Sofa Bed

I cant find a Sofa bed I like let alone love enough to buy in Australia. We want to replace our green couch with a sofa bed for when guests come to stay.

In Japan there were so many beautiful sofa beds for so cheap. In fact my bed for the year was a sofa bed because I hated sleeping on the floor on a futon.

This sofa bed was only $100. Western beds were too expensive so me and Henry had to sleep on this single sofa bed for the year. I didn't mind too much.

My house was very old and traditional with rice paper sliding doors and tatami mat floors.

Futons in Japan are NOT like futons in the west at all! Here in Australia you have a wooden slat base and then a thick "futon" mattress on top and they come in singles, doubles and queens...well in Japan it is a thin mattress that goes directly on the floor on your tatami mat and they only come in singles! You can pile up a few futons to get your personal desired thickness, but I tried having 4 on top of each other and by morning I would only have 2 because the others had moved far away from me.

Japanese Futons set up for a couple. Does that look comfy? NO way!

The stacking of futons for personal comfort

Western style futon bed. I had one of these in my student years, and it was super comfy!

The first time I saw real Japanese futons I was really shocked. It was when we stayed at a traditional ryokan (like a bed and breakfast) the first time we went to Japan in 2005 for a holiday. I was expecting the futon to be similar to the ones back home...Well obviously they weren't. Then when I moved to Japan in 2006 and first lived in Nova accommodation (the company I worked for, which is now bankrupt) they gave me a free futon. I slept on it for the month I lived in their accommodation, but I was never comfortable and I dreamed of owning a bed. So as soon as I moved out of their apartment and into the guesthouse 4 minutes away from work I got the sofa bed. I had so many to choose from and all were so cheap. I wish I could send it over here to Australia because I cant find any like it at all. The ones here are all grey or brown and fold out into a huge double bed when all I want is a "click clack" style sofa bed for when I have my sister down from the country or guests from Japan (next year Hilary is coming and maybe an old student of mine) I don't want a sofa bed to take up the whole lounge room when it folds out.

Ebay find

This retro 1950's sofa bed was almost perfect, except it sold for $407.05 and the pick up was ages away. Also white would be too hard to keep clean, and I'm not sure if it would be comfortable to sit on, yet alone sleep on. I love that its a click clack style sofa bed though.

Ikea's offerings are all disgusting and Freedoms are all too brown.

Does anyone know where I can get a cool looking, comfy and cheap sofe bed in Australia? Otherwise I'm going to have to look into getting my sofa bed shipped over from Japan. (sorry Gabe, you might not have a bed to sleep on soon) *I gave my housemate the sofa bed when I moved out.

I'm starting to feel excited about Christmas

I'm feeling the spirit of Christmas a little early this year because this year Christmas is going to be at my house for the 1st time. (Ok well not the 1st time 100% because Christmas 2005 was at my house but not on Christmas day, it was 4 days before because on Christmas day me and my husband were in New York) This Christmas is also the 1st Christmas I will actually be home in Australia for it in about 3 years. Last year we were in Tokyo, and I had to work (only 4 hours) but I ended up really sick after 1 hour at work and I almost vomited on a pregnant student while rushing to the toilet, so I ended up going home early and vomiting the whole night. It turned out I got Noro virus, a bad stomach flu. I had friends coming over for Christmas dinner and I was to sick to cook or do anything. It was horrible. Well this year I'm going to go all out to make it a Christmas to remember.

Christmas 2005 decoration:

We had the lunch outside (remember I live in Australia). At the time we lived above a restaurant and they had an outdoor courtyard which we got permission to use. I decorated the area with lanterns and bows and draped red table cloths on the tables and I spray painted some twigs white and put them in vases with red stones and decorated the branches with red baubles.

We ate a non traditional vegetarian feast of salads, quiches and satay skewers.


This was the Christmas tree in 2005. Our house had ugly orange walls and skirting boards and wooden floors that needed to be polished very badly. It was a great location, but the house was ugly and falling apart. This year our tree will look much better in our apartment, plus I'm going to add a few more ornaments this year.

This year I'm still feeling the red and white but I am thinking of adding more quirky elements.

I made this collage of all my fave ideas for Christmas right now.


Which inspired me to get out my sewing machine and make a huge mess!


To make these Kawaii bird ornaments for the tree!


These are super easy to make, just make a paper pattern in the shape you like and cut out 2 pieces of fabric and sew together, leaving a small gap for the stuffing. In about 5 minutes you have a cool decoration for not much money. Yay!

I am also going to make hanging mobiles of deers and birds and snow flakes in red and white plastic. I'm going to hang Asian lanterns from the ceiling in red and pink. I also bought some love heart shaped fairy lights for the tree. So many ideas. Stay tuned for more craft projects!


