It's a Sunshiney Day

Gentle Breeze & Sunshine

A lovely day to get everything out on the line for a good airing. 

After the floods of the past week the house has that damp smell. 

Fantastic weather today, threw open the windows & doors like a women possessed and invited the wind to whirl through & through.

Caroline :) 

Making Bunting

One for my beautiful baby grand daughter Emmalyn

Celebrating all things Vintage/Natural ........... Pink Vintage Nursery Toile with a Calico backing & bias binding

And for no other reason than my teenager expressing his inner child....and that bunting is FUN! for anyone.......Navy blue with tiny red stars, Red backing & bias binding.

Who can I make bunting for next??

Caroline xo

Dear Soldier Boy

Your faith warms this Mumma's heart

Afghanistan 2012

Favourite blog post for January

Thought I would do a little something different for 2013 & that is to mention my favourite blog & or post each month.

So without any further droning on from me,this is my without a doubt favourite blog post for the month of January. Check it out I am sure you will love Paige, her wonderful husband Dan & her four gorgeous gals as much as I do. Oh by the way she's an awesome photographer to!!

  

You can view her blog & watch my fav. post(video) here. 
Don't forget to leave her a comment & tell her I "SENT" you. 

Run don't walk my faithful Simple Things followers.

Her open straight from the heart video really spoke to me maybe because that's where my little ole mind is at this time or just that's she's a genuinely likeable soul. Oh and did I mention she's an awesome photographer :)

What is your favourite blog & or post this month?
Tell me cause it's kinda nice to share!

Caroline xo

Some Changes

Remember a few weeks ago I talked about a few changes we would

(or was already) making in our home. I wrote about it here & where I mention my furniture shopping here. 

A while ago somebody dear to me gave me some money, not a lot mind you but a little that I have been able to add to if I've had left over housekeeping money,it is so true that every little bit adds up. 

So a few weeks back when the January post Christmas sales were on I was able to buy a few new pieces of furniture that were very much needed. Outstanding sales this year, all the pieces were under half price.

(With all the furniture out of the room it was easy to give it a good clean, lots of (nasty) surprises lurking under the old furniture) 

We needed a new lounge as we had always had a Sofa bed in this room but it had seen better days -please read getting icky! & like most sofa beds had never been the most comfortable of things to sit on but oh so practical when you have 3 kids & always having the mandatory sleepovers, kids laying around watching movies etc.

With only one child left at home things are a bit quieter to say the least, than the days of three teenagers. So this time around we decided to get something a little nicer -isn't that what you do when your kids grow up??

We managed to get an Italian Leather double recliner & a Lounge at an awesome price. I can highly recommend waiting till the sales we literally saved thousands, & remember don't forget to bargain even more if you are interested in buying several pieces at the same time like we did :)

With a little left over from our outstanding bargaining skills Lol! we were then able to buy a small new 5pce timber dining room suite. This will replace our big one & will allow more room as there are only three of us most times for meals now. We got this for a crazy $300, reduced from nearly $1000. I had to ask the sales person if the price tag was correct(it was)

I won't be getting rid of my big dining room suite though as I hate to think what it would cost me to replace now, it was nearly $3000 many years ago. When we finish redoing downstairs we shall set it up there & will use it when we have people over. 
One of the happiest bits for me was the new one is exactly the same style only smaller, so all the chairs etc. match.

Teenage boy liked removing all the furniture, kinda

 ties in with the destructive nature most teenager boys

 acquire for a few years ;)

I would like to get rid of the feature wall in the first photo, and also remove the wallpaper border then paint a very light colour through out, it will lighten the interior and add a nice contrast to all our furniture that is dark & rustic.

The trouble with our house is that one room flows to the next so that you've got to repaint the whole interior at once not just one room at a time. I don't think that will be happening any-time soon but something to add to the To Do/cum Wish List. 

Ditto, with removing the two blinds. I've been so disappointed in these blinds & the quality of them right since new & they weren't cheap. I made a mistake by purchasing them hastily when my curtains that were hanging were showing wear after I had them cleaned. I still haven't removed the old curtain rods (another thing for the list)

I would like to replace them with either White Timber Shudders or White Timber Slat Blinds. I think I will put a little more thought into it this time.

For the moment I will be giving this room a good going over -Cleaning, de-cluttering, sorting etc. 

Should keep me busy for awhile. 

Have you been doing anything around your home??

Tell me.... I want to know, I may steal your ideas! HA Ha!

Have a great weekend & a great Australia Day(to my Aussie bloggers)

Caroline xo

Brothers

                        
                        A brother is someone

with fun-loving ways

with wit and good humour

to spare.

