New graphic designs!

So... I've been busy designing lots of cute new things. Mainly birth announcements and a couple of invites. If you're interested in a custom design please do get in touch via my website www.joyessdesigns.com. I hope to be starting up a brand new etsy shop dedicated to graphic designs very soon. Watch this space! A present for our niece on her 1st birthday...

 ... and then a matching (ish) one for her brother

Ellie's finished product can be seen at the end of this blog over here

a present for a family member to give to friends who had twins

DIY Wall Art

One of the ways to bring colour and life and focal points into a room is through wall art. One of the ways to do this on a budget is to... make it yourself!

Canvas art is by no means a new thing, but it is INCREDIBLY simple to make and can be really effective in spicing up an otherwise boring wall.

I was wandering through the kitchen section of Ikea last week not really looking for anything in particular... just wandering.. and came upon a set of 3 tea towels. The colours were perfect for our otherwise SUPER boring kitchen and rather than dirty them up and use them for their actual purpose I decided to cover  canvas panels...

here we go...

So the tea towels, in true Ikea fashion, are "swedishly" named Ellakajsa. I think they cost $7 for the set. I then picked up 3 40x40cm canvases for $5 each. The tools needed then are simply scissors and decent quality staple gun. I say "decent quality" because I bought a cheap one a while back and it a) hurt to use and b) was crap. It hardly permeated the surfaces I was trying to staple into!

And so then on the left you can see where I began folding and stapling. Really, that's it. I don't have a tip for corners, all I'll say is whatever you're covering ensure you always pull the fabric TIGHT before you staple. Then on the left you can see my 3 finished canvases (is the plural of "canvas" "Canvii"?)

And here they are up and proud in our kitchen. I added some red rick rack to the centre one so that I can peg invites and all-those-important-bits-of-paper-that-you-always-lose up. The pic on the right shows even more canvas art that I got stuck into that night. I'll be sharing where these were used very soon!

So there you go. Super easy and affordable. Perfect for almost any room in the house (I do challenge any of you out there to make some canvas art for their bathroom!). Just find the fabric you like and fold and staple and fold and staple!

Lusi's Lush Spare Room

A great friend and fellow blogger has been busy (in amongst mothering and homeschooling 4 beautiful children - I am exhausted just THINKING about how she does it all!) turning their youngest's room into a spare room. I love Lusi's bargain finds and great ideas!

Here's the before and after. It was a very sweet nursery to begin with, featuring a black, white and purple theme, but now it has been transformed into a striking black, white and red themed spare room. I love the shelves on the far wall that hide away a lot of of homeschooling supplies - Lusi strung up some elastic between 2 3M hooks (I agree Lus, I think we should BOTH be paid to advertise them - I use them everywhere too!) and hung some sheer Ikea curtains over it.

Here's a bargain hunters rundown:

Canvas above bed: $10 from GoLo

Set of black frames: $15 

Cushions on bed: $30 total (!)

Corner shelf: 99¢ off ebay (!!!)

 Paper lanterns: $5 each.

And there are even more bargains and creative ideas to be found on her blog Eternity Matters.

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!

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.

well hello there new home!

Hello! It's been a little while away, but with good reason! We sold our house, we moved and then we all got sick :(. But, all better now and all ready to blog again. I have to say, even if nobody is reading these posts, this whole blogging caper is pretty addictive!

So yes, we moved. We wanted to buy something straight after we sold, but there was just nothing in the areas we were looking, so we decided rather than stress about it or buy the wrong place, we'd rent.

The blog therefore will have a new direction added to it... along with my usual bargain finding I hope to take you all (!) on the journey of decorating a rental property (in which you can't slap a coat of paint on the wall, you can't re-carpet, you can't even put a hook or nail in the wall!) all the while remaining happily budget conscious.

Here's a first look at the place in "the raw". (apologies for the dodgy pics - only had the iPhone on hand)

Up until a week or so ago this house was blue! I'm very glad of the lovely new coat!

