Gardening Mis-Adventure...

 

Last weekend I had an extremely long to-do list that I wanted to complete, unfortunately we'd already planned to meet up with some friends Mr Opoes hadn't seen for a few years and all my plans went off the rails. I've always known that I'm a very unorganised person, which is somewhat of a problem. OK it's a huge issue in this house. You'd think marrying a man who's organised, has a routine and can tick things off a to-do list quickly would make us a winning combination. RIGHT. NO. We seem to have vastly different ideas of what needs to be done and communicating the next step isn't something either one of us do well.

One of the most important jobs I wanted to tick off my list was constructing two garden beds and plant them out. We started this task on Saturday at about 11am, now you would think a quick visit to the hardware store and home again would see this completed in four to five hours. Wrong. It took us two and a half hours at the hardware store, then we rushed home unpack everything we'd just purchased for ONE garden bed and not TWO like we planned before we rushed off to meet up with Mr Opoes friends. Now the plan was to spend three hours socialising before coming home to finish off anything that needed to be done with the garden.

In reality everything got started on the Sunday afternoon which only left us enough time to build one raised garden bed and to fill it with the supplies we'd spent over two hours buying. I then went off to another Kmart to purchase some pool noodles as I'd only managed to pick one up. I had thought with the warmer temperatures the noodles would readily be available however they are proving difficult to find. So after a total of four hours work over two days we had built, filled one raised garden bed and I'd made it a little more safe for the children.

Next up I need to plant my seedlings and packet seeds, add some supports so that my three tomatoes can climb and make some labels so that I know what I'm growing. At the moment it looks like I'll be busily planting this little veggie patch out on Saturday afternoon after the Family Fun Day that Mackenna's kindergarten are having this weekend. In the meantime I need to get working on all the labels so that Mr Opoes and I can spend a few hours constructing the second garden bed so that we are all ready to go.

So I'm hoping that when the children start their September/October holidays I'll have the garden beds all planted out and that I'll be able to have to children help with the watering and weeding of the veggie patch. Unfortunately, I don't have any photography's due to losing the camera outside. I'd placed it on the water tanks pump while we were filling the garden bed with all the soil and as the water tank is used to flash the toilets the vibration from the pump the camera has fallen off onto the grass. So after searching inside the house top to bottom for four days I went outside and I retraced my movements and guess what I found it laying on the grass. So now I'm waiting for the camera to dry out a bit before I use it again.

I've also been working on a little organisation project for the pantry which I'm hoping to finalised in the next few days so that I can share it with you. I'm trying a new type of spray paint so it's drying time is a bit longer than I'm use to so I'm hoping I've done it right. When I've finished this project I'm hoping that the colour I've chosen will work well with the kitchen finger's crossed.

Megan

Framing the Entry... the reveal

Drum roll please...... As promised yesterday I want to share with you my very first gallery wall and it definitely won't be my last. I've loved gallery walls since they become popular in the blogging world, so much so that while we were building our house I went out and purchased a heap of picture frames so that I could get started immediately after moving in. Well that was fourteen plus months ago and this wall wasn't even on my radar back then. So today as promised I'm going to show you the completed gallery wall but first I want to give you a break down of how I'm going on my to-do list and to give you some idea of what I've spent so far on my Entry makeover.

I thought that this project would have been done and dusted within three weeks maybe a bit longer if the electrician was booked up BUT I miss judged the amount of work involved and my ability to get it done. I'm still looking into the electrical work as pricing will play a major role work but I also need to think outside of this particular room so that I don't have to call them back later to do more electrical work as this will be expensive on the hip pocket. Maybe now that I've finished the gallery wall I can tick off some of the smaller tasks....

• create a gallery wall
• find a table, bench, stand for added storage
• tint glass on door and side panel
• repaint the hall table
• add a pop of colour to the front door
• change the large chandelier with something more practical for the space and the ceiling height
• find something to go on the wall above the hall table
• dress the hall table
• maybe a rug or something for the floor
• add vintage suitcases

Now for the budget. We set $800 for this project which may seem quite large but while we were building our house Mr Opoes and I decided that we'd include a beautiful feature light in the entry and with dreams like that a big price tag is sure to follow. During construction I fell in love with a heap of beautiful lights I liked but they all came from America and this could have meant that I'd be faced with issues relating to voltage (we have different requirements) and with the light meeting Australia's Safety Standards so I had to look else where. So here is the breakdown of what I've spent or need to spend:

• picture frames $60
• paint, primer and spray paint $70
• 3M Command Strips $58
• butchers paper $0
• painters tape $0
• black ink pen $0
• paint chips $0
• brand new light $375
• electrician - could be up to $200
• hall table plus new paint $119
• window treatment $24.98
• TOTAL: $906.98

As you can see I'm already over budget, it's possible that my guessimation is way under budget which means I'd need more funds to install the light. I've decided that I'll take the time to save the additional money needed so that we can have the light installed but in order to put some funds back into the kitty I'm going to try and sell the chandelier on-line. I'm hoping that if I price it correctly I should be able to sell it pretty quickly.

