Like Mother, Like Daughter: Our Spruced Up Entryway

Joining the Like Mother, Like Daughter Linky Party.

It was quite ironic that Leila posted on this topic a week ago, as I had just that morning been musing on the fact that we never get unexpected visitors living on base and all.  The community here is not overly sociable.  And then, later that morning our new neighbour dropped round for a cup of tea.  I was quite chuffed that I had already started to polish the entryway.

Here are the 'before' photos of the entry to our house.  There are quite a few weeds in the agapanthus beds, the dead parts of the agapanthus are poking out from underneath and just to the left (I forgot to take a before picture) is a very messy pile of fire wood. Clearly some gardening time needs to be put in!

Here we are at the front door and while the shoes are on DH's custom shoe rack, those gumboots (wellingtons) could really be moved.  So could the bowl and paint brush Ginger was water painting the driveway with, um, about 2 weeks ago.  There is also quite a lot of leaf litter around that could do with a sweep-up.

Making our way inside now and I will show you what causes my housekeeping dramas.  Our front door opens onto half the house - you see there is only a very small entryway and then a door through to the kitchen and dining area.  Looking in this direction, if you turned right as you came in the front door you would be in the lounge room.

 

Looking into the loungeroom from the doorway now.  The pram doesn't look too special in this spot but there is no where else to keep it.  Outside, mould is a chronic problem, and I don't won't to drag the dirt on its tyres through the house.

The ironing board which was up for me to do some crafting should probably come down too.  It is hard when you don't have a dedicated workspace, but this is certainly not what I like to greet visitors.

Also, you can't really see from this photo, but I tend to pile up donations for the charity shop on top of the cupboard.  They could probably be taken in.

We step through the double doorway now and are in the kitchen and dining area.  Oh, and you can see right out into the backyard too.  Leila - you have set a big challenge.

Here, I can see toys that need to be picked up.  The clutter on the benchtop is pretty bad too - and all the phone, modem and computer cables to do not make for an attractive look.  The only trouble is this is the only phone point in the house so I can't really move the phone and shoe box - our one effort at containing the mess. 

 A little further on and you look right back into the loungeroom.  Honestly, I would never have a house as open plan as this by choice.  My craft is rather taking over the sewing table and my course work is looking pretty spread out on the desk.  Oh, and there is that pesky ironing board again!

Fast forward a week, and lets check on my progress.  Out the front the woodpile has been moved deeper into the carport and the ground swept.

I weeded the garden bed and pulled all the dead agapanthus leaves out - I was terrified of doing this because DH told me he had seen a bird carcass under there when he was gardening last year and I SO did not want to come across that.

At the markets on the weekend I picked up some potted colour.  I relocated the planter box from the backyard (well worn but a freebie left behind by the previous tenants of our Melbourne house) and planted it up yesterday.

Coming inside now, and the pram happens to be in the boot of the car so that is a start in making it look better.  I got DH to take apart the hall cupboard and I cleaned it out and got rid of the cobwebs behind it.

I think the biggest single improvement though is in the kitchen.  I relocated the computer to the study.  Since we have wireless now, it can just come out to the living area when someone wants to use it.  I also tucked the phone cords in beside the box.  In addition, the clutter has been rehomed.  

Drying up the dishes, rather than leaving them to dry on the rack also improves the look of the room.  Oh, and I have taken some of Ginger's artistic works off the fridge - lovely though they are.

And finally, a peek into the loungeroom from the dining area.  I have put all my craft bits in the basket on my desk and arranged my study materials into a reasonably neat pile.  

A pile which now calls my name, a reasonably tidy and welcoming house is but a work in progress. 

Weekend Twitterings

On the weekend.....

 

• Baking was done - granola, cocoa brownies (recipe here) and lemon cake.
• Corn was popped - Ginger was so impressed.
• Lots of weeding was done- I am not sure it has improved the look of the backyard at all.  It is now very patchy; rather like a soccerfield where a match has been played on a wet day.
• There was a wander at the local park with teddy (the backyard with the rusty truck backs onto it).
• There was changeable late winter weather - sunshine then rolling black clouds.
• We had one tired little girl; lugging teddy and your cake around really take it out of you.
• We ate a roast dinner with our own homegrown beetroot.

{Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real}

Joining Like Mother, Like Daughter in this weekly link-up.

{Pretty}

My Mum has had this plate for years sitting in her china cabinet.  I'm pretty sure it was a gift from her Dad and step-Mum.  I have always admired it and recently she passed it on to me.  I have finally found somewhere to hang it.   Wall space is at a premium in our house - we have too many wall hangings:)  Defence policy states you can install a "reasonable number of picture hooks".  I wonder if anyone has actually taken stock of how many hooks we put up!

I would tell you who the painting is by, but the back of the plate is all in German - and my German is not that good:)

Just had to show off my cute little alarm clock find - $1 at a recent jumble sale.

{Happy}

I have been working on my photography skills using this tutorial.  Ginger and I had a bit of a photo session in the front yard on Tuesday.  I got some reasonable shots.  That made me happy.

She looks pensive, but actually she is just eating rockmelon.

Ah, squeezing our food - our new favourite thing to do at mealtimes.

{Funny}

Ginger likes to go through my wallet and take all the cards out of it.  Given that she can now put them back in again it can keep her occupied for quite some time.    I don't really mind as it is pretty harmless fun for her and it is easy to clean up.

