Good Bye!

Many months have passed and I've barely looked at this blog. I think it's probably run it's course and come to the end of it's life. I may drop in from time to time, but honestly my interests have shifted onto greener/other pastures.

I have a new blog to keep me busy!

www.donnamooreart.blogspot.com.au

Goodbye and warmest of regards. XX

Renovation 2.0

I have this little investment property which I bought as a single woman many years ago. Recently the current tenants (who were fabulous I might add) advised me they had just purchased their first home and were vacating. While it was sad to see them go it was a great opportunity to get in there and do some much needed repairs and updates. 

Here we are 4 weeks later. There were many thrills and spills along the way as you would expect, but overall I had the time of my life. Renovating on a tight budget has been a lot of fun, your flying by the seat of your pants, making decisions quickly and moving on to the next thing. There is only one way out and thats to move forward.

It's been exhausting but thoroughly exhilarating! I only wish I had another to do it all over again. 

So, here we are with the Before and Afters enjoy!

Kitchen - Before

Kitchen - After

 Bathroom - Before (I know desperately in need of a makeover )

Bathroom - After

Lounge - Before 

 Lounge - After

Bedroom - Before

Bedroom - After.

My little Scraggamuffin no more.

Our dear little Olive is now 6 months old and a tad overdue for a visit to the groomers. Today we said goodbye to our little scraggamuffin and hello to a brand new doodle who smells like heaven. What do you think?

Lack of storage.

"We need more storage. Desperately. " I lament.

David shrugs and mumbles something about it being a first world problem and how we can make do. This of course infuriates me, as I'm sure it would have done countless other women who like myself struggle to win the war on crap and clutter that constantly creeps into the house unannounced. 

"This is what we need" I say brightly. I show him a picture from the book HE bought me for my birthday recently. "The snow chest of drawers. It's simple with clean lines, contemporary but also timeless and modular." What's not to love?

Snow A chest of drawers designed by Jonas Bohlin for Aplund.

Hmmm...small problem. The four drawer chest costs approx. $2200 and the shipping would be astronomical all the way from Europe. They are unavailable in Australia to my knowledge. *Sigh*

What's a girl to do?

Well, we could go with this? The Nordli series from Ikea. I think it's a pretty good substitute. I think it would work great in the boys rooms. 

So the question I am grappling with is can this: 

Replace this? Yes or No? 

I am not kidding myself 'The Snow' is a quality piece of furniture and the 'Nordli' is well, Ikea.  Cheap, ubiquitous, disposable Ikea.  I think we will need to have a look at it first.  

But the larger question here is what IS ok to buy from Ikea? Let me say photo frames, mirrors, cooking dishes, pillows, and soft furnishings all get a big tick from me. When it comes to furniture I'm not so sure? Although I have heard good things about their kitchens. 

Oh, the perils of first world problems.

Note: I went to Ikea and saw the Nordli in the flesh. The drawers were all ill aligned and the whole unit looked rather shabby. Did not inspire me to buy.

Easter 2015

Yep, that bunny came and left plenty for the kids to devour. Little Mack kind of got the concept of hunting for eggs, however beating Charlie to them was another story.  David's hot cross buns were delicious,  they do seem to get better each year. Our Autumn weather has been spectacular, particularly the afternoons where a trip to the park via the local coffee shop is a must. I love it when the park is full of kids to play with on the school holidays. In fact it's become a meeting place just as much for the parents as the kids where we take turns doing the coffee runs. Life is good.

My baby girl has settled in nicely. She is such a sweetheart and as cuddly as a teddy bear. We have finished puppy school and will shortly begin obedience training on Saturday mornings. She has absolutely won us over, I just have to watch I don't spoil her too much. (Warning: shameful puppy brag ahead) As I type this she has just gotten up and taken herself out the back to toilet. What a star.

Ollie, Ollie, Ollie!

She arrived at 6.30pm. Poor little thing had had quite a day/journey all the way from Wangaratta. It's hard to not feel a little guilty yanking her from her siblings and placing her in a new environment.  

The noisy trains freaked her out at first, but she seems to be a whole lot less bothered now. She's playful, calm and curious. A delightful girl.

 Katrina (breeder) delivering her to us. This isn't a normal part of the service we were just lucky they were coming to Melbourne this weekend.

                           

 First hour at home, not sure of where she is or who we are - poor little thing.

Who are you? 

16 hours later and she is settling in well with lots of play in the back yard.

A girl named Oliver

Finally, I'm getting my girl. This beautiful babe will arrive on the 27th of February. I think she is beautiful. The boys are delighted as you can imagine. She is a medium Labradoodle from Wangaratta (my ancestral homeland). 

