Mademoiselle Rose

Garden plans ... beautiful inspiration

I haven't been on my computer much the last couple of weeks as it's been a bit sick and has now finally gone off the computer hospital gasping it's last breath!  I'm sorry I haven't been replying to everyone's lovely comments for the last few weeks as it's been quite difficult to get anywhere and I must admit I just gave up!

Last weekend I had a bit of time on my hands and found this great site full of inspiration....the US Better Homes and Gardens website.  It sure is addictive, lots of things to see and inspire.  I warn you though if you visit, you're likely to look up a few hours later and realise you've been at it all day!  One of the sections that really inspired me, as I'm in the process of trying to put my garden together, was the garden plans section.  Not only does it give some great ideas, but it has the prettiest hand drawn plans.  Some of the plans are pretty good in that they have the hand drawn plans, but also photos to show how the garden will look in real life.  Here are some!

New Old House...

 At the beginning of this year, Dear One and I purchased an acre of land down the road.  Well, the bank owns it, but in 100 years we will own it.  We bought it, as we've always had bad luck with money with either him or I only working at one time and struggling all the way, and we thought since prices on everything are going up crazily, we thought it was about time to take the big step into the world of investing.

Anyway we found this acre block of land in a new estate and it has a covenant on it ensuring that all the houses have to be of a high standard, meaning we are certain the estate will end up a really lovely place to be.  And who can knock an acre of land.  We only have a third of an acre here where we live and the other day I measured the new block to compare it to this block so I could get an idea of how big it is compared to here.  It equals our block, the block next door on one side, and half the block on the other side of us.  Huge!

Lately though Dear One has been talking about selling this house and building a new home just how we would like it on the vacant block.  It's taken me a little while to bring myself around to thinking of leaving here, but there are a few strong reasons why I should be thinking about it.  Dear One is older than I am and the upkeep on a wooden house may be too much in time and possibly stairs might be a problem (hopefully he'll be spritely in his old age!) and we would like a bit more space from the neighbours.  The ones on our right are way too close and we have a vacant block next door.  No telling who is going to build what on that in time. 

Anyway, it started me thinking about the house we would build.  Since the house we're in at the moment is pretty well my dream home and I've planted 13 of my most favourite roses here, the new house would have to be pretty special, but I suppose I have to think about the future.  What if something happened to Dear One?  Would I be able to afford the mortgage on this place by myself, would I be able to afford to upkeep it etc etc etc.  Since the value of this house has gone up so much in the last year if we sold and built we would have more than twice the land, more space from the neighbours, be in the middle of a pretty, up-market estate and our mortgage would be a lot less.  Could I possibly work three days instead of five a week?  Boy, if that's not enough incentive!!  Yep, thought about that for three seconds, and working three days instead of five definitely swung it!!!   

Some of the beautiful magazines I've bought have ads in them for period style new build houses, so I thought I would show you some of the fabulous houses from one company I'm getting information from to help us decide.  This company is called Harkaway Homes and the following are some of the houses they build.  What do you think?  Should we do it?

The one above is the one I'm leaning towards.  It has the Victorian roofline which seems to be the one that appeals to me the most throughout all the pictures on the website and it is an example of the houses made out of sandstone type bricks, which is what Dear One wants to build with.  It has the verandas all the way around which also what Dear One likes.  I love the lacework around the edge of the veranda (I've always been drawn to houses with the iron lacework).  It looks very pretty and very clean lines.  I wonder what it would look like with the veranda being bullnose (curved down instead of straight like the house below).  Imagine how much fun it would be deciding what features you wanted!  

 

   

 

 

The one above is my absolute favourite!  Not sure though if it's the style, because they are all so pretty, it may be the colours that are attracting me to this one!

 This entryway is a similar style to what we have now, except this one is a little more ornate.  I love it!

Do I really want to move or am I just excited about decorating a new house....hmm, this will be a slow decision, but it is exciting to think about it.  We already have the land.... 

 

Beautiful roses...

 

Finally Finished My Lounge...

Hi Everyone!

Hope you are all having a great weekend!  I've been really sick all week with a chest cold, so I haven't had such a good one, but last weekend I finally finished my lounge off.  I've done a photo album in my sidebar if you would like to see some more photos of the finished room.  Below are some...

