Things I learnt while decorating my Christmas tree yesterday...

Our rather bare, baby-proof tree

1. Babies and glass baubles don't get along. They smash easily and let's just say we're lucky there were no cuts, no blood, no tears.

2. Babies like to eat all Christmas decorations. So bye bye small beads, sharp, delicate objects and pretty much everything in my box.

3. Babies are obsessed by fairy lights whether they're on and twinkling or just minding their own business lazing about the tree sleeping. Considering removing this year...

4. Babies love helping you wrap gifts. By helping I mean crinkling your gift tags, chewing your ribbons and ripping the paper.

5. Babies in the house mean you're left to improvise. Starfish and shells filled gaps of green, and the limited non-breakable plastic and metal baubles were hung on the front of the tree only, leaving it with a bit of a bare bum.

6. Babies think shells are delicious. So my improvisation only works when they're out of reach.

7. Babies understand when their mums are being dorks and want to embarass them and so will refuse to cooperate when being photographed wearing a stupid hat.

8. Babies make Christmas a little more difficult but a LOT more fun.

All I want for Christmas...

Well, I already have my two front teeth (although, quite frankly, Zak could do with one more!) so I'd love a new kitchen, my cabin to be renovated and someone to magically finish painting and decorating my bedroom. But seeing as they're all things quite possibly out of most people's price range, I'd be a very happy woman if I unwrapped any of these on Chrissy morning!

This whitewashed folding Moroccan table is just what I've been looking for as a side table in my lounge room. $200 from My Island Home

For my own cat-nap when Zak is snoozing. Brazilian hammock, $120, hammocks.com.au

I've been obsessed with these chairs since they graced our cover in Jan/Feb '06. I'm still kicking myself I didn't buy a pair of them that were sale in a little shop down the road for $99 each. But this is the next best thing. This brilliant man in New Zealand makes and sells them in flat-pack kits for just $195 each, including postal to anywhere in Australia. You just assemble and paint yourself. I could kiss him for making such a normally expensive chair (I've seen them up t0 $1000) so affordable, but I won't seeing as I'm married and all... When I do get my pair, they're going to be crisp white and sitting proudly on my deck. Cape Cod chairs, $195 each, Connoisseur Chairs

The only cooking I don't consider a chore is baking yummy cakes and cookies. This book is full of them. Nigella Lawson's How to Be A Domestic Goddess, $55, Dymocks

To brighten up my living room. The great thing about this site is because they don't have a shop anymore, they're giving customers 30% off their prints. Which makes a 682x682mm print $228.90 instead of $327. Yay! Magnolia print from On Canvas

Christmas gets glam

Freedom's glitzy Christmas

Have you noticed? All the baubles are adorned with feathers or sparkly gems, there are diamante letters, crystal drops with beads and shimmery tassles, jewellery-like decorations, bird motif after bird motif and glitter on EVERYTHING. And that's just Freedom! I actually got a little overwhelmed in Myer's Christmas section - it was like a glitter factory had exploded. And there is no end to the choice of colours - if you wanted to skip the green and red and go for a purple and gold Chrissy this year, you won't have to look too far like you might have a few years ago.

But with so much tizz and glitz, it's enough to make you want to go all traditional. Almost. I'll pretty much stick to a white theme with a bit of silver, blue and neutral thrown in for good measure, but I think I'm going to have to make do with stuff collected from year's past when I decorate my place on Thursday (we've always done the German tradition of setting up on the 6th - St Nick's birthday!). It's just all too much for me this year!! The only thing I've bought were my little nutcrackers (see post below) and this very beautiful wreath for my front door from Seaweed and Sand.

Shell wreath, $59.95, Seeweed & Sand

Maybe next year I'll get one of those stick Chrissy trees from My Island Home and go a beachy theme. So, what are your Chrissy decorating plans?
Bx

free wrapping paper!

We're a nice bunch at real living. We not only give you cool ideas and pretty pictures each month in the mag, we're giving everyone some free wrapping paper! And the good thing is, it's on the website so you can print out as little or many sheets of it as you like! Our clever deputy art director, Renae, whipped it up in a gorgeous teal colour to tie in with our blue, silver and white-themed issue and I thought I'd show you what it looks like.

Pretty paper in my fave colour!

