Tales From the Box

When we were doing the renovations to the Box, polished concrete floors weren’t that common (our builders had never done them before, and it took some research to find someone relatively local who could make it work).

Most polished concrete floors are actually a thin layer of concrete poured over the existing floor (often with colour, dye or other effects mixed into it). But ours is quite unique (we’re so special).

Our concrete floors are the actual original slab of the house, complete with faults, chips and oil stains (you can see where the previous owners used to park their cars). New sections were added where it was necessary to reinforce the structure, or to cut into the slab to insert plumbing and pipes and the kitchen island bench.

The guy who did the actual polishing commented on the aggregate (the little tiny stones embedded in the cement to make it stronger), saying that it was rare these days to get aggregate that looked like that (we think it was poured in the 1950′s).

But how does it wear as a floor? Well, we love it. It’s easy to keep clean (just vaccuum, mop with warm soapy water, occasionally it needs a coat of protecting sealant). I never worry about spilling anything on it, since it doesn’t stain and everything just wipes off. It’s especially awesome with kids. We have the concrete floors across the whole bottom storey of the Box – kitchen, dining and living areas.

In summer, it’s cool to walk on, and keeps the temperature of the house just lovely. We rarely have to use the air conditioner in summer (upstairs where we have carpeted it’s a different story). But we truly believe the concrete keeps the overall temperature of the Box down.

In winter, it’s quite cold. We do need to put the heaters on, and it takes a while to heat up the concrete (I would say a few days). Once the concrete has warmed up a bit, and as long as you don’t let it get too cold again, you’re pretty right. But we have needed to buy a few rugs to cover as much of the floor area as possible (we take these rugs up in summer).

It also doesn’t help that one whole wall of the downstairs living area is floor to ceiling glass bi-fold doors. Well, again, it’s great in summer when we can open up the whole house to let the beautiful cool breezes flow through the whole Box. But it sucks in winter (as the warm air escapes straight through the glass). So we have curtains to pull across in winter to add some insulation.

If we had the funds, there are things we could easily do to increase the heat-efficiency of the Box (like double glazed windows). But overall, we love our polished concrete floors, and we would definitely have them in any future house.

(See what we wrote about our concrete flooring during the actual reno process here).

So the weather here at the Box has been getting milder. There is still the odd cooler day where I need a cardigan, but overall, we are heading into t-shirt weather.

I love the top of this kid’s head.

The Widg has quite the little collection of jeans and winter pants, thanks to some thrifty shopping (St Vinnies, markets, Big W, etc). But he is lacking in warmer-weather pants. Not quite shorts weather yet, but getting a bit warm for jeans.

You can see where this is going: I made some more pants.

He grew out of the last batch before winter hit. So it was time to draw up a new pattern for a slightly larger child. I think this pattern (and this batch of pants) will last longer than previously, as he isn’t growing as fast anymore. He is mainly growing in height, so I figure I can just roll up the pants as he grows and then they will become shorts (or I could actually take them up, depends how lazy I feel).

The green pears I have made before, but I love the stretch cotton fabric (and I had heaps left) so I made some more. The blue and white stars fabric I found at a St Vinnies store for maybe 50c, and the black and white check is some really cheap cotton from Spotlight (very cheap – a little tricky to sew with, but I managed).

I also found some great check fabrics in different colours – I love this green and brown. It actually has a very fine aqua stripe through it too, which is awesome. And I found some more of this orange and blue check that I have used previously.

I have also added little pockets to the back of some of the pants, just because it’s a little bit fancy.

It’s a shocking photo (husband is the wicked photographer, not so much me), but I hope you can see the little tags I have been putting into the back of the waistband (sometimes it’s hard to tell the front from the back of the pants when dressing the little man).

Here is my pants model wearing the black and white check:

I will have to take some pics of the little guy wearing the actual pants. If for no other reason than to prove that they actually function as pants. And any excuse to show my sweet little boy.

Just a quick one to say “Happy Fathers’ Day” to all the dads, grandfathers and dads-to-be out there.

Fathers’ Day is a great opportunity to reflect on the many ways these men have provided for us, supported us, sacrificed for us and loved us.

To the men who are our fathers and fathers-in-law, and to the men who are fathers to our children, thank you.

Sorry for the break in transmission folks, it’s been a little busy here at the Box lately. Nothing too exciting going on, just life in general. Birthdays and visitors and car repairs and all of us catching the cold and sharing it around.

I have been doing a little bit of sewing (just more pants for Noah really), but I have heaps of ideas for new projects and never enough time to try them all out. Now that the Widg is crawling I can really only sew when he’s sleeping. But I usually find a bazillion other things that need doing when he’s sleeping (like cooking, cleaning, showering), so sewing gets put to the bottom of a long list. Bummer.

I wanted to share this little gem with you: the lovely and sweet hubster gave me these very cute tea towels as part of my Mothers Day present (yes, way back in May).

But before you get all “he bought you tea towels?“, his words as he handed them to me were “I thought you could sew something nice out of these”. He knows me well.

I really love the colours and the prints, but I have no idea what to turn them into. Thoughts? Ideas? C’mon people, I need your help!

I’ve written previously about the amazing gingerbread cookies that we had at the Widg’s birthday party. And I promised to give more details about them, so here it is.

PassionCookie is the wonderful creation of my good friend Bryer. She has always been an absolute genius baker, so when she started up her own business, it was a no-brainer that she could do great things.

PassionCookie creates delicious handmade gingerbread cookies for special occasions and events, as well as selling direct to the public through the Eltham Valley Pantry, Macadamia Castle and local markets. They can also create special occasion and novelty cakes, as well as the great photo cookies, by special order, through their website. And they can deliver Australia wide.

