This year we have had two babies join our family already. They both live far away from us so I haven’t even met them yet, but I did make them both a Baby Shower blanket to snuggle in as they grow.
These blankets are one of my favourite things to make for babies. I love choosing a special feature fabric and the minkee backing is so soft and cuddly (and super fluffy and messy to cut and sew with!)
This one was made for baby Sebastian. I think the toucans are cool and the bright colours and geometric shapes don’t look too “little babyish”. And of course, you can’t go wrong with Lizzy House’s pearl bracelets fabric for borders!
And this one for baby Odette:
I’ve had this Ikea fabric for years so it was nice to finally put it to use. It is bright and fun and a little bit quirky. Both blankets are backed in soft, snuggly, smooth white minkee which feels lovely against baby’s skin.
SUPPLIES: Make It Perfect, Baby Shower creative card Dan Stiles, Safari Soiree, Toucan Tango Lizzy House, Pearl Bracelets in Verbena Ikea, Barnslig animal print Aneela Hoey, Sherbet Pips, Play Dot in Bubblegum
Time for another house tour post! If you missed them, the first two posts are here and here.
So, I thought I’d show you around the wet areas today – bathrooms & laundry.
In the first house we built, I found choosing tiles to be such a nightmare. We went tile shopping every Saturday for 6 weeks until we finally settled on something! This time around though, we knew exactly what we wanted and our tile shopping lasted less than 1 hour! This is our ensuite. For the tiles, we choose a matte-finish grey rectangle tile and used that one tile everywhere – floors and walls right up to the ceiling (that’s why our tile shopping was so fast!)
We wanted to keep the bathrooms uncluttered, simple and open and using a single tile helped to achieve that. I always thought that showers like ours in the ensuite with a single panel of glass and no door would be cold and draughty. Now that I have been using the shower for awhile I am completely sold though. I don’t find it cold at all and cleaning the shower is a breeze. After the tiles are dry, I vacuum the whole bathroom (even into the shower) then mop the entire floor. Cleaning the tiles and shower area is really easy because there aren’t any grooves or edges on the shower door or surrounding frame, so it is really just a quick wipe down and scrubbing in the grout if needed. Then the glass is just like cleaning a big window. Bathroom cleaning is one of my least favourite jobs but this shower makes it a little bit better!
Another thing I really like about having matte tiles in the bathrooms are that they dry super fast. An hour or two after having a shower the tiles are completely dry in the bathroom – including the ones in the shower. The great thing about this is that it means that water isn’t sitting on the tiles, in the grout and the corners of the shower for as long and reduces the amount of grime and scummy buildup in the shower. I have been pretty slack at cleaning the showers in this house for that reason – they hardly ever get dirty or grimy because the water dries so fast. Big win!!!
The kid’s bathroom is pretty similar to the ensuite. We used the same vanity, basins, taps and shower heads. This bathroom has an enclosed shower with a door though (not as fun to clean! In hindsight, I probably would have done the same shower as in the ensuite) and the addition of a big bath. The kids love it.
In our old house we had a heated towel rail in the bathroom and got them again for this house. It is so nice to have warm, dry towels in the middle of winter. Some days it can be so cold and dull that the towels don’t even dry between showers and there is nothing worse than trying to dry yourself with a cold, damp towel after the shower! It’s a little luxury that we love now! And lastly, this is the laundry. We kept things all white in the laundry to help give a sense of cleanliness…because the reality is that my laundry NEVER looks like this! There is plenty of colour and texture introduced in baskets and piles of washing waiting to be washed, folded and ironed!
Because the laundry is an internal room with no windows to the outside, we decided to put a big skylight in the roof. It makes such a difference to an internal room to have a shaft of light and sunshine flowing into the room.
The laundry has cupboards galore – the top ones are hardly even filled up yet. But it is such a great feeling knowing that there is plenty of room to store everything in the house. The tall cupboard on the right is great for keeping mops, brooms, etc.
You can see the window to the left of the room which looks into the garage too. We did that to let in a bit more light and open up the room some more.
The floor in the laundry is polished concrete. Again, a really easy flooring to keep clean.
It’s taken me 3 months to get this far in the house tour so by the time we have been in here for a year maybe I will be finished!!! Stay tuned!
I’m still in a sewing slump. I’m finding it hard to settle into my new sewing area and have been working on a few new patterns, but not feeling like I am making great progress with any of them. In past experience, the best thing to do when I’m not feeling enthused by any of my sewing projects is to let them go for a little while and get stuck into something “just for fun” – so I did just that!
Our weather has really started to turn, we are still getting some warm days but there is a chill in the air that is hinting towards Winter and for some reason, cold weather sewing is my favourite. I like making snuggly clothes that will keep me (or the kids) warm and cosy and prefer buying winter-weight fabric over lightweight.
