Mother's Day Mistake & Wishlist

So, funny story!! This year, we got a little muddled up! And actually celebrated Mother's Day, today. I could point fingers (JOEL!!!!!!!), but I didn't actually pick up on the mistake until this afternoon, well after I had taken full advantage of milking everything I could from Mother's day. I got a nice cup of tea in bed, then read my book, and Joel took Ezra grocery shopping whilst Willow had her morning nap, and I read my book some more! I just started reading The Goldfinch and it sucked me in from the get go. I'm even  having a hard time even sitting here doing this because I just want to keep on reading. It really was a relaxing day, I thought about going out to eat, but figured it would be really busy, but I should have gone, because it probably wasn't busy at all, considering it wasn't actually a national special day for Mums.

But, the mix up happened I guess because I haven't really been watching any TV with ads, I don't get junk mail, and my internet browsing has been on a minimum, plus my Mum is away on holidays for the next couple of weeks. So I have just been totally out of the loop and Joel told me it was this weekend, and well, who was I to doubt that!! But, no harm done, I'll just take advantage of the ACTUAL Mother's Day next weekend! Bonus for me I suppose!

Seeing now I get to celebrate again, I suppose it would be a good idea to put up my Mothers Day Wish List! You can tell by my list that my mind is still consumed by fitting out our house!

Galah Print by Peter Cromer 
Lovestar Vase
New Balance Shoes at Urban Outfitters
Milk & Sugar Pendant Light
Big Pinapple Cushion from Ourlieu

Win a Gorgeous Robe or Kaftan from Be Still Homewares

Wow, two giveaways in a row, how exciting!! What a good month to be a Yellow Dandy reader, I mean, apart from the fact that I STILL don't have an internet connection in the house and am surviving on my phones 3G, so my posts have been a bit few and far between. .. The end of this month they tell me!

Anyway!! This is an awesome giveaway that I have the pleasure of co-hosting with Down That Little Lane, where Sarah from the gorgeous Be Still Homewares is offering the chance to win your choice of Robe or Kaftan!

Personally I love a good robe, especially on a lazy Sunday morning, and these are so lush! I don't always get the chance to look presentable until late into the morning, so a stylish robe is the perfect way to greet the mail man, or to run down the street after kids! Ha!

Be Still Homewares was founded in January 2008 by Sarah an Australian Industrial and Graphic Designer.

Sarah has a passion for fabric and pattern and after a trip to Bangkok in 2008 where she fell in love with the gorgeous fabric that was available, she felt a need to transform that fabric into beautiful designs. The unique products created by Sarah make up the Be Still Homewares range.

Sarah continues to collect and use fabric from several countries including Thailand, Japan, India, Uzbekistan and Kashmir. In 2011 Sarah further added to her collection with a range of embroidered cushions that are designed by her and produced in India.

You can view the full collection from Be Still Homewares here.

All you need to do to enter is leave us a comment telling us in 25 words or less - your favorite way to spend a Sunday morning.

Then follow the prompts in the Rafflecopter widget below and you are in with a chance to win.

The competition is open now and closes at midnight 20/04/14 AEST. Good Luck!

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/c9c3a814/" rel="nofollow">a Rafflecopter giveaway

House Update: Walls, Roof, Windows, Doors, Cabinets OH YEAH!

So, I know I haven't done a house update in AGES!!!! And as you can imagine a lot has changed since my last one HERE. I feel like we are on the home stretch (ha) now. The walls are up, the roof is tiled, the walls are rendered and plastered, the ceiling is done and this week the windows and doors went in, and finally the bathroom bench tops and cabinets and kitchen cabinets are in. We just had another walk around admiring everything and I am so happy with our colour choices. You know how sometimes you only see the colours on little swatches and you have to use your imagination (or search thoroughly on Pinterest) to see what it will actually look like.

The rest of the building process hasn't been without its hiccups. Our builder emailed to tell us the gutter colours we had picked had been discontinued, the black/brown colour that matched the roof. We had a limited selection, because of our proximity to the ocean we opted to go with Colourbond Ultra, otherwise we would have NO warranty!

We're building a house: Bricks and Mortar

We got a bit of a shock this week when my parents called us to let us know they did a night time drive by of our block and thought they were looking at the wrong house because a whole wall of bricks had been laid already! So, of course Saturday morning we hurried down to the block ourselves to check out the latest development. It was so great to see all the bricks, window frames, door frames had been delivered. So now, we have a real brick and mortar house in progress!

And, Tan mortar that is, tan mortar which is apparently an upgrade from the standard cream mortar, and for this upgrade we agreed to pay an extra $900. It seems a bit ridiculous, but if you've ever built a house, you would know they charge you through the nose for everything and apparently that is the cost to add the tan olour, and this colour brick colour with the standard cream mortar looked horrid, so we sucked it up and paid the extra money.We chose this brick colour because we really liked how it looked on the display home, it's called Tourmaline, by Brickmakers. I think it looks awesome but it is hard to capture the exact colour in the pictures but its a browny/grey, I definitely like that it is different from the cream or red bricks that seem to be really popular. You won't see them on the front of the house, that will be rendered, but the rest will be open brick.

