Slowly............

I can't beleive this is the fourth week I have finished up work!!!!!!! It has been so good to slow down and get things done. With the hot weather it is good to have lots of kombucha in the fridge, I like mine just plain so I just bottle it and pop it in the fridge. I have had the same mother for about 20 years now and honestly it just keeps going no matter how much it gets neglected....

I have also been making cheese again,just a basic cheese but I will start making chedder again soon as I can not stand the taste of bought cheese any more.I have always made bread but I need to make a starter and make sour dough again.

The kitchen isn't the only place I have been,I have been having fun in the garden as well.

My side kick Mac is never far away from me which is good as we have seen a couple of brown snakes already this season....

I have edged all the gardens as they look so neat and tidy when done. If their is a tool I love it is my edger. I have had it over 10 years now and use it so much as it makes light work of the edges for me.

In my front garden this happy sunflower has come up....What joy it brings me looking at it...

I have also been busy cleaning out cupboards in the 2 spare bedrooms....So much STUFF sheets, blankets, cards, clothes and shoes not mine but of the kids and grandchildren..I am slowly going through the house one room at a time...All bedrooms and bathrooms have been done.....

Yesterday I sorted out a room in our shed that has become a junk/drop it all room. This room will become my studio for my soap and candle making, this then will free up the kitchen...Hopefully I took before photos! Still a long way to go as I filled both wheelie bins.....magazines my goodnes so many magazines I think I was boarder line hoarding hahahahaha I can not wait to get this room done, it will be a slow project and I will show you when I have finished it.... Today is the pantry well more the bottles again boarder line hoarding haha. I am going to tidy and sort all the bottles and take most of them down to the larder and then bring them up as I need...Thats the plan anyway. Enjoy your day...... Mandy

SPRING IS HERE....

Hello and welcome to those still here....

 Winter has been very dry with not much rain at all, but Spring has lived up to it"s name.

We have now had 50mls in the last 2 weeks.

There is new growth every where and the grass is turning green once again...

This year we entered our garden in the Lockyer Valley Garden Comp. 

We were so excited when we came 2nd in two categories..

Large rural garden

and

First time entrant.

It sure made all the hard work worth it....I am already planning next year......

With Spring comes Spring cleaning. I remember when all the kids were little and at home it was a real ritual here. September holidays we would clean the house from top to bottom. 

Now I have to do it myself hahaha.

This was the first room to get done. The spare room.

We also now rent this room out on 

Airbnb

Through the Toowoomba Carnival of Flowers both our Airbnbs were booked out 10 days straight.

A nice way to make some money that I must admit I spend most of it on plants.

How is all your spring cleaning going?

Below are the Elder flowers. They have been in since Jan this year and boy o boy are they growing.

I will be giving Elder flower cordial a go soon with all those blooms on them.

The veranda has had a good clean as well.

I love my dog but Molly sure does leave a lot of hair around...

Today she gets a hair cut so that should help with the shaggy rug.

I hope you all enjoy your day..

Blessings

Mandy

A Pantry Clean up...

 I have been busy over the week end. Busy getting my cup boards organized. Above is a photo of my pantry   before I got in and cleaned and reorganized it.

Below is the laundry cupboard before.

 And now all nice and clean.

 I even got around to tiding my laundry,

 and putting a shelf up that has been sitting there waiting.

 For some reason blogger has uploaded all the photos in the wrong order arghhhh.

Here are all the teatowels and table clothes in there new home.

 I now have all the kitchen linen sorted and in baskets.

 I have now got more in here than when I started as I have emptied the linen cupboard and stored it all in the drawers at the bottom.

 I am happy how organized it all is now, funny how I let things get into such a mess then I have a major clean out on my hands.

The week end was full of cleaning and gardening, but so much was done that I'm happy. What did you get up to on your week end.

Thursday already????????

O.K what happened to the week???

I think I missed it as I woke up today and it's already Thursday. I have been so busy at work, starting at 8a.m and not getting home until I get the children of the bus...I am home a little early today though and I will be getting some mowing done....Until then here are the rooms I haven't shown yet.These are the last of the photos to show you . Above is the hall stand I moved into the Family room and below is the new table I bought to replace it.
Below is the entry..I love this room as it is a good size room that you walk in from the front door. The corner cabinet was my Nana's. One day I would love to get it restored, I have thought about painting it white only I think my Mother would kill me....

My bed used to be under this window, so I moved it to under the other window.

My poor bed has nearly had it. Over the years it has been welded a number of times, one morning I am going to wake up on the floor, then I will know it's time to get a new one....

I haven't changed the bathroom or laundry, I did change a cabinet in the kitchen though. Real shame about the bathroom though...I'm sure when it gets it' s clean next week I will be able to arrange something different..

Blessings to all,

Mandy

Spring Cleaning.....

I have been busy over the week-end spring cleaning. I know it was late as I normally do this in September, but I haven't felt like it until now.
I felt I have needed to get in and really clean......I have cleaned out all the cupboards, and I now have some cupboards that are empty..I think I am going to have a garage sale with every-thing I don't want any more...The above photos are of the family room. I have brought the other lounge chair down here now so there is more sitting room. I even took the hall stand from the hallway and put it down here.It is in the above photo near the door. Of course I had to by a new one!!!!!


