Thank You!

Sending out a great, big, virtual hug to all of my lovely followers right now! Thank you so much for taking the time to read my posts and just for generally being awesome! I can't believe I have reached the 50 followers mark with GFC. You guys are amazing and I'm looking forward to getting to know you all so much better in the future! Seriously, one of the biggest reasons for me to start this blog was to connect with other like-minded people, so don't be afraid to say hello :) I love a chat almost as much as I love a good cup of tea (which is A LOT).


Aaaaand, here's another hug because you guys make me smiley on the inside and I couldn't choose which gif to use:

Finished Project (A Reveal of Epic DIY Proportions)

Remember this old, pine table I scored from the Salvos for $65?

Well, Ta-Da! I gave it a new life!

Don't you just love it? It's hard to believe it's even the same table!

When I first took on this project, I had no idea just how massive it was. Ever look at things on pinterest and think, yep, I can do that! Ever see a before and after shot on a blog where your eyes just light up and you think "Oh my God - that woman is a magical unicorn-genie-fairy. She just snapped her fingers, and look what happened!". Well, here is news for you - you can do that, but it takes a lot of work. I spent every spare minute I had for a week elbow deep in sandpaper, sanding dust and paint to get this table ready before I moved, and all the blood, sweat and tears has really paid off! I definitely couldn't have done this without help from my whole family and I am incredibly proud to be sitting at this gorgeous french-style country chic table right now, typing this post.

DIY is hard work, but it's incredibly rewarding. This was my first big project and my first piece of furniture I have done up. I gave the tired, old, slightly broken and incredibly orange table a new life in a new home, and that makes me smiley on the inside :)

I'm Back! + What Has been Keeping Me Away

Hi guys, I'm back and I'm so sorry to have stayed away for so long! Truth is, moving did not go at all how I planned, and a few major obstacles have been standing between myself and this blog ever since. Thankfully, the majority of those obstacles have moved aside now, and I get get on with doing what I love.

So first thing is first, I love Coolangatta! Living here is awesome, our apartment is amazing, our view is amazing and the neighbours are really friendly. I am settling in here so well, and it already feels like home! The beaches are beautiful, there are some cool shops to explore (though the op-shops are lacking) and I'm starting to get our little unit looking just the way I want. All in all, this place is pretty tops!

Moving here, however, wasn't so awesome. For one particular reason.

The very first day were were up here, Jake and I had a car crash. The guy in front of us braked hard, I braked hard and came up touching bumpers with him, and then someone behind me slammed so hard into the back of my car that I nearly hit my head on everything within reach. The car in front of the car in front of me  was also involved somehow, but I didn't notice at the time. It was absolutely terrible! We had just signed our lease, I had a boot load of breakables in the car and we headed up to Southport to my Uni for me to get a few pre-orientation things sorted. We had just left the uni when it happened, my car got towed and we were stranded on the Gold Coast and forced to sit in an empty apartment (after catching a bus back to Coolangatta) for hours before my mum finished work and could come to our rescue. I spent the following four days in a state of complete shock, bursting into tears at the drop of a hat and with severe and persistent back and neck pain and headaches, all while trying to move furniture and boxes and get settled in my new home. I've spent every day since with continuing (but less severe) pain, stranded in a new place where I know no one, by myself, without a car. Thankfully there is public transport up here, Jake came on the weekend, and I like spending time by myself, or I truly would be effed. 

That has got to be the main reason it has taken me so long to get back to blogging - my life was basically turned upside down after the accident, and since I have been in pain, I haven't felt like doing much. I also have had to walk to doctor's appointments and x-rays (which, it turns out, were for nothing - all he said was to take panadol and come back again in 10 days) as well as to the shops to get groceries and other things which I am lacking (there are quite a few of those, since I just moved out of home!), and that has taken it's toll on my poor, shaken up body. 

