Fab Finds - Homewares in Cronulla

On Sunday I escaped from a family brunch (uber casual, I didn't offend anyone! I swear) in Cronulla to scope out my favourite homewares stores in Sydney's South. They are located in Cronulla Mall and are just fantastic for inspiration and accessing some beautiful homewares at great price points.

The first one is 'Essentails For Home' and this could have been passed as a dollar store in the past but the owner deeply cares about the presentation of her store and the brands that she carries. The team puts a huge amount of effort into styling four main spaces and the rest of the floor is stocked with great brands and loads of stock. Take a look at the 'Gallery' section of their website - fab!

If you can't get a hold of something gorgeous here, they will order it in for you. I often just like to go in and check out what is in their styled sections at that time. Preferably kid-free so I have time to browse and really suss out what is going on. 

Love this retro bread bin by Anna Gare

I picked up one of these ceramic strawberry punnets 

These would be great for storing magazines and paper work!

How amazing is this 'wine rack/storage unit'. I love it just a bit.

The second store is a slightly more ecentric, more old worldly styled store. It is really sweet and has some lovely things, but more 'french chic' than I generally really like. I did however love this sweet whale! I think we need it in our house...

These pillows and prints are from Stevie and Me - I am adding this to my DIY inventory!

That's all for now folks!

xx Tess

Sofa shopping...

No we haven't found a new house, no there is no news on that front. Boo. I wish there was. I'm totally ready to find our new home!

In the meantime we are testing and shopping for the furniture we know we will need (obviously not purchasing but we are shopping in hope). We had a lovely three seater/two seater set of leather sofas in our little house, but we sold the two seater prior to selling and turfed out the three seater when we moved as it had taken so much damage! I much prefer the idea of a sectional over two combination sofas. I love that 'corner' that the sectional creates, perfect spot for a cup of tea and a snuggle!

So we don't have a sofa AT ALL! We do however have a lovely ottoman that the sofa will need to go with as I am still loving this ottoman.

Since we are on a *bit* of a budget (read, major budget! There will be LOTS of DIY in this new house where ever it is!) after looking at Freedom furniture, West Elm, Plush sofas and Oz Design, I ended up at the old faithful - Ikea. Of course the blogosphere famous item I am looking at is the Karlstad sectional. 

source

This is the sectional in Sivik Gray which will be the colour we will go with. I would love white or the light light gray but with kids and potential pets that would just be a bit difficult, and I don't want to spend loads of time washing and replacing the covers etc.

I spoke to the lovely Katie of Deranchification as they have this exact sofa but in white. They are loving it one year in and the covers have been easy to wash and replace which is good. Their little boy loves climbing on it (as I am sure ours will too!) and it is super comfy to chill and relax on.

Deranchification

There are several other people out there in the blogosphere who have this couch! Here are a few...

Creating Domestic Bliss

Preparing for Peanut

Modern Jane

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Young House Love

So there ya have it! Any reviews for the Karl series from Ikea? What do you think of its look? I would flirt with changing out the legs..

Country Living Magazine

Loving this thrifting issue of Country Living Magazine! Joanna Swanson's home is just gorgeous and exudes the love and homeliness that I want to be feeling in our home.

Also, this cover just exacerbates my want for a Boston Terrier or French Bulldog. Seriously, how gorgeous is this lil guy?

I'm off to read!

xx Tess

Wishlist Wednesday: Freedom Weekender Occasional Chairs

My gorgeous neighbour has two of these ridiculously comfortable and fabulous looking occasional outdoor chairs on her front balcony. They are SERIOUSLY comfortable and look fab. She has two white ones with red and white pillows on them. I would really, really like one, or two. Maybe for my big birthday this year? I think they would be so comfy to sit and watch the kids play in the garden from our future back deck (of the house we STILL haven't bought..).

I will take two white ones with a yellow garden stool inbetween them, mimosas on said stool and bright turquoise pillows. Thanks.

chair / stool / cushion / dispenser / rug / CUSHION2

Insta-Update: May so far...

From top left..

I needed a change jar to corral the loose change my hubby keeps putting in my purse, which then makes my purse heavy and I just don't like it. I know, first world problem right? Well, I spied an empty spaghetti sauce jar in my reach, cleaned it (duh, no one wants smelly change!) and wrapped some washi tape around it and some raffia ribbon. Pretty right? Love it!

We had some special visitors to the house this week care of a friend of mine who is a primary school teacher. Her class are doing a special topic about animals and had some eggs that hatched into chicks! Since they had to be looked after over the weekend she brought them over when we had dinner and we spent the whole night playing with them (and cleaning up after them). Little Man LOVED them! He kept saying 'bird, bird, bird'.

I love this family shot of the three of us. We took it in Noosa three weeks ago and it pretty much sums up Little Man right now. IE, no Mama I won't look at the camera and Oooo... there is a tree! Yay! I still love it and love my boys to smitereeeeeens!

This is Little Man and his lovely friends in the park. That's his girlfriend G on the right. She has so much spunk, I just know she's gonna rule the playground when she's bigger. Her mama happens to be one of my closest friends and we have known each other for exactly a year! 

Little Man and I did a spot of (window) shopping this week at Bed Bath and Table and found these gorgeous items. The temple jars have my name all over them and I think I'll go back this week to snag one... do di do di do...

Then stopped for coffee and baby cino. The boy loves his baby cino (and his mama loves her coffee!)

