Just a few of my favourite things

Happy Christmas 2014

 I wasn't going to decorate the house this year due to a lack of cheer and festive spirit. However one of my daughters came over to give me a hand to clean up and the suddenly I gave the go ahead to decorate for Christmas.
 I will admit that it cheered me a bit. My two grandsons appreciate it, even if they repeatedly try to strip the tree. At night time when the lights are turned on, they are in awe. 
Many of the houses in our street have decorated and I love to hear their expressions of pure wonder and delight. That, to me, is more than worth the effort. 

Additionally among a rush of great ideas I got hold off a twig and got The Bloke to spray pain it black.I placed small deep red hearts on it and I love the way it looked. Simple, cheap and effective.

Today's long overdue post is due to one of my daughters, Nicole, who lives away from the family wanting an update as she likes to see all that we get up to. Of course this post does not include all that we have done through the year, otherwise it would be book size. 
I have felt a few times that I might like to come and post and record what life is like for me. However most of this year I have been caught up in a heavy bout of depression.
 Things have not been good. Luckily for me, I found a GP who comes to see me at my home, and who trialed me on a new medication and increased the level until it suited my body. I will say that my moods have improved, but I have a way to go until I can call it a successful regime. I expect to still have bad days like anyone else, but my bad days stop me from enjoying the day to day stuff and my family fully. Depression sucks!

However, interspersed in the dark patches are spots of bright cheer.
I am talking about my furniture painting obsession. Yep, I'm still at it. Annie Sloan Chalk Paint is my medium and I like nothing better than buying a cheap piece of furniture or whatever it is I want to make over and slapping this chalky goodness over it and waxing it to a smooth, velvety touch. Oh this heaven to me. It has helped me from loosing my mind entirely.
I can go weeks, even months without touching a paint brush, but when I get the energy surge I am all go-go-go. Paint going all over the place and I even got some on my brown leather lounge last time. Oops!
Luckily it comes off in water, another great thing about this type of paint. By the way I am not paid to say nice things about this paint.

The green table below is one I bought from a fellow furniture painter. I just love it as is painted in two of my favourite colours. ASCP Versailles and ASCP Old White.

The next pictures are an old Kitchenette I bought from someone who was going to restore it but changes their mind. I cleaned it thoroughly and then with lots of help from The Bloke painted it in ASCP Old White. Nothing dramatic, not distressing as I am sure over time it will develop the look without my help. I just have to get something to line the inside bottom shelves as they despite cleaning are too sticky and yukky to use. This cupboard is now in my new bathroom to hold all out towels and stuff.

The next photo is the small dining table that I use as my desk. I sit here all day and do everything here. It's a crafting table, meeting place for friends, holder of all things that don't have a home. My computer sits on it. I love it. The photo doesn't show it properly as it looks quite patchy here, but is actually pretty good.

The next photo, sorry for the blur, is am old gold coloured mirror that I painted old white. It lives next to my bed until we find the right place for it.

Now, this is a great little stool I recently bought and haven't had time to paint. I am going to paint it white on top and leave the bottom black. If some where down the track I change my mind, then I will slap some Versailles on it.

Final pic shows a table and chairs I bought very cheap months ago. I was unsure what to do with it. Now I am going to paint the chairs in old white, recover the seats, and use them in my lounge at a round table that I have had for ever. This table is sitting on my side veranda, waiting for me to decide what I will do with it. I might even sell it as is.

So there you have it. I wish everyone a lovely festive season and a very happy new year.

  

xxx

Bathroom Photos

After quite a lengthy delay, and without the complete set of renovation photos here are my latest offerings. I hope it was worth the wait. I can say that the bathroom is very nice to use and much easier to navigate around given my size and needs. There are a few minor jobs left to do and that includes hanging a large mirror I painted in the Annie Sloan Chalk Paint, old white. The delay is partly caused by the bloke and I not wanting to drill into the wall tiles to install the hooks. I worry that if the mirror was to break we would be left with holes in tiles and that is not a look I want to live with. The 3M Command hooks that stick on I don't trust as I have had a few accidents when using them. 

The old white buffet in the first photo is one I painted in ASCP old white, as is the little case sitting on top, which is where we store bathroom necessities. 
I confess that since taking these photos the buffet has been moved to the dining room; its original home, and we have instead moved the large ASCP duck egg blue painted dressing table into the spot. I feel this means my bedroom suite has come back together again. 

Resonating with the Positive

The absolute, most sure-fire way of physically moving in the direction of your dreams, Jan, 

on a day-to-day basis, without messing with the "cursed how’s," is living them, now, to any 

degree that you can.

And you so can -
    The Universe

This is the message I received recently from an online positivity blog I subscribe too. The past few email messages have resonated with me at this time in my life.

Life is always changing, for better and worse. I have been doing it tough for a while and my head has been full of anguish, sadness, self doubt, self loathing.

It has certainly hit me this year, in my 50th year, that time is running out. Rather than wait for times to be better and happier, now is all I have. No, second chances, no putting of till tomorrow. Now is all I/we have. So. This all sounds rather poetic and life inspiring. But, and there is always a but in my thinking (get out clause) how will I make this work? Baby steps. Teeny, teetering steps. Lugging this great body around is tiresome and incredibly painful. Indeed, some days I wish I never had to get out of bed. The only reason I do is that the pain becomes intolerable. 

