Bye Bye Baby...

I know, I know, my darling little boy is not a baby anymore...but he is my baby! I recently took Harry to his three year Plunket check and the nurse was not happy that Harry was still having a nightly bottle. I guess this is our fault as we use his nightly bottle of soy milk to disguise the taste of the Magnesium Hydroxide (Milk of Magnesia) we have to add to treat his chronic constipation. He has been a lot better in the last year but we find he still needs a small dose every few days.

The nurse spoke to Harry about his bottle and told him that bottles were only for babies, bad for his teeth and that he needed to give them to his cousin Hunter. These are the last photos I have of him with his bottle. He has now had several nights without it and although he did ask for a bottle for the first couple of nights, he hasn't mentioned it since. My baby is growing up!

Rose's Dwell Studio Gio Lemon Bedroom

As mentioned in my last post, I was lucky enough to snap up a bargain Dwell Studio Gio Lemon duvet set for Rose's room while Taff was in the UK. There is a great online store called Lula Sapphire and they are one of the biggest stockists of Dwell Studio in the UK. They had a special on the Gio Lemon girl's range and they were selling the sets for 40 pounds each, less than a third of the cost of the same set in NZ.

The Gio range is a pattern inspired by Danish and Italian toys of the 1960's and 70's and a colour palette inspired by Italian designer Gio Ponti's interiors of a hotel in Sorrento, Italy.

There are squirrel, kangaroo, snail and clover motifs and I think they are gorgeous. I was going to save the set for summer, after all, if you read my blog regularly you will know I was going for a blue theme just a short while ago! After picking up a plush taupe Highland Rug on sale at Ezibuy, I just couldn't resist using the Gio set now as they went together so well.

It has just the right amount of pink to please Rose and she has a love for kangaroos so thankfully it passed her stringent standards. I know I won't always have a say in the way she wants to decorate her room so I am enjoying it while I can!

It feels great to have a finished room in the house. It is the only room where all the little details, trims, painting, etc are done so we are thrilled it is finished. When we moved here it was the worst of the bedrooms so we wanted to complete it first. I love looking back at the photos of what it was like when we moved.

It was such a dark and cold room but believe it or not, it is now one of the sunniest spaces in the house. Taff cut down the trees outside her window and the white paint really reflects the light and makes the space seem a lot bigger.

This whole process is one of the reasons I love older homes so much. Buying a house that is already the best it can be, is no fun at all. It is uncovering a home's potential and making it your own that is the real joy!

Dwell Studio

Tonight I thought I would share some photos from one of my favourite linen suppliers, Dwell Studio. It is an American based company and I fell in love with their products a few months ago. They can be purchased in New Zealand from Allium Interiors, but are prohibitively expensive, for me anyway!

Their point of difference is their organic linen and environmentally friendly dyes. For me, their designs fit perfectly with my love of both modern and vintage. They use lots of vintage icons (such as owls, woodland animals and floral prints) but have a modern spin on them. I also love their geometric shapes too.

It is especially hard to find great boys ranges but theirs are fantastic! Check them out...

...their girls ranges are gorgeous too...

...and they also do a baby range in the same prints. Who said nurseries can't be cutting edge in design? lol.

They do sell adult bdding as well but I imagine it is even more hideously expensive than the childrens' ranges,  I doubt I will be getting any anytime soon. :-)

I hope you feel as inspired by these pics as I do. Tomorrow I will be sharing some photos of Rose's room with her new Dwell Studio cover, purchased only due to a favourable exchange rate on Taff and Rose's recent trip to the UK. In the meantime, we can take some comfort in knowing that Dwell Studio have designed a range especially for US Target at much reduced prices. You can occasionally pick this range up on Ebay if you are lucky!

A Scary Sight!

It is common knowledge that having a pool is great in summer...but a pain in winter! You still have to maintain it, but get no joy from it until the weather improves...closer to December really!

I take no credit for any pool care that goes on at our place. Taff does it all, with the occasional helping hand from Rose and Harry.

I must admit, the pool wasn't in perfect shape before the trees were cut down, but in saying that, it wasn't too bad considering it was the middle of winter. As you can see from the photo, it was still looking rather blue on the day the trees were cut down. We expected it might get a little debris in it after the trees came down but nothing prepared us for the sight we would wake up to!

After the guys left, it was noticably murkier at the bottom but the water was still reasonably clear...

...we expected it to settle overnight and then Taff was going to vacuum it this week.