Originally she was promised to another and we were on a very long wait list for a puppy in the far future, however the puppy god shined on us with this lovely sweet little girl who had been ear-marked to be a therapy dog. 

Due to her calm and gentle nature the puppy god thought this girl was right for a family with young boys. We welcome her with loving arms (eight to be exact).

Oliver at 2 weeks

Oliver at 4 weeks

Oliver at 6 weeks

Christmas 2014

That time of year again. Twas a wonderful day enjoying kids, presents, games, food, family and friends. Thanks to everyone who came and made it so very special.

Spring 2014

Some recent photos of the front garden.  Overall I am happy with how everything is going. Our grass has greened up again and is back to looking lush.  This year has really just been about experimenting with different perennials. My favourites will be propagated and used more en masse next year. I have ordered more seeds of easy to propagate yet interesting plants, so there is lots to look forward to.

 A few weeks back I went on a road trip to Lambley Nursery with a neighbour where I was able to purchase a few grasses and perennials I've not been able to find in local nurseries. It was a lovely day and well worth the drive. The thing I love about their perennials is they are so easy to propagate by either striking cuttings or by division. It may take a couple of years but you can fill your garden quite cheaply with minimum skill and hard work. When you tire of a certain look it's fun and easy to start the process all over again.

Mobile Free - better than you would think.

What a busy month it's been. Tax, work deadlines, birthdays, school inductions and halloween have all managed to eat into blogging time. 

Something wonderful did occur during this time. My mobile stopped recharging rendering it unusable. Now, you might think how is that a wonderful thing? I too was initially annoyed at the prospect of being without a phone. My brother who had upgraded to an iPhone 6 offered up his old iPhone 5 but I had to wait three weeks. This gave me a few weeks of living mobile free and I have to say I loved it.

No longer was I a slave to technology. No daily recharging, searching in the bottom of my too large handbag or intermittently checking for messages through out the day. My time spent at the park with the kids meant I was 100% focussed on the kids not responding to texts and answering phone calls.  At home, I felt like there was one less thing to have to do and it felt great! 

I am no longer mobile free, David's argument of 'what happens in an emergency' won over my 'one less thing' argument. But it has planted a seed and got me thinking of a simpler time. A quick search online confirmed there are a lot of us out there who are maybe/perhaps rethinking the path we have been heading down and dream of a less complicated life. How much time do we spend attending to our gadgets and at what cost are we really paying in doing so?  

Ok, rant over :)

Now, Bill's progress. After planting the entire 10 seeds I have been left with 3 seedlings (well 2 definites and one possible maybe). The below pot on the right is the first seed to germinate, note how stunted it's growth is (Not promising). The Pot on the left was planted a month later and is doing a lot better. There also seems to be a mystery geranium popping up too which is kind of cool. The two larger seedlings I have planted out into the garden now so hopefully they will do a lot better than in a pot..

Speaking of pots, I did purchase several rather large ones for our back deck which is really just an excuse to buy new plants to fill them of course.  

Project no.2 growing sunflowers (the ones above in the terra cotter pot are fake and gifted to me from a neighbour) the photo below are real and appear to be growing like the clappers, whoever the hell the clappers are I imagine they are exceedingly fast and tall :).  So, on that note I will finish up and not even mention the mere 7 weeks to Christmas (gasp in horror.) TTFN.

Little Bill

Bill (Geranium pyrenaicum 'Bill Wallis') is still with us. His first primary leaves have started to form now so hopefully we are well on our way to being a plant (provided I keep him moist and out of direct sunlight). I've planted the rest of the seeds too now I know they are viable. So, so far 'The Project' is off to a good(ish) start.

I am a bit in love with perennial geraniums at the moment. They are quite rare in Australia unlike the the ubiquitous Pelagonium (called a geranium) which isn't a true geranium at all.  

One I have my eye on in particular is 'Geranium phaeum samobor' she has the deliciously ominous common name of 'Mourning widow'. I love her maroon marked foliage and dark mysterious flower, an added bonus is she apparently likes dry shade. I think she would look fantastic in a pot near my front door. She might need to be project no. 2.

Spring so far has had gorgeous weather. What, with the scent of Jasmine in the air and the sun shining, who wants to be inside? I am eager to get to work on our 'Side bit'. It has been completely neglected since our build and that needs to change. 

I'm thinking of a raised veggie bed under the large window (we have a tap there conveniently) which hopefully will get full sun for most of the year. In front of the veggie bed just needs to be a low maintenance path (zero mowing needs) with good access to a clothesline further down. Along the fence I was thinking of putting up a trellis and growing something (i.e. star jasmine perhaps). But for now my focus is on the veggie bed which I reckon I could possibly make myself - stand back everyone I have power tools :) Watch this space X