Home Update - Hallway

 The Hallway has been a huge working progress and can i tell you that we are not yet finished. Without repeating myself I have a tiny addiction to Pinterest and fell in love when i saw this (photo below. When I spoke to Hubby about it, I dont think he thought I would really do it, after all it would be the third time we had painted the hallway since we moved in 5 years ago. 

We had already painted the hallway the same colour as the living room Stetson Grey, and used a chalk line & level to get the lines straight we choose a soft white Cotton I think it was called. At the end of the hall a large Mirror was attached to the wall. This was a REUSE item from a set of built in mirrors we are removing from our old bedroom (soon to be the girls room)

There's one of my sons helping Dad with the Clean up. As you can see above We originally had White doors. But I loved the look of Black doors and the idea of no huge Pen and dirt marks.

Here is a picture of the length of the Hallway, The mirror is receiving and upgrade with a frame made from timber molding The mirror cost approx $30 and to buy on in that size would have cost at least $150. So what do you think of my black doors?

The next step is to pull up the tiles and install the same flooring in the living room, and covert our linen closet into a mini mudroom similar to picture below.(picture courtesy of YES you guessed it PINTEREST)

 

CALL of Duty Military Party

Ok Here is the party as promised. I have to say thank you to firstly Hubby cause I went a little crazy with stuff and spent alot of time on this. My sister in law for getting me a whole lot of lollies and toys. My friend for helping with the prep and of course pinterest.

I previously posted the invitation I made am happy to post a Generic one if you are interested just comment below and I will post it for you.

 Thats my boy all geared up for his birthday wearing the Dog Tags I made earlier, found here. He had a ball.

When they arrived they had to enlist at the front door. We took them through marching drills and got them use to saying "SIR YES SIR"

  During enlistment they received their Army issued gear. I found these cute toilet bags for $1 each at Jasmines Warehouse left overs from the Charlies Angels merchandise and just covered the logo with some left over camo material I had. The bags were filled with a few goodies, army men, bombs, lollies balloons pencils.

 Here are the Dog tags I have mention these a few times and the binoculars are from Kmart then they moved onto receiving their rations for the day. 

Bottle water, snack sizes chippies, Nutrigrain in snack bags and fruit bars. These were given to soldiers to snack on until the mess hall opened. 

 Here is the backyard before the kids came out. My poor chickens didnt know what they were in for. but we had the tyres, balance beam, commando crawl and then it was 10 star jumps, push ups & sit ups

We painted the target to do a paratrooper competition, using plastic parachute men. The one who landed closes to the middle won. Then we had a Grenade Launch, my eldest son thought it would be fun to put his head in the middle as the kids threw water bombs at the target. We also had a shooting range (not pictured) using a nerf gun and velcro bullets(having 4 sons we are not in short supply) We had a Velcro target left over from the Carnival Party the year before. 

We also played:

Save a mate - Each team had to make it through the obstacle course to their injured mate wrap their wound (leg or head) and carry them back to base using a towel. 

Capture the Flag - two different coloured army men hidden around the yard 15 each team. The team that found all their men first, then had to steal the flag of the other team and make it back to base. 

The kids loved it, well they were all around 7yrs old, but even my older boys joined in. 

  
After a few of the games they stopped for a break, I let them have a few minutes to get a drink and then I sent out a siren and yelled raid, we threw out 25 balloons each team and they had to stop what they were doing and pop the balloons, first team to pop all 25 won. 

 Note to self never let your son take the photos as most of them will end up blurry, these were all we could salvage I am not sure if you can see, but I made mini care packages as prizes for the individual games.

I am a little disappointing I don't have a better picture of the care packages but here is how they were put together

All in all it was a great day, and as long as Nathaniel loved it thats all that mattered

Here are some of the troops towards the end of the party, the others were busy eating and playing.

Study Nook Yay

I am so happy with how my little study nook is coming along. I love it when what I imagine comes to life. I have made the most of my space and pop a study nook into the back of my living room.

 

My little Vinnies nick-nacks costing all of 50c each and my office products from Kmart.

Ikea Desk I think was $49, it was going to be for my son's room but I think it looks better where it it.

 

Floating shelves $9 @ Kmart

I didnt realise my secondhand computer chair matched so well I was going to try and find something else but I think its perfect, and if you look to the left of the picture you can see a sneak peak of our occasional table ikea knock off coming soon.

DIY Dog Tags

Thanks to the sister in law for giving me a fab idea for military dog tags for my sons birthday all you need is:

Key Tags

Silver Spray paint

cheap chain (the one they use for roller blinds)

and it turn's these

 

 into standard issue military dog tags

All that is left to do is customize their names during intake when they arrive. I cant wait to see how it all turns out. 

Our House

We have been in our home going on 5 years now,and have tried our hand at decorating with loads of fails. Its been such a blessing living in our home our goals this year to make it the way we have wanted.

After being inspired by shows such as Sarah Richardson from Sarah 101 & Sarahs House  The Block , HomeMADE and I cant forget the show we have watched for years every friday night Better Homes & Gardens. We are trying again 

Its a bit of a work in progress, after lifting the flooring,removing the old down lights, painting and then furnishing I'm loving the result.We have a while to go until we are finished, but I feel like I have started to find my style. 

I absolutely love the Isamu Noguchi coffee table but my budget wouldn't allow even a replica.

and so I found this, totally within my budget. I am deciding whether I should paint the timber frame or restore it. Lately I have been wondering if I should use it at all, with a five month old she needs all the floor space she can get.

 

I absolutely love dome lights the one on the left from Bunnings $49.95 and the one on the right $2 on clearance from Kmart. These were an impulse buy for another project but couldnt resist using them at home.

I have yet to decide on colour palette, I still need my jumping off point (hehehe a little too much of Sarah's house). There are just so many colours to choose from having a light grey neutral. I think I will once again let my budget judge what I choose.