A few new things...

My dad came to visit yesterday, and brought this lovely little thing with him. It's a mangowood teardrop-shaped glass tube vase, complete with some kind of little plant that I have to try not to kill. At the moment it lives on the windowsill in the kitchen so it can take advantage of the afternoon sun.

And these beautiful roses came courtesy of our Saturday night dinner guest, Margaret. They're almost past their prime now, but still look rather pretty.

New Shepard Fairey print on the way!

I've been wanting to get my hands on another Shepard Fairey print for a while, and particularly had my eye on the Mutts Like Me poster he designed for Adopt-a-Pet in the US (in the same style as his Obama campaign poster). I missed out of the first red-and-blue release, but yesterday was lucky enough to purchase the black-and-gold version (1 of 400).

Now all I have to do is wait with bated breath for it to arrive!

Artdecadence giveaway: Tim Irving

Check out the gorgeous photos of Tim Irving at the Artdecadence blog. If you're lucky enough, you could even win yourself one!

This one is my favourite.

More kitchen stuff

I bought this cute little retro coffee pot at the Lost and Found Market in Collingwood when I visited Melbourne recently. It reminded me of my nanna's old crock cooker, which I now have.

I don't think I'll use the pot for anything - just leave it sitting on top of the kitchen cupboards!

Brisbane city guide now featured on Design*Sponge

Looking at the Design*Sponge website recently, I noticed that Brisbane was missing from their city guides - so I took it upon myself to email Grace from d*s to find out why (and offered to write the guide as well). Grace took up the offer, gave me a deadline, and here it is - the Brisbane city guide!

This is by no means an exhaustive list, as that would have taken weeks. However, I do hope that it proves that Brisbane is just as awesome as any other city!

Renovation complete!

Well I arrived home today to find the house keys sitting on the side of the bath – all done!

We still have some plans for changes, such as repainting (this was the first room we painted after moving in, so it’s a little bit dodgy), new towel rails and a new mirror, but the big part is over!

Thanks to Paul Carta from Tamara Creations for his wonderful work. It’s turned out so much better than we ever expected, and is still in keeping with the original design of the bathroom.

Bathroom - nearly there!

Well the bath is in, the plumbing connected, the waterproofing completed and the tiling done. Now all that needs to be done is the grouting!

With a bit of luck, by Wednesday we’ll be able to shower at home again. What a luxury!

Bathroom renovation in progress!

When we bought our unit two years ago, the whole place was pretty structurally sound... except for the bathroom. Thankfully original 1970s mosaic tile floor was in great condition, but the shower/bath was another matter. The steel tub had previously rusted through around the plug hole, resulting in a substantial leak into the garage. The previous owners had done a patch-up solder job, but we knew it would only be a year or two before we had to rip the whole thing out.

In the meantime, we decided to get rid of the peeling beige paint and replace it with something a little more interesting - a colour called Desert Bake by Taubmans! John's not keen on the whole room being this bold, so we may end up re-painting the main wall in something a little more subdued (perhaps Desert Bake's complementary colour Cherokee Smoke).

And now just this week, the time has come to replace the bath! We've spent several months waiting to get to the top of the tradesman's list, but at least he was willing to do a partial reno (since most people we contacted refused to consider a job worth less than $15 000). So far our old tub and wall tiles have been ripped out, and our new tub has been fitted and the plumbing connected. We decided to pay a little extra to have another steel tub so it fits with the original look of the bathroom (as opposed to an acrylic tub). It's also been difficult finding a bath that fits in the space, as we didn't want to cut into the wall if we could help it!

Hopefully within the next few days the tiles will go up, and then next week we can stop showering at the neighbour's place!