Rolling! Action! Cut!

The stand-off - Morty versus the Horse

I mysteriously mentioned in my last post that something exciting had been happening in my neighbourhood, and now its time for the big reveal... they have been filming a TV series right outside my house! It's a kids TV series for the ABC and its based on the book My Place by Sally Morgan. It's all about one house and the children that lived in it from the 1800's through to now. And the house chosen to be used in the series is right across the street! How exciting!

So for the past couple of months every week or so they block off the street, bring in the film crew and film the exterior shots for the show. It's been facinating watching them out the window, with different props and cars and costumes to represent the era they are filming that session.

The first week was the 1800's, and they completely covered the road in dirt. Unfortunately that day (and it seems most days they are filming here!) there was torrential rain, so the dirt road turned into a giant mud pie. All the more authentic I guess!





The horses were 'parked' right outside our house - Morty was not too thrilled to see them, and the horses were not so fond of Morty either!


As carriages thundered up and down the street all day, I couldn't help but wonder if they might wake up a ghost in the house - our house is very old, and its such a surreal sound to hear a horse and carriage at full flight. It is a deep rumble that rattles the windows, I thought for sure it would stir something from the past, but so far no ghosts have emerged (that I know of!)

Left 2009 - Right 1889. It looks so authentic with the dirt road and horse and cart!

It's such a fun thing to have happen in your street, I love hearing the calls for 'Quiet please, rolling!', 'Action!' and 'Cut!' as I'm working away here on my computer. I can't wait for the series to air so that I can see if our house made it into the background of any shots :)

The Snapper Board Guy

READING: The 5C's of Photo Styling, a great guide with beautiful example shots (via Mint)

LOVING: Unique Michael Jackson tributes here and here and here. We are both big fans of Michael Jackson and the Jackson 5, and have been listening with heavy hearts to Thriller and the Best of the Jackson 5 since we heard the news. RIP MJ, I hope you have finally found peace.

INSPIRING: I'm looking for inspiration at the moment - I have some new projects coming up that are exciting and different, but after my last project which was so long and draining (finally finished, but with some finishing touches STILL to go) its hard to have to start all over again!

COMING UP: I did a spot (or should I say stripe?) of painting over the weekend, I can't wait to show you the result!

I'm still alive!

I did some rearranging in the study/sunroom, and swapped

out the plant from the bathroom to the little side table.
Morty doesn't appear too pleased about it.

Omg, I can't believe that in my last post I couldn't believe it was mid April. And now its MID JUNE. Holy cow!

Good news is that Delaks is growing quite rapidly. I've been up to my eyeballs in work, which can be a little stressful at times, but I'm certainly not complaining! I've just finished up on some beautiful wedding invites - a trifold, bi-lingual invite with pocket and 2 extra cards. All of the folders were hand cut and folded, as was the information in each panel. They ended up so beautiful and stylish in cream with a gold shimmer.

Creams and golds with accents of lucky red and purple,
difficult to photograph but divine in real life!

I have a big website which I am about to finish which has been eating up all my time (day and night) since... well, since mid April. That hasn't allowed much time for doing things around the house, but there have been a few small home improvements squeezed in here and there which I will update you on soon, as well as some exciting events in the neighbourhood that I'm dying to tell you about. As soon as the big website project is done, I am going to take some time out and do some projects I've had on my mind:

• Revamping the back deck - this is in progress, but we have big plans for out there
• Painting a wall with some wide blue stripes, you'll have to wait to see where!
• Creating some bulldog art (hopefully it turns out as I'm envisioning)
• Adding to my etsy store - I have some great ideas for new products and some improvements to my current items
• Finally purchasing some chairs for the empty space in the lounge room
• Possibly creating a library a la this one in Real Living magazine (see the black and white shelves in the middle of the last picture?) instead of the Expedit, it has served me well but I am slowly trying to de-Ikea our house
• Also from Real Living magazine, adding some decorative molding to my walls similar to Michelle from Rubie Green
• Redesigning my own website
• Blog about all of the above and more! :)

To tide you over until then, here are some gratuitous Morty photos:

Seriously, could this dog be any cuter?

Why yes, yes he can!

READING: M-A-Belle - Michelle is so inspiring, she's my age and she has a fabulous international company selling gorgeous eco friendly designer fabric. And she lives in Manhattan.

LOVING: Guy singlehandedly starts dance party totally cracked me up today (via The Small Joys)

INSPIRING: It seems the youngsters over at This Young House had the same stripy wall ambitions as I do!

