2012 Banner

I can't believe it's almost New Years Eve! I'm planning a little party at my house and when I saw this DIY 2012 banner tutorial I knew I had to try it out. It was like the easiest thing ever and totally free!

I just used all my leftover wrapping materials. Now I am ready to party! 

Feature Friday: Just Bella

Today I am featuring the home of Christine from Just Bella. Here's how she describes her style:

I'd describe my style as clean, modern, classic with a twist.  I love mixing old and new in our home, we've got new pieces, thrifty finds, and yep, even a few pre-loved hand me downs thrown into the mix!

Enjoy! 

Get all the sources for this room here. 

Find out more about this room here. 

Find the sources for this patio here. 

Thanks to Christine for sharing her home with us!  Remember to check out her blog here. 

How can we afford all this?

We often get asked how we can afford a 400sqm house so close to the beach, in our late 20s/mid 30s. Most of the times it annoys us and we cannot be bothered explaining/justifying ourselves.

So here is how/why:

While most guys MrB's age were smoking, using drugs, drinking heavily and enjoying holidays to places like Thailand, he was saving for a deposit to buy a house. A perfect block of land in the perfect location popped up so he bought it. He was in his mid 20s.

While living with his parents, he was able to make extra repayments and therefore halve the term of his loan.

Of course, none of this would have been possible without his lovely parents who brought him up the way they did, which I am extremely thankful for.

B

Christmas Recap

We spent a couple of days before Christmas at my families cabin up in the mountains. It was snowy and relaxing. Just what I needed.

My family is the best. We have fun wherever we go. 

Christmas was spent at my parents house. 

Me and all my sisters the morning of Christmas right before Church. 

Josh had to fly Christmas morning so it was really great to be with my family and Jett. 

And the happiest news of the day was this new car Jett got from his Grandma. He seriously won't get out of it for anything. 

I hope you all had a wonderful Holiday! 

We've got lights!!!!

We've now got lights downstairs as well :)

And the fan is functional just in time for the hot weather, until our Daikin beast is installed.

See that cabinet with a million cables, well that is the reason why it took so long. I cannot believe MrB's patience and dedication. However, there is still another cabinet to do, and all the alarm, security cameras and keyless entry cabling/programming. But I am happy for now :))))

B

My Curators Collection on Joss & Main

I am still recovering from the craziness of Christmas! I'm unpacking and unwinding. I'll be posting a little recap tomorrow of my Holiday vacation. But in the meantime make sure you check out my curators collection on Joss & Main! I've picked some of my favorite colorful and bright products for you to browse. I also wrote up a post for the Joss & Main blog. Check that out here. 

Toilet bowl liners???

I've never had to scrub toilets this much. MrB and I are having to do so after each use. The environmentally friendly toilet suites are useless!!! We sometimes have to flush 3 times just to get rid of "stuff" and then still have to scrub! I'm really annoyed especially since our toilets were almost $1,000 each. For this kind of money you'd expect self cleaning toilets with warmed up seats.... but no! Instead you need to scrub like you never have before...

So I was thinking, wouldn't it be nice to have flushable toilet liners? Hopefully inexpensive too...

Are you sick of your "water efficient" toilet suite? Are you forever scrubbing?

Bedside tables and computer desk - at last!

On Friday we ordered a couple of Cavalli bedside tables and a Shorthand desk from Freedom. Both were on SALE.

Can't wait to say good bye to a cardboard box that our toilet suite came in, which we've been using as a computer desk for the past couple of months!!!! And after 4 years of living out of home, we will finally have bedside tables!!!!!

Can you tell how excited I am???? :))))

And last weekend I bought a bunch of face, hand and bath towels and 3 floor matts from their Lennox range in white. They are discontinuing them so had them for 40% off!!! I went to 2 freedom stores and cleaned them out. They didn't have much left in white but I ended up with 7 face washers, 10 hand towels, 3 bath towels and 3 bath matts. Very happy I was!!!

B

One year.

It's been exactly one year since that day I started this blog, and here I am in the same house, on the same couch, overlooking the same sky and mountains. I knew this past year would be something worth documenting, but I never could have imagined this. I still feel as if I'm living in a dream each day I wake up, and I just hope that feeling never fades... it's what drives me to work harder and reach even higher.

I've had an amazing week filled with family, food, wine, dance parties, music nights, Yosemite trips, tea parties, goat walks, catching up with friends and new babies, midday bar outings, football games (go niners!) and lots of love.

Tomorrow we spend the day making the 3000 mile trek back home, back to our kitty, back to work. I'm just about ready to pull the trigger on a new wide angle lens so I can get some proper After shots of the bathroom, and with the holiday shopping season over, I'll finally have time to jump back into new house projects. Hopefully 2012 will be just as fulfilling and exciting as this year was... who knows where we'll end up in a years time—I can't wait to begin the next leg of this journey.

Merry Christmas and Cheers to the new year!