So without delaying the reveal any further I now have the pictures you've all been waiting for (sounds dramatic doesn't it). I hope that you like the colourful gallery wall that I've created as much as I do and I'm looking forward to completing the entire entry within the next month or so.

So tell me what you think? I'd love to hear what your opinion is of my gallery wall. I love it and the pop's of colour give the room some character which is exactly what I wanted to achieve when I started this project. I'm hoping in the next week or two to get the tint onto the glass panels on the door and on the panel beside the door. I'll have to organise with Mr Opoes to take the children out for a few hours so that I can spend the time doing the job correctly. Fingers crossed I get everything done within the time limit I've set myself.

Megan

Framing the Entry Part 2



So last week I showed you some of the inspiration I'd collected on my Pinterest board as to how I'd like to decorate our entry. As you could see I wanted to create a colourful, empty gallery wall using six coloured frames to complement the silver/chrome light fixture and black hall table that will feature in the room. So I started collecting paint chips from my local hardware store so that I could figure out which colours complemented a beautiful orange paint that I'd found. I settled on purple, pink, yellow, silver and teal to go with my lovely bold orange. However, when Mr Opoes visited the hardware store to purchase 5 sample pots I needed Mackenna and Viveca picked up a few paint chips of their own and one of them caught my eye, so I swapped out the teal and replaced it with my new favourite colour.
 

1. Ballistic (Wattyl) 2.Perfect Purple (Wattyl)
3. Pale Daffodil (Dulux) 4.Perfectly Pink (Wattyl)
5.PlastiKote Metallic Pewter 4403  6. Silk Sari (Wattyl)

Now the next step I took was a little different from all the tutorials I'd read so without giving you a long winded description of what I did I thought I'd just show you in pictures. I've also attached a simple explanation so that you can understand what I'm trying to show you. Some pictures won't be that great because one of the kids took the photograph for me as I was busy and couldn't do two things at once.


Depending on the number of frames you're hanging I'd plan the layout before attaching
to the wall. I taped off the space I wanted to work within on the floor.

Next I lay butchers paper down on the tiled floor within the taped off area as this was the space I'd be working with once it was on the wall. Having the paper down gave me the opportunity to visualise how it would look up on the wall plus I also make any changes I might need. With a black felt pen I traced around the frame and then I removed each of the backing pieces from the frames.
 

1. Trace around the frame with black pen. 2. Remove the glass, paper and chipboard.3. Using pliers remove
the little metal pins that hold the picture in. Place back on the butchers paper.

In total I had thirty one photo frames and six paint colours which I had to group together without it looking too planned or busy. While talking to my sister she suggested that I gather up a heap of paint sample and throw them up into the air. I loved this idea and so I decided that wherever the paint chip landed would determine the frames colour. However, if more than one colour sample landed on the same frame I'd previously decided that the sample facing up would be the colour chosen. I also wrote each colour under each drawn frame.

1. Mr Opoes throwing paint chips in the air. 2. Paint chips on each frame.

1. I cut each paper frame out 2. Paper template taped to the wall.



Finally it was time to place all the frames up on the wall. I purchases a heap of 3M Picture Hanging Strips (Velcro type) in different width and sizes so that I could place each frame up on the wall. Mr Opoes helped me when it came to placement as I needed to know whether or not the frames were straight. Once everything was straight and in the correct position I then pressed each frame down for a minute. As I didn't follow the directions correctly I used strips that would hold more than the actual weight of the frame.

 

Now if you're still reading congratulates. I will share the pictures of our finished wall tomorrow as I am experiencing problems with my camera so I'm going to have to use my phone tomorrow to take more pictures. Tomorrow I'll also talk about what other things I need to complete in order to call this project FINISHED.

Have you ever started a project only to discover that it's taken longer to finish than what you anticipated? This project has taken me so long I gave it two weeks and I've already gone past that by an additional four weeks and counting.

 

Megan

During the last five months I've had the opportunity to attend a few scrapbooking crops at my local shop. I first started scrapbooking eight years ago just after Caelan was born but back then I spent many hours visiting stores, buying papers, buying cardstock and did I mention buying products. I purchased so much stuff that when it came time to actually put a page together I had know idea what it was that I should be doing. I subscribed to a scrapbooking magazine and every month I'd look through it marking off layouts that I loved and that I wanted to re-create.

