Tag: home

Australia · clouds · Mount Warning · renovations · summer · Tweed Valley · Uncategorized

Dramatic Clouds

Joanne5 Comments

This is something of an experimental post. I’m adding this content from my iPhone, with a photo taken on my iPhone. The mountain, yet again, is in hiding.

Yesterday morning I had a call from our floor covering people. The flooring I ordered before Christmas for my office had arrived. They’d had a cancellation on another instal planned for the day. Could they do my job, they asked?

Of course, said I, not realising they would arrive in fifteen minutes!

In a mad scramble, I removed as many books, sewing paraphernalia, office bits and bobs and furniture as I could. When the boys arrived to instal my new flooring, they helped me move the remaining contents of that room into the next room.

Currently, my dismantled computer awaits my attention in the other room. The room where my computer resides barely has floor space to walk on. What with boxes containing some of the contents of my kitchen already stored in that room, now the office contents have joined them. It’s bedlam.

How do people cope with moving house frequently? All I’m doing is renovating and I feel dreadfully disorganised. It’s so tiring!

But … the end of the kitchen renovation is in sight. By this time next week I will have benches, tiles and a sink with running water. I won’t know myself!

Meanwhile, I will plod through my disarrayed room, sort through the mess, and restore my desktop computer as soon as I can. 😊

Australia · grand-baby one · son

X Marks the Spot.

Joanne4 Comments

Australia map

 

Occasionally, I’m asked by my overseas blogging friends whereabouts I live in Australia. If you are anything like me, you have to Google a map to see where exactly the place is, and even then you are not completely sure you have it right.

So, when I came across this lovely old map of Australia recently, from the early 1900’s, I decided to leave an “X” on the spot of the map to show where I live, so that you can see my location, right on the coast of New South Wales, and bordering the state of Queensland.

The lovely blog where I found this map, “Knick of Time” has a huge number of gorgeous free printable downloads, and so much more including DIY projects! I haven’t had the time yet to wander through the whole site, that will have to wait until after the wedding we are having here in the garden in September, but I’m really looking forward to whiling away some time at “Knick of Time”, when I have the time!

~~~~~~~~

Just a brief update before I go, I spent the day with Adam and Mary yesterday, and they are doing much better now. There were still a few tears of course, but I think that they have reached a small turning point. We shopped for the wedding and they were even able to joke around a bit, and there were also some smiles. And thank you, thank you, thank you for all of the kind messages you have been leaving for me. You will never know how much your loving words, virtual hugs and support have meant to me during this sad time. Thank you from the bottom of my heart to every one of you for the kindness you have shown. xxx

~~~~~~~~

Australia · blessings · new

Magical Beginnings.

Joanne7 Comments
happy new year 2015
I found this elegant photo on Facebook and love the complete image it portrays ~ the pine for Christmas just past, the subtle streamers for celebrating the New Year, and glasses of champagne, for a toast to the very best wishes for 2015 to friends and family.

 

As I begin to write today, I think it would be safe to say that the entire world has now welcomed in the New Year. I always feel that the promise of new beginnings, carried through on a wave of excitement into a new year, is perhaps the most magical time on the years calendar.

The thought of writing a list of New Year’s Resolutions leaves me rather cold, however. I prefer instead to feel my way to a higher level of wisdom, and for want of a way to describe my feelings, that is the best I can come up with!

The magic of this time of the year in Australia also lies also in long, lazy, hot summer days, taking a break from work, setting the usual routine aside, and relaxing. Since Christmas day, I haven’t cooked a real meal, we have lived instead off the left overs of cold Christmas meat, the occasional bar-be-que, and salads. We have mince pies in the cupboard, rum balls in the freezer, and oh, the chocolate! My indulgence in sweet treats will end shortly, then I will diet. 😉

My husband is at home every day, not doing anything in particular other than relaxing. He’s also reading a lot. I remember many years ago, a time when he simply hated me reading, feeling it took time away from our “together” moments, and I actually stopped reading for a while, just to keep the peace. How times have changed. After thirty-five years of marriage, he finally discovered the joy of reading for himself, perhaps initially with an attitude of “if you can’t beat them, join them”, and recently he confessed that he regretted the time he resented my books, and wished he had discovered the joy of reading sooner. Those few sincere words from my husband were a highlight of 2014 for me. We now enjoy our together time, sitting in the same room, on different comfortable chairs (it’s too hot to share a sofa during summer!) each reading the book of our choice.

