My Top 5 Book Reviews - By Australian Authors

I can't believe this will be the third Monday I don't have a book review for you but I do have a good excuse - I've been reading the longest books lately and there is no time to finish a book a week like I usually do.

The book I'm reading for Book Club at the moment Cutting For Stone is over 500 pages and the month before Molokai was over 400 pages. Phew that's a lot of reading in a month! 

So because I don't have a book review for you, instead I'm going to share my favourite books I've reviewed that are written by some brilliant Australian authors.

Here are my top 5 book reviews by Australian authors:

1. The Book Thief - Markus Zusak

The Book Thief is narrated by Death aka The Grim Reaper and tells the story of a young girl and her family in the midst of World War 11. This is the kind of book everyone should read, young and old, it really does tell an amazing life changing story.

This book established Markus Zusak as one of the most successful authors to come out of Australia. He has written a total of 5 books and lives in Sydney with his wife and kids.

2. King Of The Road - Nigel Bartlett

This book is not for the faint hearted, it's a thriller and suspense novel about child abduction.  It was fast paced and brilliantly written, I couldn't put it down. 

Sydney based author Nigel Bartlett is a freelance writer and editor and has worked for many of the best known publications in Australia. This is his first novel. 

3. Campaign Ruby - Jessica Rudd

This is a very funny book about politics, in a Bridget Jones style of writing, that will keep you engaged and interested (even in politics) until the very end.

Jessica Rudd is the daughter of our former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. She's had 3 career changes from Law, PR to Politics and now enjoys life as a writer and is based in Beijing.

4. The Contract - Avril Tremayne

This is a very entertaining and funny modern day romance about an unlucky in love 23 year old woman who signs up the services of her best friend's brother to teach her the art of seduction.

Avril Tremayne lives in Sydney and has written many novels with a similar theme - sexy, witty, modern romance novels like this one. 

5. The Girl In The Yellow Vest - Loretta Hill

This is a modern day young adult romance novel about life in a FIFO mining community in the outback of Western Australia.

Loretta Hill is from my home town of Perth, Western Australia and has become one of my favourite authors. She has written a total of 7 women's fiction books. 

You can see my Q&A interview with Loretta here and my review of her latest book The Maxwell Sisters here

I'm sure you'll like one of these books written by some real talented Aussies! 

Who's your favourite author?




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Courtyard Progress - AliTimber Fence Slats + Gate

Finishing the courtyard fence around the front of the house has been on our to do list forever and I'm so happy to finally have some updates to share as the last few weekends we've been working on it.

Let me take you back to when the limestone courtyard was built over 2 years ago now .....

The courtyard was approved by Council in March 2013 and then it was built in October 2013.

Once the limestone pillars were built we then debated on whether to use wood or metal fence slats between the pillars. 

We worked out the pros and cons of both and wood was going to be about the same price and would need ongoing maintenance. Whereas metal would need no maintenance, it is stronger, and easier to install, so in the end we couldn't resist the metal option.

When I say metal I mean aluminium which is powder coated in a wood grain look finish. It also comes with a 10 year warranty, what's not to love about that!

We got samples from metal fence companies around Perth to try to get a colour match for our jarrah garage door. 

This is where we came to a grinding halt because we couldn't find the right colour - there were various shades of jarrah but none that matched the garage door. 

So we put this project on hold and went on to renovate our kitchen, dining room, laundry and powder room.

Once we got approval to subdivide our block late last year, we knew we had to get a move on and finish the front courtyard and add some kerb appeal to the house. 

So we resumed our search for the right coloured jarrah fence slat again.

We found a pretty close match from Awards Fencing who stock AliTimber and decided to just go for it, especially when we managed to save almost $1000 to what we were quoted the previous year! 

We ordered a slatted gate which they made to size, as well as the gate posts, end caps, hinges and handle.

The fence slats are a DIY install so we had to work out how many lengths of fence panels we'd need for the courtyard, as well as channel extrusions and end caps.

The fence slats come in 5.8 metre long lengths and 3 different thicknesses - thin, medium and large - we went for the medium size which is 65 x 15.

The gate and metal slats were delivered within days and they were packaged and wrapped really well to protect them from marks and scratches. I was so impressed with the packaging, there was even plastic wrapped between each slat, so there was no way they would scratch.

The reason for the packaging is the slats scratch quite easily and we had to be very careful with nails and anything metal as we were installing them, we made a few marks on them but heard a tip you can hide the scratches with shoe polish so we'll give that a go!

