Pots pots pots...

Well hello again!!  I know its been a really long time... I can't believe a month has passed since I wrote my last post.  Many apologies, its just been such a busy time.

As you'll know if you've read the blog before, we recently had Alex Baptised.  It was a very special day, both at the Church and the party that followed at home.  There are many stories that go along with that day, and quite a few things to update you on too - but I might tell those all together in a special update post.  For now, please enjoy this picture of my special little guy on his very special day :)

And now onto the garden pots...  Some time ago, in this post about how I had the blues so bad... I showed you a couple of pictures of what had become of the herb pots that we had around the place, and also my beloved kaffir lime.  To save you flicking back, here is what the herbs looked like:

So sad...  You see the herbs were undercover, so they never got any direct sunlight or rain (except the mint on the left which, as you can see, is the only one that was even close to survival) and I rarely remembered to water them!  (Notice the pre-pressure clean pavers too - urgh!)
And the kaffir lime, which did get sunlight and rainfall, was just as neglected...

And so they all looked awful....  Until very recently (actually it was more than a month ago, but lets pretend I'm totally up to date it was very recent... humour me!)  You already had a sneak preview of this in my recent Backyard Blitz post, but in case you missed it.... I got rid of those old dead herbs and repotted these with new plants - I also gave them a new location where they could enjoy the sunlight and any rain that came along, lining the little path into the garage.  There was a perfect spot between the path and the pool fence that was crying out for something...  I also added a couple of strawberry planters.  Here is how they looked when I'd finished that day:

Cute aren't they?  From left to right, they are parsley, lemongrass, mint and strawberries.  And here is how they're looking now (don't mind the weeds at the bottom - I have yet to lay some stones there!):

The strawberries have copped a beating from Alex lately... every time a little red strawberry pops up, its just as quickly popped into a little mouth!  Consequently there is not much doing there at the moment.

And as for my kaffir lime?  Well he really wasn't too healthy at all...  I decided to cut him right back and give him a fertilise and lots of water... When I originally wrote this post it still wasn't looking too healthy, and I wasn't holding out much hope....

But it has since taken off beautifully (we have had a lot of rain here lately, and I've been diligent about watering also!) and is now going great guns...

And yes, that is a little sprig of coriander growing in the pot there... and around that area on the ground also... clearly a previous effort went to seed somewhere around there!! Lol

You may have noticed a little companion on his left too...  I actually planted my very first thing from seed - radishes!  I'd had the seeds for ages and didn't know how they'd go, but one week on, I had some cute little green shoots in there!!  It was very exciting :)

Of course I should have separated them shortly after taking these photos - because they now look like this and all their roots are intertwined :/  I don't think they're actually going to produce anything, but Alex is still hopeful...

And again - I need to put some stones down on the ground there! 

Anyway we're loving the new little arrangement, and they're great for Alex to water while I focus on the big vege garden.  Speaking of which, stay tuned for an update very soon - I cannot BELIEVE how out of control it is after only about 8 weeks!!

So there you have it - another little backyard job done and dusted...  I'm so excited to be accomplishing things at home, it's great!  I promise I won't leave it so long to post next time, I just needed time to catch my breath after all the happeneings around here!

And the very last order of business today?  Happy Anniversary to my wonderful husband Boofy - we've been married 9 years today  xxx

Bye for now :)

My 'Coastal Living' Inroduction...

So I am addicted to reading blogs... I read tonnes of them!  And even though a couple of months ago I was very happy with the interiors I'd done in this house so far, I am looking at inspiring interiors all the time, and realising how 'under done' mine are... I'm now feeling like my immediate surrounds are lacking real substance.... and they are!  I see that now...  My tastes are evolving so rapidly it seems I can't keep up, and I'm feeling uninspired by my home (even though we've come so far!) 

