It's Nearly The New Year!

I hope everyone had an enjoyable Christmas with friends and family and those that mean the most to you. My Christmas has been really relaxing, I had Christmas Eve dinner at my parents out on the farm and Christmas Day lunch with Pete's family by the pool. I bought the entree for both so I'll be sure to share the recipes soon. The last few days I've been catching up with friends, hitting the sales, and chilling at home in the air conditioning keeping cool and watching foxtel which was a Chrissy present to ourselves. I can't stop watching the lifestyle channels there are so many home shows I've been loading up on ideas!

With Christmas over for another year, now the count down to New Years is on. This year I'm going out into town to a club to dance and drink bubbly into the New Year! I haven't been out to a club on New Years for over 10 years so it's sure to be an interesting night if only I can decide what to wear :)

  

What's your plan to bring in New Years 2012?

[All images via my Pinterest]

Book Review: Design Sponge At Home by Grace Bonney

Santa has spoilt me early this Christmas and I haven't been able to put this book down since it was given to me by my Kris Kringle :)

Design Sponge at Home by Grace Bonney what a little beauty this book turned out to be. Written by the humble Grace Bonney who started her blog Design Sponge 7 years ago to connect with other creative home loving people.

This book is not a flashy vogue type read, it is down to earth and full of honest pictures of rooms that you could definately create yourself, with flea market and op shop finds turned into something special. It proves my motto that you don't have to spend a lot of money to create a beautiful home, and most importantly a home full of personality. It has heaps of pages of real peoples homes from all across the globe to perve on, plus lots of before and afters, and some cool and thrifty diy projects that I might just have to have a go at over the Chrissy break.

I would recommend this book for the renovators who get excited about a good before and after and like a bit of diy inspiration

This book gets 5 stars - sorry Johnny Depp you just can't turn me on like Design Sponge does!

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

[Images and books purchased from Book Despository]

Christmas Day Dish

I'm bringing the entree on Christmas Day and wanting to impress the hopefully maybe one day in-laws I thought a chilled soup served in shot glasses would be a fun starter for a hot summery Christmas day

I have visions of everyone standing around chatting by the pool and enjoying a chilled soup shooter before tucking into a lavish Christmas lunch

I'm testing out this recipe for Chilled Pea Soup with Mint Gelato this week to see if it is tasty enough to serve up on Christmas Day

What dish are you taking to share on Christmas Day?

[All images via my Pinterest except recipe image from Taste.com]

My Blue N Silver Christmas

This is my 3rd Christmas in the Jarrah Jungle and each year the tree has been put up in a different spot, this year the tree up in the dining area next to the bar fish tank which looks really nice at night time when the lights are on. The tree is covered in blue and silver ornaments and tinsel, I've heard tinsel is out of vogue but I don't agree I think it looks pretty!

In the Living Room I've filled an ornate bird cage with red beads and ceramic balls and a glass cylinder with some silver baubles to add a bit of chrissy style

How are you decorating for Christmas this year?

What Doesnt Kill You

Makes you stronger. Well that's what I'm telling myself anyway as I'm 6 weeks into the bathroom renovation and although I wasn't thrilled about using the granny flat bathroom in the meantime I know I'm pretty lucky to have it. UNTIL the events of Wednesday night when the power decided to trip out which left me in the dark scary granny flat, in the shower, butt naked, wet and cold!

Thursday I had a cold morning shower but wasn't brave enough at night to do the same in the dark so standing under the unflattering laundry fluro light I bathed over the laundry trough with an itty bitty flannel and soap thinking this is what it must have been like in the old days before showers were invented! There's nothing that cements a relationship more than communal bathing under fluro lights let me tell ya!

I did manage to wash my man's hair in the laundry trough and he didn't get too drenched from the wetting, shampooing, conditioning, rinsing, but it's not the easiest of jobs to do. My hair washing is a bit more tricky as I have really long thick hair so I'm just working the up dos for now, it's amazing what a headband and bun can disguise. I might have to treat myself with a trip to the hairdressers for a wash and blowdry if it doesn't get fixed this weekend.

A bit of investigating and the hot water system has tripped out and cut the power to the granny flat. This is also where the home brew beers are kept so the man wasn't too happy about that either! Pray with me that we can get it fixed this weekend.

[Images via my Pinterest]

Let There Be Lights

I'm chuffed to say we've found 2 out of the 3 lights that were on the wish list. We may have run around like maniacs driving to 6 light shops in 3 hours, but it's amazing what you can get when the pressures on.