Bye bye xxx

Index, RMIT Interior Design end of year exhibition

My husbands uni course had its end of year exhibition for final year students. My husband studies interior design at RMIT in Melbourne. The course should actually be called interior architecture because interior design conjures up ideas of decorators which isn't what they do at all. Basically they are specialised architects, without the architect qualification. It's kinda a pointless degree unless you make a friend who works in an architects office so you can get a job. Hopefully Henry can do this. He just has 1 more year left of study, so this is the year to try and get an "internship" of some description.

Anyway the exhibition is called Index, and it was held in an underground car park turned gallery.

The bar looked really cool and we spent most of the night there!!!

A students model

Conceptual ideas

Me and Henry
It was really hot so my face went bright red!

Henry's uni friend Darren and his girlfriend Ming.
We went out for dinner with them afterwards in the city. We had cheap Japanese food.

My style...is it mod, retro, oriental?

I was asked to describe my style by a friend. I would have to say its a mixture of styles with a prominent colour. I think our house is very Mod and retro with mixture of Asian/Oriental thrown in. Obviously red is the colour dejour in my house. My fashion sense is very similar, bold, bright and kinda kooky.

An exciting development with the dining table situation. We are FINISHED!!! Yep we got the chairs from the ebay seller and they look amazing. It was a little difficult fitting them into my mums car, but with a little help from a drill they came apart. PLUS Henry finally made the hanging light. And it looks amazing. We decided to not use the shade I bought because we couldn't decide on the right fabric to cover it with and in the end Henry stood on the shade at now it has a dent. (Henry never watches where he is walking) So we went to Chinatown and got a giant rice paper lantern in red. It looks great during the day but at night the light it gives is very red and we are not sure if we like it. It gives a nice mood but is it the red light it emits too red light district?

The chairs were only $99 for all 4. They are a little rusty though so we need to work out how to remove the rust. Does anyone know how to remove surface rust from chrome?
I am still going to make vintage red kimono fabric cushions, so not 100% finished yet.

In this photo you can see how the lamp hangs. We hooked it up with those 3m removable hooks. I think we can maybe sell these to renters who want to have a hanging light but cant due to renters not being allowed to fit or build anything in the house. We could get cool shades made with graphic prints and combine the cord and hooks in a package. We would need to get them manufactured and patented and I guess by showing you all here I've given the idea away for free. Oh well. All Henry did was buy a 10 metre extension cord and cut the end off to attach a lamp bit and light bulb. (like my use of tech language...lamp bit, what is it called?)

Hachiko wanted his photo taken too.

We also got a new bin at Big W (like Walmart I guess). It was only $22 and now Hachiko wont be able to pull out tissues from the bin anymore because this one has a lid. Plus its silver and now matches our dinning chairs and kitchen appliances. Yay.

Our old bin. It will now be used as an office bin like it was designed for.

All you have seen of our house is the kitchen/dining/lounge open plan area. I'm hoping to change that soon. I have some old photos of our bedroom from before we added a few final touches which I will show you now. Then once our bedroom is clean I will take new photos and show you how much better it is now. (Our bedroom is always messy. We have NO storage. The wardrobe in our bedroom is misleading. It has 3 doors, 2 open up to wardrobe space and 1 opens up to a WALL!!! Its so annoying. With that little bit more space we would have somewhere to put more of our clothes. It doesn't help that my hubby loves fashion just as much as me and has almost more clothes and shoes then me!)

Our bed takes up 70% of the space. That's what modern apartments are like. Our bed is so nice and it was such a bargain only $300 at the Salvation Army Charity shop in Richmond and that included a new Queen size mattress as well. It was brand new from Captain Snooze (A bedding furniture store in Australia) and the RRP was $1300. Such a saving. I got 4 years ago when I was still a student and I don't think I will need a new bed for a few years, although I would prefer a white bed, not brown. Maybe Henry could paint it?

Next to the bed is my pride and joy. My beautiful retro dressing table. I got it for $130 at the Salvation Army Charity shop in Richmond, the same place I got my bed. It has way too much stuff on it. Henry keeps buying me 2 of everything. For my birthday 2 years ago he got me a beautiful jewelry box in red that I loved, then 1 week latter he got me another one from a 2nd hand store. I was like why do I need 2? The new one is a musical box, and I do love it but they take up so much space. Then last year fro my birthday he gave me 2 tree shaped ring holders. I was like why do I need 2, I only own 3 rings! He is really funny like that.
I love how the dressing table has white and pink draws. We added the red handles (cheap wooden ones spray painted red) and I got the pink stool for $9.95 from the children's section at ikea. The dress hanging up is one I designed and made from vintage fabric.

That is our small bedroom without the decoration. We also fit a small computer desk at the foot of the bed. You can see that my love of red, retro and Asian fabrics (the doona cover) continues into our bedroom/love nest.


