my number one tip

My biggest, hugest, most enormous tip would have to be.......

to tackle your goal in 'baby steps'.

Whether it's the:

washing up

pile of laundry waiting to be put away

mess in your cupboard

weight you want to lose

healthy changes to your diet

healthy changes to your lifestyle

painting

decluttering

business you want to begin.

Just begin. 

Make one baby step towards that goal you want to reach. 

You might set your timer for 10 mins. and work on one step for this time. You might start on one shelf. You might make one small change to your diet or lifestyle.

All it takes is one baby step, followed by another and another and another. 

Work at your own pace, not the pace of the lady over the road.

I know. I've done it. It works.

Reward yourself for accomplishing these small, baby steps. Have a soak in the tub, read some of your book, go for a walk outside, have a rest, you deserve it. 

Decluttering a whole cupboard might seem overwhelming. You might feel like you haven't got time. Just do one shelf. Tomorrow, do another shelf and the next day another. In a few days your whole cupboard will be tidy. 

Remember:


"It is possible

to move a mountain

by carrying away small stones. "

Chinese Proverb

My small stones this weekend will be studying and decluttering. 

Do you have any small stones that you'll be working on?

Wishing you health and happiness. 

xxoo Julie

creating space

I've decided to call this month my 'creating space' month. 

Last week I noticed my life was starting to get a bit too busy for me. I lay awake in the early hours of Friday morning thinking. Thinking about the busyness in my life. This is a bit of a habit of mine that can sometimes creep up on me if I'm not careful.

If I'm not paying enough attention, I start to push more and more into my days. I try to jam as much as I can in, there is so much I want to do.

On Friday morning, while everyone else was still asleep, I thought through this and I came up with a plan.

The plan is to complete the most essential tasks  in my day. The washing, washing up, bed making, cleaning, meal preparation, my study.

The tasks that are not essential.....I'm just going to let them go. Or maybe I'll do them later, but only if I feel like it. I'm not going to bust myself.

The plan is to also add in some fun things to do, the things that make me happy. Spending time with family and friends, exercise, rest, playing games with the boys, going to the beach.

If I'm not careful, my life can become all work and no play. By being mindful, I can catch this early, and I can change things, so that my life is what I want it to be. 

The other area I'm creating more space in, is our home. 

When our home is clean, tidy and clutter free, I feel more free, more calm and relaxed. This is how I want our home to be. I'm working on it, in baby steps, step by step.

How about you?

Do you have a word or a goal for the month?

xxoo Julie

I am ready for change

To some of you this is going to be really obvious, and to you I apologize, but I want to share this with you in case there are people out there like me. I am putting it out there in case it helps just one person, because if it helps just one person then it is worth it.

For a number of years I have been living in a home that has been cluttered. I have been leaving the beds unmade, I have been going to bed and leaving washing up in the sink, at times the washing piles up and there are piles of clean washing waiting to be put away. Each morning I have been getting up, looking around me and feeling a touch of sadness. Until now I couldn't quite put the finger on why I was feeling this sadness, because my life is so good in so many ways.

Over the past week or so I have been putting some effort into decluttering, tidying up, changing things around a bit and cleaning. It feels good. In the mornings I have been getting up and looking at these new tidy areas and it is making me happy. Instead of getting up and feeling that bit of sadness I am noticing feelings of happiness.

Over the last couple of days I feel like something has changed. I have had one of those light bulb moments. I have finally worked out the relationship between my getting up in the morning and feeling 'yuck' and the clutter and unfinished jobs around me, compared to my getting up in the morning and feeling happy and some new clean, tidy, uncluttered areas. It now seems obvious, but it didn't before.

