I'm Still Here....and IKEA Love!


Merry (belated) Christmas and Happy (cue belated streamers) New Year!

Sorry I've been MIA over the past few weeks. I would like to lay sole blame on the busyness of the silly season though, (whilst that was part of it) in truth I was also enjoying some time being a plain-Jane stay at home Mum - if there is even such a thing.

Charlotte is now six months old and wiggling pretty much anywhere she wants to go (which usually involves her getting stuck under or between one or more pieces of furniture).


For some weird reason I naively envisaged having a bit more time to myself once she graduated from 'newborn' status....(yeah, I can hear your collective snicker :-)....turns out I was wrong.
Amongst other things she's learned to drag herself over to me and reach up when she wants to be carried. So, whilst I may not have more time as anticipated at least I'm sculpting some killer biceps - it's a fair compromise.

There has been some wild weather around lately. We were treated to an unheard of "White Christmas" down-under when a freak summer storm saw areas of outer Melbourne blanketed in massive hail stones. The noise on the tin roof at my Mother-in-laws was almost deafening and I'm sorry to say that my little car now resembles a dimply golf ball! I'm still waiting for confirmation though the insurance company warned me it may be a total loss.

I didn't manage to get a photo though here's a beautiful shot of Bourke Street, Melbourne, after a hail storm in 1901

Following the storm we had a mini heat wave with a few days hovering around 40 degrees celsius (that's about 105 degrees fahrenheit). Too hot to bother doing anything much bar make mental lists of things to do when the weather eventually does cool down (well, that or go to the beach with everyone else in Australia).

Yesterday Mum and I visited the new-ish IKEA store in Springvale, south-east of Melbourne.


Knowing many people have to take a packed lunch when they travel to their nearest IKEA (ie. it's a looong way) I can hardly complain about the 40 minute drive though it would be nice to have an IKEA just around the corner from home (then again, no matter what, a trip to IKEA always seems to leave me with a much lighter wallet than intended so maybe it's a good thing!).

Mum and I went to look at highchairs and area rugs.

We bought neither.

Instead we came home with....


(I have a DIY project for these coming up soon)

In a perfect world I would have only real indoor plants though let's face it, the world isn't perfect.
It can be hard to get away with artificial flowers though in my opinion greenery is far more forgiving and these appear realistic enough.

I've always wanted to use a cluster of candles somewhere.
And now that Charlotte's almost crawling it's the perfect time to be adding more decor accents around the house, isn't it?
Oh well, at least they aren't breakable :-)

A few other IKEA faves....


Ahhh, IKEA!




PS
I have a loooong and exciting list of decorating, craft and DIY projects for 2012.
Sadly I can't promise daily blog updates though I'll do my best to post whenever I have something half decent to share so I hope you can join me this year on my never-ending quest for beauty on a budget.

PPS
I also want to extend a HUGE thank you to anyone and everyone who took the time to visit my blog (whether once or one hundred times) in 2011.
Your readership propels my continuance.


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