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Wednesday 23 November 2016

Zara Visit

I, like many others here in New Zealand, have been eagerly awaiting the arrival of our first Zara store which opened at Sylvia Park in Auckland a few weeks ago. A friend and I visited recently. I must say I was impressed. The store is bright and clean and seems to stock the full range of Zara goodies. I had been worried that the company might offer us a half-baked solution but they've come to the party with the full womens, mens and childrens ranges. I picked up a loose-fitting white shirt which I love! So comfortable and versatile. It's lovely to finally have Zara here!


Tuesday 15 November 2016

Christmas Wreath Workshop at Garden Objects

So excited to be attending this workshop at the gorgeous Garden Objects in Kohimarama in a few weeks! I consider myself a non-creative type so this will be a challenge, but fun I am sure! The best thing is I'll be trying something different and meeting new people which I really need to do more of. I will post pictures of my Christmas wreath when it's finished!

And I highly recommend a visit to Garden Objects. It's a beautiful store and each 'object' is carefully curated by Lisa and Jared.


copper watering can haws

small fork

apple holder

bird call | blackbird

companion planting in new zealand by brenda little

gidon bing small ceramic tripod pot | crackled

korbo galvanised basket classic 35

new zealand heritage rare seed collection

paperweight | forget me not | small

wonder weeder


Sunday 6 November 2016

Master Bedroom Wardrobe Removal

Our master bedroom is huge now that one of our wardrobes has been removed! We have a 12ft stud, so the person who did the renovation thought it would be a great idea to install two 2.8m tall wardrobes almost to the ceiling, thus boxing in the room and providing an overkill of closet space.

Yes, villas are notorious for lack of space but ours is BURSTING with it. Paul and I gave it some thought and realised that we wouldn't be compromising the storage space by removing one wardrobe.

Because I have my own huge dressing room, Paul stores his clothes in our master bedroom. He used only one of the wardrobes for about a month to see if he could do it and he could! And soon we are getting all of the wardrobes in all bedrooms re-fitted with bespoke shelves, poles and cubbyholes so he will have a more efficient space to work with. Oh, and the ugly sliding door will be replaced with double-doors that look like the period of the house, not the ultra-modern doors the previous owner put into a 1910 house... :(

Chris, owner of Luxury Living Builders and his team (Peter, gib-stopper and Mike, painter) got to work earlier this month to remove the wardrobe and they did an incredible job. It's so flawless, you wouldn't even know there had been anything there! I highly recommend them! Mike even colour-matched the wall paint as the previous owners didn't provide accurate information.

The room is much more spacious now and we have the choice of three positions to place our bed (we had one choice before. And there is still one huge double wardrobe so we have not affected re-sale value.

Before and after photos are below. Note that we now have a big hole in the carpet (revealing the most beautiful original matai floorboards - WHY did they have to cover them up?). And in the new year the horrible grey/brown carpet is getting ripped out and replaced with oak to match the rest of the house (that's another blog post - big flooring project happening mid-January 2017!). So this is not the final look for this room, the photos just show the difference removing the wardrobe made.








Upcoming projects: kitchen cabinetry revamp, wardrobe fit-outs and door handle and knob overhaul (yep: goodbye shiny gold door handles!).