Pastel love and TV cabinet revamp

Surprise 5th year wedding anniversary flowers in pastel pink... Oh yes please!

Imagine this little mess of wii games, dvd's, TV remotes, dvd player and stereo just sort of kicking around and on most days being quite in your way... do you sense a little of our desire to find a more functional TV cabinet? Truthfully speaking, TV cabinets are not one of my favourite types of furniture. In my mind, they sit in the same sort of category as the fridge... sort of elephant-ish like and somewhat unavoidable. I was thinking that we needed a cabinet that was preferably white which would hopefully morph or better still completely disappear into the abyss of our antique white walls. 

We were very nearly on route to IKEA absolutely certain they would have just what we were after however one of our boys had a fever and it never eventuated. A few weeks passed and I was able to convince my husband that maybe we should just turn our handcrafted coffee table into a TV cabinet instead. For the record the coffee table was beautiful! It was made by one of our friend's but unfortunately it did not work as a coffee table in our living space.

Our coffee Table used as a very UN-functional TV cabinet

Did you know that I am so very smitten for all those beautiful mint green and pastel shades in season right now?... the sense of calm they contribute to a room is so very sweet! I had also recently been on an excursion to the Paddington Antique Centre and had eye spied a gorgeous vintage cupboard. It was a lovely vintage pastel green color with massive hinges. I do love a rustic hinge! I completely fell for it and it became the inspiration for this project.

Our TV cabinet transformation

My darling husband did all the handy work. A lil mdf here and there, some cedar doors how hard can it be?? hee, hee, hee! The very nature of a handmade coffee table does not necessarily mean perfectly square therefore he at times, quite painfully, added the doors, back and sides. On the flip side I had a fabulous time working some magic with Dulux antique white wash gloss and mint green doors. I do love how it looks in our living room!

Revamped and styled TV Cabinet

Styled with pastel pink vintage bowls and bottles

Also linking up to my first ever blog party. Here is the link for The Shabby Creek Cottage- Transformation Thursday. Its a great little hub for completed projects and inspiration. 

Oh so sweet!

I do love gift wrapping orders!

It is especially lovely when I have the pleasure to write little notes on behalf of my customers like the above. Oh so sweet.... I do love my job!

Teal Coloured Ocean and Beach Thrifting

Work-shopping 60's inspired Hip Brown rest/ relaxation signs for the store

This Easter, we embarked on a rather unplanned road trip to a lovely beach area in NSW called South West Rocks: If ever you visit, Trial Bay is simply a must as far as beaches go! It also happens to be very near the area, where I grew up. Easter time is fast becoming my favorite time of the year to holiday. The beach, the weather and water temperature was so absolutely perfect. I am talking lovely soft, soft sand and calm beautiful teal coloured water... for so many reasons, I found it achingly hard to leave and return to my home here in Brisbane. Alas the sign of a fabulous holiday, my friend!

Tooth's Lemonade bottle

Simply had to do a lil souvenir thrifting from a beautiful antique store I found. I purchased some gorgeous vintage bottles... surely one can never have too many, can you??

1 Pint Milk bottle

  I also so found some beach souvenirs to remind me of my favorite beach. I do think holiday souvenirs, specifically shouting out loud for the non tacky ones are a must have!

Beach Thrifting/ Souvenirs

Cowrie Shell from Trial Bay

School holidays can be a tricky time to always feel creatively connected and on top of everything especially from a business point of view. Children force me to keep things very simple and for this reason I have been enjoying work-shopping some new product ideas. I find it is something I can quite easily do with the boys around especially if they busily work on their own projects, albeit drawing or making paper airplanes. I specifically wanted to use rope, paint and wood possibly along the lines of a sign or wall artwork... Maybe even a little 60's inspired in terms of design. I do love these particular mediums and have wanted to use them in my work for ages. These are still a work in progress; The hand painted designs need more tweaking however I am looking forward to them being listed in my home-wares store oneday soon.

Hip Brown Wall Signs/ Art works

The Importance Of Perseverance!