   

 

 

 

 

I hope you enjoy these!

         

Romantic Little Cottage

Hi Everyone!

I'm sorry I've been a bit slack lately, I've been so busy around the home doing gardening (yes, digging more holes) and at work, and the weather here has been soooo cold.  It's winter here in Australia, but we're sub-tropical in Queensland, which means we don't get so cold here as elsewhere, but I think that just makes us more whingy and whiny when it does get cold, because we're not used to it!  It's amazing how little you want to do when it's cold.

Anyway, I thought I'd better pull my finger out and post something, especially when my honey said my blog has been a bit boring lately!  Geeez!!

On Friday I had a day off work and just relaxed, so nice!  I did actually get the paint brush out though and painted one corner of my lounge room just because I wanted to see how it will look white instead of yellow!  I was tempted to do the whole room, but it's so hard by myself as I have to drag the kitchen table around all the walls and put a ladder on top of that as we have 12 foot ceilings and I'm so short.  It's the only way I can reach, but it makes me a bit scared being up so high.  Since there's a bit of heavy-type furniture in the lounge as well I decided I just have to be patient (definitely NOT one of my virtues), since my luvy said he would help me do it if I wait another week. 

It'll be great as he does the top bit and I do the bottom bit, and we use this fabulous new Dulux paint called "Once" which is just the best.  We've painted the whole house with it and as the name implies, you only have to do one coat.  It goes on a bit patchy but as it dries it thickens to the equivalent of two coats, so we only have to do it once!  Good hey!  It comes up a treat and my honey and I will knock the lounge over probably in about an hour.  So hopefully next weekend we will get it done!  Here is a sneak peak of my bitsy painted wall with one piece of my new lounge suite...

I was cruising around some flickr sites the other day and came across this fabulous site by Monticello Antiques in Portland in the US.  Big wow!  So frustrating not to be able to jump in the car and visit these fabulous places.  One thing that really caught my eye was their little cottage houses made completely out of recycled wood and windows.  They are just so pretty and would make a great work room.  You'd really want to work if you were going into these little pretties!  Of course here in Brisbane you wouldn't put the windows in the ceilings as you'd cook in the sun, but I suppose you could put up some sort of roof curtains for when it's hot.  Here are some gorgeous photos, and for all my US readers, lucky you if you could go and visit Monticello Antiques but everyone else can visit their blog!

I'll tell you what, if I had my time over again work-wise, I'd become an apprentice something related to building with wood.  I reckon for a builder, these little cottages would be fun to make, and I know exactly where to buy all the bits....*big sigh* I'd love to be able to make one of these, or even use the inspiration to make something similar with these bits and bobs!

PS:  I have two copies of the latest Romantic Country for sale for $12 each.

  

My Pixie Friends...

One of the lovely ladies, Kathy, who visits my blog regularly just loves my little pixie mates, so I said I would put on my blog some pictures of my little friends...so here they are!

I had four little friends, but unfortunately one had a big accident and isn't with us any more, but my other three are treasured little mates I love to have around me...

This little fellow sits on my kitchen windowsill and is holding an amethyst crystal.

This little bloke sits on a swing above the entrance to the loungeroom.  I love this one, he's my favourite!  Guess what!  I bought a lounge off Ebay a couple of weeks ago (at long last my poor suffering readers must be thinking!) and next weekend Dear One has promised me he will help me paint the loungeroom and bring up the new suite.  I'm so happy, as I will be able to finish off the lounge at along last.  I'll put pictures on my blog in a week or two of how my loungeroom has turned out.  This little bloke will jump into my pictures for sure.

This fella gets to live in my bedroom.  He's a real cutie too!

I've had my little mates for about 10 years now, but the lady who makes them lives in the little township of  Daintree, which is in the rainforest above Cairns up in north Queensland in Australia, where we used to live.  If you ever visit Daintree, you can buy some of these little fellows:

Yesterday I didn't go to my sister's house for a change and Dear One and I put in our new arbour.  I mentioned it in a previous post that I was hoping to win it on Ebay and I did!  My sister and I put it together the other week (yes, more fun and games there, it was an another adventure for sure!)  We did well, except one of the sides was back to front which we didn't notice until after we'd finished.  We left it as we thought it didn't make a difference but of course it did!  When we went to put it into the ground yesterday, it was twisted and of course Dear One noticed right away one side was backwards.  It did make a big difference after all.  So he fixed that and now it's in the ground and looking all shiny and new.  It needs to be rained on a bit to age it up. 

