a pleasant week

life feels like its settling into a nice pace.

Had a lovely week, did some op shopping one morning, decided I have ben working hard so on my drive to work I thought I had no urgent deadlines so I took the morning for me and visited 3 different op shops.

I picked up a great bookshelf for eldest dd's (10) room, its in need of another full overhaul, she is such a clutter queen!
I also got a small tv that was in fine workign order for $20 for her room, she has no idea i bought this though it will be gifted to her once her room is organised. Hope she isnt dissappointed that foxtel wont work on it though!

I grabbed myself a few books fomr the the op shop also and dd2 (7) a skirt and top.

I also headed of to the good guys sale during the week, they had an extra special discount evening where i picked up a dishwasher. We have wanted one for some time especially since i am working full time now, it will just free up some time to be witht he family and get other stuff done. It is a Bosch and is a 4.5 star water rating which is good.

I treated myself to a new snapshot camera, the new Lumix waterproof/shockproof camera, looking forward to that, i hate lugging my big slr everwhere so quote simply i just dont do it!

and I got a few things for the astudio, a coffee machine and a microwave, so now I can do a big cookup on weekends and not have ot buy takeaway for lunch (though must admit the cafes near the studio are incredibly good!)

speaking of cookups this week I have been ona cooking frenzy. (did I say how much I love the seperation of work and home home feels more homely hence I have been more homely!)
This week I cooked up 2 quiches, a big pot of stovies 9a scotish dih mum made as we grew up) a beef casserole, a lentil and chick pea curry, a lentil shepherds pie and roast lamb :) I now have alittle set of caontainers of frozen lunches and we've been eating well!

Also been starting to declutter yet again at home. Does anyone else seem to find no sooner have they finished decluttering the entire house that they have to go back to the start as its building up again!!) this week I cleaned the fridge out, cleaned 2 drawres in the bathroom and the sink top and did half my wadrobe (being more ruthless this time, I am notholding on to as many older clothes, have packed a suitcase to pass onto the girls as they grow up)

speaking of the girls growing up, I measured everyone on our wall again today, dd 10 yrs is now 5 foot tall! she's pretty much as tall as both mine and hubbys mums! Pity they arent around to see her.

I am a hopeless blogger

I think partly because I keep too many blogs, because I get busy and different things take different preference at different times in my life.

Anyway... I'm back, its been 4 months since my last blog post....

LOTS has happened in that time.

The biggest news is i took a shopfront for my business, so am now located at 81 Poath Rd Murrumbena, 3163 for any melbournites who ever want to pop by for a visit! I took the lease early march and spent a lot of the next few weeks renovating the place then shopping and moving in! Its still not finished but is great to finally seperate home and work. I LOVE that work is left at work and when I come home I am just 'me' not worker me. The kids like it more too I think! I'll have to get some photos and post them in here soon.

Personally lots has happened, I finally finally gave up smoking, 100% for good. Its been around 2 months now and I feel so much better for it!

I finally had my hip operation last week, it was found I had torn the ligements across the hip joint, or so i think thats what he said post op when the surgeon visited me! I see him tomorrow for a check up so will find out more then. hopefully this will mean I can start gettigng active again in a few weeks time.

Pet wise we have grown our menagerie by 2 more chooks so we are back at 7 again now. The girls are all still laying well , most giving us an egg every day. the 2 new are only 12 weeks or so old now so are living in the over sized rabbit hutch until they are bigger and can start mixing with the other girls.

We lost one of our guinea pigs a few weeks ago, poor thing, it was the one we adopted a year or so ago form the animal shelter, we knew she ws old when we got her but really no idea how old so no idea how or why she died. At first I was concerned it was neglect as with me growing the business, the hubby has been doing more round the house and taking over what was my role here as he isnt working much at all, but then found out that indeed piggy was still being fed regularly so prob just old age.

Garden wise, its in dire dire need of attention!

Houe wise, ah yep same as garden!

But life is good and I want to try post back here a bit more often.

so much more relaxed!

ahhhhh


I am sooooo pleased xmas has finally passed!

I have some time off work (ok I still have a little work but nothing like the pre xmas pressure!) and have been potteirng in the garden, spedning time wiht the kids and animals. making plans (like my list) and just feeling oh so much more relaxed!

I must get ut and get more garden photos! I did some more planting this week. Transplanted a heap of silverbeet that I planted from seed a while ago. I also planted more seed of radish, corn, and coriander a day or so ago.

I am going to fence off two more of the garden beds as the chooks are grabbing the tomatoes the moment they start to turn red at all and thats just not on :)
The rabbits have gutted one garden bed and I have added heaps of their litter waste to it so will do some planting in that soon and then start to prepare the front beds to attempt some sort of winter garden.

I havent grown a winter vegie garden before. Being in Melbourne its always a bit colder so more difficult. This year I am going to try and start a bit earlier in the hope of getting it better established!

On a side note, I have many new plans for my photography bsuiness in the coming new year. I am going to expand into pet photography (so if you are in melb and have a pet you'd like done, send me a message at pets at susandarcy.com.au as I need a few to do for free or cheap to add to the port folio! I am after a variety of pets, not just your standard dogs and cats!)

Also business wise I am really going to push the 'green' message more in the coming year through my business. So if you have a local product or service that falls in any way under the 'green' banner (I'm pretty open) then again send me an email to green at susandarcy.com.au so we can discuss some promo of your product/service!

I think I might go bask in the glorious sunshine now! its so nice to be on holidays!