I love the colour turquoise as an accent colour (as you've seen in previous posts about my lounge room) but I feel also that I need to inject some other colour into the house - while I've loved neutral in the past, everything suddenly feels a bit safe and blah!  So I went looking for inspiration - and as always, I need look no further than the Blogs I Like folder in my Favourites on my laptop - everything I need is at my fingertips!  What can I say - it's my happy place :)

As always, I started the day with a cup of tea and a dose of Young House Love, and from there decided to move onto House of Turquoise, where the blogger in chief, Erin, always has amazing interiors featured.  While I was looking back through her posts (it had been a little while between visits), I noticed this post that Erin did about designer Meg Braff appearing in Coastal Living magazine, and Erin's declaration that it was her favourite mag...  This image appearing in said post (from Coastal Living of Meg Braff's Palm Beach wardrobe) was all I needed to see...

It was just the colour injection my day needed!  And given that I'm in Australia, and this is a US magazine, I haven't had the pleasure of reading it before...  so I went right ahead on clicked on the Coastal Living link -and what a feast for the eyes!

I didn't need to delve too far into the site, the home page had more than enough tantalising links to keep me happy!  The first link I clicked was Design an Outdoor Shower which featured the following amazing outdoor showers.

I don't have a deck, but this is so achievable, you could rig it pretty inexpensively anywhere you had existing plumbing and a spare corner (the shell shower head doesn't really do it for me, but to each their own)...

(Photographer Deborah Whitlaw Llewellyn - http://www.coastalliving.com/)

And I'm not sure I'd really like this in my backyard but I'm just feeling drawn to this kind of whimsy lately...

(Photographer Bruce Buck- www.coastalliving.com)

Speaking of outdoor showers, the very first time I saw one in the flesh was at my Aunty's house, on the outskirts of Byron Bay.  She recently shared her 20th wedding anniversary with a supremely talented tiler, Hank of Decorated Earth, who creates unbelievable masterpieces with all sorts of stone and tile... their interior bathroom is like nothing I've ever seen before, but they also have a little outdoor shower off the main bathroom that is like a river bed, so cute.  They built their own house and are not afraid of colour or using different materials, so their whole house is a really wonderful adventure (starting at the front doors!), plus the location is like a rolling green picture.  Maybe one day they'll let me feature it and I can share it with you :)  But I digress.

Having found such yummy images in the first link, I tried my luck with 10 Ways to Create a Backyard Oasis and stumbled across these ones.  This first one is just so appealing, I love tropical gardens (which a lot of the time are very informal) this one is very clever, it still feels relaxed, but is also very classy, sophisticated and structured...

(Photographer Roger Foley - www.coastalliving.com)

I love this one too... its looks like an enchanted garden to me - its very beautiful, but I sort of feel like an over sized red topped mushroom wouldn't be out of place, lol :)

(Photographer Roger Foley - www.coastalliving.com)

I was on a roll by this stage, so I decided to give the 15 Outdoor Rooms link a whirl and just about choked on my own drool, so amazing were these photos...

The ceiling, the crisp white with the wood, the location... everything... there are no words!

(Photographer Claudio Santini  www.coastalliving.com)

And if you thought the last one was to die for, check this out... if I lived here, I would never move from this spot!  How beautiful-yet-comfortable does it look?

(Photographer Deborah Whitlaw Llewellyn - http://www.coastalliving.com/)

This one below is clearly a very beautiful structure with quality furnishings and fittings, and would cost a small fortune to duplicate... and no disrespect to the magazine, the owners or designers... but I love the idea that you could take any halfway decent backyard structure, paint the whole thing white, add some curtains, some lush tropical planting around it and some salvaged furnishings, fixtures and linens to create something with this type of feel on a budget...



(Photographer Tria Gioran - www.coastalliving.com)

And the sun room below just makes me want to pick up my copy of The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic and kick back for an afternoon of happy reading.... (as an aside - if you haven't read the book but had the misfortune of seeing the movie, don't be put off... the book is frighteningly relateable, to me anyways, but an entertaining, easy read)



(Photographer Jean Allsopp - www.coastalliving.com)

I can tell you I saved Coastal Living into my favourites so fast that my fingers were a blur across the keyboard!  Its nice to know that even though this is a US magazine, I can still get some amazing eye candy from their website.   I did check Borders (I figured that was the most likely place to get it if it was available in hard copy in Australia) but couldn't see a copy there....  If anyone knows somewhere that tends to stock a variety of mags from overseas, please let me know and I'll check it out :)
Anyway there are plenty of Aussie magazines to keep you busy...  my personal faves are The Outdoor Room, Home Beautiful, House & Garden, Real Living, and my secret guilty pleasure, Better Homes and Gardens...  I only have subscriptions to 2 (I'm trying to cut back!) but occasionally the others sneak their way in my trolley :)

