DIY Bungalow Makeover

Well you all know I love a good DIY makeover, and boy have I got a good one for you! My friend Bec recently moved house with her mum and luckily there was a Bungalow out the back for her to call home. The only problem was that it looked like this:

Le Bachelor. No problem! All they had to do was go to IKEA and add some nice finishing touches and VOILA:

Those white boxes are great storage solutions - i need to get me some! It's such a nice little zone, very relaxing and pretty! If there was a kitchen, I totally would have been convinced I was in an IKEA display!! Needless to say I'm quite jealous of her little space, I wish I had something like that when I lived at home!! My brothers and I would have fought each other to the death for it. But one day my house will look as chic as this :D all I need are polished boards instead of my terrible blue carpet!! eeeeeyuckk!!!

double date *wink wink*

ZOMG hello everyone! Please lower your weapons, do not shoot! I repeat: do not shoot! I have been totally busy lately, which is why most of you are sick of seeing papayas by now. Some of the reason I have been busy is because I have been catching up with people I don't get to see much, and emailing Shiho heaps too :)

 

Firstly, last week I went out to dinner with Shiho to Tomodachi Japanese Restaurant, because Tomodachi means 'friend' and also because they have the best Takoyaki (which I call Tako-yummy - which Shiho thinks is hilarious!!) around. We were there for HOURS, oh and the waiter was so cheeky. For starters, we kept taking forever to order so when we were finally ready to order he said "Well I'm not ready for you!!" and walked off! Shiho looked so shocked. Then he came back thinking he was really funny. Then when we had just gotten our meals he walked over while we were eating and tried to take Shiho's plate away to which she giggled and said "no no no no no!" with a mouthful of food. She said that in Japan, nobody would ever do that. Haha! Now that I think about it, it doesn't really happen here all that much either!  

Shiho! She taught me how to say "very cute" in a more casual way than i normally speak: "totemo kawaii = cho kawaii" chooooo awesome!

They boasted the biggest Ramen in Melbourne. Yes, it was big. But Ajisen Ramen tastes yummier, fu fu fu! 

Anyway, as I said we were there for hours and talked the night away about Food, Japan, Australia, Movies etc. I told her she has to watch Kill Bill and hear Uma's japanese hehe :) She told me about a teen favourite of hers called "1 litre of tears" which involves a teen romance and a terminal illness. She is also fascinated by the concept of veganism and wants to go to the Vegie Bar! One more fun fact about Shiho: she cannot really distinguish between Italian, French, German and other European accents. She can pinpoint most Asian languages, but not English based. When I said that I thought French sounded beautiful, she said she thought English was the coolest sounding language :) Aww Shiho (^_^)

 

Also in that week I caught up with my old mate Sacha! This is her outside her new place:

You may remember her from the Good Guys ad, or perhaps 'The Hollowmen' (the ABC political sitcom) or even from an earlier post on this blog? Well if you haven't been keeping tabs on the cute Sri Lankan girl popping up here and there on TV, make sure you watch Episode 1, of Season 5, of CITY HOMICIDE next year! She will be playing the part of the victim, and I'm not going to tell you the strange and perverted way in which she dies - you'll just have to find that out for yourself!! The coolest part (for me) is that there will be photos of me in the episode.. unless they end up on the cutting room floor! Sacha had to supply heaps and heaps of pictures of her with friends which could be used as props in her character's bedroom. Apparently there were 2 photos of me - so I had to sign a release form! And she thinks one of the photos was next to her hand as she was writing in her diary - potentially a close up shot! Watch out world, here comes JADE! 

 

Yeah, so while i'm still not famous, I suppose I'll just keep blogging. Here are some pics of Sacha's cool house and her creepy druglord neighbours drug sheds...

Drug Sheds. She said one morning the cops raided the house and were yelling stuff like "cut open the mattress!" haha

Sacha's bedroom. She consented to me showing this, I swear. I was pleased to see Twilight there! Although her housemate's name is Edward so that could lead to some conflicting emotions... 

