Courtyard Overhaul Part 1

Hubs and I have always planned to transform our mini courtyard into an outdoor chill out~herb garden area. Years pass and the only thing we ever did was put out some plants. Good progress! {not really because the plants died} So one day I decided to just get up and do it! Told hubs, one weekend we are going to Ikea and getting an outdoor shelving unit I've been looking at to put our herb garden. I wanted to start small and work our way up from there, so imagine my surprise when hubs started grabbing some outdoor furniture and added to the pile! So we got the LACKO shelving unit and 3 ARHOLMA corner section seats along with the seat cushion, of course.

Now, what I'm going to reveal next is possibly the one thing that I would never EVER say out loud. Our car {sigh} Our car is small, old and just...old. Still gets us from point A to point B, so we are just gritting our teeth for now till we get a new car. Hopefully. Anyways, small car + 4 massive boxes + 3 seat cushions = our car looking like an overstuffed taco with an extra Mrs. Williamson stuffed in there somewhere.

|| my feet ||

Took us an hour playing Tetris but we finally got it all in! Now all we have to do is drive carefully and pray that the police won't pull us over. The drive home takes about 20 mins, which at this point you might say, it's not that far. You're right. It's not. But it is far when you get car sick easily and can't move around much because you're stuck in a tiny itsy bitsy space and can't lie down and you have the edges of the boxes right at your head! Yup, it was bad.

~ Moving on. Only because talking about that experience is making me feel nausea now {even though I'm comfortably in bed} ~

So we got home and didn't waste a second in putting our new furniture together. Good thing hubs and I love DIY so it was no trouble for us to set it up. I would have liked to post a before and after picture but I forgot to take the before picture before setting up the furniture. Guess I was just too excited! So here is the end result ~

One day. Back to reality.

It's small but it's the perfect size for now. We had bought that bench and panel earlier from Ikea for the purpose of storing our fishing gears.

A high five, a big satisfaction sigh and a nice glass of vino. We finally took that small big step. Next, the herb garden!

xoxo

Upcoming Project

It has been a while since I've blogged about anything that's been going on. Well that's because nothing has been going on in my end. Just been working, cleaning and basically just been researching on projects I'm interested in doing. It has been a chilly winter and its going to get colder according to the weather girl. Brrrr!!!

For the past month, I've been collecting toilet paper roll for 2 projects I had in mind and mind you, I had weird looks and comments from the husband and from our housemate when I told them to NOT throw the toilet paper rolls away! This will be one project that will be good since it will be indoor and away from the cold! I'm waiting on my art table (which is actually our trestle table we stored away at my MIL's house but I like to be fancy!) to arrive so I could start.

At this point you are probably wondering, "Why don't you just use an office table or a dining table?" So here is the story. My husband bought this apartment a year before we met and well, being the bachelor that he was, he didn't think that getting a dining table or an office table would make any sense. Hes got a coffee table to eat off and a trestle table (which is the one that's being stored away) for his turntables and he's all good! So after we got married, I moved to Sydney and slowly we are decorating the apartment. FYI, furnitures are NOT cheap here in Sydney! And it was then I found my passion for DIY and interior designing. So we used the trestle table for our Sydney wedding and we kept it at my MIL's house since it was quite a hassle to bring it home. A month after the wedding, we went to Ikea and got a new table for the turntables and decided, we don't have space to put the trestle table in the apartment. Now we do so that will be my temporary art/office table. Well once it gets here that is.....

So here are 2 pictures of the projects I had in mind. Of course I will put my own little twist in it. I will definitely put up step by step pictures when I do it. If you decide to do it, then you at least have a picture guide.

|| flowers on canvas ||

|| pen holder ||

xoxo

Pop Art on Canvas

You will need:

• 2-3 photos of high contrast
• 4 Reeves clean edge canvas 10” x 10”
• Reeves acrylics 75ml (Medium Yellow,Bright Red,Cobalt Blue,Grass Green & Mars Black)
• Reeves Acrylic Brush Pack
• Photographs (select a few to experiment with)
• Carbon Paper
• Reeves Sketching Set

- Take your photos on CD (preferably saved as JPEG files) or on a digital camera memory card into a digital photo processing center and select your images on the photo terminal (or ask for assistance if required).

- Select the ‘black & white’ option, then increase the contrast and reduce the brightness levels until you reach the desired effect. Ensure that the print outs of your photo are at least A4 in size.Place a sheet of carbon paper between the canvas and your now black and white image. Trace around the image with pencil. Remove the carbon paper to reveal an outline of your image.

- Use the black paint to fill in the main image. Fill in the background with another color. Repeat this process another three times on the remaining canvases using different colored backgrounds. Now you have your own personalized set of images! Hang canvas from hooks in a 2 x 2 layout as shown.

You don't have to buy the exact brand as I have stated. This is just more of a guide on how to start! You can use different colors or different pictures on each canvas. You can use whatever paint brand you are comfortable with. Just use your imagination with this project and most importantly, just have fun! Good luck and I expect to hear and see your finished project!

xoxo