The builders seem to be moving pretty quick, so who knows what will happen by next week!!

Karen xx

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Moving Week

We've entered the final week living in our house, and it's not without drama!! Of course, what big move happens without any drama. Our air conditioning isn't working, which is not awesome when your about to settle on the sale. The service company are being turd burgers, and the whole thing has turned into a debacle (and an expensive one at that), and I haven't been able to get as much packing as I'd like done because last week was full of 38-41 degree heat, and there was no way I was motivated to even move, never mind pack in that kind of heat!

It's not ALL bad though. Due to the heat we spent three really fun mornings at the aquatic centers new water playground, and hung out with my Mum's group friends. Who I am going to miss living really close too!

Now we are getting into the nitty gritty of packing, and seeing we are moving Saturday, I'm feeling the pressure of getting it all done. I keep thinking 'when did we get so much stuff', it's amazing how much you accumulates after 5 years, and how much useless crap you tend to hold onto, well at least I do.

I just can't wait for a little more normalcy in our lives again, we are in that awkard half packed but still need to live in the house stage. Once we are out of here our new lifestyle will take a little adjusting too, because did I mention we are moving in with my parents!! I think it's going to be a good thing, my parents are awesome and they have graciously allowed for all of us, including Angus the dog, to disturb their peaceful, empty nester existence, and I know it will be soooo nice though to have my Mum around, especially when we have our baby girl! I may even get some rest during the day.

I think Angus is going to miss this house the most. He has a huge front yard where he can watch the world go by. He sits and guards all day, on alert, but in the most comfortable place he can find. 

I hope your week is peaceful, and lovely, and not stressful like ours, and please pray we get this silly air conditioner situation sorted quickly!!

Linking up with Jess at Essentially Jess for #IBOT 

x Karen

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Home is where you are

The last month has brought a lot of changes and developments in our lives, and one of these is the decision to try to sell our house. I have pretty mixed emotions about it. I am really excited, because we will be building a new house, the one that we really want, and that we can walk to the beach from! I cannot wait to have a shiny new house that we get to choose the colour schemes and all the fittings.

But, at the same time I'm a little sad. This old house has things that frustrate me, and that I wish I could change, but its grown on me, I love this cottage, it is full of character. It looks like a very different house to when we bought it 5 years ago. The paint was horrendous, the backyard was a pile of dirt, the kitchen was SOOOO irritating and had no storage, the room, we now call the study (and that I am sitting in an typing right now) was technically part of the sleep-out with only a screen door and screen window. We have put a lot of sweat, tears and tender loving care into this house, and I will miss it.


Still, it feels like the right thing to move on, I know we are making the right decision. It is right for our growing family. The last couple of weeks has been a flurry of activity. Preparing for home opens with a very, very active toddler is a mission. It is so hard to keep him from flinging everything around the house. I've spent most evenings cleaning and doing our best to make the house look as presentable as possible. The encouraging thing that keeps me motivated is that we have had a lot of interest.

So here is to hoping that soon somebody else who has fallen in love with this house, like we did 5 years ago will get to start a new journey with this cute little cottage!

Here are some of my favourite parts:

Love my little dining room. But especially love my Kitchenette! Lucky that is coming with us. Our table was Joel's Grandmas, and the vintage dining chairs are from Ebay.

I wish I did more with our room, but I do love my quilt on our bed! 

This room used to technically be a back porch. Now it is our office. 

Some of my favourite things, including my Nanna's old Singer Sewing Machine.

This is half of our kitchen, that we renovated just before Ezra was born. I'm going to miss the big oven that can fit two large Turkeys. The little table my Mum picked up for me from a garage sale. 

We just put the railing on the deck, because we have a little boy who has no fear, and would just walk straight off the edge of the deck.

Karen xx 

Colour help needed!

When we renovated our kitchen earlier this year I had to find a place for my lovely retro kitchenette. It found a home in our dining room. Our dining room is a lot darker than the kitchen and I just don't like the way the kitchenette looks. I think it is time to paint it. Spruce it up a bit, but I am undecided about a colour, I need some ideas..
I'm thinking something light and bright, I would love to know what you think?
Then I can fill the top with fun bright retro plates and it will add something wonderful to the dining room!

Excuse the messy dining room. ha..
And me in the reflection.. Hiii

My Baby's Nursery (Finally)

As promised, I have finally almost finished Ezra's nursery, so here are the pictures.

A few more things I want to do: Get  those puppy dog tail hooks from Ikea. I have some wall art I bought from Etsy coming to add, and I need some dark curtains to cover the windows so he stops waking up so early now that the sun is up a lot earlier! Also, I really want to paint the little side table a glossy bright fire engine red!!
I really do love his little room, and I hope that he loves it too!
I kinda went a little crazy with taking photos so I just thought I would add them all!!

