Queen Anne brings royal treatment to the guest room

Overnight visitors will be given the royal treatment at our humble abode with the new addition of this Queen Anne bedside table in our guest room.

Here's a 'before' shot of the table on Sunday just after picking it up from the other side of Melbourne. 

An absolute eBay bargain at $28.77. I had been watching this style for awhile and had seen two others sold during the week for $53 and $152. I am so rapt with my project this week - it was well worth the time invested in collecting it and making it over. Sanding it back took me a good hour...

Applying three coats of paint (Taubmans water based enamel in gloss white) took me another three hours over Sunday afternoon and Monday evening, but it cost nothing as I had this paint left over from my desk makeover.

The times above include doing this little chair while I was at it. I couldn't resist a cute chair like this at a garage sale on the way home from picking up the table.

The pine cones had to make the 'before' photo as they were "free because you can buy them in the park". Or so said the young girls who gave them to me with the $1 chair purchase. Hilarious! Had to prise off the gemstone and glitter pen swirls from the backrest and sand quite well to remove the glitter spinkled into the paint during its last makeover!

The guest room now looks like a nice place to curl up with a book with the afternoon sun sneaking through. 

 A wider shot of the room showing the very bare wall above the bed. Not sure of my ideas for this wall from last year now. The chair was a found in the hard rubbish collection next door to my old place and painted white at the same time I did the yukky bedside drawers that used to live in this room.

A 'before' shot of the room taken on my iPhone at night (sorry, very poor). 

You might notice that the curtains are no longer purple. A closer look below at the terrible old drawers that never opened properly... even before I painted over the light brown about 5 years ago. 

One last look at the much sweeter little corner now...

Confession of an imperfect blogger: I hid the lamp from view because it is a desk lamp from my uni days and totally ruins the look. 

The painting was a birthday gift a few years back from my talented, sweet friend Ros who lives too far away these days. And before you ask, the hydrangeas are from The Flower Shed in Footscray not from one of my naughty trips pruning the flower bushes in my neighborhood! I am considering a more interesting knob for the drawer but overall I'm just loving this table. It is so rewarding finding and transforming stuff. Totally makes my heart sing! I do hope it has the same effect on our next overnight visitors, whoever they may be.

A hydrangea surprise in le jardin

Growing a lovely hydrangea shrub was one of the things I was most looking forward to when buying our first home. Three days ago marked a year since moving into our Victorian cottage in Footscray and the hydrangea cuttings I've been nurturing since early Spring really stepped up to the occasion and burst into bloom. Ok, that may be going too far. Let's just say there is one glorious little bunch of flowers on one of the cuttings. Can you see them peeking out in the centre of the photo below?

They've made my heart sing every time I've walked past them this weekend! Gardening doesn't come naturally to me -herbs and succulents are my only specialties, if you can call them that- so I'm just excited to know that there are hydrangeas alive and well in Le Jardin at my place.

The hydrangea in the top photo may or may not have been found over a fence down the street. Details are a little hazy. All I know is that I'm loving the sight of it on the hall table every time I come home. Little things can have a big impact.

Hope you've all found something to make your heart sing this weekend, even as the treacherous flooding in eastern Australia continues to touch so many lives. My heart is breaking for all those affected and I send them strength and love at this testing time.

Blackboard garden stakes from Malmaison Botanical Interiors, Castlemaine.

Love Blooms

Photo source: NutterButter

I'm not much for Hallmark Valentine's Days complete with cards of the aforementioned brand, extravagent gifts (save the diamonds for a meaningful occasion gentlemen) and dinners at I-want-to-be-seen-here restaurants. That's not to say I don't like the idea of a card, a gift or a special meal shared between loved ones. Far, far from it. Genuine, personal and meaningful are just three little words that should be part of any plan for the upcoming Day of Love.

I believe in blooms picked from over the neighbour's fence, little notes tucked into lunch bags and using heart-shaped cookie cutters to inject some love into everything from a shortbread to an otherwise dull pile of mash (ooh, can someone try that?! Red, hot idea: roast some beetroot and blend with potato!). Let's not forget a kiss and a wink to round it off.

Married, engaged, partnered, single, dating, divorced or otherwise, flowers are for everybody. They don't have to be "from" somebody, they just are. The glorious florist in Flinders Lane, Melbourne (Whitemoss) has this saying posted on their website: 'Flowers always make people better, happier and more helpful.They are food, medicine and sunshine to the soul'. Just walking by Whitemoss is good for my soul. One look at that white, decorative bike bursting with blooms puts a spring in my step. Enter the tiny store and they'll give you a 101 on flower varieties if you ask for it (or need it, like me). Some snowballs caught my eye awhile back and I had to have them for home because I'm a fan of their cousin, the hydrangea. The florist wrapped them in the tres chic Whitemoss style (dark paper with a paper doily wrapped around the base), answered all my questions about the variety and wrote the botanical name for snowballs (viburnum) on a business card for me. You'll get cheaper flowers elsewhere, but Whitemoss provides the whole experience for special times.

For a cheap thrill, just walk by and appeciate their displays. The current Valentine's Day window features big pink letters that shout "LOVE IS THE DRUG" above bags of blood and chemical formula scribbled on the windows. I laughed out loud when I saw it for the first time. A little avant-garde, a little genius.

Excuse the hasty photo, I took it while trying, unsucessfully, to dodge the pouring rain earlier this evening.

Whitemoss
1a/241 Flinders Lane
Melbourne VIC 3000
(03) 9663 2221
www.whitemoss.com.au