The Liebster Blog Award Goes To ...

I was pleasantly surprised to be nominated for the Liebster Blog Award by the sweet Allie of This Yellow House (formerly called The Inspired Momma) thanks so much Allie! While we share a love of home design and DIY, Allie also juggles a young family and has identical twin boys!

Liebster is German for "dearest." The purpose of the Liebster Award is to help "newbie" blogs with less that 200 followers get noticed with a sort of sweet "Shout Out" of attention, and likewise, a sort of "Pay It Forward" is included, to help other blogs get due notice and attention.

How it works:

To receive the award, the following is in order:

(1)Make a Post about your win putting the award button in your post.

(2)Link back to (& follow)the blogger who nominated you the award.

(3)Pick five blogs with less than 200 followers that you feel deserving of the Liebster Award, and leave them a comment on their blog to let them know you've nominated them.

(4) Tell the 5 blogs you've chosen to 'Pay It Forward' and 'Share some Blog Love' by following the instructions for 5 more newbie blogs.

(5) Share five random facts about ourselves.

So here are 5 random facts about yours truly ...

1.  I am really scared of heights, especially if I'm up high and surrounded by glass windows, I can't look down because I'm petrified that I'm going to fall

2.  When I was 18 I asked my boss for 6 months unpaid leave so I could travel around the world with my parents and my brother ... and she said yes ... and off travelling I went!

3.  I am allergic to fluffy furry animals - cats, rabbits, guinea pigs - so while everyone else can cuddle their soft little pets I have to stand back and try not to sneeze!

4.  I love garlic so much that when I was a kid I use to eat a clove raw each night before bed to keep me healthy. Of course now I stick to the garlic tablets, bit more conscious of the garlic breathe nowadays!

5.  I own about 20 pairs of jeans and my newest pair are mint green skinny leg jeans ... the perfect colour for Spring

Here are 5 awesome blogs that I'm nominating for the Liebster Blog Award, please show them some support and go and say g'day ...

1.  Shabby Sweet Tea - Elyse from across the globe in North Carolina is a crafty cowgirl boot lover who is as sweet as the tea she drinks!

2.    IE Love - Christie is a fellow Aussie renovator who is not afraid of hard work and whom has just welcomed a little baby boy into her family

3.  In The Night Sky - Natalie has a home in trendy Melbourne that she is busy renovating and decorating in her awesome style

4.  Sassying It Up - Sarah's blog is full of recipes and family life and her posts are guaranteed to make you laugh and make you hungry!

5.  Where The Wind Blows Me - Jacqui's blog has delicious recipes and honest reviews of places to eat in Perth and surrounds

Congratulations ladies!

I hope you'll share the love and nominate 5 newbie bloggers and keep this Liebster Blog Award going. If you do be sure to let me know so I can check out your favourite newbie blogs  :)

[Image 1 and 3 icons via This Yellow House - Photograph my own]
 

Planning The Front House Design

Following on with the garage extension project and now the garage is built we need to plan the rest of the front house design

We know we need to put in retaining walls and a new fence between our house and the neighbors. Once its retained we can then lay a new driveway. We know we want to build a brick and timber fence all the way around the front of the house to make a courtyard with a garden and somewhere to sit and relax and watch the sunset

BUT

There are lots of questions about what we'll do ourselves and what we'll get the tradies in to do. Not to mention we have to figure out the design, style, colours, materials, etc  so it all comes together like the garden of my dreams ... here's the list so far

• what the pathway to the front door will be made of and should it be the same as the driveway ?
• what the driveway will be made of - plain concrete and painted ? exposed aggregate ?
• what type of fence between the neighbors and our driveway - steel ? colour ?
• what type of steps heading down to the courtyard area - concrete ? timber ?
• should there be lawn - or artificial lawn ?
• staggered paving and pebbles ?
• timber decking or timber tiles ?
• an ornamental feature - either a water feature or modern sculpture ?
• space in the centre for a small outdoor setting with table and chairs
• water wise hardy plants that love a beating from the sun as it gets full sunshine from lunchtime until the sunsets
• feature pots near the front door and front windows
• paint the front door - green? blue? red? black?

I've been sitting at home with my magazines tearing out pages of gardens I like the look of and scouring Pinterest for inspiration

I don't want to miss this opportunity to create the garden of my dreams but at the same time it all needs to work well together and be practical and adaptable to our rugged West Australian climate

One step at a time!

