Happy Mother's Day Ladies

Hope you have all had a happy day if you are celebrating Mother's Day today.

My day was quiet and restful. It started with breakfast in bed {pancakes made by Liam} and I received some sweet presents from the boys. Liam and I had coffee and cake at the Cottage Garden Nursery and Antique Center earlier in the week and I found another puppy to add to our menagerie. We called him Bob after a little terrier who is the hero of one of Agatha Christie's books "Dumb Witness".
Little Luke chose this chocolate rose from his school Mother's Day stall.

My sisters and I celebrated our Mother earlier last week before she went on an overseas trip with Dad. She is at the moment visiting Denmark with the added purpose of doing some family history research into her danish ancestors. Mum has been methodically collecting information into our family history for over ten years including scanning hundreds of slides and ancient photographs. It will be a treasure for us all in years to come. I am eagerly looking forward to Dad's photos when they get back. Of course I miss them already. Mum is one of the biggest players in what makes my life work! She does a lot for me and my boys.

I would also like to mention all of my friends who are mothers - you all work so hard and always inspire me. You are the village around me it takes to raise a child. We all have truly had some difficult moments yet I am proud to say we all know how to laugh our arses off, have a good time, find as much joy as possible from the roles we chose and still somehow manage to hold on to what makes us the unique people we are. Our hearts have all grown bigger in the process and we always find a bit of extra room in our homes and lives for the people who need us.

And "Mummy Bloggers" this includes YOU! You are an extension of my friends and family. You are there all day and night with your stories, photos {pretty and messy} and are always a comfort.
I hope you all get how much value you are. Mums need people around them, people on their team. Doesn't matter where you get it from.

Brisbane writer Rebecca Sparrow has written a fantastic post on her blog called: Why I won't read "Mummy Blogs". You gotta read it. It's important. Maybe you feel sometimes, like me, like you don't have enough time to do all the things you need to do, want to do and why am I even wasting time writing this blog? Well, you HAVE to make time for things that you want, things that are important to you or you will go crazy, your brain will shrivel up like the dried apricots you are throwing in your kid's lunch boxes. People like me really value visiting your blogs - so thank you and thank you Rebecca Sparrow.

Finally, here are some vintage mummies for you to read about ~ Mrs Miniver, who is lovely and 

E.M. Delafield's Diary of a Provincial Lady, who is quite hilarious. If you like English fiction set in wartime, then you will like these. As a Mother, you will be able to relate to their antics no matter how removed from your 2013 lives, I swear. I particularly like the covers of both of these books, Mrs Miniver dating from, according to the dedication in the front page, 1941 and The Diary of a Provincial Lady, a modern copy done in vintage style by Cath Kidston. 

I heart Paddington!

My sister and I went to Paddington, {a gorgeous inner city suburb of Brisbane, in this instance, for those of you who don't know} to buy birthday and Mother's Day presents for our Mum!
We also did manage to fit in a spot of afternoon tea at Monty's Chocolates. I love a visit to Paddington but what made it extra special this time was this...

Look what I found!
I love the person who trims their hedge into a heart. I'd like to see more!

pictures for my kitchen

I am so happy that my lease on my little house in Tarragindi has just been renewed for another year - no dreaded move, thank goodness! However I am still settling in to my "new place". Rejigging, finding what works, reorganising. A year is not enough time apparently.

I recently found these beautiful frames in a box of frames and pictures which either need to be hung or revamped. They come from my mother's childhood. I love their chipped paint and slightly convex glass. I had previously had other pictures in them but this time I wanted them in the kitchen to hold a gorgeous card with a teacup photograph I have been keeping for forever. 

And perfectly, I was able to use a page from one of my 2012 calendars. I think they make a sweet pair. 

Love to reuse stuff to stop it from becoming, well... just stuff.

Perfect, if slightly damp, Sunday

Poor old Brisbane and in fact much of Queensland has been drenched! It continued to be torrential all day and the wind has thrown it's two cents in as well. I have never heard it actually whistle and howl so loudly before! Every window and door in my house is rattling and the branches of the trees next to the house are rapping on the windows in a very agitated way.
We've got sideways rain and the water-catchments and nearby creeks are looking scarily full. The house is damp, my pile of laundry grows unrelentingly larger but from the sounds of things I could be a lot worse off, other people have lost power and are watching waters rise across their backyards. People in northern cities of Queensland are facing hurricanes. Hopefully it will be nothing like the floods of this time two years ago...