I printed it out in A3 but A4-size is still great for small pressies. You could also take it to a printing place and get them to print it a little larger for you - all depends on if you're willing to part with some $$$!
Enjoy it and also don't forget, if you need extra gift tags that were free in the Christmas issue (which went on sale Tuesday), they're also available to printout on the site - for FREE!
Go here for your free goodies!
Bx

The so-pretty Christmas issue - out now!

I heart Kmart

Yes, I do. Some people have eBay obsessions, other's Space Furniture or Ikea. Mine is Kmart. Now, this is much more to do with necessity than adoration - there are very limited shops near my home within walking distance and seeing as I don't often have the car during the week, my shopping cravings have to be satisfied with Kmart. Or Best & Less. Or sometimes even The Reject Shop.
But honestly, there are some brilliant things to be found for all areas of your life - you might just have to look a little harder than, say, Domayne or Bayswiss. Just in case you don't believe me, I thought I'd share some of my fave finds in the past few months that have dressed up my home, my son and myself!

I love my white orchid which was just $25. I couldn't find a pot that was right, though, so I popped it in this duck-egg blue ceramic bowl by Living with Deborah Hutton, $19 for small or $25.50 for large. It looks so pretty against the chocolate brown feature wall.

I bought these zebra-print patterned canvas storage boxes to house a portion of my seemingly never-ending magazine collection. They came in a pack of two (the second is on the messy shelf at the bottom!) for about $20.

Perfect for my fave mags!

This little guy was a whole $3. I bought several to line the windowsill for Chrissy.

Meet my new beach bag! It was $30 and also comes in a pinkish metallic colour. Roomy, pretty and zebra-print again. I'm a tiny bit obsessed with this print in small doses. I almost bought a zebra-print rug for the living room, but chickened out. I don't think I'm that bold just yet. I do have an awesome baby sling in an orange zebra-print fabric though. Zak hated it, but I loved it. I hope the next baby likes it cause it's a rather expensive room decoration otherwise!

Now at the risk of sounding like Kmart are paying me to say this (for the record, they're not!), I'm begging you to check them out! They have great homewares stuff - the Living with Deborah Hutton range is particularly nice and their Homemaker brand has some great finds like vintage-inspired kitchen canisters and beautiful thick wooden chopping blocks. It's also great for blinds, kitchen appliances, sheets and towels - they do Egyptian cotton and 1000-thread count sheets, now. And the best thing about all this, besides the decent prices, is that half the time you only have to wait a few weeks for your fave item to go on sale!

my home "office"

Oooh, two posts in one day... am catching up for being so lazy these past few weeks! In my defence, I have been busy! OK, remember the odd space created by our new bathroom door being in the middle of the small corridor to the bathroom? Well, if not, check out one of the gazillion bathroom reno posts below. Anyway, I decided to make good use of the space and turn it into a little home office.

My home office - notice the website on my laptop?

My biggest challenge was finding a desk narrow enough to fit the whole 40cm I had to work with. I finally settled on a console table, shoved a linen cupboard in the corner (as we demolished ours to kit out the bathroom) and butted it up against it. I popped some floating shelves on the wall above (well, my father-in-law did, but I did help. A little.) - the top one in line with the linen cupboard for an extra-long shelf - and slapped up some cork tiles (with genius 3M removable tape) in a bit of a pattern around the shelves as my pinboard.
Now, I could have gone all magazine-stylisty on you and styled it up nice and proper as a mood board as every single magazine feature about home offices does. But I just took the shot as it is - bills, notes, pics, stamps, lotto tickets and all. After all, this is a REAL house, right? And I need my important dates and bills right in front of my eyes or I'll forget! Mind you, my desk is not always this neat - I quite often can't see any of the desktop when I'm in work mode...
Overall, I'm happy with my little office space! And it didn't cost me a bomb.

In case you're wondering...
Desk: $199, House & Garden
Shelves: $20, Big W
Cork tiles: $2 for packet of 6, The Reject Shop
Chair: $138, Matt Blatt

Bathroom - last post, promise

Just in case you hadn't seen enough of my bathroom... Here it is completely finished - painted, shower screen in, actual signs of life (towels, cosmetics) and also a little floor plan to show you how different it is now!

Can't believe how pink the "extra bright white" tiles are against the white paint!