 

As you can imaging it's difficult trying to copy someone else's layout, the problem I've always had was trying to identify and locate products that the person had used. It was due to this reason that I started going to classes and then crop nights in the hopes that I could work my way through the hundreds of photography's I have for all the children and to develop my own style.

 

I went off to my first crop five years ago in the hope that I would create something nice with the few photo's and supplies I had. As I was pregnant at the time I spent the majority of the time going back and forward to the toilets, but I was hooked and I've enjoyed crop nights ever since. Back in May I went off to a crop with three photo's, a few supplies and a dream of completing a layout. I spent the first hour trying to figure out what it was I wanted to do and then I had a light bulb moment I found a layout that I decided to copy. It was perfect, the colours were faultless and many of the pieces were in store that night.

After about 15 hours of work I was able to create a double page layout that helped showcase the cross country event that my son competed in this year at school. I was really happy to have completed my first ever page dedicated to Caelan especially after I started scrapbooking back in 2005. I was really happy with the layout and the best part was that Caelan really liked what I'd created for him.

Here are the other layouts that I've created since May and I'm happy to say that in all the years I've been interested in scrapbooking this is the most I've ever done. What do you think am I good at copying other peoples layout's and calling them mine?

I've been thinking that while the children are home during the Christmas holiday's (six weeks) I might get around to investing a few hours to completing a few layouts using the new 'Simple Stories' range that I found at my local store. The range is very similar to what Project Life produce however there are a few differences I think. As Mr Opoes went to Europe prior to our meeting he has hundred's of photo's, maps, postcards, tickets and programs that he collected while he was away. These have been sitting in boxes ever since I've known him. Not long after we got married I attempted to place them in an album but I soon discovered that I seemed unable to match the photographs with the location notes that he'd made. So I'm hoping that I can create this manly scrapbooking album for him without it been too pretty, boring or PINK.

Wish me luck as I've already purchased a few things that I think might work and I'm hoping that they go with the pictures that he took some fifteen years ago.

Megan 

Chocolate Bread Butter Pudding

 

Have you ever done things backwards and really enjoyed it? When my eldest was about two years old I served up dessert for dinner and I can tell you the look on his face was priceless. So every now and then I like to surprise the kids and give them dessert for dinner, hubby also likes it because it means less dishes for the dishwasher and so it's a win win for everyone plus I'm guaranteed everyone will eat their dinner without telling me they don't like it. So last week we had a 'Chocolate Bread and Butter Pudding' for dinner.

As a child I grew up eating this pudding however my mother generally added sultanas and serve it with cream BUT sometimes mum would add a scoop of vanilla ice cream and that made it seem so special. Since getting married I would have made this dessert maybe three times and on one occasion I managed to dry it out. So when I found this recipe in a diet inspired cook book I knew I had to give it a go and I'm glad I did. The process is quiet easy, its simply delicious and best of all you can eat it cold the following day especially if you don't want to wait for it to be re-heated.

Chocolate Bread Pudding
Serves 6
Ingredients:
6 large eggs
3 tablespoons caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
3 cups of milk
Nutella® spread
12 slices of bread, use whatever you have available

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 200°C or 180°C for fan forced oven.
2. In a large mixing bowl beat eggs the eggs until they are well combined. Add sugar and vanilla essence and mix well.
3. Add milk and continue mixing for a minute.
4. Pour a small amount of the egg mixture into your medium casserole or small dish.
5. Spread some Nutella over each slice of bread and then cut into 2 or 4 triangles (leave the crusts on). Dip each piece of bread into the remaining egg mixture and then place it into your dish Nutella side up.
6. Place your casserole or dish into the centre of your preheated oven.
7. Bake for 50-60 minutes or until its firm to touch.
8. Allow to stand for 5 minutes and then serve. Serve with pouring cream or with a little bit of ice cream. If you're making this for someone special you could also grate a little bit of chocolate over the top of your ice cream.
Note: You could even freeze this if you are lucky to have leftovers. If you run out of egg mixture just make up some more as bread can absorb liquids differently.

I hope you enjoy eating this as much as my kids did, I'm glad that I got to share a favourite childhood food memory with you. I'd love to hear what your favourite childhood food memory was.

Megan

 

It's

Today's the second day of Spring, this means I have to start getting the garden prepared so that we're ready to grow some vegetables that the kid's will eat. I've spent the last few day's researching the benefits of using a store bought metal raised garden bed verses us building a wooden raised garden bed. After looking at various web sites I've decided to purchase a metal garden bed because we've a number of events coming up which won't leave us much time to construct the garden bed, plant it out and then wait for it to grow.

