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

the first surf of the season

 My hubby and boys had their first surf, for spring, today.

Can you guess where I was?  Right there on that pink towel eating my breakfast. It is still a bit cold for me.

A lovely way to spend a Saturday morning. xxoo

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

I am choosing happiness

I am in charge of 

how I feel

and today

I'm choosing

happiness.

lavender and vegetable seedlings in early spring

As you can see I love lavender and I love taking photos of it. Lavender is so calming. It is very windy here at the moment and pollen is filling the air. I have lavender oil in our oil burners to help bring some calm. I love spring, but for me, with spring comes hayfever. The lavender oil helps me to be calm. I inhale the scent and remember to breathe, slow breaths, slow calming breaths. Thank you lavender for your healing properties.

A little kale seedling.

Some rocket seedlings.

Spring onions.

I love watching seeds pop out of the ground. I love going out each morning and during the day to check on them. I am amazed at how each little seed grows into something different. The wonders of nature. I never tire of it. It fills me with happiness.

The second wine barrel I bought. It sits beside our back door with the rocket, spring onions and spinach seedling. In front of the spinach are parsley seeds, but they haven't come up yet.

Celery seedlings ready to go in the ground. I'm waiting for this wind to go away. They are protected here on our back veranda. I wish they could stay here.

Happy spring to those of you in the southern hemisphere.

I hope my northern hemisphere friends are enjoying your last days of summer.

To all of you, hope your days are full of health and happiness. Love you all. Thanks for reading. I am so grateful to each and every one of you.  xxoo Julie

Tiny Tidy Challenge

The Tiny Tidy Challenge is beginning soon. It is free, but only this time. You can find out all the info over here at the Heartfire At Home blog. I'm joining in. I need all the help I can get when it comes to tidying our home. It is only open to 50 people, so if you wish to join in be quick. 

taproot

A few people have asked me about the magazine taproot, so I thought I'd share with you an email from Jason, the publisher of taproot,  that arrived in my inbox today:

Issue 3::RETREAT in the mail soon. Renew by August 31 and lock in Founder's Rates for another 4 or 8 issues. Is this email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser. Is it just me or is every day right now seeming just a little bit cooler, each night just a little crisper, as summer loosens her grip and we slip into autumn? I'd expect not, given that you may be reading this from a locale situated in the Southern hemisphere. In any case, just in time for this shift in the seasons, Taproot Issue 3::RETREAT will mail out soon to subscribers. (Even if you don't read any more of this letter, be sure to read below for some exciting news for you, our international readers!) If you have a moment, I'd love to take a little of your time to tell you what's inside, starting with what's not. When we first thought of "retreat" as a topic word, we were thinking of the falling away of summer and the way that we start slowly pulling ourselves into the lower-activity time of winter. As we got closer to putting the issue together, we realized that the word could easily lend itself to making this the "retreat as vacation" issue. Thankfully, our contributors are more creative than that, starting with the cover. When I spoke with the artist, Jennifer Judd-McGee, back at one of our March launch events, she referred to the issue theme as "shelter" rather than "retreat" because she had already attached that meaning to it. She described the beautiful illustration you see above. "Wonderful," I told her then. "Double plus wonderful," I tell you now that I've seen it in hand. The cover is just the start of course. Inside we have photo essays about the safety we feel in our domestic lives, the opening of ourselves to our artistic ability and the the questions posed by what is left behind in abandoned farmhouses. Writers also tackle questions about our relationship to technology (Facebook in particular), hunting and our level of engagement in activities outside the home. There's so much more to share, but I'm inclined to be coy and make you wait a bit for your copy to arrive, aside from the few additional teasers you'll find below. I truly think it's our best issue so far in our young enterprise. Now I have to get back to cannning tomatoes and freezing blueberries, but I would be remiss if I didn't do a bit of housekeeping. When we first embarked on this magazine, we had no idea how many folks from outside the United States were interested in the ideas we were discussing in the pages. Neither did we know exactly how much it would cost to get the magazine out to you. With two issues under our belt, we now have a handle on the answers to both of those questions and because of that, we have some wonderful news for you. We can lower our international rates to match those that we offer to Canadians (currently $37 for 4 issues and $71 for eight issues) and because of that we're extending your current subscription by an extra issue! For many of you, Issue 3 may be the next-to-the-last issue in your subscription. To thank you for your support we'd like to reward you by letting you lock-in the new, lower Founder's Rates for another 4 or 8 issues. Just head over to taprootmag.com to renew, but don't delay; these special rates end at midnight, Friday, August 31. Click the button below to go straight to our renewal page, if you are so moved. But back to the star of the show, Issue 3. Take a look below at what's in store. Best regards, Living in Color Taproot editor Amanda Blake Soule collaborated with photographer Thea Coughlin in a piece sharing her experience attending the Squam Art Workshops this past summer and considers how such journeys reinvigorate and revitalize even us as we inevitably return to our everyday lives.  Hunting, Spirit & Place Former vegan turned hunter Tovar Cerulli has written a book, The Mindful Carnivore, that lays out his experience in letting go of long-held beliefs and embracing a seemingly antithetical lifestyle. Publisher Jason Miller spoke with Cerulli about this and other topics in our first Taproot interview. Photo courtesy of Open Road Media. Farming My Way Home Young farmer Schirin Oeding has led a life full of impossibilities that have actually come to be. This is the reason, as she relates in her essay, that she believes that even in the face of environmental and other challenges, hope for a better future is a perfectly reasonable response. Family Mittens Noted pattern designer Carrie Bostick Hoge (designer for Quince & Co. yarns) has created a mitten pattern with a size for every member of the family. Quick to knit, you can be sure everyone has a pair before the weather turns chilly and hands want covering! forward to a friend  Copyright © 2012 Taproot Magazine, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you signed up on our website. Our mailing address is: Taproot Magazine PO Box 19 Hardwick, VT 05843 Add us to your address book  unsubscribe from this list | update subscription preferences

To view the table of contents and some pretty pictures from Issue 3, click on the link below:

http://www.taprootmag.com/pages/issue-3-retreat

I am really enjoying 'taproot'. It doesn't matter which country you live in, the magazine is still applicable. I would recommend it to anyone interested in living 'the simple life', close to nature, anyone interested in gardening, making and baking and craft.

If you decide to subscribe, let me know, I'd love to hear your comments.

Wishing you happy days, full of laughter, joy, health and happiness.

Much love,

Julie xxoo