Beach house & winter...Instagram & Iphone love

Morning from the Ark that has become our home here by the Coast...!

It seems the weather God's have blessed us well enough for one Winter.

{Manly Ferry- Manly Wharf}

Damn, I should have kept my "oh it's freezing and I'm still wearing sunscreen in winter" mouth firmly shut!

As it's now raining- as in bucketing down- and will continue to do so till at least the end of the week!

Kid's Athletics Carnivals and Book Week Parade's have been postponed till next week...
and the dryer is my new bestie...

I've also been hit with this dreaded head cold thingy that has been sweeping through Sydney all winter.

I'm dragging my feet to all things kids and extra-curricular.
Dragging through the supermarket.
And looking at piles of Christmas stockings ready to sew up for my IG pop-up shop, with a seriously I feel so sorry for myself, God I'm bad at doing nothing, grumpy face.

Lots of tea being made here.

{Beach House Sitting Room- Pre Reno's!!}

So...what to do whilst doing nothing productively...?

Sort photos.
Good idea now.
We'll see in an hour.

Here's the past few days of life here via my new Iphone 5C.
I know, everyone's apparently waiting for the 6.
Which is apparently being released in September.
But I'm no follower.
I'm a stickler when it comes to phones.
I love Apple.
Anything.
But I'm not a chronic phone *up-grader*.

My brother is.
That's his thing apparently.
Go him, I say.
Smugly hugging my sweet blue 5C.

So...life by the Coast via my super loved up, blue as the sky, Iphone 5C...

{Shopping for tropical plants for the soon-to-be renovated garden beds} 

{Divine cafe- *SUB~STATION No.152*  McEvoy Street, Sydney.}

{Spoon Swoon- two from a sweet IG friend *thesnailmailcollective}

{A little Sunday morning Disco lighting thanks to moving stuff again & winter sun}

{Can I just say: I LOVE WEEKENDS}

{I shopped the house for front door wall art- a fresh wall- c'mon Spring!}

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There's a FB giveaway in the making for the *Change of season* that we're all waiting for.

A little bunting love.

Head over & like the *MISS SEW & SO* Face book Page 

to be in it to win it!

Hope you're happy, healthy and love ya phone no matter what numero it has behind it's name!

{just for the record I love my bro BIG!}

Melissa

xox

Cool Ten-Minute D.I.Y Artwork

A quick...cool...fab looking D.I.Y for any room!

We are on the edge of leaping into the renovating pit...well an awesome big extension I hope!
And the house is being cleared of any *extra* stuff that apparently we can live without...hmmm!?

Can I really live without *stuff*?
This will be the making, or perhaps the undoing, of my Bower Bird ways.

We'll see.
So far I'm loving the empty walls.
But I'm keeping one feature wall of *stuff* above the sofa's. {I can't do total cold turkey decorating...}

You know empty walls reflect sooooooo much lovely light!
Yeah so did I...but I've been choosing to ignore that!
I'm loving that light!

Anyway...

As the sitting room and kitchen are starting to be stripped bare- I'm sorting all the bedrooms so the kids can spend more time in there, doing things they may have done at the dining table or kitchen bench- seeing as we'll be a few months without either.

We spent a very wet Sydney weekend re-aranging rooms, and completing quick little cool projects we'd been putting aside with the warm winter weather.
A weekend inside was just what we needed to do all our pre-reno *jobs*, and the rain sorted that!

So...

Here's a D.I.Y that takes little time for lotsa punch!

A graphic print like artwork- two seconds with a spray can and a quick break in the weather!

What you need: D.I.Y Artwork

-Ikea frame - we used a poster sized frame from the NYTTJA range in black.

-Spray paint in black- we used Rust-Oleum in Canyon Black as we had a stash in the shed.

-Large sheet of paper- torn slightly smaller that the size of your chosen frame.
 We use sheets from the MALA  roll of kids paper, again from IKEA.

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Simply unwrap the frame, and use the sheet of paper in the frame, to measure your *torn off sheet* of artwork paper from the MALA roll.

In an open area, spray a huge heart, or shape of your choice, onto the MALA paper and leave to dry.

Attach the artwork to the white side of the paper that came in the NYTTJA frame.

Put the frame back together. Bung a nail in the wall. And hang.

D.O.N.E

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Happy D.I.Y-ing on a shoestring budget with no time!

This one is lotsa bang for your buck

&

as individual as you choose to make it!

The options are endless...

Melissa xx

A D.I.Y Blackboard Wall in Dark Grey

So...my son just outa the blue asked for something doing to his room!

He's 13...

I loved that moment!

He's never asked or requested, or even *not requested*, anything particular for his room before!

His request was a dark, dark, dark grey blackboard wall!

I loved that moment!

We took the bulls by the horns and used the hour we had left one Sunday afternoon to send the husband to the hardware store, with strict instructions on the darkest of dark greys...

He was a little worried about the open ended only one guideline direction of our request...but he went off on his mission focused on darkest of greys with a very small colour sample!

We moved the entire room to one side, lay drop sheets, brought up the ladder and made Sol up a spare bed for the night in his sister's room.

As a bit of a *one-hit-wonder* when it comes to wanting something done NOW...I actually acknowledged that this would take two coats, over two days to really look the part- blackboard paint needs to be even and heavy- done in layered coats, not all at once.

I did good. Two days. Three coats. Done.

The colour is a fabulous deep, dark tone that shows up the actual elements that make up his room in a way I didn't expect.

We loved the clean sharpness of the wall so so much- that even he couldn't bring himself to use it as a blackboard for a good week!

But the temptation proved to much in the end- and I returned home from a market shop to this fantastic wall of thought and creativity!

It's my favourite wall in the house at the moment!

I just smile every time I walk past his door.

Thirteen with a room you truly want...he's happy...I'm frigging delighted!

Dark grey is the new whatever in our house!

Happy Painting!

Believe me- EVERY home needs a chalkboard wall!

Melissa 

xox

**We used Berger Interior Paint - the formula was IRONSTONE .01
** The colour Library was DULUX_W.LIB