The area I wanted to use for the garden is very hard clay soil, so I decided to build a raised garden bed, like I did for the circular garden. I ordered sleepers and soil from Canberra Sand and Gravel, and used the wood-chips from the big old tree we had to cut down as mulch. It was a bit of a challenge to hammer the garden stakes into the ground (to hold the frame together) and I’ve still got a bit of a way to go with all of them, but that was the most difficult part of the whole garden bed! Once I had the frame in place (one end being a branch from the old tree also), I filled it with new garden soil, planted the new plants, and topped it off with a nice thick layer of mulch. I gave them a good watering, and in the weeks that followed it also rained a lot (thanks, Mother Nature!), so they’re well on their way to becoming established.

I tend to forget what species of plant I’ve used in previous gardening, which makes it difficult to go and buy another when I find one that’s hardy enough to cope with having me as an owner! Luckily Santa brought me this cute Garden Journal, which has some good info about different kinds of plants, but also space to write and little pockets to keep the plant tags! Very handy =)

And lastly I’ve got some photos to show how much the plants in my circle garden have been growing, though these photos make me realise I really need to plan in advance and take better photos in better light for the blog (ie, not in the middle of a blistering hot sunny day, and focus on the garden so you can actually see stuff, instead of being distracted by the bricks of the house in the background!). If you look carefully though, you can see the Gum Tree on the left has grown enormously, in only 18 months it’s just about quadrupled in size!

Here’s my list that I want to get done this month!

• Paint Bathroom cornice and ceiling (and post final bathroom reveal)
• Buy new TV cabinet
• Get quotes for Living Room blinds
• Weed pavers (left area)
• Put all weeds and branches etc in trashpak
• Pull weeds from big front garden bed
• Paint timber sides of skinny front garden bed
• Transfer soil & wood chips to big front garden bed
• Plant new plants in big front garden bed
• Get blinds installed in Living Room
• Move BBQ
• Set up pot plant light out the back

Ok that’s probably enough for this month!

I went to Christmas Tree Keng, a property out past the Tulip Farm on the Highway to Sydney that grow radiata pines specifically for Christmas! They hand prune their trees to be the perfect shape, and you can cut them yourself so they are super fresh. Any tree costs $48 no matter what size (cheaper than the Belco Markets!)… Can you tell I loved my experience? I’ll be going here every year from now on =)

So on the 1st of December out I went, and surveyed the options.

This baby was about 1.5m tall (perfect to put on top of our dining table), and was nice and close to the path (I was wearing thongs and there was long grass, perfect for snakes!). So down she went!

And she fit nicely into the back of my car alongside the pram =P

It took me three days to finish the decorating (babies are time consuming), and 2 weeks to blog about it, but it’s up and I’m very happy =D

Happy Holidays everyone!

Here are some progress photos of the job so far (I LOVE my tradies, they have all been excellent, and big props go to long time friend Robbie for organising everything for me):

Of course when it came to waiting for the shower cement base to set, Bella was not very helpful:

And what we’re up to as of today (but I’ve now swept it out a bit):

Can’t wait for the mirror cabinets to go in so I can put all the junk back away! =)

I’ll post some progress photos over the next couple of days, but this is the bathroom in it’s “before” state:

I can’t wait for it to be done, it’s going to be so fantastic! =D

So here it is! I’ve broken everything down into sections, to make it easier in my own head.

DECOR

Wall Decal – Etsy, LeoLittleLion, with shipping total cost $120, DIY installation
Lamp – Red Berry Designs on special at Mathilda’s Markets, $40 (handmade!)
Cloud Mobile – DIY Project, total cost about $6 (handmade!)
Green mobile – Ikea Kids, $10
Elephant Mirrors – Scoops Design at the Handmade Markets, gift from my muma =)
Elephant LED Mobile – Little Night Delights at the Southbank Markets in Brisbane, $35
Green Baby Owl – Plushka’s Craft, $30 (handmade!)
Teddy Bear Playmat – Babies Direct, another gift from my lovely mum =)
Wall Flowers – Unit Concepts in Braddon (or find them online here), $40
Giraffe Growth Chart Mirror – I’ve had this since I was a little kid! No idea where it came from, sorry…

ROOM

Carpet – Bunnings, approx $250, DIY laying
Walls – Bunnings, “Dulux Plunge”, approx $65, DIY painting
Blinds – Metal Venetians on sale at Spotlight (not the right size for the window), $45ish, DIY installation
Curtains – Spotlight eyelet curtains by the meter, 3.5m (I actually should have bought at least 6m in hindsight), $150ish (including rods etc), DIY installation
Doors & Trims – White Enamel paint from Bunnings (to go over a pink trim, we tried using water based and it sucks, stick with enamel for this), $40ish, DIY painting

FURNITURE

Crib – Toys’R'Us on sale, $150 down from $400-ish originally
White bookshelf – Aussie Junk (2nd hand at the tip), DIY repainting, $5
Chest of Drawers – Malm Chest from Ikea, $99
Shelves – Lack Floating shelves from Ikea, $70 for 3, DIY installation
Glider – 2nd hand off GumTree.com.au for $20, DIY seat cover and new cushion, total cost $85

So, by my calculations (which could be slightly off), this entire room cost only $1240 to complete, top to bottom. That’s pretty damn good if you ask me. Especially if you think about what it looked like before:

YIKES!

I will post a “Part 2″ soon with details of everything (where to buy and DIY’s).

Let me know what you think!

And for a sense of scale (the room is not tiny but baby furniture is huge!), room overview:

Here’s a snap of my mini photo wall, in what we call our “adult corner” (not that kind of adult corner you scoundrel =O I mean nice and neat and “grown-up”. I’m working towards having a whole adult house… getting there slowly).

Still to do: Paint cream wall white, work on display items.

I want to enter some small bits of my house in a competition in the latest Real Living mag, just for fun =) Have to get cracking on finishing some stuff first though!

Hurrah for Nursery shelves (Lack floating shelves from Ikea):

Before

After

Untitled from Mikaela Danvers on Vimeo.