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:

Princess Butterfly's Party!

Sophia's Birthday 2nd Party last year started out to be somewhat disastrous.  Maybe not a full blown cataclysmic catastrophe, but more of a ill-fated unfortunate sequence of events.


The perfectionist in me, should have karate kicked the procrastinator in me to get my ducks in a row and plan the party better... instead my nonchalant alter-ego just thought to hell with it all, so the party didn't quite turn out as I'd imagined.


Both kids were sick; Sophia had a tummy bug the night before which made her edgy and moody the whole day, Christopher was on his way to full blown tonsillitis, and the weather I'd ordered didn't pitch up... instead it was overcast, raining & cool and then it suddenly turned hot and humid!


Luckily, Sophia's friends stared arriving bringing some sunshine and smiles with them, and my mates cheered me up and kept pouring the bubbly, so I soon stopped stressing that half the decorations weren't up and Sophia's carefully planned butterfly princess outfit wasn't on her because a.) she refused to wear it and b.) the weather was crap.  Or that I didn't take nearly enough photo's AND the settings were all wrong so the pics didn't come out right.


What started out as a tiny tragedy turned into a triumphant morning thanks to awesome friends and company, and the worlds best husband that continuously made more "gourmet" picnic baguettes and understood the importance of wrapping them in wax paper tied with a string... 


Below is a collage of moments captured throughout the day!

Happy Monday!

Only at work

I've been scarce, I know.  But for 2 good reasons, and 3 not-so-good reasons; the latter being:

5.) I'm a queen procrastinator! {...um, I'm convinced that I work better under pressure?} 

4.) If I can't keep all my ducks in a row, I try to loose them altogether {that way I don't have to count them later}

3.) I keep on getting interrupted by people/projects {ok, maybe this is actually a good reason, BUT I'm sure that with better time management this can be improved on}

My good reasons are:

2.) organising my crazy life to allow a worry-free holiday in Deutschland! so excited to go and see my mommy & matty, but wrapping up all kinds of to-do's at home is keeping me really busy.

1.) my number one reason is that I'm actually WORKING too... yip, doing some freelance jobs turning VBD's {very boring documents} into FFP's {f&*%ing fantastic presentations} - the problem with actually finishing these projects, which would allow me more time to blog is = see first reason listed #5 = PROCRASTINATION! vicious circles.

So in the spirit of office work, which I'm actually quite enjoying, even though it's mostly from home ;) I wanted to share some gems picked up from Pinterest, I'm sure a lot of you can relate:

This is my favourite ;)

Wishing you a very productive Thursday with very few office-dinkies to deal with!