The other reasons I've been absent include a very late delivery of my internet modem, an even later connection of my internet (and a subsequent 3 phonecalls to Optus telling them to sort their shit out, in which they repeatedly assured me my connection would be established within 4 hours), and the trouble ex-tropical cyclone Oswald has caused for poor, old Australia, and in particular, south-east Queensland and northern New South Wales, of which I live on the border between. So many families have lost their homes and their loved ones in the last few days due to the severe flooding and 100km/hour winds caused by Oswald, and my heart goes out to them all. I thank my lucky stars that all that my family struggled with was loss of power, internet and phone connections, and subsequent anxiety over not being able to contact each other. So many families suffered much, much worse and I hope that all my fellow Aussie bloggers and their families are safe. 

On a lighter note, here is a little look at what I have been up to since my last post:

My gorgeous bestie, Alisha, just got a hairdressing apprenticeship, and before I left Woodburn, I let her experiment with hair chalk on my hair. I kind of like it purple?

Tea has been my best friend this week, calming me down and keeping me company while I watch movies and crochet. I love my Blue Willow teapot! A Christmas gift from mum, and a new obsession!

Jake took me shopping when he got here to cheer me up. I love my new outfit - perfect for uni, I think :)

This guy, the love of my life, left me here alone again this morning to go to work. It was the most amazing thing ever, just chilling out in our home this weekend. I am going to miss him this week and can't wait til he is living here properly.

What have you all been up to in the past few weeks? I've missed you all!

Life Update: I'm Moving!

Hey guys, I'm so, so sorry if things get a little quiet around here for the next week or so, but something exciting is happening to me in the real world at the moment - I'm moving in with my boyfriend!

Jake and I have been looking for an apartment at Coolangatta for ages, and finally we have found an affordable one with water views which we love! We sign the lease on Friday and move in on Saturday and we both can't wait! This will be both of our first times living out of our parents homes and also our first time living together (like, properly living together rather than just staying at each others houses every night).

I'm so excited (and nervous) to finally be living with the man I love, and I hope you can cut me some slack in blog world so that I can get settled in at my new home. I'll try to post a little bit throughout the moving process, but no promises! Who would have thought there is so much to organise when you're moving? Plus I have a BIG project which I am trying to finish in time to move it into our new unit!

Wish me luck! Xx

New Blog Design!

Hello lovely people! How are you all? I thought it was about time to give this little blog a makeover. What do you think? Do you like the new design?

The lovely Whitney of Whit Speaks Designs put it together for me and she did such an amazing job! Whit was a pleasure to work with - she kept me in the loop through the whole process and I would highly recommend her to anyone who is looking for a new blog design. She is currently only working with blogger, but she is amazing at what she does! You can find a link to her design page at the bottom left of my blog.

Date Jar DIY

This a project I did quite a while ago to combat Jake's constant nagging on the weekends of "what can we do?" I'd seen it on pinterest a fair bit, was bored one day, went to the craft store and gave it a go! I don't know why I never shared this, because it definitely works - even if we sometimes put the sticks back 3475975367 times until we find something we actually feel like doing.

All I did for this easy DIY is decorate the jar with pretty felt letter stickers and ribbon, paint half my sticks pink and wait for them to dry, then trawl the intenet for date ideas (50 in total) to write on the sticks.

It's super easy, it works and I like the way the jar looks on the shelf. What more could you want?

Heart bookmark tutorial & The Perks of Being a Wallflower

The other day I had writing all up my arm, scrawled on my leg and on about five different scraps of paper. "I need a diary" I thought, and so off I popped to the Newsagency to buy one. The only one they had left. An ugly blue office-like one. So I covered it in pretty fabric and called it a day until I can find somewhere which hasn't sold out of Frankie Magazine diaries!

Then I made this cute heart bookmark to match:

How To:

You Will Need:

A small piece of felt

A piece of pretty fabric

Heat N Bond and an iron

A needle and thread or sewing machine

First, cut out a felt heart, a square of pretty fabric slightly larger than the felt heart and a strip of felt slightly smaller than the width of your heart.

Stitch the strip of felt to the back of the heart like so...

