Furniture Love

My mum needs to start her own business.  Since we have been in our house, she has helped us design and plant our front and back garden.  Yesterday she had a rare Saturday off from work so she showed me some hidden treasures in Perth for furniture and homewares.

I came back with a lighter purse yesterday afternoon, but I was so pleased with my haul.  She is a bargain hunter my Ma and has got me thinking about what else I can do in the house.

Our first stop was a Balinese Wholesaler in Girrawheen Shopping Centre.  These two bedside tables were exactly the same but with a price tag of $40 and $75 each.  Mum talked him down to $30 each!!



The bowl for our coffee table was another bargain for a tenner.

This gorgeous little toybox for Liam's toys in the living area was $20

Richard picked up this great mirror at Target, thank god he is going along with the 'white theme'

 

Another gem of a place we found yesterday in Joondalup is a place called Vast Furniture and Homewares.  The two ladies that own it are from Ireland and the UK and go over to Melbourne for furniture fairs every fortnight.  They have two containers worth of stuff coming in very soon.  I have my eye on this piece and they said if Liam comes along for a visit, they'll do me a good discount!

My sister in law's mum grabbed this suite a few weeks ago and I just love it!  Definitely something else for our back studio that we are converting into a theatre room/study/play area

Love this couch!

And I can see us gathering around an outdoor table like this for balmy summer nights

Must. Stop. Shopping!

Weekend Rituals

48 hours goes by quickly when you work fulltime.  I crave weekends.  It means precious time with my family and a chance to catch up on odd jobs around the house. 

It also means while Liam is napping in the afternoon, I get some very precious time to myself.  I don't have to think about work deadlines, fighting traffic or making it to childcare on time.  In those couple of hours I actually can be on my own.  Its just Jo.  I'm not thinking about being a wife, or mum or employee.  I go off in my own little world and daydream.  I have always done this and I hope it never stops.

Here is what I love about my weekend rituals:

Getting my nails shelac-ed.  Am obsessed and it means my nails last longer than 1 day. 



Spending time in the garden with Rich and Liam.  Getting hosed by Liam.  We all get dirty and have a hot shower at the end of the day.

Reading stories to Liam.  His current favourite is 'The Places You Will Go' by Dr Suess.  Such a great message for kids.  And for adults too.

Singing in the car.  Ministry of Sound have bought out the Classics from 1992 to 2008.  It brings back hazy, happy, tipsy memories.  I've had strange looks at the traffic lights.

Coffee.  How did I live without it.

I hope you had a lovely weekend.

x

Step back in time

I remember the first St Patricks Day I spent with my husband.  It was in London and after spending a few hours trying to get into the packed pubs in West London, we went to a place called The Botwell.  Rich went there as a young tacker with his parents.  I loved our visits there.  It was a club that had been around for a long time.  It had an Irish band playing and a real family atmosphere.  Kids everywhere, husbands and wives dancing cheek to cheek and cheap drinks.  We had an awesome night.

Last night we went to a place called the Kingsley Tavern to meet my younger brothers girlfriends family (get that?) and it was like being transported back to 2004.

Liam was fascinated by the music.  I took him to the dancefloor.  It was carnage quite frankly.  Prams everywhere, newborns sleeping (how I don't know) and Irish kids everywhere.  He loved it.  He stood mesmerised and then tried to copy the little girls who thought they were part of Riverdance. 

It made me think of all the stories my husband told me about being a young kid and sliding across the dancefloor and putting the knee out of his trousers.  The minute I thought of that, two young boys did exactly that. 

It was so nice to go to a place that had a really family feel to it and I felt even prouder that Liam has the irish in him.  He didn't want to leave that dance floor.

Chinese Laundry

My mum makes a mean fettucine.  I remember coming home from my brothers wedding in 2008 at 1am and peering into mum's fridge to see a bowl of it.  I grabbed some of it, heated it up and sat at the kitchen table to eat.  Odd really, considering I had eaten half my body weight at the reception, didn't want to drink that night and couldn't quite getting into the dancing.  So not me.  Little did I know I was pregnant. 

A year ago, the night before I was admitted to hospital to have an emergency gallbladder operation, I heated up another bowl of that fettucine.  I couldn't eat it and spent the night being sick.

This week I had another bowl of it, and spent most of early Friday morning and Friday being sick.  Goodbye fettucine.  My body just can't process you after having an organ taken out and I need to make sure I don't eat certain foods.  Such a shame, because I love my mum's fettucine.

As is always the case, once I started to get over it all, Liam got sick.  Last night in our home resembled a laundrette.  Sheets in the washing machine at 2am, swapping beds, broken sleep, baths to get temperatures down and everything else that parents do to make sure their kids get better. 

We went to the doctors early this morning and it seems most kids in Perth have the same thing too, judging by the salad bowl the toddler next to us was chucking up into.

Oh how times have changed.

I'm glad we are all starting to get better, because this mumma can't afford to be sick right now.  Lots of work to do and I am missing my old bright sparkly self.