Wishlist Wednesday: Freedom Weekender Occasional Chairs

My gorgeous neighbour has two of these ridiculously comfortable and fabulous looking occasional outdoor chairs on her front balcony. They are SERIOUSLY comfortable and look fab. She has two white ones with red and white pillows on them. I would really, really like one, or two. Maybe for my big birthday this year? I think they would be so comfy to sit and watch the kids play in the garden from our future back deck (of the house we STILL haven't bought..).

I will take two white ones with a yellow garden stool inbetween them, mimosas on said stool and bright turquoise pillows. Thanks.

chair / stool / cushion / dispenser / rug / CUSHION2

Insta-Update: May so far...

From top left..

I needed a change jar to corral the loose change my hubby keeps putting in my purse, which then makes my purse heavy and I just don't like it. I know, first world problem right? Well, I spied an empty spaghetti sauce jar in my reach, cleaned it (duh, no one wants smelly change!) and wrapped some washi tape around it and some raffia ribbon. Pretty right? Love it!

We had some special visitors to the house this week care of a friend of mine who is a primary school teacher. Her class are doing a special topic about animals and had some eggs that hatched into chicks! Since they had to be looked after over the weekend she brought them over when we had dinner and we spent the whole night playing with them (and cleaning up after them). Little Man LOVED them! He kept saying 'bird, bird, bird'.

I love this family shot of the three of us. We took it in Noosa three weeks ago and it pretty much sums up Little Man right now. IE, no Mama I won't look at the camera and Oooo... there is a tree! Yay! I still love it and love my boys to smitereeeeeens!

This is Little Man and his lovely friends in the park. That's his girlfriend G on the right. She has so much spunk, I just know she's gonna rule the playground when she's bigger. Her mama happens to be one of my closest friends and we have known each other for exactly a year! 

Little Man and I did a spot of (window) shopping this week at Bed Bath and Table and found these gorgeous items. The temple jars have my name all over them and I think I'll go back this week to snag one... do di do di do...

Then stopped for coffee and baby cino. The boy loves his baby cino (and his mama loves her coffee!)

Have you discovered the gorgeous A Beautiful Mess app? I have and I freakin love it! Snag it HERE through the lovely girl's website. Whilst you're there, take a lookie around. Seriously gorgeous!

We had a pretty amazing family lunch with Hubby's side of the fam today. We went to Chinadoll on the Wooloomooloo wharf (say that fast five times, go on I dares ya!) and it was amazing. My sis-in-law and I created a banquet for the family from the menu and everyone loved it. The food is amazing, to die for and I already want to go back. This champagne cocktail was made accidentally for someone so our nice waiter thought I would like it. It was delish! Thanks nice waiter. PS how gorgeous is my sis-in-law at 6 and a bit months pregnant with my niece or nephew? We spent ages planning her baby shower last week. I'm so excited to share more with you later!

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xx Tess

Friday Finds - teal and grey living room

throw rug / tray / pillow / yellow vase / small bowl / book / lamp

Phew!

I feel like today has been a ridiculous whirlwind! We had some friends over for 'kids dinner' tonight and it was a mad house here! Thank God for extra hands and help. Lots of fun, but we have one tired boy tonight.

This shot is from a while ago. Yes it is blurry but it is so gorgeous and typical of the Little Man at the moment.


Enjoy! I hope you are having a fabulous day and relaxing evening.

xx Tess

My temporary workspace, prettied up!

We have been living here at my parents for two weeks now, and can I just say how thankful we are to have somewhere so comfortable and supportive to live whilst we are house hunting. The hunt is getting to me a bit at the moment, Sydney is SUCH a competitive market and there aren't a lot of houses in our price bracket. Get ready for us to find a house that needs LOTS of love, which means LOTS of projects!

Anyway, whilst we are here I have a corner of our room that is acting as my workspace which is really lovely, but has been in total disarray and crazy until this weekend. I love having art, prints, mirrors and especially photos up on the wall and it is no different here. To make the space more comfortable and pretty this is what I got up to.

Here is the print if you like it! It's 5x7 :)

xx Tess

Spring Pinterest Challenge - Family Height Chart Ruler

I love love love the seasonal Pinterest Challenges that Katie Bower from Bower Power Blog and Sherrie and John from Young House Love host each season along with two special guest hosts.

See Bower Power's Spring Pinterest Post HERE!

This season the special guest hosts are Emily from Sparkle Meets Pop and Renee from Red Bird Blue. These two blogs are absolutely gorgeous and although I've known Sparkle Meets Pop for a while, Red Bird Blue is new to me.

Although I've never taken part in a seasonal Pinterest challenge, I've always loved them so this time I decided to give it a go. It is a spring challenge as the hosts are based in the Northern Hemisphere (whilst we begin to FREEZE down under!) but that doesn't matter for us - our Autumn is so mild it may as well be Spring!

To take part in the Pinterest Challenges you must:

- Pick a project inspired by something you have seen on Pinterest
- Create it, spin it and blog it
- Then linky up with the hosts Link Parties (I will add them later as they haven't been launched yet!).

I have wanted to make a Family Height Chart Ruler for a while. They have been floating around the webisphere for ages and I've always loved the notion of measuring the kids' growth. When I was growing up we had a door frame that was written on at my parents old house. You'd have a line drawn at your head height and your name and date written next to it. At one point I was taller than my older brother, and that did not go down well! He has long surpassed me and is the tallest in our family now!

The disadvantage of this door-frame measuring point was that it couldn't be taken to a new house if we moved (and my parents did! The door frame was painted over sadly). The height chart I am going to make will be able to be relocated if we move house.

Pinspiration #1

Height Chart from Bower Power blog

Links:

Pin

Blog

Pinspiraton #2

Height chart from Knock off Decor

Link:

Pin

Blog

Pinspiration #3

Height chart from Dear Lille

Links:

Pin

Blog

Materials and tools used:

One piece of pine (170 cm x 20 cm x 1.9 cm)
Primer
White paint (I used Taubmans pure white)
Gray paint (I used my favourite gray, Taubmans Storm Cloud)
Black paint (I used an art medium paint)
Brushes
Ruler

I then printed off appropriate sized numbers on to plain white paper. Using a pencil, I traced over the outline of the numbers and then filled them in by hand with black paint. The marker lines were also measured first then painted in by hand.

Please excuse the lighting! Most of this was done during nap time and after Little Man went to bed.

PS That is the amazing wall in my parents foyer/living space. AHHHHHMAZING! House tour coming soon of our 'in-between houses home' (AKA, Living Three Generations Under One Roof).

Tomorrow I promise to take a shot of Little Man being super cute and measured using our fab new family height chart!

xx Tess

All packed up and moved out!

We had a beautiful break in Queensland. It really felt like we were miles away for weeks and weeks! Hubby's crew did really well and made the finals of the Aussies. They came in sixth in the end but it was a HUGE achievement for them to make the final regardless and compete in the top group. I am incredibly proud and Little Man and I were so excited to be there and support Hubby.

After all that excitement we headed to Noosa for three nights. It just fabulous. A really decent break and it was so great to see my boys playing together and having lots of father and son time. Hubby gave me a really good break with Little Man and I even got to read a book and sunbake on the beach! Amazing. A full holiday recap is coming.

Since then we have completely packed up the little house, settled on it and moved in with my parents. We are so thankful to have them and their open arms to go to inbetween houses. We still haven't found a house but are looking everyday. A few auctions are on the horizon, one for a house we really love so keep your fingers crossed for us!

Until then I'll leave you with this one..