturday is the Be Her Freedom High Tea Fundraiser and the preparations have officially began.  Legs waxed, fake tan booked, blow dry booked, dress borrowed, toe nails painted.  Just on the toe nails I have had a little fling with O.P.I the last 2 days and have purchased 4 of them-in case you Eastern Shore girls don't know, Hair Warehouse has started stocking O.P.I (admittedly not quite the selection Myer Melbourne has!) but none the less a good selection and at a reduced price - $17 each or 2 for $30.  Here are the 4 I purchased - initially they were all going to be for presents (October is birthday month) but after testing them all out (of course you need to do this with gifts) I have decided Gargantuan Green Grape is a keeper-a gorgeous mint green, what do you think?

Tonight I read a great article by Zoe Foster on the Mamamia site - in case you don't know Zoe is Hamish Blakes fiance and is a writer and ex beauty editor.  She bought out the most awesome book last year which is my bible - Amazing Face.  This is a great book for yourself or a gift for a girlfriend.  Anyway have a look here at this weeks post - 5 beauty rituals that look better on day 2- I felt like she was talking directly to me - I particularly can relate to the professional blow dry - I have already organised to have my hair for Saturday night blow dryed on Friday night!  Let me know if you can relate to any of these.  Unfortunately Zoe doesn't disclose how to disguise a large bruise on the shin caused by a catapulting bottle of lemonade - thats another story all together!

Hopefully will be back soon!

Mel xx

Yippee I am on Holidays!

Yippee I am on Holidays!

Now I am getting excited - after being back at work for 15 months I am finally taking my first lot of annual leave - to be honest only working 10 hours a week I haven't really felt a need to take it - but that said I am really looking forward to the next 2 weeks.  Of course it is School holidays in Tassie and like most of Hobart we are heading to the Gold Coast with friends.  This is honestly no exaggeration I reckon half of the girls school is going-we have already arranged a day at Seaworld with another family plus us.

I thought I would share with you my week of preparations for our trip - I am sure you can all relate to them (well most of you women would) hahahahaha

• As you all know there are no chemists on the GC (tongue in cheek) so I have done the chemist run to get supplies-this has driven Phillip nuts as I have had it all out on the kitchen bench-just the usual, bandaids, medicines, itchy bite cream, ear plugs, wipes, kids tissue packs and the list goes on.
• Trip to the doctor to get the Travel Plan to take Jaz's epipen on the plane-not sure if this is still needed but didn't want to chance it.
• Getting all the washing and ironing up to date - because we are going to need school uniforms and winter clothes in Qld!!!!!!!!!
• Running the pantry and fridge dry - can't have too much left in the house when we are away
• Being dehaired - oh christ I am not looking forward to baring my fluoro skin - I know neon is in but not my type of neon hahahha
• And probably doing the most important job of all - GETTING THE HOUSE JUST ABOUT SPRING CLEANED because you know everything has to be perfect when you are not actually even there to enjoy it.

This list is by no means exhaustive - but please humour me - am I the only nut who feels the need to do all of this or is it a typically female thing to do?????  I know it drives men crazy-my dad always make a joke about mum and the vacuum cleaner before they go away.  Seriously though I think we do all this purely for the reason it is nice to walk back into, even if it is \ foodless (will send Phillip for the essentials the night we get back - or if we are really lucky mum and dad might stock up for us - dad I hope you are reading this).

Anyhow I will be on instagram whilst away (plug) you can follow me on whatihavemet but I wont be blogging until I get back.  I am really really really going to try hard to relax (yep I know my sister would be laughing right now), not keep track of time too much and just stop-my mum often tells me I will catch myself coming back so this relaxing caper will be a bit of a challenge.

Happy School Holidays to those on them and I will see you all soon.

Mel xx

Happy Fathers Day - The Day That Was

 

Happy Fathers Day - The Day That Was!

 

 

Happy Fathers Day Big Tez/Poppy Terry, My Dad.  I know you pop by sometime to look at my blog and I hope that you see this.  You are the best dad and poppy, always there for us - drop everthing to come and help us when we need - and you are a legend! 

 

Guess who is Poppys girl?  She loved him coming to kinder last week!

 

We celebrated Fathers Day with lunch at my sisters.  Phillip did his usual and fired the kids up as soon as we arrived (my sister loves it when we visit-well when Phillip visits), but the kids got their revenge when uncle Pippys trousers split-yep bum to bollocks hahahahaha.  Fortunately he did see the funny side although they were his favourites.  My poor mum I think has been scarred.

 

Over lunch we discussed everything from same sex marriage to what sort of music dad would like played at his funeral-yep I know you are all wondering-Sitting at the Dock of a Bay, he did make mention not to have Highway to Hell!

 

 

As most of you would know my BIL is a Professional Photographer so we took the opportunity to have some photos taken-yes sneaky nut and all made an appearance lol. I will share these as soon as Andrew as photo shopped them.  It is rather ironic though, this photo was taken by Phillip on my phone and I love it - definitely going to frame it



My sister, my best friend.

 









Heres me getting my neon on today - note to self - remove tag off scarf in future.  Funny enough this scarf is/was for my beautiful god daughter Charlotte-I actually quite liked the contrast of the fine flower print against the neon stripes-I will be getting her another one and also a couple of these for the girls - $9.95 cheap as chips! 

 

Whilst on the subject of dads, I have asked mine to make me a pallet table for the girls to use for their lego - I actually did mention perhaps I could get a lesson in how to use a power tool - didn't get an overly enthusiastic response from my sister in particular - who recalled how fabulous I was with a sewing machine-I swear I was intending to make a single sheet not a queen sheet at our Adult Ed course bahahaha.

 

I hope you all had a fabulous day today - especially all the dads.

 

See you all soon

Mel xx