Then iron the fabric to the heat n bond, trace and cut out a heart.

Iron that to your felt heart, covering the stitching, trim off any felt peeking around the edges and you're done!

How cute does it look peeking over the edge of my book?

I made this cute pom pom one today too - tutorial found here. Theres is much fluffier and rounder than mine, but I like my little scruffball :) Matches the cover of "The Perks of Being a Wallflower much better than my cutesy heart bookmark, don't you think? I'm aaalllll about aestetics lately :)

By the way, the verdict is still out on whether or not I love The Perks of Being a Wallflower in book form as much as I loved the movie. The movie is simply uh-mazing! If you haven't seen it, see it! It is so beautiful and sad and weird and funny and ohmygosh - I cried and smiled at the same time! The book is written in letter form, which I think is why I am halfway through and not completely "into it" yet, if you know what I mean. It also doesn't have the flashbacks of the movie, which is weird, cos they would make much more sense written than they did on the screen. Also, I love Emma Watson! I envy her, I want to be her best friend and I want to be her all at the same time! She is so classy, so beautiful, so chic! If I ever met her I think I'd either cry or scare her off by hugging her so tight she couldn't breathe and then getting dragged away by her bodyguards or something. I just love her and what a huge part of my life she is (what with the Harry Potter series and all) without her even knowing! She has been my role model since I was about 12, and what a great role model for a teenager has she been!

Before I get too carried away, here is the trailer for The Perks of Being a Wallflower. I beg you to watch it, it will just leave you breathless!

Betcha Didn't know...

...That i have twitter and facebook!

Check them out here...

Facebook

Twitter

And here is something from my pinterest which I plan on making soon:

Aww Guys, You're Making Me Blush!

The amount of comments and support I have recieved on this blog over the last few weeks has been amazing. I can't believe what loving, thoughtful people take the time to read my 'lil blog! You guys are amazing, and it seriously sends me into a headspin every time I log into my email account or my blogger account to read all of your messages. This is why I cant't believe I have been nominated for another blogging award!

And by none other than Ashley from Chevron Stitches to top it off! If you have never stumbled across Ashley's blog before, I suggest that you go and chack it out - she is awesome! If she hadn't nominated me for this, I'm sure I would be nominating her!

So, all you lucky ducks get to find out some more random things about me, I guess.

1. My nickname from my family is "Fang" because I never stop eating and always finish dinner first.
2. I only really started sewing and crafting regularly this year, even though I dabbled in this and that all my life.
3. I have a tattoo of a rose on my wrist, but not a tacky looking rose, a nice rose. Even my sister likes it and she is a tough cookie to please!
4. I hate shoe shopping. Size 11 feet are not fun!
5. If you ever stick your finger in my ear, I will kill you! It makes me gag and I hate it.
6. I take all the pictures on my blog with my iphone. I don't even own a camera at the moment and blogging is hard without one!
7. I love sewing baby clothes! I don't even have a kid, I just like to sew them.

So there you go, and here are seven lovely ladies who light up my life on a daily basis with their writing! Please check them out, they're awesome and their content is always interesting.

A Girl Named Leney

Eloping Stethoscope

Kitty and Buck

Lara's Vintage

The Briar Rose Blog

The Busy Bee

Pineneedle Collective

(Late) Friday's Finds

Okay guys, I know it is now Sunday, but sometimes lif gets in the way of things, and this little blogger has to take a random trip to Coolangatta to inspect potential apartments (keep your fingers and toes crossed for me that we get one of them, please?) instead of writing posts. I promise once we have moved, I will be all set up to get to a regular and more consitent blogging pattern, but for now you'll all just have to grin and bear it the way it is :)

I had a great week at the op shops this week! Jake and I scored this dining table for $65. It's solid pine and needs a lot of work done to it (total sandback and recoat plus reupholstering) but I should get out of it for about $90 total, and that is wayyyy cheaper than what you'd buy such a well built, solid table for new!