 

A little paint goes a long way: Baby Cot/Crib

So we did a bit of an Ikea Hack on the $99 cot from Ikea and painted it tea house grey

After researching and searching for the perfect cot/crib for our nursery for  Ezra, I was quite discouraged. The really stylish ones were so expensive. I could have bought one, but I just couldn't bring myself to spend that much. I have found that baby stuff is like wedding stuff, for some reason just because it is for a baby, companies feel like they can charge an exorbitant price. The mid range cots just didn't really fit the vision of what I had for the nursery, the style was very different for what I was going for and they weren't what I wanted.  I couldn't find anything  I really liked that fit into the price range I wanted. I kept getting so discouraged because I found these great cots in the USA for such good prices, then I look them up here and they are twice the price. SO I had to get a little more CREATIVE. Now I have a finished project and a cot that only cost $99, I am really, really happy.

We bought the raw pine finish IKEA cot that cost $99. I then primed it, and painted it one of my favourite colours that was left over from when we painted our back room, Dulux's Tea House Gray. Ignore the rug in the after picture, I still need to move that out of the nursery and get one that is suitable for a little boy.

 

Now just to get the rest of the nursery out of my head and in to real life. 

I love a little Retro

I tried my hand at making up my first Etsy Treasury yesterday. It is a pity that a lot of this stuff is overseas and I can't get my hands on it. I really do love a little retro in my life and in my house. I need to go out scouting for some more in my local area. For now, I can just look and dream!

Click on the pics to take a closer look!!

Kitchen Renovation Before & After

So even though it is not entirely finished, our kitchen is almost there, I just couldn't wait any longer to share, because I love it. Just need a new coat of paint, the kickboards put on, some handles and the drawers put on (but have to wait till next week when they arrive at Ikea) and waiting on the arrival of our new dishwasher, other than those minor details, our kitchen is finished!!

BEFORE

There are a couple of things to note about our old kitchen. 1. There is no pantry, that is why I have that lovely retro kitchenette, it may look so cute, but it is in no way a practical pantry. 2. Our benchspace sucks. 3. The cupboards are all weird, it is like they put them on backwards, and there is not one single drawer in the kitchen. 4. The cupboards right above the sink are a massive pain. So this is why now we have done this
AFTER (so far)

All the cabinets are from Ikea, love them! Because Joel is a tiler by trade we did Travertine stone tiled bench tops, which are a bit different to what you see around. The splash back I also love, especially the brick style that they are in. We got all the travertine and tiles from Aeria Country Floors in Nedlands, they are so helpful and lovely, I would recommend them any day of the week, plus their range is amazing. I will get some more pictures of after when it is completely finished, for now, a sneak peak!

New Project: Baby Nursery!!

This is my very, very cluttered office and soon to be baby's room. This is a massive job, as you can see there is a lot of big bulky stuff in here that will need to be sold or moved to another part of the house, and well to be honest, there isn't a lot of room in the rest of the house!
The plus side is that at least it is in the right colour scheme, although I am debating painting the hogsbristle wall (window wall) a nice dark grey. I want to say that I am not really panicking about getting everything ready on time, but that would be a lie. I think about it constantly!







I have been trying to brainstorm about what sort of theme or style I want to go for in this room. I don't want anything too babyish, because he will be a big boy very soon. I don't want it over the top or too cluttered with junk. I am inspired by the ideas of retro furniture and design (except for the cot which obviously needs to be up to Australian safety standards) because our house is a cottage built in 1949 , bold colours, fun and organized! Here are some of the fun things I have found that inspired me, and are helping to guide my ideas about what to do in here:

This is from the gallery at Project Nursery: I think I have that same chest of drawers already! Bonus. What I am really in love with is that amazing retro rocking chair. I would LOVE to find one of those, amazing.
Seeing I am all about Embroidery! This room from DesignDazzle takes my breath away. I actually think I will do this, and I already have recruited a couple of volunteers to help! Would go so well with a retro theme as well!
Project Nursery: Blackboard Paint!! How fun.. kids (and Mums and Dads) can drawn on the walls and then wipe it right off! I love this idea, I am not sure about a whole wall, but it needs to be incorporated somehow!
TEEPEE!!!! I saw this in a magazine a couple of months ago and really thought it was a fantastic idea. I guess it wont be used for a little while so there is no rush, but what a fun D.I.Y project for later on. I can imagine little boys loving their own indoor teepee!
This is another Project Nursery idea. I saw these little dog tails at Ikea a while ago, I always wanted to buy them because I like them so much, but never had anywhere to put them. Then I saw this fabulous idea! I also like wall decals, this is a cute little poem, and something that I can easily make at home on my Cricut Create! Through my hunting these are just some of the ideas I have found, I really cannot wait to get started. Unfortunately I have to clean out all the old stuff first, and that just does not sound appealing...