Getting settled and kitchen reno part 1

We have arrived in Bowen it has been a crazy few weeks and I have been keeping my head down to get my mind around it all.  I have been very over whelmed with the job in front of us.  This week has been an improvement I have not been waking up wondering what on earth we are doing moving to Bowen, leaving our friends, family, good school church life and civilisation lol. 

This is the childrens fav spot at the moment :)



The kids are enjoying the beaches and love being able to go any time we want, they have been whale watching from Flagstaff hill (we just missed seeing some whales).   This afternoon I am taking them to the jetty to see if we can spot some Dugons.  Last week we went to our fishing hut, it is great to be able to have a place to go for a weekend.  Love how all we need to take is a tent and food everything else is already there makes camping so much easier.

My little man relaxing in the hammock at the hut

The house and yard needs a lot of work, my two year time frame for getting the place fixed up has been revised to a five year plan.  Also the house has shrunk since I was last here I am sure the bedrooms were bigger........At the moment the house is a huge mess I have to pack up my parents stuff and clean before I can unpack, so you can imagine there are boxes everywhere.  I have nearly finished the kitchen and have picked out some new paint for the walls.

The Kitchen is the first room that I am going decorate.  Here are some of my before pictures, however the wallpaper has been already removed and sample colours have been used around the kitchen.

 The first thing that has to go is this green paint, the photo makes it look a little dull, it is a lot brighter.

 This is a sneak peek at the colour I will be painting the walls it is a brown based white.  I have gone with this colour to tie in the wooden trim and the brown on the tiles.  Down the track I will be replacing the tiles/splash backs, tap fittings and the cupboard but as this was only done a few years ago it can wait till I have done the things that really need to be done first.  I am hoping a fresh coat of paint and some decorating will make a huge improvement.

 This wall will be painted a few shades darker and the fridge and new shelving will be going in.
As you can see there have been a lot of paint testing, a much as I am itching to get into painting I know that what looks nice in the shop under all those lights may not look the same at home.  I took 3 samples home and had a play with them until I found one that I liked. 
When trying sample paint I paint a patch on a few walls as the paint looks different in each area depending on light. 

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I am hoping to have the kitchen finished by next week fingers crossed and hoping my baby sleeps.

It's beginning to look alot like Christmas

Such a long time has passed since my last post, my computer got a virus and we lost everything on the computer, I got bronchitis and school holidays have started.  That mixed with the continued morning sickness has meant I am so not ready for Christmas and have not been blogging or on the computer much. 


I finally started to get the house decorated last week for Christmas and though I would share a few photos and some traditions I have started to make Christmas decorating less stressful with you children under foot.


While my hubby and I do the "boring" jobs like set up the tree, string the lights and do the little fiddly things I have a few things that I get the children to do to keep the busy while they are waiting to trim the tree.

I get the children to decorate their own special tree, this tree they put on the decorations they have made at school and playgroup and any fav's they have made in the previous years.  They have so much fun decorating this I let them do it all and resist the tweeking urge I get. 

It is a simple metal tree that I ordered from ebay from the US and it is perfect for the kids.

On top of the TV cabinet I put most of the stuff the children have made or their favourite decorations.

 The next thing I get the children to do is fill any glass bowl or vase, display plates I can find will baubles.  They love doing this and it keeps them busy for ages. 

When I went to take a photo of the tree I discovered someone had moved all the ornaments.  I will tweek it and post a new photo soon.

The next 3 photos of some easy and pretty decorations my children made.  I use glass baubles and get them to fill them with glitter and pretty things in what ever colour theme we are going with that year.  These glass baubles can be used year after year, just empty them and full them up again.

 Last year I got the Children to paint wooden Christmas shapes then we covered them in glass glitter.

A bit of a close up of the tree I usually do not use tinsel but the children love it and it is only for a few years.  I also usually use white fairy lights but this year my hubby got to the lights before me and let the children talk him into using the coloured ones.  Oh well.  My neighbour is getting me a real Christmas tree 4 days before Christmas for the family room and I am going to decorate it :) 

Every year I splash out and get one nice Christmas decoration this year I got this sign cute hey :)

Last year I made these little trees as table center pieces they were so easy just glued beads on little glittery Christmas trees. 

I put out a nativity the children can play with every year, usually we make a stable and manger but this year things have not gone to plan.  I also put out some stories about the true meaning of Christmas.  In a later post I will tell you how we have handled Santa in our family.  Both my husband and I have never grown up with Santa, and we really want to focus on why we celebrate Christmas and reflect on the real meaning of Christmas. 

My Decorating Style

When we moved into the house we are currently living in 4 years ago and I changed my decorating style many people told me I must be crazy to paint my furniture white.  And to tell you the truth a few years ago I would have thought the same, white furniture and young children just don't mix.  Well it was the best thing I ever did, for starters you can see if it is dirty and if the coffee table happens to get scratched or marked you can either say it is part of the charm or take it outside and give it a fresh coat of paint. 

It is such a great style to have with young children you can pick stuff up cheap and make it over, then there is not concern if accidents happen.  I would much prefer my kids to be able to be kids and learn to take care of things that are not valuable.  How much more will they care for items of value.  I also have never put things up when my children are toddlers, I taught them what they could and could not touch and when we went visiting I did not have to worry about them touching and breaking things.  And yes one of my children was a strong willed child and it did take a lot more work this this one than my other two but it can be done.  Will post about how I did this at a later stage.

