Giveaway

Some of you may already know the lovely Kerryanne from Shabby Art Boutique. She is currently holding Simply Christmas - "putting homemade and home baked back into the holidays". As part of this fantastic initiative she is currently hosting a giveaway of some of my Christmas goodies!

All you have to do to enter is check out her post here, and become a follower - simple! While your at it, I would love it if you became a follower here at Paper Tree Design, as I will be holding my own giveaway in a couple of weeks and would love you to join in.

If you haven't had the chance to pop over and see all the lovely Christmas ideas that Kerryanne and her guest bloggers have to offer for the festive season, can I suggest you do. Her blog is filled with everything from how to decorate your tree to home baking for the holidays. There is something for everyone! Michelle

p.s. I will be dropping by her blog on Friday for a guest interview.

p.s.s. oh and just a reminder to save the date, I will be there on Saturday ....

Bored With Your Ironing Board?

As all the little thing that need finishing off around our home start to speak louder as a collective, I turn my attention toward things I can control such as our ironing board cover. Okay, I never said I was completely sane!

Don't know about you but my ironing board hides in shame in a dark recess of our house. Although I would prefer it never come out at all realistically this is not the case. Sick of staring at my quilted Sheridan all white cover, I decided it was high time to update it. After flicking through an Inside Out magazine I came across this lovely ironing board cover by Sass Home.

Of coarse, I went straight to my computer to order one, when much to my horror I found I had to go into a store in order to purchase :( !! Now, with time being oh so precious these days I am mounting a search for one I can buy online, any excuse to not have to step foot into a Westfield Shopping Centre. Of coarse these ones from Sass Home are quite lovely - anyone know where I can purchase a similar one without pounding the pavement?

Hope I'm not sounding too lazy. Looking forward to the weekend this week as I have had my youngest at home with what they think may be the flu (in summer - I know), with my husband away during the week - I think the weekend is my turn for some down time. What are you getting up to? Whatever it is I hope you have a great one!
Michelle

* all images from Sass

Wednesday Wicked Design

Hi everyone, doesn't Wednesday seem to roll around quickly?

Today I thought I would showcase a designer I had the pleasure of sharing a 'pod' with at the BiTM last Friday night. Good Boy Cracky, named after the designers labrador, stocks handmade accessories made from recycled material.

From iPhone covers to hair clips, brooches, and earrings Good Boy Cracky's etsy store is filled with vintage goodness!

Check out these great stocking fillers:

Red Striped Earrings


Floral iPone/iPod Cover

Recycled Fabric Clutch

Red & Blue Heart Hairclips

Chocolate Cupcake Hair Clip

Camera Felt Brooch

Aren't all these designs just gorgeous?! I know a couple of little girls who would love Santa to put those divine hair clips in their stocking!

Hope you are all having a great week.
Michelle

Etsy Front Page & My First BiTM

Hi everyone, hope you all had a great weekend. I had a weekend filled with renovation bits and pieces. This morning however, I woke to an email telling me that one of my garlands had made the front page of etsy ..... wow, can you imagine my excitement!

Below is the image from craftcult. The lovely ladies at craftcult put together a treasury on their favourite Christmas colour. I think you will agree, there are some beautiful images of Christmas goodies from all over the world included in the treasury. If you would like to see a larger version with proper links, go to here.

On Friday night I had my first BrisStyle Indie Twilight Market. My sister (who I am very grateful to for her help) and I, had a great night! Despite the threat of rain, King George Square had a great vibe with loads of people looking to buy handmade. All the stallholders had fantastic stands with lovely twinkling lights, there was a band playing, and the atmosphere was great. Thanks to all who stopped by, it was lovely to meet you, thanks so much for your purchases and kind words.

Below are some images taken after we finished setting up. Not a very flattering image of me in the first one - my sister encouraged me to be in the shot, and as I wouldn't this is the best she was going to get!



Thanks again to all the lovely BrisStyle ladies who do such a wonderful job setting up and controlling the markets. They make everthing seem like such a breeze!!

Best laid plans: I had intended to visit everyone over the weekend, but with so many things to do on our reno. completion list, I didn't think my husband would have appreciated this so I will visit you all soon - I promise!!


Michelle

Before & Afters & Budget Breakdown

Hi everyone, as promised I am showing you the before and afters of my main bathroom along with a budget breakdown - and yes, it is scary!

The image below shows the main bathroom after renovations. Okay it is not finished, we still have some sanding and painting, and a mirror to put up but I couldn't wait to show you our transformation.

As you can see it is quite a bit space 3.5m x 2.5m - so I had some room to put in my freestanding bath and a huge shower.

