Succulents.. Lots of it!

Once upon a time I was obsessed with succulents. You can read about it here, here and here. It was quite an obsession actually. I wanted to buy every single succulent I came across, literally!
 
I still love succulents very much but the obsession has taken a more controlled turn now. Probably because I have lots of it and now I am very selective about what I want.

About 18 months ago, just before I found out I was pregnant, me and my hubby built a raised garden bed, a sort of a planter box for my succulents (I took lots of photos to blog about it but I can't seem to find them now).

I planted all the succulents in the planter box just last summer hoping it will fill the planter box and guess what! IT DID!

How good does this look?!!!!

I think I need re-arrange the succulents around the planter box to ensure the smaller succulents got enough room, but that will have to wait until Spring.

I'm falling for them all over again. I LOVE the colours!

If you look closely you will see burn marks on most of them. Some of the succulents were badly burnt and still recovering.

These are just breath taking..

My gorgeous flapjack. This is one of the first succulents I bought and it's doing so well.

Yes I may have gone crazy clicking a way photos of my succulent collection but they deserve the attention! However the harsh summer damaged most of my succulents. 

Aren't they gorgeous?!

Yeap they definitely deserve the attention. <3<3<3

I ♥ Picture Frame Wall

One of my most favourite things in home décor is Picture Frame Walls! It's personalized cheap wall art and best of all, I think it's a great way to display your photos. I absolutely love them! 

I did a photo frame cluster, shape of a heart some time back but I also absolutely love the organised rectangular shaped arrangements. I just got to have one of them in my home. 

These are some of my favourite ones that I've come across. I think the black and white photos are just gorgeous but I think I will do colour images on my picture frame wall and see how it pans out.

urbanoutfitters

stiesthoughts

some-nights0

shelterness

marleyandlockyer

pinterest

lovelybride

diana212m

My very first Vege Patch

I've always always always wanted to do a vege patch in my back yard. There is some sort of self satisfaction when you grow your own vegetables, well.. at least when you try :)

Finally we got around to building one. It was quite easy. We used three pine sleepers, cut them into the required lengths and screwed them together to make a rectangular raised bed.

Well.. after that it kinda sat there for couple of months growing weeds.

Getting the vege patch up and running was long over due, and with my mother-in-law visiting I had some help around the house so it gave me a free moment to get it done.

Firstly, I cleaned out the weeds and loosened the soil in the vege patch. Once that was done I filled it with potting mix. I needed about 6-7 bags of potting mix. I used the Coles brand and which was about $3 for 25kg bag of potting mix. I also mixed half a bag of cow maneuver and some washed sand.

After that all I had to do was make a trip to Bunnings to get some plants. I decided buy a collection of lettuce and a few herb plants. Salad leaves and herbs always wilt after couple of days of being in the fridge when we buy them in our grocery trip and they go to waste. I wanted to have them at hand so they are always fresh when we need them. 

Here's after I planted everything in.

After the planting I watered the patch with diluted seaweed solution. Then I applied sugarcane mulch around the plants so that the soil can retain moisture. I'm hoping it will keep the snails and the weeds away too.

Here's my collection..  we have Thyme..

Basil..

Rosemary..

A collection of lettuce leaves..

Bok Choy (I think)..

Last but not least.. Strawberry!!!

  

Here's a shot of my vege patch from my deck.

I'm so excited and so happy I managed to get it done. Very productive weekend!

Happy Monday peeps! :)

My ebay Outdoor Furniture

This post is about how I came around to buying my outdoor dinning set online! Off ebay to be specific!

The deck has been finished for over an year now and I have been dying to get an outdoor setting for a very long time. I LOVE outdoor furniture, especially the ones made out of wicker! I wanted to get a 7 piece dinning setting made out of wicker so I went browsing around in shops and OMG they are so expensive! They all hit the $800+ mark!

I was really disappointed so I turned to ebay. Ebay has anything and everything, new or used and you can buy from local sellers or international sellers. However there is also a huge risk buying a product from an unknown seller and waste your time and money on it, so have to be careful too.

So I searched on ebay for new or used outdoor furniture and I came across quite a few I liked. I added the ones I liked to my 'watch list' and sorted it by priority to which one I would bid first.

I had a few in my 'watch list but this one was top of my list.

It's new and it's WICKER! It ticked my the boxes! I was so excited!

However, on ebay  too many people bid and when bidding gets out of hand you go over budget, so I set myself a budget of $350. If it was a used setting my budget was $150-200 but this is brand new and it's WICKER!  :D

A trick I learnt from my hubby is, if you are bidding in ebay, put in your highest bid at the last 20 seconds. If you win, you win, if not, you keep looking.

And guess what! I WON! I won the bidding war! WOHOO!!!!

So apparently the RRP of the dinning setting was $1,199.95 and I scored it for $310!!!

The chairs came in boxes and the table had to be assembled.

It looks soooo good! I can't believe I bought of off ebay!

Have to say I am quite pleased with my purchase :):):)

Can't wait for summer now!