My 4 Year Blog-Versary

Tomorrow marks the 4th year I have been writing on my beloved blog .... So here's a cheers to you Jarrah Jungle!

Cheers to you guys, my awesome readers too for your support over all these years. You guys rock!

 

 

I absolutely love to blog. I have no idea what I would do with my time and ideas, if I couldn't type them out and share them with the world. That moment I hit publish makes me feel so relieved to share my story and happy that I can connect with other bloggers and readers alike.

I'm a Taurus, we're creative people who are also very practical. I spend my days as an office chick and my nights as a home obsessed blogger. This fulfils both sides of myself well, but it's still a dream for me to find a job that fulfils both my creative AND practical side.

I've bored my friends endlessly about my love of blogging and interior design and how I want to form a career from it somehow. No matter how much they encourage me I'm just not sure how to get my foot in the door and find the right career path to do this. I'm contemplating doing an Interior Design or Decorators Course, but for someone who has worked full time for 17 years it's hard to think about returning to study or how the bills will be paid without a solid income, but as they saying goes where there's a will there's a way!

To show how serious I am about my beloved blog, I registered it as a business name last year. This was a very proud moment for me and proved to myself how seriously I take this blog of mine. This is not just a hobby, it's something that I invest many hours of my days in and take real pride in my writing and what I share with my readers - yes that's you guys!

I was nominated for 2 amazing blog awards throughout the year too - Peoples Choice Nominee in Best Australian Blogs 2014 and Kidspot Voices of 2014. Having readers put my blog forward for these awards was such a proud moment and I thank you all so much for your support, whilst I didn't get into the top blogs, I still feel very honoured to have been listed amongst some of the most influential voices on the blogosphere.

    

As for the happenings around the Jarrah Jungle home in the last 12 months, we've been going gun-ho with the renovations as you'll see on my House Tour page. Finished the kitchen and dining room, built a limestone courtyard, new concrete driveway, to name just a few projects!

 

I've been doing a lot more book reviews over the last 9 months as well which I've been really loving returning to my book nerd ways and getting through a few books a month. I'm still doing my Book Club reviews and also reviewing books for Random House and NetGalley - they send me books to read and review before they are published which is pretty exciting! I feel like a mystery reader receiving the proof books with spelling mistakes and all, it's pretty awesome.

 

I've written hundreds of posts over the years and this is my 696th post I've published! Wowsers!!

My top 3 most popular posts from the last 12 months are: 

Recipe - Raspberry Vodka & Lime Rum Jelly Shots

 eDesign Mood Board - Jarrah Jungle Laundry

Kitchen Splash Back - Tile Vs Glass

 

There's a bit of everything in those top 3 - A recipe and my love of entertaining, my interior design mood board for the Laundry renovation it's so good to see you guys like these to, and of course renovating the kitchen, the main topic of this blog is all about home improvement and I'd be worried if those posts weren't being viewed!

 

 

Of course I always save the best for last ..... I want to say a big thank you to you guys, my readers, for always popping by to say hi, to comment and offer advice when I need it, and just generally showing your support. You guys are awesome!

 

Who knows what the next year will bring but I'm positive that it's going to be fan-bloody-tastic!

You can find my previous blog-versary posts here: 1st, 2nd and 3rd

 

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[All images my own]

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Recipe: Boozy Butternut Snap Chocolate Tartlets

I've heard about these Butternut Snap Tarts being one of the easiest desserts to make and so I decided to give them a go when I had friends over for dinner recently and needed a last minute dessert idea.

 

I like desserts I can make ahead of time and this was one of those, it was easy to make with few ingredients and really tasty everyone enjoyed them. I added a touch of Baileys Irish Cream to mine which went well with the rich chocolate and a perfect end to the meal .... accompanied with a shot of chilled Baileys!

Boozy Butternut Snap Chocolate Tartlets
 

Ingredients

 

1 x 250g packet Arnotts Butternut Snap Biscuits

1/3 cup cream

200g milk chocolate, chopped

65g unsalted butter, chopped

Flake, chocolate bar
1 shot glass of Baileys Irish Cream (or coffee liquor) plus more to serve

 

Method
 

1. Preheat oven to 180c. Place 12 biscuits over each hole of a 12 hole patty muffin tray. Bake for 2-3 minutes until soft.

 

2. Remove from oven and carefully press softened biscuits into pan to mould into a cup shape. Allow to cool. Remove from tin and transfer to a serving plate. Repeat with remaining biscuits.

 

3.  Place butter, cream and chocolate in a saucepan over very low heat. Stir constantly for 7 minutes or until melted and smooth. Add a shot of Baileys and stir well. Pour into a bowl and refrigerate for 20 minutes, until cool but not set.

 

4. Fill biscuit cases with 1 heaped teaspoon of chocolate mixture. Sprinkle with flake chocolate over the top. Place in fridge for 20 minutes until set, or ready to serve.

 

5. Chill a bottle of Baileys in the fridge and put shot glasses in the freezer, until ready to serve.

 

Serve these Chocolate Tartlets with a shot of chilled Baileys ..... it is sure to be a dessert to remember!

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[Image my own]

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Kitchen Renovation - Featured On The Life Creative

Chris Carroll is a stylist and writer behind The Life Creative blog which takes a light hearted look at interior design and decor.

Chris loves homes filled with personality and likes to showcase real homes of local readers which is why I'm so excited that my kitchen renovation was featured last week ..... on my Birthday in fact what an awesome Birthday gift!

  

You can see our kitchen featured over here and in the words of Chris .... They took this busy space from hum drum to hot tamale!

