Pointlessly frugal

There are a few things I'd like to buy for the house and I've kind of been putting them off until we had a bit more money; to recover from Christmas time spending (this period also coincides with when our major insurances are due - a major suck in more ways than one).

Being the martyr that I am, I've been very frugal these past few months. You know, looking after the pennies so the pounds can look after themselves nonsense - thinking twice before purchasing anything, making school and work lunches religiously, not having take-out etc. etc.

But not anymore. Being a martyr is utter madness, especially if you're the only one depriving yourself!

Image courtesy  Rhodes & Beckett

Over the last few weeks Jason has been revamping his wardrobe. On his side of the cupboard, lovely 100% Egyptian cotton hand tailored shirts are hanging handsomely from their hangers.

Mr French Cuffs Jason never thinks twice when making a clothing purchase and when he believes he's onto a good thing he buys duplicates.

So far, his recent shirt purchases roughly equate to one designer light fitting I've delayed buying for the loungeroom, because I thought I was being extravagant.

How ridiculous I was! I should've got in first. 

And I don't really want to begrudge Jason buying anything because he never ever begrudges any of my purchases and even coaches me in the ways of a spendthrift.

shadeless lounge room light

No more St Brismod. Cured of my pointless frugality, I'm going shopping!

New art

Look what came in the mail, all the way from France, yesterday. My second giveaway win of the year.

acrylic ink on reclaimed wood

Thank you to artist and calligraphist Ange from Signed by Ange who interpreted a Van Gogh quote for my abstract pleasure! I love it.

I can't believe how excited I was to see it sitting near the mail box. I was just like a child.

The packing - draft calligraphy work on catridge paper and a small message on aquarelle card. Love, love. Thanks again, Ange!

And for dinner tonight, I'm doing tapas. Some friends from book club are coming around to discuss "Brave New World". Tapas laced with Soma. Yeah!

Kitchen - before and after and a Marimekko giveaway winner

Yesterday, we were showing a friend some before photos of our house (only because they were interested - we attempt not to bore our friends).

Blogging about our renovations has given us a great collection of photos of the house which we otherwise wouldn't have taken.

I've been trying to take after shots in the exact position of the before shots. It is very motivating, especially as we are waiting to do our next large project which is Number 1 son's bedroom. I can't wait!

To date, we have renovated the front entry, lounge room and kitchen. This is the first before and after I have collaged together:

The before shot is from our second inspection of the property last year. It is the only before shot we have. Most of the storage in the photos was freestanding and went with the previous owners.

As you can, see we didn't change the layout dramatically - just tweaked it so it would function better and have more bench and storage space. The bi-fold windows were also added to allow us to open up the space when needed. Jason said he will definitely paint the windows a gloss white when the weather improves (it's been raining heaps).

The fridge obstructing the doorway leading onto the deck was also very bad feng shui  - the couple who owned the house were divorcing. Perhaps if they had moved the fridge, things could have been different...

Marimekko Giveaway

Man, I was relieved there were a few more entrants than the embarrassing eight or so I had early last week! My plea for more entries worked and saved my pride somewhat. Anyway, there were 23 entrants (including the double entries for those who advertised my giveaway on their blog).

This morning I recruited the help of Number 1 Son to draw a name out of a stainless steel bowl for the Marimekko cushion giveaway. So very hi-tech! And this is what he pulled out:

Congratulations to Amanda from Small Acorns for winning the Marimekko cushion. Amanda, I will be in contact with you shortly to arrange delivery.

And a big thank you to everyone else who entered!

Queenslander house styles

Although we are not being pedantic with a true restoration, we are keen to make sure our renovations are sympathetic to the character of our house. We certainly don't want to live in a museum but nor do we want to ignore the fact we live in an older style home.

The local city council library has proven to be a good source of information about Queenslander house styles.

I recently found two really great documents which will be helpful when we eventually decide upon replacing the rotting front fence, window hoods and front and side stair cases.

1. Looking after the Queensland House, Brisbane City Council Heritage Unit, 1997 is a great little guide about caring for a traditional Queenslander home and how to plan for extensions and alterations to adapt it to a modern lifestyle.

It has one chapter dedicated to carpentry and joinery for Queenslanders built in the 19th Century, Pre WWI and Interwar era and it has illustrative diagrams for those who require visuals (like me!).

2. Brisbane House Styles 1880 to 1940: A guide to the affordable house by Judy Gale Rechner, Brisbane History Group, 1998.

I just love this guide and I believe it to be a must-read for any Queenslander house junkie or even renovating novice.

It is about the popular house styles which the majority of Brisbanites could afford at the time. It details the external characteristics of each house style and the architectural features which were used during the differing periods. Very interesting indeed.

From the National Library of Australia catalogue you can also access an online document called Designs of Dwellings, State Advances Corporation, 1935.  The State Advances Corporation was set up to assist applicants construct houses on their own land or government selected land with loans from the Government. This document has the example house designs and floor plans which were available during that particular era.

The Sow's Ear was built circa 1930s and is a double gable house with front verandah and enclosed side verandah, but I haven't found any other house which looks exactly like it in terms of external facade or even floor plan. Well, at least not yet. I can only guess that it is a hybrid of a few designs which were popular at the time.

The best thing about finding out this information is now I have documentary proof that the colonial finials, on each of our roof gables (there are nine), are historically inaccurate. The decorative phallic protrusions were already here when we bought the house and must have been added during a previous renovation. Approval for removal is pending with the Chief Renovator but I fear he has grown attached to them...

Really, someone ought to have done their homework before they colonialised this humble interwar Queenslander.

Please don't forget to enter my Marimekko giveaway. Your odds are very good!

Arne Jacobsen Lamp and his poor cousin (and Marimekko giveaway)

Bedside lighting has been an issue since Jason's lamp gave up the ghost a couple of weeks ago. Such a pain, but they were cheapie Target lamps which had been given to us sometime last century. They lasted a decade, so they served us well.

We wanted something a lot simpler and modern to the faux plastic fantastic Tiffany lamps we used to have.

For some time I've admired the simplicty of this Arne Jacobsen lamp which was designed in 1957. It has a fixture head with a distinct asymmetrical shape, while the lamp base has a hole - originally made to accommodate an ashtray (for the obligatory cigarette after ...well, you get the picture).

It has a fabulous modernist line which appealed to me.

the real deal arne jacobsen lamp

As is always the case, the price tag just didn't fit into our budget especially at the moment. Approximately $360 per lamp. And delayed gratification and saving for lamps doesn't cut it when you have a pile of  books waiting to be read on the bedside table!

I looked at buying replicas which worked out to be $130 per lamp. But, you know, I feared I would go to Knock-off Hell if I went down that path...but, I was up for the heat.

the not so real deal from Milan Direct

Then on the weekend, I spied a set of these - on sale at Freedom furniture.

Needless to say, I bought them. They are not a complete rip off of the original design, but they come pretty close. It has a solid base, which is not as sexy as the holey original. At $30 a pop, I was prepared to make the sacrifice.

We are catching up on our reading to the light of Arne's poor cousin, awaiting our fiery destiny.

Goodbye faux Tiffany and hello faux Arne

On another matter, the response to my Marimekko giveaway has been underwhelming. Seriously, you should enter the random draw HERE - you are a certainty to win!