My top 10 tips for snapping up a bargain

I'll be the first to admit that I am a bargain hunter. When it comes to shopping I try to avoid ever paying full price, unless of course I'm supporting solo artists or handmade crafters, but other than that, I'm like a dog with a bone, I don't give up until I'm satisfied I've found the best price. I love the hunt, scouring websites, calculating discount codes and shipping costs, laying in wait for sales, it's like a little challenge for me. Lame, maybe, but I've gotten some good deals lately that I've been so excited about, so I thought I would share some of my bargain hunting tips! It's been quiet around this little blog of mine, because I've been spending all my time on the hunt for all kinds of things for our house.

Neon Granny Square Cot Blanket

I finished making this granny square crochet blanket, a number of months ago as a full sized cot/crib blanket for Willow. Yes, yet another baby blanket, my third one now! I used some of my favourite colours including this bright Neon pink! I love me some neon pink! I also incorporated, dark grey, mint green and an off white, natural wool colour. These will be the base of my colour scheme for her whole room! Which I have lots of ideas for but no time, so her room is a work in progress! When I started off I had no idea how to make a granny square, so the first few were very slow going, by the last ones I was speeding through! Alright maybe not speeding, but I definitely was moving a whole lot faster than the beginning.

All Moved in: sort of!

So moving day has come and gone, and with some help from good friends we got all the big stuff in without much drama at all, it's all the little things that take forever when it comes to packing, part of me just wants to throw everything in the bin! In the midst of it all we have been painting, laying floors, building fences and prepping our old place for its new tenants. In fact, tonight, I've ducked back to the old place to get another car load of stuff and to let you know I'm still here!! But... our new house doesn't have an internet connection yet, and won't for awhile, I've been told I need to wait for the NBN to be ready in our area, so, until then, I'm trying to get by on the oh so slow wifi on my phone. But, really I cannot complain, I can live without internet, after all, I'm in my new house, and I LOVE it and I am so, so grateful!

9/52

A portrait of my children once a week for a year.

It's been a bit quiet around here lately! Mostly because we are so busy trying to do all the finishing things to the house and getting ready to move, plus I feel like I've been sick for like two weeks, and I'm trying desperately to get to bed early. So my blogging time is getting eaten into. Anyway, it's chaos, but we are getting by, only just, I want another holiday!! But once we move into our new house I know it will all be worth it!

But, here are my portraits from this week, it's amazing how messy babies can be, when they suddenly side swipe the spoon as you are getting ready to get it in their mouths, they drop everything on the floor, and they squish everything and smear it all over! I don't mind letting them get a little messy, I mean it's all part of their learning and development about food and eating, all a bit of fun!

Talking about fun! Look at this kid! Just having a blast. Don't you wish you could just let all the responsibility go and have fun like a toddler again, I need to!!

Oh and don't mind my dead wooly bush in the background, I need to work on my green thumb!

I've thrown in a picture of my furry child, just for good measure, he doesn't get much blog space these days"

X

Linking with Jodi at Practicing Simplicity

 

The Ins and Outs of Using Cloth Nappies

I have a lot of people ask me about the ins and outs of using cloth nappies/ diapers (not the old terry toweling nappies, but the new and improved modern cloth nappies), so, I thought I would share how the wearing, washing, cleaning up, poo removal and all that other fun stuff works! Ezra is now almost completely toilet trained!! Waahoo! But now, Willow still uses the original nappies that I bought two and a half years ago, and that have had a major work out by her older brother!

8/52

In the chaos of our lives in the last couple of weeks, I've already fallen behind on my 52 portraits challenge. I had a feeling it might happen when the craziness of moving, building, teething and getting sick all came upon us. But, I'm back, and so here we are!

My sweet girl, she's approaching the eight month mark. She's commando crawling all over the place. I watch her just sitting and playing, focusing in on a toy and really studying it and becoming engrossed in it, she will sit and play sigh it for ages. That is something Ezra never did. As soon as he could move, he never sat still, he never played with toys, he just wanted to go. He was standing and 'cruising' on furniture at her age, it is pretty nice to have a second baby that is a little less gung-ho!

And this one, what a spunk! He is just growing up way to fast. He's out of nappies now, except for sleeping. There is something about that stage that makes him seem so much older.

Sometimes you wish they would just grow up, and then life would be a little easier, and then others I desperately want them to stay my sweet little babies!

X

 

We're Building A House: The HOME stretch

Proving that I'm working, I was sooo sore after that day! 

We are almost there! I can't believe it has taken me this long to do another house building update! So much for regular posts. So, so much has happened since the last time I shared about our progress (HERE). Tomorrow we are meeting our site foreman, at our house, to go over the final defects list and we get out Certificate of practical completion (or something like that)! Meaning; all the major work is done, and we just need to go over it and list out any defects or anything that needs fixing, which I don't think will be too much because we have gone pretty thoroughly through the house and mentioned any issues to our site supervisor along the way. We then make our final payment to the builder, and get the keys in our hot little hands! And BOOM Homeowners again!

It's Just A Jump To The Left: The Rocky Horror Show in Perth

*I was provided with complimentary tickets to see the show, but as always all opinions are my own. 

Last week I had an email pop in to my inbox that got me all excited! Did I want to go and see the  Rocky Horror Show Live at Crown Perth? Hell Yes I did! I'm a bit of a closet Rocky Horror fan, you  probably wouldn't guess it from looking at me, I mean, I don't cruise around in red lipstick, fishnet stockings and a corset, but, I'm a bit of a fan! In fact, I know the words to most of the songs, and I definitely know the moves to the Time Warp. And every time I say Dammit (which isn't actually very often, not surprisingly) I always think 'Janet, I love you' immediately after!

My Favourite Art Prints for Girl's Rooms

I'm trying to figure out what I want to do for Willow's room, there are just so many gorgeous things out there for baby girl's nurseries, it is really so hard to narrow it down. I am such a bad decision maker when it comes to these things, I mull over the options forever! So, seeing I can't have ALL of these, I thought I would share. I am a little obsessed with Scandanavian style and prints for kids, if you can't tell! They have such a keen eye for design!

So these are my favourite art prints for little girl's rooms! And, if you only have boys to worry about, don't fret, the options are just as great, I'll get those to you soon. But until then, feel free to swoon over these! 

Lemon Poster, Darling Clementine / Jessica Nielsen: Soft Green Lemonade / Large Folkloric yellow 

pear poster / In It Together, Ashley Goldberg,  / Omm Design: Be nice to the world. / Laura Blythman, Bunny Love /Little Design Haus, Scanti Flowers / Depeapa Koala Print / Rachel Castle, Tulip 2 Teatowel / Omm Designs, Fur and Glasses