Update...

Just a quick update as to why there is no necklace post today. I had my wisdom tooth removed late this afternoon so with the medication I'm on and my inability to keep my eyes open I'll have to write up my tutorial later in the week.

Thanks for understanding and I'll post my tutorial soon.

Megan

Our finished house...

So I promised some photographs of what the house looks like now that we have had it carpeted and tiled. We've put up a few sheets to cover the windows so the neighbours won't see us looking scary with our messy hair every morning and to also allow the kids to sleep to a reasonable hour instead of waking up when the sun rises.

Welcome to our entry I'm thinking of creating a gallery wall to show case all our precious memories and pictures of our family and our extended family.  I'm not sure of how I should go about this as most of the wall will be hidden from view. The hallway leads to the mud room and I think it would be a great place to display our pictures without it having to compete with anything else.

My kitchen which I helped design with my talented sister Renee. She is a draftesman and she also drew up the plans for the house to show Coral Homes what we wanted. It took Coral Homes four attempts to get the kitchen drawn up correctly even with the layout in front of them.





The dining room leads out to the Alfresco area so we should be able to enjoy early summertime evening meals as the heat is disappearing for the day. We were able to use the same tiles both inside and outside the only difference been the texture of the outside tiles are a little rougher.

I used a classic black and white colour palette for our ensuite because this will allow me to introduce other colours into the room with the introduction of accessories. I've purchased orange, purple and black towels for our ensuite and I'm looking for purple glass containers to hold our toothbrushes, soap etc. I've also got my beautiful wooden ladder to add to the room so I'm hoping everything comes together.

This is the kid's bathroom. My favourite thing in this room is the deep swimming pool bath tub I've had to go out and purchase a step so that the younger children will be able to climb into and out of the bath. The children's bathroom is mainly white with just a touch of black (Caesar stone benchtop and black feature tiles). Again I've got bright coloured towels to add a bit more colour into the room and I also have a wooden ladder for the children to hang their towels off.

To achieve a classic style means that I'm going to have to change the majority of our furniture. I want to try and add some small antique items into the decor so that there is a little bit of me in each area. Mr Opoes and I thought that having charcoal black carpet would allow us to use other colours to change up the decor whenever we get bored.

When the curtains are open you can see that the carpet is actually charcoal in colour but as I'm going to have a double curtain pole I'll be able to have some light been let through without it fading the carpet.

So I hope you have enjoyed the tour of our new little house. Here's hoping I'll be able to unpack, organise and decorate the house so that it looks classy while also been our family home.

Megan

Blog Update

As you all know we having been building a house for our family of six and I'd like to say that it's finally all ours. Handover from Coral Homes happened on 5th June. This was exciting BUT this then meant I had to organise and book the concrete to be done, the tiling of the entire house to happen, the carpet to be laid, the gas to be connected and finally the entire house needed to be cleaned so that we are ready to move the furniture in.

We are having the furniture arrive tomorrow, the storage shed needs to be emptied out and then everything needs to be put away. I can for see that we'll be living out of boxes for the next few months. I know that  you guys haven't seen any pictures lately of what the house looks like so on Friday I'll share some pictures of how the house looks prior to all the stuff arriving.

Then on Monday I have a necklace to share with you before I take a month off to get this house organised and up and running. During the time that I'm setting things up in the house I'm hoping that I'll have time to share are few projects with you. I already have an organisation solution I want to share with you.

So I hope you can check back on Friday to see how our house looks prior to furniture arriving and I'm sure that on Monday you'll like my handmade necklace that was inspired by Pintrest and my participation in Linda's Handmade Gift Exchange.  So I'll be seeing you on Friday.

