Insulation and plasterboard is here!!!

Insulation, cornices and plasterboard were delivered this morning. They are meant to start tomorrow. Fingers crossed they do a good job.

Here are some of the piles of materials that arrived today:

Detached garage and alfresco

Blueboard has been fitted to the detached garage gable and alfresco. Now just to find someone to render/texture it...

Insulation and plasterboard are being delivered tomorrow and top floor is supposed to start getting done. *fingers crossed*

Flea market finds, pool parties & pond creatures

Random post title for this random weekend... starting with a trip to the local flea market. I was hoping to find a dresser for our office, but alas, not happening for me.

Instead I found some fun glass mason jars that I will put to good use in upcoming projects. And on the way home we stopped by a yard sale where I scored a metal branch jewelry display, which I will transform with a bit of white paint. Here are the goods... total spent = $4! Can't beat that.

After our morning flea market trip, we decided to take advantage of the nearly 90 degree temps and throw our first pool party. This was my Saturday afternoon view:

Yum.

This girl didn't even need pina coladas to party...

And here's the party station that kept it all going:

We got to really test out our rock speakers and they didn't let us down! Even Harry came to the party...

Pic taken earlier, for re-enactment purposes only (he was there, I swear!)

Don't be too jealous, all you snowed-in northerners... I'm paying for it today in the form of burning lobster skin. Sunscreen... when will I ever learn.

Anyway, I couldn't help but notice that our big tree had suddenly come to life since I last looked at it:

Just a couple weeks ago it was looking like this:

Crazy how things just come alive with a little warmth.

Speaking of things that are alive... something is lurking in our pond.

Yep... we have a gator.

Brad tried to grab his tail... luckily he still has all his fingers. We'll see him from time to time—apparently he's a neighborhood gator who lives in our pond every year during the summer. Should be interesting. Good thing we have no pets.


And finally, the hunt for an office dresser continues. Seems there's slim pickings on our local craigslist. Even slimmer if you don't have a vehicle large enough to transport it yourself.

Right now I'm looking at two options... this one made by Child Craft, which has a top that folds out (could be useful since I have to cut large papers on a cutting board sometimes). They're asking $75, plus $10 to deliver, but I have to drive down there first and have them follow me back. Not the ideal situation.

Then there's this one for $70. The guy wants $10 to deliver, but he can't do it until next weekend (if he doesn't sell it first).

What do you guys think? I'll be refinishing and putting a fresh coat of white paint on whatever dresser I get, so the condition doesn't matter much. The size does, however, as it will be fitting inside the closet nook and I will be using the dresser top as a workspace for prepping my prints. Both of these fit the bill.

Hmm, decisions, decisions.... I really hope by next week's blog post I'll be posting the "afters", or at least, an "in progress", as I can't function in this disorganized mess of an office any more!

Alfresco

Here is our alfresco slowly coming along. My man did the framing, packing out and what not to drop the box lower, make it wider and all ready for the blueboard to go on. He used a combination of steel frame and timber.

And the winner is........

....commenter #16!




jbsoffel said... Love the personalized bus roll! Congrats and much success!

Congratulations jbsoffel! Leave a comment with your email or contact me at jennasuedesignco@gmail.com and we'll work together to get your print made and in your home ASAP!

For those who didn't win this time, here's a consolation prize: Use the code blogspot20 at checkout for an additional 20% off your order (I already give multiple print discounts, so with this code you can get up to 50% off!) This code will only be good through April though so take advantage before it's too late!

Happy Friday everyone!

Pillow talk (and a little more)

We have a few new additions to the living room that I am quite happy about.

I had been searching far and wide for the perfect turquoise pillows for the couch with no luck. Every store I’ve been in since September… if they had a pillow section, I was there. If they had a store online, I’ve been there too, on multiple occasions. It finally dawned on me to check one of my favorite sources… etsy, and it was there I found my perfect happy aqua combination.

The light aqua sunburst pillow covers were purchased for $34 shipped from one seller, and I scored the dark turquoise waverly lattice covers from another seller, also for $34. I already had several 20x20 pillows from Ikea that used to live on our patio, so I swapped the covers and now we have a fresh new seating area! So little money for so much happiness… etsy you are my hero.

And to add to my ever-growing turquoise collection… I found this gorgeous vase at Ross for $20 this weekend:

It was a happy accident that I found it. I was waiting on the pool store to open and thought I’d do a quick sweep of the Ross aisles in that time. I was immediately drawn to it… the imperfectly-perfect textured transparent aqua finish brought me back to my childhood days finding sea glass on the beach. I could stare at it for days. So I did. So long until I decided that I deserved to take it home with me. And I did. And all is now right in the world (at least, in my living room).

Not sure if it’s staying in this spot forever, but it fits for now. I like how it’s versatile enough for me to put in just about any room. We’ll see where it goes!

 

And last but not least… our light saga continues. While I was buying my vase, Brad was back at home installing the last series of LED yard lights on the left side of the house. Our home is finally no longer the dark void in the night you drive by on our street. Score. Now to make it un-pink…

That’s it for tonight. Currently on a mad craigslist hunt for the perfect refinishable dresser to fit in the office, as it’s looking like a tornado hit it. More on that later.

Print winner announced in less than 48 hours… get excited!

Our ensuite inspirations

With our top floor insulation and plastering starting next week ... I've been thinking about our bathrooms. Mainly the ensuite. These are my inspirations. Let me know what you think :)

Vanity style we are having:

Image from thelaurelhedge.blogspot.com

These floor and feature wall tiles are the ones I love and hope to find a similar equivalent in either porcelan or ceramic. We are having floor to ceiling tiling and are thinking of using the same tiles on both the floor and walls. What do you think of this look? Is it out? Or is it classic?