One tip if you're doing your own: go for a bath screen over a fixed-panel glass screen if you have a bath/shower combo. It swivels both ways so you can access the taps easily, is longer than a fixed panel which means less water all over the place, and is still so minimal it doesn't interfere with the space. You can also get it with a second panel that folds onto itself like a bi-fold if you want it extra long. And the bonus: it was SO much cheaper. We were quoted up to $2000 for a fixed panel screen, but this bath screen only cost us about $450. Gold.

PS: The hand towel was just a few bucks from Best & Less! (We don't have much by way of shops near me...)

Before: not the greatest use of space...

I'm still surprised by how much room we seem to have!

Real fabulous shopping

Uber-quick post today as incredibly busy attempting to write a gazillion things for the real living site for Monday. And have serious baby brain which is not helping! But, the whole reason I've had to rush this month's website upload is because I had to look after the magazine's new baby: real shopping. Have you visited yet? It's like a mini online department store with homewares, accessories like bags and jewellery, kids clothing and Christmassy stuff you can shop at 24/7 and have delivered FREE to your home. It's still in its early days - we will keep adding cool stuff as soon as we find it - but I've already spent waaay too much time on there (ok, part of the reason was because I had to write the product descriptions, proof the site and this meant re-reading every page at least three times. Not saying there are NO mistakes, but hopefully the damage if minimal!) and have a little list of things I want to buy. Here are my faves and if you haven't had a look yet, jump on - it's great for Chrissy shopping. An added bonus is you won't get blisters on your feet from walking around the shops ALL DAY!

Slighty obsessed with this gorgeous leather bag. $262

For Zakky and a potentially blue-themed Christmas this year. $24.95

Too small for me, so Zak gets to have! $24.95

Bright and cheery for the deck! $169

Someone else's trash is...

Well, still trash. But it can become treasure with a little effort. I used to laugh at people who'd enthusiastically rummage through my council clean-up pile five minutes after we'd finish lugging it onto the street (do these people have the council's booking sheets or something? How do they know?) And then, one day walking past someone else's, Steve and I saw this chair.

BEFORE: The chair's third look since moving into the Graham household

We stopped for a few seconds while I checked its potential and then walked on. I basically wanted it but refused to be the one to steal it. So in the cover of darkness, my husband, my hero, went back and grabbed it for me.

It was originally a dark wood frame with velvet green seat. After a while, I decided I'd paint it gold with a pinkish jacquard fabric seat. I don't quite know why I figured gold would be a good idea, but I had fun with the spraycan (turning the grass gold in the process!) and then staple-gunned the fabric on. It looked a bit cheap, so sat covered in clothes in our bedroom for around six months before I painted it white while trying to use up the excess from Zak's shelves. I think I just made it look worse, so I went back to my original plan that got lost somewhere in my goldrush phase: to paint it glossy black with a black and white fabric. And here is the result.

AFTER: A lick of glossy paint and cool black and white fabric can do wonders

Now I love it and it sits proudly in my loungeroom. Not that it can really be used for a seat... the springs aren't in the best condition, but for the cost of the fabric (US$7.95 - I already had the black paint) I think it's a great little feature.

My other attempt at a council clean-up raid wasn't as successful. A lounge frame I thought would make a brilliant daybed for my deck literally fell apart when Steve tried to move it so I could start staining it. And this was after I spent DAYS sanding it back. I guess that's why they put it in the chuck pile! I've since gone back to giggling at the people who pull up with their trailers as soon as the junk hits the sidewalk and wonder what on earth they're going to do with a three-legged chair, a Roman blind that's been slashed from a broken window and an ant-infested fridge with broken drawers, shelves and virtually no side as the only way we could get it onto the street was to push it 150metres along the gravel ground!

Just in case anyone cares, I'll attempt to caption things like we do in the magazine. So... Madison fabric in Black/White, US$7.95/yard, from www.fabric.com (awesome site - particulaly if you love Amy Butler as it's really cheap). Living with Deborah Hutton Easy Art Timber Frames, $7.99 (small) and $10.99 (large), from Kmart. The large print I left as bought, the smaller ones I filled myself.

Black, white and cool all over

For all the kids out there obsessed with Happy Feet

Not only is black and white a perfect pair in decorating, it's been proven they're the most stimulating colours for young babies, due to the huge contrast in colours. So, when decorating the nursery, buying first toys or books, it's wise to banish the pink and blue for the first few months and stick to black and white.

A reader, Dani, alerted me to a great blog by a Canadian artist and designer who's come up with her own adorable pictures that she's letting anyone download - for free - to pin up in their own nursery. Which is just so nice of her, I had to share so her work is appreciated all round!

