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

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

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:

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

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

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Table decorations:

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The Happy Home Blog 

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wedding photos

I met with my photographer yesterday, and picked up our wedding photos. I am so happy with them-they are incredible! I don't think L or I wiped the smile off our face all day after seeing them. I loved our wedding! 
My favourite part of them-all 800-odd-is how there is barely a photo when we (and our guests!!) didn't have an enormous smile on our faces. 

It's going to be tough working out which ones to frame! A good problem to have though!!

If you are interested in seeing a few more let me know and I will email you a link to our photographer's blog post. 

I've also put some social media buttons in my side bar- come and check it out! My pinterest account is much more active than my instagram. Lots of DIY, and room and decor ideas. There is also a bit of teaching and special education stuff, but you can ignore those boards!

DIY lace bunting

Remember how I posted about about facing my sewing fears, and sewing lengths of lace bunting for reception decorations?
Here is a visual reminder:

The more I looked at it, the more I realised I wasn't entirely happy with how the ribbon was hanging-it kind of puckered a bit, and just didn't hang quite as well as I had hoped. What to do, what to do?

I unpicked it all, and started again! This time I researched it a bit more, and discovered biased binding was more appropriate. 18 meters of unpicking.... 

But.... it looked fantastic on the night, and I was much happier with it! You may even catch a back view of the bride... (excude the blurring of the faces...)

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?

DIY 3D guestbook alternative

While trawling websites, I also fell in love with guest book alternatives. We did have a beautiful wooden guestbook also, which was made by a fantastic Australian Etsy seller called Lorgie. A friend  took polaroids and people signed the book. But I also wanted something else-something that wouldn't get put away on a shelf.

I loved the idea of people signing jenga pieces (some very tense nights have been had over jenga in our house!), and thought it would have been really fun to play in years to come, and look over the messages. It was up there for a long time.

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Similar to hanging tags on branches, but with a modern twist.

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Mad-libs would have been funny to look back on, but as our wedding was a cocktail ceremony, people weren't going to be sitting at a table for long periods of time to fill them out. 

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There are just so many options out there, for whatever your interests or wedding theme or personal preference. 

Eventually, I went with a 3D Hearts frame. Simple, easy to DIY, and something we can have on display. 

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I reused the punch from our  tea bag favours to punch the hearts, mostly in white, but a few in blue. 

I then used my rotary paper trimmer (usually used for cutting up my school laminated resources) to score the hearts down the centre, from point to point. 

Using Kikki-K adhesive dots on one half of each heart I stuck them down, alternating which side of the heart was stuck down. 

The hardest part was working out the spacing, and keeping it consistent. I think I made it as hard as possible, but I printed off two pieces of graph paper, and taped on across the top, and slid the other across as I got to each row. 

 

I found a shadow box frame at Typo (that place always seems to have whatever random thing I am looking for lately!) in a whitewashed finish, to place it in. We haven't hung it yet-we need a bit of an artwork plan...

I'm so happy with how it turned out!

DIY tea favours

One of our wedding DIYs was our favours. We had a cocktail wedding, so initially we weren't sure about how to do the favours, as they were sitting on a table near the signing books, rather than at people's place settings. We didn't want to make or buy something we were stuck with if they weren't all taken. Eventually after quite a while we settled on tea.

It has meaning to us, I drink tea by the bucket-load!-it's simple, not overly expensive, and we would be able to drink any leftovers ourselves, and remember our wedding. Pinterest and google were very helpful, and these are a few of the lovely DIY tea favour ideas I found. 

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Pin This Image

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link - the lovely lass creative- a wonderful Australian blog

I loved all of them, but nixed a few-I didn't want to be left with lots of test tubes, I didn't want to spend days sewing the bags (plus I left it too late, even if I had the skills!), and scooping it in.  I combined a few ideas, but mostly took my inspiration from the Martha Stewart DIY tea bags idea (the white china with red hearts).

I got out my heart shape punch, and started punching. I did green for English Breakfast, and blue for Earl Grey.

I then cut a slit in the top of the heart. Some tutorials suggested staples, which I didn't like (even with mini staples), or glue and I didn't want to wait for it to dry, or cut double the amount of hearts.

I then removed the original tags, and slid the string through,

and wrapped it around,

and bagged them up.

I was originally thinking of white, or kraft paper bags, but found these at a dollar store at Chermside, and thought they were even better. I had some labels printed to match our invitations, and stuck them on with double sided tape. I also wrote the type of tea on some extra hearts, so guests would know what they were getting.