Stairs

So the wonderful J and I have spent about 2 years drawing sketches of what we wanted to do with our front yard.  The plan has changed too many times to count, and even now we have not really come to a final version of it! 

However there was one thing that always remained the same in all of our plans, and that was the placement of the front stairs.  

The front of our house has a bit of an entrance way with two large pillars at the front of a rounded roof.  The current path and stairs are actually tucked away at the side of the veranda, which means that you come at the house from the side .... quite strange really... 

So day 1 started with the supplies gathering all the supplies: Bessa Blocks 

And bags of concrete and mortar.

After lifting all these into the car, and then out of the car, and having to make 3 trips to pick it all up! there was no way we were starting to build them that day! 

Day 2: of course this day started with removing the turf and rechecking all the measurements we had made the previous day.  

We gathered our human resources in the form of my mum and dad (mum would shoot me if I put up a photo of her in her working gear! but let me tell you, she too was hard at work!!).

The Form-work was made and banged into the ground.

And then the level was checked.

And then went in 16 bags of concrete.  What these photos don't show is that I was sent out on a mad dash to the hardware store halfway through to get more bags of concrete! but it was done!

It seems like such a small slab in comparison to the amount of work that it took to build it!

Can't you just see how great they are going to look! 

Day 3 was (very unfortunately!) without our human resources! so the wonderful J and I got up nice and early to start building before the sun got too hot.  

If you are thinking of doing this yourself and you see how big these steps are and are thinking "this doesn't look so hard - I am sure that we could knock that over in a few hours" you would be thinking the same thing that we were - and boy are you wrong! 

Building just the top step took us 6 hours - six hours?! you may by thinking, but that is right, six long painful hours.  

I (fortunately!) had to go off to work on day 5 and left the wonderful J to do the second step on his own.  In a mammoth effort he got the bottom step done and collapsed in a heap for an hour before he came to collect me from work. 

And this is how the steps stayed until just 7 short days ago.  

In the period between early November and late December we were not idle (well we were a bit!), we sourced the step treads and talked a lot about how we were going to put it all together..... But finally on the day after Boxing Day we did it: 

The step treads we used are Terrazzo stone.  They are a natural stone that have lots of imperfections in them.  We love them.

So clearly there is still more work to be done on the steps! We need to do some planting and we have to so something so that bottom step is a bit closer to the ground (don't worry it it all part of the greater plan!).

However for now they are done while we work on pulling together a garden around the new stairs ... and that I can tell you is proving to be no easier than building these stairs!

The Dreaded List

Hi! I am back and busy uploading photos of all the things we have been doing around here!

The wonderful J and I have been working like Trojan's getting things done around here, and as there are only two short days to go until we have to go back to work, we are dedicating these last two days to relaxing and regrouping.

Our work over the last 10 days has been dictated by what has been now deemed 'The Dreaded List'.  This is a list that we have been adding to over the last few months as we eagerly anticipated some time and energy to get these things done (that we didn't seem to have in the lead up to Christmas).

It included big ticket items like:

• Creating the Front Garden 
• Painting the Hallway
• Completing the Stairs 

It also included smaller more achievable things like:

• Hanging the curtain rod in the bedroom
• Oil outdoor furniture 
• Put up things on Ebay

I can tell you that not everything got done ...... this was not unexpected as 'The Dreaded List' was Pie in the Sky really...... but everyone needs something to aim for. 

I am getting back to it now and will have somethings to show you in no time at all .... I hope you have all had a busy, eventful, fun and fantastic week! 

P.S. Check this out - we are growing these. We take absolutely no credit as we haven't done a thing but look at how great these are - Mango's from our own backyard - can't wait!! 

Happy New Year

The wonderful J and I have 10 glorious days off together over the Christmas / New Year period, and we are enjoying every minute of it!

We have a list of jobs that range from 5 minute jobs to jobs that would take us a week to complete and we are steadily working away at all of them! We are making sure that we have lots of time for relaxing and I have already read two books and have another two that I want to get to before this week is up.

I can't wait to show you all the projects that we have done, or are about to do, but that will have to wait until later this week when we have made a bit more of a dint in that list!

I wanted to wish you all a wonderful New Year - I hope you are all doing exactly what you want this evening and hope you have a great first day of 2013 tomorrow!

Happy New Year! 

How to make a Ham Bag

A Ham Bag is a tradition in my family, we always had a Ham Bag at Christmas and when I moved out of home, my mum made me a Ham Bag for Christmas! As such I was shocked to hear that my lovely friend Chloe not only didn't have one, but hadn't even heard of one! 

As they are very easy to make, and I knew she was hosting a big Christmas lunch this year, I thought that it would make a great Christmas gift for her and her family. 

So this is my tutorial on: How to make a Christmas Ham Bag

So to start with you need a piece of calico - any natural fibre material will work, but it has to be natural so it can breath.  To make life easy I just brought a strip of calico 55cm wide, straight off the roll at Spotlight.  By the time you do the hems and joins this is the perfect size; it may look big at this stage but remember there is going to be a rather large ham in it soon! 

So first thing to do is to hem your two short edges - this will be the the opening of the bag.  I always do a double hem (roll the hem twice) as this looks so much neater. Just put your sewing machine on a straight stitch and away you go - two straight lines. 

Once you have completed that very simple task you get be be a bit creative!  You can have any design that you want on the front of your bag - the sky is the limit here!  I chose to do some Christmas tree decorations, so I grabbed a scrap of Christmas fabric I had leftover from a kids project I had done:  

Flipping the fabric over I drew my desired pattern on the back of the fabric, and cut it out. 