COMING UP: I still owe you a freebie don't I? It's coming, I promise!!

Catch Up

Gee whiz, time is absolutely flying at the moment - can you believe its mid April already? I swear it was Christmas just last week...

I've got quite a few exciting things to catch you all up on! Firstly, my little Etsy store has been coming along nicely with a few sales already :) Thanks so much to everyone who has purchased from my store, it makes my day each time I get an 'order' email! And a HUGE thanks to Al Ain Notebook and Baby Daniel and Us for featuring my bookplates on their blogs, you guys are gems! :) I am hoping to get some new printable items and paintings up there soon.

Speaking of paintings, I also received some pics of some of my commissioned paintings hanging all the way over in Ireland, its such a thrill to see my work on someone elses wall... in a whole other country no less!

My paintings - in Ireland! via Sixblackdots

I've also been working on some wedding invitations and I'm quite pleased with how they turned out:

And a detail of the invites is at the top of the page

I think the hit of yellow (a piece of the brides favourite painting, Klimt's The Kiss) on the envelope liner is a winner.

I also had a huge clear out over the past couple of weeks and sold everything on ebay. Can you believe I had over $400 worth of stuff just hanging about? Neither can I! With my windfall I shouted myself to the blue ceramic kettle I've been dreaming of (pics in situ soon), a (faux) Chloe bag in my fave shade Martha blue for a total steal, and a sensational trench coat as its getting rather chilly these days. And I still have some moola left over! :)



READING: The Brick House - sensational style... and it totally cracks me up!

INSPIRING: I am determined to earn enough money as a freelance designer to go to New York for my birthday this year, so this Ork print is now right above my computer as a constant reminder what I'm working towards. I know, its a crazy business goal to have, but it works!

LOVING: Layer Tennis: finally a sport I can get into ;)

COMING UP: I have a FREEBIE to download coming up over the next couple of days, so stay tuned!

Before & After: Study Bookcase

I had a couple of pics of this up on my Flickr a while ago but I realised I never posted about it here! I have a white Billy bookcase in my study/sunroom, tucked neatly into the awkward corner between the door to the kitchen and the french doors out onto the deck. There is not a lot of storage in our house, and with me running my little business from this room and the hubby studying his MBA at the same time... well, lets just say the junk had piled up in the bookcase.

So I took the time recently to do a bit of a spring clean and tidy and its so much better now, both to look at and find things in!



Here are the before shots - not nice at all. Textbooks and pens and stationary supplies and folders and paperwork everywhere!





And here are the afters: the folders all lined up nicely, stationary tucked into the little white boxes and paper supplies neatly filed into the magazine holders. The plain cardboard box on the top shelf was a cheapy from Ikea and holds all those annoying little electronic bits and pieces - mobile phones and chargers, adapters, extra cables etc. I wrapped the box in white paper, with a panel of blue striped scrapbooking paper on the front to tie in with the other blue items.

The blue fabric covered document tray on the second shelf was from Target, marked down from $20 to $8, and I also bought the matching mouse mat for my desk for just $1!

And I know theres been a bit of a backlash against colour coded books, but you can't deny that it makes Physics and Calculus and assorted other textbooks look damn fine ;)

Its amazing what a difference a simple tidy and organisation can make, and its so easy to find everything and keep it clean when everything has its place.


In other news, the recycled plastic rugs I bought on ebay for out on the roof terrace and back deck have arrived and they look fabulous! My only tiny worry is that Morty seems to have developed a taste for the rug on the back deck, he's already nibbled a small hole so I hope he doesn't destroy them. The back deck is currently a bit of a blank slate so no pics just yet, but I'm thinking with my economic stimulus payment from K Rudd I'm going to get a lovely outdoor lounge for out there. And all I need on the terrace is a shade sail or umbrella, and then I can show you its final before and after as well.

PS. I have added a new item to my Etsy store - printable bookplates & bookmarks :)


READING: The Brick House, a fabulous renovating/decorating blog I've just discovered via Apartment Therapy. This gal is the thrifting queen - so many wonderful midcentury pieces on a budget of less than $100 per piece, including a beautiful George Nelson light fixture for just $6!

INSPIRING: This post on Modish (via Avie Designs, also a HUGE inspiration at the moment), such a pick-me-up during a crisis of confidence.

LOVING: Kelly Giesen (website and new blog and a great set of shots of her place on Flickr), also via Apartment Therapy. Her fireplace/TV storage shown below is to die for, I wonder if I could do something similar in our place?

