mid year round up

I can't believe we are half way through the year. It really goes SO fast!

In January we made some plans for the house this year, and now is a pretty good time to check in to see how we're going. Like I said then, things happen, life gets in the way, things move up and down priority lists for a whole range of reasons. While I love lists, and find them really useful, I'm not totally attached to them either!

How we put in last weekend-painting our front verandah

    -Build raised vegie beds in the side garden-Done, and we love our veggies! 
    -Build a small retaining wall under the front of the house, (and dig out a whole heap of dirt!) 
     to put in at least 1 water tank for our garden-The digging and wall is done, we will get a 
     tank after the painting is finished and before summer
    -Build another 'feature fence' on the other side of the house near the garage-No
    -Fence the northern side of the block (currently unfenced)-No
    -Built some retaining walls in the back yard-No
    -Turf the back yard-No
    -Paint the rest of the railings-Slowly getting there, the top verandah is done. We will finish the 
     walls, and then get into trim and railings.
    -Refinish the other french doors- No, We will do these in the coming months
    -Fix up some of the windows (peeling paint and putty needing replacing) -Done. Our painters 
     did it! YAY!
    -Look at painting the exterior -Big done! Look at, and actually do it (well, we have the back 
     two verandahs to go, but almost there!)

    -I'd also like to paint the purple lounge and dining rooms, but this may or may not happen this 
     year.
    -I also hope to spend some more time doing some DIYs, including some more sewing, and hang 
    some more art on the walls. A bit less renovating, and a bit more decorating!

Plus, we went on our honeymoon to beautiful Sri Lanka. Love, love, loved it!
Looking like that-it looks like a lot of red. But we moved the house painting up, so the backyard has been put on the back burner. The back yard and the painting were two big and expensive jobs we knew we had to do when we bought. When we looked into it, the paint was still in ok condition, but was starting to dry out and feel dusty. If we had left it another year or two, and done the yard now, it would have needed a lot more prep when we got to it. 

Hopefully we will get to the purple paint this year, but we may be a bit painted out! And, slowly, slowly, I think the decorating is happening. Starting with the downstairs spare room, and we now have our hallway art too. I also have my eye on a few things at the Freedom Sale, and have been sewing this holidays!! I'll show you when I'm done (if it all works out!)! 

How are your plans for the year going?

a new year, and looking back

Sorry for the blog silence. Things were a bit crazy here for awhile, with work being full on, family health issues, commitments and a general need to retreat and rest and recover. Last year was insane-both of us work massive hours, we planned a wedding, we lived and socialised, we painted and built and decorated and I think we were both worn out. House improvements and blogging very much took a back seat for awhile, and even when we started up again it seemed as though it was just long, dirty, boring projects, like digging out retaining walls!. I almost considered shutting it down. Things seem ok at the moment, so I'm back and I missed you!

We've started up on some improvements again, inside and outside, and I can't wait to show you!

I'll be a little more gentle with myself, and not push myself to blog or force myself to do things to put on the blog. Sometimes when pressure makes me dig my heels in-even when it's my own pressure!

Anyway, this was our list from the start of last year. We got through most of it, but life happens, priorities change, and things pop up. 
-Blinds for 2 upstairs bedrooms-Nope, still blankets in the blue room and none in ours. I love waking up naturally to the sun, and they aren't clear glass so privacy isn't an issue. 
-Blinds for sunroom-Nope. 
-Refinish french doors-We did the front one, and the others are on the cards soon. 
-Paint lounge room and dining room (and maybe kitchen?), including trims and ceiling
-Nope, but we did paint all of downstairs, so we will count that as done :) 
-Paint the railings on the veranda white - Yes, the front verandah anyway!
-Re-cover the outdoor furniture-nope
-Sand the decks, and oil-another tick!
-Kill the awful plants in the side garden, and do something with it - we are well on the way
-Varnish the outdoor chairs-nope

Things we did that weren't on the list:
-painted the built-in doors in the bedrooms
-built a fence for the side garden and a gate
-built a pot veggie patch
-fixed the leak in the front verandah, and repaired the hole
-fixed the leak in the back verandah (but didn't repair the hole)
-added more solar panels
-had a wedding
-made some wedding DIYs-a guestbook, bunting, favours
-built some garage storage
-hosted Christmas

wedding DIY

We had our wedding on the 31st of August, and it was the most incredible day.

Some of our DIY to take to the reception

We had a mix of DIY and having suppliers do things at our wedding. We tried to keep costs down where we could, and we paid for most of it ourselves, with some gifts from our parents, but neither of us could comprehend spending 10s of thousands of dollars on one day. Mum said a few times that she wished she could win the lottery to help us more, but before, and definitely after our wedding we both agreed that we wouldn't change a thing.

It was important to us that we didn't have to call in too many favours on the day to set things up, or stress ourselves out to do it ourselves. L and I also work long hours so didn't want to put too much pressure on ourselves in the lead up-and by that I mean myself. I'm a perfectionist, I don't like people coming over unannounced because my house mightn't be clean, so I was already stressed about the wedding, without adding extra stress!

Often I have great ideas, or see something on the net that looks amazing and easy, but it doesn't always turn out like I hoped (quite a few of the art and craft projects I do with the kids at school!). I'm definitely aware of my limitations, and big on the keeping it simple principal!!

I can't wait to show you all of the things I made!

i'm back...

Sorry I disappeared for a few weeks. I broke the blog!!

I was renovating my page-hope you like the new look!!-and somehow messed it up royally. I took it as a sign to close it down for a few weeks, get my reports written, and do lots of fiddly wedding stuff, rather than procrastinate by trying to fix it.

Reports are now written, over 8500 words later, wedding invitations are addressed, and we finally (almost!!) finished painting all the fiddly bits downstairs.

I have a few things up my sleeve to show you, and promise I wont go away again! I missed you all!

a new name

I decided to rename my blog. As much as I adore the beach, and drink tea by the gallon I wasn't a huge fan of the name, and didn't feel like it had any actual relation to my blog, or what I was writing about. In fact, due to the weather and closed beaches, I don't think I've been to the beach since I started blogging. 

My blog is about our blue house, with a mixture of our life and what goes on. Hopefully the new name and address make that a bit clearer. I think it might give me a bit more direction too. 

Thanks for reading!!