Doug Up In Sydney

As I mentioned in my last post, my favourite store on my Sydney trip was Doug Up On Bourke. For those of you who are not familiar with the store it is a treasure trove of antiques and collectables, and is one of the largest single stores of its kind in Sydney. One of the best parts is that all of their stock is sourced in Australia and they specialise in mid 1800's to late 1950's! I could have stayed in this store for hours looking at all the interesting objects .... well we were in there an hour and a half!

Thought I would share with you what I managed to dig up on Bourke along with some of the fantastic things they stock.

Love it all ....

Wish I had room for this one ...

How cool are globes at the moment?!

They stock lots of shoe lasts - along with cute little child size ones ....

One of my girlfriends bought an old green iron just like this one ....

They have a great selection of stools of all kinds ...

Speaking of stools, I am on the lookout for an old stool for my main bathroom. Maybe an old milking stool or something. If anyone has seen an old low stool for sale in Brisbane I'd love to check it out.

...... and now to what I managed to dig up ....

All images except for this one from Doug Up On Bourke

A really cute old recipe box for $10 which is perfect for holding all of my unframed artwork. A bobbin which I just had to have as I adore them $35, and an old ceramic electricity cover for $10 - not sure what I will do with this one yet! I was certainly happy with my little haul, but next time I need to allow a lot more room in my suitcase!!!

Doug Up On Bourke will not disappoint those looking for something different. They are located at 901 Bourke Street, Waterloo in Sydney.

Renovation Update: I am still in the thick of a renovation zone and have no decent pictures to show you all yet. I can report that I have gone over budget though (boo hoo). My initial budget was $15,000 as advised by my real estate mate, however, after setting myself a more realistic budget of $20,000 (we are talking two bathrooms here people) I am still struggling to stay under! More on that next week.

By the way, if you get a chance over the weekend, pop over to Natural Modern Interiors and take Lisa's Interior Design Workshop Poll - I know she would appreciate the feedback.

Have a great weekend everyone. Michelle

Sydney and Reno. Update

Hope everyone had a great weekend. My girlfriends and I had a fantastic long weekend in Sydney, we only wish it could have been longer! We managed to shop until our feet hurt a lot eat, drink and of coarse talk until the wee hours of the morning. We haven't had a weekend like that in a really long time - it was actually the first time I had spent 3 nights away from my children - lets just say I needed it!!

Thought I would share some of the highlights with you. We ate spectacularly each day, which was one of our goals - one of the best restaurants we ate at was a place called Wine Odyssey Australia at The Rocks. The menu consisted of some awesome Australian fare and along with a-la-carte you could order off the 'Flight Menu'. This menu consisted of a three course meal with the wines already selected for you - and let me say is was delicious to the extreme! Now I have had this type of meal before, usually costing in the region of $100, but this was a little different with each meal being a tasting portion at a total cost of around $35! I had the Sparkling Wine Flight pictured below - with poached quail egg on brioche toast, king prawn & sweet potato gnocchi, and duck terrine to finish - yum!!! All the wines were exceptional too - if you live in Sydney and haven't tried it I would definitely recommend you put it on your list!


After the main, the dessert menu which was also a tasting dish for only $26, was washed down with a port! We all agreed this was our favourite restaurant of the trip.


We started out with a wish list of shopping destinations and got around most of them - Doug Up on Bourke (my fav), David Met Nicole, Koskela, Have You Met Miss Jones (closed while she is on leave unfortunately), I Ran The Wrong Way, Oxford Street strip shopping, and Oxford Street Markets, Pitt Street and the QVB Building (of coarse) - phew we were certainly exhausted at the end of each day, but it was well worth it!!!

Coming home I was a little anxious as to what I would find knowing that the demolition of the bathrooms was taking place while I was away. Well, they didn't disappoint - my house is full of rubble as you would expect, but I am really really excited about the new spaces! The main bathroom is going to be a great size 3.5m x 2.5m and the ensuite will definitely be adequate at 2.5m x 1.4m. At the moment they look like this ....

main bathroom

looking from main bathroom into what will be new ensuite

ensuite

The new walk-in-robe has been sheeted, along with the new linen cupboard.

walk-in-robe

The builder and plumber are back tomorrow and all of my bathroom goodies arrive - yay! Hopefully I will have some better images for you all by the end of the week. I'm off to look at more tiles - I can't seem to find any I love but I will keep you posted.
Michelle

Just Plain Gorgeous

I was lucky enough to get a small amount of shopping time in the other day - so I headed straight for the newest addition to our little precinct.
With a store name like 'just plain gorgeous' I've got to admit my expectations were high as I entered the brand new store owned by Simone, from Beach Vintage, and her two sisters. Let me tell you it did not disappoint! The store is filled with beautiful finds from local and overseas artisans and truly reflects the girls fantastic eye for home decor, design and clothing.

The store, which is located in Bulimba's Oxford Street, has something for everyone - from cushions to lamps, clothing to jewellry, and tea cups to soaps. One of the features I really admired was that the girls have placed plaques next to a lot of the wares explaining a little about the designer and their products, giving a real personal element to the shopping experience. This store will definitely be a regular on my shopping trip list! If you live in the Brisbane area, make sure you pop in and say hi to the girls - I'm certain you will find something to brighten your home or wardrobe!

And, if you are not familiar with Simone's beautiful blog Beach Vintage - knock on her door and say hi - I've heard she's really friendly!

Hope you all have a great weekend. Mine can only be better than my week, which has been filled with sick children and a sick husband :( ! Michelle

all images from Beach Vintage