a lovely lounge

One of the first rooms I "officially" helped out on belongs to some of our favourite people - the Coe family. Their Little Guy #2 has a hilarious and almost obsessive attachment to our Little Man. It's so funny and I love it!

Anyway... So Adam and Nic had a pretty empty room and had just been given some $$ to fix it up, but didn't really know which direction to go in.. so I helped! The budget was limited, so I put my bargain hunting hat on, and off I went.

It all started with this mood board that I came up with after having my first chat with Nic.

They had already made an excellent eBay purchase of 2 chocolate brown lounges, so these gave me a great starting point. Ok, let's go on the tour!

Just a bit empty! But really, who could ask for a better place to start!

Great lounges right? I would like to think that this is the start of even more things to come for this room. When their budget allows there might be room for some more storage, but already, a big difference!

I really am a miracle worker - I was even able to disappear two little munchkins!

The three floral panels I made from a set of tea towels and the frames were old ones that Adam and Nic had that I sprayed white. The cushions were 2 for $15 from The Reject Shop (I lurrrrve that place!), the lamp base was $5 from a charity shop and the lamp shade was $8 on sale at Target. The rug was free from some friends (actually, from Pete and Lisa, whose gorgeous nursery - and not to mention new baby girl - you can see here).

Who doesn't love a good lamp/ entry table? (random Jess... random.) Anyway... The lamp table I found for $40 through Gumtree, but it was stained a yucky brown colour, so out came the white paint again! The mirror was a steal from Target - reduced from $90 to $30 (!!!), the lamp base was another charity shop find for $4 and the lamp shade, again from Target on sale at $8. (the camelia one of the boys brought home from their Nanna's place!)

The Coes had recently had some gorgeous photos taken by the very talented Hristina Piltz and Nic really wanted a way to show them off. I found the large frame at the Reject Shop for $30, and the other frames were again old ones the family already had that I sprayed white. I also had custom mats made to fit their pics. The white letters are from Lincraft and a few $ each.

So there it is! Hope you enjoyed the tour!

Oh! and here is that Little Guy #2 I was telling you about earlier. How could I not love that he loves my Little Man so much!

photos photos photos

so... I might be blog obsessed at the mo... I've just started a second one. This one is more about the photos and less about the words. Just pics of things I've been doing, designing, photographing, liking etc etc. Head on over if you'd like to have a squiz.

Here's a preview....

Pop on over to www.joyessphotos.tumblr.com and feel free to follow me on my pictorial journey!

ellie's nursery

Our dear friends Peter and Lisa asked for some help with their nursery for their baby #3. They have 2 seriously beautiful girls already and so they thought that for bub #3 it might be nice to revamp all the old baby stuff and that's where I came in.

The first step was to repaint all the old nursery furniture (cot, change table and some picture frames) in crisp clean white. Pete borrowed a high pressure spray and did an amazing job on these! The next step to making the room feel new was to rearrange the furniture from it's old positions. Let's go on the tour!

Pete and Lisa didn't know if they were having a boy or a girl, so we went for primary colours minus the yellow as they already had the green feature wall painted and they liked the idea of bright and cheery colours. Ok, i know you can see a bit of pink in there too, that's because they had a GIRL! So rather than "baby-to-be"'s room, it's Ellie's

I made these elephant canvases after my first meeting with Pete and Lisa and they became somewhat the inspiration for the rest of the room. I love the happy coincidence that there is a song called "Ellie the Elephant!"

The canvases (fabric included) cost no more than $5 each and the "dream" was only $3 (from Spotlight) and I painted it white.

One of my FAVOURITE things in the room! Ellie's big sisters are Charlize (5) and Brianna (3) and they made their special contribution to the room with these handprints. Ellie's will pop on the bottom when mum and dad can pry her tiny hand out of a fist! (she is only a couple of weeks old!)

This cute mini alarm clock only cost a few dollars and it's not only a cute addition to the room , but a practical one too... perfect for counting the minutes when feeding.

