Easter Treats

Here are the gorgeous, hand crafted Easter pretties that Shannon made for me in our "Easter Swap."
Shannon is such a talented girl who is going through a dreadful time at the moment. Her best friend just passed away. Please vist Shann's blog by clicking here and maybe you can leave her a comment.
She sells tussie mussies and Easter baskets on her website as well as lots and lots of delicious faux cupcakes!

Ghetto Kitchen

This post is also on my new group blog, "Pretty Chic Rooms." Click here to go to it.

This is the kitchen in our last house. We rented it off my parents so I was able to paint it however I liked.
I went a little nuts and painted nearly every wall in the house a different colour! I was young, that is my excuse!



It had the most revolting tiles. I had heaps of tin signs and artwork covering every possible inch of it. Thinking back, why didn't I just paint them?




The cupboards were falling apart. The front of this drawer used to come off all of the time because the drawer was warped. The door fell off the cupboard under the sink so I make up a fabric skirt with some Cath Kidston rose fabric. The kids loved it under there, it was a cubby house for them!
Can you see how the tiles are coming off in this picture? I thank God we are out of that dump. We may not live in a great area but at least this place is fully renovated.

Tom & Cupcakes

Interest rates rose again yesterday and it looks like they will in May, also. It has really put the brakes on us buying a new place.
Our Reserve Bank is trying to lower inflation by decreasing the amount of money consumers have to spend. We are all being told to basically, stop shopping! But hello! I work in retail. If people stop spending, I am out of a job as are thousands of others!
The house values in Perth are dropping. That is great for us as buyers, but not so good as sellers. Still, the average house price is around $500K in Perth. We are seriously thinking about moving to another state.
Tasmania and Victoria are our best bets. I am planning to go to Tasmania in July to check it out.


Tom thinks our house belongs to him. He may have a point, he gets away with murder. I screamed at him to get off the computer and this is what he did...


Turned his back on me!


This cake stand is now entirely filled with china trinket box cupcakes. You can see in the photo one last faux cupcake at the top but it has since been replaced!



I now officially hate my new camera. My old 4 megapixel Kodak took better photos than this Richoh piece of crap. Biggest mistake ever. I am sticking with Kodak next time.

Hi There

Sorry I haven't been around much what with all my jobs, kids, house, husband, etc. I am a bit fed up with it all and very tired!
One of my newer jobs is with a furniture store that sells country and shabby, french furniture. I am so hanging out for my staff discount to kick in!
I want just about every piece of white furniture that they make to replace all the crappy Ikea furniture I have.


Still playing around with my new camera, this was using the macro setting. I am getting a little better at using it.


I am taking lots of pictures of our little house as we are going to sell very soon now. I want to remember it how it was before I start packing away all the girly collectables.
Have been reading some great books about staging your home for selling. The main idea that I took away from my reading was to de-personalise your home so that buyers can easily imagine all their own furniture etc, there.


Himself sprawled out on the couch. A little touch of masculinity for a very feminine room!

Kebab Recipe & Shopping!

Firstly, the recipe for the Rosemary Skewer Kebabs I mentioned in my last post for Shann and Siobhan, courtesy of Mr Jamie Oliver!

How to make the Skewers;

1. Get a bunch of Rosemary
2. Keeping the leafy tops on, run your fingers down the stalk to remove the rest of the leaves.
3. Sharpen the tip of each stalk by cutting across at an angle.
4. Voila! Ready to use as a skewer!

Chicken Kebabs

1. Cut into 1 inch squares and place into a bowl of marinade. Jamie's is more complicated, Jon used a mix of soy sauce, plum sauce and oyster sauce. More of the plum, just a dash of the others.
2. For the veggies, we used red onions, red, green and yellow capsicums (sweet peppers) zucchini, mushrooms, carrots and cherry tomatoes.
3. Jon baked these in the oven. He got a large pan and sprayed it with the olive oil mister. Once the kebabs are in the pan give them another spray. Use good quality olive oil or it will taste like vom.
4. We have a fan forced oven, he put it on 180 degrees. Sorry, don't know what that is in the old temperature.
5. Only needs about 10 minutes. Check a piece to see if it is cooked.




