HomeMADE Week 3

I keep hearing mixed reviews of how the Australian viewers are enjoying "HomeMADE", I hope it doesn't get canceled due to poor viewing statistics! Another week, another episode, here are my highlights:



Jason's becoming quite a dark horse, another beautiful bedroom makeover pictured above, I think if it were me I could have gone crazy in that room with greenery, palms, etc. I love what he did with the picture frames (painting gold frames white to match the room) and also the cushions were a great choice that really paid off. He also did a wonderful job in his living area, by placing two blue-striped wicker chairs which just popped - I agreed with the judges, they were a great choice.



Here you can see Jason's living area and part of Richie's dining area. I wasn't a huge fan of Richie's room this week (which feels bad considering I love all of his work so far) but I think turning a little room into a scullery was a great idea!



Chontelle's crisp bathroom makeover - such an improvement on the small lavender bathroom originally! Chontelle used really large glossy tiles which she said gave the illusion of making the space bigger - which was a good tip.



Annie re-designed the kitchen, which made the space very big and stylish. I think a kitchen island in the middle would have finished it off and made the space more practical, but she did a great job. Also, the wall colour was more of a rich brown on screen, which I adored against the clean white.



Leonie's 'white on white' bedroom makeover was another highlight. She re-arranged the bed on David's suggestion and it vastly improved the room.

It was a shame to see Stacey go - although I wasn't crazy about either of her rooms this week, I think she acted with a lot of dignity and professionalism during the show. She seemed to speak from experience a lot of the time, and really focused on working as part of a team, rather than an individual designer. She also wore really cute dresses to each of the elimination shows! I'm sure she'll go on to great things.

Looking forward to the next episode, as always. This is becoming such an interesting show to watch in that I'm learning a lot about interior decorating. It would be lovely to have a $50,000 budget to work with, but even the little tips in re-using what they've already got are appreciated.

Wishing Trees

I'm looking into making one of these for a client, and I am completely inspired by some of the beautiful ones on the Internet:





Images above from Here Comes The Guide



Image above from Cristalier.

This is an 'escort card tree' I found on the amazing Michelle Rago's blog: "It was a tree-like structure created from hundreds of stems of white cherry blossom branches sitting on a base of hybrid white delphinium, hydrangea, and white macarena roses. The actual cards were cut from decoupaged skeleton leaves and loosely strung on ribbon so the guests could easily pull them off as they found their name."





Images above from Michelle Rago, Ltd.

HomeMADE Week 2

As you may have guessed, I'm really loving HomeMADE, which is currently airing on Australian television, both shows have become regular viewing. Here are some highlights from last night's show that I really liked and will use as inspiration into my own home:



Chontelle's dark kitchen and Annie's choice of wallpaper - just gorgeous and worked really well side by side! I can't say I'm a huge fan of either, but I think they made great choices for their rooms this week. For those interested, the wallpaper is ‘Lace’ by Catherine Martin, from Porter's Paint.



I really liked Leonie's bathroom renovation - it looks bright and airy thanks to putting in a skylight (a great idea for any dark spots). Leonie is a favorite of mine as she seems to keep her head well during the stressful moments of the show.



Jason's canvas artwork above the bed - such a simple idea but really well executed and the red looks great amongst the grey, white and champagne. I love the palette of this room!



Richie's room made my heart sing for that amazing wallpaper (something that I'm sure many viewers also hated!) and also the wall of photos of the homeowner's homeland of Ireland - such a lovely touch! Richie is proving to be a favourite of mine for his amazing style and that lovely Queensland drawl of his!

It should be interesting to watch the show as it progresses, I think there is going to be a lot more competition, less 'We all get on great!' behind the scenes!

First Dance

I must admit, at our wedding, James' and my 'first dance' was entirely unplanned. We're not dancers by a long shot, and whilst a lot of thought went into the song that we'd play (for those interested, it was this one)*, we had given very little thought to HOW to dance. We ended up swaying about trying to remember what we knew about slow dancing, fun, but a little awkward! Still, I wouldn't change it for the world!

But, should the thought have occurred to us, along with some coordination on my part, I would love to have rehearsed and performed a quirky reception dance. Here are a few of my favourites that I've seen on YouTube recently:

Song: "The Way I Are" by Timbaland:



Song: "Thriller" by Michael Jackson



Song: "California Love" by Tupac



Song: "Better Together" by Jack Johnson/"The Way You Make Me Feel" by Michael Jackson



And my all-time favourite:



Very fun and a great way to relax after the thrill of getting married.

* My husband and I had our first date at a Josh Pyke concert in 2007, and not long after we were married, Josh recorded a live version of "Under the Milky Way Tonight". If he had been a few weeks earlier, this would have been the perfect wedding song for us.

HomeMADE

The first episode of HomeMADE, a new series about a weekly suburban home makeover challenge for 10 aspiring interior designers, was on tonight and I loved it. There was lots of cute, trendy designers, stress at not meeting deadlines (a lot of "We're running out of time" type lines were said, which is fair enough under such tight deadlines:2 days for bedrooms, 3 for kitchens, lounges, bathrooms...), unusual room makeovers and the crucial tell-it-like-it-is designer host, David Heimann, who did a great job of convincing me that any home can be made over with a limited budget. His best line, and I paraphrase, was something along the lines of, "A good designer can get the effect of silk on a canvas budget" and even though our current home decorating budget is more akin to sandwich bags rather than canvas, I still found the show inspiring.

I wish I had thought to apply!

For a sneak peak at the rooms these guys made over, you can check out the current issue of Real Living magazine.

Updates to It's A Date Event Design Website

Just added two new projects to the It's A Date Event Design website - Taina & Tamara's gorgeous purple Winery themed wedding invitations, and the first of four stationery suites I designed for the Bridal Expo - Laura and Jacob's red/purple/cream wedding invitations. Enjoy!