[Images from my Pinterest Bike Image 1 Image 2 Image 3 Image 4 Image 5 Image 6 Image 7 Image 8]

Fridays Letters - Dear Autocorrect

Thank god it's Friday! I have had a full on week at work and I'm so glad I can let off some steam with my Dear Friday letters thanks to linky party over at Adventures of Newlyweds

I am imagining I'm writing this weeks letters at this fresh light and bright home office I'll be tapping away at the keyboard and staring out the window at that pretty view

Dear Autocorrect - I'd rather my one word be spelt wrong than your totally unrelated word added to my sentence.

Dear Bad Day - I'm glad I found this quote don't let a bad day make you feel like you have a bad life it's so true but sometimes hard to take in when you're having a bitch of a day!  

Dear Friends - I need to find time to see you more ... dinners, movies and quiz nights are high on my priority list with you next month.

Dear Exterior Paint Stuff Up - I felt like a right git painting the house lime green instead of limestone and I'm now $190 worse off. Note to self - don't make those amateur mistakes again and don't listen to the paint chick when picking colours!

Dear Interior Design Dreams - I'm following my love of interior design and just enrolled in a 6 week, 1 night a week Interior Design Course. I'm really exiting about it and hope I learn a lot to turn my lil ole house into an amazing home.

 

[Image via my Pinterest source Chezlarsson.com]

You Found What? Where!

So tell me, what do you think these objects have in common?

A truck

Man figurine

Toy screwdriver

Yep it's a bunch of kids toys

Now guess where they were found?

In this drain

Which had been blocked

For months and months and months

There's no kids living here so the toys have most likely been there for years!

I'm just glad when I flush the toilet now it actually flushes!

There's never a dull moment around the Jarrah Jungle I tell ya :)

What strange things have you found in your home?
C'mon I'm sure there's something!

 

[All images my own]

Today Was One Of Those Days

I had a bitch of a day today

Something tells me I'm in need of a glass of wine

And a holiday!

Let's hope tomorrow is better than today

[Images via my Pinterest - Image 1 Image 2 Image 3 Image 4]

Accidentally Turning Into The Hulk House

We painted the front of the house this weekend to seal the render because it stains really easily even the rain was leaving marks on it. I know I haven't show you progress photos of the exterior yet - they're coming and here's a peek at the render on the front of the house but I just have to share with you a big colour stuff up on my part this weekend. All I can say is thank god for a patient partner Mr P and thank god for wine!

We finally found a gutter guy to install all the new gutters and down pipes, except that as the down pipes go against the walls we needed to paint first as it's impossible to get behind them once they're on. So the gutter guy half fitted them on Friday to allow us to paint over the weekend and he'll be back this week to finish it off.

First we had to sand back and paint the window frames - time was not on our side so we only managed to do the living room window done, the master bedroom window we'll have to do afterwards which is fine. To prep the walls I just used a soft broom and brushed it up and down the walls to get the sand and dirt off ready to paint.

Once prepped we headed to Bunnings to pick out the paint - we took a piece of the down pipe in Classic Cream and a piece of the render which is Limestone. I asked the paint chick to colour match the piece of limestone and she told me they have a colour called Limestone but they didn't have a sample card of the colour so all I had to go by was the picture on her computer screen. I made the bad decision of asking her to mix up a pot for me - a big 15 ltr pot of exterior paint which cost $190.

 It looked nothing like my piece of limestone rock eeeeeeek it's green!

Got back home and mixing it up thought it looked a bit green, but might be better on the walls. So started rolling it on and it was very green, not classic cream and definitely not the limestone I had asked it be matched  to. I was having flashbacks of a house Mr P and I almost bought which was green on the outside and we nicknamed it the Hulk House and decided against buying it as we didn't want to have to repaint it ... Now look at us turning our home into the Hulk House!

There is no denying from the photos it was green but to our eyes outside in the sunlight we were praying it would improve. Wasn't going to happen so we went back to Bunnings carrying the heavy paint pot and asked them to put some more colour into it - black - magenta - etc to try to hide the green. Got it home second time lucky and started to roll it on again and it was worse than the first time. The green was lighter and looking more limey with each stroke. There was no fixing this colour and as the sun was sinking we were fast running out of time to get it done.

We could've painted it on and hated it and lived with a Hulk House or we could swallow our pride and spend another $190 on a pot tinted in classic cream which is the same as the gutters and render. The safe choice. Why oh why did I try to complicate things? So that's what we did! You can't even see the difference in this paint colour it is that much of a perfect match to the render colour - I definitely worked hard to cover that green as fast as possible! We did 2 quick coats in the Classic Cream and finished the walls where the down pipes are going as it was getting dark the sun was setting. The rest of the house we'll try to get painted next weekend.