So I flicked through my pile of unsewn sewing patterns (yes, I have a big collection of patterns I have never used too!) and decided to give the Lane Raglan by Hey Juen a turn. I remember seeing a few Raglans sewn by Kelly of Cut Cut Sew (here, here, here) in the past and they are exactly what I feel like wearing at the moment. Comfortable, casual and perfect to wear day after day.
I would usually sew a size small in a top like this, but I didn’t want my raglan to be a fitted tee, more like a slouchy sweater, so I cut out a medium instead. Perfect fit for the look I was after. This is such a versatile pattern and really well written. With just a few little changes you can achieve a different look every time you sew it. By sizing up or down you can get a more snug or loose fit. And the type of knit fabric you use changes the look completely too.
I wanted my raglan to be like a jumper – soft, loose and baggy and used a hoarded french terry knit I bought awhile ago from Ixat. It is the best fabric – a light marle grey with red/blue/purple specks all over it. It isn’t too thick and is really soft and squishy and just lovely to wear. I purchased 2 yards so still have plenty left over but wish I had bought more now because I will use it for everything! I also bought the same fabric but with a black background and multi-coloured specks that I’m hanging out to use too now.
I know this jumper is really going to get a workout this Winter – I have already worn it more days than not since I made it and finally managed to wash it over the weekend ready to wear again and again and again! And yes, I’ve since made another raglan and have been wearing that one on the other days!
Over the last few years we have unintentionally started an Easter tradition of giving the kids a special new book with their Easter eggs. I don’t think I set out to make it a tradition, but I love new books and adding to our collection so Easter seemed like the perfect excuse to give the kids a new book each.
I pretty much always buy online so sometimes it can be a bit tricky to know exactly what a book is going to be like without actually flicking through it first. This year, when I was researching new books to buy for the kids I realised how much I rely on the recommendations of others when it comes to buying online and thought that it might be helpful to other researchers out there if I shared some of my favourite picture books too. Now, I’m a bit of a a sporadic blogger at the moment so I’m not promising too much, but here’s the first installment in my Favourite Children’s Books series…and it may very well be my last too if I don’t ever get around to writing another one!
The books I want to share with you today are by a French author, Herve Tullet and they are awesome. The first book I bought by Herve Tullet was actually at a bookshop (rare for me!) when we were holidaying in New Zealand last year. Herve Tullet takes interactive picture books to a whole new level – much more than a lift-the-flap, touch-and-feel or pop-up variety, Press Here is a super clever interactive picture book where the children are specific directions to follow, and the book responds with the turn of a page. My kids haven’t tired of this book and it has been read over and over again for the last year. From the first page the children are given specific directions like “Press the yellow dot and turn the page” and “clap your hands twice” – every time a page is turned, the dots change position, colour and size. Sometimes the lights are turned out and other times dots grow and grow and grow. It really is an amazing book where the kids feel in control and a little bit magical.
I also love that this book helps young children with fine motor skills, counting, learning directions (left, right, up, down) and they also learn how to follow instructions in anticipation of what will happen when the page is turned. It’s such a great concept and the story never gets old. After the success of “Press Here” I went on a hunt for other books by Herve Tullet. The next book we bought was “The Book With A Hole.” This book is huge and not so much a story to follow, but a platform for imaginative story telling, art adventures and play.
On each page, the children are given a simple black and white picture or image created around the hole in the book and are often asked a question – did the lady in the picture below eat too much?
What is the cat watching on TV? In response, children can use their imagination and carry the book around place images in the hole or draw pictures to create a scene which they can then insert in the hole. My kids seem most content popping their own heads in the hole! This is a really long book, heaps of pages, prompts and images to keep you going for ages and no two answers will ever be the same.
“Mix It Up” is another book similar to “Press Here” which focuses on colours – what do different colours make when they are mixed together?
Sometimes the children are asked to take an imaginary dab of paint from one colour and rub it on another…
Other times they shut the pages of the book together and squish colours together, when the page is turned the mixed colour appears – magic again! Like “Press Here”, “Mix It Up” is read over and over again and is great for learning colours and learning what colours are made when mixed together.
“The Game Of Finger Worms” is another book with a hole, this book is a board book so suited to babies and toddlers and you are instructed to draw a little face on the tip of your finger before playing. The text is very simple, the highlight is the surprise of popping your finger through the hole and wriggling it around. It always creates laughter with the little ones and they like to poke their fingers through the holes too.
And the final Herve Tullet book in our collection is “The Game Of Let’s Go!” Similar to “The Game Of Finger Worms,” this is another board book aimed at small children. To be honest, we haven’t really got into this book like we have the others but if you have a very imaginative child (or adult) who is into telling stories in your family, then I can see how it would be a lot of fun.