He does thoughtful things

without any fuss

and when you're in trouble

he's there.

A brother is more 
than just part of the family..
he's also a friend
through and through.
And that's a description
that certainly fits
a wonderful brother like you.

Thank you for both being such awesome sons, that a Mother could have.
Mumma xo

Around the Yard

Planted this gorgeous Bougainvillea, hopefully it will grow up & over this old gate that I've put in the garden. 

Water Chestnuts are doing well, they are so much bigger than this already. They seem to grow before your eyes. I've never grown them before. So I'll let your know the end result!

Should be in for a good crop of Lemonade fruit this year. Although the tree is looking very heat stressed the last couple of days. Over 40cdeg & high humidity most days is playing havoc with the garden.

YTD we have only had 1.0ml of rain - not even a teaspoon.

Every other morning I pick my chooks a basket of this.....

they love it......

then they lay me these. I'm so thankful to them.

Not like Mother duck who likes keeping them all for herself.

Thinks there may be some little ducklings  to start this new year.

New Year, New Life

Hope you enjoyed your morning walk around the yard with me. I'm off to have a cup of tea & a piece of cold meatloaf (left overs from last nights dinner yum!)

Caroline xo

Wordless Wednesday

Riding on the Horses Yeah Yeah

 Went riding out on our friend "C's" horses. I'm on the left on his young stallion, he's on the right on his old stallion & my partner Steve is in the middle on a nice little gelding then.......

  it turned nasty cause we thought we'd jam n him.

 All in good fun though, three others joined us for a ride out. 

We had a great time.

What have you been up to? 

Enjoying any-time with good friends like we have been?

Caroline xo

Another Job done!

3 Doors + 12 Windows later all upstairs fly screens have been replaced. Not exactly an exciting job but alas one more job crossed off this years 'To Do List"

Now only the downstairs windows to do, plus a new security screen for the downstairs door & we're done!

Keep Calm and Carry On

Caroline xo

I Love old Houses but.......

.......they can be a lot of work.

I have lived in a lot of houses (about 25 by memory last count)

Brand spanking new, some where in the middle & the old. So I think I can pretty safely say I know what I like....give me an old house any day. 

You know the one's where the heart & soul of the house is held in the walls, where if they could tell tales there would be many to share. Where the floorboards creak one day in one place then another time in a different place. It's almost like some of these houses have minds(ghosts) of there own.The only drawback is that they are a lot of work maintenance, and this place is just that.

my yard looking like  the local council dump shop lol!

So what have we been up to?? 

Resealing the slab of the house.

Over time the slab has slowly began to leak moisture. If you happened to pick an item up off the floor it was most likely going to feel cool or even damp/wet during the flood season we experienced a while back. 

However we have had to wait this long for the extremely dry weather we are having now to dry out the slab right through and therefore the surrounding ground as well. When they concreted under these old hours years ago concrete wasn't like the super blend that they use these days likewise they didn't lay the plastic down under the slab either. 

Result...rising damp,moisture etc.

High pressure cleaning the slab before sealing

We started by taking the entire contents of downstairs out into the back yard, I swear it looked just like one of those council junk shops, you know the ones where they take all the things out of the tip, sell it to you for a ridiculous price then tell you what a good deal your getting. 
Seriously though I think it was a ploy by partner & Son to remind me of how much junk we have. 

Removing the carpet was fun yuck BUT really not as yucky as I thought(thank goodness) Straight into the Ute and to the dump it went. Next we had to clean the slab with a high pressure water cleaner (Gernie) & Chlorine. 

Then waited & waited & waited some more for it to dry. Of course a storm was brewing by this time and everything was dumped out into the yard. We started to prepare for the worse and gather the tarps. 

Finally it was dry enough to start applying the sealer, sweeping it in so we could fill any nicks or crevices in the concrete. Letting it dry between coats. Continuing this process three times over.

All sealed and dried AGAIN... and still no storm. Carried everything back in and piled it in the- I don't know where places as I haven't been able to find anything since. 
Never mind, it all needs to be transported back out into the yard again when we lay the new carpet.

New carpets will be a while yet though as Steve wants to replace some of the timber trim and we want to repaint. 
My daughter painted the orange feature wall(2nd photo) one Easter several years back. She had a lot of fun doing it but I think I'm going to go neutral this time around and open/lighten the place up a bit. Along with a fair bit of de-cluttering and organizing it should look good.

We will be doing it all ourselves through out the year. We normally do this as financial and time constraints allow. It ended up costing us around $150 to do ourselves with some product left over. In comparison a lady I know paid for this to be down and it cost several thousand. Better in our pocket I reckon!

