Home Office Space - Before and After

I am so lucky to have a home office space in my house.  For a while we were putting up with the 70's decor but then I decided to claim to the space and Kane and I got stuck in to decorating and I realised I never did share the before and after pictures.

Before:

When I was stripping the wall paper off the walls I had a really bad cold.  I had to rest often because my body hurt but using the wall paper steamer did great things for my stuffed up sinuses!

I had to rope in Kane's help for doing some of the high painting and once it was all finished then we put up the new roman blind and light fixtures.  I had great fun spray painting the filing cabinet, but I think I might have spent more on spray paint than I did buying the second-hand cabinet in the first place!

I got a nice new monitor for my birthday and had great fun picking out the rest of the functional and not-so-functional decor.

After:

I like making myself a nice hot drink, lighting my scented candle, streaming a chill spotify playlist and cosying into my space to get stuff done!

Why No Blog Post?

This is why:

It is well known that you can not disturb a cat when he looks this comfy and cosy!  As soon as I get my workspace back writing will recommence.

Hello February!

January was an amazing month and 2018 has got off to a great start!  In April, Kane and I will be celebrating our 20th wedding anniversary (20 years!!!) and the traditional gift is china, so we booked ourselves a trip to China!  I'm so excited!  And flights to Scotland have also been booked for my nephew's wedding in September.  I'm so excited about this too!  Of course these good things all come with a price tag, so February will be about enjoying the summer season without spending any more money! #hermit #NoSpendFeb

2018 Goals

1) A Comfortable and Beautiful Home

Last Month:
I decluttered the bedroom, living room and kitchen.  So many clothes, bags, kitchen containers and other items got donated.  We sold the old kitchen table and chairs, so finally that is out of the house, and we have a few other items to list and sell.

// Sold! //

This Month:
I want to declutter the laundry and main bathroom and get two superfluous lounge chairs listed and sold.

2) Respect and Honour My Body

Last Month:
I lost 4kgs through counting calories.  I went flexible vegan, where I only buy vegan food, but I'm using up what I still have in the cupboards that might have eggs/honey/dairy in it.  Kane is staying vegetarian so he's mostly taking care of the non-vegan food ;)  I also subscribed to Headspace and I'm trying to meditate for 10 minutes a day.

// Vegan Waffles mmmm //

This Month:
I'm working on stretching and strengthening my legs and glutes so that I stop get injured running!  I was thinking about getting a massage, however instead of spending money I will foam roll and then have a relaxing epsom salt bath with a mud masque ... and a glass of wine *bliss*

Celebrate the Season

// Fresh corn //

• I love it when corn on the cob becomes super cheap and its so fresh!  
• It's good to get outdoors and go for a walk up a hill or take a picnic.  
• Our barbecue hasn't had much attention lately, but with a public holiday coming up we'll get more work done in the garden and then hopefully dine al fresco in the evening.
• I'm planning a special cocktail for Valentines Day

// February walk up One Tree Hill //

Happy February!

January: Meals, Miles, Books and Looks

// January Meals //

Meals:

I made some super simple but healthy summer meals over January.  It always seems that little bit easier to eat well when so many tasty vegetables are in season!

1. Tomato and Courgette bake: It's basically layers of sliced tomato and courgette covered with breadcrumbs and a sprinkling of cheese and popped in the oven.

2.  Bruschetta: Any tasty bread toasted (I've been really into Freyas low carb 5 seed loaf) topped with a mix of diced tomato, garlic, basil and olive oil.

3. Vegetable Fajita with Guacamole: Capsicum, onion, portobello mushroom, courgette and carrot all sautéd with a fajita or taco spice mix.  The guacamole is avocado, onion, tomato and garlic mashed with a little lemon juice.  Served with heated tortilla.

4.  Chickpea Curry with Rice: After soaking the chickpeas overnight, I put them in the pressure cooker with a tin of tomatoes, chopped onion, garlic and garam masala power for 20 minutes.  I stirred in some baby spinach just before serving.

Miles: 6.92km

I failed at my only goal not to get injured :(  I had just finished warming up and was taking my first few strides on the treadmill when my calf muscle gave out on me.  So I have been using the rowing machine at the gym and dutifully stretching my legs and glutes and slowly building up some strength in my glutes and calves.  I've now managed two little jogs on the treadmill and it felt so good to be running and pain free!  So my plan is to keep going with the stretch, strength and cross training with some easy running over February.

// Trying to make friends with the "erg" //

Books:

Reading got off to a good start this year and I read 3 books this month.  Ok, one was a short poem and another a book of poems but thy still count towards my annual reading goal!

1. Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency - Douglas Adams.  I love Douglas Adams' style of writing, it's fun!  The book is fun and quirky and just what I hoped for.

2. Kubla Khan - Samuel Taylor Coleridge.  This poem and its author was mentioned in the Dirk Gently book so I wanted to read it to get more insight.

3. The Transient - Josephine M Woods.  This was suggested to me and I thought I'd give it a read.  Some parts felt too religious for me, but overall I liked the imagery of the nature around that part of England.

