Benefits of running...

...early in the morning!

1. Seeing really beautiful wood doors (3 of them!!!!) by the side of the road.

2. Umm...sorry, thats the only benefit I can think of right now.

I am really hoping they are there when I go back tonight...I felt it was a little unfair to knock on someone's door (the one attached to the house, not the ones on the side of the road!) at 6.30am.

Might do a drive-by before work actually and see if I can squeeze them into my car!

UPDATED: They were gone by the time I drove past an hour later. It wasn't meant to be.

Light and Dark...Dark Grey in fact!

After seeing these stunning pics over at A Life's Design, its confirmed. I am going to paint our dining room dark grey. All the white features pop so beautifully against it, and it will highlight our gorgeous shutters - plus seperate the room from the living room, and give it a little 'intimacy'. You can see the room here. Ooh I can just imagine!

I don't think we have anything on on Sunday...should i do it then?

Speaking of light and dark - dark grey, I have decided this is going to be my other 'colour' to break up the white. Each room will have a charcoal/grey feature of some sort in it.

In the bedrooms it will be the carpet and in the bathroom, the floor tiles. The dining room will be as above, and in the kitchen? Well, I have decided our wall unit/pantry/ display cabinet would look incredible in grey, filled with white china and colourful accents, with the rest of the kitchen in white.

The only room I can't decide on, is the living room. I was thinking maybe charcoal roman blinds in front of our bi-fold doors, but I am concerned they will be a little heavy and distracting. Maybe a rug...maybe a light...maybe a button tufted ottoman? Now there's a thought!

Bonus

After all that wonderful-ness, my husband disapeared for half an hour or so this evening and came back inside with a huge bunch of lilies from the garden, for me. They are now on the dining table in 3 vases, and 2 will be distributed to the bedroom and kitchen shortly. He is THE BEST!

A real gem

Today has been a real gem of a day. A dead-set sparkler - just like the pretty above (from cutdiamonds.com).

I knew it would be when I first saw the weather for today - forecast for 21 and sunny - our first hit of Spring (and perfect for a wedding - Congratulations Benny and Rita!)

Mr Limecello and I slept in and woke when our dog-child's tail started to wag. We are in dire need of a grocery shop, so breaky was a little simple, but delicious (cereal with passionfruit yogurt and tinned peaches), but chased down by my latest obsession - Twinnings Peppermint Tea. I am completely addicted!

We had always planned on a nice long walk, and we headed off to Westerfolds Park with the pooch. I had never been there, but my Husband spent a fair bit of time there back in his teens. And after today, I think we will be spending a fair bit more time there! Its so beautiful, right here in the suburbs, and there is a great track that does a complete loop of the park .We did 2 laps (about 9.6km) and it was so nice just to chat to each other, with no interruptions!

On the way home we took a random detour and managed to catch the tail-end of the Nunawading Farmers Market - where everyone was selling off their produce for a song. We picked up some beautiful asparagus, leek, felafel (which had us racing off to get a bunch of parsley, so we can have tabbouleh and felafel sandwiches!), free range eggs, 2 loaves of bread (for the price of 1!), a couple of home-made vegie pasties and a muffin- or 2! Its a plastic bag free market, so fortunately we had our own hessian bag in the car (Mr LC had his suspicions the market was on I think!

So we picked up a few bargains, and headed home with a fresh pastie for lunch, which we followed with an alcoholic beverage each - a Corona for him, and a glass of my favorite budget white for me.

All this and its only 3 o'clock. We might head out to see Mao's Last Dancer later on (free tickets, coutesy of a late start last time!), or just stay on home on the couch with the sun streaming in the bi-fold doors - no, a blanket! Its just started raining, which will give the garden a good water!

It been a pretty fabulous and budget friendly weekend this week - friends over for home-made pizza, sundaes and (store-bought) wine on Friday night and sunshine and gardening yesterday, plus my Mum dropped in for a cup of tea in the afternoon. Life is so precious, and this weekend has reminded me just how good it is!

Entryway again

Oh, just a quick excited post! My wonderful Dad has offered to do all the building and plastering for us, so we can keep saving for a holiday! He is going to take some time off work and do it all over about 4 days!

I love my Dad - he is awesome!

I have also decided to get our sofa slip covers made while he is here, so the mess won't get the current sofas dirty (they take them away for 2 weeks to make the covers!)

So progress shots should be just around the corner!

Entryway moodboard

Here it is!

The moodboard for our entry way and hallway. Let me give you a little rundown.

Obviously, the walls are white, as are the floors.

The white cabinet is instead of a hallstand. I will get one eventually, but we already have this cabinet, and its not getting used. Plus it will add storage that will be lost when we halve the hall cupboard to become doors.

The turned wooden stool will give me somewhere to sit while I tie my shoelaces, and will sit under a little green frame which holds the brooch from my wedding dress. A little sparkle sparkle, and a happy memory too.

I have wanted this hanging rack for quite some time now, and despite the cost, my husband agrees. Its a special 'piece' that we would have for years to come, and gives people such a lovely sentiment when they walk in the door. Above it (if there is room!) I will hang this round mirror, with a mirrored frame - the perfect piece to reflect the light from the chandelier! This may not be the exact chandelier I use - it may hang a little low - but something like this would be so nice!

Our hall cupboard door will be a nice panelled one, with a crystal handle (and I haven't shown them here, but we will have glass french doors, next to the cupboard, also off this hallway, leading to the loungeroom)

The large picture is my husband and I on our wedding day. My wonderful sister and brother in law had this pic enlarged and printed on a canvas for us as a wedding gift. Its quite big (about 50 x 70 cm), and will go right at the end of the hallway, so its not too confronting! The framed pics are ones I am gathering at the moment of family over the years - my sister and I as toddlers, my grandparents on their first weekend away together, etc. Not sure yet whether to frame them in black, or a dark stained wood - which would tie in nicely with the wooden stool.

I love the grey rug with the circles (have you noticed a bit of a 'circle-y theme here?), as the 3 bedrooms which run off this hallway will be carpeted in charcoal, and the bathroom will likely have charcoal floor tiles too, so it ties in, but the circles break it up (or I might just get the green one, and never mind it matching anything else!)

So this is the hallway in my mind..Perhaps its time to start on the construction!

The making of an entryway

I love entryways. I love hallstands, and welcoming spaces, and homey touches, like hooks with scarves on them, and a place to sit while putting on your shoes.

An entryway was something we did not have in our last home - see that door there, not even 1 foot from the sofa - THAT was our front door!

So I was super excited when we moved to a house with a hallway and an entryway. Unfortunately, the said entryway has no walls - they all have doors on them, and is not wide enough for a hallstand. Boo!

Also missing is a few walls is our living room. Major dilemma - the main entryway to our living room is off the hallway, through double doors, that lead you straight into the back of our sofa! (yes I should draw you a floorplan...and I will...soon!)

Solution - close up the double doors, gain a wall for our sofa to live on, and move the door just a little further down the hall, so you walk into the side of our living room. There are so many benefits.

But I had to run it past our trusted advisors - first, my Dad, a builder for about 30 years, who was well known for his talents in making spaces work!, and Jeni, a close friend - also my Dad's partner - a seriously talented draftsperson (just ask Steve and Jules - my brother and sister in law!) and interior designer who totally 'gets' what we want to achieve.

Last night they gave us the tick of approval for our plans, and moving forward, we will be calling builder next week for a quote! And hence, my excitement about entry-ways. I can see it already - large white cabinet with mirrored front, a dark stained, turned wood stool, a hall runner...and a chandelier! I feel a mood board coming on!