So here starts my year of simplifying, de-cluttering, maintaining and hopefully organizing. 
Years ago when the children were young we used this area as a playroom, it has been used as a teenage retreat & as bedrooms for my eldest two when they wanted some independence before moving out. 
My office is down there too but since sealing the slab I have moved it upstairs to one of the spare bedrooms(but that's for another post)

Now, to go and sort some of this downstairs STUFF. 
Me thinks it would be a good idea to mark a Garage Sale somewhere into the calendar this year.

Interesting to see if I'm sitting here this time next year eating my words? Seems like we're off to a good start though.

Caroline

Daughters, Dogs and other Ramblings

Received a sweet little text tonight from my darling daughter saying

she's glad I'm back blogging. 

In the age of Face book being so important in people lives, I'm so happy she takes the time to check in at her Mumma's "OLD" blog.

Mmm...she never comments though ;)

So of course after that, I had needed to put some darling photos up of her and her gorgeous Border Collie Stevie.

Despite 2012 being such a hard year for me this year I am endeavouring to move forward with my life. Last year my home suffered greatly & so I feel did many of my close friends & family as they supported me through what was such a difficult time in my life. 

I've always been a person who thrives in a neat and organized environment & after a year of merely just "EXISTING" in my home I think it is well in need of an overhaul. I'm bursting with excitement at some of the plans and changes I've got spinning around in my head. Just to wet my appetite a little in advance of things I have just come back from an afternoon of furniture shopping (Whoops)

Another exciting thing I plan to do is nurture and develop some new friendships I made in the past year. As you get older I found that you rarely make "new" friends and we all become creatures of habit as we tend to move around in the same circles. Have any of you found that true for you as well?
When my children were young I found I was constantly meeting new people in various ways- the school, sports and other community and social groups that I was involved with through my kids. 

With last year being what it was I felt I didn't embrace my new friends caring, kindness and friendship that they gifted upon me BUT this year I fully intend to return that favour x 10 :) 

z

Also, last year I joined a small community group in our little town that is full of like minded people. I must say I was most pleasantly surprised when I joined as in many ways I had struggled with some aspects of this town :0

You see it wasn't a place I would have ever personally have chosen to live in given, the choice that is but desperate times made for major adjustments to our life and the way we lived so when I moved here (many moons ago now) I never really expected to stay!! As a young widow at only 26  with 3 very, very young children I had to move where there was a decent job that would support us, then I met my partner and dare I say- I think it was all "written in the stars"

Anyway it was such a blessing to have found this small group that when I continually came home at night raving about it my partner decided to join, it's all the more lovelier as it something we share together now. Finding things to do as a couple becomes more and more important, I feel as the children grow up and fly the nest spreading and testing their independent wings.

I have a few new projects that my darling partner helped me start last year. His part in my journey by helping & supporting me (& selflessly putting his own feeling aside despite them being as deep as mine)was helping me find new hobbies to learn, explore & enjoy. 
I hope to be able to share a few of those in time here, at my blog. 

So, I hope you all will continue to join me in my journey throughout the year as I regain(hopefully) my strength after 2012 the year that was!! 
Thank you to those few kind bloggies that sent me awesome messages/emails & to my faithful followers.It was encouraging to see in my absence I didn't lose any of you and that I fact in gained some newbies :)

Enough rambling, hope you all have a lovely Sunday, cheerfully spending quality time with those that you hold dear.

Caroline xo


  

Baking

Welcome 2013

Happy New Year

Blessings of hope, health, laughter & happiness to you all this coming year.

I couldn't wait for 12oclock this morning to welcome in 2013, I was very happy to put the year 2012 away to bed. Hopefully not to be repeated anytime soon.

Without sounding TOO "dramatic" (cause I am so not a drama queen) it was one of the worse years of my life!!

EXCEPT.........

for one blessing that was sent to us 2 days after my Soldier Boy son arrived home safely from Afghanistan (Whoops, that was a blessing too! ) & the day after Mothers Day.

On May 14th 2012 my first beautiful Granddaughter was born.

"Emmalyn Jane Rose"

Squeamish people please avert your eyes

-proud Daddy cutting the cord.

Proud Daddy, Soldier Boy & Emmalyn.

So what did all of you do for your New Year celebrations??
(quiet & peaceful, loud & disorderly.....tell me all the goss!)

We usually just have a quiet night but to make sure we REALLY did put 2012 to bed we lived it up over at "The Sunshine Coast" it was a lovely night.

 I suppose the moral of the story could be, even in a bad year there are always blessings.

Welcome 2013, I am excitedly looking  forward to getting to know you better.

Cheers

Caroline xo