Little "Bow Tie Killer" is keeping watch for me

We barricaded ourselves in and admittedly it was good to have the excuse to relax and catch up on some reading {of the blog and books-from-the-library variety}. Of course I did have a pile of back to school books to cover awaiting me on the dinning table but I just gave those an occasional cold stare and otherwise ignored them for today. Tomorrow!

a couple of the new collection of zakka books from the library - I love them!

I did lots of other things to prep us all for the back to school performance that will begin on
Tuesday morning - or may not... I have heard a rumor school may not open because of the weather
{I don't believe it though}. Either way I have clean socks, ironed uniforms, frozen sandwiches
{thanks Michelle and Ben for the hot tip} and bags and lunchboxes ready to go!

It was so dark inside the house today. The lamp light cast some pretty shadows.

And in much happier news... "The Jungle Giants" came in at number 83 with their song "She's A Riot" in the Triple J Hottest 100 2012!! And no wonder, they have been working their butts off, playing heaps of gigs and festivals, making radio appearances,  touring with some amazing bands and just being so brilliant and fun to watch live. I love their music!

I was super happy and have never been so tensely awaiting the countdown. My friend Cesira who is their amazing and beautiful guitarist was so excited. They have produced two Eps and are now recording their first album which I can't wait for. Here are some links to two of their latest filmclips if you'd like to hear and see more. 

"She's A Riot" and one of my absolute faves "You've Got Something"

coming to you from dampened circumstances but not spirits, Ains xx

It's Australia Day!

Happy Australia Day!
It's a bit of an outrage the rain is coming down in buckets on our barbecues across Brisbane today but I'm just happy to have a precious day off work to spend time with my boys.
Obviously we're going to be celebrating that Australia is the best country in the world, I should know, I've been to cities that never close down...
We'll still be having that barbecue with my fam, I'll be listening to Triple J's Hottest 100, I'll be very excited if my favourite Brisbane band, The Jungle Giants make an appearance with this song.
We won't be going to the cockroach races or meat pie eating contests at our local pub {although I do think it's important to occasionally embrace your inner bogan}.

What will you be doing??

Photos from our trip to the Brisbane bayside suburb of Wynnum last weekend - one of the boys and my favourite places.

Have a great day!

op shop findings

A lovely little collection of shops along Ipswich Road at Annerley is just a short skip away from our new home. The boys and I went for a Saturday morning excursion. We had brunch at Groove Cafe which is going to be a new favourite and then checked out the 2nd hand book shop and a wonderful shop full of handmade goodies. We pressed our faces against the glass of the huge aladin's cave of an antique shop and I made plans to return later without the youngest of the boys... and then the op shops, this little strip at Annerley is famous for them. It was fun. I found this lovely vase!        
These are all places I've ventured out to before but it kind of feels different now that they are in my own neighbourhood, do you know what I mean? We are enjoying exploring our new surrounds.

new digs

my new house

it's very unfamiliar, my things look quite un-at-home. We {my friends and family} have made lots of little trips this weekend, filling our cars with boxes and bits and pieces and taking them over.

My new house is only a suburb away from the old one. So we are now in Tarragindi, it's very pretty and leafy. There's a park at the end of our street and a bowls club just around the corner! 

I am discovering all of the little characteristics of our new home, such as this faux lux laminate {pictured below - you will notice it} in the handwashing room. Despite the bathroom being tiny there is a very generously sized room next to the WC with a basin in it and that's about it . I'm calling it a mudroom from here on in because I've always wanted one. I am sure it will be handy for dumping stuff in, school bags etc, so exotic!  

A removalist will come on Tuesday to bring all the big stuff and that will be our first night. 