So on Saturday while the girls and I went off to Weight Watchers I had the boys go to our local Aldi supermarket to purchase two raised metal garden beds as they were on special and this meant that we were able to save $20 per garden bed by getting them from Aldi instead of the local hardware store. While the boy's were picking up the garden bed's my amazing husband discovered that Aldi were also selling packet seeds and 100mm tomato seedlings for really good prices so he picked up a 100mm tomato seedling and nine packet seeds. So when it comes to putting the garden bed together we will have something to plant in it.
 

Next weekend when the whole of Australia is at polling booths across the nation voting for the next Australian Prime Minister we'll be out in the backyard putting our garden beads together, purchasing soil, fertiliser and then planting my little seeds and my tomato plant. I can't wait to see how it all goes and in ten days up to sixteen weeks I might have something to harvest. I'm also hoping that Caelan has fun working on our little veggie patch together because when he did gardening club last year he really enjoyed it.

 

So if you have a veggie patch and you have any tips you'd like to share please leave me a message in the comment section as I'd like to hear how things turned out for you. Next week I'll show you how Mr Opoes and I went about putting the garden bed together and if time allows I'll also share how I planted my seeds.

 

Megan

Framing the Entry

I'm a lover of Pinterest and while I've been blogging I've enjoyed looking for DIY projects, recipes, clothing projects that I might get around to sewing and any things that might relate to decorating our house. Recently though I haven't gotten to pin too much as I've been concentrating on doing Amy's Growing Together: Summer 2013 course and making changes to the look of my blog. So it came as a huge surprise the other week when I realised that we moved into our new house just over twelve months ago and not much has changed.

My entry is still the same as it was the day we moved in (OK there is a lot more dirt and dust than there was on handover day). It's plain, boring and in need of so DIY loving. When you walk into our house it would be really hard for you to see how many hours I've spent dreaming about how I want to decorate the house (particularly the entry), planning how to decorate many of the rooms and collecting pin's for my Pinterest boards (when I have time) so that I could use any of the idea's later down the track. Well I'm pleased to say that I've finally taken the leap and I'm going to use a few of the pin's from my Entry board to create a warm and welcoming entry to our house.

It all started in May when I visited Jen's blog Tatertots & Jello and I discovered her Wall of Frames. I fell in love with it instantly, I pinned and then I showed it to my husband the moment he walked through the door after work. Let's be honest It was an ambush and my husband didn't know what had hit him. So I started collecting frames from around the house, I visited thrift stores and I purchased more few decorative frames from a dollar store, Target and Bed, Bath and Table.

I rang my sister later in the week and shared Jen's link with her to see what she thought about my idea especially because she helped design our house. While talking to her she suggested that we could use more than one colour which would add to the feature I wanted to create. So I jumped back on Pinterest and I started searching for gallery walls that used colour and when I found a few pin's that used a heap of colour I knew this was the direction I wanted to take.

Source can be found on my Pinterest Board.



So I got to work collecting frames, looking for paint chips that complement each other, dreaming of a new light fixture and looking for a hall table. In order to save money I started looking at thrift stores for wooden photo frames and I was able to find a few but each one looked the same so I had to spend a bit of money buying nice ornate frames. I also tried Gumtree to find my hall table and pendant light however all the ones I liked sold really quickly or they were priced out of my budget.

So you can imagine my delight when found a women on Facebook who sold used furniture. The best part she was only 20 minutes drive away and I had the option of buying the item as is or she could 'shabby chic' the piece in a colour that you wanted. I went to the store just to see what she had on offer and also hoping that I'd find something. When I went into the back room I saw a beautiful little mustard table but it had been given the shabby treatment and I didn't really want to spend the time and money changing the colour. That's when I remembered that my father had up-cycled a dressing table for my daughter last year so I thought that it was a possibility. I decided to leave it at the shop because it was more than I wanted to spend and I knew that I could get something cheaper on Gumtree.

A few weeks later I decided I'd go back to see if the table was still available or if there was any other pieces that might work in the entry. I found lots of chairs, bedside tables and other beautiful pieces but I couldn't find a hall table. Then I saw the mustard table again BUT this time it was within my price range so I went and had a good look at it. I bought it because I knew that it would be great in the space and secondly because I really liked it. So here is my little mustard beauty that I'm going to paint black and I'm going to change the colour of the hardware.

My little Mustard Hall Table.

I'm hoping that everything works out well with my first ever house project. Pop back next week and I'll share with you the colours I chose and the layout I decided on. I'll also share with you the method I used to select the colour combination that I used.

I'm in love with colour at the moment, which is really funny because I don't generally have a heap of colourful clothes in my wardrobe. Tell me do you only use two or three colours when you decorate or do you use a selection of colours that compliment each other.

Megan