Looks:

I bought a new necklace that is a round lapis lazuli.  Lazuli IT is the name of my contracting business (named after my cat, who came with his name) and this necklace matched my logo perfectly!

In other slices of life, we are stripping off all the wall paper in preparation for decorating.

I'm making a big effort in decluttering ALL THE THINGS! I am a bit of a hoarder of jars and I reduced two packed full shelves down to this:

// I can't go cold turkey //

My new power tool, these alligator loppers, are just awesome and make cutting small trees and branches so easy.  The garden is finally getting a much needed tidy up!

If you've got any good tips or exercises for strengthening glutes and legs to stop me getting injured while running then I'd love to hear them in the comments!

Winter is Coming .. better get out the blankets

First of all I am super excited about the new Game of Thrones season coming in July!  But I am not as excited about actual winter coming this week. 

In New Zealand winter officially starts on the 1st June, but many places in the country has already had a bit of snow and few cold snaps.  In Auckland we don't get snow but we still complain about the cold which leads the rest of the country to the south, to call us "soft" and make fun of us, as in this article from our national newpapers website:

//From NZ Herald

When I was in Scotland last year I really wanted to get a wool blanket in the Dress Stewart tartan.  I had seen this picture (below) when I was looking for inspiration for decorating the bedroom and I just love it.

So I set out scouring the streets of Edinburgh.  I had expected the high end shops like Romanes and Paterson or Hector Russell would have what I was looking for, but alas they had any blanket I could have wanted except Dress Stewart.  I started to feel like I wasn't going to get what I wanted, so when I found a blue version in the Edinburgh Woolen Mill shop I decided to get it.  Later, while trawling through all the tartan and Scottish shops on the Royal Mile, I came across the tartan blanket I wanted, but it was in a super soft lambswool and not the slightly rougher texture I was looking for.  I bought it anyway.

It wasn't until I was at the airport ready to head back to New Zealand that I finally found the blanket I was looking for!  So yes, I now have 3 tartan blankets!  That should keep me toasty warm this winter!

//My 3 blankets

Do you have a favourite blanket or comfort item?  Tell me in the comments!

Long Weekend

I've just had a lovely lazy long weekend.

It started on Friday evening when I went to the mall and picked up my lovely new Starbucks cup, 2 OPI nail polishes and some pretty Christmas decorations from Kikki.K.

My new Starbucks cup

On Saturday it was raining so we did some housework and grocery shopping for the week and then spent the rest of the day playing computer games and then watched some TV.

Sunday was devoted to watching sports and it started early at 4am with the NZ v South Africa rugby semi final - it was a real nailbiter and I was relieved when NZ won.  Then we had 2 NHL games to watch, Leafs v Canadiens and Red Wings v Canuks.  The Leafs played well but the opposing goal tender is just a machine!  And Kane was happy that the Red Wings won out.  I also gave myself that much needed pedicure so now I have happy feet and pretty pink nails.



 

Reminds me of the Griswold car in Christmas Vacation

The adverts during sports games are all pretty much the same: cars, tyres, fast food, beer.  After hours of them I caved in and got us a Wendys for dinner with beers that we already had in house.



Little wooden Xmas tree

Monday was Labour Day and we tackled the garden.  I'm glad I got some hard labour in otherwise I would have felt like it was a very inactive weekend!  It's going to take a good many hours of work to get the garden back into shape.  My goal here is to get the garden totally tidy, beds all empty, new raised beds built and filled with soil, new garden lights, and the bbq area decorated in the next 4 months.

Hope you all had a lovely weekend!  Do you paint your nails?  What's your go-to favourite colour?

Labour Weekend Gardening

All of New Zealand plant things on Labour Weekend and garden stores are pretty busy.

Kane got started on Friday and filled in the raised beds ready for his chillies and capsicums and planted a few of them out.  I got my tomatoes in the ground and also planted some pumpkin and watermelon seeds on that side.  The leeks and rhubarb are looking good and with them I planted some carrot, onion, turnip and radish seed.

Over on the section I had earmarked for my herb garden, I got some compost and vege mix put down and then planted some lettuce, mesclun and rocket as well as some chives, basil and oregano.



Along from the herb section is where I planted raspberry and gooseberry bushes.  The gooseberry doesn't seem to be doing much but the raspberry bush is doing well and is producing fruit - just have to wait for them to go red.

Meanwhile on the balcony, the passion vine has started to produce flowers and they are quite amazing looking!  The strawberry plants are thriving and we are looking at a nice small crop this year - again just waiting for them to turn red.

 

One of my favourite things about working in the garden is the friendly wildlife. This is a Tui who came to inspect our work - they have a lovely song.



Another of my favourite things is that all good hard garden work should be celebrated with a beer - even if it is only 11.30am!

 

Inspiration for my house

When we were looking for somewhere to live, dear hubby and I made up wish lists.  I always wanted to live somewhere like the holiday park in Dirty Dancing.  I loved the lake, trees and the little chalets.  When I saw The Simpsons episode, "You Only Move Twice" (the one with Hank Scorpio), I really wanted to live at Homer and Marge's house in Cypress Creek!