Creative Monsoon

Plants from scraps

On - Saturday 22 February 2014

The next step in the great garden conversion - plants. Kitting out such a big space with herbs and vegetables will be pretty pricey so I've been looking into growing plants from scraps. Above is my mutant capsicum grown in just a week from a few seeds saved from a store bought capsicum. And below the spring onions and leek have started to grow. Testing out some lemon basil too.

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Vegi garden

On - Tuesday 18 February 2014

It's time for a new diy project around the house. Last year we had two big designs - the kitchen and nursery, well three if you count the baby too! So now we need a big new project to get stuck into and I've decided to create a vegi garden.

We're going to use the big space down the side of the house. It gets enough sun, but not too much and is close enough to the fence to run some sort of netting to keep pesky possums out.

A few problems. What to do with big ugly open drain? How to make sure it won't be in the way when it comes to building in underneath at a later date? And we need a water tank.

First job is to clear it out and remove the mini jungle. We've made a start and ID'd a few plants like this blue ginger which is apparently quite rare.

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nursery done

On - Saturday 23 November 2013

Yay! The nursery is done. Except for a few more pictures and obviously lots more baby "stuff" - poor little guy doesn't really have anything except furniture and clothes at the moment. But Im sure that will change and we have plenty of storage space ready for it.

There were quite a few little DIY projects which might explain why I feel so exhausted. But very pleased with how everything turned out, it was worth it. Little one's initials I bought from spotlight, painted the same colour as the wall and used spray glue to attach some glitter scrapbook paper. The painting above the crib is just simple stripes painted on, then strips of ribbon added for more colour and texture.

Auntie Jackie made the beautiful crocheted blanket, and Grandma Bell made the gorgeous rocket mobile pieces which I put together with a wooden hanger purchased from etsy. Behind the door is another artwork I did of an owl which is mixed media using security envelope paper. Uncle Chris is working on some crazy alien illustrations which I'll use to make an ABC poster.

And because I love before and afters - the change table with drawers was an ebay find for $100 which I painted the same colour as the walls. Then I used left over test pots to create the ombre effect and navy handles. The rocking chair was another ebay purchase for just $40. Just a lick of gloss white paint and some nice new fabric.

To finish it off - twinkle curtains. Black out curtains in navy blue with little lazer cut stars that let just a little light in. Oh and we're missing a before shot of the whole room - yup, that's an improvement.

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Nico Krijno

On - Saturday 16 November 2013

Pattern, pattern, pattern.
Love this image by Cape Town based photographer Nico Krijno

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loving this week...

On - Tuesday 12 November 2013

...this. But it sadly doesn't seem to have a home. :(

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interior design

finally the kitchen done

On - Tuesday 5 November 2013

Who doesn't love a good before and after pic?! So here we go - the kitchen is finally finished. Looks amazing and is SO easy to work in. We removed the wall between the old kitchen and the 'sun room' which was a big waste of space just storing the fridge which was too big for the kitchen.

We removed the wall between the kitchen and the dinning area opening the whole back of the house up into one massive space. A job for next year will be to paint the dinning area, but for now all the morning sun comes streaming in and we can see the beautiful old frangipani tree outside.

The old oven alcove works brilliantly as a walk in pantry, it did take me ages to source some simple track and bracket shelving in a shiny silver. Eventually found it tucked away at the back of our local hardware store and used ikea silver shelves. That came to about $250 as opposed to using a matt grey or white system from Howards Storage World which would have been $750. The double bin works great for the doggy food, the rubbish bin is built into the back of the island unit.

We finished it all off with some under shelf wine racks, either side of the fridge, and a vertical herb garden using pots and bars from ikea. And of course my magnetic chalkboard which I've always wanted. Just a sheet of metal from the hardware store painted with chalkboard paint and ikea magnetic storage containers for all of our herbs and spices.

Just a slight improvement on the kitchen before...

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linda arthurs

On - Wednesday 2 October 2013

The work of Linda Arthurs caught my eye this week. Big on my to do list has been the idea of mixed media or pen drawn interiors, just full of pattern, and Linda has a few pieces that remind me of this.

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face I

On - Thursday 12 September 2013

I've managed to coax the printer back to life so prints are now available of my security envelope portrait via etsy

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interior design

kitchen progress

On - Monday 9 September 2013

Finally we're making some progress with the kitchen reno. After a bit of hunting we found a builder who actually looked in the roof space to confirm one of the walls we wanted to remove wasn't structural. Everythings been ripped out and we're busy painting and puttying while the kitchen is being built.

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caroline slotte

On - Tuesday 3 September 2013

Since I started working with envelope lining I've become a little obsessed with all things blue and white, like willow pattern china. I'm loving the work of Caroline Slotte who reassembles ceramic plates into artworks. Wow.