Thursday, July 28, 2011

My Creativity Knows No Bounds

I was going to share my latest, pinterest inspired creation with you today. But, after reading Katie and Sherry's blogs and reading all about the Pinterest Challenge, I decided to keep that post until next Tuesday.

In the meantime I'll show off my awesome adapatability (sarcasm).

Last night as I was getting Max ready for bed I realised that we were completely out of clean pyjamas and tracksuit bottoms. I raided his wardrobe to find something warm enough for him to sleep in and came up with a too small onesie.
I figured it was stretchy enough and crammed him into it.

Only problem was, when he stood up he could barely walk for it being so tight. Oops. Probably not very comfortable...

Being the creative genius that I am (sarcasm again), I took to his onesie with a pair of sissors.

And voila...

Max's new PJs :)

 









Happy Thursday :)



Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Weekly Pinspiration - One

 Pinterest is a constant source of eye candy. Here's whats inspiring me this week:

This image has inspired my latest diy project (more details soon!)


I am dreaming of a canopy over my bed... Why is it that the bedroom is so far down my to-do list?

I'm already planning out our next house (even though it's years away)

I'm dreaming of a summer/beachy holiday


And trying to convince Sean that installing a sunken trampoline will be easy :)








All images are from my pinterest boards.

Monday, July 25, 2011

A Fun Weekend (Point + Shoot)


This weekend was the kind of weekend that I absolutely love. Apart from having my house plans torn up, everything about the weekend was perfect.

We spent time with family, made pizzas from scratch, had coffee with some of our closest friends, had a play-date in the park and had one of my best friends over for dinner.

A gorgeous, busy, perfect weekend.

.............................................................

How do you prefer your weekends? Busy and filled to the brim or quiet and relaxing?

{I'm joining in with Point + Shoot, over at Sunny + Scout}

Saturday, July 23, 2011

The One Where I Get Kicked Out of A Tile Shop

Oh my goodness.

Today I had the privilege of having my house plans torn up by an angry (angry = understatement) salesperson at Andersens in Morayfield (a floor coverings store). I also kind of got my crazy on.... but hey a girls got to defend her house-plans. Right?

It all started a couple of weeks ago when Sean and I decided that after almost three years of living on concrete floors, it was time to get ourselves some tiles.

First Store Visit
We drove out to Andersens at Morayfield and checked out the tile selection. We fell in love with one particular tile almost straight away. Salesperson x (who also happens to be the store manager) was super helpful, gave Max a lolly-pop and basically did everything right. I remember looking at Sean and thinking, 'yay, we're finally getting tiles!'. We handed over our house-plans to her so that she could take a copy. Salesperson x let us know that she would get back to us on Monday with a quote. I almost got grumpy at that point, the shop was empty and it was an hour and a half until closing and I would have loved a quote on the spot. But she was so nice and I often have high expectations so I let it slide. She also lent us the one and only version of the tile we liked so that we could take it home and double check that it looked perfect in our home.

Phone Call One
The following Wednesday (two days after she was supposed to give us the quote), I got a phone-call from salesperson x. She said (and I quote):

'Hi. It's salesperson x from Andersons. Why haven't you returned my tile?'

I said: 'We've been waiting for you to get back to us with that quote, and we'll be bringing the tile back in on the weekend like we discussed'.

She said: Oh, so you actually like the tile. Ok, I'll do up a quote and call you back.'

Seriously? I was starting to doubt whether or not she wanted our business.

Phone Call Two
Salesperson x called me back two hours later and gave me a really competitive quote.

Store Visit Three
Sean and I were really busy on the following weekend and didn't have time to get tiles organised. So I ducked into the store and returned the tile. Everyone was busy, so I just left it on the counter.

Phone Call Three
Yesterday (five days after I dropped the tile into the store), I got a phone call from salesperson x. She wanted to know if she had gotten around to calling me and giving me a quote... Umm what?! Against my better judgement I confirmed that yes, she had given me a quote and that we would be in on the weekend to buy the tiles.

Store Visit Three (the one where things get interesting...)
Today Sean, Max and I (along with Sean's parents) went into the store with the intention to buy the tiles. We showed Sean's parents the tile we wanted, but they weren't convinced. We had a look at all the other tiles and ended up choosing a different one. It was still the same price and we decided we would still go ahead and buy the tiles today.

Aggie (my mother-in-law) said that she wanted to see if we could get a better price on the tiles so we all headed up to the counter for a chat. The minute Aggie (who is as nice as pie, and has the sweetest french accent) started talking, salesperson x got her back up. She became argumentative and stubborn. After talking about possibly getting a lower price if we paid cash I asked her if the it would be the same price for the new tile. She explained that because the pack sizes were different, the price would differ slightly (fair enough). So we asked her to work out a new price for us. She made it very clear that we were inconveniencing her and went off to do it. (Keep in mind she had already worked out how many square meters we needed, the delivery cost and what percentage of extra tiles we wanted, so it was just a simple equation.)