Below is the dinning room....Not any-more it's not..

Now it is the Lounge room!!!!!!

O.K I also decided to change rooms around. Yes the dinning room is now the Lounge Room and I think it looks great. The room seems so much bigger as well. This room comes of the kitchen and opens onto the veranda. As a dinning room it was always to small when we had all the family home.

You are probably wondering where the dinning room has gone??

Above is the sideboard from the entry...yep even that room got a make over.

This is the sideboard from the Dinning room that is now in the new dinning room.

Below is the lounge room as it used to be.

It's now the dinning room.....Are you confused yet????

For years I have wanted to do this but was always a little unsure..It is the best decision I have made regarding the house..I now have a formal dinning room and it is so big..I will be able to fit 8-10 chairs around this table...The table came down from my sewing room, it is wider than the other one. I even bought some new dinning room chairs..Red and white leather ones..There is still four red ones to come yet. I haven't had comfy dinning chairs for about 10 years. I had lovely antique bentwood ones but they just aren't all that comfy. I will sell them in the garage sale as well.

What do you think????Tomorrow I will show you some more rooms, but I think this is enough for one day. If you click on spring cleaning you will see these rooms as they were last year..

Now I have to get back to the last of the cleaning...

Blessings

Mandy

A late start on the Spring cleaning...

Every morning when I wake up this is what I see out my bed room window. I make a cup of coffee and sit here at this window to have my quiet time and think about the day ahead.

This last week-end there has been much to think about... After the dust storms of the last 10 days the out side of the house needed a good wash down...So Friday saw us with the high pressure cleaner, brooms and to work we went, we scrubbed and washed windows and cleaned the outdoor furniture.

Now as you have probably realized I am the kind of person that when I clean I also rearrange the furniture..yes even outside...All my outdoor plants where looking very tired so I planted them in the garden and got a heap of new ones..Brought this little table and chairs up from the courtyard added some cushions and we now have lunch out here.....

Saturday was a hard day for me as it was the 3rd which means Greg has been gone for a month,I woke at 1a.m and just couldn't get back to sleep, I finished a book I had been reading and at 5 a.m went and sat on my nice clean rearranged veranda..Thinking of how much I have been loved by Greg and how very much I miss him, in fact it is getting harder each day. Silly me I thought it would get easier.. Saturday night was my nephews engagement party, Chloe took the children and I stayed home as I am just not yet ready to be going out yet....

Sunday was spent with Jessica as she came home for the party...A nice lazy day..I did go to the Sunday markets in the morning and got some more plants for the courtyard..I moved the direction of the table and planted some citrus trees in pots. I have lots of young geranium plants out here as well so when they grow it will have a real Mediterranean feel to the area...

This rose is Crepascle, it looks stunning against the purple wall, this is what I look out to from the lounge room.

What did you get up to on the week end????

Tomorrow I am of to the work shop...I have worked out how to juggle things...Tuesday,Wednesday and Thursdays will be spent at the workshop...Friday, Saturday,Sunday and Monday will be at home...This seems to be the way I will go. The people that was looking at buying the business has decided not to...That is fine, I am not worried as I know that it is all in Gods hands, he can see the big picture I can't...

Blessings to all

Mandy

My New Favorite Room

Well I'm up to my bed room.............

Our b/room is one of the biggest rooms in the house, and I love this room. Our bed used to have a mosquito net that went over the top, but I found that all it did was collect dust. So i have had nothing there for many years.

Today after cleaning the room I wanted to pretty it up a bit,so I hang the curtains that I took the winter curtains from the lounge room and put them on the bed..........

Love the look...........

I then put a table and chair under the window. T his will be a great spot for my morning quiet time. The clock that I got for my birthday is there as well(no where else to put it) looks o.k.

I love to collect old china ever since I can remember. I have so much that I have decided to make a boarder around the room with them.

Next year we are going to paint our room, as it still is in the blue from when it was the babies nursery. I did change the border when we moved into this room a few years ago but blue isn't my color.

Here is our b/room before I started to pretty it up.

Every time I finish cleaning a room it becomes my new favorite room.............

I think the Entry is next.

Only a quick post today as I have only just got to the computer and Alanah needs it now for homework.

I hope every-one had a great day today.

Mandy

Still Spring Cleaning Part 3

I had a lovely Birthday yesterday......

I was to go out to lunch with friends, but as my M.I.L is staying here we couldn't go. Not that it mattered I enjoyed just having a quiet day.

Alanah cooked tea for me.

Roast chicken, potato wedges(real not frozen) and wombok salad...........yummmmmmm......

Chloe and her friend cleaned up the kitchen afterwards, so i just had to sit there and enjoy myself.

Chloe is the cake decorator in the family, just found picture of cake that's why it's at the top.

I couldn't sit around doing nothing all day so as the bathroom is as small as the laundry thought that I might get it cleaned. Trying to stand in the door way to take this photo, and the one below I stood in the bath tub, I said it was small. Very hard to get a picture but you get the idea.

This room gets cleaned every day so all I had to do was the shower curtain,walls and curtain,other than the usual bath room cleaning. As we have only 1 bathroom it gets alot of traffic, that's why I clean it daily.

Well I'm of to my ladies craft day now will be back this evening.......

Have a great day all....
Mandy