Kelly Giesen's TV/fireplace, via Flickr

Guerilla Gardening Redux

Hello! Although its now Autumn down under, I've been feeling distinctly 'Springy' lately and have been getting back into gardening. I have been a fan of the guerilla gardening movement for quite a while, and lately since I've been watching Guerilla Gardeners I've been inspired to get out there and get planting!



First up, it was the little nature strip garden on the footpath outside my house. I wish I had taken a before photo of this - imagine a big pile of dirt and leaves, rocks roughly strewn around the edges and the long strappy plants dotted randomly among it, and you're getting close to the untidy mess that this garden was before. I pulled everything out, dug the whole thing over, rebuilt the rock edging, added some new top soil, planted some colourful marigolds and replanted the strappy plants along the back. Its very bright, but if you can't be bright in the garden where can you? The little pot was recycled, it holds pink Sweet Williams and sits on top of an old tree stump I uncovered.

Not a very expensive makeover at all: 5x tall yellow marigolds, 5x short orange marigolds, 1x pink sweet william (all $2.20 each), recycled pot (free), bag of soil and bag of mulch ($3 and $5)
TOTAL = $32.20 for colourful nature strip



I also have a little planter near my letterbox and a pot beside of my front door which needed new plants, so they got a makeover too.


New conifer for beside the door ($12), 4x Sweet Williams ($2.20 each), 2x grey trailing plant beside planter (free from council), leftover mulch from front garden
TOTAL = $20.80 to revamp the front verandah


Next on the list was my roof terrace off the bedroom. I needed some pots up there to block off access to the top of the roof of the deck downstairs as a certain bulldog thinks its hilarious to run around and around on the roof where mama can't catch him. It's super hot and sunny up there so I thought it was the perfect place for a little herb garden:

The horrible 'before' shot - please ignore my washing!


After - much nicer!

Strawberries, rosemary, basil and mint

Little strawberries are already on the way!

I have also ordered an outdoor rug for up there from ebay, so I will post more 'after' pics of the terrace once it arrives.

3x Mint and 3x basil ($4 each), 3x strawberries and 3x rosemary ($5 each), 3x long planters ($20 each), 3x smaller square pots (I already had these so I'm not counting them in the total), 3x timber deck tiles ($20 each), 2x bags of soil and 1x bag of premium soil mix ($3 and $5), left over mulch from front garden
TOTAL = $185 for terrace transformation



Then, purely by chance, I was at the local Town Hall to do some paperwork and there were dozens of plants out the front. So I asked at the counter what the plants were for, and apparently our council gives plants away a couple of times a year and today was the day for free plants! So I grabbed 12 little bushes with purple flowers, and the 2 grey trailing plants now beside my letterbox.

Council garden beds - now with bushes!

Over the weekend I got right into the spirit of guerilla gardening and planted the 12 bushes in 2 little council gardens either side of a set of bollards near my house. The garden beds were dry and dusty with a smattering of straggly plants and rocks, so again I dug them over, added some of my left over soil, planted the new bushes in between the existing plants and mulched with my left over mulch.

12x bushes ($0), left over soil and mulch
TOTAL = literally priceless! :)

Gardening is so rewarding, don't you think?

---

Thanks to Ana of Rearranged Design for the lovely tour of our home :) Its an honour to be featured on such a great blog!

And a big hello to fellow Aussies Style is Eternal and Red Door Read - I'm always on the look out for blogs from down under, I've started a collection over there on the right so leave me a comment if you are a fellow Aussie too!


READING: The Happy Home, new blog from the web editor of my favourite magazine Real Living

INSPIRING: Eddie Ross does it again, this time with a fab carver chair makeover. There are some similar chairs on ebay at the moment, I wonder if I can pull off Eddie's look...?

LOVING: Vanilla Green Tea from Aldi, I drink it non stop

COMING UP: The post on our interactive art is still on the way, plus stay tuned as there will be an announcement regarding a new Delaks Etsy store soon!

Hello, lover

I am SO excited. My darling hubby got me the best Valentines/wedding anniversary present EVER...


Yep, its the tulip side table in marble I have been lusting after for-like-ever! I must admit, it did take a little bit of subtle *cough* email hinting:

---

side table
Danielle (Delaks) [danielle@ delaks.com.au]
To: 'Lakshan De Silva'

I am watching a marble tulip side table on ebay, it’s a genuine one (not a fake), it has one bid at $200 and it conveniently finishes on valentines day. Just letting you know… ;) xxxx

---

Unfortunately, though we did bid on that one on Valentines Day, it went for about $400 which is a little outside our budget. BUT - my fave replica store had it on special this week for $275, so off we went yesterday to pick it up! Hooray!!