Confused? So were we. It seems the house painters may have been a bit dyslexic when it came to screwing the number back on. We are #68 just by the by.

Ok, ok. I know I might be going bit over the top calling this an entry "hall" but I'm excited to turn this into a lovely welcoming spot.

Woo! This pic only really shows about 1/4 of the garden. There's lots of tidying up to do, but I'm already loving spending time in the winter sun with Little Man.

A bit grey and tired, but big and has tonnes of storage. Oooh and who has spied the dishwasher?? I love it!!

Hmmm... any suggestions for hiding the hideous and not working air con?

Please note the hideous bottle green falling apart home made roman blinds atop the equally hideous glass brick feature windows. Mmmm feature windows..

Just one bedroom pic as they (all 3) are pretty much the same, just differing sizes. Same grey carpet, same grey walls.. hmmm how to warm up all this grey?

Modern art or hideously dated? You decide.

This room has been one of the many surprises this house has given us. Tucked away at the back of the house this room will double as a project/ craft room for me and a play/ fall asleep in the sun room for Little Man and Mr Jess.

So here endeth the tour. Check back for redecorating updates over the next few weeks!

Natalie's Nursery

I'm sooo excited to share this room with you! My friends Richard and Clare just had their 2nd child, a daughter and sister to Josh - Natalie. I'm yet to meet her, but she is coming home from the hospital today, so you get to see her room for the first time on the same day she does! Here is the preview I gave of this room recently.

I had so much fun helping Clare (and Richard!) design this nursery. Clare was pretty sure she was having a girl, so we took the gamble and went girly.. as long as it could quickly be changed to blue for a boy! Because this was baby #2, all of the furniture was ready to be used again, but it was all the pretty things I helped with. The best part of it all was making a gorgeous space for very little cost.

We first chose this soft aqua colour for the wall for it's cool, calming effect and because if it was a little boy that popped out and not a girl we though aqua could very easily become a boy colour!

Clare loved the idea of having a tree wall decal, but didn't love the cost that many of them were, so my solution was to borrow an overhead projector, trace out a tree and then paint it white. It only took a couple of hours and as we were able to use the white ceiling paint that Richard had used, it cost us a whole lot less!

The little white lamp Clare found at Kmart for $10 (I think!) and we trimmed the edge with pom poms.

We also attached pink pom poms onto the edge of the blind with removable double sided tape so as Natalie grows out of them we won't have ruined the blind when they need top be removed. The length we needed cost about $4.00. Such an affordable way to customise some boring blinds!

I made this special piece of art for the princely sum of $8.00! The frame with white mat cost $5 from Big W, the butterfly was a $2.50 iron on decal also from Big W, the material was a remnant from another project and the letters probably didn't even cost the left over 50¢ - they are felt stick-on letters I found in Spotlight.

Clare also loved the idea of bunting in the room, but we both felt that the triangular flags usually used in bunting didn't suit the rest of the room, so she whipped up these crescent shaped ones - I love them!

The white shelf was a spare found in Clare and Richard's garage - painted by Clare in that trusty white ceiling paint.

If you've been following my blog, this letter will look familiar... you may have seen a "J" for "Jonty" over here. This time I chose to emphasise the little girl in pink rather than keep it all the one colour.

And here is a final look back at this lovely room. Oh! i forgot to mention the embroidery hoops on the tree earlier. To inject some extra colour and pattern into the room we filled embroidery hoops with cute prints - I thought they made some pretty "fruit" on the tree and were a nice alternative to canvases covered in material. The gorgeous linen ad mobile are hand-me-downs from Clare's sister - Osh Kosh from the US! What a lucky find and it suits the room perfectly!

More nursery and room photos to come when I get around to photographing some of the other people I've been to visit and help out. Hope you've enjoyed and been inspired by this visit!

UPDATE!!

Just got this gorgeous photo of Natalie in her new bed. So Sweet!!