A Long Overdue Update

Hey guys,

I feel like I owe you a big apology for my ridiculously long absence from the blog! 

We finished our home renovations and sold our block which was the reason I started this blog in the first place - for the before and afters, DIY projects and how tos, which are all documented here. I don't want to leave my readers in the lurch, so just so you know, I'm alive and well! I absolutely love the home that we have created and after many years of renovating we can now relax and enjoy our renovated home.

I'm still very active on my Jarrah Jungle social media channels - if you don't follow me yet please do - I'm on Instagram and Facebook. I share lots of yummy recipes for easy home cooked meals, family life and the occasional book review.

So what else has been happening ....... Work wise I decided not to return to my corporate job, after working in the city for over 20 years and doing the 9-5 grind every day I'm having a much needed break from that lifestyle for a while.

Instead I'm enjoying a change of pace being a stay at home Mum to Miss A who has just turned 3, she is a gorgeous little girl, kind, happy and loves books (just like her Mum!). Mr P has become a BBQ King and between the smoker, weber, and BBQ we are being well fed as are our friends and family who love to join us for tasty BBQ!

  

My passion for home decorating has lead me down a completely new path and I'm in the midst of setting up my own small business BRING ON THE BOHO an online store with beautiful bohemian style home decor - big floor cushions, beautiful hand stitched quilts, vibrant embroidered scatter cushions and soft furnishings.

I'd love for you to check out Bring On The Boho on Facebook and Instagram - I'm currently building the website and online shop which is due to launch later this year. I've always had an eye for interior design and decorating and it feels so good to be working on something I'm truly passionate about - finding stunning decor products to fill homes with colour and life.

Thanks for reading, I hope you are well and happy, please pop over to my social channels and say Hello!

Take care

Michelle x

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Nursery Tour: Pretty In Pink + Glimmers Of Gold

Our little jelly bean is due this month and I've finally finished furnishing and decorating the nursery for her so I thought I'd take you on a nursery tour.

This use to be my craft/study room before we turned it into the baby's nursery and the design plan was to work with what we had and stick to a budget which I'm happy to say we've done. You really don't need to spend a lot of money when decorating, I shopped around home a lot using decor and furniture I already had, we purchased furniture secondhand, plus inexpensive stores like Kmart and Target are great for affordable decor and everything baby!

I've added links to similar products throughout this blog post to Temple and Webster Australia's largest online furniture and homewares retailer as they have a great selection of baby and kids products and furniture. I have my eye on a toy box and of course every little girl needs a doll house or a teepee ... there's so many adorable things to pick from!

I wanted to keep the design neutral and calming making it a perfect place for baby to sleep so nothing too bright or out there. The colour palette started as white, grey and black and evolved with added pops of pink and gold to make it feminine and pretty.

We bought and hung new blockout blinds over the silver blinds as it's such a bright and sunny room and we need to make it dark for daytime naps!

Some of the furniture we already had (the bookcase, wardrobe and side table), plus the rug and light fitting black chandelier we kept as it suited the colour theme. 

We purchased some furniture items secondhand from Gumtree like the Ikea wing chair - I did lots of research on a perfect nursing chair and Ikea's wing chair was a winner and it's really comfortable. Although I still need to find a foot stool to go with it.

The bookcase had to stay in this room and still holds all my books but I've kept the top two shelves for the baby's books and decor.

I shopped from home and used my own decor items for the  bookcase - anything white ceramic or animal seemed to fit well as nursery decor. I bought a salt lamp to use as a night light as it gives out a nice soft glow and also has lots of other healing and purifying qualities.

If you're looking for some adorable kids bookcases check out Temple and Webster they have a great range to pick from here.

The Ikea Hemnes drawers were also a bargain secondhand find on Gumtree as they are actually brand new and were still in the original packaging. I decided the drawers will double as a change table with a change mat on top and all the change supplies in the top drawers and then clothes in the drawers underneath. 

I just love how much storage this piece of furniture provides and for a small room it's great having furniture that is multi-purpose. I'm also using the top as a dressing table with jars for headbands, dummies and vintage jewellery boxes.

  

Baby's clothes are so itty bitty tiny so a few sets of the Ikea drawer dividers are perfect for keeping all the clothes neat and tidy. But let's just see how long they stay this way for!

I also typed up some labels for each divider so you can see at a glance the size and what the item is.

Over in the wardrobe there's heaps of storage space as well for all the hanging items like dresses, jackets and sleeping bags. 

I made little size dividers from some butterfly blackboard pegs I had in my craft supplies and tied them to string which hangs down to separate the clothes.

I was lucky enough to get a big bag full of matching baby hangers in different sizes for free from Pumpkin Patch as they were closing down.

I've used a hanging wardrobe organiser that I already had for storing all the baby's linen, blankets and swaddles. 

The vintage bassinet was lent to me by a friend and our little one will sleep in this in the bedroom with Mr P and I until we decide to move her into her nursery and into her cot. 

The purple netting was from when I was a baby and covered my own bassinet. I just love that it's been kept all this time and can be passed down through the generations. My Mum has also unpacked all my old knitted and crochet baby clothes which are just beautiful I can't wait to dress my little girl in the same clothes that I wore over 30 years ago! 

The cot is another special item as it's been passed down in Mr P's family. It's the only timber item in the room so we were going to paint it white but like the contrast the timber wood adds so we've kept it as it is.

