Urban Renewal- its been like forever!

So, it has been forever since I did a little "Urban Renewal" project around here. I have had this one in my mind for a long time, after I saw something like it in Real Living Mag, and it involved painting the wall behind our bed in dark grey and putting up a photo collage with different black, white and grey picture frames with all my favourite pics in it. I bought 2 sample pots of grey paint before we moved in and kept asking Will could we try them on the wall and we never did and then we moved in and now it's impossible (well, given my current pregnant status) for me to move everything out of our room to paint that wall! So I gave up on that bit and last Saturday I gathered the frames (still in assorted boxes from our move 4.5 months ago!) and did the photo collage! And I'm really happy with how it turned out too :) I have the idea that I would let the wall "Grow" with us too, so once Peabody comes along I can add some more frames to the outside with pics of Peabody and more family holidays, once we go on them :) Should be fun to choose and add more pictures! Will asked would I be covering the side walls too... well.... maybe! When I was on exchange in Germany a friend's host family had holiday pics in a photo collage kinda-setting all up the walls of their stairwell. All of theirs were even in the same A4 red frame. It really looked cool and as a visitor I spent ages on that staircase looking at all the places they had been as a family! I hope looking at our photo collage wall will be like looking at a snapshot of our lives!
:) C

Urban Renewal 2010 continues...

I've got a Spare Room. Wanna come stay? I used to have a flatmate, but now it's just me and the house, on the countdown to our Wedding and the day that Will moves in. Until then, it's Nudie Runs from the bathroom to my little bedroom and leaving shoes all over the house (who knew I had so many pairs! I can probably line them up from the front door to the kitchen and back into my bedroom. One day I will test that theory!) Honestly, I have so many shoes. But I did buy another pair on Thurs so I guess I'll never stop. {sigh} That's beside the point. The point is I have a Spare Room and the Spare Room had a borrowed country style Doona Cover from Mum and I thought it was time to sophisticate that space up! Also, did you know pillows that say "Handwash only" don't survive in the washing machine? Even a front loader?! Well they don't. They get all lumpy. So when you visit you might want to bring your own pillow. Anywho.. I was at Spotty on Monday and I was in a super mood after a great weekend and a fun morning in Ikea with Yvette and the euphoria of a sale was too much for me and I caved in and bought this uber sophisticated new Doona cover and even bought a complementary case for the Euro pillow! Cool or what?! It's mostly white with a stripe of grey silk (or whatever fake silk is) with the flourishes appliqued on! That's right, not just printed but actually appliqued! The Euro pillow case is the same grey with pretty straight line design in a silver thread. I love it! So next time you visit, I hope you feel a bit more sophisticated! I find myself standing at the door and staring at it. So pretty!
:) C

Urban Renewal 2010 begins...

I want to post you some pics of all the gorgeous stuff I got at my High Tea to help start of Will and I in our new married life, but at the moment they are all still in boxes and bags strewn from one end of the lounge room to the other! I had Yvette staying til Monday and took her to Ikea then went off to work, I had OT Tues, Weds and today and yesty Will and I had a photo shoot for pre-wedding pics! It's been a busy AS week {yawning at the memory}!! Last night I left work at 1:30am after a horrendous night where everything just fell apart! Ah the joys of relying on Dud machinery... Never trust a Multi-Million Dollar machine, it too needs a swift kick up it's tiny computerised mechanical butt every now and then. And we have 3 such Duds! ARGH!

So I'm going to post about the one organised thing in my house- my TV unit! It has undergone a little bit of Urban Renewal this year. I took away what was there as last year's decoration and have updated it for a new year {smiling at tiny sense of accomplishment!} And seeing as it appears to be the only part of the house that has any relative calm to it, I do like sitting on the lounge and looking at it. Lame, but relaxing! It includes a couple of my fave pieces around the house- the candy jar from Freedom filled with Pink Musks, a fun pic of Will and I in a gorgeous black moulded frame from Myer, the Bird candle holder is from my fave homewares shop, Nest, at Rhodes and the babushka doll I made last year! I love the little pink stuffed birdhouse Mum made me for my birthday and I {heart} the Candy pic from Orange Beautiful's etsy store. She hand prints them all and this one is printed in shimmer candy pink ink on soft paper! LOVE IT!! I also got another print from her about marriage, I'm gonna put that one up once it's official :) I searched around for ages to find a nice white frame big enough to fit it, so many frames are either boring or only made for 4x6. Bless Target, they had one that fit my specs exactly!