Image from josieinthehouse.blogspot.com

I want our mirror to go all the way to the ceiling, but not to start right above the benchtop. Pretty  much something like this:

Image from realestate.com.au

Laundries, laundries, laundries

What do you like and don't like when it comes to laundries? What do you think of wall mounted dryers and dryers sitting on top of waching machines? Do you prefer them to be under the benchtop? Do they have to be right next to each other, or is it ok if they are 1m apart? Do you prefer built in hanging rails or do you prefer to have a portable clothes airer? What sort of handles do you like in laundries? Same as in the kitchen or something different?

All images are from allexclusivehomes.com.au



Shop Grand Opening & a Giveaway!

Today it's official: jenna sue design co. is now in business!

This has been a labor of love, months in the making. It all started from a few prints I made for my own home, and evolved into a collection of over 50 designs—which will continue to grow over time.

After our move to Florida we were house-less, which left a creative void that needed to be filled. I no longer had a space to renovate, so I started planning a vision for our new home and spent my free time designing art that would fill our future walls. I enjoyed it so much that I decided to continue with it as a permanent hobby—one that will with any luck become my sole focus one day—and I found a home for my passion on etsy.

I would like to thank you all for your patience—I know this blog has been slow these past couple weeks while I've devoted my time to getting the shop up and running. Now that I can catch my breath again, we have some fun house projects in the pipeline... like a kitchen reno, dining area, and more office organization.

But first, to kick things off, I'm excited to announce my first print giveaway! One of you will win any 8x10 print of your choice from my shop.

Here's what you gotta do:

1. Browse through the prints on my Prints tab to find your favorite, and see more details/images on my etsy shop.

2. Leave a comment letting me know your favorite print (feel free to include your fav color, how you would use it, what room it would go perfect in, or anything else you want to share!)

3. Deadline for entering is Thursday at 8pm EST.

4. Check back here Friday, March 25th to see if you've won! (winner chosen by random.org)


That's it! Simple, right? And since there's only a handful of you... you've got a nice chance of winning.

And with that, I'm off to enjoy the insanely awesome Sunday weather here before it's back to the daily grind on Monday. Good luck everyone!

Lighting

Boring but very important :)

These are the lighting cables my man and I did throughout the house. Took us weeks to do but will hopefully be worth it.

Downstairs cbus cabinet:

 
Upstairs cbus cabinet:
 

Bulkheads

Here are some bulkheads my man did in bedrooms and the laundry. He also boxed out the ducts in two of the bedrooms. A bit annoyed at how much room they've taken up. But not much we could do about it.

Bed 2

Bed 3

Bed 4

Laundry

I can't wait to see the plastering go up :)

Pressure makes diamonds

Taking a quick detour from house matters for a moment... cause I just ran a 5k race this morning and feel great!

I know a 5k is nothing in the world of running... and I'll be the first to admit that I am not a runner. Nor do I really want to be. I have no desire to run long distances (that would cut into my D&R time, hello!) so a 5k is it for me.

I ran one last year in LA, and had so much fun that I wanted to do it again in my new town. I trained for it last year for months, but casually—I wasn't trying to break a record or anything. I didn't even really care about my time, I just wanted to finish. I think my time was 32 minutes or something, can't even remember.

This time around I only had about a month... maybe six weeks to train. I was so out of shape after moving here as we really had no time to run while we were getting settled and adjusted. I could barely run a mile after starting back up last month, and I put house projects first and only ran outside a handful of times in my training. So I was slightly nervous because I set some pretty high goals this time: 1. Finish under 30 mins, and 2. Don't die.


The start of the race felt awesome... we did the first mile in 6:42! Our fastest time ever (Brad was running with me). We hadn't trained for that pace so our energy was gone by mile 2. The situation worsened when five year olds were sprinting past me. The "ka-thump, ka-thump, ka-thump" of each step became "this-sucks, this-sucks, this-sucks" in my head the rest of the way, and I decided if that my heart were to stop and that was the end of me, I would be at peace with my fate because I was going down with everything I've got. I wasn't going to slow down.

I couldn't breathe in enough oxygen, my throat was burning, and I was begging for the mile 3 marker to show up in the last stretch. We finally turned the last corner to the finish line and I saw the clock... 27:25 as I ran across the line. Yes!! Smoked both of my goals, yeah dog.

Whew, that was long winded and perhaps over-dramatic, but I wanted to share my story and hopefully you runners out there can relate. Or if you are just starting you can get motivated to get out there and do it! Races are fun, they make all the training worth it.

And I couldn't have done it without music. Not just any music... this is the best of the best of my running collection—it pushes me like no other to keep going when I'm about to break. Gotta love it. This is what I used this morning, in this order (one song is missing because apparently it's too obscure for their database—it's Stunt's "Raindrops" if you want to look it up):

Add these to your playlist! Trust me.

So to honor this accomplishment (and everything else in my life I'm trying to do right now) I put this print up on my office wall...

I heard this quote a while back and it stuck with me. It reminds me (in the words of Joe Dirt) to keep on keepin' on, and that all my hard work is not for nothing. I think I'll keep it around for a while :)

I also treated myself to this lovely 25 cent antique glass bottle at a yard sale on the way home from the 5k:

There's this paint technique I wanted to try on it and I think it would look great among a collection of small jars/bottles as vases for my future dining table. Hope to find one of those on craigslist soon!

Last but not least, I finally purchased a window shade for the office. I went back and forth a thousand times on a white roman shade, a green roman shade, or this bamboo shade. I figured the bamboo would be the safest and most versatile with all the shades of blue + green I plan on adding to the space over time.

This is the same shade we have in the kitchen nook too and I love them there!

The Saturday sunshine is calling... time to go relax. Enjoy your weekend everyone!