Sneek Peek Inside

You may remember the photos of Matilda I shared with you when I first laid eyes on her. Well without further ado here is a little peek inside.

There are so many pretty things I'd like to do to Matilda but it will have to wait until I get home. She was driven down out street to our house just a few days before we left on The Big Adventure and between packing up the entire house and the torrential rain, my efforts were severely hampered. I just had to make do with what I had lying around the house.

So consider this the "before" of a "before & after" revamp.

The main objective was to make it practical, fun and colourful. 

I picked up this "House & Home" sign from Borders for a steal when they were in liquidation. Actually, I bought a whole bunch of them and they were sitting in the shed until I found a house & home for the "House & Home".

The Kitchen. Gas Jackaroo Camp Oven & Stove.

Original 1970's wave curtains. Love them! These can stay.

At one end of Matilda is the Diner in original condition. This is where we eat, play games and be merry. The vinyl is so handy with 4 kids but I'd love to recover them in a bright red or a brighter lime green to match the exterior stripe. The same can not be said for the carpet. It gets absolutely filthy with all the dust, dirt and sand and the first thing I'd like to do when I get back is rip it out and install some checkerboard lino. There was no room on the walls so I had a large map of Australia laminated and it sits on the table.

The Diner converts to our bed. It's actually very comfy. It would be too hot for a doona but I had this quilt coverlet in the linen cupboard at home. I bought it in an op shop years ago in Hobart. The colour combination is maybe a bit too festive for everyday but it is a perfect weight and I love the pattern of the quilting.

At the other end of Matilda is the kids bed. The one purchase I did make was this original 1970's wave quilt cover from ebay, which luckily arrived by express post on the very last day in Sydney. The seller was so excited by our travels she popped a little parting gift in the package for us - the octopus in the photo above. The quilt was still in the original packaging, never been used and I just love it. It makes me so happy seeing the kids all bundled up at night under an item that was made in the decade in which I was born.

A lot of time is spent on their bed playing games and reading. They are all into different books but the one book they all enjoy is "Are we there yet?" as we are seeing so many of the sights documented in the book.

Sometimes they sleep like sardines all lined up next to each other. Other times they sleep head to toe, bless their little cotton socks! Even when we were staying with their grandparents and they were given their own beds, they still slept with each other like this head to toe.

More often than not they become a tangled mess of 16 limbs.

Here is the Pro Hart "Flowers" painting that the removalists left on the wall of our house and so we had to bring it with us. It adds a nice burst of colour, don't you think?

And as always, some pretty flowers from wherever we are at the time. These beautiful Frangipani's and Hibiscus courtesy of Broome Caravan Park.

So, where the mess I hear you ask? Most of it spills out into the "Big Top" gazebo we have annexed to the caravan and it's probably best I don't show you the inside of the car today :-)

Hope you all have a wonderful week!