And finally, up the other end of the TV unit is my gorgeous new Bird and Branch Candle Holder, again from Target! I have bought lots of homewares from Target lately, I must commend their buyer for having (partly-don't get me wrong, they still have some weird stuff) my taste! Hurrah! I also love the C & W letters from Typo. I took them to the High Tea for a little bit of decoration too. Did you see them anyone?! LOL! I did plan on taking this pic when the pale pink roses were still in bloom, but alas I was late and they're dead there in the background. Notice I haven't chucked them out yet??! I'll do that later (when they start stinkin- that's how I roll. Word {gangsta voice}). I LOVE this candle holder, it's so perfect for me! I love that it can sit tea lights or even bigger candles inside the little "nests". So cute!!

Happy last day of the Week! YYYYYAAAAAYYYYY!!!!!

:) C

Renew Me...

Look!! I finally got the shelves I have wanted for over 3 years!! Can you believe the furniture place still makes them? Awesomeness!

Here's the story: 3 years ago I wanted to get a beautiful set of timber shelves for all my scrappin stuff, something that could move with me through life and change purposes if needed, not a piece of crappy throw together furniture that wouldn't last me 1 move! I saw these shelves at Best Price Furniture, Manly Vale and took a pic on my mobile cos I loved them and looked at it on and off for the past few years. I have been really searching again over the last 12 months for a set of shelves but hadn't found any that fit the bill, til last weekend when Will and I headed over to Manly and we stopped off at Best Price.. and there they were! This time I wasn't going to let them go and I bought them there and then and they got delivered Wednesday! hurrah!! [Thanks Mum and Dad for your half of the shelves {hugs}!] It's really tall- if I stand next to it and extend my arm up it reaches the knuckles of my fingers, and is about 1.2m wide, so it's got plenty of room. It has movable shelves (which aren't shown here- all you see here are the fixed shelves) so I can switch up the storage configurations depending on my changing supplies. Awesome!I had fun working out the best way to display all my crap (ahem.. sorry, I mean supplies) and this is how I have it for the moment, do you like it?! If you have any suggestions let me know :) It's so nice to have a real, beautiful piece of furniture that even had that new furniture smell! It goes well with my new TV unit from last year too. It's almost like I have a "real" house now!!

Wow, I love it!! Excuse me for a bit while I go stand in front of it and admire it for a bit {wink!}

:) C

Urban Renewal Take Over.

I'M SO EXCITED!!! The newest facet to my Urban Renewal Program got delivered today! A new TV unit!! I did a massive Happy Dance when it arrived {clapping hands and grinning widely!} It is only the 3rd piece of "Real" furniture I have ever bought! (i.e. not a put-together piece from Ikea and not gleaned off Council Cleanup or Ebay!!) It has only been here for half an hour an already it has made me happy happy happy happy!

So here are some before and after pics for you:

BEFORE: The silver shelves were only supposed to be temporary but have been my TV stand now for 2 years! How is that temporary?!! I hate the put-together shelves that the DVD's are on and my CD's are just in a box on the floor! Not too organised. It's just bits and pieces all crouching together next to the wall!



AFTER: Now everything is tucked away neatly in my new, beautiful TV unit from Everyday Living!! {doing a happy dance while sitting here}. I love the timber top and the white washed base, it's so cool and makes my brown house a little more bright! Much brighter than the silver shelves anyway! Plus it's got a big area on the top where I can put some Christmas stuff :)

I had been admiring the shelves for a few months now, and when I turned the TV on at midnight the other night there was an ad for the sale at Everyday Living. I thought it was fortuitous, seeing as they usually only have sex line ads after midnight.. this ad must have been just meant for me! So I went there and it was save $170! Bargain!! I love it!
Hope your Friday is as exciting as mine!
:) C

Yay for Council Cleanup!

Who ever says they never have anything good on council cleanup?!! Ok, usually it's me.. but not any more! I now have 3 fantastic finds from Council Cleanup and the latest was cleaned from the streets in an early morning raid by Will and I this morning!

