A-room-A-month

Since the end of last year, the house and all renovations/redecorations that went with it were neglected.  Holidays & Birthday's took preference, and our time over the past few weekends were spent at parties!

This left us with an unfinished house, in a perpetual state of being "not-quite-done-yet".  From the time of moving in, to now, we've touched on each space in the house, trying to improve bits and pieces as we go along, sometimes a big reno, sometimes a quick fix... resulting in every space and room still needing "finishing".

Bradley and I have resolved to tackle all the loose ends over the next year, which brings us to the:

a-room-a-month challenge

It's simple really, each month we will try to complete one room/space/area in the house.  Not an easy task, but a necessary one.  This could include everything from painting skirtings, to fixing light fittings, to hanging curtains, refurbishing and decorating.

We haven't planned the order of which room we'll tackle in each month, as it will come down to time and finances available, so we'll decide after each room is complete which area get's our attention next.

First up: The kids bedroom

Amongst other things we have to:

Paint skirtings

Paint cupboard doors

Hang curtains properly

Put up pictures & hooks

Put window arms back on!

Organise soft toys

Make bunting flags

Clear out and repack clothing

(take out all clothes they've outgrown!)
Do something with the books that end up here instead of the playroom...

Hopefully I'll be able to report back on a finished room - the first in the house - by the end of this month.  Input, suggestions, ideas, feedback and encouragement is always welcome!

Have a happy weekend

PS many people have asked me about the floor in the kids bedroom.  

We "white-washed" it, during our previous renovation: sand floor, paint white, wipe off paint, apply water-based varnish.  I like the lighter floors compared to the dark wood look, and we'll probably end up doing the same for the kids playroom:

Sea, Sun, Sand and Ice-cream

On a random Sunday afternoon in January we took a stroll at the beach to buy some Ice-cream... It's a "tradition" that we always wish we could do more often, instead it becomes a random occurrence too few, and far between.

It really is simplistically & peacefully beautiful.  The sea. The sun. Ice Cream. Happy Kids. Fresh Air. 

I love that Sophia literally screams for her ice-cream (especially if you try to help her eat it).... and I love how Christopher is mesmerised by the rolling of the waves.  Like I've said before over and over again: It's the littlest things :)

Almost FOUR!

My baby-boy can't understand why I'm giving him excessive hugs and kisses all week.  So precious are the minutes and seconds that we spend with our kids, it's out of pure disbelief of how quickly he's grown that I've gone into cuddling overload with him.

Today is his last day of being THREE, tomorrow he turns FOUR.  Whadda boytjie!

Just the other day he was 6 weeks old:

and then a few seconds later he was 3 months old:

and then I blinked my eyes and he was 5 weeks away from turning FOUR:

Monkey ONE and Monkey (me)TOO... Monkey-ing around!

Me and my Camera

So it's out there now.  In cyberspace, somewhere in the universe... my new photography business.

Holding my breathe to see what happens, wondering if it's good enough, if I could do more, if I could do better, if I've ticked all the boxes... waiting... and then... I got it!

Fan-mail.

 Seriously. I couldn't believe it, I'm awed and humbled by the amount of people that have taken time out of their day to actually write an email/comment/text about my renewed venture into the world of photography, just to say what they think of my website, my entrepreneurship, my courage and of course my photos.  Words of encouragement, praise and loads of luck.

And boy do I feel lucky...

...to have such awesome friends, family and random strangers in my life ;)

Thank you to everyone that's cheering for me and referring(!) my business.  I'll continue to blog in my personal capacity on this site, but for most of my photographic endeavours please see the new website (that has its own separate blog as well): 

www.joannejohansen.weebly.com

It's all still really a work in progress, so look out for updates!

Wishing everyone a happy weekend,

First of the Forest Walks

When we got to Germany, one of the first outings with the kids was to the forest, for a fresh and cool walk... unfortunately I couldn't go with.  It seems that Murphy travelled with me from South Africa, and surprised me the day after we landed. 

In an attempt to pick up a screaming Sophia in front of the shop around the corner from the house, I put out my back... a searing pain shot up my spine, and it went into a very painful spasm.  Walking home from there, up close to a million steps was not fun.  First week of my holiday spent on the couch. Yay. Not.

The reason for Sophia having a full-on tantrum was because she refused to put on her beanie... which was another unforeseen element to our holiday. She hates cold weather, and also hates getting dressed warmly to go out into winter.  So this lead to many hours of coaxing, reasoning, yelling, threatening and bribing just to get her to put on a pair of tights!

This would explain the sullen look on her face in many holiday pics, whereas Christopher is a completely different kid. Loves the cold, loves going outside in winter - in fact, since we've been back to some amazing sunshine weather, he's already asked me to go back to see some more snow... I asked if he doesn't preferred running through the sprinkler at home in the sunshine.  Apparently not.

I wish I could take credit for these amazing snapshots, but they're all Matty's doing ;)

Exciting times ahead, getting ready to launch my new Photography website... can't wait!

Watch this space,