still here

Hi there! I'm still here, I promise. Things have just been a little bit quiet at the Ayling household lately, so I don't really have much to blog about. In fact I worked all last week AND weekend - exciting life huh! But I have been feeling such an urge to nest around here lately, starting with our living room which is the most decorated room in our house so far and my favourite room too. I love sitting in it enjoying the white fresh walls and tall cathedral-like ceilings - it's my happy place for sure :) We have a few lovely pieces which we have loving bought and made but it has taken me so long to work out what colours I want to go with that we haven't got further than that. And then I found this amazing artwork below which has inspired the look and tones I want to go with. So I put together this mood board with some pieces we already have and some wish list pieces too...

from left to right:

1. artwork - I have no idea where this came from as I just found it by a happy accident. But I'd love to credit and then buy it!!!

2. Eames rocker (already have) we got ours from replica furniture.com

3. 'Lappljung Ruta' throw cushion - Ikea (only $12!!!)

4. Jacob Floor lamp (we already have) - Beacon Lighting

5. Linen and gold throw cushion - by me longings on etsy

6. Elizabeth Hurley Zelda Cushion in gold

7. Gumball Ottoman from Kush Living

8. Curio + Curio orange parrot cushion from Crate Expectations

9. White storage basket (sorry I forget where I found this image)

10. Grey Lounge - Hilton Lounge from Freedom in esquire pewter. We won't be getting a new lounge this time around, but we will be covering our existing lounge in a fabric similar to this - yay!

11. I also forget where I found this image but it is inspiration for my feature chair re upholstery project (chair shown in this post)

12. I also forget where I got this image from, but colour inspiration for throw cushions

Now I have some direction and a mood board to keep coming back to, I am excited to really see this room take shape and become a little more styled. I promise to record our progress here too :)

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...

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 :)

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.