 

Megan

Thirty Finds

Mr Opoes told me about a school fete that was happening nearby so we piled everyone in the car and off we went. The school had blocked off many of the streets surrounding it, this was a great idea as the number of people attending the fete was quiet large. Having a pram really limited access to all area’s which was a little off putting but what can you do? I really wanted to go up to the second floor because they were selling a heap of art and I’ve been thinking of buying a small piece for the new house. Didn’t make it up there as the kid’s weren’t happy and I wasn’t going to carry a pram up two flights of stairs.

I found out that there was a second hand clothing stall and I wanted to go see if I could get an avocado green t-shirt so that I could re-purpose it. So off we went down about 10 stairs, the kids entertained themselves looking at books while I trawled the clothes. I didn’t find anything that resembled an avocado so I moved on over to the books. The kids were quiet in grossed in the books so I moved on over to the trash and treasure section to have a quick look around.

This was what I found. I got these three wooden photo frames for $1.50 and $0.50 cents. I’m going to spray paint them both and then use them to create a gallery wall so you should see some of it from the front door or I’ll add them to the hallway that leads to the kids bedrooms.

The other item I purchased was this blue lamp base and it even came up with a light globe. I paid $3.00 for it and it’ll be the perfect lamp for Mackenna. I’m going to spray it a glossy white and then add a dark purple shade so that she can put it on her bedside table. Mackenna wants a purple bedroom but I don’t want to run the risk of her not liking the chosen colour. I’m going to add the purple using accessories so I’m hoping it works.

So what do you think? I’m happy with myself because I’ve never found anything that I’ve needed before, I’m hoping that there re-purposing is a success.

 

 Megan

Mini Apple Pies

So life seems to have taken over these past few weeks and I'm not blogging like I use to or like I want to. We've had a few house related issues that we've had to deal with, my beautiful 2 year old ended up at the Children's Hospital after falling over a balloon and I'm madly trying to co-ordinate the school term finishing with the mammoth task of getting organised TO MOVE INTO OUR NEW HOUSE. 

So with all this going on I've decided that I'd start using up all the food in the freezer and pantry so that I don't have to hurl 20 boxes of food to the new house. Sounds like a great idea but I'd forgot to go shopping for the necessities so it's hard to have a great evening meal when all you've got to eat is 24 sausages. The sausages would have been great for the kids but with Mr Opoes needing leftovers for work the following day I had to come up with something else.

Sitting at the back of the shelf was a lonely tin of 'pie apple'. I knew that if I made something with this, the kids would definitely eat it. Who doesn't want dessert for dinner. So after looking over everything I have left I decided to make Mini Apple Pies. This would take less time for the kids to eat and I'd be able to use up the last of my puff pastry.

As I had an 800 gram tin of apples I decided to make an Apple and Blueberry Crumble, Mini Apple Pies and Choc Apple Baby Scrolls. I only got to take photos of the Mini Apple Pies but I'll include all the recipes that I used.

APPLE AND BLUEBERRY CRUMBLE

600g can pie apple

1/2 cup frozen blueberries

2 tablespoons of butter

1 cup plain flour

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup of coconut

Source

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 200° C. Mix the apple and blueberries together in the container you'll be cooking the crumble in.

2. In a separate bowl mix the flour, sugar and coconut together. Rub the butter through the flour mixture until it resembles crumbs.

3. Sprinkle the crumbs over the apple mixture.

4. Bake for 30 minutes or until the to is lightly browned.

5. Serve with cream or ice-cream.

CHOC APPLY BABY SCROLLS

1 sheet frozen puff pastry, defrosted

2 cups small chocolate chips

2 tablespoons apple, pureed

water

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 200° C. Using baking paper cover a cooking tray and lightly grease it.

2. Place your  pastry on a chopping board, using a shape knife cut the pastry into 2cm wide stripes.

3. Place a small amount of apple along each pastry stripe.

4. Take the chocolate and press it into the pastry.

5. Using your finger tips wet both ends of the pastry. Fold one end over about 2 centimetres and then roll up until you reach the end.