The packaging made cutting the fence slats a lot easier too as we kept them wrapped and cut 5 at once which saved us a heap of time!

First of all we hung the gate, as this was already made to size it only took a couple of hours to fix the gate posts to the brick, install the hinges and hang the gate. 

As you can see Lexi is getting excited about having a whole new playground to hang out in!

Because we rendered the bricks of the house we didn't think one gate post would screw into the brick very deep due to the render/plaster on top, so to be safe we attached two gate posts together for extra strength and depth. 

We screwed the double fence post into the brick wall, attached the hinges to the gate, and then hung the gate from the posts. 

It already feels more secure and private with the gate on which is what we wanted. 

I want to put a door buzzer on the gate so we can lock it and anyone that wants to come in will have to buzz us to be let in! 

So that's about all for today's blog post, as this one is already very long (well done if you've made it all the way to the bottom here!)

Next I'll share the install of the fence slats to the courtyard. We are still finishing this after working on it over the long weekend we hope to finish it off this weekend.

What do you think of the AliTimber - can you believe it's not real jarrah?

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DIY Bride - Photobooth + Guest Book Inspiration

Now I promise I won't turn into a gushing wedding blogger BUT if I have a cool creative crafty idea that is just too awesome not to share then I just can't help myself!

Which brings me to today's blog post and my latest wedding obsession - a photobooth for the wedding. 

I sourced quotes for photobooth hire and a 3 hour package starts at $700 and is about $100 an hour after that so we'd be looking at 5 hour hire for $1000.

I understand why it costs that much, it includes the booth set up/pack away, a photographer to take photos, lots of props, plus two copies of each photo and a digital copy as well. BUT this Bargain Queen just can't justify spending that much money on something I could do myself.

With the wedding budget it's all the little things that add up so every saving helps and when I worked out I can DIY a photobooth and guest book for less than $300, I figured it was a great place to save.

Here's how I plan to DIY a photobooth for under $300

I've researched online and can buy a brand new polaroid camera for under $100. 

It's the film that makes polaroids expensive, it's about $1 each photo so for 100 guests we're looking at $100 for the polaroid film. As most people will get a photo as a couple or group this allows some extra film if anyone wants to take home a polaroid picture for themselves.

For the camera and film I'll budget $200

Then there's the props which make it fun and make for some hilarious photos.

I already have a heap of props in my fancy dress box at home - hats, feather boas, flower leis, masks, etc. Plus I can DIY some custom made signs and messages on sticks there's so many free printables online like these ones. 

The props will cost me a big fat zero $0

To create the photobooth area I'll need a quiet nook with a small table which the reception venue will provide. 

I'll DIY a backdrop, this could be as simple as hanging a pretty piece of fabric or something more creative like strings of paper chains. 

For the backdrop I'll budget $30

As a double wammy the photobooth will also be our guest book.

I'm going to ask everyone to take their polaroid photo and glue it into the guest book and write a message for us. 

I have some fancy pens from the message in a bottle at our engagement party so just need a beautiful guest book with photo safe pages.

For the guest book I'll budget $50

I have a large blackboard I can decorate and write up the photobooth sign.

I'll design and print signs with instructions on what to do on my computer and printer at home and pop them in a photo frame.

I have the blackboard and frames from our engagement party so this won't cost me a cent $0

The only thing I won't have is someone standing there taking the photos but with the age of the selfie I'm sure it won't be a problem and everyone will have fun taking their own photos.

I'll allocate one person who is tech savvy to help load film or batteries, I guess that's where the bridal party come to the rescue don't they!

So the professional photobooth hire cost is $1000 

Vs 

DIY photobooth and guest book will cost $280

I'm really excited about this project and it's something I can organise beforehand and drop off at the reception venue so it's set up and ready on the wedding day without too much fuss.

I think the DIY photobooth is my best wedding idea yet! 

What do you think?

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Jarrah Jungle - 5 Year Blog-versary

My blog turns 5 this week!

HAPPY BLOG-VERSARY JARRAH JUNGLE!!!!!

I want to start the blogversary celebrations by saying a big THANK YOU to all you guys,
my awesome readers for your support and encouragement over these years 
THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH xxx

I can't believe I've been writing about my home renovations on Jarrah Jungle for 5 years now and I still have so much more to write about!

We hope to finish the renovations and projects on the house this year with September 2015 marking 6 years in the Jarrah Jungle home.

