February is garage month

Where did January go? I swear it was here one minute and gone the next. Did I make the most of it? Do I even remember it?

Oh dear, well I'll just move on to February then...

To ensure I'm making the most of this month, it's garage sorting time.

Our garage seems to harbor everything but my car. Each time I fight my way through the piles of random junk that accumulates here to get to the laundry, I feel my blood pressure rise. Something has to be done.

Oh Pinterest, my muse, my inspiration,  my husband's nemesis,  what ideas do you have for me and my garage?

Ahhhhh...perfect.

Here is a wee peek of the garage  before and the work progressing.

Firstly this is the Pinterest inspiration from Sawdust and Paperscraps blog.

This is our garage before shot...horrifying...

Are you feeling my pain? Out went a trailer load to the rubbish tip, another to the charity shop.
The rest was sorted into like catagories, picnic supplies, Christmas decorations, Halloween,
photo albums, craft supplies, children's things I can't part with, etc. Each catagory was placed into a 60L plastic see-through bin (or several bins in the case of Christmas decorations). Now the storage unit is being built to house those bins.

I also really wanted a place for my sewing machine and craft supplies. There is just nowhere for a dedicated space inside the house, so the garage it is. But more on the craft space another time.

Here are a few pics of the workers (The Bloke and Miss B) along with the work-in-progress. Stay tuned for the finished result by the end (hopefully) of Feb.


                                      Miss B hard at work pre-painting the Hardy panels

A blank canvas

A hint of what's to come.

Can't wait to see the end result!

Of Christmases past

The Day is almost upon me and once again I'm not as organised as I'd like. Poor Miss B has been sick for two days and is beside herself that she'll be sick for Christmas.

Miss B 's worries got me thinking about some of the Christmas disasters we've had over the years. Looking back is always good for a laugh, but at the time it really did seem overwhelming. Here are just a couple of the standouts.

Waking up Christmas morning to  find two children with chickenpox ( I'm sure that wasn't on my wish list). Did you know that you can use a paste made of baking soda and water to help stop the itching? And soaking in a bath with a cup full of baking soda is soothing too. This is a life saver when every chemist/drug store is closed. Yes we live in a place where EVERYTHING is closed on Christmas.

Travelling to our wonderful friend's house for a much anticipated Christmas luau-themed celebration, only to have one of our Misses, who will remain nameless, throw such a tantrum (loud and prolonged) that we had to leave. I did feel quite sorry for myself as I sat down to my Christmas dinner of toast that night.

But the worst by far... heading off to the family gathering only to realise, due to some communication problem (that would be The Bloke not listening!) no-one had bought his mother present. Eek!

Whenever I remember that awful moment of realisation, I know it won't get worse than that (was that me tempting fate there?)

So onwards and upwards, to Christmas and beyond...

It's almost Christmas

I adore Christmas. Every year I plan a lavish decorating theme and a feast of epic proportion.  And although I never quite live up to this fantasy inside my mind, I don't lose hope that this will be the year I sail calmly through the season,  wafting baubles and home made mince tarts in my perfectly coiffured wake.

The reality is that there is limited time, energy, and money to create the Christmas of my dreams. So this year I have decided to start preparations early.

To address the limited finances, I have been shopping for decorations at the charity shop. These el cheapo decorations, coupled with a little spray paint and a ton of glitter provide loads of decorative options for very little cash.

I also scored three sets of lights and a little bit of Christmas-themed crockery, which never goes amiss.

Here are a few of my refurbished Christmas finds...

 I found three of these pine cone candles. They were an ugly worn matt gold which had rubbed off most of the cone tips. A sad looking trio. The before photo was lost due to a camera glitch, so you'll have to take my word for how un-festival they looked.

Off to Bunnings I went and purchased silver spray paint ($10.95) and silver glitter ($4 for three vials of super sparkly glitter).

Now I have three beautiful sparkling candles. Note they are for decoration only, not to be lit.

I found several bags of pre-loved decorations for $3, and gave them a spray with silver and a good sprinkle of glitter. Then I used my trusty hot glue gun to attach several different shaped ones to a traditional flax woven kite ( Maori for bag).

My best find was three of these faux pine wreaths for $1 each.

A little unfurling of the pine stems...

A quick wrap with last year's tinsel...

and a few more of the sprayed and glittered decorations glued into place...

And voila...

Instant Christmas cheer...

Home again

Well, I've actually been home for a few weeks now. But time did that funny thing, where one day it's October and the next day it's almost Christmas. I just lost a month and don't even know where it went.

Of course being nearly Christmas is no hardship because I am a girl who loves that Merry Season.

But before we plunge headlong into the Christmas spirit, let me tell you a bit about Spain.

It was everything I had dreamed it would be...

