Lego Storage

Last weeks Ace Space Lego storage discovery lead me to another great Lego storage idea. This one doesn't require international shipping headaches either - just a trip to your local hardware store!


And while I was discovering fabulous storage ideas for you I also came across these amazing Lego creations! It's all over here (and much more Lego amazingness) at Gimme Lego



940 saturdays = 1 childhood


Did you know there are only 940 saturdays in a childhood? A friend posted this link on her Facebook page yesterday and I think it really puts into perspective how quickly our babies grow up and leave the nest. If your kiddo is around 5, you've already seen around 260 of them pass by... This is the premise behind a new book called No Regrets Parenting - it urges parents to relax the schedule and enjoy the moments because before you know it that kiddo you're wishing would go to bed will be out with his/her friends and you'll be left on the sofa wondering what they're up to and when they'll be home again...

It makes me want to establish some traditions like "Dress-up Saturday" (which I always swore i'd do pre-kids) and let them run around the farmers market in their super-hero capes... But I guess it's kind of nutty to enforce such things. They need to grow organically.

One new family tradition I have started is "High/Low". It's basically a game we play at dinner - we go around the table and everyone has to name their highest and lowest point of the day and talk about what happened and how it made them feel. I saw it years ago in a movie - The Story of Us I think it was? It's a really nice part of our day now. I look forward to the boys stories and their animated little actions and faces as they recount stories about their day at school or pre-school. And it's an excellent way to keep in touch with what's going on in their world (and hopefully down the track it'll become a handy tool in the event of bullying and other nasty things that may come their way).

Have a read of the original blog post I found anyway, she talks a bit about her own childhood and rollerskating in the 80s and such things - it's funny. Let it inspire you too. After all, tomorrow is another Saturday!!!

Green with envy

This room is clearly going to be a winner no matter what you do with it. The light is incredible and those windows - well, as far as windows go, for me an old school set of sashes beats just about anything else going.... So it's no surprise that this space would be wonderful. But aside from all those pluses, the palette these owners have chosen is lovely. Raw timber, pale grey and fresh green accents. Don't you feel the peace just looking at it?

Remembering


Happy ANZAC Day. It's a day that represents a lot of different things to me. I have a lot of memories of ANZAC Day from different stages of my life. It's a day off. It's the birthday of an old boyfriend. It's crazy fun 2up day at the pub!... But for me, these meanings are things of the past. Now, it's what it should always be - a day where we stop and reflect on what the courageous men at Gallipoli sacrificed to ensure our futures. And it's this sentiment I'm determined to impart to my boys. It makes me happy to see so many younger people making the trip to Turkey, being touched by the events that took place there almost 100 years ago. It's a tribute to hope that we've remained true to our promise to never forget those men.

We got up early this morning and watched the service on tv, went out to the garden and picked a bunch of rosemary for a vase in our kitchen, lit a candle that burned all day and talked about what ANZAC Day means. 

Without being too graphic about it all we're pretty honest with our little guys about what happened there that day. And going to Gallipoli for the dawn service is high on my bucket list. Sometimes I question how honest I am with them about the nastier things that go on in the world, but at the end of the day I guess that's who I am. I'm an honest girl who doesn't pull any punches about the way things are and it goes against my nature to soften the truth. Hopefully it's not a bad thing to raise them this way.

I had no idea that parenting would be so hard. Apart from the obvious "work" angle of being a mother (ie balancing a career with the nuts and bolts of caring for kids, housework etc), I never really thought all that much about this kind of stuff - how I would tell them about war and politics while still remembering that they are only 5 and 3 years old! How do you deal with big questions with your kids? Do you tell them like it is? Or do you try to preserve their innocence? I hope I find a happy medium between the two. But I guess I won't really know until down the track when I can see the men they become. I look forward to knowing those men...

Is this what we have to look forward to?

Tuesday Tour: Swedish delight

Welcome to the home of Swedish Jewelry designer Stine A. Johansen. An eclectic mix of old, new and beautiful. When she isn't designing jewellry, Stine likes to dabble in other creative pursuits and has painted all of the artworks in her home... Take a look. I LOVE the natural timber finish on the floors and the muted tones of their decor choices. Just beautiful. It makes me feel calm looking at it all.

The beautiful nursery...


And the rest of Stines home...








Ch-ch-changes...

So as part of my work avoidance scheme today, I decided to have a little play around with the way things look around here. NooshLoves is 18 months old and I thought she deserved a bit of a facelift - besides, I was a bit tired of the old design. Grey is much more my colour and I thought things should be a bit more simple. What do you think so far? More subtle alterations to come...

The $99 bed! Quick!

Not the super amazing quality photos I like to use but the deal is too good not to share! From tomorrow, Aldi have single beds for a measley $99!!! And mattresses to put on them for just $169!!! And if all this rain has you dreaming about flanny sheets, you can pick those up from tomorrow for under $20 too! See? Too good not to share. That is all. x


Mother's Day idea

This year is flying by faster than a ripe tomato at a bad show! Would you believe Mother's Day is just around the corner!? If your mum is anything like mine, coming up with a winning gift idea is more than an evenings work. I know the gifts she treasures most (like most mums) are the ones I didn't "buy" - you know, I either made her something, or the boys did her a special painting, or perhaps I wrote something long and sentimental in a homemade card.... Well, I've found the perfect thing for those types! A telegram!

