Ruby Slippers

In my opinion, every girl needs a pair of classic red heels in her wardrobe. However my favourite Old Faithful red heels have been looking a little worse for wear lately - so much so that I had already mentally said goodbye to them and had put them with other old items in wardrobe ready to donate to the op shop/chuck. 

That was until, I saw this rather brilliant tutorial on how to fix ruined heels, and had a little brainwave of my own to breath fabulous new life into Old Faithfuls. I went one step further that the tutorial, and instead of just painting glitter on the heels of the shoe, I did the whole thing. Admittedly, my red shoes were a lot more worse for wear than the original shoes in the tutorial, and who doesn't secretly want a pair of red ruby slippers, like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz?

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Creating ruby slippers/fixing my Old Faithfuls was actually easier than you think. All you need is:

• glitter (to match your shoe colour)
• glue (I used Mod Podge)
• paintbrush
• paper plate

Simply mix your glitter with the glue and paint on! It's actually that easy. Give your shoes a few coats, and try to keep the glitter glue as even as possible to avoid lumps and bumps. Mine did turn out a little bumpy but that was only because my heals were so hacked up to start with. Don't stress too much, because on your feet, no one will notice any little imperfections.

Ta-da! Now I have my very own ruby slippers. Now if I click my heels together three times and wish for my hearts desire do you think it will come true? Who knows, but Dorothy was certainly right about one thing: there's no place like home AND ruby slippers are super cute!
xo

Mirror Mirror on the wall...

... who's the prettiest of them all?
Mirror: Have you SEEN me? I am, of course!

Op shop find, lick of paint on a lazy afternoon with Nik, and hey-presto, the perfect mirror for above her bed in her beautiful new apartment. This mirror was the one Nikki has been searching for!

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xo

Back with a bang!

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I have been absent for some time, and am once again guilty of letting other things get in the way of my little corner of heaven in Blogland where I share with you all the things I do. But my hiatus has not been in vain. I have lots of exciting new things to share with you, including my lounge room makeover. Best of all, the total cost came in just under $100.

I have really been drawn to industrial kind of furniture lately, and I think you all know how much I like reusing old things, so it seemed only natural to combine the two. I scored the wooden pallets free from one of the business near my office (working in an industrial area may not have many good cafes for lunching, but it does have it's benefits). I also got the foam mattresses off Gumtree, one of my favourite places to go scavenging for bargains (they were $10 and are in pretty good condition — and so comfortable!)

The next step was to cut the pallets down to size to fit the foam mattresses. Admittedly I did do this step the hard way and cut each pallet with a hand saw, but I was a little afraid of botching them to use my jigsaw for the very first time. And Dad wasn't around to help me. I then sanded the fronts of the pallets, not bothering about the sides that were going to face to walls to save time.

Some single fitted sheets (50% off on sale) and a few new throw pillows topped off with an hour of one Saturday afternoon spent putting it all together, was all it took to finish off my brand new lounge room. It is perfect for chilling out to watch a movie, read a book or to gather around when friends come over. Just ask my girlfriends, we recently spent a Sunday afternoon watching Bridesmaids together lounging around. My housemates are also justifiably pleased.

I also dug my round coffee table (below) out of the garage, an old favourite thrifted from the side of the road one particularly entertaining afternoon in St Lucia with Smiley. I had some left over contact paper that I had bought to line draws with and covered the table top with it to blend it with the red cushions on the couch.  I love the little shelf underneath and my stack of vintage hardcovers.

My new couch is also a handy little shelf for storing magazines. I don't want to shove too much stuff into the pallets but it IS a rather convenient little hideaway.

Stay tuned for more of my makeovers, and let me know what you think about my extremely comfortable pallet couch. 

xo

Wardrobe Door Makeover

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One day in an uncharacteristic bout of fitness enthusiasm I was out on a walk. After an hour of powering along the Brisbane River, I was winding through my neighbourhood on my way home and I passed an old wooden wardrobe door leaning up against a retaining wall on the side of the road.

Of course, I stopped walking and wandered over to inspect this discarded, somewhat useless item that someone had clearly placed there for anyone who wished to take it. The door was just made out of cheap pine and looked like it had been there on the side of the road for awhile. So I decided that I didn't need it, trying to convince self that I didn't want to turn into one of those people who just collect all manner of random useless things and never do anything with them, and I kept on walking.

Not five steps later, I had a brilliant idea, ran back and grabbed the door and carried it half a kilometre home, which garnered a lot of weird looks from people.

I sanded it back, bought some paint and turned it into a whole new amazing blackboard, for just under $30. It currently lives in my lounge room and is always adorned with favourite quotes and song lyrics. I have also been known to use it for birthday wishes for my housemates and friends and particularly exciting countdowns (like Christmas).
xo

PS Props to whoever can tell me what song the current quote is from. I need song title, artist and album... GO!

Spectacular sample pot results

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When we moved into our house the previous tenants gifted some stuff to us including this outdoor table and matching chairs that were stashed away under the house. The chairs are so horrendously uncomfortably to sit on that I didn't bother doing anything to them. But the table, while a bit smaller than I would have liked, had potential, and you know, it was free!

So I bought a sample pot of British Paints Grey Canvas colour and as you can see the results are pretty much perfect. The whole project, including giving the table a quick sand and hose off before painting only took about 3 hours to complete. And all I purchased was a sample pot of paint. I think it was $7 well spent.

xo

A fresh lick of paint.

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I have been coveting tiffany blue for about six months now and had the perfect canvas in mind for it. This quick makeover only took about an hour to complete and cost just $10. I bought the frame at an op shop for $4 and the sample pot of fabulous coloured paint was just $6.

I love sample pots of paint. They're cheap, come in every colour you can imagine and best of all, are a great way to give new life to something. I have countless colours of sample pots, some of which I have never used but bought because I simply HAD to have the colour in my collection.

xo

PS The final product of my quick, easy makeover is too perfect for words.

Gold Coin Makeover

Since the bliss of last weekend is still fresh in my mind, I'd like to share with you one of the heavenly things I did. Best of all, it cost less than the chocolate croissant I usually treat myself to for breakfast at the markets.

Inspired by my lovely friend of grey grid paper fame and the amazing publication that is frankie, I spent Saturday searching the ops for a specific treasure: vintage pillowcases and bed linens.

As usual the oppies didn't disappoint me.

At two different op shops I found the five beautiful vintage pillow cases above; I even received change from $2.

My bed has now gone from this:

To the Nana floral fever of this:

All I want to do right now is nap on my pretty pillows and have lovely dreams.

xo

PS As an added bonus I found this handmade pretty doona cover at one of the oppies. For only $5 I couldn't leave it behind.