I just found this picture in one of my files and I don't remember where I got it. Our house looks very similar, only ours is messier. I like the collection of frames and art work. We need to do something like that near our hallway.

Ok I'm going to clean up the bedroom and show you the changes and also clean the bathroom and show you that room too.

I won these chairs on ebay

They were only $99 for 4 buy it now. How could I resist? I love the 60's shape, but I mostly love that they are chrome. They are going to ad some much needed texture to our dining area. I am going to make kimono cushion pads for the seats so they are comfortable. YAY.


I decided to buy the fabric. Again on ebay buy it now for only $9.99. Yay so cheap. Its 100cm of fabric so each cushion will be about 25cm x 30cm. I hope that is big enough (the base of the cushions will be plain red) Yay for texture and non ikea furniture!

The other red chairs I was lusting after went for $259. Yikes too much for me right now.


They aren't worth it, too scratched and cracked for that price if you ask me.


In other special news its my husbands birthday this month on the 27th. He will be turning 27 (omg so old!)

I am organising a dinner party with 6 friends (we will need to use our ugly ikea foldout chairs, but at least some people will get the nice new ones from ebay) and hopefully our new light will be made (minus the 70's-ish fabric cover as it will clash too much with the kimono cushions)

I am trying to find some cool table settings for inspiration. I was thinking a Japanese theme, with Japanese food (Henry's fave food right now is Japanese curry) but that's a bit too much Japan Japan for everyone who comes. I'm sure everyone is sick of us saying "Well in Japan they....." or "In Tokyo we....." so having a Japanese themed dinner will just make us even more wankery/showy off-y about having lived there thus boring our poor friends half to death. The Japanese theme though is pretty easy as I already have all the "tools" to make it work; chopsticks, lanterns, Japanese bowls and plates, Japanese music...even a Japanese housemate who is a very good cook.

Japanese theme menu idea:

Edamame



Cold soba noodles



Miso shiru



Sushi (kapamaki and inari for the vegetarians like me)





Vegetarian Japanese curry


mmmmmmm makes me hungry just thinking about it.

drinks we would have


Henry hates sake, but he loves Japanese beer. He prefers Kirin but I don't think you can get that here in Melbourne.

Desert:


mmmm Japanese crepe. It has a slice of cheesecake inside and sooo much cream. mmmmmm fatty. I don't know how they stay so thin!

Decoration ideas:

hang lanterns up for colour


Japanese table setting (but more colourful than this picture)


What do you think? Do you think this is a good idea? Henry's fave food is Japanese food, so he will love it, but will our guests?

I also have no idea what to buy for his present...I got him Jean Paul Gautier cologne last year which he loves.


hmmmmm. I have no idea what so ever. He doesn't read books, he is particular about clothes but he loves fashion, he likes expensive designer labels (I don't have a big budget for this)

He always talks about wanting a remote control helicopter to fly out of our 8th floor window (which I think is incredibly dangerous)

Oh and don't worry he doesn't read my blog.

Anyway its super late and this is my 2nd post for the day. Too much already.

Sayonara xxx

Camberwell Market

We went to Camberwell Market today with the dog.

I wore a lot of black and white.
The dress was $10 at Peter Alexander, so technically its a nightie not a dress but shhhh. Its also 100% see through, so I got a t-shirt dress from cotton on for $20, which made my $10 bargain not such a bargain anymore. The hat is from Chinatown in Yokohama, Japan. The belt was a Camberwell Market find from my last visit, its too big right now and falls down. The dog was trying to chase another dog 10 times his size. Silly Hachiko.

Lots and lots of vintage dresses at this stall, but all too $$$

When I saw these chairs I was sooooo excited, then I found out the price, $400 for all 4. Poo!

This chair was only $15, but it wasn't in a good condition.

What I bought

These necklaces were only $2 each. I love the red fabric one, I'm interested in different textures and materials being used in necklaces. I've been making woolen necklaces recently which I'll show you all soon!

This dress was $5. Its way too long, so I'm going to shorten it tonight (maybe)
It looks great with my red belt because the checks have red through them which you cant see in the photo.

This was a bit expensive at $10, but it looks super cool on, and I want to add some blue to my wardrobe. I'm going to wear it with a high waisted black skirt or some shorts if I find some high waisted cool-ish ones that actually fit my large arse!

I could have bought so many more things, but my lovely hubby was too hot and bothered from waking up early, and he started whinging and whining to go home. As soon was we got home he fell asleep. We were meant to go swimming in the afternoon, but I couldn't wake him. Oh well, I guess I'll try out my new swimsuit another day.

Its so cute and its from Target! I also accidentally got it half price because after trying it on I put the 2 pieces on just 1 coat hanger and I only got charged for the top which was $21. The bottom was meant to be another $21. Oppps. Its not stealing when its an accident, I didn't even realise til I was half way home.

Til next time,
Sayonara