I read quite a profound post on Scoutiegirl this morning be terrible at something. It reminded me of a post I’ve wanted to do for a while specifically on the importance of perseverance.

We are not always "gifted" at everything we do straight away; quite often it takes hard, hard work. Beautifully made things are not necessarily instantly made beautiful... they need work-shopping; they need help from friends or even a fresh outside point of view. Products may need to go down the wrong sample path before you are able to find "The perfect sample". Sometimes you just have to simply enjoy where you are at before you find the idea you were originally looking for!

 The following is a snippet of part of my creative "Hip Brown" and "Hip Brown Homewares" journey. Warning, this exercise is probably high on the list of "Do Nots" as far as marketing 101's go but for the sake of perseverance and showing that we all start somewhere, I think it's an important one to own. If anyone else is up for the challenge of owning or revealing a snippet of their creative journey, please feel free to link in below.

Above August 3, 2009 My first ever Etsy sale "Hip Jean belt"....the photo has become rather pix-elated but I still believe this customer (bless her!) had a great deal of faith!

Hip Charlie: Children's Belt Accessor

Thankfully a friend who was a talented photographer gave my photographs a makeover. Other friends offered suggestions from sewing styles to fabrics... It was all wonderfully useful even if I didn't always choose to use it!

Hip Owl: Children's Belt Accessory

Below is my first ever lavender sachet sample. Hmm not sure what it is exactly??... BUT it did remind me of a tea bag which directly led to my next product sample which was the creation of Hip Brown Lavender Tee bags.

 Lavender Sachet Product Sample

"Hip Brown Homewares" lavender Tee Bags/ Sachets

 

"Hip Brown Homewares" Lavender Tee Bag Decorations

Standing out from the crowd!

Oh wow, oh wow, how fabulous is "Madame Flavour Tea”! Bound be the last person in the world to have just discovered it nevertheless found it at the supermarket last week and had to immediately shout out some jumbo sized loving its way. Have you tried it already?? I rarely venture far from my daily border-line medicinal dose of Dilmah however on this occasion I am very glad I did. There are quite a few MF blends on offer; I purchased the Green, Jasmine and Pear. It is a gorgeous tasting tea and the pear notes really sweeten the green tea flavour beautifully. Ooh la la sounding like a tea connoisseur yet?? What I also loved about this Tea was the "yours truly note" included inside their sweet packaging.

 

I never thought it possible to have such a personal and delightful experience buying tea at a supermarket?? A warm, sincere and personal marketing approach is a ridiculously good recipe for fabulous-ness... I also think if you enjoy what you do, like Madame Flavour your product will clearly stand out from the crowd. 

Giveaway Announcement: The winners are

Giveaway Announcement

Hip Brown Lavender Tee Bags

A quick Reminder, our first ever blog "Giveaway announcement" will be drawn this Friday March 1st. All Followers/ Subscribers and Comment's from this blog get an automatic 3 x entries. Fans from our Facebook page who also like this giveaway post will also be included. The lucky winners (there will be two) will be asked to pick any item of their choice from either of my online stores Hip Brown Homewares or Hip Brown (Children's Belts). Thanks Rachael x

A Cute Foot Stool Makeover

From the depths of big guys tinkering land and beyond, my husband appears with this mini stool he had just whipped up in hand. I do vaguely remember him mentioning he was going to make a foot stool; we needed one for our living area particularly so that our son could do his homework more comfortably. I remember thinking just quietly to myself that I had other ideas... you know, it was possibly the perfect opportunity for me to workshop a Moroccan pouf or maybe some sort of antique box but just hadn't got round to verbalizing it to him.

Pre Stool Makeover

The funny thing is I really like this stool! It's rough and by no means perfect but it has oodles of character. I knew from the very instant that this stool and I could work together! Naturally I also loved it because my husband had made it and there is nothing more lovely or meaningful than his thoughtfulness and time. 

Post Stool Makeover

This makeover method was a simple distressed white in Dulux. I used a string of bright green fluffy pom poms and hammered in decorative nails.