Green chair love

A couple of years ago, January 2008 to be exact Home beautiful featured the stunning home of Interior Designer Kate Sacks . This home is right up my alley I love everything about it and I guess I have a similar thing going on here as Kate does . Well almost ...

timber floors check ,

same freedom coffee table check ,

white walls check ,

touches of wicker check ,

two boys check,

house in Byron Bay check.... Ok so that's a lie but I did live there for 6 years so its kinda true ,ok not really . Anyway my absolute favourite thing in Kate's house were her green chairs.




Oh how I loved those green chairs , I dreamed about those green chairs and wished I too had a Aunt that would pass on to me some green chairs just like these. So I kept my copy of Home Beautiful and would often look and sigh at the chairs but had given up the hope that one day I would have green vintage chairs too .

And then something AMAZING happened ....

while driving down the road to pick my son up from school a couple of months ago what is sitting on the side of the road , homeless and waving at me was ....TWO VINTAGE , VELVET GREEN CHAIRS .

Now let me tell you , lucky for me I drive a van I screeched to a halt ....and well those chairs and I locked eyes and well.... its been love ever since .

Let me tell you these babies weigh a ton! They may not be perfect they have a few marks...

And they were a bit grotty...

And they may have had a lot of rubbish down the sides......

And my house may not be as beautiful as Kate Sacks's home..

But I love them .....and one day I will recover them . And what will I recover them in ....well green velvet of course.


x Michelle

Dog sitting

This weekend we have been looking after a friends two little dogs , so with four doggies there has been lots of walks along the beach . Here are a few snaps that the kids took along the way . I hope you've had a lovely enjoyable weekend too ..

x Michelle

Pizza

I've tried lots of different pizza recipes in the past ....until this one . Its seriously so good and pretty easy though you do have to start it early in the afternoon.

Base

500 grams plain flour (I use 1/2 plain and 1/2 wholemeal , but whatever you prefer really)
325 grams water
10 grams salt
1 satchet yeast (7gram)

Sauce

1 can tomatoes
1/4 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp oregano

Put all ingredients in a saucepan and simmer for about 15 minutes , set aside to use.

How to make the base

Put all ingredients in mixer and mix slow for 2 minutes and faster for 5 minutes , using dough hook .

Cover and let rise for 2 hours in a warm spot ( I pop it in the microwave NOT turned on ofcourse).It should double in size .Now punch down and form into 3 balls . Don't roll them in your hands kind of stretch the dough over the ball pinching underneath




Now pop them on a floured plate and put back in warm spot for another hour .

About half an hour before you want too make them turn your oven on to its hottest setting and put your pizza stone in to heat up . Now stretch out your base try not to overhandle , don't roll out . Throw in the air if your game !


Make up your pizza with your ingredients , I use just sauce ( leave a little edge so you have a crust) , basil and mozzarella cheese because I really feel less is more with pizza . Brush some olive oil over crust ,and drizzle some more on before you put in the oven, put some flour on your pizza stone. Now bake for 5 or so minutes and your done .....enjoy . My whole family loves this ...Oh except the 9 year old he doesn't like much at all though so he doesn't count.




x Michelle

Garage sale art

Some people say to me , oh you must have good garage sales where you live . But its not true there's a lot of dodgy ones too . You know the sort when you almost feel embarrassed for them and you wonder why they just didn't go to the tip instead . But sometimes ...just sometimes there are great ones , ones that you feel excited when you pull up the car and see something you love . Well this is my latest find ..apparently its by an Irish artist that draws them on the street or some such thing . But you know I wouldn't care if it was done by Joe Blow that lives down the end of my street ...the main thing is with art is that you love it . And I love this ! And how much was it I hear you ask a whole $10 . And you gotta love that .

xMichelle

Table Tonic's First giveaway !!

I am clearly very excited by this.... as the heading says Louise at the wonderful Table Tonic blog/shop is having her very first giveaway and if you have been well.... like living under a rock or something and haven't heard of Table tonic you better get yourself over there and become a follower and hopefully win a prize !!! Above are a few of my favourite things at Table Tonic .

Cool little terrariums

So terrariums are back in fashion and so much cooler than the 70s .

I adore these ones that are for sale on 'made it' .....I want one or two or three . Please ....pretty please. You can get them here

x Michelle

Little lemon tarts

I absolutely love lemony desserts and so do all my family . So with the sunny weather continuing for another day and family popping over for brunch to celebrate a birthday , I thought it was a good excuse to whip up some of these lovely little tarts . And they are so easy!

Ingredients

12 premade pastry shells

2 tsp finely grated lemon rind

1/4 cup lemon juice

1/2 cup caster sugar

40 g butter

2 eggs + 1 extra yolk

Fresh strawberries or raspberries

Method

Combine lemon rind and juice , sugar, butter and eggs in a small saucepan over low heat . Cook stirring for about 8 minutes or until curd thickens , I use a whisk.

Remove from heat and put in bowl , cover with plastic wrap and place in fridge to chill ( you can do this the day before)

Spoon curd into pastry cases and top with berry of choice. Enjoy.

These are so good .....and OK I probably shouldn't be admitting this but I ate 4 !!

x Michelle

Hello Sunshine

I can't tell you how lovely it was to wake up today and see the sun shining outside . After what seems like weeks of rain being able to get outside , and feel the sun if only for a few short hours was bliss. This is a little peek out my window , I never tire of the view of the trees ....just lovely .

Enjoy your weekend and hopefully it stays dry!

x Michelle

A parcel

Don't you just love parcels in the mail ? I know I do , so I was a very happy girl today to find a parcel waiting for me at the door of number 2 when I got home. And even though I knew what was inside it was so very lovely to find it like this . All brown paper and string .







And what was inside ....well it was one of these little guys. I've wanted one for ages and seeing as I had to order something else ...somehow this happened to pop into my cart too . What a shame.







And what else did I order...... it was this , a laser cut Noah's ark for my sons room . If you love cool things , gifts , cards etc you really have to have a look at pulp . The service is fantastic too .








x Michelle

Woollen winter lamp makeover

Just wanted to share something with you that I did a couple of months back and its seriously so easy that even an 8 year old could do it ...oh thats right an 8 year old did do some ! Unfortunately I don't have any before pics of the lamp because that was pre blog days when I didn't photograph every minute detail of my life , pre blog days being anything before yesterday actually.

Anyway back to the lamp , it was just a basic white drum lamp shade that had seen better days , it was faded and actually the white bit was even coming away from the metal rings at the top and bottom and I was just about ready to toss it out when I thought what can I do with this old thing .....Hmm a makeover ??

So remembering I had a few balls of green wool that I happened to pick up at Spotlight for only 50c a ball I just started to wrap it around , tying first to a metal bit inside the shade . Ok so you just wrap and wrap and then wrap some more( this is when 8 year old boys come in handy) until the whole thing is completely covered remembering that if you need to tie a new piece on its on the inside .

So you could do it like I did it , really neat or I guess you could even get a bit crazy and keep overlapping kinda messy like for an organic look its up to you , just don't go too wild and go near the light bulb because that would just be well....dangerous.

So, easy peasy and doesn't it look all cosy and warm for winter .....and yes it does still emit some light .

Finally

Ok I've finally done it ....I've taken the plunge head first into blog world. Whats taken me so long....well silly as it seems I couldn't think of a name . So decided to go simple , very simple . I know i don't have much imagination so" life at number 2 " it is . Here I will write about all my favourite things , mostly homey house stuff , a few recipes , and just generally what I've been up to at number two. I hope you enjoy it .

x Michelle