A trip down Kitchen Renovation memory lane...

Our very blue and dysfunctional kitchen

Before we moved out of our family home we replaced our hideous blue lino with bamboo floating floors and while we were at it I snuck in a new kitchen too.

No more blue! And relatively eco friendly too!

After... our fresh blueless kitchen!

Photography & styling by Katie Dawson

The complete kitchen, don't touch, I don't want to get it dirty!

Photography, styling & cheeky photoshop chalk by Katie Dawson 

This kitchen was put in when I was pregnant, not the best time to renovate! At 8.5 months I insisted on sitting on the sink and painting the window frame. Clearly nesting as Missy Moo came a few days later!

We are very lucky to have a super handy dad. My dad is a cabinet maker by trade and allowed me to design exactly what I wanted with out a scrap of measuring! I literally got out EVERYTHING I owned in my kitchen and put it into piles on the floor to work out where I would like it stored it so it would be in easy reach of where I would use it. I made a preparation, cooking and cleaning zone and thankfully it has really worked. This kitchen is the only thing I have missed since moving from this house, which is why I thought I would show it off first!

Stay tuned for more rooms soon!

What would be in your ideal kitchen? Colours, style, practical items? Thermomix? ;)

We're selling!

I know, it's been a while... but I do have a good excuse and some lovely photos over the next few days to show you! 

A few weeks ago we made the decision to sell our house, not the one we live in, we rent, but our former dream family home. It was the dream family home, near the beach, open plan, interesting features, towering ceilings... until our dream of family changed. Originally we had planned to have more children, however having children can alter your dreams as the reality of day to day living plays out. We also became too focused on creating a great space that we spent all our time renovating and missed out on what was important, spending time with friends and family. So we bailed on the four bedroom family home in the suburbs and moved into a two bedroom apartment in the heart of the city, selling a vast majority of our 'stuff' along the way.We had the best year of our lives, hanging out, being spontaneous and saying 'yes' to joining in with things happening in the city... it was bliss. We moved a stack of times since then and are now very settled in our one small orchard, walking distance to our beloved old apartment. 

The decision to sell our former home was made in one evening over a short conversation. It was easy as we aren't attached and it just made sense. The next morning I called the agent who sold us the house and I met him that afternoon. 

Then came the obvious list of things that needed to be done. We had tenants that were mostly great, but there was the inevitable damage to walls etc. that needed patching, which leads to painting, lots of painting. All of a sudden our lofty ceilings were a curse, not a blessing. Six or so weeks later (returning to our former obsessed renovating lifestyle) we are finished! We've:

• painted inside & out
• done endless amounts of patching on a range of surfaces, liquid nails and no more gaps are my new besties! 
• installed new curtains
• tiled the bathroom
• installed a new bench, basin, taps and lights in the bathroom
• installed new light fittings
• my dad created shelving to hide a bodge job of bare wall that a former owner created
• installed a range of fittings
• and removed a mountain of hooks (another former owners were into feng shui)
• shopped and styled, okay this wasn't a chore, but it did take a lot of time and research ;)

 I only have iPhone or really old photos of the exterior at the moment, but I'm going to share them anyway as I painted a majority of the exterior of the house by myself.... it wasn't as easy or as quick as I thought! Never the less, I finally got my dream of transforming our mission brown house to the ironbank grey it deserves! And I'm kind of proud of my efforts....

What would you love to do to transform the front of your home?

A quick reminder

Don't forget to spray your fruit trees for curly leaf! It's best to spray them in the first and third week in August. You can check out our friends at Perry's for the details on what to do. I sprayed mine this morning for the first time (I'm running a bit late!) so thought I would remind others too!

Also the blog will be a bit sparse for the next few weeks as we are finishing renovating our home in Hallett Cove to sell! I may even take some photo's to give you updates as we go.

Gardening in August!

It's August - last month of winter, to state the obvious, but I'm excited as there is heaps of fun stuff to do in August. If you are in coastal SA (i.e. not inland) this is what we can be doing in August. Melbournites you can join us too!

Things to sow into punnets in August*:

• Late Onions (eg. creamgold and ever green spring onions
• Capsicums (we're planting 7 colour Heirloom)
• Leeks (some fancy French Heirloom Jaune du Poitou!)
• Tomato (this year we are trying Tommy Toe Red & Gross Lisse)
• Celery 
• Kale
• Asparagus (check out FAT BASTARD!)

We use a seedling tray in a little green house (less than $8 from Bunnings) and put it out in the sun when it's out and keep them in the laundry when it's not.