Perfect right? Old fashioned, personal, steeped in memorabillia... But how? I hear you ask? Well, there's a website (isn't there always a website?) called Telegram Stop that specialises in sending old fashioned messages with "STOP"'s and all! For only a few hard earned clams you can send a message that looks like this...
Now all you need to do is think of something memorable to say!

ABCs Rock!

Complete TV addict that I am, I have to admit that I am a wincy bit excited that The Block is back!
I've been looking forward to 7 O'BLOCK for weeks - since the billboards went up actually. Tiny bit tragic? Perhaps. But I'm a total DIY, craft, renovating freak and to me this show is peaches and cream.

Even more so now that I've "met" the contestants and had a chance to find a fave couple. Yup - Sophie and Dale have won my heart. It was a total gimme when they decided to do a kids room for thier first Elimination Challenge room makeover and put this on the wall!
I love a bit of vintage style and these two have just pulled off the most magnificent kids space (complete with indoor swing!), it's just to die for from top to bottom. Check out the rest Sophie and Dales kids room. It's completely divine... Look for the map transfer onto timber palings (my favourite part besides the alphabet and the swing), and the "old-school" school desk... Do you love this look or is it just me?





 



For sale...


This lovely little piece of my handiwork is up for sale on eBay! So if you happen to be in Sydney or willing to arrange a courier, hop over here and take a look! Auction starting at a weasley 99c!

Ace space saturday

Another great space from Nicole today! The overall concept of this room is awesome. It's a great way to incorporate pops of colour into an otherwise grey palette, allowing a sophisticated space to develop with a "kid" edge. I love all the little details Nicole finds to style up the rooms she creates. The Lego toy storage boxes are fabulous. While as far as I can tell, they're only available exclusively for Store in the UK, you can still have one by simply using a package forwarding company like Bongo








Feeding hungry hoards


I was inspired by my own wee munchkins this morning to write todays post. Hugh seems to be on some kind of mega-growth-spurt at the moment and he has an appetite to match. This morning he ate 3 bananas for morning tea and then backed up less than 2 hours later for lunch!

After posting it on my status on Facebook, a friend who has two hungry older boys of her own, replied with the helpful tip - use the bananas to make banana bread! It'll make the fruit go further and fill the kids up faster... Obvious in hindsight but not something you think about when you look at the fruit bowl (unless the bananas are beyond their best).

With that in mind, I went on a bit of a research mission to find out a few more tips to make the food in the house go further. It's a timely quest I think - everyone is trying to tighten the belt with all the scary economic uncertainty floating around. Now I have to admit I was left fairly unimpressed by a lot of the ideas I found, but even if the idea's themselves weren't tantalising, some of them inspired a few ideas of my own. Here's a little round-up of the ones I want to try...

1. Crumbs
When cooking with minced meats, pad out the mixture with breadcrumbs. It not only creates a smoother texture in your finished product, it also makes great use of any stale bread you might have around. I often throw stale bread into the blender to crumb it and then freeze it in small portions to use for schnitzel and sausage roll mix...

2. Casseroles
Personally, not a fan. It reminds me of my least favourite dinners as a kid. However, there's something to be said for this school of thought. The idea is that when you put food into a casserole dish it instantly sees to grow somehow. I recently made an eggplant and potato gratin with mozzerella cheese and a tomato sauce baked in the oven. Similar to a casserole and certainly went further than the two small eggplant and two large potatoes would normally have gone - it lasted for two nights.

3. Leftover savers
I often find at the end of a meal there's a small amount of sauce leftover. Sometimes it's pasta sauce, other times it's a stirfry. A good tip I came across to make use of these  was to freeze them in ice cube trays. While there might not be enough to make another meal from, it's certainly worth saving them to add to future meals for extra flavouring.

4. Bulk up
With winter coming on we'll naturally be looking for heavier meal options. Don't let that rule out salads from your meal plans. Salads are a great option for a budget friendly dish and can easily be bulked up by adding carbohydrates or proteins to them. A couple of my favourites are using canellini beans or butter beans with tomatoes and cucumber, adding steamed or grilled vegetables to saffron rice and, my newfound love, adding quinoa to avocado, snow peas, chick peas and rocket. 

5. Oh nuts
On the same tangent, I often like to add cashews to stirfry and noodle dishes for an extra shot of protein. I'm fortunate enough to not have to worry about nut allergies in my house, and I find the boys request extra nuts on their plates at these mealtimes. Extra nuts means extra protein and longer sleeps so that's fine by me!!!

This is something that has really piqued my interest. If you like my ideas, let me know. It's something I want to find out more about and I'll be happy to keep sharing ideas as i find them. And if you have any sneaky ways to make the food go further at your place I'd love to hear them!

Tuesday Tour: The home behind the cute kids room

Today's tour comes via 1Kindesign. It's a gorgeous, modern light-filled haven that has managed to overcome the coldness that often comes with modern architectural designs by using lots of timber and natural stone finishes in it's decor. I'm particularly loving the slate feature walls in the kitchen and stairwell, and of course that library wall!!!

The cute kids room...

The rest of the house...













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