Art update {our house}

If you were beginning to think I had been lost to the land of day-jobs, being grownup and working as an architectural draftsperson specialising in earthquake engineering.... think again!

Technically I am still doing that, but rest assured I spend every free minute fixing things up around our home, creating art, painting walls, rearranging and DIYing.

To the point that I haven't shared everything here on the blog yet.

Let's start today with a little art update!

See that super-colour fragilistic painting over the chair?

If you follow me on Instagram, (you really should :) you might have seen my process.

Which isn't really a process but more of a subconscious session of colour-sloshing...

I realised that our living room is super bottom-heavy.

Pear-shaped, if you will.

Most of the elements are situated at ground level, and there is a lack of anything on the walls higher up.

That big empty space over the couch is next...

Some more rearranging is happening here by the front door where I've hung these 2 framed photographs.

And as you can see, the chair has been sold (we are just waiting for it to be picked up) which leaves us with a bit of an empty spot. We're not in a rush to fill it, but I'm excited about the colour possibilities of something new (and more comfortable for tallll people like us!).

Who loves a splash of colour on the wall??

Living room paint job - reasons to paint low sheen

Ever wake up with an urge to paint all the walls in your living room?

It happened to me this past weekend, so I painted them a smooth milky cream.

Why yes, the walls were already cream.
Call me a pedantic designy type but the original paint was old, had an orangey tinge that brought out the orange in our wooden floors, and had a medium sheen to it which accentuated every lump and bump on these 1940's original walls.

You'll have to trust me that although the colours are only a few shades apart, it feels SO much fresher and lighter in there now. Photo evidence:


{before on left, then after painting on right}

AND, if you've even been confused about which sheen-level to paint your interior walls... allow me to advise:

• You want LOW SHEEN on your interior walls to diminish the appearance of any dents
• If you have serious dentage, you want FLAT (which is even lower sheen), however you need to be aware that flat paint scuffs up more easily and shows every mark, which is why I wouldn't recommend it for white or light walls.
•  'Egg Shell finish' is a fancy way to say Satin finish, which is MORE GLOSSY than low sheen. Don't be fooled. I never thought eggshells were particularly glossy, but what do you know - they are. I wouldn't use eggshell finish on walls inside. (Even in bathrooms and wet areas, you can get low-sheen enamels and acrylic enamels).

Our walls were originally Egg Shell finish and after I painted them with Low Sheen it is SO much better and more velvety lookings. The walls actually have the appearance of being airbrushed. The proof is in the pudding:

I took these photos on the same settings and didn't retouch them or anything. 

Isn't low sheen far better?!

As for the overall appearance, it's not that different in photos to our living room as you already know it...

Just a bit lighter and more clean and fresh - which is what we're all about.

Also, I shuffled a bit of furniture and got cold feet on where to hang our art, which is why you can see the frames against the fireplace. Art is one of those things I don't want to rush into but I would LOVE some very very large art to go over the couch wall which has been completely bare all year.

Any suggestions on what type of art and what colourways would look good in here???

What would you do?

Wild New Zealand wedding on Saturday

It's been a looong time since I shared anything wedding-y on this blog.

I think the last one I wrote about was ours.

Well, my cousin got married and Saturday and I snapped a few photos with my SLR - I LOVE this time of year (early-Autumn in New Zealand) with the golden light and crisp mornings. 

These wild flowers were picked on the roadside by family members... amazing huh?

{burlap runners with wild flowers and my beautiful mamma}

{the cutest little church in the middle of nowhere. Not sure that it ever gets used anymore}

 

{my brother hates this pic. mohaha.}

 Beautiful light huh?
I'm addicted to taking photos in this light.

{so this is how I look to my subjects..... }

Last but not least... a slightly cheesy ending with my favourite cousin, tall husband, and my crazy got-rained-on-earlier-and-went-frizzy hair. I wish I had naturally straight/wavy hair that didn't require a GHD every single day and make me paranoid of steam and rain. Oh well, can't have everything!
:)

[All photos by me, Amy MacLeod]

Backyard before and after

I've never really shown pictures of our garden/backyard on this blog because in all honesty it's just a little plot that spent most of the year doing nothing except housing our rubbish bin and looking muddy.

I wish I had a better before picture of this, but you'll just have to trust me that we had no idea there were concrete pavers underneath the grass until a friend pointed it out, and a good water-blasting revealed this patio that we never knew we had:

{before this it was all covered with dirt and grass}

When Summer came we borrowed an old outdoor dining set from my parents, and my husband was gifted the wooden seat by his parents.

I did get all the weeds out of the pavers.... but then they grew back. ;)

To the left of this picture would be a shed and clothesline, and a big rubbish bin lives on the other side of the bench, but I aimed these shots to avoid that, of course!

Since I have a zillion un-used cushions I put these out on the bench temporarily.

We also just got gifted an old BBQ... it's very old and a bit rusty but it works for us.

Summer is coming to an end in New Zealand so I hope we get a chance to use it.

We've been planning to have guests around for months but it feels like we've hardly been home lately.

That's it, a little update on our backyard. 

Trust me, the rubbish bins, clothesline, hose, and more weeds all make it look a little more shabby in real life than how it appears in the pictures. But hey, what are blogs for.

We're just happy to have a bright and useable space!