Straight into the garden you can sow*:

• Lettuce Heirloom Mix (any time of the year!)
• Carrot Heirloom Mix (July to March in warm climate)
• Silverbeet, why not try the spectacular 5 colour mix which can be grown at any time of the year and adds a pop of colour!
• Spinach

General gardening

• A trick some people do is to cover their soil with black plastic or newspaper to warm it up.
• You can spread well rotted compost or manure if you haven't already.

Fruit trees

• If you are lucky enough to have fruit trees now is the time to protect them from leaf curl. You can do this by spraying copper or lime sulfate. For more info check out the experts here and here.

* I'm in a warm coastal area where we get 150-240 growing days per year. Your local nursery will help you with when you can plant based on your local climate conditions.

Go to meal #3 Chicken dos capas

Laura from Eviedear is amazing at making up meals I would never think of. The other day she made up this great burrito mix that she worked out based on smell! Evie and my Missy Moo find the store bought burrito mix too spicy. The girls demolished this as a side to the vegetable 'tasting plate' we made up of vegetables we found in the fridge!

1 tablespoon of each of the following:
Oregano
Cumin
Paprika
Onion powder
And a dash of salt

Source: littlelioness - check out their review of Zambrero's yumminess!

As a meal we often make up these as 'dos capas' which basically means two shells. We fill a hard shell with the burrito mix (be that chicken, kangaroo or refried bean mix) and a variety of toppings and then wrap in a soft shell. It means that you still get the crunchy taco, but without all the mess! We got the idea from our regular haunt Zambrero on Rundle Street in Adelaide.

Nutella & Peanut Butter Brownie

Missy Moo checking for quality.

I'm not going to lie, these are not healthy.

A girlfriend and I share a love of eating Nutella from the jar. I know we're not the only ones, so don't judge us too harshly!

For her birthday I found this recipe and tweaked it a bit. It got such rave reviews from the girls that I thought it would be cruel not to share.

250g unsalted butter, melted
1.5 cups of raw sugar
1 tablespoon of vanilla extract
4-5 eggs pending on their size
1 cup of wholemeal plain flour
1/2 cup of cocoa
1/8 teaspoon of sea salt
1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
1/2 cup of hazelnut spread (I used Nutino)
1/2 cup of crunchy peanut butter
1/2 cup of choc chips if you have no sense of care about your waist line or sugar levels!

1. Preheat oven to 180c. Line 2 pyrex or square tin with baking paper. I didn't and should have!
2. Pour in melted butter to a largish bowl. Stir in sugar and vanilla.
3. Beat in eggs one at a time.
4. Stir in flour, cocoa salt and baking powder, taste mixture to check awesomeness.
5. Melt hazelnut spread and peanut butter together until runny. Then mix thoroughly into mixture. Add chocolate chips. Taste again, awesomeness should be growing!
6. Pour mixture into dishes or tins. It doesn't need to be very deep as it's very rich so you don't need much.
7. Bake for 20-30 minutes depending on how eager your oven is. 
8. Cut after it has cooled, if you can wait.
9. Take and share with a friend and enjoy the complements, however be prepared to make this for every future party!

Taste the mixture... go on... you have my full permission.

Ready for the oven...

No, I didn't let it cool.

Do you have any decadent favourite treats?

Strawberry Vertical Pallet Garden

Ages ago we picked up a pallet off the side of the road and have been dreaming up how we were going to use it. This weekend we finally made it into a vertical wall, I know it's been done, but it works so well I thought I should share.

In our last house we had a garden bed full of heirloom strawberries that multiplied from four plants I got from the Marion Life Community Market. They were doing great, but the millipedes kept beating us to them. Nate did some research and came up with replanting them into PVC pipes with holes cut out the top and mesh gaffed on the ends. He went above and beyond and even put dripper pipes in it so we can just pour water into the pipe sticking out of the top of the end hole. It was a super simple solution and took him about an hour or so to knock up six.

Our one small family including our sponsor child. 

Next to me is 2 of the 4 original Heirloom strawberries. Within 18 months the bed was full and over flowing!

This weekend Nate pulled off the back of the pallet and slid in the two strawberry pipes. Once we get the tomatoes out of the other pipes we might plant more strawberries and nail in the other pipes.

I also wanted to make some garden beds, but the thought of buying wood is so expensive so I got googling (yes, it's totally a word) and discovered this page of inspirational pallet delights. Now I'm going to hit up the local businesses to see if I can score some free pallets!

What have you tried with pallets?