 

 

This little pine hall table also needs some TLC, but mum bought it for me for $20, so I'm not complaining :) Besides, it will match the dining table!

 

And finally, my present to Chrissy of My Dear Watson for the Very Thrifty Christmas Gift Exchange which Lara's Vintage hosted! I was unfortunate enough to never recieve my e-mail giving me Chrissy's detail's, so I'm sending off her pressie a tad late, but I hope she understands! I think the email went to junk mail, and because I didn't check my e-mails on the computer for about a week, it was automatically deleted. Oh well, Chrissy will get her little package eventually and I sure hope she likes what I picked out for her!

Chrissy and I have slightly different vintage styles, but after scrolling through her blog for hours on end, I think I made a wise choice by buying this Noritake cup and saucer set when I saw it! The pattern on it is s beautiful! I'm more of a floral person myself, but I can see the beauty in this piece and am kind of sad to not be keeping it for myself ;)

Chrissy commented on my last Friday's Finds post that she liked these pink and gold beads I picked up, so I threw that in for her too. I did originally want to keep them to start my own vintage jewellery collection, but I don't think I'd wear it much anyway, so I'm glad it see it go to a good home. Chrissy also mentioned she would like something which represents where her gift giver is from, and due to my obsession with these souvenier spoons, I couldn't walk past this Airlie Beach one! The Great Barrier Reef, while not actually local to me, is an Australian icon, and the spoon itself is quite gorgeous! (sorry for the terrible photo though!)

Office/Craft Room Inspiration

On Thursday I happened across a sale at Big W on this desk:

For just $68!!! Along with a great shelving unit including cupboard, filing cabinet and box shelves at Crazy Clark's for $65 and, being the bargain hunter I am - I bought them both!

Now, I know Jake and I don't even have an apartment yet, but getting the majority of the furniture buying out of the way could only take the stress out of moving in, right? Besides, now it's got me all excited to decorate and furnish my office/craft room. Most of the furniture Jake and I have for the apartment so far is pine, and that is the look I love, but being unwilling to spend big $$$ on furniture and storage for the office/craft room, I have decided to opt for white chipboard as my main furniture in this room - easy to decorate, matchy-matchy and low-cost, just the way I like it!

I'm not sure what sort of colour scheme (aside from the base being white) I am going to go for in there just yet, ut I do know I want it to be an inspiring place, with personal, handmade touches. Check out some of my pinterest craft room inspiration:

And storage inspiration:

Liebster Award Nomination!

Firstly, thank you so much to Heather from Dietetic Sinners for my nomination! I still have trouble believing anyone actually reads my blog, let alone would nominate me for an award!

The Liebster Blog Award is an award given by bloggers to up and coming bloggers, most of whom have less than 200 followers (or have been blogging for less than 6 months). It is to show newer bloggers that they are appreciated, and to help spread the word about new blogs. It was created to promote appreciation and recognition among the blog world. Liebster translates to “dearest” (or favorite/best) in German. It is also known as the Love Blog Award.

The Rules:

1. You must post 11 random things about yourself.2. Answer the questions that the nominator set for you.3. Create 11 questions for the people you nominate.4. Choose 11 new blogs you love and link them in your post.5. Please leave me a comment on this post with the URL to your Liebster post so I can learn more about you!


Well, here it goes!

11 random things about me:

1. I am addicted to pistachio flavoured ice cream and apple pie
2. I have never lived outside the shire of Richmond Valley on the Far North Coast.
3. I'm incredibly nerdy. I love to read sci-fi, have read entire books about how the human body works and am a literature and history junkie. 
4. When I was little, I had no interest in girly things like clothes. You would often catch me wearing Hawaiian print board shorts or army print cargo pants with terribly mismatching tops.  Far from what I am like now, wearing pretty vintage dresses and having a wardrobe which consists almost entirely of cream, white and pale pink frilly things!
5. My boyfriend, Jake, is my complete opposite. He is an action man, a daredevil, a tradie, and I wouldn't have him any other way <3
6. Learning is one of the most important things in my life.
7. I have a dog named Coke. He used to pee on my bed nearly every morning when he was a pup. Thank god we trained him!
8. I was School Captain of my High School
9. My love of vintage and antiques stemmed from my parents, who have a house filled with it all!
10. I don't brush my hair very often, and it is currently permed. 
11. I'm incredibly uncoordinated! Please don't ever ask me to catch something, because I wont. I will just look like a flailing idiot haha.

