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?

sunday thoughts 23/2

A perfect late afternoon swim at the end of last week
Heaven.

Blogger ate this post from last week, and reverted my draft to an old copy. I didn't realise until mid week (crazy week-and oh so hot up here!) Annoying.... Try again this week :) 

read: the latest Home Beautiful. I found something I loved on every page! Sometimes I can be a bit meh, but there were some beautiful houses that were exactly the style I'm aiming for.

create: Order in some of our closed off areas-behind cupboards and in drawers. 

see: our new (second hand) bedside tables. At last! 

taste:  a delicious salad I've eaten about 3 times this week- chickpeas, cucumber, red onion, goats cheese, and best of all-home grown basil and lettuce-with a olive oil and balsamic dressing. Yum!

hear: the wind roaring through the trees

learn: To do things in the mornings. It's my most productive time of day, and if I spend it on the net, or in front of morning tv my day disappears. If I get up, and get on a roll in the morning, I tick so many things off my list of to dos quickly and easily, and I don't feel guilty about having downtime later in the day.

feel: cool at last

smell: rain, not much, but it smells soooo good!

think: that the year is flying. Trying to slow it down by being more present and in the moment. 

watch: Hart of Dixie-so cute and sweet and light. But I am surprisingly emotionally involved in the characters. I was going to wait and watch all of Season 3 when it finished, but after finally catching up on Season 3 of Game of Thrones last weekend, I needed something happy and fluffy and girly-I was numb.

plan: On making a bed head in the near future. Just nutting it all out.

sunday thoughts

read: And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini. I'll be sad when this one is finished. He writes amazing characters and beautiful descriptions

create: Curtains for the back shelves in my classroom. Braving the sewing machine again

taste: Homemade banana bread-so good. Plus it really is almost healthy-gluten, dairy and refined suger free! I use coconut oil, and add some protein powder too. Plus sometimes some berries!

see: A grey, misty, enveloping day. So calming

touch: Soft doona, comfortable bed

hear: The Olympics in the background, and L chopping vegies for lunch

learn: To take time out for me after I lost my voice this week

feel: Relaxed after a quiet weekend to rest and rejuvenate

smell: A native gardenia in a bud vase beside my bed. Just amazing

think:  Of the week ahead and of watching a movie this afternoon-perfect weather for it

watch: The Block Fans vs Faves. What an amazing building. Looking forward to the first reveal tonight

plan: Our Sri Lanka honeymoon trip at Easter-any tips? Plus a few days in Singapore. Plus 10 week plans at school

what's on for this year?

I wrote about how our list went last year a few days ago, so thought I would fill you in on what we have in the works for this year.

We spent a bit of time on New Years Eve reflecting, and planning our year, and we have dubbed it "The Year of Outside". This year is shaping up to be a bit less hectic than last year with no wedding, but we will be going on our  honeymoon to Sri Lanka for 3-4 weeks. Again, things will probably change as we go along-priorities change, things pop up that need doing, other things happen that mean some stuff isn't viable at the moment for whatever reason. Plus everything always takes more time and more money than you expect! This is a pretty flexible list, and writing it down looks quite optimistic...

-Build raised vegie beds in the side garden

-Built 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 gardens

-Build another 'feature fence' on the other side of the house near the garage

-Fence the northern side of the block (currently unfenced)

-Built some retaining walls in the back yard

-Turf the back yard

-Paint the rest of the railings

-Refinish the other french doors

-Fix up some of the windows (peeling paint and putty needing replacing)

-Look at painting the exterior

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!

We had planned to renovate the laundry this year, but we have decided to put it off. We can live with the laundry we have for the time being, even though it isn't ideal, but we want to get outside sorted, plants and trees growing, and the outside looking good. We will save the plans for another time.

Have you got a bit of a plan for what you would like to achieve in the year ahead? I'd love to hear about it!

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

checking in

Just a quick one today to say hi, and I haven't forgotten you all! We've been quiet on the DIY front the last few weeks-and not because all of the painting turned us off! We had a weekend away in lovely Yamba, I've been writing school reports (so I have spent what feels like every waking minute while not at school staring at the screen-hopefully almost there!), last weekend was absolutely full, and this weekend is my birthday-30!!!!!

What a beautiful view to wake up to in Yambo

Gorgeous Angourie-the site of my first ever 'surf'!

Stormy seas while the boys surfed

Yamba is an awesome town-I loved it! Amazing (and cheap!) cafes-Beachwood Cafe is INCREDIBLE-we came away with a cookbook. Highly recommended! Irons and Craig was fantastic for breakfast too. Both offered different options than your usual fare.

I have some Christmas DIY in the works and more painting very soon!!

