Wednesday, February 23, 2011

A Quick Hello........

Life is just way to busy at the moment. Who's isn't?????
See that bus in the back ground well I have been doing way to much driving in it this year. School bus runs aghhhhhhh, I do enjoy it though it's just always a rush to get from work down home to do the run.
Work has been so busy......which is good news, no buyers around though, but that is fine. I have finally accepted that I am meant to run an Auto Elect shop..OK so it took a while to sink in lol. By the way any Auto Elects out there looking for a job???????????My managers wife had a stroke 3 weeks ago and he is having to finish work to help look after her. Ian has been such a blessing to me since Greg got sick and I am going to miss him very much....Not to mention his knowledge about the shop that's something I will never get back..
I will try to get back to blogging soon though.
My thoughts and prayers are with all my dear friends in N.Z we are thinking of you here in the Storey house hold....
Blessings to all
Mandy

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Curtain Remake.............

The curtains all finally all up...
This was a major expense for me but I think it was well worth it..
Even though the posts need to come down the curtains have given this room continuance.


Remember before?
Being that this space used to be four separate rooms(lounge, dinning, front entry and 2 bedrooms) I had a real variety of curtains. In there own rooms they looked great, hmmmmmm altogether, not so good. Very busy....

At first I wasn't sure if i liked them ....Very plain for me as I love colour. After a day though I love them.
I have never bought curtains before I have always made them, so it was quite frightening when I saw the price of curtains.

I liked the look of the rings in the top. To by this material was $29 a metre from spot light and I still had to make them. The ones I got are just from K Mart....Yes K Mart a shop I never really look at but I was getting desperate and remembered I had seen curtains there..Well they were only $25 and they are 1.2 metres wide.....HA cheaper and ready to hang.




As you can see I needed alot of curtains.
12 in all.
hmmmmm still short. They just weren't full enough I thought, so back to K Mart..........None left.
No worries don't panic...Back to spotlight as I had seen the patterned curtains that I liked only they were a lot dearer. I got four of the patterned ones at $50 each and put one in the centre of each window....
Perfect


Above is with all the curtains opened and you can see how many windows are in this room. I had to have block out material as the morning sun streams in through this side.
I did get new rods as the old white ones were horrid. $150 for rods and brackets....
$240 for curtains from K mart
$ 200 for curtains from spotlight
$150 for rods
$590
Just as well I like them. Friends have been telling me this is not expensive for curtains....how much do you pay for your curtains?
I think this room has come together nicely, yes it still needs to be painted and the beams taken down. This might take a while as the builder is very busy with rebuilding from the flood damage. But for now I am very happy with it.

One last photo.
O while getting curtains I saw this mat for only $30 it looks much better than the blue one I had there, and the basket is for storing magazine's in. Baskets hmmmm I could do a whole blog on them loving them at the moment for storage.


Blessings
Mandy





Monday, February 14, 2011

The week end..............

We had 3.... 16 year old boys from Japan staying on the week-end, so we decided to do the touristy thing out and around Toowoomba. Cassie at the Japanese Gardens...
We stared of at the USQ markets..I got some cheap plants and fruit and veg.

Then we went next door to the Japanese gardens. The boys really enjoyed the walk through here and William just thought it was a big game of follow the leader and he was the leader.

Then off to the Cobb & Co museum..Now folks if you ever come to Toowoomba this is an amazing place to visit... Well The boys and I thought so Cassie was bored.........


We finished with a picnic in the park and then home for a swim.....
A great day had by all.


I had to share this caravan with you....Must be the gypsy in me as I wanted to hitch it up and go travelling......sighhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Sunday we just spent time together talking and playing cards as they had to be at the bus by 1.30pm
How was your week end?????
Mandy



Thursday, February 10, 2011

Dreamy Whites............

How are we all on this hot Thursday afternoon?
I thought I would cool you down with some cool, creamy, dreamy, whites.
Vases that I picked up ages ago from a thrift shop look a treat with carnations placed in them. Not from my garden though as it is to hot and nothing here is flowering.

This sweet rose is one of my favorite things. My daughter Jessica got it for me a couple of years ago and I am always moving it around. It looks at home with the flowers here.

And a sneak peak at the new curtains.....
They are nearly all up, I will get them finished this evening I hope. As you can see I am yet to paint these walls, but that won't be happening for a while yet. The new curtains have changed the look and feel of this room already.



I hope you enjoyed that quick look, I am of to do the bus run now. Tomorrow I am having 3 male Japanese students staying until Sunday, that was the motivation for cleaning the boys room the other day. Soooooooooooo busy ....
Blessings
Mandy








Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Lightshades..............

I have been on the lookout for the perfect light for the dinning room.
and I found it......
on the top shelf of my pantry. This light has been in the house since we moved in 25 years ago. With all the renos going on around here I forgot about it.


It is perfect now in the dinning room.



A close up of the glass bottom. It almost looks art deco to me. I am not sure how old it is and I have never seen one like it before.



What amazed me was when I was cleaning it up I found that the light fixture is copper. Below you can see that it was black and then all cleaned it is copper. I also have another shade but a little different I forgot to take a photo of it as I was to excited about this one.





I have never really noticed how nice the panelled ceiling is before. May be because it was a bedroom before and I never really looked at it. Funny how you don't see things when you live with them all the time.



Today I am not able to go to work as Alanah's car wasn't starting and she took mine.
So today I am going to give the boys room a good clean as the weather is a little cooler today. It has been raining and we have had 70 mls in the last 24 hours and all the creeks are up again.
I hope you are enjoying your day
Blessings
Mandy







Friday, February 4, 2011

Fridays at Home..............

It has been nearly 2 weeks since I have been on here..
A very busy 2 weeks with the children back at school, and the bus run in full swing again. It has taken a while to get into a routine, now that I am at the workshop all the time. One thing I have realized is that I needed help. (No not the head kind of help) Work help......I now have Alanah working with me. She is doing a great job and we work well together. Alanah is at the workshop full time. This leaves me to come and go as I need to, I am here for the younger children when they get home from school and am free to be there for them. They were missing me not being here and I was missing them....It will take a while to get things working for us, so far though this is working.Last night Robbie and I had meet and greet with his year 8 teachers, they all love him of course. He is very much like his big brother at school, always pushes the boundaries but never gets in to much trouble, must be the Storey charm I think?
After sitting in my puddle of sweat for a couple of hours I decided it was time for retail therapy.
Of to air conditioned shops we went....I couldn,t leave this mat there only $5 so I got 2 for my kitchen...Ahem, I also got 2 pairs of shoes, a skirt, a dress, belt, top O and some baby clothes.( I can't say why other than they were cute)


Did I feel better for this shopping spree...To be honest YES....sorry wrong answer but it was fun, Alanah was with me as well and she got lots of bargains for her glory box as she is planning on moving out this year.


What I was really looking for was curtains. I am slightly obsessed with curtains at the moment. As you can see in the above and below photos(sorry they are so dark) now that I have opened up this area, none of the curtains match.
The yellow ones need to be block out, as this side gets all the hot morning sun. I am thinking of just going with plain whit curtains for all of these windows.
Any ideas...This will all be painted white as well when the building is finished so I,m not sure if it will be to much white.



My chandelier has finally gone up in the bathroom , it is a smaller version of the bedroom one. I love them both as they are something I always wanted.



Today I am staying home as the electricians are here finishing of the power points.
I am staying inside as it is way to hot to be outside. I am going to do some sewing as I am making my niece school uniforms....
Have a great week end
Blessings
Mandy