The first page of this book gives instructions but the rest of the book is without words. Instead, on each page there are raised green pathways to follow (they are kind of velvety-feeling) and you are supposed to trace the lines with your finger whilst closing your eyes and coming up with a story to match along the way. It definitley has potential, but you have to be in the right kind of mood and we haven’t really latched onto this book yet.
I think you can tell we are huge Herve Tullet fans around here, and if you are looking for a new, special picture book for some littlies in your life, then I highly recommend his collections!
(I wrote this post because I wanted to – nothing sponsored and no one gave me anything, I just think this guy is pretty awesome!)
Let the house tour continue! If you missed the previous house tour post, you can see and read all about the exterior here. Now to move into the kitchen, dining and lounge areas. I think a lot of people were surprised when they heard about our natural, neutral palette at the new house. The first house we built was very “out there” as far as colours go. Lime green accent walls, lime green mosaic tiles in the kitchen and bathroom, splashes of scarlet red and brown tones throughout. It was a fun house with a lot of character but we felt ready to tone things down this time around and reflect the beautiful countryside and nature surrounding us.
We decided to stick with light timber, lots of stark white and concrete/grey throughout the house. Our house has a lot of North-facing windows and is really bright and fresh, which is only enhanced by the clean, neutral design and colours inside. So, here is our kitchen. Definitely the hub of the home and where I seem to spend a great deal of my time. It is right in the middle of the lounge room and rumpus room and looks out to our front yard.
We spent quite a bit of time deciding what colours and finishes we wanted to use on the kitchen cupboards, benchtop and splashback. In the end we went safe and fresh and choose white high gloss cupboards and drawers. Underneath the benchtops we have lots of drawers, which I love and above the splashback and appliances are soft-close cupboards. I’m happy that we decided to omit the handles on the cupboards as it keeps things looking nice and clean. I’m hopeless at visualising a finished space before it is actually finished and I was a little worried that the kitchen would look too boring, but I really love how it all turned out. It feels sleek and simple and stylish. The splashback is white glass, this is the only part of the kitchen that we are not 100% happy with. It has a slight green tinge to it in some light, especially when compared to the bright white cupboards and drawers. We did think of putting timber behind glass at one stage but weren’t sure how it would stand up so didn’t go for it but if we could change one thing about the kitchen now we would have a timber splashback.
To bring a concrete element to the inside of the house, we choose a concrete-look benchtop. It is a new Caesarstone colour called Sleek Concrete. It would have been nice to have a polished concrete slab as the benchtop but also super expensive so this was a nice compromise. Moving onto the ceiling…we wanted the kitchen nice and light so put two big square recessed skylights in the ceiling. There are a few other skylights in the house and they are one of the best decisions we made when planning the build. They let in so much light and I love the direct sunlight that moves across the kitchen throughout the day. It is awesome standing underneath them and looking up during a heavy rain too!
The timber running up the wall and across the ceiling is the one thing in the house that I can take full credit for…and I’m pretty proud of myself because Jaron usually comes up with all of the cool design stuff before I do! We were trying to look around for pendants to put above the island bench and couldn’t find anything that we were really happy with, then I had a thought that maybe we shouldn’t bother with pendants at all and keep the kitchen clean and streamline without too many distractions. I’m not sure where this inspiration came from but we played around with different ways of including timber in the ceiling of the kitchen and settled on this design and it really helps to increase the interest and ties in well with other timber elements in the house. All of the timber in the house (including the floors) is Tas Oak. I was really set on having a light coloured timber and wanted to stay away from high gloss so we did some research and used a Scandanavian product called Bona Traffic HD as a coating on the timber and it is awesome! It is a satin finish and makes a huge difference in keeping the floor looking clean. When the sunlight hits the floor you don’t notice any of the dust that is really noticeable on a high gloss timber floor. It also has a soft, almost waxy feel under your feet and is lovely and warm to walk on. I especially love the light blonde colour and how it is more of a sandy colour rather than dark brown, yellow or orange. The floor is so easy to clean and hardly ever looks dirty – I’ve managed to go 2-3 weeks in between washing it and you can’t even tell it is overdue for a wash! After the white gloss tiles in our old house that always seemed to look dirty and smeary this floor is a dream!
The pantry is to the right of Harvey in the back of the picture above. It feels a little hidden as it is enclosed by two big, gloss, push-to-open doors with no handles and feels like a blank wall. It has heaps of space, actually the whole kitchen has heaps of storage. Half of the cupboards above the bench don’t even have anything in them yet! I think we are one of the few, newer houses that doesn’t have a sink on the island bench. It is just something that I have never wanted in my kitchen. I would rather have my bench clutter-free, ready for kids to sit at or people to eat at or a place to serve food and not have to worry about water and taps and dirty dishes getting in the way.
