Fridays Letters - Dear Venting

Hello Friday! I'm joining in with this weeks Friday Letters link up over at Adventures of Newlyweds

I'm imagining I'm writing my letters from this chocolate toned office space staring at that pretty chandelier as I enjoy a chocolat espresso

 

 

Dear Venting - When I'd had a bitch of a day I'm so glad I have Mr P and my friends to vent to over a bottle of wine or two to make it all better. Thanks for listening xxx

 

Dear Spring Clean - Getting stuck into the granny flat last weekend and throwing out a huge wheelie bin full of stuff was such a great feeling and what a load off!

 

Dear Craftiness - I've already started making my Christmas Cards, next I want to tackle an Advent Calendar if only I can find the supplies I need. I'm loving a bit of craftiness in my life.

Dear YHL Book - You have been ordered by me, for me, for Christmas! Can't wait to get my decorating hands on you!

 

Dear Draftsman - Fingers crossed we find a good Draftsman who will design our fence, retaining and driveway and submit it to Council. Without any dramas or costing a fortune. Deal? Good!

 

Dear Ballet and Buddha Bar - Friday night out with the girls for Ballet and dinner at the Buddha Bar what a great start to the weekend.

 

 

[Image via My Pinterest]

 

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Reversing Issues And A Draftsman

The excitement of the exterior of the house getting a complete overhaul with render and paint, the garage extension now finished and the shiny new roof topping it all off still greets me every time I walk up to the house.

But I'm now keen to start on the front of the house design and get the driveway in, lots of retaining to hold it all up and a brick/timber look fence creating a courtyard around the front of the house.
 

The driveway with crumbled concrete

 

And boggy sand 

 

The driveway is a mess of crumbled slabs from the concrete trucks and skip bins being used throughout the garage extension. I have to use ramps to get my car in and out of the garage which is a pain in the butt - I can't reverse at the best of times, never mind reversing onto a skinny plank of wood!

 

We were recently told our neighbors are planning to build a house at the back of their house (retain and build) and want us to do our driveways together because they are on such a lean. Theirs leans onto ours which means when they turn their sprinklers on our driveway gets covered in sand and water which is annoying and needs to be rectified - running the driveways together as one will improve this it's hoped. Ideally, we would wait for the neighbors to be ready to build and then pour the driveway at the same time but that will be 1+ year away and we can't wait that long we are ready for a driveway now - see reversing issues above!

 

A member from the local Council came to our house to talk about the neighbors plans and helped us by putting pegs in at the depth of which our driveway will need to be laid. While we're happy to work with the neighbors we do need to get things moving for ourselves as well.

So the next step for us is to find a Draftsman to draw the plans for the driveway, retaining walls and brick/timber fence so we can submit it to the Council for approval. Whilst our garage took over a year to be approved it's hoped that this will be a smaller and more straightforward approval and shouldn't take as long.

I have searched Gum Tree (the Aussie version of Craiglist) and contacted a few Draftsman advertising to see if they are interested in the job.

 



The unimpressed look I have when reversing 

except nowhere near as glamorous!

 

Fingers crossed we find someone this month so we can get the plans into the Council before the Christmas break.

 

[Images 1 and 2 my own, 3rd Image via my Pinterest]
 

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Melbourne Cup Spring Racing

 

Today is Melbourne Cup Day - the Race That Stops The Nation!

 

The lucky people of Victoria have a Public Holiday so they can spend the day at the races enjoying the excitement of the day.

 

Us Perthians aren't as lucky but everybody still stops to watch the race - if customers or members of the public dare ring or visit any workplace during the hours of the race they are shamed as un-Australian!

 

My work is having a Spring Racing theme so we'll be wearing our best floral displays, take a punt in the $2 office sweep and watch the race.

 

One year I'd love to take off to Melbourne and enjoy the Cup first hand at the track dressed to impress! In the meantime I'll just admire all the fashions on the field from afar ...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Do you celebrate Melbourne Cup?

Check out my 2010 Melbourne Cup post here

 

 

[Images via My Pinterest  1, 2,  3, 4, 5, 6, 7]

 

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Young House Love - Book Debut

 

I'll admit it - the cool kids of Young House Love are what started the renovation craze for me.

 

They make changes to their home on very little to no budget and are self taught home enthusiasts which is something that I can totally relate to (as do millions of their readers!).

 

I was so impressed with their renovation projects and DIY skills that I went through a bit of an obsessive stage of wanting to do each and every project they showcase on their blog. Whenever I asked Mr P Can we paint this? or Can we do that? his response was Why is that what YHL did? .... He was onto me Ummm yea babe, nevermind!

 

For those that don't know who YHL are - they're a young couple in America who DIYed their own Wedding, renovated their first home, left their jobs and worked from home allowing them to spend even more time renovating and DIYing, have since sold and moved into their second home, had a little girl Clara join their family and still their stories and enthusiasm continue to inspire myself and others all over to love the home we're in.