Have you discovered the gorgeous A Beautiful Mess app? I have and I freakin love it! Snag it HERE through the lovely girl's website. Whilst you're there, take a lookie around. Seriously gorgeous!

We had a pretty amazing family lunch with Hubby's side of the fam today. We went to Chinadoll on the Wooloomooloo wharf (say that fast five times, go on I dares ya!) and it was amazing. My sis-in-law and I created a banquet for the family from the menu and everyone loved it. The food is amazing, to die for and I already want to go back. This champagne cocktail was made accidentally for someone so our nice waiter thought I would like it. It was delish! Thanks nice waiter. PS how gorgeous is my sis-in-law at 6 and a bit months pregnant with my niece or nephew? We spent ages planning her baby shower last week. I'm so excited to share more with you later!

Follow me on Instagram here: INSTAGRAM

xx Tess

Friday Finds - teal and grey living room

throw rug / tray / pillow / yellow vase / small bowl / book / lamp

Phew!

I feel like today has been a ridiculous whirlwind! We had some friends over for 'kids dinner' tonight and it was a mad house here! Thank God for extra hands and help. Lots of fun, but we have one tired boy tonight.

This shot is from a while ago. Yes it is blurry but it is so gorgeous and typical of the Little Man at the moment.


Enjoy! I hope you are having a fabulous day and relaxing evening.

xx Tess

My temporary workspace, prettied up!

We have been living here at my parents for two weeks now, and can I just say how thankful we are to have somewhere so comfortable and supportive to live whilst we are house hunting. The hunt is getting to me a bit at the moment, Sydney is SUCH a competitive market and there aren't a lot of houses in our price bracket. Get ready for us to find a house that needs LOTS of love, which means LOTS of projects!

Anyway, whilst we are here I have a corner of our room that is acting as my workspace which is really lovely, but has been in total disarray and crazy until this weekend. I love having art, prints, mirrors and especially photos up on the wall and it is no different here. To make the space more comfortable and pretty this is what I got up to.

Here is the print if you like it! It's 5x7 :)

xx Tess

Spring Pinterest Challenge - Family Height Chart Ruler

I love love love the seasonal Pinterest Challenges that Katie Bower from Bower Power Blog and Sherrie and John from Young House Love host each season along with two special guest hosts.

See Bower Power's Spring Pinterest Post HERE!

This season the special guest hosts are Emily from Sparkle Meets Pop and Renee from Red Bird Blue. These two blogs are absolutely gorgeous and although I've known Sparkle Meets Pop for a while, Red Bird Blue is new to me.

Although I've never taken part in a seasonal Pinterest challenge, I've always loved them so this time I decided to give it a go. It is a spring challenge as the hosts are based in the Northern Hemisphere (whilst we begin to FREEZE down under!) but that doesn't matter for us - our Autumn is so mild it may as well be Spring!

To take part in the Pinterest Challenges you must:

- Pick a project inspired by something you have seen on Pinterest
- Create it, spin it and blog it
- Then linky up with the hosts Link Parties (I will add them later as they haven't been launched yet!).

I have wanted to make a Family Height Chart Ruler for a while. They have been floating around the webisphere for ages and I've always loved the notion of measuring the kids' growth. When I was growing up we had a door frame that was written on at my parents old house. You'd have a line drawn at your head height and your name and date written next to it. At one point I was taller than my older brother, and that did not go down well! He has long surpassed me and is the tallest in our family now!

The disadvantage of this door-frame measuring point was that it couldn't be taken to a new house if we moved (and my parents did! The door frame was painted over sadly). The height chart I am going to make will be able to be relocated if we move house.

Pinspiration #1

Height Chart from Bower Power blog

Links:

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Pinspiraton #2

Height chart from Knock off Decor

Link:

Pin

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Pinspiration #3

Height chart from Dear Lille

Links:

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Materials and tools used:

One piece of pine (170 cm x 20 cm x 1.9 cm)
Primer
White paint (I used Taubmans pure white)
Gray paint (I used my favourite gray, Taubmans Storm Cloud)
Black paint (I used an art medium paint)
Brushes
Ruler

I then printed off appropriate sized numbers on to plain white paper. Using a pencil, I traced over the outline of the numbers and then filled them in by hand with black paint. The marker lines were also measured first then painted in by hand.

Please excuse the lighting! Most of this was done during nap time and after Little Man went to bed.

PS That is the amazing wall in my parents foyer/living space. AHHHHHMAZING! House tour coming soon of our 'in-between houses home' (AKA, Living Three Generations Under One Roof).

Tomorrow I promise to take a shot of Little Man being super cute and measured using our fab new family height chart!

xx Tess

All packed up and moved out!

We had a beautiful break in Queensland. It really felt like we were miles away for weeks and weeks! Hubby's crew did really well and made the finals of the Aussies. They came in sixth in the end but it was a HUGE achievement for them to make the final regardless and compete in the top group. I am incredibly proud and Little Man and I were so excited to be there and support Hubby.

After all that excitement we headed to Noosa for three nights. It just fabulous. A really decent break and it was so great to see my boys playing together and having lots of father and son time. Hubby gave me a really good break with Little Man and I even got to read a book and sunbake on the beach! Amazing. A full holiday recap is coming.

Since then we have completely packed up the little house, settled on it and moved in with my parents. We are so thankful to have them and their open arms to go to inbetween houses. We still haven't found a house but are looking everyday. A few auctions are on the horizon, one for a house we really love so keep your fingers crossed for us!

Until then I'll leave you with this one..