October was a great month to go. The bulk of the tourists come in Aug and Sept, so things are a little less busy.

The weather was fine and sunny with an occasional thunder storm to keep it fresh. I missed a heat wave up to 35° C the week before I arrived.

I ate fantastic food and drank smooth as silk red wine.

Swam in the Mediterranean sea

Toured 10th century Arabian baths

Visited a 13th century cathedral and more churches than I can recall

Celebrated with the locals at the Binisalem wine festival.

Climbed mountain tracks and wondered streets that have been walked by other people just like me for hundreds of years.

And of course had long reminiscences with my friend of 30 years.

                                     

                                                  Now lets get stuck into Christmas...

Unreasonable expectations.

Well I've been fairly slack at posting over the last few weeks. We have been trying to find a good concrete layer to create our driveway and matching garden paths. I thought the hardest thing would be finding the money for this job, the last of the really big expenses. Little did I know.

 I have contacted four concreters.

The first one advertises extensively on the radio. I had no response to the email contact and it was two days before I heard back from my phone message. The person came a few days later to have a look and then said they would send another someone around for a proper measure up and quote. That was a month ago and we haven't seen or heard from them since.

The second one looked promising, calling me within 5 minutes of my online query. It did take them over 3 weeks to send a quote but at least they sent one.

The third one (a personal recommendation from a friend) told me he was busy when I called, but to txt him my phone number and he'd call me back that night. It has been a week and I'm still waiting for a call.

The fourth one has never responded to my attempts to contact them.

What is this? Aren't we just struggling up from a global recession? Yet clearly there is so much concrete work required in the area that my driveway, (a not insignificant amount of money here) is undesirable.

Or am I one of those women who repel tradesmen by expecting the job I specified at the price agreed and in a reasonable time frame. And not only that but a good job done too.

I once asked the plumber to install an outside tap for the garden hose at the corner of our house. Thinking that was a fairly done deal I popped out to do some food shopping. When I came home I was astounded to see the tap installed in the middle of the external wall rather than the corner that we had agreed upon. The plumber just couldn't understand why I was cross. He'd decided to put it there because the water pipe ran down that bit, so it was easier than putting on an extension to the place I'd wanted. Even when I pointed out that I now had to climb through the dirt and plants to turn the hose on and off, he still didn't get it.

If I'm the one paying the bill, why shouldn't I get what I want? Why can't I have what works best for me rather than what's easiest for the tradesman? Am I unreasonable?

Setting an example

Sometimes a parent can feel like they're fighting an uphill battle, while carrying a sack of weights on their back! You try to show your kids how to manage life, how to care for their things so they last, how to save their pocket money for something worthwhile rather than a purchase at the $2 shop on a toy that lasts a day, how to eat to stay healthy,  how to keep promises, how to put things back where they belong. And you wonder if any of it is getting through.

Just when you think you are a complete and utter failure as a parent.  When the kids won't stop fighting, their rooms are a mess, and getting them to empty the dishwasher needs a degree of negotiation skill far superior to the one you possess. When the homework is late, the dinner burned and you're so frazzled you put the car keys away in the fridge, a miracle occurs...

Miss A and Miss B disappear into the rat nest that is Miss B's boudoir. We are banned from entering. three hours later (with no screaming and very little shouting coming from said room), they emerge. The Bloke and I are duly escorted, blindfolded, to the unveiling of a SPOTLESS and TIDY room. Once I picked myself up off the floor, I heaped praise upon them and gave myself a surreptitious pat on the back.

How to live in the midst of chaos

For many people a renovation takes a finite length of time, a finite amount of money, and a finite chunk of their mental wellbeing. They move out for a few weeks and then move back into a completed project. But for the rest of us, we live in the midst of the build, sometimes for years, trying to remember where things have been rehomed to now and remembering that sharing your home all day with the builders requires forethought and tact on both sides.

My renovation seems to have lasted years, well actually it has been years. It would be easy to loose heart when you're surrounded by sawdust, wood chips, bare walls and half finished plumbing, but I've found the best thing is to carry on as if the surrounding chaos doesn't exist.

While our house was without walls, we still threw our children birthday parties at home. While the kitchen sat unattached to the walls with the bench just resting on top of the cabinets and no kickboards, our family entertained for christmas. While the new deck was just framing we threw a BBQ.

The trick is to live life while not becoming complacent.  It's remarkably easy to get used to half done things, like a bathroom with a working shower and loo, but only waterproofing on the floor.

At times we have had to speak sternly to ourselves to get some momentum back. That bathroom is now tiled, but it took a year to get around to it.
The skirting in our family bathroom is the only thing unfinished, it's nailed in place but unfilled and only undercoated, and it's been like that for THREE YEARS!

Part of the reason for this blog is to get some kind of accountability going that will guilt me into getting the house finished...100%...finally.