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!

Happy Halloween and last day of Blogtoberfest

A good day to end Blogtoberfest on. We are just starting to get into Halloween here and the kids love it.

We decorated the house and have had a few trickle treaters here, lots of fun!

Kids bedroom elements

With our extension we added to our two bedroom house with two more bedrooms, thinking how excited the kids would be to get their own bedrooms. Well my five year old daughter and three year old son have decided they want to both stay in their old bedroom and keep sharing, so the new rooms have become a playroom / guest room and a study (where I am now writing this blog post).

So I thought I would share with you some elements of the playroom, a bit of a sneak peak as I haven't implemented all my ideas to make this room a little magical for the kids, a plan for the next two months.

As you will see I am going for a red, blue and white colour theme. Love these ball cushions from Target......

This red checkered lamp from a kids bedroom store and of course some of my daughters art work from when she was three....


Can't go past IKEA for children's bedroom furniture, both the bed and chest of drawers are from there......

And these red carpet spots, the kids love moving them around........

Some red feet and hand artwork, done for Father's Day last year....

And the kids enjoying the room, love the soft grey carpet. The carpet is a new environmentally friendly one made from corn.....

The room also has built-ins which I will show at a later date once I have decorated a little more.

Hope you all had a great weekend, it was a little miserable here in Melbourne but good for staying inside and doing house things.

A trip on water - good for stress release

Yesterday we decided to enjoy a Sunny 29 degree day and catch a ferry from Melbourne's South Bank to the Bay town of Williamstown.

For those that don't know Melbourne, the ferry travels along the Yarra River that runs through the City of Melbourne, out the mouth of the Yarra into Port Phillip Bay and across the Bay to Williamstown.

I find being near water and on boats a great stress release and was so relaxed by the time we got back home.
Then this morning when a plumber arrived at 7.30am to fix up a few issues from the reno it reminded me how frustrating it was to have trades rock up at this time when we are getting ready for work and school. Thankfully builders being around all the time is behind us which I am now very glad of.

Sunshine yellow

Melbourne decided to turn on a bit of sun and finally heat earlier this week. I am definitely a Summer person and signs that Summer is coming always lifts my spirits.

Unfortunately today is miserable but I decided to bring inside some beautiful yellow daisies for a bit of that sunshine feeling. Goes well with my favourite Van Gogh print.

As for Blogtoberfest, I am meant to be posting daily but this week things got away from me a little. I have been busy at work and at home and looking forward to a weekend with some special visitors from Adelaide.

Hope you have a good weekend.

Does a renovation ever end?

Today I was asked by a friend I hadn't seen for a while whether my renovation was over and I had to really think how to answer this. I mean technically the 'reno' he was referring to is over in that the extension has been built and fitted out, the contract with our builders is finished (well except the defects list) and we are living in and enjoying the new areas of our house, so I suppose the technical answer is Yes!

On the other hand we still have so much to do and when I started putting a list together I realised just how long it was. It is all those finishing off things, including, painting, painting, painting oh and putting in fittings such as towel rails and toilet roll holders and then there is all the external work, the big one being the alfresco deck being built (which we are using a different builder for), weatherboards being replaced, more painting and lots, lots more.

So really does the renovation ever really end? It some ways probably not as I have friends who years after doing their extensions are still putting on finishing touches and that's with the house. There is also often so much work to do in the garden but in some ways that is all part of the fun of it, the journey - as they say life is about the journey!

For us the main part is over though, so we have noticeably got back quality family time in our house and our stress levels have decreased thanks to this. On the weekend we managed to just enjoy time in the house and out in the garden with the kids, it was fantastic!