I discovered a new shop here in Perth. They have a website too. The address is www.annachandler.com
The above pictured are door mats, aren't they divine?



What first caught my eye was the many different coloured flasks in the window, similar to those pictured above. I so want to go back there and get all the colours I don't have!

School Holidays Are Nearly Over!

After 52 days or 7.42 weeks the kids are going back to school on Monday - but who's counting?!
I now have four jobs which is why I don't sell much on ebay anymore. I have a ton of stuff in my ebay cupboard to get rid of. I have resorted to donating it to the local thrift store.
My kids and I got stuck into their rooms and we got rid of a ton of junk! We gave three car boot loads of toys and clothes to St Vinnies, and filled up our big green wheelie bin with rubbish.


I spotted this kitchen on a great blog called decor8. This kitchen caught my eye because of all the pretty flasks, just like mine! I love the use of the pink with the red, very "Valentines."



This is my cheeky monkey of a daughter helping her dad make kebabs. Hubby discovered a great new recipe in his Jamie Oliver cook book. You use long sprigs of rosemary as the skewers and they infuse all the ingredients with a great flavor.


This is from the same ebay seller that I bought my pink Christmas sign from. It is on my watch list!


I cleaned up and rearranged the girls. They are all happily residing on top of the microwave :)

Romantic Country

I know I have been missing for a while. Christmas and post Christmas are a hellish time for retail workers. I have three retail jobs so I was working constantly.
My dear blog has been sadly neglected and I haven't listed anything on ebay since November. On the plus side, I haven't bought anything either!
One of my fave magazines of all time is "Romantic Country." It is extremely difficult to get a copy of this in Australia but I hear it is freely available in the US. Fifi from Chez Fifi sent me a copy which I am so happy and grateful for - it is a fantastic issue!


This gorgeous house featured in the mag is all done in pinks and greens, my favourite two colours. I wonder if the owner, Elizabeth, has a blog? I noticed she has a rhinestone clock collection in one picture. I have always wanted to start a collection of these but they are very pricey!


This house had hand painted roses on everything. The above is a wooden curtain pelmet. Below is their fabulous bathroom with roses painted on the cabinets.

A lot of us like using the wooden wall words in our homes. These have a touch of bling!


I came across this book on Amazon recently. Isn't the cover divine? Am coveting a copy.

Christmas Village

Dang, this is my 200th post!



My little Christmas village set up around the base of hubby's beloved LCD TV. All the houses are vintage and a little warped as you can see.



Full view of all the decorating on the tv cabinet.


I have really been loading up this baby LOL! Not many vintage finds this year, alas. This is a way bigger tree than my pink one from last year. It takes a ton of decorations.
I didn't have room for my pink tree this year. I also have a pink fiber optic feather tree and some fibre optic houses along with Royal Albert and Villeroy Christmas stuff all in my store room. My sneaky husband packed it all in such a way that I will kill myself with a ton of boxes on my head if I try to get at them. He says we have enough Christmas "crap" in the house.
Men!

Christmas Wreath

I was feeling very creative on the weekend and finally got around to making a tinsel and bauble wreath. It was super easy and harly took any time at all.


I wrapped a strand of pink and silver tinsel around a cane wreath. It only needed one strand. I stuck down the ends with hot glue.



I then attached glass and plastic baubles directly onto the cane using a hot glue gun. Easy peasy!



Some new baubles I bought at the Galleria today. I saw these earlier in the season but they were quite expensive. Only $4 each at a gift shop in the Galleria!
My Christmas shopping is pretty much done except for some little bits and pieces. The shops are going mad now and I wish I could stay away. Unfortunately I have to work in them!

More Christmas

Still trying to get the hang of this new camera so please excuse these photos.
The kids finished school today for the year and they don't go back until February the 4th. EEEEKKKKK!


This is the lilac Christmas tree I got off ebay earlier in the year for $20. I was stoked as they cost around $200 in the shops. I have added lots more decorations since this photo. I bought some matching purple lights from Ikea and found some fab French inspired decorations at Kmart. Pink and decorated with poodles!


My Ikea coffee table before I decorated it for Christmas. Glass goes on top of the shadow boxes.


I painted it pale green as I have been wanting to do this for a while. It matches the feature wall in this room. I have more stuff to add to this when I can find a spare minute!