Sean (who is amazing at diffusing awkward situations) picked up on the tension and cracked a couple of jokes with her and got her to relax a bit. I figured things would go better after that.

After a couple of minutes of adding things up. She said really abruptly (the way some people do when their feeling defensive): 'Well, this is going to cost you a lot more than the other tile. $450 more to be exact.'

I asked her why and she said (keeping up her aggressive/defensive attitude) 'like I said, it's a different package size'. I questioned this. How can two tiles that cost the same per square metre cost $450 more for the same amount of tiles. I understood that there was going to be a slight difference, but $450?!.

After going back and forward a few times. Salesperson x finally agreed that it was a bit of a big difference. She said: 'I must have done your first quote wrong' and went off to recalculate it.

She came back over (looking happy and triumphant) and said, 'yep I did your first quote wrong. It is going to be much more expensive.'

By this point I was tired of her attitude and had already decided that we were going to find a different Andersens. But as a matter of interest I asked her if she would honour the original price for us. That must have been the tipping point for her. She snapped and yelled 'NO! That would be a complete waste of my time'.

Scary!

I told her that we appreciated her time, but a $450 mistake on a quote was too much for us and that we wouldn't be buying the tile. At this point I should've just walked out with the rest of my family.

I stayed in the store though because I wanted to take a photo of the tile so that I could remember which one I wanted. Saleperson x said that she didn't mind if I took a photo, but wouldn't take her hand off the sticker. I wanted the sticker in the photo, because that was where all the information about the tile was written.

The phone rang and salesperson x answered it. Whilst she was taking, I moved the tile out from under her hand and tried to take a photo. She absolutely freaked out, hung up (!) on the customer on the phone, snatched the tile out from under my hand and said that I couldn't take anymore photos. I explained that I wanted the info label and she said I couldn't take a photo, but that she would write down the info on a card. At this point I twigged to the fact that she didn't want me having a record of the price. Which I was totally ok with, because I just wanted the info anyway.

When she handed me the card with the details on it, I said thanks and reached down to pick up the copy of my house plans and leave. She freaked out (again!), snatched the plans out of my hand and yelled 'YOU CAN"T TAKE THOSE'. I realised that she was worried about the original (incorrect) quote that was stapled to the front of them.

I tried to tell her that I didn't care about the quote and that I just wanted the plans. She totally wasn't getting it though and was super worked-up by this point she said (still yelling) 'THEY'RE MY PROPERTY NOW AND YOU CAN'T HAVE THEM BACK'. I got really frustrated at this point and demanded that she give me my house plans back. Instead she tore them into tiny pieces.

I totally should have just accepted the fact that she was completely nuts and walked out at this point.... But I didn't. I started saying to her 'why are you so scared? What are you trying to hide? Are you worried because you stuffed up' etc. As I followed her across the store to where she was putting the tiles back. She kind of brought the angry, sick of being pushed around by salespeople person inside of me.

As she put the tiles back on the shelf I said to her 'I can come back in Monday and take a photo of the tiles, or you can just let me take a photo now'.

She yelled (yep still yelling): 'Fine take the photo.'

So I did and then she freaked out again... She yelled 'get out of my store and don't come back'.


So I left... Only I stopped at the door and yelled back at her: 'I won't ever be coming back here. You are bonkers'. Definitely not my finest moment. But hey, she had just spent the last few minutes yelling at me, surely I deserved a little yelling of my own.

Anyway, I got out into the carpark, saw Sean and his family waiting for me and instantly burst into tears. The whole tearing up of my plans really unsettled me.

The story does have a happy ending though. We went to Andersens at Rothwell where we spoke to J, who was super, super nice and really helped us out.

I guess all's well that ends well :)




Thursday, July 21, 2011

The Monster Escapes

In our garage we have a dog door for Cooper.

Yesterday a certain someone found it, and by yesterday afternoon that little someone was escaping into the backyard every time I turned my back!


Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Homemade Art (if you can call it that)

*** please note - this post has a photo of a nude drawing - if that's not your thing skip this post and come back tomorrow ***

Art work is one of those things that takes your house from dull or copy-book, to being individual and well thought-out.

I am a huge sucker for gorgeous pieces of art. I love statement pieces that make a room, and huge pieces that take up an entire wall. Unfortunately my budget doesn't allow for either of those just yet...