Hoping everyone around SE Qld is finally enjoying some much needed rain. We didn't get any until Saturday, and unfortunately it bought some cricket ball sized hail with it. Our house was fine, but I was at the hairdressers, and now need a new windscreen, and have some big old dings in my car too. Not ideal, but it's all insured, and can't change it.

if you need me you can find me painting

A friend asked me what I was up to this weekend, and I replied painting. Then I realised that I cannot see a time in the next few years when that wont be on the cards.

Purple walls and ceilings-be gone!

Our immediate painting plans for the next year or so include 2 more sets of verandah railings and a set of exterior stairs, our the walls and ceilings of our purple lounge and dining rooms and probably the kitchen too, all the trim in those rooms and the exterior of our house (with at least some done by a painter).

Three verandahs worth of railings to become white, and repaint the house grey
(I should find a spare weekend to sew some new covers for this free furniture!)

So you'll find me in my sweaty paint splattered clothes and hat, with a paintbrush in hand or at the paint shop handing over money.
Hopefully I'll have some afters for you after the weekend!!I will finish these front railings (if the rain and wind stays away!!)

**My current negativity toward painting may be due to my hatred of painting verandah railings. Walls and trim and cutting in I don't mind, the railings are doing my head in... :)

christmas planning

Did you know that yesterday marked 3 months until Christmas?

We will be hosting our first Christmas this year, which is exciting and a bit nerve-wracking! L is a shift worker in the health field, and in addition to some early morning starts (4 o'clock wake up this morning), late night finishes (one shift finishes at 11pm), middle of the night call outs to work, and regular weekend work, they have to cover public holidays. He has last Christmas off, so he'll have to work at some stage over Christmas this year.

For Christmas 2011 I left him alone up here, and I felt awful, despite cooking him a ham and shortbread, and driving back early on Boxing Day, and the knowledge that I would have been alone on Christmas while he was at work.

We've had a tree the last few Christmases, but it's only been small. Our ornaments have been mostly glass, white, silver and a little gold, and I think I'll stick with that kind of theme again this year-I'm not massive on lots of red and green, and with our purple lounge room, kitchen and dining room, and blue exterior it will keep it from being a colour explosion!
Here are some of my inspiration ideas, mostly to DIY (which is the ONLY reason I'm already thinking of Christmas!!!)

Wall bunting:

link

link- a fun Sydney blog-this is her DIY take on tassel streamers

link

The next two are from the same etsy shop, but look easy enough to DIY

link

link

Table decorations:

link

link

The Happy Home Blog 

link

link

link

shifts in thinking

Over the past few months I've made a few changes to simplify life, and especially how we eat. In a lot of ways it is a fairly natural progression, with one change leading to another, leading to another.

I love my job teaching in a Special School, but it can be physically and emotionally draining. It's full on, loud, there isn't any down time, and no matter how prepared I am things often happen that mean you are thinking on your feet.   I am passionate about my job and the kids I teach and I find it difficult to switch off, and not give 100%. Most of the kids in my class have autism, and when I'm not on top of things, the day can go downhill very quickly! I was getting to work by 7, and getting home after 6, and often spending part of my night laminating or cutting or velcroing resources.

I was exhausted, my skin was crazy, and I was relying on sugar hits to get me through the day (I lived for my 3 o'clock chocolate!!). I realised that my body couldn't keep going like that. Between this I was also planning a wedding, and trying to (slowly) renovate a house. I was staying up too late, and pressing snooze time and time again, I was too tired to exercise and luckily L enjoys cooking, because if I was living alone I would have been eating breakfast food for dinner every night. I actually made some mid year resolutions here in April, which was at the point when I realised that things had to change.

Some of the changes are fairly non-negotiable. I now make sure I move my body for half an hour each day. I go for a walk, I go to yoga, I do a Michelle Bridges DVD or yoga DVD at home. I often don't want to do it when I'm starting out, but once I get going, and especially once I'm finished I feel better for it. I've never actually regretted it. It's that funny thing where the more I exercise (and I'm not running marathons here...) the more energy I actually have. I sleep better and get that down time.

I've also changed my diet quite a bit. I try to eat only 'real' foods, and have cut out most processed foods from my diet. I've also cut most processed sugar from my diet-I still eat fruit and add a little honey and maple syrup at times. A by product of cutting most processed foods and processed sugars from my diet has meant that I've also cut my gluten intake considerably. I feel so good. I have so much more energy, my skin has cleared up so much, I just feel really good. I'm not strict. I definitely had cake at my wedding, and again at a friends' birthday last week, and I went out to dinner and had pasta through the week too, but I am much more conscious of what I am eating, and making sure that most of the time it is nourishing me. I'm not gluten free, I'm not sugar fee, I'm not vegetarian, I'm not raw, I'm not paleo, I'm not any of those things, but I am trying to make healthier choices around food. I've found and cooked some amazing recipes, and waited for L to say how good it was before telling him it was healthy. Breakfasts, dinners, cakes and desserts, that he now requests over the unhealthier alternative.