You can find more Real Rooms over on the The Life Creative here

See more of my 1960s retro kitchen before here and the shiny modern after here

For all of my home renovations ugly befores and glorious afters check out my House Tour here

I hope your day is full of smiles and surprises!

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[All images my own]

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Book Review and Preview: Then And Always: A Novel By Dani Atkins

This is a book review and preview of the book Then and Always: A Novel by Dani Atkins that is due to be published on 20 May 2014.

This is the first novel from author Dani Atkins and I don't think it will be her last - she is a brilliant writer. Dani lives in a 400 year old cottage in rural England with her family, two elderly cats and one very excitable border collie.

This is the story of Rachel fresh out of high school and in her early 20s, she has a terrible accident and can't remember her life from the last 5 years. The life Rachel remembers - where she lives, who her partner is, the career path she took, everything, is very different to the life that she actually wakes up to and starts to live.

This novel basically takes two different paths of how Rachel's life turned out - it's the kind of story that makes you stop and think about all those what if moments in your own life ... what if you had done things different, what if you left the house at a different time, what if you started talking to that stranger. Who knows how life could turn out, for better or worse, if you took another path!

I really liked the way the story was written from two different sides of Rachel's life. It was written very well and I couldn't turn the pages fast enough to find out what was going to happen next. Rachel was very likable and very believable in the type of character she played as well.

This story line was very similar to Sliding Doors the movie with the 2 different lives that Gwyneth Paltrow lived. It also reminded me of the book One Day with the girl and best boy friend type story line - I loved One Day (I don't often give books 5 stars!) and I loved this book as well (yes it's another 5 star rating from me!).

I recommend this book to One Day and Sliding Door fans and anyone who likes a modern day romance.

I give this book 5 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

Then and Always can be purchased from Random House here

Sharing my book review on Good Reads here

Disclosure: NetGalley partner with bloggers such as me to help promote their product. As part of this promotion I was given this eBook published by Random House, Ballantine Books to review. I have not received any payment or compensation for this review. I have not been told what to say about this product, I am free to form my own opinion and share them in my own words. All opinions are my own.

[Image via Random House]

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Interior Door Handles

Following on with us replacing all the internal doors in the house and hanging a new front door, once we had chosen the door styles, we also had to pick out the door handles ..... kind of crucial if you want to open or shut a door as I have discovered being trapped in the bathroom with no door handle the other day!

Picking the handles has proved to be harder than picking the doors themselves, because we are spoilt for choice when it comes to styles and brands. Sometimes I wish there were less choice because it would make picking one a lot easier!

Prices between brands really differ as well with some handles costing half the price of others.

The Bargain Queen in me always wants to save some pennies and go the cheaper option ..... But Mr P's voice of reason explains you want a trusted brand name with a handle that feels like good quality in your hand not some rattling cheap hardware that is going to fall apart.

 

Fair call Mr P and as you're paying for them and installing them I guess I'll keep my mouth shut and just blog about it instead!

 

 

We decided to pick our interior door handles in a similar style to our French Doors and Front Door handle. A tapered style of handle with an edging strip, in brushed silver because it doesn't show finger marks. While I love the shiny chrome look, I'd hate to have to clean marks off them all the time so the brushed silver finish is my favourite.

We chose these Lockwood handles because they had the same outline and shape as the new exterior handles. Plus we managed to find them at half the RRP price so paid $25 each instead of $45 in the stores.

A DIY job for the weekend will be to install the new handles on all the new internal doors .... it has been a bit of fun trying to open and close the bathroom door without a handle and I've had a few "I'm trapped in here and nobody's home" moments but luckily I managed to get the door open eventually without too much panic! 

  

Are you a brushed silver = no finger prints or shiny silver = love my bling kind of person?

Sharing with link parties:

Savvy Southern Style - Wow Us Wednesdays
Home Coming - The DIYers

 

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[All images my own]

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It's My Birthday .... Almost !!!

 

So it's my Birthday tomorrow and maybe it's a sign of growing older or heaven forbid growing up but just like last year I'm not organising an entire week of Birthday celebrations this year.

 

I know it's a shock right!

 

 

I'm having just a few days off work for a chilled out Birthday, no big party or celebrations planned, I just want to spend time catching up with friends, drinking champagne, a bit of pampering at the day spa (always my Birthday present to myself!) and a romantic date night with my love Mr P.

 

And I'm one happy May babe!

 

 

If I'm not on the blog over the next few days (blame the champagne and relaxing massage bliss!) then you can always find me on Facebook and Instagram sharing snippets of my days.

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[Images via my Pinterest 1, 2, 3]

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No Laundry Reno Update This Week

 

 

I wanted to give you a Laundry/Powder Room renovation update this week on the laundry sink and taps, I even dedicated over 5 hours of my weekend to writing a blog post .... but somehow after 5 hours of typing, editing, uploading images, researching brands and styles, pros and cons and proof reading for the millionth time .....

 

I DELETED THE POST

 

All my work was gone at the click of a mouse. I stupidly closed it all down and hoped by some magical notion that it would all be restored when I went back in again. No such luck. I was angry and frustrated and sad and ready to burst into tears all at the same time. I get chocked up about it now just thinking about it!

 

 

If anyone has ever worked on something and then lost all their hard work, time and effort you'll know exactly how I feel.

 

I can't bring myself to write it all again even though I learn so much more about my home renovations when I write about them, explaining my decisions reinforces everything in my own mind and I become more confident in my decisions.

 

But not this time. I can't bring myself to do it all again. Sorry.

 

When was the last time you had a shit happens moment?

 

 

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[Images via my Pinterest 1, 2, 3]

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