Because of that we have spent a lot of time in this house with sad, bare walls. I'm slowly coming around to the idea that money doesn't grow on trees and am starting to get more creative with ways to decorate.

One of the things I've started doing is creating my own pieces of art (I'm using the word 'art' loosely here). Here's what I've come up with so far...

This quote is one that I saw here. I just got a plain piece of paper, a sharpie and wrote it out.

I was inspired by the seven John at YHL did for their gallery wall. This, and the watercolour below are going to be part of my gallery wall in the front room. (I created mine the same way John did, click the link for his tutorial.)

This picture is one that I love. Whilst it might look like much, Max and I created it together so it is probably my favourite thing in the house at the moment!

These two pictures I drew from images that I liked on etsy. Like I said, our budget is really, really tight, so rather than buying the pictures, I drew/painted them myself. Does it make it ok if I link to the original artists (here and here) and strongly encourage you to go and buy their art? The original artists nude is a billion times better than mine, but hey I tried!

They might not be perfect, or even that creative for that matter. But I like them and they go along way towards making our house feel like a home.

Sunday, July 17, 2011

DIY: iPhone Case

I've had my iPhone for ages now (I think my second or third post when I moved over to this blog was about buying it), but have never had a cover for it. Terrible I know!

When I saw this tutorial over at Dwellings By DeVore, I knew exactly what I wanted to do with my phone. And as a bonus, it was a way for me to use some of my leftover wedding invite paper (also seen here in a failed DIY attempt).

I made the insert for my clear iPhone case a bit differently, so I thought I would post a step-by-step here in case anyone else is wanting to make a custom iPhone case.

First up I took the white cardboard insert that came with my clear case and traced it onto the back of my paper.


I cut it out, along with a little keyhole for the camera and flash.


Next up I traced and cut an oval piece of card (also leftover from our wedding invites).


I stamped it with a fancy 'T' stamp using a gold ink. I played around with a few different inks before deciding on the gold. I'm not sure if you can tell from the photos, but rather than looking like gold, its a nice nude colour - almost identical in colour to the lace pattern on the paper.


It was looking a little bit bland, so I took a white ink pen and drew a border of small dots. The border doesn't stand out, but it does add a little bit more depth to the monogram.


Then I stuck the stamped cardboard to the paper with double-sided tape (is there any other option!), put it inside the clear cover and snapped the cover back onto my phone.


I instantly loved it, elegant and personalised! Seeing as Max uses the phone more than I do (surely I'm not the only one who uses youtube and the wiggles to entertain their toddler!?), I decided to let him have the final say...



Looks like he loves it too!

Friday, July 15, 2011

Gallery Wall

Do you ever start a project around your house that ends up being a 'work in progress' for almost ever? I do. All the time unfortunately. This gallery wall was one of those. Although now that it's finished I love it more than ever so it was definitely worth it!



Early in the year I started by getting together all the spare white frames I had at home. I then cut out bits of paper the same sizes as them and started work on the layout. I stuck them onto the wall with bluetac and then filled in the spaces with extra bits of paper so I knew how many more frames to buy and what sizes I needed.


Now, in the spirit of complete honesty I'm going to admit the wall stayed like that for about four weeks (oh and that old blue couch has since been banished from the main living area!). At least it gave me a chance to decide that I really loved the idea of a gallery wall!

When I finally got my butt into gear I hung the frames that I already had and started printing out the photos I wanted to be on the wall. Each time I went shopping I looked for more frames that were on sale - I don't think I paid full retail for a single frame (except for the ikea ones, but they were dirt cheap anyway). My idea was to have a mix of frames, with white being the constant that tied them all together.

For the last couple of months the wall has been almost finished, I just needed to add a few final touches. I finally did them and ta-da - my finished gallery wall!


Here are some of my favorite details:


Sean took the photo in the bottom right frame. It's four generations of my family. My Grandma (Mum's Mum), my Mum, my Sister and I and two of our kids (Ava and Max). It's a beautiful photo and one I will always cherish.

Ages back I posted about how I was trying to get Max to pose for photos and how this was what I got instead. It captures his strong spirit and independent personality so well that I decided to include it on the wall.


I have been trying to make a good silhouette of Max for ages. Finally I found this tutorial and managed to make one that actually looks like him!


This photo strip is from a friends wedding. I love that it captures a side of Sean and I that doesn't come out very often anymore. Sean's parents were babysitting Max that night and we were able to let our hair down and have some fun.


This photo was taken by Sean 7 seconds after Max was born. In my opinion it is the best photo Sean has ever taken and I am so grateful that he was able to be there taking photos as our beautiful baby came into this world.

So there we have it. My (finally finished) gallery wall.