Home Tour: Captains Cottage

I am so fortunate to be on a little family holiday this week in beautiful Batemans Bay. Its such a picturesque location on the New South Wales coast and I thought whilst I'm here, I would share the love and show you an amazing property located at Long Beach, which is an unspoilt hamlet just north of Batemans Bay's.

Owned by Lynne Kimmings and her family,  the Captain's Cottage was purchased in 2002 and has been lovingly transformed into an amazing five bedroom property, complete with authentic lighthouse.

Babushka Dolls Paper Art - In 5 Simple Steps

If you don't have much of an artistic streak, but desperately need some budget friendly artwork for a little girl's room or nursery, I think I can help. If you follow the free template I've provided the only crafty expertise you will need is the ability to cut and paste!

I can't claim the design of this artwork as my own, I saw this print on the Wallfry website when I was researching Miss M's nursery design and thought that, using it as inspiration, I could create my own arwork using scrapbooking paper. Wallfry have a fantastic selection of nursery prints that can be personalised too!

Retrospective DIY: Painting Perfect Wall Stripes

I've got a couple of projects that I completed around our home before this little blog was up and running, that I feel are worthy of sharing. So I've decided to do a Retrospective DIY series to get you up to speed - don't want you missing out on any of the juicy details!

The first project on the list is the striped wall I painted in Miss M's nursery before her arrival some months ago. If you've visited Coventry Lane Design before you will have seen the wall in the Cheat's DIY Cot Skirt and Swinging Bird Mobile posts. But what I wanted to do was pass on the little tricks I learnt after researching the heck out of the different methods to paint super straight, non-bleedy lines. This was one of those projects that I didn't really know was going to work until the tape was being peeled off the walls and I must say, in person these lines are super crisp. It's a technique I will definitely use for all my straight line painting in the future.

Sunny Dipped Chair



Happy Valentine's Day! Ive got a project to share with you that has nothing to do with Valentine's Day, except for the fact that I love, love, luurrrvvee the end result.

 

I picked up this chair from my local thrift store a little while back for $3 (yes, only $3) and it's been sitting in our garage patiently waiting for me to give it some attention. After deciding to give into my current yellow obsession, I got to work.

 

Happy Healthy Valentines

My hubby and I don't really celebrate Valentines Day in a big way,  it generally consists of a heartfelt card and a yummy home cooked dinner. This year I thought I'd been thrown a bit of a curve ball because my man and I are on a health kick and I thought there was no way to deliver on my dinner surprise without compromising our new diet.  But a little bit of google-ing later and I've come up with a menu that is not only low in calories, but will keep hubby happy too. I've gone with an Italian inspired menu and even with the dessert it comes in at just 16.3g of fat (710 Cal) - which is almost half the fat found in one McDonald's Big Mac - plus in my opinion my menu tastes a whole lot better!

Music to my Ears

I WISH I could play a musical instrument, but unfortunately the recorder in Primary School and the clarinet in Year 7 doesn't really qualify, especially because I wouldn't have the foggiest how to play either of them now! I'm from a very musical family, my mum is a beautiful singer, along with my Aunty, cousins and grandparents and while visiting my grandparents on the weekend Miss M had her first attempt at playing the piano. My grandparent's piano has held pride of place in their formal sitting room ever since I can remember and I have many fond memories of family sing-alongs at Christmas time and happy birthdays sung in two part harmony around that piano. It's not only a source of joy in the music it provides, but the piano is also a beautiful piece of craftsmanship. So I was wondering if the musicians out there have considered showing their instruments a little more love and bringing them out of the cupboard. I've found some beautiful examples of how instruments can be incorporated into home styling. Who knows, it may even prompt you to practice more often!

via Perfectly Imperfect

Cheat's DIY Cot Skirt - With Pom-Poms!

One of the things on my 2014 To Do List was sew a cot skirt for Miss M's nursery. Under her cot is the perfect space to hide the baby bath she no longer fits into, as well as some of her larger toys. The problem is that it drives me CRAZY every time I walk into her room and see the disorder living under there - my solution... hide it. There are a million and one cot skirt tutorials around, so I've decided to be super lazy and create what I've called a cot 'apron'. It's basically a cot skirt with only the front panel.