Today is a photo-free day, just an opportunity to wish good health, good luck, happiness, blessings and love to all my friends, as 2015 begins.

I have a great feeling about this year….it’s going to be magical. ❤

 

 

Australia · authenticity · friends · In My World · new beginnings

In My World…..

Joanne8 Comments

???????????????????????????????

I’ve had an idea floating around in the ole grey matter over the weekend, and wondered if it would be possible to change the name of my blog….

I just checked….and I could….it took but a second of time to do so….and I did it, then realised the confusion that could occur when my regular blogging friends dropped by!

Of course, the www. address remains the same, the only way to change that is to forget this blog and start up a new one. I didn’t want to do that though, I have become quite attached to my little place on the World Wide Web, our association goes back many years now, so will remain.

There is a magazine in Australia, called “Country Style”. I love this mag and have been a reader for over twenty years. I subscribe to the magazine….I really love it! However, about three or four years ago, they decided to begin a blog, and called the blog (can anyone guess…..?)…..Homelife!

As lovely as the magazine, the “other” blog, and the name of the other blog are, I have felt a tad overshadowed by this immense media power ever since. This is my tiny (in the perspective of the Web) little blog, mostly set within the realms of my home and garden. I also include nearby towns, and write about holidays I have taken. The posts are written from my personal perspective, are perhaps not always politically correct and certainly do not express the opinions of the multitudes. I am not up to the minute with the latest and greatest in fashion, neither around the home or otherwise, and I do not even have a particular word than even defines my style…..I’m just little old me, sharing my world with friends.

I like the title “In My World”. It’s personal. It’s authentic. It’s My world, and no one else’s. Home life can encompass many a person’s life at home, My World is all about me, and the people, creatures and things I wish to include in my world, just the way it should be.

And, dear blogging friends, you are all a part of my world and I enjoy sharing your world too. 🙂

Now, onwards….2015, here we come. (2015? Wow, I still can’t get over how fast 2014 has gone!)

Australia · cooking · daughter · happiness · sewing

Christmas is in the air….

Joanne11 Comments
Always the helper. :)
Always the helper. 🙂

….and I think I can smell Christmas dinner roasting in the oven and the beautiful scent of the real pine Christmas trees my dad used to chop down every year in the bush, haul up onto the roof of the car and bring home for mum and I to decorate in the lounge room.

My imagination is working overtime, as is my body, seated mostly now in front of my sewing machine, as I spend my days madly sewing away at the last few orders that I must deliver this week.

I’m really looking forward to Christmas this year. The house is decorated, most of my shopping is done and my daughter and I have planned our Christmas cooking days for early next week. This is what Christmas is all about, isn’t it, the get-together with loved ones, the food, the gladness, listening to Christmas carols, relaxing. In Australia, it also mostly includes a swim in the pool after a huge Christmas dinner has been devoured, or falling asleep on the coolest available couch we can find around the house, preferably in front of an open window with a cool breeze blowing through.

For now though, for me, it’s back to work. So much to do, so little time! Yet I’m happy and organised and filled with anticipation.

Has anyone considered what their “word” for 2014 will be yet? Most years I struggle for ideas, this year though I already know what mine will be. But more about that later; the rest of 2013 is still here and to be enjoyed.  🙂

My other daughter (not the afore mentioned who loves to cook), knowing how much I love the Christmas carol “The Little Drummer Boy”, sent me a link to the song which I’d like to share with you all. It gives me goosebumps to hear this song, no matter what version it is I’m listening to. That little boy sure had amazing insight over two-thousand years ago, knowing the birth of this baby to be something special, and here we are, still celebrating his birth so many years later. And what better gift for the drummer boy to give the baby than that of his music. Priceless.

“When someone shares their favourite songs with you, embrace them, because they’re giving you a small glimpse into their soul.”

Here I give you a small glimpse into my soul ~