It looks quite bare at the moment, as does all my garden, which hopefully time will heal soon.  I have been VERY busy, and am so tired of digging holes, but I suppose I'm not done with that yet!

I have to put the garden around the bottom of the arch still...going out this arvo to do that, when the sun goes down a bit.  Winter here, but yesterday whilst digging the four holes for the posts (not fun at all I can tell you) I got a bit sunburnt which I was a bit upset about.  I don't like getting any sun at all, and my face hasn't been in the sun for years and years.  Anyway, out with the Aloe Vera skincare and slathered it on and my face immediately felt less stingy.

Around the side of the arbour I have two Nahema climbing roses going in on each side, which will hopefully grow right over the top and meet up and also next Saturday when I go to my sister's I'm going to get a couple of passionfruit vines to go next to the roses to intermingle over the top.  I LOVE eating passion fruit so I'm looking forward to that.  The lady at the shop where I'm going to get them said I will get fruit in a couple of  months in Spring or Summer.  I love a good plan: I will have ready made greenery over the arch and in a few months hopefully I will have fruit too!.  Bonus!!

In the above picture, down where the shadow is on the fenceline on the left, it's hard to see, but I have a Pierre De Ronsard rose climber just planted.  I'm hoping that it will grow up and along the front fence to the left.  I have another one just out of picture on the other side of the driveway to grow along the front fence to the right.  Can't wait!

I had the garden along the front fence put in a few months ago and have been waiting patiently for daisies to come in season, as I wanted them right across the front.  A few weeks ago, finally, I put in 18 white daisy bushes right along the front of the house.  I was so excited....until each day I came home from work a few were gone.  I started with 18 bushes and ended up with 8 before I took them out before they disappeared too.  The last 8 are now around the edge of one of my gardens in the front.  I was so disappointed I wanted to cry.  Why are some people so awful!?  I'm going to give it another go shortly and just have to cross my fingers they stay this time.

Our plant trailer in the front yard is full of carnations, which are far from my favourite flowers, ditto the orange gerberas around it (everyone who knows me knows I hate orange with a passion) but they all flower often which has saved their lives!  I have planted in two corners trailing rose plants which have sprouted already, so hopefully they will look lovely in time.  Along the wire fence at the side I've planted some Jasmine climbers so hopefully in Spring, which is just around the corner, they will grow right along the fence and the little white flowers should send off a beautiful fragrance.  I've put those along the fences on either side of our house.

Gee, I've been busy planting.  I've planted 13 rose bushes and my daisies, jasmine climbers and a few other bits and pieces.  I'm hoping by spring next year they will have all grown and will make the garden look a bit more cottagy  I'm so looking forward to that.  I can't say that I like gardening, but like a lot of things, like sewing, it's not much fun to do, but hopefully the end product will be so beautiful and so worth it!  I am an expert hole digger tho!!

         

My Bubby

I know that a lot of ladies to love my photos of my babies, Sasha and Chantelle, but every day I think about my other baby, Bubby, who died last year of cancer.  So I thought I'd do a little post about him so he's not forgotten.  Bubby was our first Balinese cat and he was a blue.  Sasha is a lilac and Chantelle is a seal.  Bubby was a really gentle, loving little bloke and Dear One absolutely adored him.  He was a really smart little cat, but very quiet and gentle. Apart from that one of the things I remember most about him was that he was so soft, like angora.  He had the most beautiful fur ever.  He had the most beautiful eyes.  Dear One and I were looking at his photos on his computer the other day and here are some photos we found....

Bubby and Chantelle sleeping together.

Bubby and Dear One.  He looks uncomfortable, but that's what he loved to do!

My pile of pussies.  They always slept together.  Sasha is his sister.