But, last Friday as I was packing them back up I noticed my medicare card (in Australia all citizens are entitled to public health care - to access it you have to carry your medicare card) was missing.  Ginger had been playing with my purse right next to the sideboard - oh, no it had gone underneath.  So, everything had to come out, and then since I still couldn't lift the cabinet empty I had to call DH and ask him to pop home (there are some advantages to living 5 minutes walk from the office) and lift it up.

Ginger thought all those breakables and cabinets to explore were great fun.

{Real}

Given his proximity, DH often pops home for lunch.  We usually have leftovers.  However, yesterday's lunch took leftovers to a new level - there are 5 separate leftover dishes on that table!  

Service with style it was not:)

Yarn Along - Ginger's completed cardigan

Joining Ginny's Yarn Along

I have finally finished Ginger's pink cardigan.  Yay!  This is my very first completed knit and I am happy with the result.  It seems to be the perfect fit too which is encouraging - my first project with this wool my gauge was way out.

As I am sure you would understand, given Ginger's energy levels it is very difficult to get a photo of her in focus let alone get her photographed besides my current reading - so I hope this isn't cheating.  I have two books on the go at the moment - The White Woman on the Green Bicycle by Monique Roffey which is about a dysfunctional English couple living in Trinidad, and The Crimson Petal and the White by Michael Faber.  The latter, I have started twice before but the sheer weight of the book always means I end up putting it down; it is not exactly one you want in your bag for commuting.  Even though I am enjoying the plot I am making slow progress because I can't hold this (at 900 pages) and feed Ginger at the same time; and feed times are when I get most of my reading done these days.  However, since I am enjoying it I will persevere and try to find some more reading slots in my day.

Recipe: Almond Friands

I made these on Friday and a lot of them got eaten over the weekend!

I used to always think I was virtuous when I ordered a friand rather than a piece of cake because it was so much smaller! I have had to rethink that supposition.  There is a lot of butter in these.

When we lived in Sydney there used to be a little cafe in The Rocks DH and I would go to which had a name something to do with a Gumnut - exactly what I can't recall - and I would always order one of their berry friands.  Come to think of it, I don't think I have actually eaten a friand since then:)

Anyway, I was attracted to this recipe because it calls for only egg whites.  We have a lot of egg whites sitting in our freezer because we always freeze spare egg whites when a recipe calls only for yolks and there is only so many pavlovas and merringues one family can eat.  Last year we made so many merringues that we could hardly stomach Eton mess anymore - if you were familiar with my husband's love of cream you would know how unlikely that was!

Anyway, the recipe...

Almond Friands from Country Style June 2010

Makes 12

1 1/2 cups pure icing sugar

1 cup almond meal

1/2 cup plain flour

6 egg whites

250g unsalted butter, melted

icing sugar, to dust

Preheat oven to 180C.  Grease a 12 cup muffin tray.  Combine icing sugar, almond meal and flour in a bowl.  Whisk egg whites in a bowl with a fork.  Add to flour mixture with butter.  Stir until well combined.  Stand for 20 minutes.

Spoon mixture into prepared moulds.  Bake for 15-20 minutes or until skewer inserted into centres comes out clean.

Set aside to cool in tray until cooled to room temperature.  Turn out onto a rack to cool further.  Dust generously with icing sugar and serve.

Our Weekend and my response to Posie's post

Posie Patchwork wrote a very insightful post yesterday on whether a blog has to be the whole truth and nothing but the truth.  

As the character Cowboy says in the musical Newsies (incidentally, one of my favourite movies) "I'm not lying, I'm just improving the truth a little".

Is there scope on our blogs for a little editing?  

I personally think, yes.  I would liken it to putting on a happy face when you go out, even if you are feeling in a bit of a funk or straightening up the house because you have visitors coming over.  I am not about to post pictures on my blog which show our house in a mess - even if it has, in actuality had toys strewn about it all day; there are also parts of our lives (names and photos etc) which I feel perfectly entitled to keep private.  

This blog is a reasonable representation on what goes on here day to day - but it is never going to tell the whole story.  Quite frankly, I don't think you, dear readers, would be all that interested if I were to gripe on here every time a small annoyance crosses my path! 

I would like this place to be a positive spot to be in.  So, I will show our weekend with all its sunny spots even if I did spend a good portion of it in a bad temper, with DH shut up studying trying to catch up two weeks of missed coursework from his time out field.  It saddens me to admit I was not as graceful as I would have liked to be, or for that matter set out to be, about the lack of family time this weekend.  Army careers and family time are generally two incompatible objectives; I should be used to this by now - just ask Posie!  (As a side note there is an excellent post here on the beattitudes and happiness).  

I think we need to focus on the good in our lives, showing gratitude for all the blessings poured down on us. Even from a purely secular perspective - gratitude has been shown to improve health. Gratitude is what I hope comes across here most days. But, God did not promise that all would be perfect in our lives.  We live in a fallen world and some days we fall short - we snap at a loved one when we should have shown patience and love; we fail to do for others what we would like to have done for us or we are unable to see hidden blessings.  This, at least, is my reality and sometimes, I think, there is scope for sharing it; on our own terms, on our blogs.  But, what and how much we share is entirely at our own discretion.  We will write our own story.  

Hmm, well that was only supposed to be a short paragraph!

 So what did happen this weekend:

• Friands were made and eaten (I'll post the recipe tomorrow)
• Lunch was taken alfresco to a local park - food always tastes better outdoors and we watched the ducks
• Ginger and I walked, and walked, and walked so DH could get his lectures listened to 
• We BBQd for dinner
• We picked leeks and had our favourite egg and leek dish
• Rough and tumble was had with Daddy
• Pakoras were cooked that actually looked like they should!
• Ginger's cardigan was completed
• Church was made on time!