The story of a dressing table

So this project started off as a simple dressing table revamp and turned into a four month saga!

(I apologise in advance for the lack of photos – I thought I took lots but it seems that I just got stuck in!).

I inherited this dressing table from my beautiful Grandma. It originally had a large winged mirror attached to the back.  The mirror however, had been removed during transport (and as I didn't want to use it), it stayed unattached (hence no photos).

Sorry about the bad lighting!

The desk is Queen Anne style and had been in service for a good 20+ years (not to mention it had been moved multiple times), so it was not in very good shape by the time the revamp came along.

I decided right at the outset that I wanted to paint it blue. I had found these images that I was taking inspiration from and knew exactly what I wanted: HUGE apologies as I have NO idea where I got these images from!

So after a clean, a sand and a bit of undercoat.

 

Off I went to the paint shop to get my blue paint. 

The paint I brought was just a standard gloss paint in a bright blue that looked just perfect on the paint chip. However when I got home and opened the paint ........I just couldn't do it! – it looked like Smurf blue! Not the look I was going for!!

So back to the paint shop I went.

This time it was suggested to me (by people who will remain unnamed) that maybe blue wasn't the best colour choice.

So this time I decided to get a metallic paint finish. I chose a lovely (light) gold coloured metallic paint and home I came to put it on..... However after two coats of paint, instead of the lovely light gold metallic paint colour I thought I had chosen, I had metallic avocado:

Absolutely not the look I was going for, and a colour that made me cringe every time I looked at it!

Don’t get me wrong, many people couldn't see what I was going on about and thought that it was just fine – but I could not live with it.

The metallic avocado colour lasted for one week - the exact amount of time it took me to get back to the paint shop, where they replaced the metallic avocado with the lovely light gold I originally chose!

So on went the lovely light gold paint........ (sorry - apparently not a single photo of the desk painted gold!).

Nearly three months past and although I was not repulsed by the light gold, and I was in love with the metallic finish, I just didn't like it. This wasn't what I wanted, it wasn't the vision....

Then I stumbled upon Resene Paints.  They have the most amazing selection of metallic paints in so many colours; including a large range of blues, I was in metallic blue paint heaven!

So I brought my blue metallic paint ‘Time Warp’, and one sunny day I finally painted my dressing table, the colour I always wanted.....

You can see the gold colour still on the front.....

And now I am in love....

(Clearly you have to ignore the bare floorboards and the lack of window treatments!)

Kitten update

So a few people have asked me lately how our foster kittens are going!

They are going really really well!

They only stayed with us for 5 weeks before they found their real homes and I have been getting email updates about how much they are loved and all the cute things they have been up to!

Our little family went into a week of mourning when they finally left - it was so quiet here!



We would foster again in a heartbeat.  It was so lovely to have them running around the house and we really nice to be able to find them such good homes.  It was surprisingly easy to let them go when you know they are going home with such lovely people, who were going to adore them!

So we are kittenless at the moment we will not be fostering again until next year as with building work imminent at our house, we don't think that would be such a good idea!

If you would like to consider fostering even for a short time I couldn't encourage you to do it more! It is a wonderful experience, and you are doing something truly amazing for a little animal!

For more information you can contact me or contact Nine Lives Four Paws - go on just do it! 

Movember

I would like to start out by stating that I strongly support Movember.

 

I also strongly support the wonderful J in all that he would like to achieve.

What I am not so keen on is: that for the month of November I am married to someone who would be quite at home in a 70’s porn video! 

However leaving my reservations aside, in honour of the wonderful J starting his Movember quest I baked him some chocolate/hazelnut and lemon/coconut cupcakes with cream-cheese icing to take to work.

They were a hit and he is now on his way to raising some money for this fantastic cause. If you would like to sponsor him in this quest you can do so here – Thanks in advance!   

Also.

You would have noticed (if you have been following along for awhile!), that my work colleagues tend to be Guinea pigs for some of my cooking.  I had promised them awhile ago that I would take some cupcakes into work – my work colleagues have memories like elephants and as such kept reminding me about my promise! 

Now everyone is happy ..... at least for a little while!

Special follower

I would not normally make a special mention about someone that follows my blog, however this Follower is special!

She is special for two reasons:

First: She was my very first Follower, ever!

Second: She is a very talented felter and the creative mind behind Wolff In Sheep's Clothing.

I have seen some of her work first hand and it is just beautiful, the colours are amazing, the textures incredible and I love that she is so passionate about what she does!

So I am encouraging you to go and have a look a Wolff In Sheep's Clothing, and you can also follow her on Pintrest - she Pins some absolutly beautiful things (she is much more diligent than me - but you can follow me on Pintrest too if you want!).