When I get sad tho, I think about some of the funny things he used to do, like years ago when we lived in Cairns and Bubby was a kitten, my brother visited with his family, his wife and two boys.  We had vinyl floors in the lounge room and the two boys were one each side of the room pushing their little Matchbox cars along the floor to each other.  One of the boys came up to us and complained that Bubby was being naughty.  We went and had a look and as the boys were pushing the cars to each other, Bubby was running up and down the room after the cars and pushing them along, just like the boys.  We were laughing ourselves silly, it was so funny.  Then one of the cars veered off and went under the TV cabinet.  Bubby ran over and laid down on the floor and waved his arm under the cabinet and pulled the car out.  The boys didn't complain after that, they treated him like he was one of the kids!  He played with them all night, just like he was a little kid.

And my brother running around the house with Bubby chasing after him, laughing his head off.  We had a divider wall between the kitchen and the hall and we could run in complete circles, around and around, and Bubby used to chase after us patting our ankles with his paws, while we were running and laughing our heads off.  Then after we'd run around a few times, he'd duck off, unseen,  into one of the bedrooms on the side of the hall and when we were running around looking behind wondering where he was, he'd spring out of the bedroom with a funny yelp, and "get us."  He was so clever.

And just before he died, Dear One let him come in the computer room on the back of our townhouse where the cats were never allowed.  We had built the room on and left the screen door there so you could see into the computer room, but the cats couldn't get thru.  Anyway, we decided that since we weren't going to have Bubby much longer, he could go into the "special room".  One day Dear One and I were in the computer room with Bubby, talking, and Bubby went up to the screen door and was nose to nose with Sasha and Chantelle who were on the other side of the door.  I said to Kev, Ï think Bubby wants to go out," so I got up and opened the door and said to Bub, "You can go out now if you want to" and he looked at me and turned back around and went and sat with Kev.  Gee, we laughed!  We realised that Bubby didn't want to go out at all, he was sitting there teasing the girls, "I'm in here and you can't be, ner, ner, ner!  Funny little button!  Gee, we miss him.  This post had made me feel really sad.

Secondhand Gems...

Doing your home up needn't be expensive.  You certainly can pay a lot of money for pieces brand new, but a lot of people do this and then they decide for one reason or another that they don't need, don't fit, don't want these lovely pieces.  Their loss is your gain.  I'm not a real fan of Ebay and hopefully some other company will come along and surpass them, but at the present it's the best place to get everything you need to do your home up, and it needn't cost you a fortune. 

Nearly everything I have furniture-wise is secondhand from Ebay or auctions.  Here are some of the pieces I have bought in the past and how much they cost!

This table in my kitchen only cost $50 off Ebay. It's a lovely size for the kitchen and has a drawer to put all my tea towels and table cloths in.  It's one of the most used pieces of furniture in my home.  Just the perfect size for two for dinner. 

This table in my dining room cost about $75 off Ebay and the four oak chairs only cost $80 from the auctions, and the bench was about $45 from Paddington Antique Centre.

This little hutch had some ugly doors on the front and really yucky wire on the side ~ the wire would have been nice to keep except it was in bad condition and would have needed replacing.  It only cost $70 off Ebay.  The hutch in the background was only $90, also off Ebay.

The towel rail in my bathroom was from the auctions.  It's oak and has barley twist sides which is a bit hard to see.  But it only cost $50.

This mirror with beautiful scrolling was actually quite expensive, $290 from the auctions.  I had to fight to get this.  I was told by another dealer who was vying for it also that it would be worth about $700 to $800 in an antique shop.  It's one of the things I love most in my home.  It's a one off and it was a buy it now or never see one again situation!

These cupboards are really handy.  They have hanging in one side and drawers in the other.  It only cost $35 at the auctions. A few appliques and a lick of paint and it's just a lovely size for the corner in my guestroom.  It's perfect to keep our winter woolies in, since it's really only cold here about two months of the year.

At the moment the one room that needs attention in my home is the lounge room.  It's a VERY small room (so sometimes your dream home doesn't always have everything you want) and it's been plaguing me for months.  Every room, whilst not always finished, has a bit of plan, but my lounge, it's been annoying me for ages. 