At the moment my decorating style is shabby meet cottage with french provincial twists and a bit of contemporary.  I am not a true shabby chic as I am not really into lots of floral, lace and frills around the place.  I love french and cottage kitchens and love white furniture and two toned furniture.  I also love country stuff as well.  Decorating with this style has made our house a lot more homely.  And another great thing about this style you can pick up old pieces of furniture and give them a face lift.  It is perfect for my stage of life.  I love to mix and match stuff from different styles.

Here are a few photos of my house.  You will see more in later posts.

I painted our old coffee table white and put baskets under it.  One basket for news papers one for decorating/craft magazines and one for knee blankets.

 I picked this kitchen hutch up for next to nothing it had been used in a garage to store tools and stuff I sanded it and gave it a fresh coat of paint and new draw knobs.

Yes we even have a whitish dog, well where we live he is quite often tinted orange as he has a love for dirt and mud.

I did up our old pine bed it was starting to look dull you know the look pine gets when it is getting old.  I painted it antique white and got the spray of flowers sent over from America and it has made such a difference.  I will be doing a post on our bedroom in the coming weeks.  I gave our room a makeover as an anniversary gift for my hubby.

Moving here was one part of discovering me I had always been kind of tomboyish, trying so hard not to be a girl, but also wanting to be a girl but just now knowing where to start or wanting to look silly in the process.  Learning to like me has been a long had hard journey one that I am still on.  Growing up I was constantly aware that I never really measured up, though no one would have known.  How easy it is to hide how we feel inside. I am the Master of mask making.  I was a pastors kid and ran the youth group, and Sunday school, song lead regally, shared in Church, while all the time feeling that I was not good enough.  I had a good relationship with the Lord as he was my only real friend, but still struggled with who I was and that I was not good enough. 

I have to remind myself daily that I am fearfully and wonderfully made.  I am a child of God and was created by him and by not liking me I am telling God that his creation is a mistake.  I am sure I am not the only one who battles with who they are, but once we start to discover God and his heart we can learn to accept our self.  For me this is my struggle, the one thing I battle with, the one thing I do not want to pass onto my children.  Oh how I want them to be secure in who they are and know they are amazing and measure up. 

So how did I get onto that oh that's right decorating, learning what I like and to put pretty things out is okay, to let people know I like china and girly stuff is okay.  To want to make a nice homely home for my family is again okay.  I don't have to keep all this inside I can let people see me and if they don't like it that is okay.  It does not change who I am.

Psalm 139:14 declares, “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.”

Kitchen Shelf

I have painted all day and the shelf is finished and the kitchen has been rearranged.

It will probably get changed around a bit can't decide if I like it standing or on its side with the kettle in the self.

I also finished the picture frame but can't decide which photo to put in it.  Will add a picture of that in my next post.

You are valuable because you exist. Not because of what you do or what you have done, but simply because you are.--Max Lucado

Home Living

Yesterday I read a lovely post from Linda at home living.  The title of the blog was A Home Making Class.  Oh how I wish there was something like this when I was growing up, well even now for that matter.  Growing up my mother was sick a lot so my home skills are largely self taught or I learnt from my father, we lived along way away from my extended family and my grandmother who started to teach me how to knit and sew on her holidays wit us passed away when I was 11.  You see my mother did not know how to cook or do anything when she married my dad, as she had a lot of challengers as a child and her parents were told she would never move out of home if she lived past her childhood years.  So she was never really taught home skills, my father is an amazing cook and he taught my mum who now is  a great cook.  But having a mother who was ill a lot while growing up, meant that I had to learn how to keep house and cook at a young age.  By the age of eight I could cook most meals including roast, lasagna, bake bread, cakes, milk the cow and goats, could do washing, ironing, most cleaning jobs. 

I think it is so important that we teach our children cooking and home skills, even if they do have a disability, you never know what will happen in the future.  As in my mums example by the grace of God she achieved things in life that people and her doctors never expected her to.  Not only did she get married she also had a child, was a pastors wife and a great writer.  

I am trying to teach my children things while still letting them be a child.  This is something I have really struggled with, I do not want to rob them of their childhood, but I also want them prepared for life when they leave home.    

A class like this would have been so great, for both teens and us married ones, the older generation have so much wisdom and knowledge to share.   Rhonda has a great blog called down to earth she shares lots of great ideas on home making, baking, gardening, craft and much more.   It is great to find an Aussie blog like this.  Laurie from Tip Junky, also has lots of great ideas.

In Australia our high schools provide a subject called home economics, this is compulsory for year eight and then is an elective for years 9 to 12.  It focuses on cooking and sewing/craft.   I did home economics from years 8 to 12 but only really learnt the basics.

Yesterday I went op shopping with my children we were looking for curtains or something that I could make into curtains for the kitchen but instead we found...... A brunch coat for me, a near new school dress for my eldest for $6 which is amazing as she goes to a Christian school and it is unusual to come across any of the uniforms in op shops.  And a shelf.

 Yes a brown old used shelf.  But with a coat of white paint a little sanding here and there and some pretty things it will turn into a kitchen self for my kitchen bench.

Some ideas of what I might do with it once it is painted.

And while I was looking for the paint in my very messy craft/junk room I came across this picture frame I have been meaning to paint.

So two more jobs to add to my list.