Definitely need to do a monkey for my own monkey

Let's pretend it's an echidna!

I know I'll be printing out my own and framing them for my son's room - not just cause they're so cool, but because I actually have to make it newborn-baby-friendly again as am pregnant with my second child! Maybe I should rename this blog renovate, decorate and procreate?
Bx

My floor - before and after

Super exciting post this one - about floors. But if you've ever ripped up carpet expecting to find lovely floorboards underneath ready for a light sand and polish, but instead discovered rotting rubber moulded into the floor and just a lot of hard work, you'll know where I'm coming from in terms of whoo-hooness.
When we first moved in, my husband, Steve, spent a whole week covered in dust removing spray-on concrete-like stuff from the ceiling in our living and kitchen area. This landed - not surprisingly - on the floor (and all over him!), so rather than vacuuming it up and waiting to do the floors, we figured we'd rip up the carpet, dust and all, and live with bare floorboards for a few weeks until we found the time to give them a polish. Unfortunately, the carpet was kitchen carpet which was rubber-backed and GLUED all over the floor. So while the carpet came up, the rubber did not and no amount of elbow grease, industrial solvents or machines would get the black out - huge parts of it had moulded into the wood, making it look rotten. It was so much hard work, we just gave up and concentrated on other parts of the house. For three and a half years. I figured we'd come back to it when we found something dark enough to cover it...

BEFORE: After years of sanding and scraping, this is the best we got the floor looking.

BEFORE: A lovely close up to show how it really looks!

Then I discovered Feast Watson Black Japan while editing an article in real living. It's a really dark stain - practically black - and would be perfect to cover the patchy floor. It goes on like a dream - gliding over the sanded floor with one of those sheepskin applicators and dried surprisingly quickly. We followed with the top coat and said good riddance to the hideous floor beneath it and hello to dark, shiny floorboards.

AFTER: Much, much better!

Pros: Obviously dark enough to cover our bad floor, it's a great colour for all interior styles and easy to apply.
Cons: Unfortunately because it is like a paint, it wears away easily and high traffic areas will need to be redone more often than normal. It's made more obvious as well because it's so dark, so the contrast between the new stain and what was underneath stands out more. That said, it's entirely possible this is just our stupid floor or our application! And it didn't help that the workmen from the bathroom renovation scuffed it up a bit with all their heavy materials and shoes...
Overall: It's an incredible improvement on what we had before and we love it.

Supernatural chair

I think I love this chair. I say I think because I'm still trying to work out if it's really cool and funky or really ugly. It's really quite bizarre how two very different feelings about something can also be so borderline. And so trivial - I mean it's a CHAIR! But, it is very different, which is probably what makes it so hard to come to a definite decision.

Supernatural chair, $89 (RRP $180), Matt Blatt

I considered buying two to sit at either end of my dining table which is paired with two benches, but my husband said he'd rather one more as a decorational chair, which would work. It'd also be great to get a couple because it's weather resistant and made of moulded plastic, so would be great on the deck and very handy as extra seating. The sweetener is that it's currently only $89 from Matt Blatt, except that ends today. Doh! From then, it's $180. But I have noticed Matt Blatt often rotate their specials, so I might just wait until it's on sale again - maybe by then I'll have made up my mind! What do you think? Love? Hate?

homemade window film

I discovered Emma Jeffs' Adhesive Window Films in my internet travels and thought it the perfect solution for one of my bedroom windows that is neither private nor pleasant to look through. But after discovering it's not only hard to find here, but quite expensive for the tiny space I'd be using it for, I thought about other options.

The original and best - Emma Jeffs Otto Adhesive Window Film.

Then I was in Lincraft one day and found some plastic table runners that I thought would do the job nicely! For a couple of bucks a metre, I simply cut it to fit, then stuck it on the window with one of those spay-on adhesives. (I haven't taken it off yet, so not sure how ruined the actual glass is by the adhesive!?) Considering I got change from $5, I think it looks a bit of alright!

My version: plastic daisy runner from Lincraft, about $2 a metre

Detail shot: a bit more privacy and much better view than the neighbour's Colorbond fence!