 

 

Now for the exciting news after 3 years in the making YHL have written a book due to be released on 6 November 2012.

 

The best bit about the book is the tips, projects and photos are all brand spanking new they're not just copied from YHL blog but done especially for the book. Jeez these guys like to keep busy!

 

 

I can't wait to get my hands on a copy - a perfect early Christmas pressie to myself!

 

You can pre order and have a sneak preview of the book at Amazon

 

 

[All images via Young House Love]

 

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Fridays Letters - Dear Mum and Dad

Thank God its Friday! I'm joining in with this weeks Friday Letters link up over at Adventures of Newlyweds

I'm imagining I'm writing my letters at this vintage desk scrawling in a leather bound notebook while sipping on a cup of hot green tea

 

 

Dear Mum and Dad - Happy 40th Anniversary for Sunday! 40 years of marriage and you are still the best of friends, you make each other laugh and look after one another. You have made me set such high standards for the kind of marriage I hope to have one day. I wish you many more years of happiness together xxx

Dear Blog Button - You had me stressed and scared that I couldn't create you and now I'm proud as punch that I figured it out! If you want to I'd love it if you grab my button for your blog :)

 

Dear Tarts Cafe - I was a little worried by the name for a Book Club meet up but this little gem had the friendliest service, delicious food (especially the passion fruit tarts!) and our very own 'Board Room' to laugh as loud as we wanted.

 

Dear Driveway - I know it's not your fault your sandy and broken but pulling out ramps each time I need to reverse my car out the garage is not fun. I'm determined to get you planned out and get this front of the house project moving again.

 

Dear Kitchen - You are the next project so this weekend I'm going to be sprawled out with my design books and magazines to come up with a design so we can tackle this renovation over the Christmas break.

 

Dear Christmas - I don't know why but I'm getting really exciting about Christmas this year ... I've bought ornaments, gift bags and ribbon already this week to which the sales lady commented you're starting early! Yep bring on Santa!
 

[Image via my Pinterest]
 

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Book Club: The Little Coffee Shop Of Kabul By Deborah Rodriguez

The October Book Club read was The Little Coffee Shop of Kabul by Deborah Rodriguez (also published under the name of A Cup of Friendship)

This is a story about 5 very different women 2 Americans, 1 British and 2 Afghans who live in Kabul, Afghanistan and meet in a little coffee shop and form a friendship.

This is a very easy book to read, the writing style flowed and was written in a storytelling kind of way. Keeping up with the characters was a bit of a challenge at times as it jumped from one to the other, but I found each woman and even the men characters very likable with interesting lives. I would have liked to know the characters more I felt they were skimmed over quickly so either the book needed to be longer and more detailed, or less characters to get to know them properly.

This is the first book I have read about Afghans, Muslims and life in this part of the world. It gave me insight into the customs and pride of the family, the sad stories of girls being given away when families have no money, what it's like to live with suicide bombers on your street, and life before the Taliban rule and after. 

I would recommend this book to the women of the world it will make you appreciate where you are from and other customs. This book will warm your heart.

I give this book 3 stars.

Jarrah Jungle's Star Rating:

1 Bad - I'd rather eat brussel sprouts topped with anchovies than read this again
2 Not Good - I'd rather watch re-runs of Neighbours than read this again
3 Ok - I'm sitting on the fence - its not great but not terrible either
4 Good - I'd pass up a pack of tim tams for this read
5 Great - I'd pass up a date with Johnny Depp for this read

[Image via RandomHouse.com]

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Turning Handmade Paper Into Art

My well travelled bestie gave me these handmade papers from Paper Ya in Vancouver which she cleverly picked out in the colours of my Living Room - green, white/cream and gold.

I wanted to do something special with them and decided to frame them and turn them into art for the Living Room.
 

 

I had a set of 3 small frames that have pretty pattern etched onto the glass so I cut the papers to size and put them into the frames

 

 

I wasn't happy with the plain white frames not only were they a bit scuffed but they didn't make the papers pop enough - I wanted them to be the feature I was framing.

So I embraced my wanting to use more colour and went through my half empty cans of spray paint and decided on gold to match in with the copper tone in the Living Room.

Now the fun bit of hanging them on the wall, it took a while to measure the frames and find the right spot for them to hang evenly - you've got to take your time and be absolutely sure before you start drilling holes and hooks into the wall. The little spirit level we use is a Godsend, never trust your eye to be straight the level knows the truth!

We hung them centred and next to the art print I got from Target a little while back.

 

 

 

 

 

My wanting to bring more gold and copper tones into the Living Room is getting there and I'm really happy with how the frames look.

This little project cost me zilch! The papers were a gift and the frames and paint I already had so with a bit of creativity and time I've turned my handmade paper into art!

Have you tackled any artsy projects lately?


Sharing with this weeks link parties:
Savvy Southern Style
The Dedicated House and
You Are Talking Too Much

 

[All images my own]

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