I have a dozen projects half done that I am determined to get finished so I can share them with you in the coming months and finally get those ugly befores and pretty afters up on the blog and update my House Tour!

As you know we plan to put our back block on the market to sell once we have finished with the subdivision process, possibly at the end of this year or early next year.

With the Jarrah Jungle backyard being divided in two, I want to document the subdivision process and how the retain and build turns out for us so I'll continue to blog about it here, if you're interested then stay tuned for more updates!

This year has and will be the most exciting of all with so many of our dreams and plans for the future turning into a reality and I feel that the hard work and sacrifices we've made over the years are now coming to fruition.

As for the future of the Jarrah Jungle blog .... it's not going anywhere!

My weekly book reviews are still going strong, I love getting books to review from Netgalley before they are published (if you have a blog you can do the same check out my blog post on how to be a book reviewer here).

My Book Club is going into it's 4th year and we have become such great friends it was the best decision I made joining a book club, if you've ever wanted to start your own book club check out my blog post here.

I have craft and creative projects on the go with the engagement and wedding and I'm currently working on some DIY projects which I'll share here on the blog soon.

Speaking of weddings ..... we're having a 10 month engagement which has been really exciting but it also means I've got less than 4 months left to plan the wedding and honeymoon!

If I've learnt anything from wedding planning so far it's how to manage my time, be super organised with spreadsheets and learn to juggle, all while sticking to a budget!

Thanks again to all my readers near and far for coming on this home loving journey with me and sticking around for a whopping 5 years now!

I have made some wonderful online bloggy buddies and have enjoyed seeing your blogs change and grow over the years it's an amazing community to be a part of  xx

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MobileZap - Mobile + Tablet Accessories

I had the paper book Vs e-book debate with myself for a long time before I finally succumbed to buying a tablet so I could download e-books.

Without an e-reader I wouldn't be able to access and read the amount of books I read and review, averaging about one a week, when I was reading hard copy books I was only getting through one a month.

After researching the best tablets on the market I decided on the Nexus 7 2013 tablet and while I mostly use it as an e-reader, I also use it for social media, checking emails and surfing the web as well.

I love that the screen is bigger and easier to use than my phone and it doesn't take ages to start up like my laptop - my tablet is definitely my favourite gadget.

But there are some things about the tablet that I find a little annoying .....

The screen is hard to type with because the keypad covers half the screen.

I also have problems with the charger not working, it just doesn't seem to connect and I leave it to charge only to come back hours later and see the battery has a sad 5% remaining because it's lost it's connection. 

MobileZap an online retailer based in New South Wales stocks accessories for all different brands of mobile phones and tablets and they sent me some accessories for my Nexus tablet.

I didn't need to wait by the mailbox for long, the products arrived in just a few days, very impressive for interstate delivery.

Their website is really easy to navigate and has heaps of information and reviews for each product - I always rely on customer reviews before buying something, I want to know if it works as it should and any pros and cons etc before making a decision.

I received the Hawara Bluetooth Keyboard and Cover and all I can say is I wish I'd had a keyboard for my tablet a long time ago!

It was easy to clip the keyboard onto the tablet, turn it on, then go through the bluetooth settings to connect it to my tablet and I was typing away in no time.

I find myself using the keyboard to type emails now it's much easier because half the screen isn't covered with the tablet keypad so you can see more.

You can fold the tablet down into the keyboard and it becomes a screen cover, which is really clever and looks a lot more stylish than my old lime green cover!

I also found it handy to use the keyboard as a stand so I don't need to hold onto the tablet or try to prop it up onto cushions like I usually do.

This was especially great for watching videos, I've been on YouTube for everything wedding lately - from watching first wedding dances to how to make my own wedding flower bouquet so this has been a big help to watch them hands free!

I also received a Qi Wireless Charging Dock and my days of frustratingly crouching down under the bed to plug in the charger only to find hours later it has come out and my tablet is now dead flat are over!

I had real issues with my charger not connecting and I discovered from reading reviews on the MobileZap website that this seems to be a known problem with these tablets and the standard charger.

This wireless docking station has solved that problem, I just sit the tablet on it, plug it in and it starts charging.

It didn't have an Australian power adapter so I had to plug it into an adapter to suit our power point, but that was no problem as I already had one from my travels overseas.

It acts like a stand to, so if I'm reading from a recipe I just pop it in the stand and it charges and I can read from it at the same time.

