I am a super woman. NOT!

This morning Mr K invited 2 of our senior staff members over to our house for a meeting.  At 9am.(this is EARLY in our house, I used to be a morning person but then winter and Kindle happened at the same time).   It is to become a regular event, so he can have their undivided attention without the distractions of other staff and modelling agencies near coffee shops (its ok, we had the distraction of dogs and Mr K's army helmet collection to fill the awkward pauses)

 I don't know why, but I had in my head that I would present to the meeting, a just-out-of-the-oven cake and a pot of tea for three (maybe I was still in high-tea fantasy after I found out yesterday that I have a STUNNING silver tea set coming to me!).  The vision was accompanied with the house warm and friendly - it was warm as the heater was on, but not sure that a dirty floor and cobwebs in the windows equates to 'friendly' - then again it was very 'farmhouse' so I guess that's friendly?

I, and my house, would be the vision of Mrs Bucket, except with groovier dress sense.  Not sure why I was wanting this scene for 3 men, on a mission, who could not care less about periwinkle tea cups? Am I really becoming such a recluse with working from home that I would play tea parties with work colleagues?  I had a recipe for a tea cake all ready to assemble (see below) and I had timed the cake making, tidy-up and shower to be finished by 8.50am.

Except ... one chap, lets call him Mr Eager arrived early .. and I mean like 8am early!  I was still in PJ's, as was Mr K (well Mr K does not do PJ's .. he was in daggy grey long johns with obscene flap near the groin area).  The cake making was in full swing, so the kitchen was a mess, as was I.  Mr K dives off and says he will just pop in the shower, arriving back just in time for the next guy to arrive ... Mr Not So Eager But Still Early.  I am, by this time, sweaty (I always sweat when I am stressed), desperate for a shower, but making pots of tea for staff and despondently watching my fantasy morning slip away. I was feeling much more Elizabeth than Hyacinth!

The cake was a hit however!  I even got asked for a copy of the recipe like a real tea party!  Hope you enjoyed it lads :-)

It is in this months (July 2012) Delicious ABC Magazine.  Except I have adapted it to my taste.

Apple, Pecan & NO Ginger Loaf

Set oven to 180c
Grease and line 1.5l loaf pan with baking paper

Put ..
150g unsalted butter
150g brown sugar
150g golden syrup
into a small saucepan and heat gently until combined.  Remove from the heat and add
200ml milk
set aside to cool
In a bowl, sift ..
1 2/3 cups plain flour
1 tsp ground Cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
Make a well in the centre and add cooled milk/butter/sugar mixture.
Stir with a wooden spoon until combined,
then fold in
2 eggs (beaten)
75g chopped pecans
3 green apples, chopped into 1cm pieces
Pour mixture into lined pan, dust over
Cinnamon and caster sugar
then pop in oven for 50 mins or until a skewer comes out clean.  Cool for 5 mins in tin, then turn out onto a wire rack.

Serve it warm in thick slices, on its own is lovely, but with mascarpone its divine.

The original recipe has 3 pieces of crystallised ginger, chopped, added with the apples but I left this out and added another apple.  Turns out fine.

Learning about Silver

This is one of the 2 silver napkin rings my Mother-in-Law gave Mr K and I for our 25th wedding anniversary.

The maker mark is C.W  Charles Wilkes, of Mott Street, Birmingham

The Anchor is the City Mark - this was made in Birmingham (confirmed also by the maker)

The Lion is the Standard Mark, proving it is silver - in this case its Sterling .925 purity

The letter in the Cartouche means it was made in 1910, so they are 102 years old!

The rest of my 'silver' is in fact EPNS or ElectroPlated Nickel Silver.  Doing some more research on these, which led me to Ebay and a few new purchases today!  I bought 4 separate pieces of serving utensils for $100.  Not sure if this price is good or not, but its all a learning curve.

The Little Book of Anxiety

Check out "The Little Book Of Anxiety"

 I finished this book by Kerri Sackville tonight.  I read the entire book on my new phone .. yes phone!  It is the new Samsung Galaxy something another .. Its white and sleek and I am totally in love with it.  But I am not writing about phones right now, that can be another post.  Now I am going to write about the great little book of anxiety.


I was a bit anxious reading this, (yes bad pun intended) as I have read so many books in the feeble search for answers as to why I have this permanent feeling of dread and anxiety.  It never leaves me, just waxes and wanes in its intensity.  I have done therapy, yoga, meditation (don't ever try meditation if you have an excessive anxious brain .. its torture), bought and read countless books, ran (and in the process wrecked my knee), walked and walked and walked.  But nothing has ever worked and I did not have any expectations that this would work either.