I have known for a long time that when I eat healthily I feel good. I have known that when I exercise I feel better. I have known that I feel better when the relationships I have in my life are healthy ones. For some reason though I did not link the state of the house to how I felt in the morning and through the day. Maybe it was there in the back of my mind somewhere, but I didn't want to hear it. Maybe I was rebelling against the people that told me that 'a tidy house means a tidy mind.' Maybe I was rebelling against my parents who always have a very neat and tidy home and yard. I don't know, but I am happy that I have now worked this out for myself. I am a bit like that, I don't like people to tell me how to do things. I need to work it out myself, in my own time.

So, what am I doing about it? I am changing things in 'baby steps'. Each day I am setting a timer and spending 10 minutes decluttering an area. I am then making an effort to ensure that area stays tidy.  I am making the beds in the morning, or getting the person that slept in the bed to make it or to help me make it.  I am making an effort each night to have all the washing up done. I haven't quite mastered this yet, but I'm working on it. Step by step I'm making my way through the house, room by room, shelf by shelf, baby steps.  It didn't get this way overnight and I'm not going to get it how I want it overnight, but each 'baby step' is making me so happy.

I am ready for change. I am ready to live in a tidy, clean, uncluttered home. I deserve it. I am worth it. I am ready to do the work.

xxoo Julie

decluttering, cleaning, rearranging

After a beautiful morning having breakfast on the beach and watching my boys surf it was time for a bit of decluttering, cleaning and rearranging. 

While doing this my mum and dad arrived with a beautiful bunch of Warratah flowers. They bought them at the markets. Thanks mum and dad. Feel free to do this anytime. I love them. xxoo

Josh, Brad and I surprised Nige with this new surf board during the week. He had been eyeing it off for a while and it was on sale. We had given him some money to buy one for his birthday in February and he hadn't done it. He was very, very happy. It sits in the main part of our home, of course. 

So does Josh's board. Brad keeps his in his bedroom.

Some surfing mags.

Some sailing mags.

A bit of prettiness and rusticness for me.

Some books on display to help keep me on track.

Our beach basket. This gets filled with beach towels, flippers, snorkel and goggles ready for the warm weather.

Country Style mags. I love them.

This is how it all fits together....the front section of our home.

 After all that cleaning up and redecorating  it was time for a little bit of relaxation. Some afternoons, when it isn't too hot, I spread this blanket out near the front door and do some yoga, some study or some journal writing, or all three if I'm lucky. This spot gets the afternoon sun and it's very cosy on a not too hot day.

This is my new journal. Sorry about the sideways photo. It had a blank area at the top so that you can could create your own cover. I glued a picture on there from my Country Style Diary and put contact on it. I can picture myself on this veranda. It is the veranda of my dream house. A timber cottage with a timber veranda and timber floorboards.

Hope you are having a happy weekend. 

Much love,

xxoo Julie

decluttering the back veranda

Our back veranda area was getting to me, it was too cluttered. It is the place I go to to have some quiet time, to eat some of my meals and to read or study. I couldn't relax there with all that clutter, so I've had a blitz there today. I didn't mind doing it because I like being outside and it was nice and cool today, but now that it's done it feels awesome. It feels so good when you have a good tidy up doesn't it?

This is the back of our home. I wanted to have a window on the left hand side to create balance but the room on the left would have been too hot. I would like to put one of those metal pictures on the wall there where there should be a window, in my opinion. I'm thinking that that might balance things out a bit.

Behind the table here, are my boxes of seedlings. They don't look wonderful here, but it is the best place for them for now.

The wine barrels, I often talk about, sitting each side of our back door.

Some herbs and flowers are in these pots. I had a lot more pots sitting in various places on the veranda but I moved some away. Some of them I didn't even like. I don't know why I kept them there for so long. The BBQ is under the black cover.

My seedlings. I love growing things from seed.

The new seedlings in the new wine barrel growing really well.

I love having these plants outside this window. I love looking at them. Our computer desk sits near this window so it's something nice to look at.

I love looking at other people's homes and what they have been doing, so I thought I'd share this with you. Hope you enjoyed it. xxoo