You can see in the photo above the timber posts screening off our computer nook. This area works really well. It means that the computer is still in the busy part of the home, I can always see what is going on or be close to everyone when I am using it, but also has it’s own space.
And here it is looking from the rumpus room. That door to the left of the computer desk is for storage. The computer desk is a grey laminate – it looks almost identical to the Caesarstone benchtops in the kitchen but a fraction of the price. The dining area sits directly in front of the kitchen. I love the pendant light that we choose to put here (there is another identical one in the entrance) the white gloss and timber suits the house perfectly. Our dining set is a work in progress…the table was the same colour as the chairs a few months ago. Jaron painted the legs white and used left over timber from the floors to make a new tabletop. So much nicer than what we had before and it only cost $60 and a couple of nights work! Now we need to paint the chairs white and cover the seats with something. Not sure what we will use yet…I have been looking for a grey oilcloth but haven’t been able to find anything that I really like yet (any ideas?) but am also wondering if I could cover them with some leather. Not sure how the leather will go with milk spills and wiping up food though so will have to do a bit more research.
And the last area to talk about for today is the loungeroom… The loungeroom is still a work in progress – we eventually want to get a new couch that suits the space a little better and the display shelves are ever changing and I really need to make some new cushion covers but I’m taking my time with the decorating of this room because we also spend so much time here I want to get a feel for the house first and see where it leads me! I had some Ikea shelves next to the TV in our old house and I loved how I could display photos/prints/knick knacks and easily change them around without committing to holes in walls. Because we knew it worked well for our style we had the joiner build us in some white gloss shelves either side of the TV for this purpose. It was nice to have somewhere easy to start decorating when we moved into the house too.
The timber paneling in between the shelves is the same Tas Oak as used in the kitchen. We wanted something to give a bit of warmth to the room so that it just didn’t look like a TV on a white wall and it carries on with the light timber theme we have going throughout the house.
Either side of the shelves are two big white gloss cupboards to use for storage – the one on the left is for books and the one on the right has board games, kids drawing stuff and is predominantly used for media – the DVD player, top box, amplifier and receiver are hidden away in this cupboard. Jaron’s big dream was to have surround sound in the loungeroom and he won (I wasn’t keen!) so this is where all of his stuff is kept out of view! The grey bench underneath the TV and shelves is also made up of a heap of cupboards too for extra storage (and at the moment they are all empty except for a few puzzles and kids books in one of them!) We used the same paint colour throughout the whole house – on all of the walls, trims and ceiling. It is Vivid White half strength Dulux Wash & Wear 101. This was another risk we took that paid off – we really wanted stark white walls to contrast nicely with the timber and grey elements of the house. So many people tried to talk us out of it and said that it would look too cold but we love it and I’ve discovered a great way to wipe dirty finger marks off without leaving any smears – I’ll share it next time because this post is getting too long! Not sure if you can really tell in these photos but all of the windows in the loungeroom, dining and rumpus room have Tas Oak timber reveals with a shadow line around them. To tell you the truth, I didn’t have a clue what Jaron was talking about when he said he wanted to do it but I love it and once again, it brings in a subtle timber element to all of the rooms.
The carpet we used throughout the house was something that we splurged on. It is Providence Sublime in Fog and is super soft and thick and luxurious. I figure that we sit and lounge and walk barefoot on the floor constantly so it was worth forking out a bit of extra money for. Plus it was one of the only carpet ranges that we could find that made a real stone grey colour, most other greys were too blue or too brown but this one works just right with the rest of our colours.
And this is what you see when you look back at the house from the loungeroom. That big opaque sliding door at the end is the rumpus room and my sewing area but it was a big mess on the day we took photos so I’ll save those for another day!
And if you’re a bit clueless with visualising things like I am, here is another look at the floor plan so that you can make sense of how these rooms fit together with each other and the rest of the house!
High 5 to you if you stuck with me for this loooong post! I better save the rest of the house for another time!
This is our ensuite. For the tiles, we choose a matte-finish grey rectangle tile and used that one tile everywhere – floors and walls right up to the ceiling (that’s why our tile shopping was so fast!)
My kids haven’t tired of this book and it has been read over and over again for the last year. From the first page the children are given specific directions like “Press the yellow dot and turn the page” and “clap your hands twice” – every time a page is turned, the dots change position, colour and size. Sometimes the lights are turned out and other times dots grow and grow and grow. It really is an amazing book where the kids feel in control and a little bit magical.
The text is very simple, the highlight is the surprise of popping your finger through the hole and wriggling it around. It always creates laughter with the little ones and they like to poke their fingers through the holes too.