I tried the sample chapter and this talented and frank and open writer had me laughing and joining in with her anxiety that I almost forgot my own.  It was so GOOD (and if you ever read this Kerri, I don't mean to ever rejoice in your pain, for I know all too well how painful profound anxiety is) to read about someone who felt the way I did and did not lecture about thinking positive and telling me to stop being silly or that there is no need to worry, or Mr K's favorite "a coward dies a thousand deaths, a hero just one"  I know he is trying to help me, as are others, but what their well meaning help doesn't understand, is that with this level of anxiety, you have NO control over it.  No amount of positive thinking, or trying not to worry has the slightest impact.

Its like you have been injected with a needle full of warm dread.  I can literally feel it seeping through my body, I presume its adrenalin, but I have never found a doctor or psychologist to say that.  They give me Xanax and tell me not to worry.  Once its in my body, I get a stomach ache, back ache, feel breathless and lightheaded.  If its very bad I get my 'out of body' sensation where I feel like I am watching myself from above.  Normal, everyday anxiety has me sweating, my neck and shoulders so tense they are rock hard, queasiness, that paradoxically makes me want to eat.  Sometimes, if its triggered by an event at work or in the car when Mr K is driving, it feels like I have been hit all over with a lump of 4by2.  It can take hours, or days to subside.

Here is the anomaly that defies logic.  When I am faced with stress's and anxieties of 'normal' people I cope just fine, don't get anxious at all and breeze through it.  Moving house is a joy to me.  I love it.  When I had a hysterectomy, I never once was anxious about the operation, the pain, the hospital stay.  The thing I was stressed about was coming home to a dirty house and not being able to relax!  Go figure.  Giving a dinner party or catering for a crowd is fine, I love it.  Standing up to give a talk doesn't worry me.

I wonder if I could do what Manny from Black Books did and swallow the Little Book of Calm as an antidote!

Watch Manny and The Little Book of Calm

Here is Kerri's blog.  It's a great read, as are her two books.

lifeandothercrises.blogspot.com.au
I

My new horse!

Found this handsome lad and just had to bring him home with me.

He has been stabled in the hallway for the moment, but he will move to my office when it has been renovated.

What a mess for him to live in!

Happy 49 Years Mum and Dad!

When a girl meets a ...

Boy ... and he asks her to get ...

.. Married, they become the start of a...

....family and

... a family becomes ...



... generations of love!

Happy 49th Anniversary Mum & Dad!

Planning

Now the exciting bit (well for me anyway, any readers are probably bored silly by now) - the planning of project 'house renovations'.

8 Stages

1. Planning
2. Preparing
3. Storeroom
4. Guest Lounge Room
5. Guest Bedroom
6. My Office
7. Mr K Office
8. Shed

Scope of works

Renovate and change use of rooms that are now not being used (or being used as junk dumping grounds).  Decorate the rooms so that they work well for the purpose we want them for.  Make better use of space.  Improve the value of the house and start preparing for the day when we will sell it.  Give me a reason to go in and look around and smile and feel good inside. (Like I keep doing in my walk in robe :-*)

Rooms to renovate -

Cams Room - to become the Guest Bedroom - this has the nicest outlook, well it will have when I have redone the gardens

Ash's Room - to become my storeroom (and maybe also a craft room if it doesn't work in my office)

Activity Room (shared by boys) - to become Guest Sitting Room

Guest Room - to become my office, and craft room (maybe)

Old Office/Library  - to become the office again, as well as Mr K's gentleman's retreat.  Also to display his Military collection.

Passion behind the plans

At the moment we are living in just a few rooms of this sprawling house.  It is kind of nice to live so compactly, gives us a great feeling of what it will be like when we move out to the (much smaller) house at Wattle Grove.  But it seems a shame that we are crammed in this space when we could spread out and be much more organised.  I am SO over clutter, and if we cant move (which is normally how I deal with clutter - move house and have a huge sort out) then we will have to have the sort out on its own.  It makes sense to use each empty room for one purpose - this will make it work better, look better and when we have to put the house on the market - it will display better.

The main concept of each room will be:

Guest Wing
I want to have a really relaxing and welcoming guest wing.  A retreat where guests can have their own private space and feel like they are on holidays.  I love to play hostess so I want to make these rooms look stunning, comfortable, fresh and clean.  Much like a hotel room, but much more personal. The bedroom has a built in robe, so this will save buying one.

Guest Bedroom

• Bed - queen sized - already have
• Bedside tables - have but old/need revamping
• Chest of drawers - maybe use the WIR if space is limited
• Storage - a low set of shelves that shoes/bags etc can go in and an open suitcase on top
• Chair in the bedroom for dressing - may not have space.