I made some amateur mistakes on this paint colour

• Always buy a tester pot - we didn't have the time to test out colours but in turn we wasted 3 trips and $190 to get the paint colour we liked
• Always check colour swatches - don't go off the computer screen - ever!
• Don't go by the name of a paint - Limestone to me is the limestone blocks at the base of our house and the new limestone wall we had built - not lime pause stone which is what the colour turned out to be

You know the worst thing about this I felt like EVERYONE knew - people driving past, or walking past, or who lived on our street I felt like they were watching and knew what a stuff up we'd done because we were outside the house and couldn't hide it!

Have you ever had any paint colour disasters?

I'd love to hear about them so I don't feel like such a git!

[All images my own]

Baking With A Bread Maker - Is It Cheating?

Iv had a few interesting experiences baking bread, I attempted sourdough a few times after a Wild Sourdough class I went to last year but it was taking me 3 days from when I was activating the yeast to actually eating the bread which was to much of an epic experience for me.

So I asked for a bread maker for my Birthday and lucky me I got this one!

It is a fantastic present I've used it heaps already to make Cheese and Herb Damper and Herbie Cheese Bread - both delicious with soup. I made Pizza Dough but it wasn't too good it wouldn't cook through in the oven and the pizzas burnt, I used the delayed start with this which might be why so next time I'll make it fresh and see if it improves.

My favourite so far is this Cinnamon and Sultana Bread I made Saturday night so when I woke up Sunday morning the house smelt like sweet cinnamon and it tasted just as good (wish there was smell vents on the computer but you'll just have to imagine!)

My beautiful Cinnamon and Sultana Bread

I sliced it thick and toasted it

Slathered on butter and my Nana's homemade Fig and Apricot Jam

I kind of feel like I'm cheating a bit using the bread maker as it is so easy you just add all the ingredients and turn it on - it mixes it, lets it rise, and cooks it.

To think how epic my previous bread making attempts have been and for a not very good baker like me it's a foolproof way to have delicious fresh bread.

Do you have a Bread Maker?
What is your favourite recipe to make in it?

[Image for bread maker via Sunbeam & All other images my own]

Fridays Letters - Dear Paint Tin

It's Friday which means it's time for this weeks Friday's Letters link up party, if you want to meet some lovely bloggers and play along head on over to Ashley's blog Adventures of Newlyweds and join in the fun

I'm imagining I'm writing this weeks letters from this welcoming wooden desk with its funky gold frame photo board, I'll be writing on some pretty writing paper with a cappuccino in hand

 

Dear Paint Tin - Why did the paint run out when there was only a few panels left to paint in the garage ceiling? I had to do a mercy dash to Bunnings and I got paint on my non painting clothes and my seatbelt!

 

Dear Ted the Movie - You were as funny as everyone made you out to be. Thanks for the belly laughs, laughter really is the best medicine and just what I needed.

 

Dear Hairdressers - I'm booked in for a cut colour and styling tomorrow and really looking forward to some pampering. So glad you could fit me in.

 

Dear My Bookclub Choice The End Of Mr Y - I have picked you for my Bookclub girls to read next month, fingers crossed you're a great book - don't let me down!

 

Dear Target - You did it again and filled my trolley with homewares all on sale and made me take home a new floor lamp, bath mat runners, towels, horse head book ends, the list goes on! Buying on sale definitely means you're allowed to buy twice as much.

 

Dear Chilli Chocolate - You are hot and spicy and sweet and bitter at the same time. I like you but I don't quite know why.

 

[Image via Pinterest source littlebitsoflovely.blogspot.com]

My Growing Teapot Collection

I seem to have started a bit of tea pot collection which is really quite strange as I rarely drink tea but I love the look of tea pots and they come in so many different styles

Here's some of the ones I've put on display in my kitchen

The fluro tea pot and teacup and saucers were on sale at Typo for $5 each and the blue and white tea pot and cups were on sale at Freedom for $7 and $3 (I also got the cereal bowls in this design)

The silver teapot a friend gave me along with a bag of other silver homewares I need to polish up so I can display

The fruit bowl is Vue from Myer I got on sale for $29

The clock is from Target on sale for $20 (every time I've moved house I've bought a new clock as a symbol of a new time in my life and this clock Mr P and I bought when we moved in together)

I'm being a bold and mixing up my coloured accessories and I'm quite liking the clash of colours!

[All images my own]

The Dark Side Of Blogging

Like so many other bloggers out there I taught myself how to set up my blog add photos and links to make it appealing to readers.

