Around here - September 2025

The last 3 months have been a huge effort getting my house ready to sell and getting rid of all my furniture as it was going be too big for my new townhouse.  There were many stressful days of making sure everything was gone in time.  Downsizing is a huge task as it's not just as easy as pack everything up in your house and move to your new place as most of it won't fit.  I sold a lot on FBMP and gave a lot away for free, also charity and many trips to the local tip as well.  I still have way too much stuff in my now single car garage and not much has been unpacked even though I moved 3.5 weeks ago due to being in bed with the flu for 2 weeks.  I don't think I have been that sick ever.  I got a fever for 24 hrs then no energy and a cough and literally just lay in bed day in and day out so the place looks like I just moved in with boxes everywhere.

However today is the most exciting day as I'm off to Italy on a holiday which still seems so surreal a word that gets thrown around a lot.  Raising my kids on my own we didn't get to go on holidays because I valued being a stay at home Mum and being around for my kids so holidays were not in the budget.  Now both kids are living their best lives, I've downsized and I get to do something really special for myself.  I'm flying out tonight at 2am to Rome, Italy and meeting my son for 3 days as he has been travelling abroad for the past 2.5 months.  Then on the Sunday I'll be flying down to Brindisi and getting picked up at the airport for a 7 day "slow retreat" with 8 other ladies.  The 2nd day of the retreat it will be my birthday so how wonderful is it to be spending it in Italy.  

It's called a "slow retreat" for a reason and we are doing one activity a day like learning how to make pasta, going to an olive oil farm, cooking class, visiting a ceramics factory that exports the most Italian ceramics around the world.  You can bet your life I will be buying some Italian cermamics to adorn my table when I return.  The whole thing doesn't seem real and of course I had to get a new passport as the last time I left the country was in 2002 so it was expired.  I did have a mild, well serious panic attack when I unpacked a box where I thought my passport was and I couldn't find it a few days out from my trip.  Luckily it was in the box but it was behind something else but for 24 hrs I was panacking thinking I would have to get an urgent passport redone not to mention where on earth all my documents like birth certificates etc are in which box in my bedroom.  Thank goodness I found it and all was well again.

When I get back from my trip I will have to get stuck into unpacking boxes as my new couch and dining table should be ready a couple of weeks on my return and my lounge room will have to be clear of boxes.  Looking forward to having a nice new leather couch and beautiful timber dining table and chairs.

Here's a few photos from the last few weeks and until then....stay tuned for some Italy spam when I get back.

Two lovely kookaburra's visited me when I moved in which was go great.

My flowering petunias which I brought from my old house are thriving.

This a fabulous book and I would have loved this 10 years ago when I was cooking for my kids however I read it from cover to cover and loved everything in it from reading labels, meal prepping, how to pick the best fruit and veg etc.  I was so excited when I got notification that the book was coming and as I was in bed sick ande I thought it would be a good distraction until I realized they had shipped it to my old address as it was a pre-order from 3 months ago....my neighbour went and grabbed the book and then my daughter collected it on her way over but I so wanted it the day it was delivered.

After being so sick and not really eating much I craved

meat, salad and veggies so I had this 3 nights in a row.

Teddy getting used to his new surroundings.

A few days after I moved in, we went to see a Fleetwood Mac tribute band from Melbourne called "Fleetwood Max" at our local RSL.  We saw them 18 months ago when they were here and when we heard they were coming back to Qld we booked to see them again and had a great night out.

Around here June 2025 edition

I do miss the days of blogging and taking lots of photos of my kids [aka young adults now] on my good camera however today I've just got some good old iPhone pics for you.

My big news is I'm downsizing from my big house to a townhouse about 15 minutes away from here.  It's a brand new build which will be ready in 2 months time so I'm selling my house.  We have been here for 14 years and it's been an amazing home with the best neighbours.  Let me tell you when you currently have a double car garage and look at the actual size of a single car garage the true sense of "downsizing" comes into play.  For the next 4 weeks I'll be focusing on decluttering and reducing the stuff I have in my garage which by the way I did in February this year however now I need to get very serious.

I'm actually very excited about this new chapter as the kids are off with their own lives so it's time to reset and build a new life for myself.  Most of my furniture will be sold as it won't fit in the townhouse and it was all purchased new 19 years ago when we built our family home.  I'm going for a different decor at this house with natural timbers, linen etc. to make it cosy and warm.  It's exciting going shopping for new furniture and I've already preliminary picked what I'm after.  I'll have an appointment with the Stylist from Freedom Furniture where you pay $150 for the appointment and she measures everything up and offers advice for the look you are trying to achieve and the $150 is deducted from your furniture purchase so basically it's free if you buy furniture from them.  It's so important to measure entrance ways, doorways to make sure the couch you want to buy will actually be able to get into the room you want it in.  I'll be going for another leather couch again as they are so comfortable and long lasting.

