Let's get this party started!!!!!

Happy New Year everyone from all of us at Number 10.

To everyone who has dropped by, left a comment or just hovered for a look see...thank you!

I really appreciate your support, your comments and your bloggy friendship

I truly hope your year ends with a "bang"!...and 2011 brings you health, happiness...and lots of fun!!

Take care of yourselves, OK?!

New Beginnings

I thought I'd try a new colour scheme for the blog...what do you think?

A bit bland....or fresh?

I thought it was time for a bit of a change, you know, being December 29 and all.

I might leave it this way for a few days to see if it grows on me. 

Wicker

I've been looking around for some wicker lamp shades to put in my dining room...something like this one below, but not necessarily exactly the same.
 

I've seen them around the internet, but they're a bit pricey and...they're overseas.

Does anyone know where I can pick up a couple in Melbourne for a reasonable price? They're for table lamps.

'Twas the Saturday night before Christmas......

...and all through the house, no-one was sleeping because it's the day when the family heads to Number 10 for the annual Chrissy get together.

This year's menu consisted of my glazed ham, chicken wrapped in prosciutto, (thanks Stacey) roast beef and scalloped potatoes with some greens on the side.

This year, for dessert, I thought I'd try three things... a white chocolate and berry cheesecake...

A three tiered brown sugar pavlova and some (modified) white Christmas ice cream cones, thanks to Valli Little from Delicious Magazine

Everything turned out fine. Some were a little more fiddly than others, like the ice-cream cones.

Some were extremely easy with no hassles at all, like the chicken in prosciutto....

If you'd like the recipes, then you can go here to check them out. I'll be posting them over the next couple of days.

Front hallway goes Christmasy

I had some branches and twigs left over from my "Christmas tree" so thought I'd put them to good use and decorate the front hallway...to give it a bit of a Christmas feel...

I'd run out of white paint but had a little bit of silver left over, so gave the branches a good squirt.

The lights are battery operated ones from Ikea from a couple of years ago... The little birds on the tree are a couple of years old as well. The little silver George Jensen angels were a gift from last year and the crystals are from an old chandelier that MONT pulled apart.

Right, well it's back to the kitchen for me to start planning Saturday night's menu. The family's coming over with all the kids so it's time to get serious about Christmas food. Glazed ham, rib roast, seafood and to finish things off...a layered pavlova and a berry and white chocolate cheesecake.

I think that'll just about finish me off ! !

Pared down Christmas

I've decided to do away with our usual Christmas tree this year... and instead, go with something a little more...natural.

I found this on the side of the road while driving home from work the other day and jammed it into the back of the car.

MONT and I also had a little drive up to the block in Kinglake to hunt out some dried branches (as well as plant a tree up there) to add to the twiggy Christmas. They've been sprayed white and will do just nicely to hang our decorations on.

Also...I've decided I'm not buying anything new at all as far as decorations go this year and am making do with what I have...which won't be difficult seeing I have enough tinsel and lights to deck out a small city.

So ...here's what it all looks like after a quick squirt of paint

It was good being able to use up a couple of half full cans of spray paint.

and here it is all decorated.

The branches are standing in a long spaghetti jar that's been weighed down in the bottom with a $2 bag of grey stones from the Reject Shop.

It's a little stark, but I quite like it

We're in!!

We moved into our new bedroom this week...and boy am I glad ! !

The room isn't quite "finished" yet though. There's still some tweaking to do. I  have to hang the photos/pictures on the walls and bring the mats in and Bill has to deliver the wardrobe doors, which are at the painters....but apart from that it's just about done.

The next painting project is the front hallway...but that can wait till after Christmas...much too much to do at the moment to be thinking about painting.

I'm finishing off the old coffee table with some tung oil, have to put the timber top and final coat of paint on that old chest of drawers and start decorating the "tree". We're not having the traditional tree this year, it's going to be a twiggy affair...more on that later.

Now...it's back to work for me

Coffee Table - Before & After

Remember that old coffee table base I found lying on the side of the road recently?

Not very attractive huh?

Well, here she is now.

I scrubbed and hosed her down in the garden, tightened up all the screws to make her a little more stable.... then gave her a good sand and 2 coats of undercoat, before a top coat of white satin.

I bought a ready made timber top for her and MONT used his router to give it a nice edge

I'm liking it....not too "shabby chic" distressed...just about right for Number 10 I think. So, there you have it.

 Before

After.

I still have to coat the top. I was thinking of white washing it, but MONT likes it natural...so I'll give it a couple of coats of tung oil and that should do it. It's going to look very nice sitting on the back deck.

PS. Yes, that is our new bedroom and no, we're not in it yet. But that's all about to change tonight. We finished the skirting boards and architraves yesterday afternoon and we start moving furniture in there as soon as MONT gets home. YIPPEEEE!

Good bye lounge room, hello bedroom!

Painting 101

I'm always looking to improve my knowledge about lots of thing and the other day I had the good fortune to meet a master painter on a job MONT was working at.  Number 10 is the third house I've painted but one can never have too much knowledge about things like this, so I asked him for some tips on how to get a professional finish.

Here's what Craig told me. Preparation is EVERYTHING! If you cut corners on your prep, it WILL SHOW....no matter how well you paint the room.

Always paint a room from top to bottom. Ceiling and cornice first, then walls, trim, like architraves and skirting boards and finally, the floors.

When painting a ceiling, use the fluffiest roller you can find and do the first coat across the "light source" in the room...when applying the second coat, go towards the light source. For instance, if there's a window in the room, work across it first, then back and forth towards the window for the second coat. That way you'll pick up any bits you've missed or have left a bit "hungry".

For the walls, use a roller with a medium nap and start about a roller width in from the corner of the wall and use long sweeping strokes instead of quick, short ones.

The lighter the paint, the bigger the room will look, the darker the paint, the smaller it'll look because it'll feel closed in. Also, when trying to choose a colour, paint a sample of it into a corner of the room where the walls meet so the paint reflects off itself and gives you a better idea of how it's going to look.

When painting a long hallway where there are a number of joins in the plaster sheets... minimise the chance of seeing any variation in the wall by painting with only long, sweeping, vertical roller strokes...

Finally from Craig: Take your time. Rushing it will mean you cut corners and it will show.

A couple from me. One of the best products I've found for patching dings and holes in plaster is Cornice Cement.  Despite other fillers promising amazing results, the best one for me has been plain old Cornice Cement. It doesn't shrink, you can mix as much or as little as you like, it's sands off beautifully and it's cheap!

Buy the best brush you can afford and always get the proper masking tape for going around the skirting boards etc.....I know someone who used regular old masking tape once and left it on a little longer than necessary. They spent hours trying to peel it off and then had to neutralise the sticky glug that was left behind.

If you have any tips of your own, I'd love to hear them. The more information the better I say