spring.. in my garden

It is finally spring here!! Yay!  We have had quite a few wet and dreary days here lately but today was just so lovely I decided to take some pics of my garden, even though my camera is not the best. If there is one thing I love to do is stroll around my garden every morning and just take in the pretty colours of the flowers and just the feeling of spring. I never ever tire of it and could easily spend all day pottering around. It is in need of some tlc at the moment but couldn't resist sharing.. there's quite a few pics so I've just thrown them in random order..

I am in the process of redoing my family living area. It is quite different to the rest of my shabby home, more of a modern  french farmhouse style.. if you could call it that.  The kids love it and to be honest so do I. It's not finished yet but I'll post some pics soon. I have one corner of this room however that has me stumped as to how to decorate it so I am hoping that you will come up with some ideas for me.
Bye for now, take care, Maryann

lounge room progress...part 2

So, thought I'd let you see whats going on in the lounge room. The flooring is done.. HALELUAH... Thank you Jesus!

I've started to put a few things back but I am still painting the french doors..

The fireplace will remain as is until I get round to putting some sort of insert in there or heater. Spring is just around the corner so there is no mad panic for that.

My theme is french provincial with cream, gold and touches of blue. The sheer fabric you see is actually chiffon, dress material. I purchased this a few years ago originally for the other part of my house but changed my mind on the blue and went with pink and green. I still love this fabric though and have held on to it just for this room. I will be using it on the 2 front windows and am thinking of putting a plain blue fabric curtain for the french doors so it's not all matching.

I don't know why but my spirits are lifted when I enter this room, it is so bright, light and airy and that is exactly how I want it to remain.  Even though it will be quite formal,  I still want it to be a usable space. Anyhow, here are some pics. Some things have been placed where they are just temporarily, but this will give you an idea of where I'm at.....

The club chair has been with me forever so will go into this room now in the corner. It used to be in my bedroom covered in teddies! For the main lounge I picked one up for a song.. that you can read all about here. It still needs to be reupholstered .. whether I do it myself or get a professional still remains to be seen. I am leaning more towards getting it done by a pro as the last thing I want is to stuff it up!!  
take care, Maryann

lounge room progress...

Hi girls!  rather than waiting for a before and after of my lounge room ('cause that may take a while )I thought I'd let you in on the progress as we are going along...

                                   below, this is the entry from the hallway. I still need to paint the french doors..

We have done half the flooring so far in this room. Last Saturday we went searching for something to put underneath the fireplace.

I ended up getting travertine, which is a sort of limestone I was told. I loved it as soon as I saw it. I love the creamy white colouring and the rough finish texture.. The fireplace sits directly across from the french doors so it's the first thing you see when you walk in. At the moment I am trying to decide what to do with it as it won't be a real working fireplace. I can't decide whether to just buy a vintage insert so it looks real but totally unusable or be more practical and get one of those electric 'look like a real fire' inserts, that when turned on will give the look I want and the heat! What would you do?? 

This is looking towards the back of the room .. these french doors lead into the backyard..

and here we are looking towards the front..you can see the steps and part of my garden..

I will be doing alot of changes to my family room very soon as well. This room will be designed mainly for my teenage kids... to keep them happy (with a big tv) and comfy (with a new lounge). It will be totally different to what I have now, not so shabby but with a more relaxed french country theme. Well, that's the plan anyway.. how it will tie in with the rest of my home...?   I wouldn't have a clue.

take care, Maryann

hallway stand make-over...

Hi girls, just some pics I took of my latest make-over..

I was given this hallway stand from my sister-in-law.. she chops and changes furniture like underwear..

                                                                         Before.. I added the applique up top..

                                                                          After..
a bit of white paint and whalaa! I decided to leave the hooks and handle black..

As you can see the flooring is done in the hallway and I am so happy! It still needs a little trim round the skirting board but that will be done last when it's all finished.  Ofcourse more furniture needs to go in there but thought I'd show you my progress so far..  bye for now,

take care, Maryann

Yes! we have flooring... and peonies too!

Hi girls, well we were determined to come back with something last Saturday and we did. We finally found timber flooring that pretty much blends in with our old stuff. It is a little darker than I'd liked but I knew trying to find a perfect match was going to be impossible.  We even started it on Sunday and have been doing a little every night after Fred get's home from work.. I have to hand it him, my Fred's a work horse and a jack of all trades.. ofcourse, I'm his handy assistant, picking out the timber and handing it to him! Each piece is glued and then nailed down.

This is the hallway from where we started.. which joins on to our family room..

It is finally coming together but there are quite a few things I need to paint now like the french doors leading into the lounge and also some furniture that I keep putting off.  So hopefully I will have some nicer pics for you in the future!

My peonies arrived too.. wasn't sure what to expect.. I bought them from a website here in Australia, in Victoria actually called   Misty Downs..  they have a lovely range of peonies and an unbelievable amount of gorgeous roses!! They were so nice and sent me a free dahlia too.

I my haste to plant them yesterday I forgot to take pics but if you can imagine a twig about 6" long with a few pink buds at one end.. that's pretty much all they were, hiding in all that packaging. I am so looking forward to seeing them grow come spring.

bye for now, take care, Maryann