welcome!

I'm Belinda...

I'm obsessed with interiors, renovating, decorating and craft, think I can DIY anything (but am not always successful) and I strive to make daily life fun and creative for my family of six.

The Happy Home is about (obviously!) creating a happy home for my family. A home full of things we love, (hopefully) stylish, liveable and affordable spaces, creative pursuits and projects, and fun activities with the little ones. A happy place that looks - and feels - like the six of us who live here.

This blog is a record of this never-ending, ever-changing journey - the renovation, the decoration, the projects, the successes, the failures, the indecisiveness, the planning and all the fun and games in-between.

My little rascals (above) make guest appearances from time to time: meet Zak, 11, Layla, 10 and Imogen, 7 and Annika, 4. Together with my husband, Steve, they're all I've ever wanted in life. Although sometimes you just might see them wandering the streets with "free to good home" signs on them. All five of them...

In a previous life (BC - before children), I was a journalist for Fairfax Community Newspapers. But years of covering horrendous crimes and trials took their toll and I threw my dreams of working for TIME magazine away for a much more light-hearted publication: Cosmopolitan magazine. After working my way up to chief subeditor, I was asked to join a new title the company was starting up. I happily agreed and in 2005, I helped launch Real Living magazine as the deputy editor, where I remained until Zak was born. After returning part-time to work on the website, I left a few years later when the company restructured the web component and went freelance, mostly writing for Real Living. I've also contributed to Shop 4 Kids, Cosmopolitan Pregnancy and Kidspot.

Until the time comes to work out if I still want or have a place in the publishing world or choose a new career, I'll stick with this little blog and combine my passion for writing with my passion for decorating/renovating/and living creatively with my little (but big!) family. I hope you enjoy.

PS: Due to a major hack in 2013 on another blogging platform, the majority of this blog disappeared into the big bad cyber world. It is painful and time consuming finding and copying it all from cached pages, so forgive me if Pinterest led you here and you can't find a project or particular article. I will slowly be adding them, but this will take some time!