Now to the before (I can't believe I am showing you this) but as you will see below there used to be three small rooms in this space. The previous owners decided it was a good idea to have all of the surfaces resprayed prior to selling - the images below show the result of this - all the surfaces started to peel around 6 months after we moved in. I knew they were sprayed when we bought but thought they would last longer - yuk!

Above shows the toilet before - one room on its own.


Below shows the toilet after - the shower now occupies its old space

Above shows the powder room before - another space within the zone!

Above shows the bathroom before with shower and bath.

Above shows the bathroom before looking through from what is now our ensuite but was previously my walk-in-robe.

Phew - I hope you are still with me!

My favourite thing is the freestanding bath and the gorgeous waterfall bath spout below.

Now to the Budget - if you remember from a previous post a real estate friend told me to try and do both for $15,000 (impossible!) I then revised the budget to $20,000 which I knew was going to be a challenge! The result for both the ensuite and main bathroom:

Tiling cost $4600, Tiles $2147, fittings $5600, plumbing $4500, building works and electrical around $4000 (final figures on this not in yet), glass and glazier $1155, towel rails and lighting around $700. Okay how are we going ...... that totals $22,702! Okay, being realistic this is only a little over a 10% blowout which is not bad considering the spaces.

Now to my little black book and some really big thank yous:-
Tilers - Eve Renovations - (0414407519) - Females who will do your whole reno. or just the tiling
Plumber - Perry Thomson (0403549037)
Builder - Matt from M2 Build (0421721182) - my brother-in-law
Glazier - Brisbane Glazing (0412824029)
A really really really big thank you to everyone who worked on the project. You kept me laughing even when I felt like crying! I would definitely recommend each of you and I will be calling on all of you again for my next project.

Hope you all enjoyed my little before and after. If you have any other questions please email me at papertreedesign@bigpond.com.

I will post an image of the main bathroom on my sidebar once it is painted and I have some bling to show you.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend. Wish me luck as I have my market in King George Square tonight from 5pm to 9pm - lets hope the weather holds out!
Sorry I haven't knocked on any of your doors this week - I will definitely pop by and visit tomorrow morning.
Michelle

Wednesday Wicked Design - Shazzabeth

This weeks spotlight features the gorgeous designs of Shazzabeth Creations. Sharon handcrafts beautiful designer jewellery from her studio in Ipswich. As she states in her etsy profile, she started out creating beaded jewellery, but now the majority of her work uses chainmaille and wirework. She also works with sterling silver, gemstones, Swarovski crystals, copper and brass.

As you will see her designs are exquisitely beautiful. I'm sure, like me, you would love to find one of these pieces under your Christmas tree!

Here are just a few of her 100 plus designs currently available in her etsy store:

Dear Santa, I promise I'll be good ....

Sharon also has a beautiful blog devoted to all things jewellery which is a feast for the eyes.

A fellow BrisStyler, Shazzabeth Creations will be on the stand next to mine at the BrisStyle Indie Twilight Markets this Friday night.
I would love to see you there.
Michelle

Ensuite Before & After

Hi everyone, thanks for putting up with my slackness at not posting this on Friday. I have a good excuse - all trades only left at 6pm on Friday, and as I had just had my laser eye surgery to correct my vision I was a racked out on valium! Good excuse??!!

Anyway, as promised the before and after shots of my bathrooms begin with my ensuite (decided not to bore you all with a really long post on both). Although not totally finished i.e. no towel rails, paint, or pretty things yet (yay shopping). I hope you will all agree it is an improvement.

Please remember, this is no glam magazine worthy bathroom makeover. I had very little time to organise the bathroom renovations, and I was on a really tight budget.

The ensuite below after:

The ensuite below before:

Yes, the ensuite used to be my walk-in-robe which has now been relocated (I'll do a post on this at a later date). As you can see it is not a very big room - 2.5m long x 1.4m wide, but we have managed to fit in a big shower, toilet and vanity. I love the way my new tiles look.

Some of my favourite things would have to be the shelf I had installed with the mirrored cabinets above - lots of storage - yay!!!

And, the rain shower head - love, love!

On a slightly disappointing note: You may notice from the image below that along with towel rails and paint, the toilet buttons are missing on the toilet - unfortunately one of the things I had to put up with when I used the BDW at Springwood. We got a really good deal on all of our fixtures with them, and I don't like to blog badly about anyone, however, I have had a disappointing experience them when it comes to delivery of what I purchased. Although they have been accommodating in fixing up all the errors there were far too many errors for one renovation. I guess we can just put it down to dumb luck, but as you can imagine this put a real strain on my week ...... okay ...... I'll admit I was stressed out rather badly before my operation!

