As I looked through my photos to see which ones to edit for the blog, I saw us being pirates for a fun visit to the STS Leeuwin, I saw our fish and chip dinner with these labels J:




 











I saw photos of our dessert pizzas; sunflowers; new bathroom screen doors (fire-resistant and “one-way” viewing-extra-strength mesh); massive piles of boxes and bits for our major shed, hobby room and front hall tidy ups!  And I saw Michael swapping over our water pump after the first (little one) decided to stop one afternoon; I saw a 15^th birthday celebration; corn stalks growing tall; cards I made; new shelves in our pantry; cane chair cushions re-covered and pretty hooks on our walls.

But none of those photos told the stories as I remembered them…

So I choose to share this one instead:

 



 










Our bench cushion recovered too – with a recycled table runner and some fabric we got from the op-shop for 50c! 

And I choose to share this photo:

 

 















The heirloom tomatoes are coming along J.  I cooked up another batch of passata today with nearly the last of the regular tomatoes – and included one massive zucchini in there!  They just keep growing of course and we have had our fair share of zucchini frittata, zucchini and potato bake and vege (zucc) soup!  More to eat too – will be resorting to the chocolate cake recipe tomorrow I think J.

Today’s photo was:

 

 
















Shelves in the front hallway!!!  This man is an absolute legend!  The shelves are so lovely and will make all the difference to being able to store blankets and winter clothes – yay.

And finally:

 



 














The gorgeous light I am sitting under to type up this blog post.

Just because it is pretty.

 

 

Time for a catch-up post.  It has been some time after all…

It’s been some hard times…

It’s been one of those times when I have had to take some time to work it all out (again!). 

It’s been a time when we have taken time to celebrate the lives of people we have loved and admired.

I have attended three memorial services in 3 weeks and another to come next week.  It has been hard, that is for sure, and I have been a bit off-kilter and I had to search hard to find my answers to get back on a bit of a more even keel. 

It was the words, “Celebrate a life well-lived” that made sense to me eventually ­last week.  The memorial services all celebrated lives well-lived, and I realised that the legacy of the wonderful people who had passed is that we can celebrate our lives by living well now, by celebrating life every day that we are given and most of all, by celebrating the things that are important to us and that help the world be a better place – family, friends, the environment - our hopes and dreams.

So, in a very low key, quiet and somewhat difficult way we are celebrating.  We are celebrating living life.  And the house passing the shire inspection.  Most of all - we are celebrating our family and friends and their contributions to our lives.

When I took a day off work to try and clear my head a bit, I loved that I could spend it working alongside Michael and have that time to work things out a bit. 

He got the skirting boards all finished – sanding them (recycled jarrah of course), coating with wood oil and then drilling and nailing them on.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

He also fixed the shelving in our linen cupboard – again recycled.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And he came up with the brilliant idea to use the overhead cupboards from our recycled jarrah kitchen in the pantry – don’t they look stunning?!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(And see the chopping board he made from some off cuts of jarrah floorboards?  So, so clever and beautiful!)

He has also filled and painted plenty of doors (*all* done now).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Outside, he has patched render and secured copper pipes.

And he has cleaned the house from top to bottom - all by himself - hours and hours of windows, moving every little and big thing out, scrubbing tiles on his hands and knees today:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(while I have been at work, or walking to clear my head, or keeping to myself, or with my family saying goodbye or sleeping to aid healing).

So now we are taking the time to quietly celebrate.  Quietly, not raucously (I hope that will come too!) – but this adventure is worth celebrating and the people we have shared it with are certainly worth celebrating too!

Cheers!!  We have finished!!!

(Inside at least, almostly…let the adventure continue…)