For the Man Cave we picked this Inside 1 Light Pendant in retro black and orange. A few more orange accessories in the man cave and I think this light will look pretty funky.

For the hallway as much as I wanted the bubble lights we don't really have the room in our little hallway for it to be a feature so I picked out this Pinto double glass pendant which should look good with the hallway cupboards and pretty wallpaper

We found both these lights at Beacon Lighting and as we were buying 2 lights I asked for a discount (as always) and the lovely lady took $10 off one and $8 off the other and also 50c off each globe, hey it all counts doesn't it!

I also want to show off the lights I bought some time ago from Tilly's Lights which is the biggest and best light shop in Perth (in my humble opinion). I fell for this retro looking Shanghai 4 light pendant for the guest bedroom

This Versa 5 Light Pendant is for the living room, again its got a bit of a retro twist but is pretty modern as well. I think the round glass will look pretty striking over the white and green glass coffee table

I can't wait for these lights to be installed they will really finish off the rooms, hopefully we can get an electrician to come and install them before the New Year

Man Cave Light   $89.95

Hallway Light   $71.95

Guest Bedroom Light   $198

Living Room Light   $500

[Image 1, 2 & 3 from Beacon Lighting and Image 2 & 3 from Tillys Lights]

Bathroom Progress Peek at Tiling and Vanity

The Tiler has spent 5 days doing the bathroom - front and back doors wide open all day long, drop sheets running all through the house to protect the floorboards, some days he bought a helper and other days he worked alone singing and grinding and tiling by himself. And this is how I keep the tradies happy - lots of drinks and biscuits!

Wednesday he chipped into the walls with the back of a hammer which helps the tiles stick

After that he screeded and levelled out the floor which meant he had to bring back into the house most of those limestone blocks that I spent days carrying out of the bathroom and buckets of sand to bring the floor level up again. Then he concreted it and level it off.

That long rectangle shape in the floor is for the shower grate, because of the size of our tiles (300 x 600) we couldn't have a round grate its too hard to tile around and everywhere we looked Bunnings and bathroom shops wanted $500 + for one. So we jumped online and found a great store Vincent Buda who shipped it from the eastern states in 3 days for a total cost of $250 (yep half price!)

Thursday was waterproofing day, the shower area and behind the vanity got a few coats of waterproofer painted on

Then we had a Tiler Vs Cabinet Maker battle of opinions - we had to decide whether to put the vanity in now and tile around it or to tile the floor first and put the vanity on top. The Tiler was saying put the vanity in last and the Cabinet Maker was saying put the vanity in first. Ahhhh what to do ... phone a friend that's what we did! We decided to put the vanity in first because then you could tile to it and hide any imperfections.

Late Thursday our custom made vanity was delivered in 3 pieces. We had to cut out the holes for the plumbing. Then screwed it to one another checking it was level and straight the whole time by adjusting the legs underneath. Then bolted it to the back wall. Nailed in the front kick plate to hide the legs.

Friday morning the granite benchtop was delivered and the guys glued it to the top. When the tiling is done and we're ready to put the glass basins on we'll have to cut holes in the top of the granite and hook up the plumbing.

Friday afternoon the Tiler came to plan and lay the gorgeous grey floor tiles. I spent about an hour with him as he showed me where each tile would go and where the cuts would be made. Yes a man that actually planned before he cut - pretty rare I think. Because we have large tiles I wanted the whole tile to be the feature on the main walls you see, and the small cuts behind the door or on the side walls that you don't see as much.

All day Saturday the Tiler was here laying the sleek white wall tiles

All day Sunday the mosaics were laid straight down the centre of the vanity - that was tricky trying to get the tiles even on either side but with a bit of measuring and cutting off 2 of the mosaics they fit perfectly. I didn't want a thin stripe, I love the  look of the thick bold mosaic stripes such a feature.

The shower box has come up a treat, you know how much time and effort went into getting that little box in there and look at it all mosaiced up (is that even a word?!) and taking pride of place in the centre of the wall.

The walls need to be grouted white, the mosiacs grouted grey, everything cleaned up and the tiling will be done. Ahhhhhh how exciting! Most of all I'm looking forward to having the house back to myself, it's very hard to be hungover on the couch with tradies in the house all the time!

[All images my own other than shower grate from Vincent Buda]