Necessary Purchase?

When determining a budget there are those inevitable conversations about what are necessary purchases and what are not.  It seems my husband and I have different ideas about what is a necessary purchase and this can make for some interesting negotiations on my behalf.  My most recent example are these awesome skull jewellery boxes I read about on Peep my Style.  Necessary?  Yes!

 

You can buy them here

M xx

My Dream Auction!!

When I was looking for vintage props for our wedding I became a little addicted to checking websites of auction houses and placing online bids.  Sure you miss out on the excitement of being at the actual auction but when you are living half way across the world from the actual auction you don't really have much choice.  

Although the wedding has been and gone, my addiction continues and this week I discovered the most exciting of all exciting auctions yet.  Auction 428 - Medical, Dental & Pharmaceutical items is happening on the 8th May at Leski's Auction House in Melbourne.  291 wonderful, quirky and in some cases, a little creepy, items!

Coincidentally my great friend Simon worked on this collection in his previous role, he has impeccable taste.  It is my dream auction collection!!

These are my favourite items:

Hospital heater on tripod with extension arm

Vintage dental instrument trolley on wheels

DISPENSING BOTTLES: with polished pontils, labels, 18cm tall, all in good condition & all with stoppers

Vintage hospital trolley with glass shelves

Group of prints (in frames) of hand drawn historical figures relating to the medical & scientific professions, including Charles Darwin and Pierre Curie. (9 items)

Imagine turning this vintage trolley into a table.  Like this one here

And there are a couple of things I won't be bidding on:

Female hand held urinal!!

2 early vintage urinal bags

Can someone who lives in Melbourne and won't have to ship their purchases across the country please buy lots of items so I can live vicariously through you?

You can find the full collection and details on how to bid here.

M xx

DIY Candle Holder

We were wandering around Bunnings a few weeks ago (everyone does this on the weekend right?) and saw these wooden blocks on the shelves.  I thought they'd be perfect for an easy DIY project.

After umming and ahhing over what to make we decided to make a DIY candle holder.  The original plan was to create two candle holders, each made of two blocks.  After spraying them I decided they look better as a stack of four so I have only one for now.  A good excuse to go and buy four more so we have a pair! 

For colour I decided on black and used Dulux Spraypax in Gloss Black.  I hadn't used a gloss spray paint before and found it does have its challenges...  after spraying the blocks outside it felt like every time I came back to check on them I'd find bits of dust/sand/miscellaneous items stuck to the blocks!!  The downside of living with a sea breeze I suppose!! 

M xx

Updating Ikea Furniture

When I first moved to Dubai in 2008 the plan was to stay for a year before moving to Australia.  So when choosing furniture for my apartment the plan was to stick to affordable basics for my 'temporary' home that I could sell a year later.  Well that one year turned into four years and then we were relocated to Perth and sure enough we still have our 'temporary' ikea couch!

We've actually grown quite fond of our couch over time and as it is also a sofa bed and a storage unit it has been really handy over the years.  Like any soft furnishing it is starting to show its age and has some marks accumulated on it from our beach days in Dubai.  We do keep an eye out for new couches but I am saving that purchase until we buy a house here.   To tide me over until then I have recently discovered a company called Bemz... a Swedish company that has created covers for a whole selection of ikea furniture in really great fabrics and colour choices!

Our sofa is the Manstad model and the below are my short list of my favourite covers:

Can anyone guess I like stripes??

M xx

All images from here

Daily Mantra

As an avid reader of home interior magazines and blogs I get serious house and apartment envy on a daily basis.  As we are currently renting it is easy to wish your life away (or those fun years of creating a home!) and want that perfect dream home right now.  

But today I saw a saying that struck a chord with me.  It's a good reminder that we are just at the beginning of our 'dream home' journey in Australia.  I haven't even been back in Australia for a year yet so I have plenty of time ahead to work on our perfect home that hopefully someone else will read about in a magazine and blog one day! 

 

M xx

Image: here

DIY Inspiration

The new May issue of Real Living is a great one! It's full of bright and colourful decorating ideas and things to add to my house wish list.  But there was something on page 53 that particularly caught my eye...

I just love those beaded chandeliers and feel inspired... I think maybe I have just found my new DIY project!

Do you think I am being a bit ambitious?

M xx

Images: mine, here, here and here

Bali - Food

Leading up to our trip we had received many recommendations and suggestions for restaurants to go to in Bali.  So armed with a long list of places we had to try we attempted as many meals out as we could.  These are some of my favourites:

Sea Circus:

A friend summed up the decor in Sea Circus by saying "if you were to have a shop this is how I'd imagine it to look".  It was right up my alley!  From the chevron painted tables to the neon drink cart in the corner.  There was DIY inspiration for me everywhere I looked.  The food is pretty fabulous here too! The fish tacos were the table favourite that night.  

Sardine:

Sardine is located in Pettinget so just a short drive from Seminyak but once you are there you feel so far removed from the hustle and bustle of the busy Bali streets.  The restaurant is located on the fringe of working rice paddy fields which are tended daily by the local farmers.  It was such a beautiful and peaceful outlook.    

Mama San:

My favourite restaurant from the trip.  The asian fusion menu had so many dishes that I wanted to try.  We ordered about 7 dishes between the four of us and I loved them all.  Even when one was a bit spicy for us they brought over some frozen cucumbers for us to suck on - service!  We were recommended the steamed snapper dumplings which were delicious!

Rock Bar:

Located in the stunning Ayana Resort, Rock Bar was a perfect ending place for a great trip.  Built into the cliffs at water level we first had to line up to catch the inclinator (had to look that one up!) down from the resort entrance.  Luckily we had been pre-warned about the lines and got there fairly early so we didn't have to line up for long.  Once seated on one of the several terraces it is ironic that although we had gone for the amazing view we had to shelter under huge black umbrellas to escape the beating sun!  Once the sun dropped a bit, umbrellas were collected and we were able to enjoy the view and toast a great holiday with some cocktails.  

M xx



Images: here, here, mine, here, mine, mine and mine