The new journey!

So it has been two years since I last posted and what a two years it has been. Sold the family home and spent the last couple of years renting, looking after two great kids and juggling full time work, it hasn't been easy! Really the last few years have been about getting through, day by day but now I am a Westie, meaning I have moved to the Western suburbs of Melbourne from the East and absolutely loving it! I am all ready for the next chapter.

So what will the next chapter look like?

• Exploring the Western Suburbs of Melbourne and all they have to offer.
• Getting involved with what I can already see as a vibrant, engaged community - helping kids to settle in.
• Looking at sustainable living while not impacting too much on the day to day. My partner and I have just bought an old house originally built in about 1900 (pictured in header). It has been renovated and extended but we would like to put in our personal touches with both design and improving the sustainability of the house and garden so looking at:
• energy efficiency of the house to help keep the energy bills in check
• solar panels
• an edible garden, with composting and worm farms and maybe a few chickens
• already has three water tanks
• and last but certainly not least, upcycling vintage furniture and other items.

Sammy the dog with our vintage dining table

 All the while juggling a busy lifestyle with kids, dog, family, friends and my job (I am sure there will be a few good posts about this, with me pulling my hair out)!

And keeping in mind how busy life is still want to try as much as possible to enjoy the day to day, enjoy the journey.

The story - selling and moving house - part one

Most would probably start a story from the beginning but I must say I do like the ones that start in the middle or at the end and then flash back and that is what I am going to do, by starting my story in the present in my new house and look back on the events that got me here.

I sold my family home that I have been living in for over 10 years just before Christmas 2014. I had been planning on talking about the sale process, staging the house (sharing photos of this) and more as it was happening, but the decision to sell when we did happened very quickly, and then it was suddenly all systems go trying to get the house ready. Also the process itself was stressful and emotional as on some levels I didn't want to sell.

My two children and I have now moved though into a new place which we love and will make new memories in. We are unpacking and I am looking at ways to make the house homely and feel like us, a little harder being a rental so can't easily change things or put pictures up wherever (a little easier to do these days than when I last rented with Velcro strips) but I like the challenge.

I am enjoying getting all our personal items out on display again too and putting my bookcases back out. This has quickly made our new house feel like home, especially after living in what felt like a display home for so long.

That is one issues with selling and wanting the house to look the best for open inspections, you need to do a major de-clutter and remove most personal effects. I did want the house to look the best it can and 'staged' it to make it look open and bigger, a blank canvas but decorated enough to give others ideas and not have it too sterile. It looked great in the end but was hard to live in and maintain. One good thing about it though was as a friend of mine said 'the house doesn't seem like you any more' and she was so right, this helped with disconnecting and made it so much easier to move out as soon as it was sold as couldn't wait to move into somewhere and make it mine again.

So now we are happily in our new home, boxes still everywhere but enjoying making it ours. For this reason I am now ready to and wanting to look back on the process of selling and would like to share some things I learnt from it as I know some of you will have to sell your home at some point.

A new beginning

Those that used to read my blog will know I haven't posted for over a year. This is mainly because the last year has seen some big changes which required some adjustment.

Manchurian Pear out the front of my house

My husband and I separated a year ago this week and have been living apart ever since. Now a year later I am looking at many positive new beginnings (and Spring is a good time for that). A sad one for me is getting the house ready for sale but looking forward to the adventure. Looking forward to the fun of staging the house and getting it in tip top condition (have just put in a new kitchen) and looking forward to creating and decorating a new home with my two children.

We are not selling the house until early next year so I am glad I will have six months with my new kitchen and of the house looking fantastic. It will also be nice to have a last Christmas and Summer here with lots of entertaining on the deck.

I keep telling myself it is just a house and that the people that live within are the most important. This of course is very true but still there are a lot of memories here as we have been living here 10 years and both my babies were brought home to this house.

Still it is all about the journey as they say and now I am starting in a new direction. Who knows what exciting possibilities the future may hold!

A morning show

We have just had new windows put in at the front of our house and have not as yet put blinds or curtains back, this I was grateful for this morning when I got woken to see an amazing sunrise.

What a great way to start Mother's day. This was followed by breakfast in bed, flowers and presents. To all the Mums, hope you had a great day too.

Open inspections show less = more

I have recently been going to a number of open inspections of houses for sale in my area. Reason being that close friends of mine are looking to buy and another friend is getting ideas for her new build.

I must say this is something I love doing as it gives me ideas for my own house and one thing I have learnt recently is less can equal more comfort and peace in a house.

If you have looked at house for sale recently or sold one of your own you would know that in many cases the houses are completely de-cluttered of personal stuff and in some then given the going over by an interior designer. Now the lack of personal items can make a house a bit sterile but if an interior designer has then gone through the house and added rental furniture and ornaments it can give you some great ideas for basic room looks.

I particularly liked a house I looked at on the weekend as it is a weatherboard like my house with a very similar layout.

Photos from domain.com.au



Love the frontage. Gives me ideas as we are in the middle of doing ours with new windows going in tomorrow.



 Also love the neutral de-cluttered interior and am planning on making my lounge more like this one in terms of layout. My lounge will have more colour, (especially as we have a blue lounge and can't afford to replace it) and family photos though.







How peaceful does this bedroom look, love the window seat.

As mentioned we are getting new windows put in tomorrow in the front two rooms, being the main bedroom and lounge room, so I have just cleared these rooms out. On Friday once all is cleaned up I might just put things back a little differently and leave some things out completely.

Autumn colour inside and out

I love this time of year, watching the trees around the neighbourhood changing colour. I particularly enjoy looking out at the centrepiece of our garden, a beautiful Canadian Maple.

As we head into the cooler months I have also added more of the warming colour red to my interior and the view of the Maple really sets this off.

Unfortunately in the last day the tree has lost a lot of leaves and anticipating this, last week I brought some small branches inside for decoration.

It is hard to believe that just a week ago our Maple still had some green. It has changed quickly.

I have also brought in some Manchurian Pear branches. Our trees haven't changed colour yet even though many down the street have.

Just an aside I have taken all this photos using Instagram, so if you are on Instagram look out for me @georgygdesign.

Garden to plate - tomato, coriander salsa

It has been so hot in Melbourne and the heat is going to continue for another few days. The heat is really starting to effect me, the kids and the garden. My poor herbs, are dropping, even though I water them daily and they are in the shade.

Luckily I was able to get enough coriander and probably almost our last crop of cherry tomatoes for the season and make a refreshing salsa. This one is well worth making and can be eaten by itself or goes well on garlic / herb bread, lamb or chicken.

For the one pictured above I used:

14 cherry tomatoes

2 tablespoons of fresh coriander

2 avocados (have to try growing these next)

1 glove of crushed garlic

2 tablespoons of lime juice

A pinch of salt and pepper

Mix all ingredients together and enjoy!