Weird Glasses/Nose man coming through the wall. I like it. Okay?

Yeah so we hung out there catching up for ages and then wandered down to a nice local Lebanese eatery and got this $14 vego platter to share. It comes with a heap of lebanese bread - good value IMO! We also ordered some little extras for like $1 each, it was quite the feast!

Delicious! Well there you go! I did have a third date last week but I am running out of time to explain it all so I will do a seperate post :) I hope you enjoyed this mini catch up, I promise to write lots soon :)

mum and her managerie

Progress on mum's place.... 

And some of her crazy pets....



mother ducker's house

Wassup pimps? For those of you who know me or my blog, by now you probably know about my mum's burnt out house. If you live around my neck of the woods you have probably seen the front but not the back. I was there the other day and took some pictures of the progress. Here is a before shot (just after the fire) and a shot of how it looks now....

it has been over a year now. Her partner is re-building it/extending but it is the slowest build i have ever seen. Mum must be dying to move in. The plan is that he is going to Africa around mid-September and the majority will be finished so that mum can take over the internal renovations. Her birthday is tomorrow and she said she doesn't want a present, she just wants us to help with the house. Pretty fair deal if you ask me. I'd love to pick up some more skills so i can renovate my own bombshell one day :) I have a dream house slowly materialising in my mind and one day i will have it.

chillin' with mr joshua

So, I don't really know why but I took some pics of Josh's new place the other day. I think they are cool looking, and it is a pretty unique house...that's probably why.. anyway. I stayed there on Friday night and consequently awoke there on Saturday morning (afternoon) with the sun shining bright. From the backyard you can see the staircase.

As the house is on a hill, you enter at street level onto the 2nd floor. The 2nd floor comprises of 3 bedrooms and a small loungeroom which is used more predominantly as a storage room/walkway. Off that is the door to the external staircase to take you down to the bathroom, kitchen and cellar. I have already mentioned the cellar before... Josh's step-brother sleeps in there, but it is surprisingly awesome depsite the low ceilings, lack of natural light, and the door leading underneath the house (I envision a dead hobo and some monsters on the other side)... or perhaps those are the reason why it is awesome...? The blue door to downstairs is tricky, the handle is so touchy that you have to work out the correct angle to hold the handle on, otherwise the door doesn't close and swings wide open letting freezing cold air in. The staircase is not my favourite feature of the house when you wake up in the middle of a winter night needing to go down to the toilet.

Things were different on Saturday morning though, i saw the house in a whole new light. I was laying out in the courtyard in the midday sun, with little Daisy napping on me. Josh went inside and was gone for a while. What I didn't realise was that he was taking stalker shots of me from the bathroom window:

But then I heard a noise and turned my head to see my camera sticking out between the louvres. Bit of a shock.

So then Josh came out and gave me my camera so I could see the stalker shots, and I decided to take a few shots from MY perspective:

Then I got up on my stool/bed to get a shot of the view. Josh's window faces out this direction so that's the view at night.

I want to get some binoculars involved one night and see what's going on in the commission flats :D I'll prob make binocular-contact with some seedy naked person over there and we'll both scramble away to cover ourselves up... or will we?

the outhouse (toilet) and the tetanus fence

the moss collection. I actually think it looks amazing :)

The wood collection for those frosty nights seated around the fire

the gate which i dare not use. i think it goes into an alleyway... but i'm not 100%

Josh hanging up his washing :)

oh and I have been meaning to post this for a while. The last time i stayed at Josh's house, I was antagonising him and he pinned me down and wrote this on me:

Obviously it means "I hate Robert Pattinson"... and I got quite upset about this. Mainly because he overpowered me much to my protests of "DONT DRAW ON ME, DONT DRAW ON ME!" as he lowered the marker to my flesh. And also because it is a complete and utter LIE! damn you Josh, damn you!