Above the cot hangs a bird cage I've filled with paper flowers and bird decor and on the wall are some bird mirror wall decals. Both of these were already there from my craft room/study design and I think fit in nicely with the nursery so have kept them there.

The art in the room I'm sure I'll change around over time but for now I have - 

"The First Kiss" angel print is a special one I brought back from Rome on my first overseas holiday 20 years ago. The gorgeous girl with goose art was a baby shower gift from beautiful friends. An Ikea butterfly wall art I've added some flower vines too. Lastly I DIYed the wooden art from a print I found on Pinterest, printed out and framed.

I really love how the nursery has turned out, the room has such a nice feel to it and hopefully I've got everything ready for when our little bundle arrives this month.


What do you think of our little baby girl's nursery? 

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[All images my own]

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Nursery Inspiration + Organising Ideas

As I've officially hit the third trimester of my pregnancy I'm getting into nesting mode and going on an organising spree throughout the house - the linen, kitchen and bathroom cupboards all need a good tidy up so I can make room for the baby's things!

But first things first I want to finish setting up the baby's nursery and have found so many great ideas on Pinterest to get me inspired. Here's my organising ideas for the room so far ....

As you will see in my earlier post I'm having a chest of drawers that doubles as a change table. For this I purchased the Ikea Hemnes chest of 8 drawers on Gumtree brand new at a fraction of the original price!

I have also purchased some Ikea drawer dividers as the baby's clothes are so tiny the drawer dividers will help keep everything neat and tidy. I've seen some great ideas for organising everything in these drawers with the baby change items like nappies and creams in the top drawers and then clothes in the bottom drawers.

I'll share my chest of drawers and change table organising on the blog once I have set this up in the coming weeks.

We moved an Ikea 2 door wardrobe we had in the Guest Bedroom into the nursery for our baby's pretty dresses, coats and anything else that needs to be hung.

I scored a heap of matching coat hangers for free from Pumpkin Patch who are closing down their Australian stores so I have all nice matching coat hangers in different sizes which is perfect.

I also want to install some shelves in the wardrobe as the hanging space won't take up much room as the clothes are so tiny and I want to make use of all the wardrobe space.  The shelves will be perfect for baskets and storing the linen, boxes of nappies, toys etc ... I have discovered baby's have so many things!

My Ikea 10 cube bookcase will be staying in the nursery (which use to be my study/craft room) and the baby and I will need to share the bookcase as I don't have anywhere else to store my books.

Bookcases are a great addition to a nursery because I can add some decorative boxes or baskets to store toys as well as pretty decor items and books on the shelves.

I want to keep everything baby related in the nursery so whatever I can fit in this room with clever storage I will as I figure it will make it a lot easier to find things if they're all kept in the one room.

Do you have any organising tips for a nursery?

Sharing with link parties:
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[Images via my Pinterest 1, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11]

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Nursery Design: Drawers + Change Table

To come up with a design for our nursery I've been trawling through Pinterest admiring the most adorable nursery rooms and getting inspiration for setting up a nursery for our new addition.

It's not hard to see that I really love the look of a chest of drawers that doubles as a change table with a change mat on top.

Not only is this a great use of space as you don't need a separate change table which will take up room but it's also budget friendly as it's less furniture to buy.

I have chosen the Ikea Hemnes 8 drawers (see first photo above) as it's the perfect size in length to accommodate a change mat and change supplies at easy hands reach.

The height also had to be considered and it's a perfect height as it's the same height as most change tables - not too tall for me to use and not too low for Mr P.

As I'm trying to design the nursery on a budget I have been keeping an eye on Gumtree and managed to find the exact drawers I wanted, brand new, still in original packaging, on Gumtree for almost half the price.

Now I'm impatiently waiting for Mr P to assemble the flat pack drawers so that I can set them up and share them with you!

What did you use as a baby change table?

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[All images via my Pinterest 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]


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2016 ... A Very Plain Christmas

It's with a heavy heart I tell you all that I won't be decorating the Jarrah Jungle home for Christmas this year! Shock horror I know right I can't quite believe it myself!!

I  know some of you may have been waiting to see what theme I'd come up with this year and sadly the theme is going to be .... A very plain Christmas!

The reason I can't decorate is we're having work done to our living room ceiling and so I can't put the Christmas tree in it's normal spot in here because we have to move all the furniture out and cover everything up ready for the dusty work to begin.

The carpenter who is building our deck and patio also does ceilings and Mr P and I recently started a DIY ceiling lift in the living room and master bedroom using ceiling washers (much like we lifted the laundry ceiling). The carpenter is going to finish this off and plaster, skim and sand the ceiling for us which will save us a heap of time and work - then we'll just need to paint.

The downside is all my lovely Christmas decorations will need to stay packed away this year.

Every day that Christmas gets closer and my Instagram feed fills up with people's beautiful homes and sparkling Christmas trees and decorations and I'm just so sad that I can't be a part of the festivities as I just love to decorate for Christmas.

Each year I pick a different theme - you can see my previous year's themes here 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 ... 2016 is going to be a very plain Christmas!

All I can say is watch out for next year because I'm going to have to go bigger and better than ever to make up for this years non-decorating.

This isn't the first time renovating has stopped my Christmas cheer but hopefully it will be the last!

On a positive note at least I won't have tiny bits of tinsel and glitter scattered all over my house like I usually do!!

How are you decorating for Christmas this year? Do you have a theme?

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[Images via my Pinterest 1, 2, 3]

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