My back hurts and I think my brain is hurting too! So much still ahead but I am looking forward to setting everything up and making it look pretty, that's the fun part, pity there's so much blah, blah blah to go through to get there.

a sort of homecoming

no two for tuesday today... I have been giving my attention over the last couple of weeks to my impending move and it's pretty much all I can think about. My sister and her husband spent this weekend moving house too and we all helped. I am dropping in to her house early tomorrow morning before work to say goodbye for the last time. My heart will break just a little, so many happy memories, it was a big part of my life. I am taking heaps of photos back at mine before I pack everything away. I didn't want to move in at first but I have grown to love this place, it's been good to us too. I have owned 1 house and lived in about 13 since I was 21... that's a little over 15 years. It's has been good because I've travelled a lot and had some really different experiences but I'm a tad over moving now. I need to take more pictures of the little details because they are the parts that I miss the most.

moving house is really fascinating!

egads! I am moving house!
The home I rent is being sold and I chose the option of moving out straight away. It has been a
bit unsettled around here as you would know if you've ever had a house up for sale or had to move.
I've been doing a lot of tidying up and decluttering {it was a good thing I started back in January!}

So who knows where next! I am pretty nervous about finding a new place.
I really love living here because the house suits me and is in a perfect location. We made our home as nice as we could and we have built our lives around it and so to move means having to start all over again. I am hoping to make it as easy as possible. I was upset at first but now am thinking of all of the good possibilities that may present themselves.

My bro Danny passed on a little gem of advice which a lady told him, I believe it is a quote from Tony Robbins ~ "replace the word frustrating with fascinating".
For example, "that person is really fascinating" or "I am finding looking for a new house really fascinating". I think it's a good one.
Cleaning my office/ Mac Lab/ Social Media Control Centre in preparation for the open home was really fascinating, actually it really was. It's been messy for two years since I moved in, mostly too much stuff in boxes. I found so many cool things I had forgotten about when I was sorting it all out and threw away a lot of crap too. Now it is wonderful! Everything's organised, no more boxes, I'm enjoying it! If only for a couple of weeks before I have to pack it all in boxes again!

a valid excuse! from here

adventures on the home front

Some pics from my sister Lou's house. It's been lovingly renovated and decorated by herself and her husband over many years and is looking beautiful. I just wanted to share a few of the photos of some of my favourite bits of her house. Life never sits still for long though... new happenings are just around the corner.You can read more of her adventures at the enchanting forest

1. weathered bird/fairy house   2. living room - love her aqua chairs from Wollongabba Antiques Centre

3. little garden elf looking very sweet   4. pressed tin kitchen wall   5. office corner

mess!

I knew my white painted table top wouldn't stay tidy for long. Here's what happens when I get excited about a craft project...

hmmm, I know I left my creative genius in here somewhere...
It's rainy, I have the morning off work and I still have a few more match boxes to go.
Please tell me your craft space is just as bad.

glorious!

On Saturday I had a busy morning at work then headed down the coast with the boys to do a fitness test that I had been DREADING! Liam {my 14 year old} and I do Arakan once a week and it's one of the best things I've ever done in my life. I put on weight and lost a lot of fitness over the last three years and starting Arakan last year has been what has given me motivation for exercise again and made me a happier person in general. Doing this fitness test, {which tested my cardio fitness, strength and endurance etc} has given me some concrete goals to work towards. I was really, really nervous even though I wasn't pressuring myself to perform well at all {as it's just a starting point} but it must have meant more to me than I realised. 

The Arakan instructors are so encouraging and kind and so patient but they also make you work hard and take you out of your comfort zone. I really love the way they treat my sons especially. They are wonderful male role models, which is something I really value. The boys do have really great relationships with their granddad and uncle who are both really good men to look up to but I think, the more the merrier! Liam is gaining self esteem, strength and learning to enjoy exercise. The young boy who was angry and depressed and having counselling a few years ago has become, calm, positive, strong and much happier and I'm very proud of him. 

I am really glad I now have more time to focus on myself again and am doing something to challenge myself because, as depressing as some of my stats were and as much as I H.A.T.E doing things like beep tests, at the other end of each training session I feel so good and as I said before - happy - it makes it really worthwhile. There is so much to be said for the effect it has had on my mental strength too. 

So, after the test I was feeling completely wrecked but at the same time, felt on top of the world! 

We stopped off at the beach on our way home and this is how we ended our day!  

This is Broadbeach on the Gold Coast. We got there at about 4pm. The sun wasn't too hot, the water was perfect and just being by the ocean was pure joy and so beautiful. It was glorious!

Do you remember doing this as a kid!