I had to pick Will up from Granville this morning after he dropped his car off for a service. On our way to Maccas for breakfast we were passing through a particularly dodgy neighbourhood with lots of furniture on the street and I spotted a really funky chair! I was like "Oooh.. nice chair!" but didn't really think about stopping to get it. But during breakfast I couldn't stop imagining the chair in my house and seeing as it was only a couple of blocks back we went to pick it up! :)

What a great chair it turned out to be!! It has a pretty ugly cushion but that can always be changed and it's totally solid wood in a really nice stain (quite unusual for the dodgy neighbourhood from which it was liberated). The next challenge was fitting it in my little car, but the seats folded down in the back and the chair slipped in like a dream! Happy days! Although seeing as there was also a side table and a TV on the street I did think maybe someone had just moved their whole living room outside like that guy on the TV ad! So I was like.. "quick Will, grab it before anyone stops us!" Lol. They didn't, incidently, which was good cos they probably would have knifed us for stealing their chair, so is the nature of that neighbourhood!

How do you like the cute little purple cushions? (which go really well with my purple lamp!) Council Cleanup! HA!! I picked them up after Will and I had been for a run at the local park, threw them straight in the washing machine and now they're a feature in the lounge. Sweet as!! Lol.
:) C

My Purging is Over!!

Well, the purging is over for the moment anyway, and my shelves are finished!! I am so happy with how they cleaned up and are no longer the disgusting eyesore they were before (in full view of everyone!) How terrible {hangs head in shame}. But.. all they needed were some gorgeous baskets and a big throw out of all my useless crap and here is the finished product!!

The "Before" pic:

And the "After" pic:

I am so impressed with the neatness and co-ordination and hope it stays with me!

"I did have a problem finding a suitable basket" {Lol, The Scarlet Pimpernel}. I went all around the local suburbs, 3 different shopping centres, a nursery and Bunnings looking for nice baskets that didn't cost a mint. But even at Eastwood (the home of Crap Shops) they were $25-$30 and were terrible quality. I ended up finding these 2 square baskets and the 2 shallow green lined baskets in Carlingford and did a massive Happy Dance in the middle of the shop!! The 2 square ones only cost $18 ea which I thought was a good price but the shallow dark baskets were only $14 ea, what a steal!! I also tidied and sorted all my SU stamps and they look pretty impressive now!!

I was so happy to have purged a lot of stuff, and I mean a lot!! I got rid of all my old CK mags from 2002-2006 which I hate just hanging around! They went off to Mum's Playgroup girls, hope they can use them! I don't really care if the kids just end up cutting them up! Some of the stuff in them is sooooo bad by today's scrappin standard (I know that sounds really bad, but it's so true!!)

So from now on I will be so much more creative cos I have a nice space in which to be creative!! Lol, lets see if that works!

:) C

The time for Urban Renewal has come..

I love this lamp! Happy me {happy dancing around the room a'la Indian style}. It's part of the new Urban Renewal that is happening to my house. Ok..its the only thing that has happened so far, but all Urban Renewal has to start somewhere. And mine started with some inspiration from the mountain of catalogues that I managed to haul out of my mailbox on Wednesday. If there is something Brownville has going for it, it's the amount of Junk Mail we get. I love it! (Sorry all you environmentalists, but it's my one outlet!!) I started tearing out all the pics that inspired me, and one happened to be of a bunch of lamps at Target. Well, when I went there today, guess who was having 25% off.. mm hmm... it was Target's electrical!! Happy days! Now here's where it gets complicated.. Target's mix and match lamps and shades have letters: e.g. A shade matches with A base, B with B base etc... well I was sure this base was a C (I read it with my apparently lying eyes) and I searched everywhere for a C shade I liked... and I found this one!! I love them together! The shade is actually a deeper purple IRL, so beautiful and the base is stacked glass balls.. so cool! Then when I got to the counter I had one last read of the packaging and realised the base is a B and the shade is a C. At this point the lady behind me said "ohh... I love that shade, it would go so well with my curtains.. were there more?" I answered her "only one I think", as I grasped mine just that little bit tighter and further away from her... I wasn't going to let this shade go!! (being on sale from $17 to $8 may have had something to do with it too!) Anywho, as I walked around the shopping centre I could see all these women eyeing off my lamp and the checkout chick at the fruit and veg shop said she wanted it too! I was hanging onto it soooo tight by this stage!! So the big question is... Does anyone know why you're not supposed to match a B base with a C shade? They seem to fit pretty well to me! I'm just imagining it spontaneously bursting into flames sometime while i'm watching TV, just to teach me a lesson that B goes with B and C with C. So.. the lamp cost me $29 all together and is hopefully, the beginning of something great for my lounge room!
:)C