Roses, roses everywhere! :-)

Today the rose decals I ordered from The Decal Cottage (http://www.thedecalcottage.com/ ) came in the mail. I started decorating everything with them right away until they were gone! Haha Above are lots of before and after photos with the decals I used. As you can see, the light fittings in our bedrooms left much to be desired. I think they are really cute now. :-)

The roses on the white dresser in our dining area really look hand painted, so I was very pleased with the results. I'm sure I will be getting more decals for future projects. :-)

For some reason, a large space insists on being at the bottom of this post. So, sorry about that. Haha

28 years old. Oh, dear! Haha

May 21st was my birthday. I can't believe I am already 28! It sounds old to me. Haha I still feel like I'm in my early 20s. But I guess most people feel like that, from what I've heard. :-)

Anyway, it was a good day. A friend of mine and her two lovely daughters brought a cheesecake over and we had nice time eating it with a pot of Christmas Spice tea.

My friend, Melissa, gave me the beautiful picture of teacups and birds by Gail McCormack ( an artist in Queensland). It's on the left side of the second photo above. You will have to click on the photo to see the picture very well.

Ben (with the help of all my friends at Bible Baptist Church) gave me the wonderful KitchenAid espresso machine. Yummy! Haha And the colour matches our kitchen cupboards. Ben would have bought it in pink he said, but they don't make it in that colour. How rude! haha

The sad thing is, we forgot to take any photos of my friends and me on my birthday, or at my birthday dinner on Thursday. Oh, well.

A Happy Mother's Day

Shame about the red eye, but other than that I thought this was a good photo. I don't know how to fix it myself, and Ben is at work. Oh, well. Nathanael is doing his funny smile. Haha

Ben took me out to dinner to the only decent Mexican Restaurant in Canberra. It was great as usual. :-)

In the morning church service Ben preached about the worth of a good mother. It was encouraging to me that a recent research which he referred to showed that if a monetary value could be placed on all a mother does, stay- at - home moms are worth $48, 000(US) per year more than a mom who juggles mothering with a career. It seems that even in Christian circles these days, for a mom to work outside the home is acceptable and even encouraged. I know there are cases where a mother has no choice but to work outside the home. But this should be an exception.
I thank God for my wonderful husband who supports me in raising our son at home, the way the Bible admonishes me to.

Titus 2:4,5 "That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed."

Nathanael practicing his driving skills.

Nathanael loves "driving", whether in a pretend car or our Subaru Impreza WRX. He looks so cute in these photos Ben took of him. The red play car was in a little kids' area at one of the malls in Canberra. Ben took Nathanael in there while I was shopping. :-) Of course Ben is thrilled that Nathanael is showing signs of taking after his craziness about cars and driving. Haha

Changing around the furniture :-)

These are the photos of the new way I arranged the living and family rooms last week, as well as some of the bargains I picked up at garage sales last weekend. The vase and vintage pillow cases were only $1!

Thrift shop and Boutique "finds".

I made the curtains in our guest room
on the left, from a really pretty bed sheet
I found for $6 at a Thrift/Op Shop. It is so
easy to make curtains when a lot of the sewing
is aready done for you. :-)





This teacup and saucer
wall hanging thingie came
from a cute little boutique
shop in the coastal town of
Tilba Tilba. I love that
town! It's so pretty there.




The doily on the back of the sofa came from an antique shop in another little coastal town called Mogo. It's not an antique, though. Haha
The rectangular cushion on the left was found in a gift shop in the same town.
Our living room actually looks a lot different now as I changed all the furniture around last week. I'll post some pics of that later on. :-)





This cute little hanging candle holder (on the right) was a bargain at a Thrift/Op Shop.
My friend, Melissa and I walked down town from her house a couple weeks ago and went to the thrift shops. Since we walked, I hung the candle holder from Nathanael's stroller for the rest of the time and a couple ladies asked me where I got it. They were surprised at the answer. Hehe :-)