"lots and lots of fast massive running!"

My cousin Larissa just sent over the cutest facebook link, that I just had to share.
My adorable second cousin Keara aka Keke aka The Keekstar aka Keeks (yes she answers to all of the above) and her daddy ran in the 3km Dubai fun run marathon.
I love the fact that they had no kids shirts so she wore a small ladies shirt, which looks like a dress and wore her number patch that takes up the whole for her body :)

Larissa said that she ran 1/3rd of the way by herself until she retired to the pram too - so proud of this little munchkin and wishing so bad she (and her mummy and daddy and new baby sibling on the way) were back here in Oz!

and apparently she was super excited to get her medal for "Doing lots of massive running!"
Man I love that Keekstar!!

aussie day!

It is calling to me ... wanting me to own it!

My Ikea desk that is... seriously I know, I know this is the third post I've mentioned that damn desk but it is stalking me!

Seriously. I was not even looking for it and then came across this post on SFGirlByBay yesterday:

sigh...

And then I was searching for cute Aussie Day Entertaining Ideas and saw it even used as an outdoor food table. See Husband - this piece is versatile and I NEED it!  ;)

ooh I hope Ikea gets this item back in SOON!

So Australia Day is coming up and I am dreaming of the day we can have some friends over for a really cute backyard do - lamb and prawns on the barbie and pavlova for dessert. Followed by some garden games (I have a crush on garden games) and then a total Aussie movie like The Castle or Muriel's wedding or Croc Dundee (can you believe I have still NOT seen this!) but as we can't fit many people into our teeny tiny little flat I thought I'd show you the rest of these images from this cute Australia Day spread by Wedding Style Guide.

I like it cause it's not the typical green and gold aussie spin off (it's actually really cute) although It very much reminds me of a 4th of July event - I think it has to do with the stripes?! But still total inspiration for any of you US or UK girls who follow the blog too - or anyone else who has a blue, white and red flag. You just maybe couldn't wear that bikini ;)

Seriously so looking forward to Wednesday - we are heading to the beach with friends. What are you up to?

aussie aussie aussie..
and now you say...

random. I want a desk

I got an early mark from work yesterday which means I walked in the door around 6pm, 6 PM PEOPLE!!
woo hoo - That is ahumazing!
I would be a very happy camper if I could do that everyday.
I had so much more energy too!!
I filled hubby's tummy with bbq pork spare ribs, cous cous and oolala kt salad and then he took me to a movie.
Morning Glory.
It was ok - we had a few laughs - although does Harrison Ford's voice annoy anyone else in this movie!!!! gaaah!
and when did he get so old looking!?

anyway I enjoyed snuggling and munching on my bubble gum rock candy (left over from the wedding) and did you know Rachel McAdams (well the character she plays) has my Ikea desk. in white. just like I want waaaa (see below post)

anyway that was kinda a post about nothing .. hoping to get a little bit crafty tonight so I can have something fun to share over here, using my new hot glue gun (os. any Aussie's out there Spotlight have 50% off their glue guns right now - I got mine for $7!) that I am an going CRAZY not being able to create!!

itching to get decorating!

The current state of our spare bedroom/craft room/home office...

ughk, right!

it's basically just a junk/store room right now.

And this non-inspiring space has been the reason that not much crafting has been happening around here lately. I can't stand it anymore- so much so that the door to the second room stays shut pretty much all the time I am home.

I can't wait to get in there and 'prettify' it by...

1. Getting rid of that ridiculous spare room sink!??!
2. Refreshing the walls with a new coat of paint
3. Buying a new bedspread and cushions for the single bed (I want to turn it into a more day bed/lounge and put on a larger quilt cover so it hides the ugly plastic covered mattress underneath)
4. Purchase a new rug (especially for winter because I can imagine those tiles are going to be cold then!!)
5. Purchase a new desk
6. Add floating shelves above the desk for added storage
7. Finishing painting 2 x roadside furniture finds (a wardrobe 'craft supplies' cupboard and the rest of that white chest of drawers shown)
8. Hang fun artwork
9. an inspiration board and;
10. decorate with lots of fun accents!

