Shamelessly Optimistic

I'm an optimist. Every year I plant out our vegetable and herb gardens with visions of reaping abundant fruits of our labour. Most times it works, sometimes it doesn't. However, I always start the season with a smile on my face and a daydream in my head.

I've found a nice wee hot corner of the garden to grow my peppers and chilli plant.  My sister-in-law and bff Paula had great success with hers last Summer, so I'm keeping everything crossed. I just need to get the old man to extend the watering system to ensure that they get plenty to drink over summer.

I've also taken a chance and planted a passion fruit vine. I'm trying to keep postive about this one, but i'm not sure.

I've put my tomatoes in the raised garden around the back of the house in the hope that there will be no late frost. Traditionally, in the South Island of New Zealand you would wait until Labour weekend at the end of the month to plant out, but you see, i'm keeping that cup half full.

This year i've decided to try planting the tom's into a tomato bag filled with the correct soil and i've put them agains the warm sunny sheltered area on the veggie bed and staked them well. I'm hoping for some tasty sweet 100 for our salads.

My herbs have to be planted in a pot by the kitchen door as I'm out picking them most days for salads and cooking, so I know they will do well here.  There's another pot waiting for more herbs, this one has basil, coriander and chives. The other will be parsley, sage and....hmm...actually I haven't decided what the other is yet.

The weather has been lovely this week and the kids have played outside lots and are starting to brown up so we know that Summer is just around the corner.

Pinot and the Pox

Seriously it's been a year since I blogged? Holy crap My goodness, yes it has.

I won't update you on a year of stay at home mothering of 3 children. I'm sure you can create a picture on that canvas for yourself.

Today, right at this moment, I'm enjoying a delightful glass of Dashwood 2010 Pinot Noir whilst No.2 child is miserable with chickenpox and I wait for No.3 to achieve same state of "i'd love to get a pen and join the dots on you just to see what shape it makes".  Although I'm sure she will be nowhere near as miserable as a male child can be;  yes she's younger but thankfully she's a female, so she'll rock the pox with a smile on her face for sure.

(Photo courtesy of vintagecellars.com.au because I'm so damned tired that I can't be bothered leaving here to go get the camera to take a shot of my own bottle and glass)

So.....

Cheers everyone! To the pox.

Decluttering and Organising - Project 2

The hot drinks cupboard.

 

This one I've been putting off for around two years. This was a 10 minute job. What? I can't believe I look in here at least 3 times a day and didn't just take the time to sort it.

 

There was some completely random crap in there. A broken thermometer, some bread bag tags (?), a little bottle of perfume (??) and face paint crayons that I haven't seen since they were wedged up the back of the top shelf around 3 years ago.

Most of the stuff had to go back in and I migrated some other things from the adjacent cupboard, but all in all a success. Hurrah!

As a side note, my wonderful sister in law Paula made me these awesome "shoe" cupcakes for my birthday. She's not only a great sister in law, but a truly amazing friend. They were very yummy....all gone!

An update on the baby that's nearly one. She's a climber. First of my three to climb at such a young age. But wait, she's a genius too, will make steps by pushing toys around to achieve getting to her location of choice. Clever cookie.

Decluttering and Organising - Project 1

The Wardrobe.

Bearing in mind the following "before" photo is condusive of what happens at the end of Winter and again at the end of Summer every damn year, I'm only expecting the "after to last maybe another 4-5 months. However, I will enjoy my little organised wardrobe whilst it lasts.

There are a couple of people that I could call upon to testify that I've always been lazy unorganised where my clothes are concerned. But I'm sure just by showing this next photo you'll get the gist of it yourselves.

It didn't take as long as I thought to get it sorted out, probably an hour and a quarter max. Why I haven't done it before now I don't know. That box of clothes on the left has been lying there for weeks.

Don't get too excited, but here is the after.....*drumroll*......

I didn't have a purge of clothes like I probaby should have, nor did I sort through my numerous shoes - many of which I haven't worn for years. But a girl never knows when she'll need a fancy pair of heels again does she?

One day, I'll get rid of all the shoes I haven't worn for a long time, but for now, I'll allow them to continue collecting dust.

Keep checking back for Project 2 - I may just be on a roll here.

Some long overdue organising...

I'm back. Life with three kids so hectic that you think you haven't blogged for two weeks and realise it's almost two months!

I've been inspired by this blog Raising Colorado to get my a into g and sort out those little areas of the house that piss me off on a daily basis, but never get around to blowing up sorting out.

I'm not saying I'll blog on a daily basis and this might be very boring stuff for you mum those who read this blog. But I am commited to starting something that I can be proud of.

Here's a list of the few areas that currently annoy me and need some attention;

• My walk in wardrobe - between seasons, messy, almost embarrasing; but I'll show you and I'll get it sorted out.
• My freezer - Would. Gross. You. Out.
• Numerous drawers around the house.
• Kitchen areas - namely the plastics drawer. More like a Tupper-night-mare-ware
• Master Leo's Wardrobe
• Miss Cora's Wardrobe
• Too many to mention corners of the house that have dust accumulating.
• My washing machine drawer for powder. Seriously, I don't think I'll even show you a before photo.

So you get my gist?

I'll do a before photo, if I'm brave enough and the after.

I know these little jobs won't take very long. But I think when the sum of the parts is HUGE then the jobs appear insurmountable.

I'll be back tomorrow. I think i'll start with my wardrobe. Yuck Yay!

p.s. If you look up procrastination in the dictionary, you'll find a picture of me.

Getting over the bugs...

Of course I succumbed this week to the sniffles after the kids having a fortnight of coughing, sneezing and such. The crappy weather didn't come to much, bit of a hail storm and an overnight frost, so thankfully the garden's looking okay. Sun out today and I'm doing the first watering of the Spring.  Off to have a lie down as I think I'm getting a migraine ;(

SO, hopefully back to my bloggy self in the next day or so. 

Got some lamb shanks braising in the oven for tea, hoping Master Leo will eat dinner tonight. Having some battles with him and this meal at the moment.  Back to sticker reward charts. Hope it works...promise of a McDonalds for 7 stickers. We'll see!

In the meantime, here's a song and video that I've been loving this week...I think this guy's just so groovy and he just makes me smile. Dance like nobody's watching ;)

Catch up soon.

Stef

Typical!

What usually happens where we live in NZ is that you get some lovely start of Spring mild weather where all the plants, flowers, trees and bulbs go "yipee" and start to burst into flower and growth.

What also usually happens is that we will almost always get a late frost or cold snap and they don't recover.  So for tomorrow we have this forecast....

Tomorrow 11 Sep

High 11°C

Overnight 2°C

Sleety showers, snow to 200 metres. Cold southwester.

Given that we are at sea level we may escape the snow, but there's equally as much chance that we will get it.  And for Wednesday that lovely overnight frost......

Wednesday12 Sep

High 9°C

Overnight -1°C

Sleety showers clearing. Icy southwester dying

This is how our garden looks today and if the forecast is correct then they may not be quite as perky after Wednesday.