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?

Summer Holiday

Happy New Year everyone. Hard to believe it is already day three of 2011!

We have just returned from our Christmas / Summer holiday and so I have been offline for a while. As I mentioned in an earlier post we organised a house swap with friends in Adelaide, so we could have Christmas with family and catch up with all our old friends.

Just before Christmas my daughter wished for a white one, hoping it would snow and even though we had cold wet weather on the lead up the only white we will probably ever get is flowers, blossom and sandy beaches.

I think her wish was very quickly forgotten though when we got to the house we were staying in for our Christmas break. We were lucky enough to swap with wonderful friends who have a beautiful house and a pool and we swam everyday, the weather was fantastic. Living in Melbourne I miss those amazing blue Adelaide skies. So advantages of having Christmas in Summer.The week leading up to our trip was busy with birthday parties, fairy gardens and painting. And as the week goes on I will share some photos.

So now a New Year and today we have been moving furniture in preparation for the next few months. This year will be an exciting one with the next stage of our renovation and completion of our extension. Plus it is the year my daughter starts school and lots more.

Hope whatever this year holds for you it is a good one.

Christmas, birthdays, toys and storage

Well Christmas is fast approaching and we also have my daughter’s birthday five days before, so with this in mind I have started lists and shopping.

It quickly made me realise that I also need to think about storage or reducing the amount of kids toys in the house before they get all the new ones (especially as of January we will be living in half a house for six months).

As the only grandchildren on both sides they tend to get a lot. We are always telling family not to buy them so much but living interstate they see it as a great opportunity to make up for time not spent with them.

This reminded me that the second post I wrote on this blog was all about the toy invasion in our house – see here.

In summary I have found Ikea a great place for good, inexpensive storage options, use bookcases as much as possible and regularly reduce the toys by giving to friends with younger children or to the Salvation Army.

I also am looking at and recommending to others gift ideas that aren’t toys that I know the kids will still love, like a family pass to the Zoo, books, craft things and outdoor items including mini garden sets.

We have a build date!

Yes we have finally had a build date confirmed - Monday 25 October. So in just over a week we are going to be watching builders demolish our one and only bathroom to make it into an en-suite and walk in robe.

I am very excited but at the same time wonder how quickly this will wear off, with Hubby and I having to sleep in the lounge, all of us having to go to friends houses for showers (at least we still have a toilet) and having builders in the house from 7ish in the morning on a almost daily basis for about a month.

After that month the builders will break for Christmas and we can move back into our bedroom to get the rest of the house ready for the rear extension build which will start mid January.

So it is all happening. And in what is fairly normal at this time of year it is really busy in most other parts of our lives too, hence I am getting a bit behind with Blogtoberfest.

We have both been relatively busy at work (it has started to slow down for me though), had regular interstate visitors from our home town of Adelaide (which I do love), catching up with other Melbourne friends, the parties have already started for the many birthdays we have over the next few months and booking in the Christmas ones and last but by no means least the mayhem and fun of two small children........breath!

I sometimes wish that I could collapse among my favorite things like my little boy does when he has had enough.

I know we will get there but I must say I am hanging out for Christmas when we will have a break in Adelaide, doing a house swap with friends. I think we got the better end of the deal as they have a beautiful finished home with a pool! The thought of this keeps me going.

Advent calendar - Blogtoberfest day 14

Well it's seems that Christmas isn't far off, as for the last couple of weeks all the Departments stores have been selling Christmas decorations. This reminded me that I really wanted to get an advent calendar this year. One that I can put my own treats into for the kids and can reuse year after year.

So it was with luck that I stumbled into Myer in Melbourne yesterday, just to get out of the rain to find their 'Trim store' is having 25% off until Sunday. And I found just what I was looking for, it is made of wood and has little drawers that I can put treats in, I also like the red and white combination, fits perfectly into our lounge room.


I must admit I love looking in stores like Myer when they are filled with Christmas decorations. I love the sparkle and glitter and the memories it provides of decorating a real tree as a family when I was a child. I am now lucky enough to enjoy the magic of Christmas with young children, my daughter loves decorating the house and tree (my little boy is still in the rip the balls off the tree and throw them stage).