Guest Sitting Room

• 2 comfortable armchairs - to buy
• Footstools - to buy
• Small dining table and 2 chairs.  Can also be used as a writing table.  Maybe have?
• TV and DVD player - already have
• Bookcase - already have

Storage Room

Very indulgent but I would like a room which has wall to wall  and ceiling to floor shelves - or even better the Expedit shelving with cubby holes.  In this room will be all the items that need to be stored.  Craft things, Christmas decorations, games, picnic items ... anything that I want to keep, is seasonal, is too good to go into the shed.  There will be rules however for storing things in here.  (that's a whole other post!) I may also put in a workbench if there is room as use this as a craft room, or wrapping room.  My aim is to make this room very functional yet beautiful.  If it looks nice and is easy to store things and retrieve them, then it will stay that way.

My Office

This room needs to inspire me to go into everyday and work 8+ hours.  It needs to make me feel professional, business like, inspired to help develop the business further.  I need a large desk, benches for printers/scanners, lots and lots of storage.  I would like to look outside and for it to feel bright and airy.  We have existing office furniture, but I am not sure I like it as its a beech timber and I had in mind white furniture.  Might have to look into what I can adapt what we have to save some money.  Will look at painting the room white, or antique white, using the beech furniture and accessorising with lots of turquoise.  I want it to look very sleek and uncluttered.

Library/Gentleman's Room

The old office where we first ran the business has sat as it was left when we moved the business into the city.  Its a lovely big room, with windows at either end, but has limitations with 3 doors, furniture will have to be carefully positioned.  As this is to be Mr K's room, (and therefore left to his own devices would just be a giant mess and junk room) I am taking a bit of control and would like it to have an old fashioned, library or man of the house study.  So lots of leather seats, a nice solid timber desk, wooden display cabinets with glass doors for his ever growing military collection, and the long wall completely lined with bookcases, also with glass doors. 

Now that I am inspired, onto listing each task.  Amazing how now that I have got all inspired, I feel energised to tackle this, excited to start and the project doesn't feel at all daunting. 

House Project - Planning and Preparing

OK.  So the road is all clear for Mr K and I finally get our own house renovated and organised.  This weekend we will start Stage 2 - Preparing.  We have the whole weekend, both feel well and ready to jump in.  I am even a bit excited that we really will be starting!   

Going to turn this ....

See the other post - Planning.

So what needs to be done this weekend? 

1. Take every item stacked on the veranda and carport and sort them on the driveway
2. Sort like with like - camping gear, tools, other peoples stuff, junk to throw out, things to store
3. Clean items that need to be put away
4. Call other people to come collect their stuff or it will go in the bin!
5. Get tip passes from the Ranger
6. Throw out the junk (this will involve a trip to the rubbish trip - doggies will love that!)
7. Put away items in the shed in their designated areas.
8. Tidy/clean shed as we go
9. Mow lawn ready for camper
10. Move trailer camper onto lawn and cover
11. Sweep all the cobwebs off the ceiling/walls
12. Blowervac the area
13. Put back veranda furniture
14. Set up trestle tables and boxes ready to sort rooms that will be painted
15. Go to carpet stores and choose and order new carpets
16. Go to lighting stores and choose and order new lights

So this is stage 2 of 8 stages.

... into this!!

The stages are:

1. Planning
2. Preparing
3. Storeroom
4. Guest bedroom
5. Guest Lounge
6. My Office
7. Mr K's Office/Library/Gentlemans room
8. Shed

By this time it should be Spring and we can begin to revamp the gardens and outdoor area.

How to plan a project

I love the planning stage of any project, should have been a project manager. I used to use Microsoft Project for these jobs, but now I use tables in Word, it makes it run so much smoother. More importantly, being organised and having a plan stops all the stress and apathy, gives me energy as I feel on top of it all and drives me forward. Maybe I am also a frustrated school teacher as I also love writing out lists on whiteboards!  Or maybe, I am just your average, garden variety procrastinator!  You think!?

This is my thought process for the project.  At first it all seems so daunting. How will I get from this mess

to this?

