Bougainvillea a Mediterranean inspiration

I have loved Bougainvillea ever since we saw a lot of it growing on the Amalfi Coast of Italy. The stunning colours against the Mediterranean and the stone houses has always inspired me. So much so that I planted a vine as soon as we bought our house some eight years ago.

Now said vine is hidden down the side of the new extension, so will look at moving, but in the meantime have been bringing it inside.

First day of School memories

First day back at school for my daughter today. She is starting year 1. So to remember the day we took a photo of her next to this blackboard with the intention of now doing it every year.

When she started Prep we naturally took lots of photos at home and in front of the school but was wondering what we could do this year and for the many more to come. I saw a great article with ideas, one of which suggested holding up a small blackboard to record the year and take the same picture each year and watch them grow. So this is my plan, plus to each year take one on the deck and in front of our Maple tree as we did last year.

This blackboard is coming in handy for many occasions and so has a permanent place near our kitchen.

Are you a list person?

I have written lists but normally when organising a special occasion or getting ready to go on holiday, writing lists it is not something I am in continual habit of doing.

Today though is my last day of holidays, I go back to work tomorrow after having almost four weeks off with my kids (and hubby for two weeks of it ) and looking around I am thinking I will need to get more organised and start writing lists.

Images from Kikki. K website

I can see all these things I meant to do over the past week particularly and didn't get done. I am not upset about it as instead spent lots of quality time with my two children but as I prepare to start work tomorrow, I have suddenly remembered how hard the juggle of everything was and I promised myself to be more organised this year!I recently read an article in Home Beautiful about Kristina Karlsson founder of Kikki. k who apparently loves writing lists, filing and clears her desk every evening. Kikki. K has lots of beautifully designed stationary and more to help me to do the same. I am thinking I may need to order a few things from the website or visit to a store nearby.

Agapanthus add to decorating

The sun finally shone in Melbourne for the first time in a week today and so managed to get out into the garden.

I am loving the explosion of purple the Agapanthus provide and so I thought they would go well indoors too, adding to the 'look' I love for my house.

Hope you all had a great weekend.

A holiday, New Year and new perspective

Firstly Happy New Year! it has been a while since I posted, as I must admit I was a little over renovating and talking about it. I needed a break from the house, Melbourne, work and the everyday routine.

After having two birthdays in the Christmas week, with parties at our house (my beautiful girl turned six and then two days later I had my birthday), then also Christmas day lunch here, I was a little exhausted and also frustrated with the fact our builder hadn't finished external work in time for all the parties. So this meant trying to ignore the outside mess and entertain around it (not easy with kids).

At least in these two photos you can see we got our L shaped deck done, just haven't yet got the pergola for me to hang my lanterns on and put all the fairy lights around I bought just for Christmas.

Well we have just recently got back from a much needed holiday in Adelaide, visiting family and old friends. Plus we spent lots of time going for walks in the stunning Adelaide Hills or along the beach and plenty of time near or in water. It was relaxing and just what was needed.

Coming back home I found I could now appreciate and enjoy the house again, look at it from the perspective of what we have done in the past year rather then what still needs to be done.

I have also come back online to find that the lovely Deb from Let's go Moerkabout has passed an award over to me:

Liebster is a German word meaning "dearest" and the award is given to bloggers with fewer than 200 followers. The award has a few stipulations:

1. Thank the giver and link back to the blogger who gave it you.

2. Reveal your five blogger picks and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog.

3. Copy and paste the award on your blog.

4. Hope that people you have sent the award to forward it on to their favourite bloggers.

Now its my turn to pass this award on to five bloggers that I love to pop in and visit.

At home with Sam and I
Change of Place
B is Building a House
Ledamae
From Avenue to Boulevard

Thanks also to Deb, I always enjoy reading her blog.

So back to showing plenty of photos and sharing stories of what is happening around my place. I look forward to reading your blogs again too and finding out what you have been up to. Hope 2012 is a happy and good one for you all!

Spring or Christmas cleaning?

Now considering it is November, it is still considered Spring in Australia, but I really think the sorting or cleaning I did yesterday could more be called Christmas cleaning.

I started sorting through the kids toys, trying to decide what could be put in the shed and what to give to the Salvos. With Christmas being six and a half weeks away and my daughters 6th birthday being six weeks off, I have started to think about all the new toys that will suddenly descend on the house. This is not helped my my kids being the only two grandchildren on either side.

So yesterday I found myself busy sorting and thinking hard about storage, do I need another visit to IKEA? I think I might!

So what do you think, belated Spring cleaning or honest Christmas sorting and do you do this?

The hub of the home

In many houses the kitchen is the hub of the home and now with our extension and the new living space next to the kitchen we are no exception, though probably more exact for us it is the coffee table between the kitchen and family room.

This old table was put here quite by accident, just to get it out of the way but as soon as we did the kids gravitated to it. They do all their drawing and craft on it, play games and eat lunch and snacks. It is the perfect height for them and right in the middle of all the action.

The blue stools you can see in the picture above are great too as they are soft and the tops lift off with storage underneath. It helps that I got them for $10 each from Woolworths.

So we spent the weekend enjoying this space and Saturday watching our builder digging to prepare for installing the deck this week. So excited!