It never looks or feels right if you don't have the right larger pieces and obviously with money not my strong point (not destitute, not rich), it's difficult to have everything just the way you want it.  I know I always think, well, the lounge suite for example is a large investment money-wise and you have to be very careful how you buy as it's going to cost a lot and it's going to be for the next 10 years at least.  But the other day cruising thru the Ebay furniture, it suddenly dawned on me that I'm making too much of a big deal about the cost of the lounge. 

Having a search around, I've come a conclusion about what I want to do (happy day that was as that's half the battle!) and I've also suddenly realised I've been looking at it all wrong.  I don't need to spend a fortune on my lounge suite as I can find lovely furniture just what I'm looking for or what I'm not looking for but have been inspired by, secondhand, and because of that I don't need to worry about keeping it for years and years which is what you think usually because of the huge monetary investment.

I can buy my pieces secondhand and keep them for a long as I like them, they suit my purposes and as long as they last, and then donate them to Lifeline for someone else to use/love and start again!

Two of the things that have been really worrying me, I've realised, is that I want cream/white upholstery which is obviously not necessarily easy to keep clean, the other, my two babies, Sasha and Chantelle are little loveable destroyers.  Love them to death, hate their claws.  If I change my way of thinking, I can do what I can to counteract these two problems, scotchguard and a lot of yelling, and if I'm not entirely successful (which I haven't been to date) then I can just donate my pieces to Lifeline so it can be recycled and I can go back to Ebay and start again.  What a relief!

Below are some of the most gorgeous things I've been finding lately on Ebay...

The above lounge set had three pieces and went for around $550.

The above suite is a three piece set also which went for around $800.  There sure are some pretty second hand things around to decorate your home without needing to go new and expensive.  Or what you can also do is get a few new or expensive pieces and supplement the balance with cheaper secondhand items.  If I had to furnish a house from scratch, I don't think now I would even buy any new pieces of furniture.  You can have every beautiful thing you want secondhand

Romantic Rose Boutique

One of my most favourite shops to browse on the internet is Becky's shop,  Romantic Rose Boutique.  She has lots of really beautiful things, but I love her china section.  I've bought quite a few things from her and the service is excellent.  She is having a summer sale at the moment and for sure there are some really fabulous bargains to be had!  I thought I might show off some of her beautiful items.  Visit her store here

And I left my favourite till last!  Isn't this last pink jug just to die for?  I'd love to buy this but I'd be killed by Dear One if I did!

Practical Magic

One of the reasons I love the movie Practical Magic is to look at the lovely surroundings they've used in the movie.  Here are some pictures of the main house, which is to die for!

Hard to believe it isn't a real house, huh!  They built it for the movie.  I'd love to know how they instantly got the roses around the veranda and the arbour because that's what I want at the moment.  Unfortunately, an instant garden I can't do, so I'll have to just keep buying my little plants and hope they grow fast!  And without any water too.  Still wishing for any rain at all!  I've bought a few rose plants and climbers in the last couple of weeks and am hoping to win an arbour on Ebay this week for the front gate. Can't have a white picket fence without the arbour at the gate. 

Here is the arbour I'm hoping to win...and some of the roses I've bought....

The two photos below are called Nahema Roses.  I'd never heard of them until reading the blog of Mel's Rose Place but I'm hooked.  I just hope mine go as well as Mel's as she raves about them.  I've bought mine from Rankins Roses here in Australia and I've just noticed they are selling them on ebay at Rankins Roses.  I just noticed then that they've got these up for auction for $9.99, geez wouldn't it rot your socks, I could have gotten mine cheaper....hate that!

I also bought the following one called Souer Emmanuelle also available from Rankins.  I thought the colour was really sweet.  Hopefully I'll be swamped with pink and white roses in a few months or next year.  

I've also bought another lot of daisies for in front of the picket fence, and hope they survive this time as the last lot didn't!  My black thumb/no rain, they didn't survive the double whammy!   I'm also hoping to organise some more advanced Jasmine climbers this week too, so with spring around the corner, I hope they will all burst into bloom and make my garden look a little more filled out.  My dream is to have roses and jasmine all around the arches underneath my house, and many, many rose blooms all across the arbour and fences, so here's hoping!  I didn't want to spend any money at the moment, but Dear One let me buy the arbour (mainly because I think he doesn't want to build one for me, LOL!) and I had to get the roses otherwise I'd have to wait another year.