A few finds..

Nat here.   I've just been having a pininterest trawl.  I haven't been on for a while so spent far longer than I had intended!  Love the kitchen above -aren't all the colours brilliant?

Am loving this tile and marble combo too...

And these picture frames...have been meaning to do something similar in our hallway for ages..

This has to be my favourite at the moment, what did Scotty Cam call it the other night on the Block Rescue - Industrial Country? I.love.it.

More adventures

Nat here.  We kick-started our Friday night in a fine-dining manner for J's birthday at Esquire.  Touted (I've just discovered) as a "most significant Australian restaurant". That it certainly was!  We enjoyed every morsel of the 9 course degustation.  Everything was so creative - the first course (dried wagyu beef) was served in a little yellow envelope!  Definitely recommend for a special night out in BrisVegas.

The house reno's continued on the weekend.  The husband and I picked some lights for the kitchen...apparently these were used on The Block, we know this because there were 26 back orders for these at Beacon Lighting at Windsor.  You have to go with what the masses are liking....

We went with the larger globe below for the lounge, for a bit of a feature..

Husband painted the fence on the weekend, it's starting to show what the rest will look like when it's finished....

We celebrated a birthday on Saturday night, L served the most delicious slow cooked lamb, beef and chicken, and the cake was divine!

It was great to catch-up...

A final laugh for you - something you don't see happening on The Block...this is the light globe, husband had to walk it back to the house, lucky it was only 500m away!

Happy New Week!

More before's

Nat here.  Thought I would pass on a few more "before" shots of the cottage.  The above is the lounge room, nothing a lick of paint won't fix and those new white venetians.

Below is the bathroom, can you see how small it is?! I can't even get inside to take a photo!  This is the wall that we'll be extending slightly into the lounge so that the bathroom looks less of a cupboard.  

This is my favourite feature - the beautiful breezeway's.  I just love them, we are painting them a white gloss..

The kitchen is below, not too bad really, we're ripping out that cupboard on the left and those shelves and just leaving it minimal

This is a feature I wish we could do something with - the old outhouse! I want to paint it but husband tells me it's more work than it's worth....he didn't say I couldn't try!

Have you noticed there isn't a dining room?  Good, you're not supposed to.  I'm right aren't I?

In celebrity news - husband not only met, but had a few drinks with THE Cuba Gooding Jnr last night.  A group of his work mates found him at their hotel bar.  There is a photo and everything....

The best bit - husband asked Cuba what he thought of Tom Cruise and Cuba said "Tom used to be such a cool cat, now, he's a strange cat".   Yep, that pretty much sums it up!

Better get back to the footy, how very un-Queensland like of me to be missing the Origin.  Husband is at the game the lucky-duck, flying the flag for both of us I'm sure.  He really does have all the fun!

And so it begins..

Nat here.  The tenants have vacated and the reno's have begun!  After watching The Block tonight, we are rearing to get started. Seriously though, the reserves were far too low?! And why were they accepting ridiculous bids from the guy with the shirt whose company will remain anonymous on this blog as I'm convinced he was purchasing advertising space?!!  Anyway....back on the real project, where tradespeople must be paid and budgets are real, the paint has been picked and the work begins this week, husband and his Dad even started the fence today.

We think the deck will be a feature..

What are your thoughts on doors? I've read that they are one of the first things a buyer looks at.  It turns out doors are expensive, I know, who would have thought?  I think we need a new one?

The front garden is in a dire situation, we are hoping to plant lavender, I hope it works...

Curtains take 4 weeks, again - who thought?! So we are going to need to go down the track of roller blinds or venetians, we think white venetians throughout will be just as nice as curtains?

I had lunch at Vappiano's with the lovely B family today, it was yum

And although I had to work on a weekend, we had a rather cute supervisor on hand for assistance with our EOFYS workload...

Had breakfast at Verve again on the weekend, when you are on to a good thing - stick to it!

Last vote for you - we have the option of adding a wall and making the front room which looks like this..

an actual bedroom, the cost is affordable (nearly the same price as a new front door - do I need to say and who would have thought?!).  It will then have 3 bedrooms, 1 bathroom.  Do we convert it into a bedroom to make it 3 or leave it as 2 bedrooms with a space for someone to do as they please later?  I have a heap more "before" photos to show you later!

Finally, this was me on Friday night....

Not sure whether you can see but it is a review of Katrina's cookbook, just in the little, (overseas!) Cuisine magazine, woohoo for you Katrina!  I quote,  "the recipes are for the most part simple to prepare, gutsy in flavour and show plenty of flair", oh and my favourite part, "Meynink is a smart and sassy writer and her humorous anecdotes make for entertaining reading".  I'm sure you have already bought a copy, but if that doesn't convince you to buy another for everyone you know I don't know what will!

Woohoo

Nat here.  Happy End-of-Financial-Year!

Friday night's a great night for ironing

Nat here.  This was me, seemingly all weekend!  Are you an "all at once ironer" or an "as you go ironer"?  On Friday night over a couple of champas with the girls, I discovered I am a lone ranger in the "all at once" category. I think it's because I love the feeling of putting all the freshly ironed clothes away and having an empty clothes basket.  Am I odd?  I also remember every Sunday night Mum would always have the ironing board out watching 60 minutes and I'm the same!  It was a bit sad seeing Grant Hackett so upset last night wasn't it?  I know he did the wrong thing but I feel deadset sorry for him.

We had peonies at work last week (imported from Holland nevertheless).....I loooooved them

Friday night we stayed down at husband's parents.  Husband's Mum is a superstar cook, we had the most delicious beef with mushroom sauce...

Not to mention the baileys creme brulee for dessert....look at that presentation, I know, she should open a shop...

We had a lovely barbie at Mum's too but I forgot to take photos, we tried kangaroo sausages!

Had a lovely breakfast with S, P and baby R at Verve Lounge at New Farm on Sunday, it was delicious..one of the best breakfast menu's I've ever seen

Baby R is 100/10 cute, I totes pretended she was mine as we have the same hair colour, cue gushing when people (everyone in the cafe) told me how beautiful she was...I would reply "oh, I know, isn't she"?

Read this over the weekend....can't believe Stuart Membery has a store in Singapore and I didn't know until now!!

 Had a cathartic clean-out of the wardrobe on Saturday...

Went to Corner Store Cafe at Toowong for a lovely lunch on Sunday, it was yum.  Although lining up for lunch isn't my idea of a good time.

Hope you had a great weekend!

Faux Asia II

Where did we leave off Part I? On the cocktail train I think...our next stop was Raffles Hotel which is famous for developing the Singapore Sling, the red is the traditional however the guide said it was created for ladies so the husband chose something more manly...the sunshine sling.  You could throw your peanuts on the floor, which was fun.

Afterwards we met Shaanie, CSD and T for some traditional Singapore food court action.  It was brilliant, Shaanie and I went Indian...

Bintan was our next stop after a short ferry ride from Singapore, it was uber relaxing.  Shaanie and I had couples massages!

On the first night we went next door to Banyan Tree and had an amazing three course meal, this was husband's Indonesian delights...

And dessert....that's a creme brulee in front of Shaanie, not soup!

The rest of our trip at Bintan was reading, eating, swimming and repeat.  I think we all could have stayed much longer.  


The night we returned from Bintan we had our last supper in Singapore at a great Mexican place at Dempsey Hill....

It was hard to say goodbye...

Overall, I rate our trip 100/10.   We can't wait to return to Singapore for another holiday with Shaanie and CSD, we miss you guys!! xo