After you have cut out your design you need to place it on the bag fabric in the position that you want it to be.  Remember that the bag will be tied up the top so anything you put up there will be hidden so place the design further towards the bottom of the bag for maximum effect. 

After you have decided where the design is going pin it to the front side of the fabric.  Remember not to pin to the backside too or you are never going to get that ham in! 

You now need to change your sewing machine setting to a zigzag stitch that is really tight - I put mine on a 0.7 width, you need to have the stitches close so you don't have raw fabric edges sticking out, and you finish the edge.  

Then very very slowly, just go around your shape until you have gone all the way around.  The tight turns are tricky but don't get too caught up with them, just keep going slowly and it is simple.  

After you have done the first one like this the rest are a breeze.  If you are doing the same design as me when you are done, it should look something like this: 

Now that you have done the front you need to flip over to the back of the bag and add a tie.  

This you do simply by getting the rough middle of the bag and sewing a piece of ribbon or cord close to the top.  Again remember to only go though one piece of fabric! 

Once you have done that you are up to the part where you join the sides of the bag together.  

Flipping the bag sides inside out so that the decorations and the ribbon tie are facing one another you need to sew down the sides of the bag to join them up.  If you are the lucky owner of an Overlocker this is the time to break that baby out! If sadly, you are like me, and not the lucky owner of an Overlocker, you will need to zigzag stitch the edges to stop them from fraying. 

  

And you now have a Ham Bag.  

You can absolutely stop here if you want to, there is no need to do anything further...... however me being me , I needed to add a little bit of embellishment to it - it just didn't look finished!  

So to finish off I made some little bows out of Christmas ribbon and hand stitched them to the top of each of the decorations.  This is best done with a needle and thread anything else is too much effort! 

And now Chloe has a Ham Bag for her family to enjoy! 

Happy Christmas everyone! 

A slight adjustment

As soon as I posted the photos of my Christmas decorations last week I noticed the distinct lack of anything remotely attractive in my fireplace! 

When we painted our living room I took a scrubbing brush to the fire place and completely cleaned it out.  It was as clean as a 100 year old fireplace could be - but wow, not attractive!

So I wanted to come up with both a festive and long term solution to my ugly problem so I decided to go with the classic solution - Wood, it seemed right - it seemed natural, so I went with it! 

Grabbing some wood we still had stacked in our back yard after we removed the rather large, horrible tree in our back yard.  I gave them a little blast of white spray-paint - not too much as I still wanted the "wood look", but I didn't want too much of the "wood look" - You know what I mean right??    

And the solution was found. 

I am thinking it also needs a little tweak with some Pot Black but that is for another season! 

Christmas has come...

As I am a bit of a fan of Christmas, so our decorations normally go up on the first of December (or the closest weekend!).  This year they were running slightly late but one quiet Sunday afternoon we finally got around to getting them up. 

It appears that I don't have quite as many decorations as I thought I did, so I, for one, will be doing some serious Christmas decoration shopping in the sales!

An Athletics Cake?

An Athletics Cake are you kidding me? And if that was your reaction that was about my reaction as well!

My lovely friend spring a cake on me about 2 weeks ago for her son Eddie. The sports and fitness loving Eddie was into all things athletics and so of course an athletics field was the obvious choice for a birthday cake!

I was unfortunately unwell at the time of Eddies birthday so I didn't get enough time to make it perfect but all the same - it looked like and athletics field, and Eddie was happy - so I was happy too.

Happy Birthday Eddie! 

Map Art

So I thought that is was about time for another "segment" of A few of my favourite things....  and as it so happens one of my lovely friends from work asked me for some suggestions on decorating a hallway ...... and 'wallah' an opportunity presents itself! 

One of my favourite things at the moment is the sophisticated use of maps.  I love maps in kids rooms and in spaces where it is all about fun and education:

Like this boys bedroom designed by Robyn Karp Interiors:

 Or this playroom designed by Kate from Centsational Girl:

But the use of maps to make sophisticated and meaningful space is something that I think can not be overstated. I mean just look at these rooms!

By Ralph Lauren:

Home of celebrity chef and cookbook writer Alex Hicks:

Bedroom designed by Alice Lane: 

As a result my friend is putting her own personal twist on this idea.  She is going to have black and white printed maps of all the places that have lived framed on their hallway wall...... I think it is a beautiful way of personalising this great decorating trend.

December Wedding

A few months ago I mentioned that I had been asked to make a wedding cake in December - well it was December 1st to be exact!

So last week I was working on the lovely Cath and Andrews wedding cake.

The weather was against me as it was very hot and humid for days leading up to the wedding (icing really doesn't like that!).  However despite the weather challenges it was done and ready for a beautiful Saturday afternoon wedding.

Happy wedding day Cath and Andrew!

  

AFL

I know nothing about sports - absolutely nothing!

So when my sister-in-law told me that my gorgeous nephew was having an AFL inspired birthday party - I had to get a clue - fast!

After doing a quick google search I found out that AFL was in fact a team sport (you learn something new everyday!).  Even with my limited knowledge I knew that I had to get the right team, or this cake was going to be a flop!

So after a few text messages back and forth, we established that the Sydney Swans were the flavour of the month, and that a cake with the Sydney Swans colours was going to be a hit!

So taking inspiration from google images - I began the creation of the AFL cake

I had to make the cake topper and take it down on the plane to Adelaide with us.  This one, despite being quite flat and easy to transport, (unlike the last one!) was actually very brittle so there were some small breakages on the way down - but nothing a bit of icing couldn't fix!

Happy Birthday Oscar!