In Bunnings the other day, I also found rolls of plain frosted window adhesive for about $5 - another great option if you have windows that look out onto nothing exciting or for rooms such as bathroom where you want to let light in but not peeping eyes!

sneaky style inspiration

I'm a little obsessed with checking out interiors - in magazines, in movies and TV shows (I bought The Break Up DVD for Jennifer Aniston's character's apartment. And wardrobe. Oh, and hair...) And I'm sure my nearby homeowners sick and tired of my very obvious attempts to peek at their luxe living rooms and spacious decks on my daily walk along the waterfront reserve they face. But I've found another way to satisfy my interior cravings: real estate websites. Aussie sites like domain.com.au and realestate.com.au are great for local inspiration, but I'm in love with the incredibly lush Hamptons homes and New York lofts at corcoran.com and the pretty English homes at primelocation.com. It's a great way to indulge in a posh life for a few minutes, make note of unique ideas or fab furniture and most of all, be inspired by truly magnificent properties featuring the best money can buy. Even if you know you'll never be able to afford the contents of the home, let alone the building itself, it's great eye candy and source of inspiration. Just print your fave pics and add to your dream home scrapbook... Or is it just me who does that?

Love how this room looks real and lived in but still eclectically stylish

The trifecta: hair, dress, house - perfect!

Tip: Look for the posh areas of major cities - anything in Sydney, Eastern suburbs and Northern Beaches; London's Notting Hill, Hampstead or Belgravia and New York's Greenwich Village, Tribeca and The Hamptons. I want a house in the Hamptons. More specifically, I want Gwyneth Paltrow's house in the Hamptons. Quite surprisingly, given how she's always on about her privacy, she opened the doors of her summer home to American House & Garden. And it's perfect - there are a heap of style pointers to steal. And to my delight I noticed a few tiny similarities to my own style: the lamp in the bedroom (my version is the Freedom Bolero), use of graphic black and white fabric on an occasional chair and an ottoman in a Signature Prints fabric I had put on my list-of-must-buys after seeing it in the November issue of real living! Stretching the comparisons, I know, but I did feel a little smug at my "Gwynethness"! You can check all the images at House & Garden's site. Or for a heap of brilliant behind the scenes pics and a bit of gossip, check out the very cool Habitually Chic. Wish I had those contacts!

The bright and breezy living room

I want everything in this room. (except the shoes - have a pair already!)

Love contrast of dark wallpaper and bright white

Perfect! I could live right here...

PS: real living is launching an online department store in just a few more sleeps. You can buy great gifts for your friends and family, your kids, yourself and your home from October 23. The address is realshopping.com.au, but you can read all about it at our website. I already have a list of things to buy once it goes live (shh, don't tell my husband!)

bathroom reno: finished!

OK, so my tiler didn't die, but he did quit! Nice, huh? He rocks up for work on the Monday at about 10am, tells me there's a problem with money (um, don't agree to do it then?!) and that he's finishing today. Then waltzes off, leaving me open-mouthed, teary-eyed and completely peeved. What the heck am I supposed to do now? Not impressed. Of course what annoyed me the most was my inability to go off at him. I just nodded and shrugged my shoulders as if to say "oh well, these things happen" while in my head I was screaming at him and chaining him to my half-completed bathroom and refusing to let him leave until he finished tiling it. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
I made a frantic call to Jeff - who was also completely horrified - and in a few hours he had organised someone to have a look the next morning. He can't do it, but his mate can - on Thursday. So I'm a few days behind yet again, but Colin is my hero, turns up, asks what I want done and not only says "no problem, whatever you want", but also says "oh that'd look great"!!! whoo hoo - no more grumpy tiler. Three days later I have a beautifully tiled bathroom. Then the plumber and electrician pop back in, put in the fittings and the final touches and it's DONE!

I love the earthy feel to the room.

The mosaics that caused so much drama for my grumpy tiler

Cool towel rack and shelf in one - from Howard's Storage World

The loo, tucked away behind the door!

I love it. It's a lot bigger than I thought it was going to be, and bizarely, seems bigger than it did when there was nothing in it! Go figure! Anyway, it's all done and I'm just thrilled. Just needs a cost of paint now (and, the showerscreen hadn't been put in when these pics were taken). And I didn't really go over budget. All up, the bathroom cost under $9000. Awesome!