And for any Australian residents who, like myself, are suckers for the paper magazine in their hot little hands, follow this link to an amazing discount on several subscriptions (I got a 12 month BHG subscription for $40!!)  I learnt about it over on one of my favourite forums, in Simple Savings, and have had several years of enjoyment from it (as have some of my friends and family... speaking of which - Nadine, if you're reading this - please don't order the BHG subscription for yourself... your birthday is just around the corner after all, and you never know your luck in a big city!  Lol)

Well I hope you've enjoyed this new style of post (a bit removed from my previous ones about our house and family) - I'd greatly appreciate your feedback on whether you have or haven't so I know if I'm heading down the right track, thanks!

Bye for now :)

Happy Holidays... Not!

Sorry guys this is another update post (although there are some pics of our next 'to do' project further down!)  So following on from the last post, our holiday in Noosaville had come to an end and we arrived back home on the Friday.  Mimi then flew home last Saturday, and on Sunday we had Julie and Tony's twins over at our place for the day and that night for a long overdue sleepover so Julie and Tony could have a bit of kid free time.  The kids were very excited and had a wonderful time together...  on Monday morning we gave them all brekky then dropped them all off to Kindy (they all attend the same one).  Tim and I were both still on holidays from work for the week, and with Alex in Kindy all week, we had big plans to get some stuff done around the house, and for me to finally complete some projects and then post them on this blog! 

But Monday morning Boofy still wasn't feeling real well, so we packed him back off to our regular Dr, who ordered tests and chest xrays.... a day later the results were in, it wasn't flu, it was whooping cough!  What the??  We got the results on Tuesday at 9.03 am, at 9.05am I was on the phone to Julie apologising profusely (if I knew it was whooping cough, obviously I would never have had the kids over!) and at 9.15am I was at Kindy collecting Alex and telling them I'd let them know if Alex had it asap.  At 9.35am Alex and I were at the pathologist getting blood tests... I was dreading this, a 3 year old having a blood test?  Oh dear...  I explained to him we were seeing the Dr and there would be a needle, he told me he didn't want the needle it would hurt, we said it would hurt for a minute, but if he was brave he could have a chocolate (I know, my bad!  But I was desperate, people!!  Who wants to see their 3 year old hysterical from pain and terror?  He rarely gets chocolate which makes it a super special treat, and the perfect bribe! Lol)  So he was super brave, I held him on my lap and he whimpered when the needle went in, then Boofy said "look at the colours in the wrapper - is it blue?  Can you see the red?  Do you want to eat it now?" (the wrapper was on the tiny milky way egg we were bribing him with!) and he was sufficiently distracted...  the ladies made such a big deal about how brave he was, gave him balloons, stickers and a bravery certificate (I kid you not!) that he later pronounced to me that he loves blood tests!! lol... at least he will never have my fear of needles (which I only conquered via the IVF clinic), although we're hoping he doesn't have to have too many blood tests in the future, or he may end up a chocoholic like Boofy :)

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday were really rainy days, and we were all in lockdown.... let me paint a picture for you - its pouring rain outside (even under our pergola is wet, and the trampoline is soaked, so no outdoor play is possible), the whole family is in quarantine, which means no public outings (for example to an indoor play facility where a 3 year old might burn off the energy they would normally expend) and we are waiting waiting waiting for results.... aarrrgh!!!!  Torture I tell ya!  We ran out of fresh groceries, thank goodness for Julie (who did some shopping and dropped it at the front door for me to get us through - she really is a God-send) and Woolies online, who delivered the big fortnightly shop the next day!  So in the midst of this, and me not being the most patient person, I totally stalked the Dr's surgery for the next 2 days, and finally on Thursday afternoon got the results - Alex and I did not have whooping cough - hooray!!  I called Kindy, called Julie and posted it on Facebook, such was my relief!  I had to take Alex into the Dr so he could look him over and give me a clearance certificate for Kindy the next day, which he did - double hooray!!!!  So Friday Alex went to Kindy and I hit the shops, woohoo!  It was raining again, but I didn't care, so happy was I to be allowed out in public again, lol.  I got some winter clothes for Alex, and some birthday pressies for Boofy - I was only out and about for 3 hours but I felt very free :)

