Power Gardening

This week we've had house guests at Parkview. Friends of mine for over a decade, Pauline and Lez are our first guests to stay over for more than a night or two. Nice to finally put the spare room to use!

Anyway, as I have mentioned, Parkview has recently been overcome by weeds - and while I have been valiantly endeavouring to stay on top of them, it has been with little success.

So imagine my surprise when I come home yesterday, from a day shopping with Pauline, to discover Lez had kept himself occupied weeding. And I don't mean the odd weed here and there. I mean the entire side garden!

 

 

This was about half way through.

Now while I am MORTIFIED that a guest has spent his time at our place this way, I am also very very grateful as now I have a sporting chance of keeping on top of the weeds. It actually looks quite pretty again outside, now!

It's a pity I don't need a second rug for my sitting room...

So I wrote recently about how much I admire the work of Florence Broadhurst. I've always wanted just a touch of Florence in my home, and settled for patterned pillow cases on the guest bed.

Just as well, because it would have been expensive had I seen this Florence Broadhurst rug first! I just spotted it and fell in love! While I am very happy with the rug in the sitting room, I suspect I might have loved this even more.

Of course - I will console myself with the reality that this rug is too yellow for my room and would not have looked as well as the one that's there. Still love it, though!

In other news the walk in robe cleanout continues. Have donated 4 garbage bags of clothes, shoes, hats etc. Have also switched to lovely new wooden coat hangers and sorted out all the drawers and shoe racks.

Still working on the shelves up the top - so back to it!

TV Unit

With a wall mounted TV we don't actually need a TV unit per se. But we did want some storage for boardgames, puzzles and homework supplies for the kids - and also something to break up a boring blank wall.

So, as mentioned in yesterday's post, we finally found a unit we liked the look of! It's a great height and colour to match the coffee and side table - and also coordinates well with the meals table and stools.

Amazing how one piece of furniture can help a room look so much more complete!

I promise another photo once I have styled it up a bit (and tidied the rest of the room). This afternoon, though, I am preparing a 'homework' drawer for each of the kids with their pencil cases / paper / workbooks etc. Will also finally tuck the FOXTEL box away for a streamlined look.

 

The new entertainment unit

 

New unit - you can see here how nicely it works

with the side table (currently holding my Fiddle

Leaf Fig 'Figgy')

Side table

So one thing which has annoyed Sean is a lack of a table in the sitting room. It would be handy to have a spot for a cup of tea / glass of wine / a book or a laptop. I knew what I had in mind for the space, and was patiently waiting for it to come down in price!

 

Tripod table I'd had in mind for the front room

However we went to Suite Deals today, and came across a chrome and glass globe table which Sean really liked. He commented on it several times (and it is pretty unusual for him to comment on anything in a furniture store)! So we decided to get it.

It's not what I would have chosen, and when we first brought it home I placed it on the other side of the chair (beside the cabinet) and really disliked it. Changed sides and now I think it looks fine. Most importantly it's Sean's table and he's really pleased with it ;)

 

Sean's new side table
in the sitting room

Also got a nice cabinet for under the TV in the living room. While we don't need it for AV equipment, it will be nice to have a place to store boardgames / puzzles etc. Will be picking that up tomorrow, so look out for another post soon!