Catching up...

I've been meaning and meaning to post photos here lately; and I haven't. So, tonight, is a photo-spectacular.

I did it. I actually knitted.

Yeah, so it's not great. But my cat loves it and I am very pleased that I could actually cast on, knit the thing, and then cast off.

I don't know what my first official 'project' will be. Patterns seem to be written in some foreign language that I don't yet grasp; so any thoughts/advice about what to actually make that is easy would be greatfully received.

Not massive in many peoples worlds; but here, it's huge.

We played a game of 'Betcha can't draw...' and he did it. He's wanting to do it; and finally seems to be getting confidence enough in himself to do it. Big moment here.

Fathers day. Nothing big and fancy; just these and a homemade card. The frames were $6 from the reject shop - the photos were printed out and the paintings were done by the person photographed.

Pretty spiffy I think!!!

Today was a very blah kind of day. I'm all fluey, which is not too pleasant at the best of times; especially since it was a beautiful day outside. But, I didn't feel up to the gardening today, so spent the day pottering around the house. After a discussion with some friends on sterile living vs organisation, I thought I'd take you on a tour of my house. Just to show that organisation doesn't have to be a display home.

Firstly; our bedroom. This is pretty easy to keep organised; provided the drawers aren't overfilled with stuff we never wear. I tend to keep on top of our clothes; I wash pretty regularly, so there is not an incessant need for heaps of stuff. I have clothes in the camping trailer for when we go camping - any old stuff gets rotated to there, anything in there gets taken to the salvos etc. The teddy bear on the bed was given to me by G on our first Valentines day (with aftershave that he thought was perfume, but it's the thought that counts!!). Hanging around his neck is a pendant. It was my grandmothers. It's beautiful.

The picture above our bed is the bane of my existence. It is a combination of my two favorite colours; but try and find a quilt set / sheet set to match it!! I'm thinking about dying a white set to match them; but I'm not quite that worried about it.

The bedroom suite was my mothers. I quite like it, although it's very 'formal'. I'm more of a natural timber type of person - but it does the job it needs to do nicely. Notice the straightener hanging off another cord - it's off and it's cold!!!

Our 'formal' loungeroom. Because we are sooooo formal. This is the room that the kids stay out of. It holds all my trinkets and bits and bods that people have given me over the years. There is stuff there from my best friend on our wedding day, stuff from my great grandmother and photos of all of us. You will notice on this tour, that the recurring theme is photos. I love having them around and the more the better.

The study. Pretty simple, yet works. If you were to turn around, you'd see an inbuilt bookshelf full of all sorts of books. Mostly trashy chick lit at the moment; but some of my favorite books of all time are amongst them. Lots of refrigeration control manuals too - G likes to read up on how to fix things.

Lastly (for today) is the 'dining room'. We are not 'dining room' people. We have a big outdoor table (which will be posted in due course) and our lives are lived out there when it is warmer. So, when we moved here, I was not interested in having a shoebox area to stick a table and chairs in that we'll never use. We did contemplate enclosing it and calling it a study, but we thought, until we decide a proper use, we'll stick a couch in there and leave it. The couch folds out for our guests too.

And that is the same room when we have guests. I like them to feel welcome, and I think it looks nice.



I try and make a big point of leaving the house looking like this before I go to bed. Because everything in my house has a home, it's not a big job. I know you probably think that most of my cupboards must look scarily full of stuff, but I promise there's not.

The kids will get every toy they own out every day. We have playdoh out, painting and drawing. It's just that, instead of leaving it there; I make a big point of packing it away. And, truth be known, I've made life easy on myself in that way. But, I will show you that in due course.

Sure, the junk drawer gets messed up and the tupperware drawer ends up overfilling because stuff it dumped back in instead of being put back in it's spot - but for the most part, my cupboards are the same realm of organised as the rest of the house.

And having everything in it's place makes it really easy to clean. I don't have to move stuff around the house, I just lift what's there, dust/wipe under it and put it back. So, although none of these rooms have been cleaned in a week - there's no real impression of mess.

It's easy to get organised; it's keeping organised that is the hard part. I'm just so used to doing it, it's second nature.