horse love
I’ve written before about how terrified I am of horses, and yet I have now been on horseback, and enjoyed it!
A few months ago I found this horrific excuse of a ceramic animal in a thrift store.
WHAT IS IT?
It’s a unicorn. With a broken horn (see the forlorn hole in its forehead?). AND you can’t tell in this photo, but it’s not only white, it’s covered in glitter. Subtle glitter. You know, to make it extra classy.
Something about it thrilled me though (maybe its bubblegum pink and sparkly mane and tale?) and I bought it for the whole princely sum of $8.
I took it home, and placed it on a brick in the back garden, for…
plastic spray paint primer
Now I KNOW this is the wrong kind of primer, BUT you have to hear me out. The entire THING was covered in a plasticky like substance (I think to make it shimmer a bit more) and I didn’t feel like sanding it down. So, plastic primer it was.
I gave it a nice even coat and let it dry overnight, and voila, the finish became roughed up like it had been sanded. YAY!
Then out came the bling. Why the bling? Well I’ve had a recent obsession with brass/gold things. From jewellery, to belts, to homewares, and even lamps. YES, entire gold lamps. Behold just one of the items of magnificence I made my long suffering man cart home from Egypt.
oh yeah baby!
Umm, yeah. S doesn’t entirely approve of my obsession with gold animals, but I’M ON A ROLL HERE and beware anyone who steps into the path of the ROLL.
ANYWAYS.
To cut a long story short, I spray painted the damn unicorn horse morph GOLD.
And here it is. Ain’t she purdy?
And, she looks magnificent on our dining room sideboard, with our newly framed Egyptian papyrus art!
(Excuse the crappy reflection of the light in the glass. I err, didn’t plan on that.)
So, I’m officially addicted to spray painting, and I may or may not have run around the house looking for more things I could spray paint gold (cue diabolical laughter) but yes, how good is that $8 investment in my home decor?!
Read More
horse sense
So. I do love horses – I think when they canter, it’s poetry in motion, they have beautiful form, and they seem like they would be such lovely animals. Everytime I’ve gone near a horse though, I’ve felt inexplicable terror – I don’t know if it’s their huge larger than life size, or their massive chomping teeth, or just my insanity. It could well be the latter.
I tried to get over the fear last year, I really did. We were in India, and I actually touched a horse – not a well bred, trained, locked in a stable horse that couldn’t hurt me, but a wild (albeit skinny) horse that was just roaming a field. I didn’t want to touch it. Sonia made me.
"hey guys, let's make sharon touch the horse!"
I didn’t cope very well.
SO ANYWAY, I’ve decided I must stop being scared of horses this year, so I’m going to make Lys take me to see Murphy, and when back is better, I may even ask for a riding lesson. But to start with I thought I’d surround myself with some reminders of this resolution.
I picked these babies up at the antique store the other day. Ugly as sin, yes, cheap as chips, also. In fact so ugly that S saw them sitting on the sideboard and recoiled. But I loved their shape, and remembered this post by the lovely Young House Love people, and got inspired.
mmm. puke coloured.
Now, there’s a lot of purists out there who say you shouldn’t spray paint things willy-nilly because they could be secretly valuable, etc etc etc. But I’m of the opinion that if I can make something un-ugly, then it’s probably worth it. And whilst we’re at it, can we just have a moment about how fabulous the phrase “willy-nilly” is?
So, whilst S was out in the garden doing manly things like painting, wielding a pick-axe, chainsawing and more, I took a damp cloth and gave them a bit of a clean. I didn’t use any cleaning product because I wanted a clean surface with no residue. Then I got out my can of black gloss spray paint, and off I went. It needed 2 coats (the first coat didn’t cover all the little nooks and crannies), and the finished result is quite gorgeous indeed!
mmm. handsome horsies!
nayyy!
MUCH better! And I’ve decided to pop these black beauties into the office. They look magnificent in front of their backdrop of floral paper.
as a bookend!
pretty!
What do you think? Vast improvement, I say, and cost almost nothing. The spray painting took about 10 minutes per coat, and I let them dry for 2 hours each time. After the 2nd coat dried, I handled them gently, and let them sit inside (it’s cooler so I figured they’d dry better) overnight. And ta-da! This wasn’t a weekend job, it was a breakfast job. Quick and dirty awesomeness.
Read Morethe little touches
It’s been 3 months since we’ve moved, and S and I are pretty much sorted for furniture. Sure, we do need something else for that gaping space in the loungeroom (daybed, chaise or something), I’m still pushing for an armchair in the study (but am still wishy washy about it) – but for the most part, we have no more major purchases. And our wallets thank us. And can quietly go heave a sigh of relief.