As time has gone on I've realised how important it is to link images back to the original source where ever possible. I myself am guilty of this and have noticed that some of the links I have referred to no longer exist, I'm unsure if this is because the person has removed them or if they were to a temporary page, etc.

Since Pinterest has come into our lives and the ease of pinning someones photo and putting it out there potentially as their own I believe it is more important than ever to credit images and content back to where it came from.

Surprisingly, I've noticed many images on Pinterest don't take me to the original source - they have an error message or worse they go to a spam type website. I'm very careful now to check these links work and if they don't take me to the original source I update the details so they do. If I can't find the source, I won't use the image.

I googled my own blog (as you do!) and was shocked that some of my photos had made it onto Pinterest but I am very pleased to say that they all linked back to my blog as they should do.

Pinned here

Pinned here

Pinned here

Pinned here

Pinned here

As an added precaution I've added a Copyright Notice to my blog to ensure that the content from my blog always belongs to me.

Of course I write so readers can learn some DIY, share some recipes, read a book by my review, and I love to share information that's why I blog about it but I would be devastated if my content was borrowed aka stolen and not referred back to me. After all its my blood sweat tears late nights and speedy fast typing skills that allow these posts to happen!

I strongly suggest you add Copyright to your own blog - all you need is the words Copyright the content to and from date and the authors name ie: Copyright 2010 - 2012 Jarrah Jungle.

It not only reminds readers to link back to your blog but it also covers you if anyone 'borrows' your content and you want to take it further you have proof that they were warned it was Copyright.

Go on, add your Copyright footer now!

[First image via Pinterest source CollegeCandy.com

All other Images my own]

Book Review: The Catcher In The Rye By J D Salinger

I felt like reading a classic for a change and grabbed this book off the library shelf The Catcher In The Rye by J D Salinger

This is the story of teenager, Holden Caulfield who gets kicked out of his fourth school and spends a few days kicking around in the big wide world before making the trip back to his parent's house to face the music.

At first I really liked the way this book was written, clearly by a teenagers mind and the simplicity of the words and repeating the story and explaining himself to make sure you were following. Holden Caulfield is a great story teller and I could just imagine myself talking to him as I was reading the book.

But then somehow I got tired of him and his strange mood swings and dark thoughts and wanted to just give him a bit of a shake and tell him to grow up. Then I'd feel sorry for him and want to give him a hug and cup of hot chocolate. Towards the end of this book I honestly didn't know if this teenager was heading for a mental hospital or if he was just being a teenager. He is extremely sensitive, intelligent and attractive which is possibly a dangerous mix.

I'm still confused about the moral of the story because the book just ended - I hate that when the story just ends and you're left wondering what on earth becomes of this guy.

I read the Penguin book version, not sure if that is shorter or makes a difference but if anyone else has read this I would love to hear your opinion on the ending.

I would recommend this book to the youth and those that like a classic old style read. 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 Penguin]

Colour Inspiration and Mood Boards

I'm feeling really inspired after the School of Real Living Colour Masterclass I went to last week

It was really great to meet Jacinta Preston Interior Stylist from Real Living magazine who is as lovely and bubbly in person as she appears in print and Lucy Sutherland Trend Forecaster and Colour Expert from International School of Colour + Design whose job is to name paints among other things!

Here are some pictures of Jacinta's home published in the April 2010 edition of Real Living, Jacinta painted both her bedroom and her young kids rooms black - but as you can see they make a bold statement without being dark and dingy. I love how she is bold with colour but not overly fussy with decorations, everything displayed has a purpose and adds a pop of colour.

At the class we learnt what colours work together and what colours we hate - turns out I hate mission browns and love greens! Of course some people hated what others loved but that's why every home is different and everyone is free to decorate as they wish!

We also got our craft on and cut out pictures of inspiration and made our own mood boards. The room I picked was my Kitchen/Dining Room and my mood board has a primary colour of green using the view of the garden outside the windows and the colour pallet from the Living Room next door and red will be my accent colour with kitchen accessories.

Here's a peek at my mood board

Primary Colour - Green / Accent Colour - Red

Neutral Colours - Grey and White / Texture - Timber floors



Feature lighting over the kitchen island bench

The timber floors will offset white and grey marble bench tops

Some fun artworks and fresh flowers will be the finishing touches

I really enjoyed making a mood board and while I'm always flagging pages in magazines and have files with torn out pages of my favourites ie: kitchen, bathroom, decorating, etc to have my dream Kitchen/Dining Room on one board is really helpful to see what kind of look I want.

So tell me, have you ever made a mood board?

[Magazine images via Real Living and Mood Board images my own]