Silhouettes and more

I love silhouettes of all kinds, I hand-painted these on these wooden boards.
I forgot to get the Before photos, there were roses painted on them when I bought them,

I didn't like the roses, but the details on the wood were good.
So I painted all over them with Coffee Cake by Taubmans and then rubbed a Folk Art Acrylic (Nutmeg) on with my fingers, before painting the silhouettes with Black Acrylic.

Both my hutch and buffet have been distressed, I love the results.

 Also added these keys and hung them on the door knobs, love the look.

Laundry Shelf

This shelf is in our laundry room. It's functional, and yet decorative. It changes all the time.Introducing Louise Odier, the pink strongly perfumed Old Rose. It's my very first rose this Spring, while the rest of the roses are not ready yet. I hadn't been out in the back garden due to the continuous wet weather these few days. Today the sun came out and I found Louise had been out for a few days, sitting quietly on its branch, waiting to be picked!I asked my French friend what a laundry room is called in French, she told me there's no such word; because they don't have a seperate room for laundry in France. Why the numbers 3 and 5, you might ask, well, I don't know, they just look nice together, I suppose. Our laundry walls are painted Greenlandic by Taubmans, a soft mint green (looks darker in the photos) - a good colour to perk me up while doing the not so exciting chores.

Lampshade Metamorphosis

My lampshade in the living room has been going through a bit of a metamorphosis through the years. When it was first given to me, it was this hideous bright orange papery thing with gold trims which didn't fit with my decor at all no matter where I placed it. So as soon as it came home, I quickly tore off the orange papery material and hung a piece of lace on its frame temporarily until I worked out how to go about re-covering it. Unfortunately I don't have photos of it being bright orange. I accepted it knowing fully I would re-cover it, I saw that it had good bones. I ended up getting a new frame for it though, as I wasn't completely happy with the old one. This was the first proper re-covering I did............ Then came time for a change, I put a piece of material on to temporarily cover it to see how it looked............ Then this............ also not to stay for too long.............. Now, it looks like this below............. Do you like it? The fabric looks cream in the photo, but it's more of a sandy colour in real life, it also has these grainy textured look up close. You can also see in this picture I painted some of the other things grey, I like the effect, hopefully will have some pictures to show you the fuller view later. Thanks for your visit, my dear friends, hope you enjoyed it; have a great weekend! The stand is painted an off-white colour now, it was like this before.........

Spring is in the air............

.........when my eyes get a bit watery and my throat iches, You know Spring is on its way when pollen is in the air, the not so pleasant price for some to pay in Spring............ Do you get hay fever? What have you found effective to reduce the symptoms? Hope to hear from you. These photos were taken in Springtime Oct 2007, this bouquet from my garden has all the lovely colours I like; so I thought I'd share them with you while I'm waiting for my roses to bud and flower, there are lots of fresh little leaves on them at the moment.Seduction (Floribunda, cream and pink, light fragrance), Perfumed Perfection (Floribunda, mauve, strong fragrance), Simplicity (Floribunda, pink, light fragrance) So girls, have a wonderful weekend, wherever you are, whatever season you're in, have a good one.

Being random...............

G'day dear bloggers and readers, hope your week has been great. Today I felt like being random, so I shot a few random photos around our home. This bench is where I love to sit to soak up the precious winter's sun............. The chair is where my feet go. I love topiary plants............... they are the best, these will live forever without any watering! They will always look good without any trimming! Shhhh! Don't tell anyone, they are not alive.............. **wink wink** Strawberries are so juicy and yummy........... Turkish delight is also my favourite............. Just thought to randomly share the lovely day with you, you like? Have a fantabulous weekend, won't you?

Old photos and "New" Picture Frames

I dug out some of the old photos I took in my earliest days (only 3-4 years ago) of possessing a digital camera, before I ventured into the world of blogging. Some of them show wall, furniture and furnishing colours different to what they are now. It's fun to look back and see the difference, which I've almost forgotten. I don't even have that camera anymore, the only thing that was the same was roses were my subjects from the beginning, lol. These are old picture frames painted and repurposed as chalkboards. Simply paint chalkboard paint on the inserts and group them together for that look. Can you see what theme we have going here for one of the kids' bedroom?

Pleasant Surprises

Hiya, hope everyone is enjoying your week. Remember I said in a previous post that all my rose bushes had been pruned and so there would be no roses to harvest till Spring time? Well, sometimes life is full of surprises. I cut some rosebuds and put them in water when I was doing the winter pruning; I really didn't expect much from them, but lo and behold, they bloomed, and they really brightened my day. I have some lavender bushes, some of them were getting big and needed some trimming, so I used some of the leaves and made a wreath; if you know lavender, the foliage is scented as well, I love the scent so much. It will look fresh as a wreath for quite some time too. Roses here are: Gold Bunny (Floribunda, lemon yellow), China Doll (Tree Rose, Hot pink), Perfumed Perfection buds (Floribunda, mauve), Wreath (lavender leaves)