The 11 questions Heather asked me to answer:

1. What is your favorite childhood memory?

This is a hard one, because I have quite an amazing memory of my childhood, and had a very happy childhood. It woulds probably have to be playing with the go-kart the kids up the road built. We lived on the biggest hill in town in the steepest street and that go-kart absolutely flew down the hill! It was so much fun until one of the older boys, Tim, got hurt. He took a massive chunk out of his knee and you could see the bone! I remember that being the highlight of the day being the sick, twisted soul that I was haha. I wanted to be a doctor right up until last year, so I thought his injury was fascinating!

2. What is the best thing you have ever eaten?

I love food too much to answer this properly! Haha. Dad's lasagne is probably right up there on the list. He makes it the traditional way and it's amazing!

3. What was your favorite subject in school?

It was a tie between Extension English and Ancient History for me, hence why I am becoming a teacher of those subjects!

4. Where did your blog name come from?

My name. My parents named me to reflect the Sioux Indian way, using things that could have been seen or heard at the time of my birth to scramble together into a name. Sun - Neigh. Sunae. I got Little Foal out of it when my sister was trying to help me name my blog and told me it should be something reflective of me. "what, sunny horse?" I chortled at her. But then it got me thinking :)

5. Would you rather lose all of your old memories, or never be able to make new ones?

This question is hard! Probably never make new ones. My life so far has been amazing, and what if it took a turn for the worse?

6. Do you squeeze the toothpaste tube or roll it?

Squeeze.

7. What animal are you most like?  why?

Haha I should probably say the horse, but it would be more like the seal or the penguin I think. I'm a total water baby, and am much more graceful in the water than out. I used to swim competitively in breaststroke, but trip over my own feet while I'm walking!

8. On a scale of one to ten, how well do you sing?

I like to think I'm an 8, but:

9. Have you ever met someone famous?  If so, who was it?
I saw Olivia Newton John at our local shopping centre once. I pretty much died, because I waved at her and she waved back! I have also seen inside Simon Baker's bedroom ;) (Jake took photos after he did the electrical in his house). Oh, and the guy with crazy hair from Wolfmother was at The Northern while I was there once, and I met all the people out of my favourite band, Stonefield, but thy're not very famous yet! Perks of living near Byron Bay :)

10. What's your favorite ice cream brand and flavor? Pistachio ice cream from a local gelato shop, Bella Rosa. It is amazing!

11. If you could choose to stay a certain age forever, what age would it be? Probably 25. I feel like that will be an awesome age for me because I'll be finished uni but hopefully wont have kids yet, so I'll be able to travel and have dinner parties and just generally be awesome!

11 questions for my nominees:

1. If you could live anywhere in the world, in any era, where would it be?
2. Why did you start blogging? Has your reason for blogging changed/evolved since then?
3. Cuddles or kisses?
4. Movies or books?
5. What is your dream job?
6. Where do you see yourself five years from now?
7. Describe your first kiss
8. If you could meet any blogger, who would it be?
9. Where is the most interesting place you have been in your life so far? What sets it apart from the rest?
10. Seaside or countryside?
11. If you could choose only 3 outfits to wear for the rest of your life, what would they be?

My nominees:

Emmy in the Making
My Dear Watson
My Vintage Childhood
Somehow Chaotic
The Cottage Diaries
The Dressmaking Diaries
What Peggy Said
Vintage Bird Girl
Order and Chaos
Kiana Bates
Antiquarian Miss

Please leave a link to your post if I nominated you :)