Break it down!  No not MC hammer style, but pull apart the project into jobs/tasks.  Still sound daunting?  This is how I do it.  I go and stand/sit in the area and just look.  I then start writing each item that needs to be done.  I don't try and organise them in any order, just a random list of every task to be done.  Like a brain storming session.  As I come up with tasks, it becomes evident that before a certain task can be done there are others that will come before it.  Here is an example:


The project is to have my sons old room turned into a storage room.  Here is the start of my random list as it all popped into my head.  Note that I started with the fun bits :-)

• Buy shelves to go around the outside of the walls (this led me to the next few tasks)
• Set a budget for the project
• Collect pictures and inspiration to make a mood board
• Measure room - making note of window, door and wardrobe (but before I could even get in there to measure I had to ...)
• Move out every item in the room.  (what will I do with this stuff?)
• Get boxes and garbage bags ready for the clearing
• Sugar soap walls
• Fill holes in walls and sand
• Brush off cobwebs and dust off walls
• Paint ceiling
• Paint walls
• Pull up carpet
• Select and order new carpet
• Organise items to be stored in boxes/crates and label
• Put all shelves together and set up
• ... and on and on

I then sort the tasks into an order that makes sense, numbering them - so we are painting before the new carpet goes in, the room is measured before I buy the shelves (which I kind of haven't done, I bought them ages ago in a fit of passion!) - you get the gist of where this is heading.

Then I create a table in Word with 4 columns and allocate each task to one line

Description of task	Who will do it	When will we do it	DONE
Pull up carpet	Mr K & I	Saturday	R

Print it out and stick it near where we are working.  Feels good to be able to tick off tasks, and sometimes I can get tasks done before the schedule if I am aware it needs doing.  Like the next time I am at the shops I gather boxes and buy garbage bags.  Or on an outing we call into a carpet store.  Sounds simple, but this is how it works for me.

Next post will be the actual planning I did for the 7 stages.

When working from home goes bad

LOVE my new working routine. 

Except, our Internet connection is dying a slow death, it's as slow as a wet week (with kids, who are on school holidays, who have watched every DVD we own, who are more than bored ... you get the picture - it's SLOW!)

Email is sporadic, getting onto terminal server is hit and miss, more miss than hit, websites crash, or are so slow its like watching paint dry.  Everything takes so much time to do, that I have taken to doing (eek) housework while I wait for something to download.

So far we have had 4 different technicians out here to scratch their chin and um and arr and go away without having a clue.

Mr K has done a good job of growling at the ISP, who blame Telstra, who in turn blame the ISP.  I believe we have the 'A' team out here this Friday - so hopefully it will get fixed.

Meanwhile, I am getting lots of 'house' work done!

How I got started

It's been one of those jobs I have been wanting to to, and meaning to do, but each time I looked in there it seemed such a daunting task.  Where do I start?  There were shoes that needed mending or throwing out, or just plain old putting away in the plastic shoe boxes.  Clothes that I had pulled out to put into charity bags, but didnt have any garbage bags, that were in a pile in the corner.  Clothes from another era (when I was a runner!) were spilling out of a hanging draw.  It was very depressing and therefore I rarely went in there, instead my clean clothes were piled on my dressing table and chair and I dressed from there.  What!?  Was I still 16?

Of course I did what every procrastinator did - I found 101 reasons why I couldnt tackle the mess.

1. I need garbage bags to put the old clothes in
2. I need to make the bed before I can put all the clothes out to sort
3. I need to buy new wooden coat hangers
4. I dont have time to finish the whole job
5. I am not in the mood/tired/busy
6. I need a new set of drawers
7. Its too dusty in there
8. Its hot
9. Its cold
10. I need to check Pinterest for some inspiration

....  well thats 10 but you get the picture~


Sunday, I had a day with no plans, I had had a good rest Saturday, and something inside me said 'just get started on your wardrobe' (was it you Mum?  Did you channel that to me?) So I did.  I just plunged in there and stared pulling out every item and stacking it in piles on the bed and floor and hallway.  I grabbed the garbage bags (that I had finally got around to buying) and started throwing all the clothes that I currently did not wear.  I had this mantra in my head ... "have you worn this in the last 3 months?"  If the answer was no, I shoved it in the bag.  I also kept telling myself a few more stories to keep me going -

• Even if I do lose weight, I can treat myself to some new jeans/running tops
• Did I really love wearing this top/dress?  If I didnt then it went
• If these pants made me look like grandma, then they went

I was ruthless and to prove it, there are 9 full garbage bags sitting in the hallway ready to take to Good Sammies!  So now I had an empty wardrobe that I cleaned and vacuumed.  This is what it looked like after 4 hours .. yes it only took me four hours to get done.  I cant beleive that I put it off so long.  I keep going to look at it and admire my neat, tidy, organised wardrobe.  Every item hanging in there I like wearing, it fits me, it is clean and neat! 

Very smug I am :-) right now!!

Lessons learnt today

1. A clean wardrobe makes you feel good (and a little smug)
2. It never takes as long as you think it will
3. Just plunge in and ignore your procrastinating self
4. There are very few charity bins around anymore, in fact we found none, and so we have a hallway full of black bags.
5. Just DO IT!