New direction - house to home, garden to plate

Now the extension is finished I have been thinking what next with the blog? As many of you know even though an extension or house might have finished being built there is still lots to then do to make a house a home. This is what I am now going to focus on.

I had a good Summer break with the kids and now they are back at school and kinder, I have had a little head space and time to reflect.

A big thing for me is making our house a home, somewhere we feel comfortable, have fun and enjoy. Somewhere family and friends love to visit and spend time with us. The same goes for the garden, we would love a mini oasis in the middle of suburbia.

Over Summer holidays I quickly realised a few things, to have a comfortable home you want it to be cool and shaded. There is lots of  sun about and so was glad we got the solar panels in. For the garden water is obviously a necessity so hence a good size water tank. Other factors will come into play in Winter, so I am looking at sustainability measures to make our house comfortable all year around. This will also help keep the heating / cooling bills down.

The other thing I took in is with a lot of entertaining and the kids being home over the holidays we wasted a lot of fresh food by buying too much and then it spoiling before we ate it. So now I not only want to make a beautiful garden but a productive one. This has started with my bumper crop of cherry tomatoes which the kids, hubby and I not only enjoyed eating but the kids loved planting and picking them too. This also brings up the topic of fun things to do with the kids around the house and garden, another focus for my future posts.

Over Spring and Summer we have been working on our garden and thinking ahead we have started to plant tress that will not only grow to hide the fence and look good but will eventually grow fruit, our mini orchard in the middle of suburbia (see picture below-planting was something Hubby and son enjoyed together). 

So with all this in mind I hope you can join my journey of making my house a home and my garden a productive one. I am also aiming to come up with some great recipes, that use the fresh produce we have grown. I would love it too if you could share ideas with me along the way. So stay tuned for my garden to plate posts.

Pool next to the deck!

I finally got to use a pool next to our new deck, well paddling pool at least!

Today it was finally hot in Melbourne, the first really hot day since we have had our wrap around deck put in, so we finally got to use the deck in the way I imagined.

 

These photos were taken around 12ish when the Maple in the middle of our garden was giving good shade. A little later in the day the extension gives the shade to this area, so perfect place to set up a pool.

Our deck was finished in May this year when Winter had already set in, so all these months later we are now finally getting the chance to use it in so many different ways.

Tomorrow I plan to plant my new Olive tree you can see on top of the wine barrel here. I will share more photos in my Friday food and flower post.

Making paper lanterns and more

I love this time of year with all the festivities, and I have decided that this year, I am going to try and make paper decorations and more. Now it will all be easy to make things that I can do with the kids.

So as Halloween is only two days away we just made paper lanterns, treat bags and ghost lollipops.

Instructions on how to make both the lanterns and ghost lollipops can be found on kidspot.com.au 

 The treat bags were my daughters invention which she just made with an A4 piece of paper folded in half width ways and sticky taped together. She then put her little trick or treat message inside along with a lollipop and presented it to me, her brother and Dad. She is our creative child and I love her gifts, they always make me smile.

As you can also see by these photos I have been playing around with Instagram today. I am a complete novice at this point. If you are on Instagram look out for me @georgygdesign.

Colour inspiration

I often find inspiration from walking past cafes and this is no exception. Love the colour pop and at the moment I am trying to introduce yellow, red and orange into my home and garden. I will share photos soon.

Food and flowers - basil, lemons and red

'Go on it's the weekend so get your hands dirty.'

Ok this is my Friday food and flowers post a day late but what a hectic week it has been.

My first week of not doing paid office work and it has flown. I thought I would have all this spare time but no, with a list a mile long of things I wanted to get done and with my daughter home from school for two days (she strained her quad muscle playing basketball, a big deal for a six year old), I didn't get to the blog much at all.

I did however manage to pot some basil and flowers plus mulch my lemon tree. I am looking forward to using the basil in summer salads, pasta, and on pizza.

 

It is obviously going to be a while before I get lemons and I plan to pot at least one other lemon tree, as there are so many things I love to make with lemon in.

 Mmmm, Lemoncello!

Decorating for Halloween - Blogtoberfest day 23

I love this time of year where I get to decorate the house for various festivities, Halloween being the first cab of the rank. I must admit though with Halloween I not a big fan of some the decorations (thinking skull and crossbones) but love the pumpkins and the burst of orange they provide to the house.

These pumpkin candles go so well with the tulips Hubby bought me for finishing work last week. Only thing is I don't think these tulips will survive to Halloween so might have to get some more!

The kids are getting so excited about next week and I am sure there will be a few more photos to share then, especially as we are going to try and make some Halloween decorations and treats ourselves.

Do you need a project?

Are you one of those people who always needs a project of some sort to focus on?

Well I certainly am and after finishing my job last week and already thinking what next? I have had a few people say just relax for a few weeks, take some time out for yourself while the kids are at school and kinder. Good advice but find this a very hard thing to do.

I started off well this morning going to the gym and then to one of my favourite places, Bunnings but now at home and looking around at all that needs to be done and just feel I should get started on organising the study, cleaning out cupboards, weeding, painting and oh so much more that I have been putting off. Sigh!

It is however a beautiful day outside and I am kid free, so maybe I should go out for a coffee and read a mag, oh and maybe visit Spotlight! Even if I do manage to do this I know later tonight once the kids are in bed I will start writing a plan for what to tackle over the next few months. I just can't help myself!

What about you, do you find it easy to relax or are you a plan and project person like me?