5 Spring-time Gardening Jobs

I truly find my inner peace outside in the garden, and this time of year has no shortage of jobs for me to tackle. These jobs are quite general and apply to pretty much any type of garden:

- Weeding!! 
We're having a bumper year for weeds and I've already filled our garbage bin twice over with weeds from the garden and lawn. And I've still got the front yard to go.

- Pruning.
Most of our winter flowering natives are spent now, so I've given them a really good prune, which should encourage stronger, bushier growth in spring/summer. Otherwise they can end up looking weedy and stringy and all-round ugly.

- Fertilising.
The gardens and potted plants need a good fertilise in early-mid spring (low or no phosphorous for your native gardens), water, plus a seaweed treatment to encourage good, healthy growth.

- Mulching. 
Once the gardens are fed and watered, give them a nice layer of mulch. This will help suppress the weeds, maintain water levels once the weather warms up, enrich the soil and protect against big temperature fluctuations, which can happen all through spring.

- Transplanting/Editing. 
Any plant that's underperforming in its current position could be transplanted to a more suitable spot in the garden, to see if it will rally. While any plant that looks too far gone should be taken out. Sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind!

In other gardening news, we've decided to put the vege garden on hold until autumn or maybe winter next year, as we've just got too many other projects to work on over spring and summer. As excited as I am about growing some of our own food, it's another nod to living a simpler life by focusing on one job at a time, rather than spreading ourselves, our time, our energy and our money too thinly.

Bonus: getting the backyard tidied up means we can put the new-to-us chook shed in place and get us some chickens soon! 

K.I.S.S: Decluttering the Computer Desktop

 

Well, this is embarrassing...

Here I lay bare my ridiculously jumbled, unorganised desktop with you, in the hopes that the shame of it will drive me to pick up my game. Simplifying life for us is an all-encompassing pursuit, and that means the hub of our digital life too - the computer.

Confession Time:


I edit photos and "save" them straight to the desktop. I have files and folders still there from my business (which has been closed for over a year now). Not to mention scores of hours of video and thousands of photos that haven't been catalogued or sorted. Ever.

And please, please, please don't mention the b-word. (Back-up). I did have it setup before the renovation, but amongst moving and having Toby and moving back in and life, I lost one of the cables and haven't ever bothered to find it again and set up the external hard drive.

This isn't going to be a quick project, but I'm putting it out there now, that by the end of the month I will have organised my desktop and put in place a system for blog images, family photos and videos, personal files and home files. Plus set-up my backup again.

Hold me to it. Please!

Happy-Making: Fathers

Sunday is Fathers Day and this week, Sparky-the-Wonder-Dad is my happy-maker. He's an amazing Dad, wonderful hubs and brilliant friend. He works so hard for us only to come home and give more of himself to make us feel special and loved. And we do.

Isla says it best: "I love you. I love you so much. I love you Daddy. We're family."

Happiness and inspiration:

- Continuing the declutter and photographing a heap of things to sell on eBay.

- Hearing Isy tell Toby that she loved him - heartswell!

- "Wabi-sabi is a beauty of things imperfect, impermanent and incomplete. It is the beauty of things modest and humble. It is the beauty if things unconventional." via Re-Nest

Have a beautiful weekend and remember to tell any fathers/grandfathers in your life just how much you love and appreciate them. xx

Bringing the Outside In

Spring has sprung and I'm over-the-moon, crazy excited! I'm a huge fan of the warmer weather, the longer days and the lively garden this time of year brings.

I've been spending a lot of time outside, starting on the spring-time garden jobs (list coming soon) and have been snipping some of the beautiful blooms to bring inside. Such a little thing can make the biggest difference to a space and the way you feel in it.

I've got some teeny tiny white paper daisies in the front hallway, some kangaroo paws on the dining table and azaleas next to my side of the bed, and I can't tell you how happy it makes me to wake up (multiple times a night at the moment, thanks to Tobes) and see something so simple and beautiful. It's my little piece of zen amongst the chaos.

Green Living: How to Clean Your Shower without Chemicals

Week in, week out, this annoying, thankless task needs to be done. When I was pregnant with Isla I became super-sensitive to commercial bathroom cleaners and their horrible, toxic smell so I had to find a natural alternative. It's taken me a couple of years to perfect it, but I wouldn't consider any other option these days.

You'll need:


borax
white vinegar in a spray bottle
damp cloth
microfibre cloth or old, soft rag

1. Spray your shower walls and floor (or all tiled surfaces) with undiluted white vinegar.

2. Sprinkle a couple of spoonfuls of borax over your damp cloth and use this to scrub your tiles and grout, concentrating on any dirty/soap-scummy/mildewy spots. Leave the vinegar and borax while you clean the rest of the shower.

3. Give the shower a quick spray to rinse off the vinegar and borax, being sure to concentrate on the floor to rinse out any excess. Also give the glass surfaces a quick spray with water.

4. Spray the glass surfaces with your undiluted vinegar and wipe over with a clean damp cloth, concentrating on any shampoo or soap scum around the bottom.

5. Wipe over the whole shower with your microfibre cloth to dry and remove drips and streaks.

Fun? No. Green? Most def.

And here we go...

Mondays have become the craziest day of our week round these parts, and after a full-on weekend I would love nothing more than a quiet day in. But not to worry, life is for living isn't it?

This weekend:

- I made some fantabulous vintage purchases for the house

- Sparky and I snuck away to watch a movie and eat popcorn. Almost like a real date!! (Horrible Bosses - don't believe the bad reviews, it really is very funny in a puerile kind of way, which is how we like our movies)

- I started Christmas shopping

- We had family movie night with Isy girl

- I did 3 hours of yoga

- We worked out the family budget from now till Christmas

- We made it to one birthday party of the two. (Thanks, throat infection)

- The kids woke up early both days, so Sparky and I dozed while they watched Charlie and Lola on the iPad, all four of us in our cozy bed

- We caught up with some great friends yesterday afternoon

A pretty good mix of fast and slow I think.

How was your weekend?? x

Happy-Making: Slow

I've been readjusting my view of the world lately, and I've come to a conclusion: sometimes slow is best. Soaking up experiences, savouring, creating meaningfully. Slow is good.

I'm reading all about creating a slow home here, and I dig it. It's basically what I'm all about, only more articulate.

This weekend will hopefully be a good mixture of fast and slow. Lazy mornings, birthday parties, maybe some gardening and continue the declutter.

Some things that are currently inspiring me:

5 Reasons to Declutter your Home, via Re-Nest.

This incredible vintage Airstream caravan/home/studio, also via Re-Nest

Nine Quick Tips to Identify Clutter, via zenhabits

DIY: Recycled Road Map Cork Boards, via design*sponge

These amazeballs cups made from plastic bags, via The Supercyclers