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More On My Chalkboard Obsession

by Chavah Kinloch on February 1, 2012

I’d been going on about a giant chalkboard calendar for my home for the better half of a year, so for Christmas my husband decided to make my wish come true and together we created this awesome purple masterpiece. It is so handy and each person that’s seen it has paid it compliment. I think the comments about how fantastic it looks from the random power metre reader lady were the best.

You can find a variety of chalkboard calendar options on Etsy.com. I didn’t have the patience to wait for shipping and I wanted something slightly bigger/different to fit the space I had, so I created mine by painting with coloured chalkboard paint which you can pick up from specialist paint & decorating stores. Definitely check out all the colour options they have out nowadays.

 

During

Finished

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Post image for Face Paint, Snow and a Glimpse Into My Room (Photo Overload)

Face Paint, Snow and a Glimpse Into My Room (Photo Overload)

by Chavah Kinloch on July 25, 2011

Life’s going well at the moment. That’s always welcome, right? It’s freezing all over the country and we’ve been snowed in with tales that severe frosts are headed our way so today for the first time in my entire life, I shoveled a driveway. Very nostalgic. We did it in the hopes that the entire driveway wouldn’t turn into ice and thus have us stuck at home forever in fear that we might die as we try to reverse out onto the road.

Before the snow hit though, children had their faces painted and I rearranged my bedroom. The rest of my home is usually kept tidyish (I do have children) but my room gets left to suffer as I just don’t have any energy left to deal with it. I’m a firm believer in “A place for everything and everything in it’s place” so that’s what I did with my Saturday night. Living the life I tells ya!

They had free face painting last weekend at The Warehouse, my kids were all over that.

Boston didn’t get out to play in the snow last year but he’s not missing out this time around!

Our warm wee home.

All of us :D

I took off the doors to my wardrobe, stripped it of clothes and made it a shoe closet. Eventually I’ll redo this whole room and pimp this thing out but for now it’s neat, tidy and done for free.

With Vahnija’s bedroom makeover she doesn’t need this shelf anymore so I took out the baskets and put my high heels on that!

Accessorising with what I have on hand.

The lamp cost $8 from Briscoes
Flower clip for your hair but I’ve worn it as a brooch too. $5 from Pagani Factory Outlet in Auckland
Brown jewellery box – a gift from Andrew. Bought at Trade Aid I think.
Blue floral dish (can’t think what they’re called) – a gift from Andrew’s Grandmother

Close up

Inside I’m storing rings in one and nail polish in the other.

I’m notorious for losing my earrings. I just take them off and leave them around. I obviously LOVE earrings so I needed somewhere to put them all where they wouldn’t get ruined and could be kept out of range of little fingers. You all know I’m stingey so I took the back of a weetbix box, pierced holes in it and threaded my earrings through. Works perfectly! I haven’t lost any earrings in months.

I love bags but control myself (for now) when purchasing/not purchasing them. I used to go through handbags like nothing because I’d only buy $20-$30 ones. The one in the middle cost 10 times that and it’s still in brand new condition many years later, totally worth the investment. The top and bottom bags in the picture were both under $5 and I use them just as much though. No label snobbery here.

I put up lots of hooks going up the wall to hang our belts on. Ok so they’re ALL my belts but Andrew can join in if he wants to as well. At least those are his suits in the background.

Can’t forget about the scarves. Andrews ties are on the opposite wall, arranged exactly the same way. Wish I had flash hangers.

A little bit of art.

From the top left going clockwise:
A canvas print of our oldest two children – a gift for Creating My Reality
Kiss From a Rose – Painting by Chavah Kinloch
I Keep Your Kisses Close – Painting by Chavah Kinloch
Wire Heart – Purchased at some boutique store way up north
The Impermanence of Form – Painting by Melissa Muirhead, received through an art swap
Wisdom #17 – Painting by Sophia Elise, a gift from a friend

We don’t have any drawers believe it or not so everything is hanging up. Once again, wish I had cute hangers because this looks a little messy but it’s super easy to find stuff now. One third of that lower rack is Andrews.

