Cataclysmic Cabinet:

How to surprise your spouse:

Step 1.

Adopt a piece of furniture you don't really need.

For e.g.; A tv cabinet that's too big to fit in your lounge and that you wouldn't replace your current one for anyway:

The gift that keeps on giving...

Step 2.

Decide to make the home fit the furniture as opposed to choosing furniture to fit the house.

ie; throw everything else in the room out in order to fit said un required item in.

Step 3.

Rather than simply rearrange the room, pull up the perfectly good carpet and while you're at it change the entire colour scheme of the room.

ie: start an unnecessary spontaneous renovation.

Step 4.

Finally, just to spice things up, book a floor sander to come and polish the floor boards on the very same day as your in-laws 50 year wedding anniversary. 

Surprise!!!

Yea, I'm tickled pink, just thrilled…

can you tell?

So what began as  the offloading a contribution of an enormous old TV cabinet from a friend (thanks mate!) has now turned out to be the spark of an unnecessary home renovation.

We live in my parents rental property. It isn't ours to invest in.

I hope we get major brownie points in Santa's book this year.

Oh well, at least now I might get the dining room I've always wanted

and maybe just in time to throw a little summer soiree?

(although he insists on painting the walls in shades of grey,
the floors in dark Jarrah stain gloss and is planning to have the fireplace as a feature in black. 
- Lord give me strength!)

Surprise!

I've learnt by now that when hubby calls and says he has a "surprise" for you, don't get your hopes up but instead anticipate the worst.

You see as a domestic painter by trade he often has access to all manner of unwanted objects being discarded during peoples renovation process.
And you know what they say about one mans trash being another mans treasure… (I swear he's turning into my Dad!)

The last time he told me he had something special for me it turned out to be a $10,000 piece of Burl that he got at the bargain price of $3,000.
If you don't know what burl is, it's basically a piece of wood.
Or to elaborate further, "a malignant growth on a tree trunk or branch". Sounds appealing and worth every penny doesn't it?

Mind you this lovely piece of tree cancer is destined to become a dining table, although it's so big it won't actually fit in our house - and that's before we've managed to attach legs to it and find chairs to suit.

Somehow, unless we plan to reunite King Arthur's Knights of the Round Table I really don't see the overall practicality of this "investment piece".
Be sure to keep an eye out for my latest contribution to e-bay….

Moving on and back to the present "gift", you could understand why I was a little apprehensive when he divulged that this latest offering was also a piece of furniture.
But he scoffed when I asked him if it would at least fit through our front door and assured me that I would fall in love when I saw how beautiful it was, so I took a deep breath, resolved to just wait it out and deal with it once it was on my door step.
"Who knows", I thought, "maybe he's chosen something really nice this time." We have been in need of a bed head and some wardrobes for a while…

No. Such. Luck.

"You're gonna go nuts when you see it" he enthusiastically assured me.

Oh I went nuts alright, I went right off!

But of coarse this surprise was far from over and the best was yet to come...

Giveaways!

Let it be known I've never won a competition in my life and I am less than apt at operating an analogue camera (isn't that what you call the opposite of digital? See, I don't even know what to call them let alone how to use one.)
But despite all that I'm still attempting to enter a competition to win this beautiful baby:

As found on:

Click here To Enter
But don't really cos there are already something like a gajillion
other entrants and my chances at winning are slim enough as it is.

Naaaaw, alright then… click if you must :)

Isn't she pretty?
I think my socks would actually be knocked off if I won.
Fingers & Toes are crossed xx