Speaking of which, my eye op was a phenomenal success - I can now see clearly with no contacts! There was no pain, and the whole operation took around 15 minutes! Should have done it years ago - I thoroughly recommend it to everyone thinking of having it done - the doctors and staff at the Laser Sight Centre were terrific.

Enough rambling from me now - I will show all the before and afters of the main bathroom on Friday, along with a thorough budget breakdown (need to add it up myself yet) and also give you all my wonderful trade contacts.

Until then, hope you are having a great Monday.
Michelle

Wednesday Wicked Design

What better way to kick off my new segment than with a fellow BrisStyler who is not only wicked by name, but wicked by design! Teneale from Wicked Child Designs states on her blog she simply 'likes to make softies'. As you will see there is nothing simple about her softies - made from felt, retro fabrics and wool her designs have a distinctive eco cred.

With each softie having a name, and wicked story attached to it, you will be begging to take them all home!

Meet some of Teneale's wicked wicked little designs available in her etsy and madeit stores ....

Sam is a kleptomaniac, and fears someone might find her spoon collection under the bed.

The Beatles like to twist and shout till midnight. Then they twist a little more.

Meet Jeffrey.

He doesn't like vegetables. He doesn't like meat either. He will only eat lolly bananas and pretzels. And they have to be eaten together. Not separately. Got it? Right.

Cookie Monster and the Cookie Tree Coasters

Teneale obviously has a wicked sense of humour!

I know she would love it if you took the time to pop by her blog and say hi.

Thanks for taking the time to read a little about a fellow crafter - we love it when you support handmade!

Hope everyone is having a great week.
Michelle

Markets and Winnings!

Hi everyone, I hope you all had a great weekend. I had a fantastic weekend which started with a stand at the BrisStyle Eco Markets on Saturday. Thankfully the rain gods looked after us and ensured we had a beautiful sunny day for the event. It was so lovely to meet all of my customers and chat about handmade design - everyone's comments were really encouraging! Thank you to all who popped by to say hello - you made my day!

I had a really big space this time

I now have to get busy creating some more artwork for the BrisStyle Twilight Markets which will be held in King George Square on Friday the 19th November!

Every market day the BrisStyle team hold a handmade raffle by collecting something from each of our stands - the proceeds go towards a chosen charity for the day. On Saturday this charity was Peninsula Animal Aid. As you may have already guessed, I was lucky enough to win one of two baskets filled with goodies from my fellow BrisStylers! I was sooo excited, not only did I have a fab day, but it was topped off with a basket of handmade goodness. As you can see I feel very spoiled. I managed to snap this picture before my 4 year old took claim to a lot of these lovelies.

In aid of all of the lovely BrisStylers who spend hours and hours on their craft, I have decided to add a new segment to my blog called 'Wednesday Wicked Designs' to showcase some of their amazing talent. Every Wednesday I will post about a fellow BrisStyler and let you know about their designs. So watch out for my first post this Wednesday.

Renovation Update: My bathrooms will be finished this week - Tilers finish on Tuesday, Plumber is in on Wednesday, and Glazier is in on Thursday. This means, with fingers crossed, I will be able to show you all the before and afters on my Friday post before I go in for my laser eye operation - followed by a complete budget breakdown the following week. Can't wait to see them come to life this week with all the 'blingy' bits!

Wishing you all a fab Monday.
Michelle

Can You Keep A Secret??

from here

That's the name of the new vintage store in Greenslopes, Brisbane.
After visiting this store, you may well want to keep it a secret, as it's packed full with with retro lovin' goodness!

The store, owned by Emily Jane, is part boutique and part lounge. Emily stocks hand-picked vintage clothing, retro homewares, and collectibles. From old typewriters to the skates you probably wore in the 80's, it is an eclectic vintage lovers mix!

The store is beautifully laid out in an old Queenslander at 653 Logan Road, Greenslopes. I chanced upon it by accident, and wish I had taken my camera so I could share some of Emily's vintage style with you all. It's definitely a store I will be adding to my list when doing the retro rounds. Good luck with your new venture Emily!

At My House This Week - I am madly preparing for BiECO which is on this Saturday. With all the reno's going on at my place this week it has been hard to concentrate.

my magnets drying


Don't forget to pop down to Racecourse Road on Saturday to visit me if you can. I will be inside the Church hall on stand number 10. You don't have to buy anything, it would just be great to meet you!


Hope everyone is having a great week.
I'll be round for a visit if I get a chance.
Michelle