I was meant to get more of a shot of the fan but I think this is just me posing lol. The fan was brought back from China and given to us as a gift. I love it. Also I moved this full length mirror into our bedroom so I don’t have to keep walking through to the living room to see if I look normal enough to leave the house.

I put up hooks for my hair gear! It only took 4 years. Now to hang that towel rail you can see in the corner…

Some of my perfumes. Most are gifts. Perfect gift!

Candles, make up and a little silver frame with my little girl as a little girl.

The little corner next to my side of the bed. Candles, storage for the jewellery I’ll take off at the end of a day and a notebook to jot down the things that pop into my head in the middle of the night. Also love that Japanese print that I picked up for $2 one day when thrifting.

P.S. Sorry the photos are grainy, I didn’t bother using the flash. Also no photo of my bed because our linen is in the laundry. I posted previously about our bedroom a few years back when we first painted the wall green, I’m ready to wallpaper it white now.

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Post image for That’s It! I’m Moving In With LeeAnn Yare

That’s It! I’m Moving In With LeeAnn Yare

by Chavah Kinloch on June 21, 2011

I mean, wouldn’t you? (Warning, photo overload)

We’re slowly working on our home and if you were to look into the future, our house would look pretty similar to this. In fact she’s got products I’ve got on my wishlist all through her home and we even have the same tiles in the bathroom. In the July 2011 edition of Your Home and Garden Magazine LeeAnn mentions that she just worked with what she had house-wise and made only cosmetic changes. This is exactly how we’re doing things too. It’s so much fun.

For us and our pretty close to zero budget it’s taking a while but creatively it’s a real challenge and I’m really thriving on it. Making use of objects I’d long forgotten about and mixing pieces of furniture from different rooms that hadn’t been put together before is giving me a natural high every time I work on a room. Which reminds me, Andrew and I have made a lot of progress on Miss V’s bedroom, I’ll have an update for you soon hopefully. I’m just waiting for a few more projects to come together first. Stay tuned!

If you’ve never worked on a home before, I have to say that working on a kids room is quite possibly the most fun project ever. With Vahnija’s room I’m really going for it, she’s a lot like me so I know I can really let loose. When I was working on it this past weekend I made joke that I was moving in and she could take my room. Letting loose creatively really makes me wish I could work on all three kids bedrooms at once; finish of  The Boss’ humble retreat and give the big boys a room they’ll never want to leave. It makes me think I should be working harder to actually bring in some money to support my DIY habit *blush*.

I enjoy seeing LeeAnn’s bold, unapologetic use of colour and pattern all throughout her home, especially her kids rooms where she’s got all the colours of the rainbow working together (much like Miss V’s room!) and where she’s patched together old wallpaper samples to create a huge mood board on the walls of her home office.  I can dig it.

Do you have a favourite room in your home? What makes it your favourite space?

P.S. Sorry about the terrible quality of the photos, I had to photograph them myself and there’s no sunshine to help get the lighting right today.

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Post image for I Don’t Do Minimal

I Don’t Do Minimal

by Chavah Kinloch on June 15, 2011

Architectural Digest has taken it’s readers inside style mogul Iris Apfel’s Manhattan apartment. The article gives such a great insight into who she is and her career history you should pop over and read the article for yourself.

“..She had a talent for scavenging from junkyards and flea markets the kinds of furniture and fabrics that were hard to come by {in wartime}. The thrill of the hunt was contagious..”

That right there… any time I hear something like this about a person I get roped right in to their world. I tend to believe that if myself and that person were to ever meet, we’d be the best of friends forever.

“…It was her eye for unique furnishings and objects, as well as her facility with color and texture, that brought her instant success. “I don’t do run-of-the-mill stuff,” she says, “and I don’t do minimal.”…”

Got to love this woman. We have the same outlook on style but her budget’s just a tad bigger than mine.

I wish I could rummage through this apartment and treat it like a unique thrift store that was available only to me. I can see sculptures, shelves, a table, frames, books, bangles and cushions I’d walk out with.

By the way, how fabulous is that top photo of Iris? Personality plus!