I'm thinking when I eventually find a pair of chairs for the other side of the room it will go between them (similar to Victoria's set up), but for now its near the lounge and looking damn fine.



It's like a mirage or something, I keep walking in to the room and seeing it there but it hasn't yet sunk it that I actually own it! I'm so thrilled!!



READING: Cheap Healthy Good - well written, great recipes, practical and hilarious!
INSPIRING: I'm into illustrators at the moment as its an art I am trying (currently unsuccessfully) to master. I am loving the beautiful work of Yara Kono (found via Flickr)
LOVING: This interior - it was blogged all over the place but it really is beautiful. Something to aspire to in our own house I think!
COMING UP: I've had lots of questions about the interactive art in the lounge room, so stay tuned for an upcoming post about it!

Thrifty & (Un)Sticky

New pink glass bowls - just $2 each!

A million thanks to Victoria of SFGirlByBay for featuring our home in her 'Unexpected Guests' post this week :) I can't tell you how thrilled I am, its one of my favourite blogs. Hello to new readers who have linked across!

In other news, I went thrifting over the weekend. I was after chairs for the blank spot in the living room, but all I came home with was some sweet little dishes in pale pink glass, just $2 each. So pretty! I've eaten my icecream out of them every night since.

They are the palest of pale pinks, its tricky to photograph the colour, but this is pretty close

There are 4 of them, there were also 2 matching saucers as well but I thought I would be extra thrifty and save myself the $4.

Sticky no more!

Now I'm going to confess something quite silly here: I am totally thrilled this week because... I unstuck a sticky window. Small thing I know, but its made a HUGE difference to the study. It never used to open and it would get quite hot and stuffy in there because of all the glass, but no more! I used a sharp screwdriver and a bit of elbow grease to get it unjammed, and now the breeze comes straight in on me while I'm working away. Its so nice as the tinting on the glass is rippled, so I never used to be able to see outside - now I can gaze all day at the pretty tree in the park (whoops, I mean diligently work on my computer and not be distracted by the tree in the park).

I also missed out on these this week and they went for an absolute steal, what a bummer.

Blank Slate

The chair, now living upstairs in the bedroom

So I had previously pondered what to do with the reading nook area, and eventually I settled on reupholstering the red chair. But over Christmas, the newly reupholstered chair moved up to the bedroom to make way for the Christmas tree, and I realised that I liked it much better up there. So now I am thinking that that half of the lounge room should be another sitting/conversation area for when we have lots of people (read: more than 2 in our tiny house) over, with a couple of chairs and ottoman or bench/coffee table. So I am now on the hunt for the perfect, smallish chairs and ottoman/table to fill the space.

Empty space awaiting new seating area.
(above) Looking towards the stairs,
and (below) looking towards the window.

I saw this chair on ebay, plus another in blue and another in red from the same seller, but I would want them to match and I was worried about reupholstering this style of chair. Then I totally forgot to bid anyway, and they havent relisted, so I'm back at square one.

Missed opportunity on ebay :(

I'm thinking this may also be the opportunity to get the Noguchi coffee table I've always wanted, but it could be a little too large for this space? And again, what chairs with it? I think for now I will leave it blank, ponder on it some more and wait for the perfect pieces to come along.


PS. Thanks Alysia for the lovely mention on the Bueller Designs blog! :)

'Twas the night before Christmas...

In the spirit of giving, I give you... an interesting post! :) I am determined to get this blog happening in the new year, so hopefully this is one of many going forward.

My parents and sisters are coming over to our house early tomorrow morning to rip open many presents and have breakfast together before everyone splits to see various in-laws and assorted other friends/family. I love setting the table for Christmas, its the opportunity to do something really special.



I'm trying to be thrifty this year, so apart from the fresh flowers everything else are things I had around the house - the blue "table runner" is left over wrapping paper, with a strand of tinsel for sparkle, a set of Ikea candlesticks which I bought on special, and left over tree decorations as napkin rings. The spotty mugs and the plain plates are part of a set I got last christmas and I love them (althought they are not dishwasher friendly so I don't love washing up after using them!)



Even the flowers are a little bit thrifty - the lisanthus are left overs from a bunch I bought last week, I just pruned out the floppy/browning ones. I added singapore orchids, Christmas bush and some random glossy foliage (cost $10 altogether) to plump out the bunch. I also love to bust out my Jasper Conran for Wedgewood teapot/creamer/sugar bowl whenver I can, their platinum rim adds to the sparkle.