Here's my little inspiration mood board ... (click to see it larger)

It's quite colourful and I probably won't stick to it completely ... but I think with the simple waem grey walls, whites and timbers I can easy change the look and feel of it with smaller accents and decorations and allow the room to evolve over time.

And speaking of desks, for our wedding I couldn't find any big old rustic tables I liked for our lolly station so dad made a desk top out of three old wooden planks which he glued together (I know I am super lucky!!) and placed on some trestles - it looked really good! I was going to get dad to make me some more white ones as a desk for the craft room (I wanted a really long desk and couldn't find one in our price range that I liked anywhere). Then I came across the Vika Artur Ikea Trestle - I love that it has shelves underneath too - and is adjustable for drafting (this would of been perfect for college!) or cutting out fabric.

And since then I have seen it being used in some pretty fun spaces ...

(another fun trestle table - i LOVE them!)

Sadly though it seems I am going to have to wait till March to get my desk as we were informed on Saturday that they are sold out of the vika trestles and wont get more stock in for a couple of months - rats!

summer toes

this is where you'll find me on Sunday afternoons ...

barefoot and daggy (and not pregnant!) in the garage stripping layers of paint of an antique cupboard I saved from the side of the road a few months before our wedding - in absolute pouring rain too :)

It feels so good to get stuck into it now and get rid of a thick layer of mission brown paint...

then fluro green ...

then a yellow stained white.
noice!

Once this cupboard is restored it will go in our spare room/studio craft room to store (hopefully) all my fabrics and craft supplies.

I have plans to paint it a fun colour, but am having a hard time deciding what colour exactly...

any suggestions?

I have no real inspiration or starting point for that room yet - I think I may need to spread my resene paint colours over the floor in that room and see if anything grabs me.

in the meantime here some inspiration images of cute painted furniture:

source

 

 

Can't wait to hear your ideas :)

lovin ...

it's true ... i'm lovin, 'blog lovin!' and I think you might too.

I saw this post on A Beautiful Mess's blog today and thought it looked really cool and user friendly. 

So I signed up and am loving just how easy following and organizing my blog feed now is.

I like how you can sort the blogs into categories (see mine above), how simple and clean the layout is, how you can 'heart' posts for finding later on and even search new fun blogs or have blogs similar to those you follow recommended to you.

so much better than dashboard or even google reader - it's definitely worth try :)

I hope you all have a lovely day tomorrow- I'm off for my mother-daughter date to Ikea and out for lunch - I can't wait! and speaking of Ikea I was watching 500 days of Summer on the train this afternoon and I thought I'd share my fav scene with you all :)

 Ikea from mood on Vimeo.

best line "Honey, I don't know how to tell you this, but there's a Chinese family in our bathroom!"

gets me everytime :)

the little love nest.

A few of you have been asking about our little love nest and I was inspired by my dear friend Amanda's apartment tour (isn't it amazing how quickly and stylishly she has furnished that little place in such a short time?) to show off this video we made ages ago - before we were married, moved in and had made any changes (not that we've made many yet...) 

For those of you who haven't been following the blog for long time when we got married I moved out of my parent's house (and the bedroom I had inhabited since the age of 3) to a little apartment 30 mins from my parent's home. Husband (sorry I'm not sick of that yet) moved his stuff down one flight of stairs and up another. That's right we are living with the in laws - who I believe do sometimes read this blog - hi guys!
Morgan's parents are awesome and they are allowing us to live here, in a little self contained 2 bedroom flat, paying minimum board so we can save for a place of our own and hopefully be home owners within 2-3 years time!! This is a huge blessing for us and a great opportunity which will really help set us up for the future. Plus they recently put a new kitchen in (which my dad modified and installed) and an air conditioner - which is AWESOME or we would die during this summers heat (the flat is unfortunetly not properly insulated).

Here's the original floor plan and layout as originally blogged here:
cute right?

And here is a little video we made of the flat tour - I can't believe I'm sharing this - I'm such a dag in it - I cringe everytime I watch it!! But it gives you a good idea of the layout and space of our teeny tiny flat.