6. Press the end together so that they're struck together.

7. Place the scrolls on the baking tray leaving a bit of space between each scroll.

8. Bake for 20 minutes or until lightly browned.

Source

MINI APPLE PIES

4 sheets frozen puff pastry, defrosted

200g can pie apple

water

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 200° C and lightly grease a muffin tin.

2. Using a 1 cup measuring cup cut out 12 pieces of pastry and place them instead the muffin tin.

3. Place a tablespoon of apple into each muffin case, if there is any apple left divide it evenly between the muffin tin.

4. If some of the apple pieces are too big cut them up into bit size pieces.

5. Using an egg ring cut out 12 pie lids.

6. Wet the edges of the pie and the pie lid.

7. Place the lid on the pie and press to seal the pie.

8. Place in the oven and cook for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown.

9. Cool for 5 minutes before serving with ice cream or cream.

Hope you enjoy making one or all if these recipes. My kids loved having dessert for dinner and as a treat it was good to have something other than meat and three vegetables.

Megan

Craft Challenge

You may have noticed that I've been missing lately. I'm really sorry for doing this but life has gotten somewhat complicated lately and my time has been eaten up with final house related issues, school requirements and other general kid related issues. So every night when I'm in bed I start thinking about all the things I'll need to do once we move into this house of ours. I'm trying to get a list together of all the necessities that I need to buy and a list of all the things I want to make.

So the other night I went to my Pinterest boards and started looking at them so that I could find a place to start. So over the coming weeks these are the three projects I've set for myself to work on, complete and install in the house. Now if only I could figure out a way to get this all done during the day and not in the early hours of the morning.

I found this great idea here

I'm wanting to put this up in the children's activity room so that all their lovely creations can be displayed and the refrigerator is kept free of creative clutter. Mackenna creates four or more pictures everytime she goes to kindy so it'll be like her own Art Gallery. I've already started on this project but I still have a few things I need to buy and work out before I can show you the finished project.

The next item is something different. It won't be seen in the house but it's something I'm going to give a try and the great thing about this is it could serve two purposes. I found it at Whole Living and it would be a great necklace or scarf depending on the occassion.

You can find a tutorial here

And finally this is the last project I'll be attempting to complete. Again, it's for the Children's Activity room but it seems that everything I find these days is suitable for the kids and their play area in the house. I'm wanting to try and create a bold, colourful and warm place for each of them to hang out while enjoying each others company and space. Sounds good but I think I'm asking for the impossible.

It's amazing what you can do with crayons and a hair dryer find the details here

There you have it I'm going to attempt to get these three projects completed by the end of July. Wish me luck because somewhere in there I'll be spending time moving into our new house, unpacking every item we own, removing stuff we don't want and making sure we have everything we do need.

Once I've finished a project I'll give you the details of how it's gone. I'm hoping I have heaps of successes and no failures but if I do I'll keep it real and show you how it's turned out.

Megan

Mortgage Payments Start Now.....

Sorry that I haven't written anything for a while. I've been a little busy preparing my Year 2 book report. I've also been running around re-organising our tile selection as we needed an additional 22 square metres which they couldn't get for us and arranging delivery of said tiles. I booked the concrete for the driveway, booked the tilers in and booked the carpet layers in. None of this can happen until AGL connect the gas line to the house. We contacted them at the beginning of last month and we are still waiting. Now after making all of the arrangements for the last stage of our house we are waiting for AGL to get their contractors to come to our house and connect up the gas to our house. I can then cook a meal or heat the water so that we can have a warm showers.

So after all that the kids and I met up with the building supervisor, he installed the microwave, gave me all the manuals to everything in the house and then he handed over the keys. The kids were really excited, Mr Opoes was interstate and I was thankful that it was finally ours, now all the hard work starts. There is still more work to do and with Caelan and Mackenna finishing school on the 22nd June I've got a lot to do in such a small amount of time. So if AGL's subcontractors can pull their fingers out we might get into this house by CHRISTMAS.

 

Megan