The New Windows

Here are some pictures of the new windows and front door. We chose a wider profile architrave around each window and also slightly changed the style to 3 equal sized panes in each window, rather than 2 panes of the same size either side of a wider centre pane - hopefully you can see the difference in the pictures of the master bedroom window below.  We also went for double-glazing and already we've noticed a 50% reduction in noise and they are keeping the heat in big time (and will keep it out in summer too).  We have to paint the architraves and sills internally (already done externally) but at least they are primed white this time so it all looks cohesive.

Favourite part is the peephole on the front door - it's got a cute little cover (small things you know).

The Front Door

We've had our new windows and front door installed (we went with white which you've probably figured out by now) and it all looks fantastic. When it's daylight and not raining, I'll be able to take some photos to post. Enjoy the weekend!

The Bed Linen: Real Living's Range for Target

If you have seen the June issue of Real Living you may have noticed that Real Living now has a range of bed linen being sold through Target.  Has anyone seen it yet?  What's the quality like? As I'm trying my best to avoid shopping, I haven't gone to have a look.  One of the designs, Flinders, is featured on the cover (it's sold out online) in pink, but it also comes in blue.

I prefer the underside with the small chevron print to the tie-dyed top but I think that's because the colour is so bright.  There are 6 designs in the range and the pick of them would be the Kobe, but that's also sold out online (not that I'm buying of course...).  Just as well I'm not the biggest fan of orange then.

Have to say, if I was in shopping mode I'd be very tempted by the Ryder - which is one of Target's own designs (forgot to mention that originally!). Hard to go past a classic chevron, especially as it's so cheap ($35 for Queen size!).

The Powder Room

Not much progress around the house this past weekend.  I thought I'd finish painting the deck on Sunday but  I gave up about 3pm - it's just taking too long to do by myself (Paul doesn't paint!) so we've decided to hire a spray gun to finish it off this coming weekend (although it looks like rain may halt that plan).  We did make 1 small change though.

We swapped the old ugly light fitting (dust and all) in the powder room for this shiny silver cutout fitting. 

I thought the old fitting was glass but when it came down, I found out it is plastic - and pretty filthy. The extractor fan isn't much better either but we'll get around to that another day.

Up top we're looking a little better with the new light (new windows are coming this week so we'll have a nice new white window in there soon), but down below we're still rocking vinyl from 1979 - it just gets uglier the more you look at it doesn't it?

The Accessories: Where Can They Go?

Here are some more accessories which are hanging around the house looking for a permanent home. I  just can't decide where they should live.

1. My black birdcage which came from a cheapskate store. Not sure if I'm still loving it, but I'm thinking I'd like to hang it from the ceiling in one of the rooms or maybe ditch the birds and stick some candles in there.

2. Another cheap find from a store at Harbour Town. Everything I post about seems to be cheap!  One day I'm going to surprise everyone and post about something with a heftier price tag (after the cessation of the  shopping ban and I've shopped my way through America I suspect).  It's filled currently with an assortment of chocolates, but I'd really love to fill it to the brim with something like just yellow M&Ms.

3. A wooden box which I got from New Zealand in 2010. It would be great as a jewellery box, but it doesn't have compartments or lining.  It just has odd buttons and some pens in there now.

Hopefully I'll have a chance on the weekend to play around with where all these things can live...

The Glass Cloche/Bell Jar

Someone hit the shops today...but it's all good.  This glass cloche/bell jar (depending on your preference) was FREE thanks to my free money voucher from Myer (which I got for spending money there pre-shopping ban). It was discounted from $39.95 down to $8 including 2 lots of discounts the salesperson added in (it was on a table marked 50% off, then another 50% off the marked down price, Myer are weird like that). So that means I still have some free money left (not much though). I like free stuff.

So now I have to decide where it will live (here it is with its smaller brother which I got a while ago) and what will live in it - I've just played around here with some things I already have.  I feel like I have all this stuff to decorate with but no time at the moment to figure out where it's all going to go, boo.

The Weekend: Mother's Day

My family had Mother's Day dinner on Saturday night instead of Sunday and I said I'd bring dessert, a salted caramel and vanilla baked cheesecake.

Looks good, doesn't it? Sometimes it pays to follow a recipe - if it says to refrigerate a cheesecake for 3 hours, there's generally a good reason why.  So $30 worth of ingredients crumbled like a pile of sand in front of me about 30 minutes before we left for dinner  Cue a detour to Woolworths where the only things left on the shelf at 6pm on a Saturday night (and not frozen) were....

Donuts. So I 'made' a donut cake and left the cheesecake remains in the fridge (had a little taste last night and it was very good but rich). It's a Donna Hay recipe (you can find it here) which I had only read glowing reviews of on the Internet  - next time I make it though, I'll be leaving the thing in the fridge overnight, that's for damn sure.