Living room curtains

For the past two weeks I have been working away at finally (after two years in this house!) getting some curtains up. 

It shouldn't have (and it hasn't really) taken me 2 weeks, but in those 2 weeks there were a lot of other things going on, and I am really really good procrastinator!   

However last week I finally got sick of seeing fabric draped over things and finished that last little bit of sewing.  While I was doing that, the wonderful J put up the (apparently according to the instructions - simple!) quite complex curtain rail system.  

Our two forces combined we managed to finally get them hung. Then we sat back to admire our handy-work: 

At the same time as buying this fabric I brought the fabric for the curtains and padded bedhead for our bedroom.  They are the next two projects on my list.  

I can imagine that I will make full use of my procrastinating skills with those projects as well, so will not make any promises about time frames - but rest assured - I am on it! 

Music - See John Hum

I am very hesitant to do a blog post about music as I am not known for my fantastic taste in music.

I personally would like to dispute that! I listen to music that I like, regardless of who sings it, where I heard it, or who else likes it for that matter.  But I will confess that I am not a trendy music listener. I am a music listener who likes what she likes (even when it is embarrassing for some people!).

That being said I am doing a post about music because I have found some music that I really like and many others have agreed.  Apparently it is not just "Alison good music" but is actually really good music!

Novocastrian Dean Curruthers, is the musical genius behind See John Hum which has just released its debut album: A Single Day.

I personally loved all the songs on this album; however a special mention has to be made about his single: "These Silver Hours", which has been "discovered" and has debuted at number 220 on Triple J's unearthed chart.

I don't know much about how this works but if you go onto the Triple J website and listen to the song, and if you like it and "rate it", this track will move up the chart and may even make it to the top 100 for the year!

You can also listen to his other songs "Blessings" and "In this Quiet" while on the Triple J website or go to the See John Hum website and check out all the songs on this album.

Enjoy!

The lounge room

Because I have been so absent for the last week I have heaps to catch up on!

1. I have to tell you about two wonderful dinner parties I have been to in the last month with the wonderful women I work with;  
2. I have to tell you about my new Follower (so excited!) and
3. I have to show you my new curtains that I have been slaving away on for 2 weeks, and which are so so close to getting hung! 

But in the mean time I finally have some 'after' photos of our living room with new paint colour and new carpet!

So this is what the lounge room looked like when we brought the place (there are more photos of the rest of the house here if you are interested):

My favorite parts of this room were clearly: the truly filthy mustard brown carpet; the salmon coloured walls and the very dirty brown brick fireplace.  Really, is it any wonder that so many people could not see past all of this to see what could be a beautiful room?

So to begin with we painted the room in Taubmans Martini - this is the same colour that we used in my Office, however as the light is so different in each room (the office doesn't get direct sun into it), the two rooms look completely different. 

The biggest deal in renovating this room was the sliding lead-light doors.  They were secured to the wall with a massive wooden pelmet and about 100 screws and nails - the previous people were clearly worried about them not being secure! Taking down these doors and all the sliding paraphernalia was a 2 day job in itself, reinstating the wall and the doorway back to what it should have been, was a 7 day job!!

Taking down the sliding door paraphernalia ......

Putting the door and wall back together (we pulled the corner pieces off some doors at the back that are coming out in the renovation - its robbing Peter to pay Paul around here!):

By far the most debated item in the room was: the fire place.  We couldn't keep the bricks the way they were but what to do? There were discussions about lime-washing them, tiling them, spray-painting them; but in the end we decided that we should paint it the same colour as the wall and live with it for awhile before making any major decisions. 

The fireplace itself is actually very unique.  As you can see from these photos it is a bright blue and black marble effect on the metal: 

At first, the conciseness was that we should just 'pot black' (paint it black) the blue and black and keep the brass detailing. However as I cleaned off decades of soot and dirt and spiderwebs it started to grow on me. Making promises to the wonderful J that if he still didn't like it in a month we would go ahead and paint it - we kept the bright blue and black marble effect   So far we haven't had a single conversation about changing it - so I have my fingers crossed!!

And this is what it looked like the night before the carpet men were coming:

I should probably mention that I personally would not carpet a living area - the reason this room is being carpeted is that after the whole renovation is complete this room will turn into a bedroom. 

And after the carpet men had left:

I would love to be able to show you it all dressed and looking lovely just like everyone else seems to be able to do in blog land - but alas I can not!

The only pieces of furniture that are actually staying in our house after the whole renovation is completed are a few side tables that I have found and loved enough to buy now.  Everything else: the couch, the chairs, the Ikea coffee table; are all going to make way for furniture the wonderful J and I actually chose ourselves! 

I will however pop back and show you photos of the curtains I have been slaving over for this room (if they ever get hung!!).