                                                 My 50th birthday cake made by my eldest daughter

However, despite this, I know I need to make the best of what I do have. It's no good longing for something that is a far away dream. I'm not saying you can't have those dreams, but realistically,  for me I want to deal with the here and now of daily living. It's all the simple, normal things. Getting up, enjoying a coffee that the bloke makes very well. Returning to my new bathroom and sitting at the beautiful, user friendly vanity and attending to my ablutions and taking care to cleanse my face, moisturise my skin, brush my teeth. 
Having a lovely space that we have designed to accommodate my needs and the blokes is a real delight. It makes us feel like we are in a luxury motel in the city, being pampered. 
I will post photos soon when we take some nice ones. Our photography skills are not too good and wont do justice to the remarkable makeover.

Have you had any life changing thoughts lately?

Renovation Update

The above photos show some of the work in progress. Things are a lot more finished than this, but we didn't get the photos. I will definetly show you the pics when we are finished.

Okay. Things have been quiet on the home front. I would have liked to announce that the renovations are completed, but they aren't. Whilst the big work has been done there are still a few things to be finished and also our bedroom is not ready by a long shot. We have decided that we are not using the bathroom until both rooms are completed.
The weather has been freezing here with quite a few minus days and nights. Of course we have colds and generally feeling miserable.

I will welcome the warmer weather this year.

Renovations 2014

It wasn't until I saw things through the harsh reality of the camera lens that I saw how dusty and neglected our house had become. Many years of dust, fluff and spider webs; and this was in our bedroom and bathroom. I struggle with dust, pollen's and other irritants and here I was sleeping in a pile of it.

We are renovating. 

It started with our en suite bathroom which was very small and unsafe for me and seriously needed redoing. It has been fully gutted floor to ceiling. All that is left is the frame and concrete floor. Eek! 

We decided to gain more space for the bathroom by taking the space that was the walk in robe, which had never been efficient anyway. To do this meant building a new BIR in our bedroom, taking the space formerly occupied by my large dressing table. Yes there are always compromises to be made when changing things in the home. I think, and hope that it will all turn out fine. Luckily we have a another bedroom where we can place furniture and set it up as a guest bedroom. 

I will update as it progresses.

Flashback Friday

I was looking through the pictures that have appeared on my blog over the years and felt like re showing some of the many quilts I have made during that time.

Passionate Baking

The nice thing about having a passionate baker in the family is that we all get to taste the creations. The above cake was created using a new cake tin system that my eldest DD recently purchased. I still can't fathom how it all works, but that is okay as I am just a taste tester. Nothing better than a nice cup of home made coffee (via machine that is) and a piece of cake. 
Some awful news has been the lack of a good coffee machine since mine started to act up and was relegated to the depths of the pantry. My DD loaned me hers for a day so I could see if hers was good enough as a  replacement model. The verdict was yes. 
The Bloke made me a lovely coffee from her machine and the decision was made to buy one pronto. 
Of course it wasn't easy in our case. Tried to track one down and after two days and a few phone calls managed to order one online. All sweet I thought until I got an email telling me the machine was out of stock and they will let me know when it is going to arrive. :(
Oh so not very happy. I need a coffee every morning in order to start my day.
Now don't be thinking I have a serious addiction that I must break now. I won't do it!
One cup of coffee per day (alright sometimes two) is not going to make of break me.
However I am happy to report that I have managed to stop drinking the dreadfully harmful diet coke, after a very long time, so I am patting myself on the back and smiling with smugness. Coffee was always so much better.
Do you drink coffee and if so how do you like it?

Warning on the Hazards of Scrapbooking

            Well I am here to report that 'Scrap-booking' can be hazardous to your health!

After much deliberation I asked my DD to bring some of my stuff to me so that I could spend the day scrapping and possibly making a few cards. All was going well too, I had two pages completed when the urge to use the loo arose. As I stood up my foot trod on a piece of card that I had dropped earlier (and I forgot about). Next thing I was going down.

Wow, it scared me as I am terrified of breaking bones as I am unable to have surgery.

I shouted for my DD who called my DH who had to drive in from a mine site-not happy.

My other DD turned up and she rang the Ambulance service as I am unable to get up due to my mass. Of course they had to call the fire brigade. 

All up there were two ambulance officers and four fire officers. I was hot with shame, embarrassment, and seeing such gorgeous hunks of men in uniform. I think it must be a job requirement that these men must be good looking and charming.

Anyway they used this blow up mattress type of gadget and had me in a sitting position very quickly. The next step was for me to walk to my wheelchair and sit down, however as I got up and took a step, my foot stood on one of the straps and slid a little. I automatically flung my left arm out to grab anything I could to steady myself.

Imagine my mortification when I looked up to see my hand clutching the crotch of the cute fire fighter! Ooh my cheeks are red even writing that. Oh no, I apologised profusely and he said he was fine. Shame oh shame.

It's okay to laugh, I did after the event was all over.