Poor Boofy was still in quarantine, so he spent another day sleeping and watching dvds (he really has been very very sick, so has been resting a lot).  Which brings us to Saturday.  The sun was shining, Boofy is no longer in quarantine (and as such enjoyed some quality time out of the house!) and we've all had a lovely day!

Unfortunately today the sun is no longer shining, which is a bummer as we were planning on heading out into the garden...  The step ladder is currently outside and Alex has this new thing where he likes to climb it and pick imaginary apples... the things that go through your mind when you're 3 years old!  He can probably still pick his imaginary fruit under cover outside, but the subsequent plan to get stuck into the vege garden will have to wait for another day....  You see, our thriving 11 metre long vege patch got totally wiped out in all the rain we had in January....  the only thing that momentarily survived was the cucumber (we thought it was dead, but it resurrected itself, ran rampant, produced about half a dozen mammoth cucumbers, then promptly died again!!) and the chilli plant, which now has a serious lean (must be the weeds pulling it down!)

And the rest of the garden looks like this:





Yes, those are all weeds!  Yikes!  In this photo you can see how the weeds have almost swallowed the gorgeous metal turtle my mother in law Barb bought us as a house warming gift...

It will be nice to give him pride of place again - we love him!  But I think the family day resurrecting the vege garden will have to wait for another day... And secretly I'm not too disappointed... as it will basically be just pulling weeds... not terribly exciting, but necessary if we want to plant some more veges and get this going again in time to harvest some winter veges (which we do!)  Besides, Alex doesn't much care what he does in the garden anyway, pulling weeds is super fun for a 3 year old, even if Mum and Dad are totally dreading it!  I doubt we'll get through them all in one go (I don't even think all of this would fit in the wheelie bin!) but hopefully soon we'll get some fine weather and we can make a start. 

For today though, we might give our pots some love...  you see I was very disheartened with all the rain that demolished our beloved vege patch (I'd put a lot of work into it, and I'm no gardener!) and stupidly lost interest in gardening altogether for a while... so my thriving (most used) herbs now look like this....

Even my beloved Kaffir Lime looks sad (yes those are herb seedlings on the ground in front of it - I bought them to plant in the sad pots above, but never got around to clearing them out... I think the basil might be salvageable, lol):

I'd like to clear the pots and plant whatever seedlings we can...  then we can see what we have and maybe make a trip to Bunnings to get some more herb seedlings to fill them up all lush again (honestly I spend a fortune on fresh herbs, I use them in everything....  I know seedlings is doing it the expensive way, but it will still save money on what I'd spend in the weekly shop on herbs - honest!)  And Bunnings is pretty much Alex's favourite place to go :)

So there you have it - between this post and the last, it's a month in the life of us, albeit an eventful one!  Hope you've enjoyed the epic posts after such a long absence - sorry much of the news was a bit negative, but that's life sometimes isn't it!

And regarding the huge absences between posts... I never intended it to be so long, but life gets busy and I don't have time to complete any projects to post... and bi-monthly posts are never going to sustain a blog!  Lol....  So I've had a good think about it and I will try to complete my own projects, and post about them when I do, as well as details about family life....  but in between I might start posting about other things such as images, projects and spaces that are really motivating and inspiring me.... because there are always lots!  You should see my favourites list - it is positively bursting with inspiration!  I am really excited about this new turn for the blog and can't wait to share this stuff with you - I hope you'll find it as interesting and inspiring as I do!

And just as a last little aside, check out what is passing for fashion in the world of my 3 year old boy these days...  Here he is sitting on the bench, 'helping' Dad cook....  wearing a long sleeve T-Rex PJ top, shorts, gum boots and a spiderman helmet.... and pulling the most ridiculous face I've ever seen!

Bye for now :)