The feeding corner. Complete with chair from Ikea for $35, cushion and throw from The Reject Shop for $18, giant rick rack trim for curtains for $2 a metre.

How great does that cot look! Excellent job Pete. 

I made this "grow" artwork for about $3 (This is one of the frames that Pete repainted). I think these artworks (or something like them) are going to become a signature for me in rooms I help out with. You can see a similar one here in Natalie's Nursery. The lamp I picked up for $15 and added the rick rack to match the curtains and lantern above the cot.The clothes hooks were $2.50 from a local $2.00 shop and were a hideous dark wood stain. Nothing a few thousand coats of red paint couldn't fix!

A final look back at this lovely room. Overall, including the purchase of those Billy shelves from Ikea, the whole makeover came in at under $200. A great combination of creative thinking, bargain hunting and elbow grease!

And here is precious Ellie, sleeping peacefully in her cot. Isn't she gorgeous?

And finally, here is our present for Ellie. I designed this baby announcement especially for her. I think Lisa is going to put it up above Ellie's cot. Cute.

mmmm.... new old clothes

I discovered a new charity shop not far from our new home. It has a usual "shop" section where most things were between about $3 and $10, but then... wait for it... out the back there were bins (sweet, sweet clothing bins) that were $6 a KILO! ahhh I love it when clothing is charged by the kilo.

This is what I picked up for the Little Man.

I also picked up a few things for our niece who is about the same age as Little Man. The whole lot cost me less than $10. Love it.

baby and tea

Our great friend Taz (who is about 8 and a half months pregnant) recently celebrated her 30th birthday with a 50's themed party. I took along my new whizz bang camera and was unofficial shutterbug for the evening. Here is one of my fav pics of the night. I love Taz's flashy red nails and her gorgeous bump.

I also tried using a frame on this pic. I can't decide if I like it or not, but I got 50 free vector frames here and thought "hmm.. worth a try!" And... we always love a freebie over here!

penny pincher's party

Well, Little Man turned one on Sunday, and of course, there was a par-tay!

I wouldn't say it was completely budget conscious, but there were definitely some bargains to share.

Firstly, bunting. So easy to make and so effective as a decorating tool. These ones are "no sew" ones that some day I'll put up a tutorial for. All you need is fabric, rope, an iron and some iron on binding. The great thing about them is they can be used for more parties, or as room decoration - these ones are going into  Little Man's room very soon! (Don't you just love this paparazzi moment of Little Man eating his first piece of birthday cake!)

How great is Etsy! I ordered a printable party set from Dimple Prints for only $10 and it came with over 100 pages of great things to print out. From paper bunting to cupcake toppers (as seen here on the right) there was so much to choose from. Amazing value for money and while I probably only used about a third of it, I still think I got my money's worth.

Glass bottles - $2 - Reject shop.

Not much more to say about that! Such and affordable way to add a special touch to something that normally gets shoved in a corner in a laundry bucket with some ice.

Matching outfit. Ok yes, you need a bit of sewing skills to whip these overalls (there are straps, they just kept falling off!) up, but the little tee is very easy to make, and just another way to personalise your little one's party. I picked up the white tee for $5 and used fabric scraps and some iron on binding to make this matching top.

Bubbles! So cheap and so much fun for kids of all ages (clearly!)

Containers for food. So I bought a LOT of stuff from the Reject Shop here in Sydney for this party. It's one of those places that if you can look past the cheap and nasty stuff there are a lot of great buys to be found. I got the red and white tin buckets for $3 each and the big glass jars for only $5 each! They are my favourite bargain! A quote from a friend when I told her the price "No WAY! Get out! I thought they would have been at LEAST $20 - $30!" Ahhhh the satisfaction of a bargain buy!

Much like the bunting, the great thing about all these containers as they can be used again and around the house. I'm thinking crayons and pencils for the tins and cookies or craft supplies for the jars.

And finally here are just a few more of my fav pics from the day.

(the candle was a little bit scary for our poor little muffin!)