Horror of horrors, this is what our pool now looks like. It's like a pool from my childhood nightmares! We have no idea what has happened or why all the dirt hasn't settled at the bottom. Taff has added a heap of chlorine to it and we will be watching it in the next couple of days. If this, in conjuction with the vacuum doesn't work, Taff may have to go in, unplug it and drain it. I wouldn't wish this job on anyone. Fingers crossed it sorts itself out soon as it is a scary sight at the moment!

Trees...The Final Instalment

Bye bye trees! The guys from Treescape did a great job in less than perfect weather and the three trees are finally down. We still have to wait for the next team to come along and grind the stumps but that shouldn't be too far away. Rose and Harry loved seeing the guys swing up and down the tree on their ropes and watched for much of the day from the window to check their progress. 

As soon as the branches were down, the kitchen was flooded with light...and our house became completely exposed! I am not complaining, it had to be done, but I guess it was still a bit of a shock.

There was huge amounts of wood to deal with and it all had to be lugged around to the truck which was on the driveway. We considered keeping it all but our fire is out of action at the moment and it would have been a lot of work.

This Pepper Tree wasn't the prettiest specimen and the guys brought it down pretty quickly.

As you might be able to see from the pavers beside the pool, the roots have lifted the tiles and made them all uneven.

By lunchtime the truck was full to the brim and had to be taken to the refuse station for emptying. Then they came back for the large bits of trunk which were too big to go through the wood chipper.

Soon all that was left were trunks...and sawdust...lots of it!

We are feeling a little overwhelmed with our house project at the moment. In the past we have only had small houses on reasonably easy care sections. This is a much bigger and more costly kettle of fish.

Trees: The Continuing Saga

These are the fnal images of our beloved (!) trees, before they are turned into wood chip. Here is the mighty She-Oak (strange name, I know) in all her glory. As you can see from the photo below, she is at least three stories high and her needles fall in the perfect position for cluttering gutters and piping.

These are the sights we won't be missing:

I should add that the She-Oak isn't the only tree on our property on the way out. We have also decided to have the two Pepper Trees around the pool removed. They do provide good privacy but their root systems have played havoc with the old tiles around the pool and they also don't look particularly nice.

Our backyard is a real mess at the moment and it will only get worse once the trees are down but hopefully we can then start to think about how we want to landscape it and make it more user friendly.

Hmm, what can I use these for?

Call me crazy but I just can't resist a wicker basket, especially a white one!

I have discovered this great shop in Albany called the Clearance Shed and it is full of fab bargains. I wandered in a couple of days ago and found these white lined baskets for a mere $15 each.

I am not a huge fan of the pale yellow/green lining and have been thinking of putting a dye through them but I might try bleaching them first and see what happens.

They are a good size and I can't decide whether to use them as baskets on the floor of Harry's wardrobe for his shoes, socks and small toys, or in the laundry somewhere. Stay tuned for a solution!

Oak be gone!

The huge Oak in our backyard is on the way out and we couldn't be happier. This monstrosity has been the bane of my cleaning life for the last year and although I love a well positioned and attractive tree as much as the next person, this sadly does not fit the bill. It is very poorly positioned and has been blocking sun to our kitchen for too long. Due to the size, it required consent and last week we finally had permission granted to take it down. Yippee!

One of the main reasons I won't be mourning it's loss is the continual mess created by the needles and spiny cones you can see above. These are constantly being dragged through the house and find their way into every little corner imaginable. I am counting the days until it is gone and I will no longer find needles inside our freshly washed clothing. Did I mention that the Oak sits over the top of our clothes line? Someone in the 1960's really wasn't thinking ahead when they planted this one!

The Wiggles...One Year On...

The Wiggles are much loved around the globe and these photos prove it. I am usually a 'mean' mum and don't allow Rose and Harry to go on ride ons at shopping malls. $2 for a 90 second ride is excessive in my opinion! In saying that, some of my earliest memories are of the ride on outside the cafe/lunch bar (not sure what it was called back then!) in a department store in Gisborne. I loved the elephant. :-)

We weren't sure how popular the Wiggles would be in the UK and a year ago, Harry was obsessed with them. Imagine his joy when we walked into The Friary at Guildford and saw this! He was beside himself with excitement as shopping is not one of his favourite activities and this was a welcome distraction.

The other week we ventured over to Sylvia Park with Mum and Dad and what did we see? The exact same ride on. Even though Rose and Harry have both moved on from the Wiggles, we decided to let them have a ride anyway.

I thought it was amusing that we had run into the same ride, exactly a year later and on opposite sides of the world. Yay for globalisation!