And stay tuned for DIY and decorating posts as we paint, decorate, change and make this space more 'us' :)

m+kt flat tour 2010 from Katie McAllan on Vimeo.

ikea trip

Excited to be heading on a little shopping trip (and girly date) to Ikea with my mum on Saturday. 

Unfortunately our closest, well actually the only Ikea in the whole of NSW is in Homebush (where the Sydney Olympics were held). It is also an hour and a half trip from our house.. so we girls get kinda giddy when we get to go!

I wish we had a store closer that we could just pop into on a whim (although Morgan disagrees with this idea entirely!) I really think they should build an Ikea here on the Central Coast ... there is totally the right market and space for it...

Anyway above is just a few items that caught my eye while browsing through their website. But there are so many more items on my wish list and that I can't wait to check out in person on Saturday (probably a good thing that husband has given me a spending cap for our trip!) but we so need more furniture ... like shelves so we can unpack all those boxes taking over the craft room and a coffee table cause putting my mug on the floor is getting old :)

and yes that ung drill frame is the same frame as in our photo booth pictures - but it was unfortunately my cousin Rachel's, which she brought for their wedding a few weeks before ours, so we had to give it back :(

And speaking of wishing of having an Ikea store closer to home... check out this cute 'I wish we had Ikea' tea towel from Etsy. Seems Skinny Lamix is echoing my sentiments exactly! At least we do have Ikea here in Oz though ...

 

As well as some furniture, I'm also going to stock up on some of these, which I got a little obsessed with while staying at this ladies house last year. Bean game tournaments, late night sewing extravaganzas aaah the memories of these little fellas Leslie :)

we've been published!!!!!!!

we've been published...
well our amazing wedding photographer Christine has.
Check out our engagement session in this new inspiring book of handmade lovelies.
It is so weird seeing your face published in a book! Especially a book so up my alley ... handmade creative goodies - umm yes please!!
You can grab your copy of 'Handmade Living - a designer collection' from here.

We are eagerly awaiting out copy which Christine is blessing us with - I can't wait to see it in person!
will do a little review then.

All images are Miss Christine's.

ps. Thanks for all your sweet comments on my last post. It is so good to be back and posting. I thought after a seven long months I might have lost a few followers... but thanks for sticking around - you guys make me feel so loved :) 

a note from MRS A ...

So a lot has happened since my last post...

some 7 months ago (!)...

a new job (with a rather crazy commute)...

a new home..

a trip overseas...

a first christmas ...

parties and new year celebrations ...

but best of all ...

we finally got married!

It was a beautiful (and fun!) day ...

he cried (as soon as the first bridesmaid started to walk down the aisle)...

I laughed at rings that wouldn't go on! (while the groomsmen took photos on their iphones)...

he promised to ' trust you when you think you are right and respect you when you actually are!' (and made everyone laugh) ...

we stood under a pretty tree and promised forever ...

and got really excited about being newlyweds ....

we played lawn games ...

 

while wearing fun socks ...

and raced around the vines in golf buggies ...

 we frolicked in fields (it involved me being passed through a barbed wire fence in my wedding gown to get in people! but so worth it for the shots!)

 

we kissed a little alot ...

the girls looked beautiful ...

the guys looked 'smokin' (it's a groomsmen joke...)

we had the most fun in an amazing photobooth ...

(and got the funniest responses from our guests!)

and ran through sparklers (quite possibly more than once...)

and rode away in baby brother's cute little vintage car

(complete with tin cans) ...

then the Mr and I ran away to Thailand ...

we rode elephants and fed monkeys and rode in long tailed boats and lazed around and ate - oh how we ate! That breakfast buffet was +10 kg GOOD ;) !

And now I am back..  back to blogging people!!

I have things to make, things to share, a new (teeny tiny little) house to decorate and a sweet little life to lead as a MRS! So stick around as I share our 2011 moments

oh it's good to be back :)

ps. all these photos are a mixture of our wonderful photographer Christine and her amazing second shooter Kellee, who helped out last moment  - thank you Kellee!
you can check christine's take on the day here and here and Kellee's over here.