And because their cakes and cookies are made to order, they can cater to just about anything you could possibly want. They are especially good at catering to particular dietary needs (Bryer and her clan are the actual stereotype of an allergy-blessed family, so they know all about that).

Basically, they’re really yummy cakes and cookies, and you should check them out.

Note: We’re not being paid to write nice things about PassionCookie. Although Bryer is our dear friend, we genuinely love her stuff, and we wouldn’t say nice things about her if we didn’t truly believe them. Just ask her, she’ll tell you.

I am notorious for having stacks of magazines piled around the house.

I love to pull out a stack every now and then, and flip through them to get a regular dose of inspiration. It’s really just an excuse to look at pretty things.

So far the Widg has been pretty good with “no touching” the ones within his reach. Considering he quite enjoys tearing paper.

However, a lot of my inspiration these days is online. I follow a lot of blogs – everything from interiors and decorating, photography and typography, to sewing and crafts. But how do you “store” the images you find online, so that you can peruse them again and again when the mood strikes? I have gone through various phases of bookmarking, even saving the links onto a google doc. Now, finally, some interwebby genius has come up with the answer. Pinterest. And it’s not just for fancy-pants home decorating ideas. You can pin anything to your boards, whatever you are interested in. For example, if you were interested in collecting rare and unique spoons, well, you could pin pictures of them to your boards. You could have different boards for different types of spoons. A board for wooden spoons, one for ladles, one for teaspoons.

I’m finding it very useful. There’s more information about it here (and they explain it better than me).

There are so many things I love about this image.

(from Two Little Dicky Birds)

The casualness of hanging a picture on your wall with tape – so what if the tape leaves marks? They’re YOUR walls. Paint them.

Using gumboots as a vase for flowers. Why not?

That knitted blanket, so neatly folded, so cozy looking, such a pretty blue-grey. And the fabric on that pillow, lovely. I think my friend Jen has a dress in a very similar print.

And then finally, that bright, sunny, yellow chair. Makes me want to paint everything around me in bright, happy colours. So cheerful.

I would like to introduce to you, dear readers, our newest addition to the Box – Olga the Overlocker.

For those who have no idea what I’m talking about, an overlocker is a sewing machine that produces a special type of stitching to prevent fabric from fraying over time. If I’ve already lost you, don’t worry, that’s where I stop explaining.

I have a little bit of a crush on Olga (hence why I named her). She has literally already changed my sewing life – and I barely know how to use her properly yet. She just makes things so much easier, and she actually makes me look like a better sewer than I really am. She was purchased from Aldi, for the bargain price of $199. No, that’s not a typo.

This (below) is the trusty Brother machine that I am currently using. She doesn’t have a name because technically she isn’t mine. She is on loan from my mum, but I hope to save up and get my own one day. Maybe Santa will bring me one. But until then, the loaner is performing just fine.

Before I got the overlocker, I had never used one before, so I decided to practice on a few projects that were really simple (basically just straight lines). This first one is just a runner or cover for the coffee table. The fabric is from Ikea by the way. And yes, that is my morning coffee on the table.

Then I made some runners for our dressing tables in the bedroom (below). There is more to this story, but that’s another blog post. For now, just say “ah yes, I see.” Excellent. Moving on.

So here are my 2 workers (below), side by side on my sewing table. Oh, and the absolutely best thing about Olga so far? Not only did she arrive fully threaded, but to rethread her all I have to do is tie the end of the new spool to the end of the old one, and keep sewing – she rethreads herself! (For anyone out there that knows how difficult and annoying it is to rethread an overlocker, with 4 spools, you will understand my excitement. Everyone else is just thinking “so?”. Trust me, it’s a big deal). Not sure if you can do this special threading trick with all overlockers. I do feel blessed though.

I hope to log many more sewing miles with Olga.

We have 2 Lack shelves at the Box, and we have made very good use of them over the years. We started out with one above the TV in the old lounge room upstairs (before the reno) that housed our small-but-rapidly-growing DVD collection. When said DVD collection grew bigger than the shelf, we bought another one and mounted it above the first one. It was a great look, and I had the DVD’s alphabetised and everything. Very cool.

(from Ikea)

Then we renovated the house and relocated the lounge room downstairs. We again mounted the 2 Lack’s above the TV on the new wall with their accompanying DVD’s. It worked fine until the DVD’s outgrew the 2 shelves. We thought it would be a bit ridiculous to buy a 3rd shelf (and mounting it above the top one would mean they would be too high for me to reach). So we brainstormed storage ideas. I measured up the Malm 6 drawer chest and worked out that it would easily house our burgeoning DVD collection and allow room for plenty of growth (see more about that tale here). DVD storage problem solved.

Then I decided I wanted a landing strip (see more about that fascinating tale here). And I realised that a Lack shelf would be the perfect solution. So the lovely husband made it happen. We moved one of the Lack’s around the corner to the front entryway, and left the other one above the TV to be a display shelf.

So now I have a lovely spot for bits and pieces like vases, pretty books and my ever-present stack of magazines (not sure where this came from, but I have them all over the house).

And because it’s above the TV, it’s in the perfect spot for sitting on the couch and staring at my pretties during ad breaks of Gilmore Girls.

Apologies for lack of blogging lately folks. Life has just been busy. But don’t despair! There are plenty of new projects in the works, both sewing and gardening, as well as some idea-generating for the interior of the house (just waiting to win the lottery so that we can put those ideas into action).

In the meantime, here is a pic of the lovely vase and candle my husband got for me for Christmas. Every time I walk past I can smell sweet vanilla!

In the background you can see the terracotta warrior that the inlaws brought back from China for us, as well as some beautiful storm photo’s that the husband took ages ago.

I hope life outside the box is going swimmingly for you!