French Kitchen Chairs

Good morning all!

My latest fun project has been restoring some kitchen chairs.

The chairs were originally a stained pine but with a little paint and a sand I was able to turn them into gorgeous chairs. Painting them white will allow them to fit into most colour schemes and by giving them a sand they have that very popular antique/vintage look. The overall look shouts french provincial / shabby chic / beach cottage.

Chairs are another obsession of mine. I have a number of occasional chairs that are never really used, but hey, they look great!

These gorgeous re-furbished chairs would make a great addition to any home that followed the french provincial theme...

 

If you are interested in purchasing one of these chairs (4 available) please contact me or visit my ebay store loushandg. 


P.s - loving the blue ball mason jars in these photos? You can have your very own... coming soon! :)

Brownies

When I was young my Mum always used to bake biscuits for me to add to my lunch box. One of my favourite treats She used to make me were brownies.

Since moving out of home I now bake my own brownies...

I thought they would taste even better served up on my Cornishware Blue and of course a cutting from my blue hydrangea looks perfect in the picture! :)

For some reason my brownies don't look like the ones you would see served in cafes and bakery's. The bought ones are usually thicker and more moist.

I think next time I bake the brownies I will use self raising flour (instead of normal flour which is in the recipe) and not keep the mix in the oven for as long so the biscuits are not as dry.

As soon as I find the perfect mix and method I will publish for all to share.

Hope you are all enjoying this beautiful Saturday afternoon.

First day of summer

Good morning!

today is the first day of summer and it is cold and cloudy outside.

Storms and rain are on the forecast for Sydney for the next couple of days and this means all the flowers in the garden will wilter and be damaged. So I've been doing a fair bit of pruning and bringing all the beautiful flowers inside... why not enjoy their beauty!!

I wanted to share some of my favourite little beauties with you... enjoy!!!

Abraham Darby Rose

Virgo Rose

Blue Hydrangea (my current obsession)

Abraham Darby & Monsier Tillier

Hessian Artwork

Good morning all!!

For a while now the wall behind our couch has been bare. I just haven't been able to find what would fit the space and suit the room. 

I am going through a phase of loving hessian. I love french provincial/country/shabby chic/vintage style and hessian fits in with this mix of style perfectly! 

So after reading some of my favourite blogs I was feeling inspired and creative to make my own masterpiece. I had some hessian sacks (which we were going to use for a bed for Daisy), and some white frames that I had collected over time. 

Simply cutting up the hessian to fit into each frame was all it took to create our lounge room artwork...

Daisy watching over with much curiosity.

I picked up two of these gorgeous cushions from Freedom (www.freedom.com.au) the other day and they look great on our couch under my new wall art!!! Loving the linen with blue and white stripes. Matches my theme for the whole house perfectly! Love love love it!!!

Have a great day!

Mwah! xoxo

Fresh strawberry and white choc chip muffins! yummy!!

Yesterday I made yummy strawberry and white chocolate chic muffins. They are delicious!!!

Every week I make a fresh batch of muffins using the same recipe but just change the flavours. In the past I have made milk chocolate chip, double chocolate chip, banana, lemon and berry. But this particular mix is my favourite so far.

I picked up the strawberries from the Warwick Farm Trackside Markets www.warwickfarmtracksidemarket.com.au (awesome markets!!!). For once I got a punnet of strawberries that are not deceiving by looking red and fresh on the top and then mushy and yuck on the bottom. All of the strawberries were fresh and yummy.

Here is the great recipe I use for my muffins...

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups of self-raising flour, sifted
1 1/4 cups of vegetable oil
3/4 cup of milk
1/2 cup of caster sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cups of flavour (e.g. mashed banana, strawberries and white choc chip, milk choc chips etc)

Method
1. Preheat over to 180 degrees (fan forced);
2. Grease muffin tins;
3. Mix all dry ingredients together and make a well;
4. Mix all wet ingredients together and pour into the well;
5. Add flavourings and mix well until just combined;
6. Place in tins and bake for 20 minutes.

This recipe makes 12 small muffins.

ENJOY!!!

Meet Daisy

Daisy is our 7 month old Pugalier (Pug x Cavalier). Isn't she beautiful?!

When we were looking for a puppy a couple of months ago we found Daisy for sale in Melbourne (about a 10 hour drive south from Sydney). 

We decided on a Pugalier because I had always wanted a Pug but due to the health problems that can come along with pure breeds, we thought a cross would be better suited. 

Pugalier's do not require a lot of exercise which was important to us due to the fact that at the time my Handsome Husband and I were both working full time in the city and would not be able to guarantee a walk every afternoon. They also have short fur which was a necessity for me due to the idea of dog fur everywhere on my cream carpet, white cushions, white tiles etc etc! And they should only reach 30cm x 30cm in size which is the perfect size for our small backyard.

Daisy has brought my Handsome Husband and I much happiness. We have got over her love of chewing, digging holes and eating flowers (which is why you will notice fences around my gardens in my photos). Daisy wins everyone over with her friendly personality as some of her favourite pastimes are playing tug of war with her toys or having a quite cuddle when she runs out of energy.

Not the best guard dog (as She is afraid of loud noises and the vacuum cleaner), but Daisy has become part of the family and you will notice her pop up in background of a lot of my photos. 

Queen Elizabeth Rose

For those of you living in Australia you would know HRM Queen Elizabeth is in the country on a quick tour.  I thought I would take the opportunity to show off one of my rose bushes which is named after HRM.

Queen Elizabeth Rose

'Queen Elizabeth' was bred by Dr. Walter E. Lammerts and was introduced in 1954, receiving many awards, and is still believed to be one of the top 10 roses to grow throughout the world. It is a grandiflora rose which is similar to a hybrid tea rose as the flowers come singly on one stem, which make them look great as a cut flower in a vase. Enjoy....

I cut one of the stems and recycled a
bottle to use in place of a vase, which I think
compliments the rose very nicely :) 

Beautiful!

Unfortunately HRM is not visiting Sydney (which doesn't make sense seeing as her itinerary is allowing her to go pretty much everywhere else!), so I'm not able to see her in the flesh. Not wanting to go into the "should Australia become a Republic", I would have loved to have been able to hand her a 'Queen Elizabeth' rose grown in my own backyard!!!

Hello!

Good morning and welcome to Lou's House and Garden's first blog post.

I decided to start this blog to share my love of garden, homewares and design. For the past couple of months I have been following a few other blogs and they have inspired me to venture in and create my own space where I can post anything and everything I love!

I have been a member of Facebook for many years now and was using that to show photos of my garden and home. I was receiving some feedback but overall I wasn't finding the right audience that shared my love of all things beautiful. I hope that this blog reaches out to those who share and understand this passion.

If you would like to learn a little more about me, please visit my profile next to this post.