Well done for making it this far-why am I telling you all of this? I'm going to be making some changes to my blog, mostly it will remain the same, but I'm going to start sharing some of these recipes here along with the renovating, organising and decorating. I've also started a veggie patch to grow some of our ingredients, which will hopefully keep on expanding (as well as growing!), so I'll be sharing that with you too.

I still have more wedding posts for you. I still have more renovating and decorating posts for you in the works too. But I wanted you to know that I have had a shift in thinking and a shift in how we live in our blue house, and with that has comes some additions to this little blog.

Have any of you had any shifts in thinking lately?

paddington love

Until last year I didn't know Paddington in Brisbane existed. This year I have been there half a dozen times already! I love taking friends and family there when I see them in Brisbane. It doesn't hurt that my  wedding dress boutique is in Paddington either! It's hard that I am in MAJOR savings mode for the wedding! :( So many pretty things.

I tried on MY wedding dress today for the first time. It was a bit surreal, and now my wedding seems real. Not just some distant concept. Realising the other nights that it is next month was a bit scary too!!

I go to drop into a few of my favourite shops-I'm lucky I don't live close by I think! Blake and Taylor is one of my favourites. I wish I could have the whole shop, including all the beautiful furniture.

I picked up a little wooden caddy for the kitchen. It was constantly annoying me that we would have salt and pepper dropping on the shelf, and a yuccky oil mark from the bottom on the olive oil bottle. Not anymore!

I also picked up two sweet clay charms, with french quotes on them. Not sure what I will do with them yet.

There is only one happiness in life, it is to love and be loved
I love you to the depth and width and height my soul can reach

I love walking around Paddington, and seeing all the houses that are of a similar era and style to our blue house, that are already done up. I find it so inspiring, and great for ideas. I took a few pictures on my wanderings-excuse the awful iPhone shots!

I kept going up to the Antique Centre. I love how every time I go there are different things to see. Again, I would love to take so much of it home with me! Here are a few things that particularly stuck out for me. Again, bad iphone pics, TERRIBLE lighting, and not much room! Sorry!

Love this-but would have to paint it to get it into my house!

Pretty silver

Beautiful old wooden furniture!

This makes me sad. My grandparents had this exact sideboard in their dining room, it was an oiled teak, with a matching table. I didn't want it at the time, and didn't think it was very practical-partly I was moving between addresses regularly, and they were mostly smallish share houses, and partly because it was so delicate-you couldn't put hot or cold things directly onto it, you couldn't spill water onto it... So it was sold. For a really low price, because we just needed to get rid of it, and it was in a country town. I wish now I had kept it.

Just like my grandparents' old sideboard

Being a bride, of course I am going to love the bridal fashions! Last visit I showed L the frilliest, puffiest, laciest ones I could find and told him they were my dress. He was not impressed.

I'm home alone for a few days, and have a few plans to complete. One is a house job that involves paint (and is already trickier than I hoped!) and the other is a wedding job that involves a sewing machine. Let's see how we go!!

I'll be back again next month Paddington! :)

wedding plans

We are down to just under 2 months out, and I am planning (hoping) to have everything done by the end of July, leaving us a month to do the last minute things that crop up, get work organised, and try to relax and enjoy-rather than trying to organise ties, or decorations. That's the plan anyway.

We had our engagement shoot a few weeks ago, after a few cancellations due to the weather or L's big swollen face. It was perfect weather-gorgeous and sunny-and after a few cooler days it was warm enough not to freeze in a summer dress. I love the photos so much!

I've booked my hair and makeup, and know what I want for my hair, need to make a decision about makeup-do I go fairly natural, or a bit more glamorous? I've chosen my belt and veil and shoes. Just need a garter, earrings and a bracelet now. And maybe a small something for my hair, for after the veil has been taken out. I get to see MY dress on Thursday, when I go in for a fitting- so excited!

Our invitations are designed, printed and posted. I'm so happy with them! I love that they are simple and clean, but still nice and cheerful.

Our flowers are decided-pastel, with a touch of deeper pink-garden roses, spray roses, freesias, ranunculus and dusty miller in a posy style. We'll have similar flowers around our reception, including some hanging vases, similar to below (but brighter flowers).

We are actually having fairly minimal decorations-flowers and candles are pretty much it. Keeping it simple and stress free.

We are having a cocktail reception at a restaraunt-we aren't formal, and wanted to spend lots of time with our guests. We will be having 5 white high bars and stools similar to this, with flowers and candles. There is also a long couch/banquette seating area, and there will be some ottomans, and some seating in an outdoor courtyard. Plus, room for an all important dance floor!

My list seems to be ever growing-you would think it would be shrinking by now!