Let me tell you getting your house ready to sell is a marathon as we [my sister and I and also a friend] have washed every wall, skirting, window, screen in this place so it's spotless.  Decluttering to get rid of stuff you have around the house so that the place looks amazing.  I even redid my outdoor table by staining it with 2 coats of stain and a stain varnish top coat and honestly that transformation was so simple yet the table looks great.

Both kids are going overseas at the end of June, early July to separate countries and they are both living the dream travelling and experiencing life which I'm so proud of.

Here's some pics of the last few months:-

Home grown basil from the garden.

Home made pesto.

Lounge room with a new $79 rug from Bunnings to make it more cosy.

This is my table after I stained it again - looks so good now.

End of an era with the height chart on the kitchen wall.

I took a photo with the kids next to it and then it got washed this off.

Beautiful sunset the other night over our house.

Sunset reflection on the side of our house.

Flowers in pots out the back with my morning coffee and slippers.

Ricky is having a holiday at my sisters while I have open house.

Hello from Teddy.

He loves being nursed and putting his head over

my shoulder but wanted to know what I was doing.

This is $5.99 from Pet Barn and the little treats

I have in my bag when I go to the dog park.

This is always at the end of the morning playdate at the park.  The 3 on the right are Nandi [chocolate brown], Teddy [Poodle] and my Teddy [Cavoodle] and Osha who is not normally there in the morning.

Every morning after the play in the dog park they know to come and sit in front of me for 3 treats each.  They are tiny little treats and they get one each then I go back and give them a 2nd and then a 3rd then we all go home....it's so funny as they know this little ritual.  I'll miss the company of their owners as we catch up every morning.

Around here - March 2025

Last week in South East Queensland we prepared for Cyclone Alfred with Brisbane and Northern NSW shutting up shop for a couple of days with schools closed, ferry and bus services cancelled and everyone bunkering down just like the old days of 5 years ago due to Covid.

The Gold Coast copped a huge amount of rain and wind as did Northern NSW and Bribie and Redcliffe.  Lots of areas of Brisbane flooded with power out for days and trees down however we were very lucky that by the time it got to us it was downgraded to Ex Tropical Cyclone.  Queensland is known for Cyclones however up North.  It had been 50 years since a Cyclone was in Brisbane so this was going to be quite the event.

I did ended up packing some precious photo albums, hard disk drives and camera gear into some plastic crates just in case.  I wasn't worried about flooding where I am however I was more worried about the 100-150km expected winds and with some tall gum trees behind my house if they fell on the roof then that would be the end and water would mostly definitely come inside.  Thankfully it was very mild at my place and Sunday night was the only concerning rain event however we were all good.  Parts of my suburb ended up with no power for a few days however we didn't loose power which was great.  Apart from the inconvenience of no power you loose everything in your fridge and freezer as well and with the cost of groceries that is never good.

I did do a big cook up on the Friday of some chickens in the slow cooker, happy pantry slice, focaccia and banana bread just in case we lost power.  It all felt very much like Covid with the shops out of most things, toilet paper, milk, bread, eggs, canned veggies, meats etc. the shelves were bare and are only just restocking shelves now a week later.  Here's a few pics.

Banana Bread

I premade some coffee shots and put them in the freezer in case the power went out and the largest ice cube tray happened to be this Christmas Tree one.  Add milk and you have yourself an ice coffee.

Ice Coffee

Homemade fresh ham and salad sandwich

Teddy on the couch

I loved this pic that was posted - honestly if you were in flood waters this would be totally necessary.

We all know about the cost of living with everything going up, petrol, groceries, electricity, insurances [even more so now with another natural disaster event].  I use Microsoft Windows and the annual fee went from $109 to $159 AUD which is insane.  Lightroom Software which I use for editing my photos is going up from $14 to $25 AUD.  I find that everything we do now has to be a subscription so there's annual or monthly fees.  Just to have your email storage there's a fee, a fee to keep your iCloud so your phone is backed up.  It's actually quite hard to reduce costs in 2025.

As for groceries I spent $99.55 today at Coles and apart from the $18 worth of organic chicken I didn't really buy anything as I had to stock up on some spices etc.  I ended up with 2 lots of toilet paper as they were on sale from $13.60 to $11.00 so I saved $5.20 by purchasing 2 lots.  I bought 2 lots of milk as it's the first time in 2 weeks I have been able to buy it from the supermarket as it was in stock.  Take a look at my trolley there is nothing in it and this is $100.  You can see why the cost of living is an issue if this is $100 worth of groceries with only 1kg of chicken.

Hope you have a great week, I'm needing to mow the lawn, weed the veggie patch and get some veggies in the ground.  I've ordered some garlic which should come in the next week and the variety is Glen Large which is good for our Sub Tropical Climate so we will see.  Rhonda from Down To Earth grows this one so I'll give it a whirl.  I've tried to grow garlic twice before with not that much success.