Our Thrifty Home

October 22, 2018 Mia Kelly

We do have a home that isn’t on wheels and whenever I post photos on Instagram of it I am always bombarded with messages of how everyone loves the style. Anyone who knows me knows I love a good bargain, and majority of the furniture that makes up our home has been purchased second hand. I thought I would write a little post about how I have managed to furnish our entire home for a few hundred dollars, and some simple steps so you can do the same!

Our house is brand new, and there were particular things I wanted to splurge on - hardwood timber floors, large windows and doors, a beautiful kitchen and quality finishings in the bathrooms. I figured I would make up for my splurge items by trawling the internet for bargains to furnish it! A girlfriend shared a very helpful tip with me - using Power Point to be able to visually see all of the pieces I wanted to purchase together before I bought them. I would find the furniture I loved, make a little mood board on Power Point and then try to find the same or similar on Gumtree or Facebook marketplace. I’m going to share some photos of our home with descriptions of where I sourced all of the furniture - enjoy!

We purchased the kitchen pendants from Early Settler while they were having a huge sale and bar stools from Kmart, I keep most of our appliances in the butlers pantry so that the kitchen (for the most part) stays clear of clutter.

We found a beautiful silky oak side board in an antique store for $200, I use it to store all of our second hand books - my collection is a little out of control. There is an op shop near us that has fill a bag of books for $2, lord help me.

The lounge room has our West Elm couch that I found on Gumtree, we didn’t get it dirt cheap but saved around $500 off retail price. The vintage pretzel chair is my all time favourite find - for $100! I had it recovered by a local small business and my father in law re-varnished it for us. It is beautiful!

Indies bed was gifted to us by my Aunty, and Rivers bed was $20 on Facebook marketplace. Both kids have a lot of second hand books, free or cheap artwork and handmade items filling their rooms. Their entire closet is hand me downs, op shop finds or sale items, I really love the process of finding clothes that are pre loved, it gives me a rush to find beautiful items for a fraction of the cost and I also feel its more sustainable.

Our upstairs lounge pictured was purchased brand new from Freedom, it was from our previous house and works so well with everything in the new house. I’m always asked where our rugs are from, I purchased the pink downstairs rug from Miss Amara Loves and then entered a competition of theirs to win an extra rug - I won! I have wanted an authentic persian rug for as long as I can remember, but our budget wouldn’t allow for it. I fell in love with the pink and the price of the Miss Amara rug, they have free shipping and a great return policy! Not sponsored, just a very happy customer!

Most of our artwork I find online and have it printed at Officeworks and purchase frames from Kmart. I also have a lot of dried palms for decoration in woven baskets, I just ask friends or family that have beautiful gardens if I can have their leftovers after pruning. Jons grandfather was into fossicking and we have a lot of the crystals he found scattered around our home, along with some amazing shells from our travels.

Our King size mattress was a freebie, the side tables were $10 each from an op shop - we just painted them black and purchased cute little handles for them. Our guest room has a gorgeous cane bed head I picked up from Facebook for really cheap (under $50 from memory!) And I found a cactus print for our front entry from a local shop having a clear out sale, it was $50 and already framed.

Our pool area has an outdoor shower, the shower rail is from the house that was originally on the block and Jon built the backing with leftover timber from the demolition - basically the whole thing was free. I purchased our dining table when I was 12 years old haha! I always wanted to get married and have babies young, I started planning domestic bliss after finding this dining table at a garage sale. (I still maintain I’m not an OCD weirdo.)

So remember - try to think of a style you love and use Pinterest or Instagram for some inspiration. Go ahead and plan each room out in PowerPoint, you can use images of your old furniture to see if it works well with anything new you’re wanting to buy. Then start tracking down a second hand version of what you want, another bonus of planning it out this way was that I didn’t buy anything I didn’t need. I hope this little post inspires you to go “treasure hunting” at your local op shop and know that you can create beautiful spaces on a budget!

♡

Mount Barney QLD

October 16, 2018 Mia Kelly

Mt Barney. We were not prepared for that mountain at all! I had wanted to camp somewhere different and climb a mountain I’d never climbed before, which was all made possible when my parents offered to take the kids away for two nights.

As most parents know, this is a pretty rare occurrence and when something like this happens you’ve got to make sure you spend that time doing things you love - things that aren’t possible with kids. For many this may mean going out for dinner and drinks, having a sleep in and generally relaxing - but for me it means camping with no power and hiking a 1,354m high mountain.

We stayed at Mt Barney Lodge, which was such an amazing campground and we highly recommend it if you’re wanting to climb this mountain or stay in the area. We scored a beautiful spot with views of Mt Barney and after looking at this huge mountain decided we had to climb it. We had not actually planned to hike Mt Barney, from all reports I had read online it is a very intense climb and many people have been injured or lost on the mountain - not to mention you need to allow 8 - 12 hours to complete the climb. I had originally planned to hike nearby Mt Maroon but after seeing how beautiful the mountain was we felt we were up for the challenge, when would we have 8 - 12 hours kid free again!?

First tip is to start early! We started around 8:30am and I basically ran up that bloody mountain because I was petrified of getting stuck up there at night (which thankfully didn’t happen.) We ascended up South East Ridge which has some pretty amazing view points along the way - the first half of this route is through a gumtree rainforest, the other half is rock scrambling all the way to summit! The mountain also likes to trick you into thinking you’ve reached summit only to discover that you have a long way to go yet.

The views from the top are incredible, we were able to see Mt Maroon, Mt Ernest, Mt Lindesay and Maroon Dam. We had packed a light lunch and sat down to rest and soak it all in, but not for long! It was so tempting to have a big rest at the top - after all we had been hiking for a solid 3 hours and 15 minutes to reach the summit, but I really didn’t want to be hiking in the dark. We chose to go down the South summit route which is quite challenging to begin with as the track isn’t clearly marked and it’s very easy to get lost. After re-tracing our steps we came across some ribbons tied to branches and were able to climb down to the Rum Jungle.

Once you pass through the jungle it is easier to find markings showing you the way down, the descent from this route is a little easier as it’s not steep exposed rocks like South East route but a much more level path. The views aren’t as great, so make sure to appreciate those on your way up! The climb down took us another 3 hours so we completed the whole hike in about 6 hours.

I absolutely loved this hike, our only mistake was that we didn’t pack enough water. I had only come with one backpack as we were planning on hiking the much smaller Mt Maroon, so we could only carry 2 bottles of water. We are much better prepared now with a 3L Oztrail Hydration Pack, and I would recommend any one attempting to climb this mountain to invest in one of these as I ended up getting dehydrated and a bit sick after the climb!

Our last night there was spent cooking on our campfire after a hot shower to soothe our aching legs! The campgrounds are around $16 per person per night and include an amenities block, fire wood for sale, drinking water and some pretty spectacular views! I also loved the fact that they are aiming to be 100% plastic water bottle free which they’ve made easy to do with all of the drinking taps available around the property.

If you’re keen to give this mountain a go make sure you’re prepared with a sufficient amount of water, snacks, a head torch and preferably a hiking buddy - it can be very easy to get lost and two heads are better than one. Other than that make sure you’re fit enough for such a strenuous climb - it can be a little intense at times!

♡

Car Travel with Kids

October 6, 2018 Mia Kelly

Being in a car with two small children can be challenging! As much as the curated holiday snaps can have you believing everything is sunshine and rainbows - we all know that kids and long car trips generally don’t mix. We do own two tablets that were gifted to us by grandparents but we actually don’t use them often, the kids end up fighting over who gets the iPad and who gets the Samsung.

I wanted to share with you some other activities that get us through the “are we there yet!!!” stage. Depending on how much time you want to spend doing up a busy bag, you can make these items or source little toys through a store. I go for both options, the handmade ones seem to entertain them for longer but a mixture of both keeps things interesting.

Most of the items were hand made by me while I was pregnant with River, so they’ve been around a while! The absolute favourite would have to be the Mr Potato Head game, it is super simple to make and just requires felt, glue and scissors. I chose to take the easiest option ever and just cut out the shapes, I didn’t bother sewing anything because I am super impatient and luckily everything is still in tact 4 years on! We also used felt to make our “build a pizza” game - simply cut a circle of felt as your base then some yellow felt for cheese, maroon felt for pepperoni and whatever other toppings your kids love!

Click here for template!

Another home made favourite is the picture puzzle, simply get some tongue depressors, line them up and glue on a family photo (or photo of your choice) use a stanley knife to cut between each tongue depressor and viola! Let the kids line them up to make the photo whole again.

Most of our store bought items are actually left over stock from a business I had with a girlfriend - “Little Roamer” unfortunately we decided to shut down shop as our busy lives took over but you should be able to source similar items elsewhere. Favourites for car trips would have to be the wooden camera, prompting the kids to take pretend photos of interesting things they see out the window. Alphabet busy bag, best suited to kids that are a little older to string together words and if you can stand noise in confined spaces - the harmonica!

Another great small edition to our busy bag is the my first iPhone from The Timba Trend. It’s a great compact wooden toy with a chalkboard painted screen, allowing the kids to draw and write on the road - if you check out their online store there are a few items I wouldn’t mind adding to our collection including “Game Board” which has a maze puzzle on one side and chalk board on the other. Pure genius!

Click here for wooden toys

Hopefully this post has given you a little inspiration for your next car trip - may there be whinge free road trips on your horizon!

♡

Best Camping Tip

October 6, 2018 Mia Kelly

A lot of people have commented on how amazing our trips are and that the kids really look like they enjoy themselves. I suppose in the moments we choose to share (because no one is really going to snap a photo of one of the kids melting down in the car - we are too busy trying to deal with difficult situations and parent accordingly than document it) it can come across as though we are always having the most fantastic time.

Well I’m here to tell you that half of the time we go camping, it rains. There’s mud EVERYWHERE, if it’s torrential we are all stuck in a tiny space together for hours. Because our van isn’t insulated it gets very cold whenever we free camp, the kids always interrupt our sleep and more often than not there’s four of us trying to sleep in a cramped double bed. There is no toilet or shower in our caravan which means if we are staying in a caravan park it’s a decent walk to the bathroom and I’m not going to lie, I’ve used the kids potty in the middle of the night plenty! Any woman that has birthed children can relate to this night time bladder party. And if we free camp it means no showers and a stinky dump toilet - baby wipe baths all round!

I’m not telling you all of this to scare you, weirdly enough I kind of love all of the inconveniences of camping. We are there to enjoy the outdoors, spend quality time together, experience life away from suburbia and the creature comforts of home. You can only laugh when things get a little crazy and learn from our mistakes, like never ever forget to pack coffee. Try not to get wrapped up in seeing other peoples images portraying a lovely relaxing trip, you are seeing their highlight reel. Focus on what enjoyment you can make in your situation and remember it’s meant to be a fun break for everyone.

Let me know in the comment section below any burning questions you have or if you’d like to share some camping tips!

♡

Fingal Head NSW

October 6, 2018 Mia Kelly

One of our very first trips was to Fingal Head NSW, we stayed at Tweed Coast Holiday Parks for 2 nights. The caravan park was very much how we like them - not too many awesome kid facilities so that they want to actually leave the park and explore! The park has a small playground for the kids, BBQ areas, toilets, showers and a laundry - if you don’t have a little home on wheels there are also cabins and glamping tents.

It did rain while we were there which worked in our favour, a double rainbow appeared and we spent most of the first afternoon running around beneath it. There is an amazing little lighthouse on the headland and the short walk to it is through a gorgeous coastal rainforest, perfect for little ones! The size of the lighthouse definitely won the kids over and they were running around checking out all of the tracks surrounding it.

The tracks lead off the main trail to either Dreamtime Beach or back to Letitia Spit, you could spend hours exploring the amazing basalt rock formations that were formed by nearby extinct Mt Warning (which is an AMAZING mountain climb!) after exploring the headland and rock pools we walked on to Dreamtime Beach. Dreamtime is absolutely stunning and feels very secluded, despite the freezing cold weather we all had to have a little swim in the crystal clear water.

Fingal is definitely a sleepy little town, but that’s something we love. Because of the weather and short stay we didn’t get to explore the town much, so a second trip is in order to find some awesome coffee and lunch spots! If you’re looking for somewhere to unwind, do a little beach exploring, swimming and maybe a surf without all the crowds - this is your place!

♡

The Beginning

September 30, 2018 Mia Kelly

We picked up our 1971 Viscount Ambassador for $5,800 on Gumtree after having many late night conversations about wanting to holiday as a family without it costing a fortune. This blog post is titled “renovation” but really we didn’t have to do much work to Sadie other than the external paint, for those of you that are interested in what we have done, and also what we got for our 5k, read on…

At 47 years old Sadie had good bones, the previous owners had enjoyed caravanning with their young kids and had done quite a lot of work to keep her going including installing solar panels, LED lighting, extending the drawbar, rust treatment, painting the interior and re-upholstering the seats. We were very lucky and have encountered no issues with water damage, rust or any of the other common problems that pop up with caravans of this age. If you were looking into purchasing a second hand caravan some things that we made sure to check were -

any signs of rust
that the frame looked solid
all windows and frames are secure
water damage (leaks are very common)
tow ball and security chains are in good condition

Obviously majority of older vans have any number of these issues, it’s up to you to decide your ability to fix these issues yourself or how much it would cost to repair. The main damage in our case was from hail which we didn’t care about - we actually think it adds some character!

One day we would love to completely re-vamp the old girl but for now she suits us perfectly. I’m normally a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to keeping our house in order, with two small kids this can sometimes be impossible and a little stress inducing. The whole point of buying the caravan was so that we could reconnect as a family and spend quality time together, which is made a whole lot easier with everything being a little old and dated. The kids can run wild in there and no one has to stress out over the little messes they love to make.

My dad has an aircraft refurbishment business - very handy whenever you need to paint anything! We were able to sneak the caravan in there one weekend to spray paint, it took my brother and husband approx two days to complete the job. We know a few people who have rollered their vans, but we decided to spray as we had easy access to all of the equipment. We purchased auto paint from a local supplier and at the time older vans weren’t as popular as they are now and I’d not seen a mint green one with a “V” I was in love with all of the progress shots the boys were sending through!

Other than that, our caravan has had nothing else done to it. I’d say all up we spent a little over $6,000 on the purchase price and paint costs which we’re so happy with. We have had so many wonderful adventures, most of which have been very cost effective or completely free. Our van definitely delivered the goods, we’re now able to holiday in some of the most beautiful areas in Australia for a fraction of the cost of holiday apartments.

So if an older caravan sounds appealing to you, I say go for it! You’ll be happy you did!

Big Love

Mia