Bathroom renovation days 9, 10, 11

My tiler is DEAD! He didn't turn up for work, I didn't hear a peep from him, and as he told me two days earlier "If I don't turn up for work on Wednesday, I'm dead", what else am I meant to think? You'd think so too, right? I was actually feeling really bad for him and was making all sorts of panicky phone calls to Jeff, wondering if he'd heard anything. Turns out, he DID turn up, only my gates were closed so he assumed I wasn't home. He left a business card, but seeing as I didn't leave the house all day waiting for him to call or turn up, I didn't see it. Anyway, he came the next day and did the second coat of waterproofing. And would have laid the concrete floor the next day, but it wasn't dry so we got delayed yet another day. So far, we've been pushed back three days. That's three extra days without a shower. Thankfully, Steve's parents live nearby. And we've also made good use of the indoor swimming pool down the road! And I'm so, so glad we have another indoor toilet - I certainly didn't fancy using the outhouse, which is really now just the spiderhouse...

Bathroom renovation days 6, 7 & 8

Slowly getting there...

Our walls have chicken pox!

Well, our lovely plasterer sealed up all the cracks and crevices beautifully, but then the tiler popped around to see what had to be done and I began to think my good luck with tradespeople had run out. First of all, he grumbled about the size of the room, told me he charged more for the floor tiles and mosaic feature tiles, then proceeded to tell me how difficult it would be to do my feature tiles. Um, are you or are you not, a TILER? Seriously, all I want is for a few mosaics to be placed between the top of the vanity and the bottom of the mirror. Now, you'd think this was a common thing, but obviously not. He didn't get it "you want the tiles as a border around the room?" NO "You want the tiles as a border around the mirror?" NO! Gosh, I had to find a picture from a catalogue of something similar and then he told me "well, that's going to be a real pain and will just have to fit in with my rows." Hmmm, I think he was the real pain...

My builder and I rolled eyes after he left - he hadn't worked with this guy before and apologised, saying he hoped he wasn't going to be a problem. He couldn't believe his attitude and said I should be able to get what I want. I agree. The most annoying thing about all this was I spent the whole weekend attempting to work out how I could possibly make the feature work around "his rows" and even did the one thing I hate most in the world - maths - to try and make it as easy as possible for him.

So, Grumpy turns up on Monday morning and proceeds to waterproof the bathroom. He doesn't make eye contact with my husband, Steve, refuses to even look at Zak who is doing everything in his power to get his attention, and finished off saying if he doesn't turn up on Wednesday, he's dead (he was having minor surgery on the Tuesday). After he's gone, Steve mentions he doesn't trust him and I nod. I think Zak has good sense of character too, because the whole day he was whingy! Quite a contrast to everyone else who's worked on our bathroom - most of them have even scored extra work out of us. I spoke to electrician about a couple of things, the plumber is going to fix my leaky kitchen taps and the plasterer smoothed out a few other walls we messed up when moving windows around. So to have Grumpy so, grumpy, is quite the change...

My silhouette family!

My family in silhouette form. Zak looks like Casper!

After seeing this in a mag months ago, I finally got around to making my own little silhouette family! Only now, what I thought was rather unique is HUGE! Silhouettes are everywhere - check out this month's real living mag, there are silhouettes in several features. Anyhow, I still think it's rather cool having my family displayed in some way other than the usual photographs. And, it's so easy, I thought I'd share with you how to do it.

1. Take a photo of your subject's profile (from the side).
2. Print out on normal paper (don't want to waste precious photo paper!)
3. Using tracing paper, tissue paper or even baking paper, trace around profile with a pencil.
4. Turn the traced outline face down onto a piece of cardboard.
5. Retrace the outline with a pencil, or gently rub over the pencil, and the profile will imprint into the cardboard.
6. Cut around the cardboard outline, turn over (so any pesky pencil marks are turned over) and stick onto constrasting cardboard.
7. Frame and display.
8. Admire!

Dandi ironing board covers

While doing some research for a laundry feature I'm writing for an upcoming issue of real living magazine (http://www.reallivingmag.com.au/), I came across these funky ironing board covers from Dandi for $39.95. Even the most boring domestic items can be spruced up!

Dandi Geo ironing board in Duckegg Blue, $39.95

Also check out there gorgeous Pini aprons - a few Christmas' ago, I bought my nana and I matching ones in Olive Branch Chocolate ($29.95). She was baking on Christmas morning and forgot to take it off when she went to dinner at my cousin's place. She only realised when my aunty commented on how pretty her dress was - and it was actually the apron. How funny!

Dandi Olive Branch Pini apron in Chocolate, $29.95. There is a matching one for mini mes!