Faux Fur

Ella was keen to have her desk chair recovered to better suit her room. It's an old IKEA chair that used to be red and black. Some time ago, I spray painted it white,and was quite happy with how it turned out..... but we couldn't reconcile the red upholstery in a mint, watermelon and blue decor!

The base upholstery is now White vinyl for the clean, ladylike look.....

 But at the moment, we're going with green/blue faux fur for that accidental kind of Monsters Inc look

Sunset on Dec 21

Cocoa at the beach

It was too hot for much else than hanging out at the dog park beach at Safety Beach today.....

It's definitely a Green Christmas

End of the school year mini break

We checked into a hotel in the city on the afternoon of Friday, December 11.... exactly 2 hours after finishing up at school for the year! OUr mini break began with cocktails at Misty, a bar on Hosier Lane..... one of Melbourne's top graffitti laneways. 

You can't see it that well in this picture, but the bars have been crochet-bombed. 

No more students' dirty looks!

We ate at this Melbourne restaurant..... smoked brisket for days!!! So yum. The whole hipster meat thing is such a thing here. Neither of us are complaining, though. We enjoyed yummy sides of slaw and Mac & Cheese and finished with this amazing Lemon Meringue Pie,.... all washed down with fine beer and wine.

And the next morning.... we sipped elegant Beroccas to help with our fuzzy heads before heading out for breakfast and Christmas shopping.

Getting ready for Chrissy

It feels odd to go and collect a Christmas tree from a Tree farm when it's 28 degrees outside..... but that's what you do here. 

The War Against Misson Brown Trim Continues

On the Melbourne Cup Long weekend earlier this month, we hired some scaffolding to reach one of the upstairs windows still sporting the 1980's mission brown paint trim we are battling against in an effort to cosmetically update the house.

Caramel popcorn

First attempt. 

Melbourne Cup weekend snack food. 

Details

Bali best bits

WATERBOM PARK! So much fun! Everyone had a blast, and we went from lazy river floats in inner tubes to some straight drops on  some pretty extreme slides. I screamed .... a lot. 

Meet Frank, our grumpy Villa cat. He begged for food  when we were home, and slept on our sofas when we were out. 

Bali dog on the beach. 

More beach highlights

The view from our Beach Club.... the view was great, but the furniture was not particularly upscale. (You may note the missing slat in the lounge chair.)  Minor detail. The scenery was awesome, and the drinks service was attentive. We watched kite flyers, glass bottomed boats arrive and depart, and standup paddle board yoga sessions.

Our favourite  local dinner/lunch/beer on the way back to the villa cafe.

The crew at the Beach Club

The tide was out, so we walked out to these little shrines.

Our Villa

We stayed at Dampati Villas and it was our home away from home! The pool got a lot of use, and it was our refresher after a morning of touring around in high humidity and hot sun. 

We had elephant towels on our arrival the first night only, but the room service was pretty awesome, clean towels, sheets and breakfast served in the villa each morning. 

On the beach in Sanur

We arrived in Sanur after a sweaty drive down from the mountains and rice fields. Our first walk along the beach impressed us as we saw so many brightly coloured outrigger canoes and Ella received heaps of calls from the massage ladies on teh beach to "braid your hair, girl!?" 

Beach blessings 

Rice fields

Pictures don't really do it justice, but the Tegalalang Rice Fields are pretty impressive. Terraces as far as you can see. So green and lush. 

At lunch....