why my home won't be winning any style & design awards this Winter

Greetings all,
A lovely mummy fresh from the gym breezed into Shop Handmade & purchased a couple of dozen ceramic dishes in all sorts of sizes & colours for her dining table - which was ready for a Housing Design Awards photo shoot.  I wish.  While i have amazing plans for the homestead we're going to build, i have a vision of organisation, storage & casual, comfortable styling . . . reality is, i live in Army housing, our house is too small for our big family & the laundry is too tiny to even house an airer for Winter washing. 

 So as my eyes rest peacefully at this part of the lounge room . . .

 this is the reality . . . i'm sure the Italians who designed these dining chairs & the Stokke folk planned them to double as flannette-sheet-dryers . . .

 or the Biggest Loser trainers would like to see a treadmill acting as a giant clothes line!!

 It's not often i lounge about in my knitted booties, but i'm letting the last of my head cold leave . . .

 & enjoy OffSpring, i ponder about life like Nina (now on twice a week, loving that) . . .

 pretending my cushions are styled nicely, not where the children let them land . . .

& like i cared that our puppy had helped himself to a blanket!!
I do love a neat & tidy home, at least one where the laundry is in . . . the laundry & puppies aren't lounging on human blankets, i also don't mind a bit of honesty in stylish blog world.  Keeping house . . . sometimes i throw up arms & consider watching the likes of OffSpring as a much better headspace than primping & preening a home which a stampede of children will dishevel again in the morning.  No, i will straighten the cushions, wash that blanket & fold the blankets, i have to wake up to a tidy house, but the washing, well, it's -1C when i drop the children at school, those sheets are only going to dry indoors.  Love Posie

my creative space 'hot under the covers'

Greetings all,

Embracing Winter is the trick to enjoying it.  I thought i'd dig up ye olde hot water bottle cover recipe (which consists of laying a hot water bottle onto fabric & cutting around it) & mix it up with different fabrics, organic batting, quilting stitches, bias binding, fabric buttons . . .

 I took half a dozen into Shop Handmade today, they're already featured on FB (thanks Tania).

 I have many more cut out, in screen printed fabrics & boy's themes too.  The quilting takes ages, but it's fun.  I also like the smaller hot water bottles (no idea where to get them but we have some which came with covers from Peter Alexander) so if i find the mini bottles, i'll make some covers!!

 Oh look at this one merchandised with Sheep's Clothing & Soft&Lush at Shop.

 All this heat inducing goodness - just in time - those are snow clouds above school this afternoon.  My darling husband is coming home this weekend, leaving sunny warm Brisbane for a Canberra forecast of -6C on Sunday night.  He's already researched that woollen underlays & doonas are 30% off at David Jones.  Mega investment pieces for the next 15 years of marriage.  He might be a soldier used to roughing it, but when he's home, it's all about comfort.

My oil cloth bunting is in Shop Handmade too, super cute cubby house mini style & a larger version for outdoors.  Happy Creative Space folks, i'm sewing up more hot water bottle covers.  Love Posie

PS i could start every new post with a 'thank you for the comments on the previous one', you're all so awesome out there in blogland, THANK YOU!!  Seems i'm not on the only one who didn't shine on Mother's Day, sigh.  The IKEA giveaway was huge & stay tuned (follow this blog) as next up it's a mega LEGO giveaway!!
EDIT: did anyone else lose all their comments for today's post?? 25+ comments just up & disappeared??

snuggle down with this IKEA G I V E A W A Y

Greetings all,

It's IKEA G I V E A W A Y time again!!  Yahoo.  As Australia starts to get chilly in Autumn, it's snuggle time.  What better way to embrace the looming Winter months than with some pretty new bedlinen??

 Remember that really fun IKEA sleepover i was lucky enough to attend a few weeks back, sleeping over night in the bedding department at the Sydney IKEA store . . . well i can assure you the bedlinen is beautiful, comfortable & well priced too.

 The good PR people at One Green Bean & IKEA would love to offer 3 sets of ALVINE KVIST percale bedlinen sets to my followers.  Each set includes a queen 200x200cm Quilt Cover & 4 Pillow Slips, valued at $89.  Yes 3 to GIVEAWAY.

Make sure you're a follower of this blog & leave a comment at this post, simple!! 
Extra entries if you advertise this giveaway on your Blog, FB or Twitter too. 
Lucky winners - all 3 of you - to be drawn 9p.m. on Sunday 8th May (Mother's Day) - a nice back up gift just in case you don't fair well in the Mother's Day gift stakes!! 

I'd love to know which room in your home this beautiful bedlinen will liven up & who will be snuggling down under it.  How do you stay cosy in Winter - under a doona, next to a roasting fire, hot chocolates . . . I can assure you, i miss my husband more than ever in our brrrr Canberra Winter, he's my giant hot water bottle & chief hot chocolate brewer.  Good luck, love Posie