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Six Things I’m Loving Today

by Chavah Kinloch on December 15, 2010

My Sussie Skin Care Package: This arrived for me on the weekend and I am in love. My favourite product is the eye cream  Toucha’ Love. I started using it on Monday because I am having a fierce reaction to something in Invercargill. It’s like hay fever symptoms quadrupled. I found myself on Sunday having to sit with a bag of frozen veges on my massively inflamed and puffy eyes. I was the freak show in my home for my husband and our friend. I got mocked all night. It felt like my face was on fire! So yeah…I’m not looking so good this summer… Sunday morning I woke up and put on some Toucha’ Love and oh.my.gosh. My eyes felt so relieved! They were cooled, less puffy and I’m now feeling the most normal I’ve felt in weeks. Thank you Sussie Skin!!!

Strawberry Picking: I’m always on the lookout for things I can do with the kids on the weekend to kill my ever-growing boredom, so when I saw in the local paper that there was a pick your own strawberry farm in the next town over, I decided this was what my family would be going to do on the weekend. I figured it would be a good chance for the kids to learn where strawberries come from. Obviously they know they grow on plants but you know, I wanted to expose them to how they get from one place to another. So off we went on a little road trip to the farm. I had no idea where it was actually located… just figured we’d find it… and we did! So there.

We got there, were greeted by the sweetest dog I’ve ever met and got to picking our strawberries. It was a lot of fun! The big kids searched out the biggest and reddest strawberries they could find and we walked up and down just a few rows. The kids took the containers full of strawberries to the counter and I headed to the car to grab my purse. Guess who forgot their purse at their house 35 minutes away… The lady was awesome though and we agreed to meet at the Farmers Market the next day which is in my town so no long drive or long walk for her back to her house to get her bank account details. It was nice to feel trusted enough to drive away with goods we hadn’t paid for. You don’t see that much nowadays.

Melissa Muirhead NZ Artist

Melissa Muirhead’s Painting: More original art by a fellow kiwi. This painting is called The Impermanence of Form and is done by very talented artist Melissa Muirhead. This might just be my favourite of all the pieces I own. I never picked myself for a still life girl but I sit every day and stare at this painting and think about how much I love it. Thank you Melissa!

Family Time: I had the crappiest week I’ve had in about 7 years, last week. It was all made better on the weekend when this was the scene in our home. This is basically what it looks like in our house every weekend. Everyone huddles in our tiny kitchen, we all fall over each other, make a tonne of mess but have loads of fun and the food that gets made is frickin’ insane. How could you not cheer up being surrounded by all those smiles?

My Mum: Sometimes it takes another woman to understand just what you’re going through. These arrived for me yesterday, completely out of the blue. I couldn’t figure out who they were from because my husband has only ever given me flowers twice in our almost 10 years together, I knew it wouldn’t be him but I kind of wanted it be lol. Although totally happy with who they were actually from. The card was hidden behind the wrapping and I eventually found it, they were from my Mum. My Mum is amazing with floral art. She’s done weddings, birthdays and funerals galore for free and I’m always telling her she can make something out of it for herself. She didn’t make this particular bunch but flowers are my Mum’s signature gift and I’m thankful for them. Otherwise I’d never get any! She must have sensed I was having a rough time after this post and sent me these to brighten my week. Consider my week well and truly brightened!

The Christmas Spirit: I was able to participate in a Christmas ornament swap this year and the photo above is the wreath I made for my swap partner. This year I’d been struggling to get into the Christmas spirit but when I forced myself to get creative and take part in this project there was no stopping me creatively. I made it weeks ago now but I couldn’t post an image because I didn’t want to ruin my partners surprise. Giving something I’ve made to someone else to enjoy makes me really happy and brings a lot of positive energy into my life. I’m really looking forward to Christmas now.

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A Little Bling Never Hurt Anyone!

Says she with the silver glitter on her face… Don’t worry, I’m not trying out some new make up regime. I’ve already been a tween, those days have long come and gone. It’s only there because I woke up far too early and went to my sons kindergarten for craft day. Me + a bunch [...]

8 of My Favourite Colour Trends

I thought I’d put together something for your visual pleasure today. Below are some of my favourite colour trends from both the interior design and fashion worlds. The thing I miss the most since gaining weight, is the ability to wear cute clothes! So this post helped me get my fix too. Which is your [...]

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