I’m finding though, that I’m still learning a LOT about how to make a house a home. The little decorations, the accents. Choosing the right cushions (and seriously, how expensive are good cushions?!), pot plants in some beautiful pots, vases, trays, bowls… All these things take time to acquire, should be items you adore, and neither of us have ever done this. It feels daunting, and I’m unsure of spots that still seem empty but clearly need something. Lately, I’ve been trawling for inspiration for “looks” that I love, so that when I’m out and about, I may spot the perfect little somethings. Here goes.
via
In this room above, I adore the bowl on the coffeetable. The colours in the room match the tones in our house perfectly. The cushions look like the ones I JUST bought last week (squeal!). Now I want to find a bowl with those patterns.
via http://roomfabulous.tumblr.com/
After seeing this above, all I want more than anything for my dresser now is a BUST to hang my necklaces on. OH YEAH BABY. A bust. You heard me. It looks incredible!
via http://dillydallas.blogspot.com/
Another gorgeous idea for the dressing table – a beautiful vintage glamour tray for holding my perfumes. So decadent! I’m trawling ebay for these at the moment, but the right one hasn’t popped up.
via http://www.theglamourai.com/
Let me just tell you right now that I would do almost anything to find a gold antelope type animal statue for my coffee table. Oh yes baby. S is in disagreement, and I don’t even care, I want one so badly. It would look magnificent in our loungeroom!
via http://citified.blogspot.com/
My guilty wish – I really really want a zebra or cowhide rug. DON’T JUDGE ME. I just do. And that upholstered bench is just stunning as well.
via http://liveitathome.blogspot.com/
We don’t really have any mirrors in the house yet – I’m looking for a few ornate ones for key spots. The entryway, the hall of shoes (hehehehe) and one in the walkway into the kitchen. You can’t beat a mirror for making a space feel larger, and a gorgeous gold edged one matches my glamour sensibilities perfectly!
So there you go, some of the things I’m mulling over at the moment. I never knew that creating a home took so long, or was such hard work, but one thing has been really nice, and that is creating our sense of style as a partnership. One where I come up with arrays of ideas and S is patient, long-suffering, and pretends he likes it too. MUAHAHAHA!
Read Moreentertaining
Recently we hosted S’s family here for dinner, the first time I’ve done a proper sit down dinner at our place and had the dining table actually filled. S’s mum cooked the bulk of the meal, and all I had to do was the roast vegetables! Spoilt!
What quickly became glaringly obvious though, is that 8 years of apartment living and “buffet” style entertaining have left me with plenty of cooking tools but sightly inadequate in the face of proper servingware for dinner parties.
The thing is, all the missing things weren’t necessities, nor things you’d actively think to buy. They were nice-to-haves, all little items that you only feel the absence of in the face of needing-them-right-now moments. I’ve compiled a little list so that the next time S and I go shawping, we can grab and go as we find the perfect little objects (we like to entertain!). I want things with little gold accents on them to suit the dining room – injecting a little bit of glamour with the mundane! 
1. Gravy boat
2. Cake cutting knife for birthday cakes
3. Olive oil/balsamic drizzling bottle for salads/breads
4. Butter dish
5. Ice bucket & tongs
6. Spare dining table seats that aren’t white & foldable!
7. Enough placemats for the whole dining table *shame*
8. Bread side-plates that fit on the table *more shame*
Read Moreyes, it sucks
I almost can’t believe I’m typing this post. Believe me, I’ve googled it. And unfortunately, even the google ninja gods can’t help me, so I’m relying on you, kind blog readers.
My question: Where do you store your vacuum cleaner?
In my apartment, I had a 3rd toilet that I used as a storeroom for such odds and ends (who seriously needs a 3rd toilet in an apartment?!). The door would shut and it was like its ugly innards didn’t exist. In our new home, we have a huge laundry room, and bless us, we know we’re lucky for it. But a vacuum cleaner is a beastly thing even when not in full growl mode, and we don’t really have any nooks or cupboards suitable for storing the unwieldy plastic monster. It sit on our laundry room floor, like a giant red splodge mocking me in its ugliness. Additionally, our laundry sits right off our open plan loungeroom, which means visitors can SEE Mr Vacuum just layin in the sun on the tiles in there. Ugly.
I googled “How to store vacuum cleaner” and “Where to store vacuum cleaner” but got lots of links to stores that sold vacuum cleaners. I also found some wirey vacuum cleaner holder contraptions for the back of your door which look like you could get killed trying to coil all the parts of the vacuum on it.
I also googled “Where to keep vacuum cleaner” but evidently, no one has discussed this before me, but plenty of people have discussed how to clean and care for your vacuum cleaner before putting it away.
In fact, one article even provided detailed methods of daily, long term care for your device, such as periodically inserting a broom handle into the shaft of the vacuum to check for blockages, wiping it down before putting it away, and even wiping down its inside to prevent mildew. I mean, that is a pretty loving article towards any vacuum cleaner. S would have to be pretty damn cute to get that daily treatment, let alone my vacuum cleaner!
So, my question is simple, where are these vacuum cleaner lovers STORING the damn things? To write so lovingly about the care of a vacuum, why don’t they care about what us mere human-lovers may do by leaving a vacuum in the dank and cold? Why is there no guide about an appropriate temperature range or dampness index to prevent my vacuum cleaner from going bad like a bottle of wine treated badly?
I feel a bit lost and alone here. Can someone help? Is there meant to be a “place” that everyone knows the vacuum goes to, or is it destined to sit on my laundry room floor, a receptacle specially for sucking up debris AND tripping us over every so often?
Tell me. Where do YOU store your vacuum cleaner? And since we’re on the topic, do you wipe it down before storing it? (Seriously?!)
Read More
Who Is This Girl?
Tweet Tweet
Commentary: