Aye aye me hearties!

My dearest Mister spent two weekends making our Master One the most gorgeous Pirate Ship outdoor play area.  This all started with a conversation surrounding making a play area, near the house with a floor  and a sandpit.  Mister can't do anything by halves however and got a little bit carried away....I do love him for it though as the ship is awesome!!

A ships steering wheel is on it's way and I am making an activity board (I'll pop a photo of the one I want to make at the bottom).  The big question now is do we paint it or leave it as is?

Master One has headed straight out the door at every opportunity to climb aboard!

What are the small projects at your house that  wound up bigger than Ben Hur?

Gorgeous 'anchor' Mister made

Nearly finished!

Master One approves.

What a FAB set of steps!

This is the activity board I want to make!  How gorgeous is it?

Naming our home

For some time, since buying this house in the tree-tops we have wanted to 'name' it.  It's not something I've ever thought of doing before, but I feel the house needs it.

We've tried variations of words in different languages, google translate is a gem!

Here are some of our ideas thus far -

Tropical Tree House
Spanish - casa del árbol tropical
French - maison dans les arbres tropicaux
Irish - teach crann trópaiceach


Too long I am thinking, so another variation had to be found.


Tropical Cottage
French - chalet tropicales
Spanish - casa tropicales


I think it's hard to keep it simple without being overly generic and boring.  If this part is hard I hate to think of designing the sign!!  Wow!


I found this fabbo site with "how to name your house" information.  Some great ideas! 


Then I found a site in the UK that makes the most GORGEOUS signs (for all uses!).  Now I have to find someone local to match!


Check out No on the high street it's drool worthy!  Some examples below..

Too many choices!  All so beautiful.  If anyone knows anyone in North QLD with the talent, I'd love to give them my business!!


Decisions, decisions.


Happy Easter everyone!

Pool play

One essential in the tropics is a swimming pool!  When we bought the house we decided the very first thing we would do is install a pool.  We want Master Jack to learn to swim and it will provide us with summer fun family time.

We decided to pop the pool nice and close to the house to ensure we maximised use of it.  We are also fortunate to have a bathroom that opens directly on to our patio so no need for wet little feet to travel through the house :)  Perfect!

Here is the yard before its transformation.

My dearly departed grass :(

For viewers of the great Aussie classic movie 'The Castle'...."Dug a hole Dad". 

There's not a lot of garden left.

The temporary fencing is going up and it's starting to look like a pool!

And a few months later...

We still have a fair bit of landscaping left to finish and eventually we'd like to replace the make-shift shade sail with a lovely new one (this one was found left-over from the previous owners so a bargain!).  

I'm thinking a cocktail by the pool is on the cards...

Bit by bit we get there :)

Dangerous liasons

Living on a cliff-top can have its drawbacks.  Master Jack is 14 months old and is a mobile terror!  He walks, runs, climbs and above all, he falls over...a LOT!

We do try to childproof the house ahead of injury, but lets face it, sometimes we miss things.  Trial and error unfortunately means a bump to the scone for Jack or worse.  It's always a sad day in our house if he takes a big tumble, but on a cliff it could be so much worse!!

One area we have been meaning to fence for some time is this one...

It's an area near the front entrance of our home and houses the pool filter, as you can see it's a pretty steep and rocky drop to the water tank.  A bit scary!

The Mr fashioned a fabulous Merbau gate on a hinge.  He stained it with a clear stain and I think it looks fab!  Cost under $30.  Bargain!

Looking at the nice new stain though makes me realise how desperate the balcony is for a sand and stain.  Looks like another project to add to the list!