On a Roll

Painting downstairs has been finished, though I decided to do a couple of other spots in the house that need it, while I'm on a roll. The more you do, the easier it gets!  The rooms are looking fresh and bright again and soon we will move furniture back in.

Art has been on hold for a while, just a little journal play every day while I attend to the house.  I can't believe we're at the end of August already, the past month has flown for me.  Lots of highlights - a new computer, new living space and a new hairdresser!

Do-It-Yourself

With my daughter moving out of home, there has been lots of decluttering going on.  We have identified piles of stuff and old furniture to go to charity, other piles of stuff to go to the council tip... it's been keeping me pretty busy and the new energy bouncing about feels so good!

Yesterday I began preparing the walls of the vacated downstairs area ready for painting.  Any bits of furniture remaining has been moved to the centre of the loungeroom and today, I washed the walls with sugar soap.  A great workout!! 

Then soon, on to painting the lounge area, bedroom, bathroom, stairwell and hall.  Lots to do, so we'll plug away at it and hopefully be completed in a couple of weeks.  We're quite excited about having this new found space, so we're well and truly motivated.  Now I must get back to work....

Good As New

After a couple of weeks where Mercury must have been retrograde (?), (or perhaps we travelled through the equivalent of the Bermuda Triangle), we are back in working order again!  First the computer gave up on us, then the brakes on the car, the ignition on the gas cooktop, the vacuum cleaner motor, the lawn mower cable and lastly my saucepan drawer collapsed!

All is good as new now, but phew, I'll never take them for granted again!

The above painting is named 'Time Traveller'  If only it was that easy to move through time, or perhaps it really is that easy?!

A Half Empty Nest

As I mentioned before, my daughter is moving out of home.  This is not her first step out into the world, however this time she is making the move completely on her own and I am really proud of her.  It will be great for us to have more space and freedom here, and we will be taking advantage of it.  But I will miss having her around.  So mixed feelings, happy though,  that she will be able to express herself in her own space and live in such a beautiful neighbourhood.  It will be just me and the boys here now - a different family dynamic!

Above is a journal page - an ink drawing of one of my particularly happy pot plants.

Tuesday's Thoughts

It is Tuesday and a pink magnolia tree is in full bloom outside one window and out of another I can see a flock of bossy white cockatoos bickering with each other and swooping from tree to tree.  The day is wet, but there is a gentleness about it.

I'm having trouble uploading current photos to my new computer (don't ask!), so this old one is our Golden Robinia tree in full leaf.  I am looking forward to summer when it will look like this again.

My daughter moves out of home soon and it means our downstairs area will be available for us to use for ourselves. The walls need painting first and a few other minor repairs need to be done before we do.  So I sit here on this rainy day, contemplating what furniture will go down there, whether we will use the bedroom as a guest room or for ourselves.  I'm itching to get started!

Unofficially - Spring!

Spring is here!  Not officially, but my trees are unfurling tiny new green leaves, bulbs have pushed up through the ground and the first blow-fly droned through my open front door today! 

The weather has been incredibly rainy, though luckily we've had the occasional blue sky day that has been great for gardening - weeding mostly, much easier to pull out clumps of grass in the damp soil.

Consequently, I have no art to share, too busy outside in the warm sunshine, it's too good to miss!