I'm certain Eddie Ross would have something to say about this table setting! :) Well, how do you properly set a table for breakfast? I have just winged it here - knife and fork for eggs and toast eating, spotty mug with teaspoon inside for tea and coffee sipping, and a wine glass for some extra special orange juice drinking.




And last but not least, our Christmas e-card. It took about 1.5hrs, 2 sets of antlers and dozens of blurry shots before Morty would sit still and smile for Mama, but what a gorgeous smile it is.

Merry Christmas from my little family to yours, I hope your holidays are safe and magical!

Reading Nook Revamp?

So Ive been thinking about my reading nook. Its a beautiful little spot to kick back and relax in, but I think the red chair is in need of a revamp soon. Ive had it for about 8 years now and its a bit faded looking. So through the wonder of Photoshop I present to you...

Some Reading Nook Options

Option One: Revamp the Chair
This is the budget option really, Im thinking of staining the wood a little darker and recovering the upholstery of the chair and the footstool in plain white, plus adding a super funky cushion in some sort of fabulous fabric. Alas, I think the Imperial Trellis shown in the pic is out of my price range (and besides I cant seem find it anywhere nearby) but hey, its my Photoshop mockup and Ill KWID if I want to! hehehe

Option Two: Replace the Chair
This would be the blow-the-budget-and-then-some option, but hot damn it would be good looking. An Eames recliner in white leather would be so fabulous here, then I can move the existing chair up into the bedroom where its lighter wood would better match the furniture.

Another completely different thought would be to get 2 or more smaller chairs of some sort (or maybe an upholstered bench under the window + chair) plus a little table, and make more of a 'conversation' space.

Tough call, any thoughts out there?

Im also planning to do a painting for the blank back wall above the daybed in the sunroom, I might get going on that this weekend if I have time, so stay tuned for that one!

15 minutes of fame

I feel like a rockstar today! I was preparing to enter the Apartment Therapy Small Cool comp, clicked over to check out the entry details, when BAM! My own desk was looking back at me!!

Yep, I was featured on Apartment Therapy San Francisco today, and I am beside myself with excitement! Im so honoured that they like my desk, Im so proud of it and all the effort that went in to it, so its the biggest pat on the back for it to be shown on my favourite website. Hooray!!

Homebody

Our little lounge room

We're at home tonight, kicking back to enjoy Earth Hour after a long & tiring day.

We bought our little house in Sydney (about 5mins from the CBD) in December, and it makes me so happy that its ours. I absolutely *heart* my little house. Its 115 years old, on one of the oldest streets in one of the first suburbs in Sydney, so it has gorgeous floorboards and the most divine deep skirting boards. The light streams in here all day, so even though its small it feels so light and lovely.

I have been slowly unpacking everything over the past few months, buying new things here and there, finding spots for everything in our little home. Theres still some things to do - in this room I want to paint the walls up to the picture rail to really make the white ceilings/trim/skirting boards pop. I also want to get a Tulip side table for in here - I think it would be just perfect with the whites.
The art is waiting patiently for a decision on the wall colour, leaning nonchantly against the wall waiting for us to finally make up our minds. The little tiles on it are all letters that can be moved around to make words - when people come by to visit there are often little messages left on it for us. Currently on there is 'holy toledo batman', as well a nice mixture of nonsense and the occasional 'gnu'.

Daydreaming...

Ok, I am going to admit my guilty pleasure here:

My name is Danielle and I am a Ebay Watchaholic.

Sad but true - I like to dig up wonderful Ebay finds, pop them on my watchlist, then never quite get around to buying them. Im not entirely sure why I do it - I think its partly being on a budget (Sydney mortgage = no cash for luxuries), and partly because I just cant decide what I want! I guess its a form of window shopping, no?

For instance, some of my latest interests:

(top) Replica Eames Walnut LCW - went for about $150, they got a bit of a bargain I think

(below) Replica Saarinen Tulip Marble Side Table - went for just over $215, retails about $250 up
(bottom) Replica Noguchi Coffee Table - went for about $250, about average on Ebay

Now given that the house is tiny, there really is no room for random Eames chairs, nor is there space for two coffee tables. But they are all so beautiful, I want them! I think the Saarinen is the most practical one, given that its small and versatile, but Ive lusted after a Noguchi forever, and the Eames is just ridiculously good looking.

*sigh* See my dilemma? I guess Ill just have to keep daydreaming unless my house (and bank balance) miraculously grows!