SHOUT OUT: Teal & Lime

Thanks to a link at Centsational Girl I recently discovered a wonderful, new to me, blog - Teal & Lime.

Teal and Lime

Jackie has such a wonderful decorating style, very readable and friendly style of communicating and has given so much wonderful information for free that I just had to document for posterity just when I came across Teal & Lime and the impact it's had for me.

I started by signing up for and watching her Crash Course and I've spent a few days devouring Teal & Lime's archives in every spare moment, the three things that have helped propel me forward are Jackie's Crash Course video series, and two posts in particular; 7 Steps to Create Your Whole House Color Palette + Worksheet and How to Create Your Decorating Accent Color Palette.

For me, the real defining moment of discovery was the way Jackie has constructed her style statement. She broke it down into three sections - my style is ...; to me that means ...; and my style isn't ... This really helped me clarify what I'm working towards and come up with my own style statement.

My style is crisp, coastal (without being clichéd), softly tailored and incorporates some vintage pieces. 

To me this means fresh, fun, handmade, suitable for a young family and incorporates vintage art deco pieces with quality low end items with a high end feel due to our budget constraints. 

Our home feels welcoming, relaxed, open and fresh.

My style isn't country, rustic, shabby chic, minimal or sleek.

I also used her wonderful colour palette posts to define my palette as follows:

  • Neutral -Dulux Vanilla Quake 1/2 - a lovely true grey which changes from almost white to deeper grey with the light
  • First Bold - Dulux Timeless Grey - a deeper grey
  • Second Bold - Navy - haven't settled on a colour yet as it's more likely to be a lounge colour than a wall colour
  • Accent Colour - Dulux Zenith Heights 1/2 - a lovely light clear aqua - though I'm thinking of tweaking this to Rainwashed if I can find the formula for it here in Australia. The only walls this is currently used on is my laundry and also the back of my built in bookcases.
  • Accent 1 - Aqua - in varying shades from teal to sea glass
  • Accent 2 - Coral - I love how this combines with aqua to create what I think is a coastal vibe but without using the standard red white and blue.


At a time when I was stuck and felt like we had put down the first layer of our home (floors, walls and kitchen) but I was struggling to move forward from there Jackie's wonderful generosity with her information has helped me move forward. For that I cannot possibly thank her enough.

As an added bonus, I've also been led to a couple of other great blogs which I'm making some time to explore and connect with.

My First Reupholstery Attempt

I've had three reupholstery projects on my to do this for ... oh ... about 5 years now.   Yep, I've been procrastinating big time.  Well I've finally finished the first of them.  Ironically, it's the most recently purchased item.

More than a year ago now I bought this sweet little chair with the intention of recovering it to go in Little Miss's room.  It would give me somewhere besides the floor to sit for bedtime stories and middle of the night calls.


Excuse the iPhone pics but they are all I took in it's original state.  I loved that it was little and low enough to the ground for both of us to easily use.  But it was dirty, torn, well past it's prime, and while I love vintage, this was old fashioned.

A bargain at around $20, I can't believe it has taken me more than a year to get around to finishing it.

Bye bye old fashioned and hello gorgeous!


I love how this little project turned out.  The fabric was an eBay purchase and I love it.  The graphic, colour and scale just make me smile every time I see it.

Is it perfect?  Nope.  Do I love it anyway.  Oh yes.  And bonus, Little Miss loves it as well.



I got about half way through attaching the new fabric when it became abundantly clear that my little craft staple gun just wasn't going to cut in.  In fact, it just stopped working at all.  I left that little chair sitting in my dining room unfinished for about two weeks while I agonised about what to do.  Eventually I just had to get it done and that meant parting with $40 for an Ozito Staple Nail Gun.  Best $40 bucks spent EVER!

This little thing rocks.  It packs a big punch in the staple gun arena but is so super simple to load and use.  About a dozen staples later and voila!  Our little chair that had languished in no man's land for a year was suddenly ready for use.  It saves my knees and back at bed time that's for sure and I think it adds a cute little touch to the room.



Next on my hit list for Little Miss's room - the bedside table that's a functional hand me down, but could use a little fancying up.

Pinterest Inspired: Light Shade

I don't even want to think about the hours of my life that have disappeared since I discovered Pinterest.  All of those hours have been very happily spent yes, but have they really achieved anything?  Every now and then.
 
I honestly can't recall where I first can across the idea of using old book pages to create a light shade. But when I searched Pinterest I found this and an idea was born.  My gratitude to Allison Patrick of Zipper 8 Lightning who creates such wonderful items using old book pages and provided the "Pinspiration" for this project.
 
 
So, not too long ago, I decided to get on with it and create this lamp shade.  I love how it turned out.  It was super easy to make ... though it did take some time.  Just a rice paper shade (I used the Ikea Regolit which cost $6.99), an old book (I'd just donated all my unwanted ones so purchased one for $2 at my local thrift store), and some school glue ($2.95 from the local news agent).
 
To cut out all those circles I borrowed a cutter from the wonderful Karen.  A stellar Stampin Up representative (and my wonderful Aunt).  Then I just started gluing them on at the bottom and worked my way up.  I glued only the top edge and overlapped them because that's the way I wanted them to look.  I did line all my text up (mostly) straight so that you can read little snippets on each circle.  I also used some of the chapter titles, page numbers and a blank circle here and there to add interest.
 
 
 
I knew exactly what lamp stand it was going on before I event started.  I've been carting around this floor lamp that was my grandmothers for years. Can't tell you how many homes I've had it in.  It used to have a 50's inspired shade, but that went when I moved more towards art deco furniture and décor.  Since then, this lovely lamp has been languishing in various sheds, garages and junk rooms until now.
 
 
For a few dollars and about 5 hours of gluing while I was watching TV at night I love how it's turned out.  Now I jut have to figure out what to do with the stand itself.  The base and little accent on the end of the curve is woods that's been painted brown at some stage.  The curved arm moves so you can position the light at various heights.  It's metal and I thought it was black, but when I pulled it out and looked closely the black is coming off and it's gold underneath that.  The gold is also scratched showing bare metal so I think that was it's original colour.  I've put this project off for so long because I just can't decide what to do with the base - black, turquoise, copper, dark grey.  I just can't decide. Any suggestions?
 
 
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