When I need to charge my tablet now I just place my tablet on the docking station, I find it so much easier than using a standard charger which has officially been packed away with the other redundant cables.

I was thinking I'd need to upgrade my tablet soon but with these accessories it feels like I have a whole new device and have pretty much turned my tablet into a mini laptop.

What's your favourite device to use - phone, tablet or laptop?

Disclosure: Thanks very much to MobileZap for providing me with these tablet accessories to review. I have not received any payment or compensation for this review. As always, all opinions are my own.

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Book Review and Sneak Preview: The Truth According To Us By Annie Barrows

This is a book review and sneak preview of The Truth According To Us by Annie Barrows that is due to be published by Random House on 9 June 2015.

Annie Barrows lives in Northern California with her husband and two daughters. She has written a number of books about diverse subjects such as fortune telling, urban legends and opera and even a series of children's books.

This story starts in the hot and sweaty Summer of 1938 and is narrated by a 12 year old girl Willa Romeyn who lives with her aunts, father and sister in the small town of Macedonia, West Virginia.

The history of the Romeyn's family is told when a spoilt young girl Layla is sent to board at their home and write about the History of Macedonia. As talk of the town unfolds, the family's ghosts and secrets come out, and this is what the story is based around.

What stood out to me was the love between brother and sister and all of the family, they definitely put each other first no matter what.

I liked the writing style and the characters, especially when it was Willa narrating I thought she was adorable. The descriptions of the scenery and homes was brilliant I felt like I was right there with the family on the porch feeling the hot summer breeze on my skin.

Unfortunately, I didn't get into the theme of the book until half way through when it picked up the pace and I found the start of the book to be far too long. It was only when love stories developed and emerged and more was discovered of the family's background that I became engaged with the story. To be honest if it wasn't for the writing style that I enjoyed so much, I was tempted to not even finish this book. But I'm no quitter, I can't handle not finishing a book I've started and I'm glad I finished because it really did end with a bang and all the questions were answered in the end.

I recommend this to readers interested in historical American fiction of the 1930's era.

I give this book 2 stars out of  5

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 paint dry 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 the last tim tam for this read
5 Great - I'd pass up a date with Johnny Depp for this read

The Truth According To Us can be purchased direct from the author here or Random House

Sharing my book review on Good Reads here and Netgalley

You can visit the author's website here

Disclosure:  NetGalley partner with bloggers such as me to help promote authors and their books and I was given this ebook published by Random House to review. As always, all opinions are my own.

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Dismantling The Patio

We are making progress with clearing our block for subdivision and once we cleared out the Granny Flat it was time to dismantle and pull down the patio.

Our old rusty patio we were sure was going to fall down in the first year we moved in, it rattles and shakes and drops rust everywhere whenever it's windy enough, but what do you know it's lasted through all the wind and storms 5 years on!

We moved everything out of the way, the outdoor furniture is in storage, we gave away a lot of our building material and stored what we wanted to keep along the back fence. Pot plants, decor, even the BBQ we have relocated against the side of the house so it's under the shelter of the eaves of the house.

Everything will be relocated to either the courtyard at the front of the house or to our new deck and patio area once we finish building it. I already miss my Sunday night roast dinners in the Weber BBQ so hopefully it's not too long a wait!

Mr P got up on the ladder and popped the rivets out of each metal sheet, then pushed the sheets along one by one until they were all taken down. 

We have given all the sheeting to our neighbor who wants to re-use it to build something. This was a bonus for us as it's one less thing to put in the skip bin, we just passed it over the fence!

Next the steel framework was unbolted from the granny flat and taken down. Some parts needed to be cut down with a cordless metal saw.

Piece by piece and bit by bit and step by step ohhhh baby the patio was dismantled!

Now we can see nothing but blue sky, except when it rains of course then it's a grey sky and everything gets wet without the patio roof on!

We've made a temporary dog house for Lexi under the Granny Flat steps, I think she is going to miss her massive patio sized dog house just as much as we will.

Our next job is to pull up all the pavers and remove the two concrete septic tanks that are underneath - this was part of the conditions of subdivision that they be taken out. The tanks have already been decommissioned but we filled them with sand and rubble so they're going to be a real pain to dig up and remove, we might need to hire some machinery to do it.

Once the pavers and tanks are removed, we will get the truck and crane in to take the Granny Flat away.

The subdivision is progressing nicely although I already miss having our big patio to sit under with a glass of wine and a good book!

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