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Peaches & Maple

Peaches & Maple: March 2013

Tuesday 26 March 2013

Everyday sunshine

Hiya! I'm doing a bit of poolside blogging this afternoon, feeling so relaxed I'm just about perfectly moulded to my deck chair.
There has been a bit of activity though, as of course with two kidlets involved, sinking into a holiday coma is pretty much impossible. For those of you who don't follow my life's adventures on Instagram, we're staying at the sunny Gold Coast and it has been it's fabulously flashy, golden self so far. 


We've been spending our days walking the beach, playing in the pool, exploring and of course, eating too much. Despite all that though, I think the thing that gives me the biggest kick is leaving the bed unmade in the mornings, not having to be anywhere at any particular time and not having to do a thousand loads of washing - I'm trying not to think about how many I'll have to do when I get home before packing up again to go to my parents for Easter!!
So what gives you a little buzz when you're on holiday?
Cas x














Tuesday 19 March 2013

Update on my glamorous existence

This week I have basically been buried under a pile of books, doing assignments for uni. I am just now allowing myself to get a tiny bit excited about the holiday we're leaving for on Friday. Oh and I hung some hooks on my wall.
Exciting no? ;)
Hope you're having a great week!
Cas x

Friday 15 March 2013

The dining room

Our dining room is really teensy, more of a nook than a room if we're being perfectly honest. It sits in between the kitchen and the hallway and it's the room you see first as you walk in the front door. Strangely enough this is the room that has received the most furniture removal so far in my mission to declutter and simplify. I had something on every wall in here and you could barely walk through! Enough was enough, it had to be pared back to the essentials - table, chairs, crockery cabinet and ladder : P
I remember thinking how bare it looked when we first saw the house, when it looked like this....
....but I think the previous owners may have been on to something by not cramming too much furniture into the space. 
Making mistakes is all part of the learning experience though, luckily for me because I tend to make a lot ;))
Feel free to let me know what you think :)

Cas x

Today I'm partying with 
Natasha and 
Tania
Come join the fun!

Wednesday 13 March 2013

Does my lounge room look bare in this?

These last couple of weeks I have been downsizing the amount of furniture I have accumulated over the years. I swear, it's been breeding because I don't even remember why or when I bought some of this stuff! Do you think I might have a little problem?
Not only has the furniture been getting the old heave-ho but stacks and stacks of nicknacks, bits and bobs and thingiemijigs that I have collected are going as well. I am being a very good mum to the new school and donating them all to the school fete. Let me tell you, they have hit the mother load there and they may well beg me to stop bringing all this crap in before too long ;)
So here's the lounge room looking all neat and tidy and decluttered (not that you guys would notice the difference because I only ever let you see the neat and tidy version anyway!) 
The old squatters chair that used to sit in the bay window has been banished too. It looks a wee bit bare now, but we have some window seat plans underway, so it won't be bare for long.
And that's basically it from me today. Have you done any decluttering lately?

Cas x

Tuesday 12 March 2013

Here comes the sun

 This past week I haven't really been myself. I've been kind of tired, irritable and a bit sad. Not for any particular reason - there is absolutely nothing tangibly wrong in my life. It just so happens that I get that way sometimes and I've just got to ride the wave. 
And this morning when I woke up I was relieved to find that the wave had finally brought me to shore and I wasn't tired, irritable or sad. I was just calm and content and me. 
I think maybe the crappy weather we've been having had a little bit to do with my mood. I could never live somewhere where the sun doesn't shine so brightly as it does here, where the sky isn't as clear and unbelievably blue. 
Taking full advantage of the sun's very welcome return, coffee and camera in hand, I took myself outside and snapped a few shots of my garden....
 The tropical potted garden out the front is going very nicely so far, I'm thinking a few hanging pots will liven things up out there a bit more. 


 And the silver lining to all these clouds we've had is that my cottage garden out the back seems to have sprung to life again.



And it makes me happy that I can zip outside and bring in a pile of big fluffy roses to pop around the house.
How's the weather in your neck of the woods?

Cas x

Wednesday 6 March 2013

A hot cross week

I think I'm just having one of those weeks.
You know the ones. 
On Monday I got through the weekly grocery shopping in record time, only to find my card had expired and had to make a half hour round trip to my nearest bank branch to pay in cash. 
Tuesday gave us the first blue sky we've had in over a week and as I walked out the door to pick up the kids I vaguely thought about taking the umbrella with me, decided not to and got utterly drenched at the school gate. 
Yesterday I swear it took my three times as long as it should have to get through two chapters in my psych textbook, because it felt as though my head was stuffed with rocks. After a monumental effort, I worked through all the exercises, only to realise that I'd been working on the wrong module. 
And today it was hot cross buns.
After deciding that the world can just bite my jiggly white ass, I allowed myself a mental health day. And hot cross buns. With miles too much butter.
I dropped the kids off, went to the bakery and grabbed six fat hot cross buns, came home and put on the kettle. I sliced a bun in half and popped it on a tray, chucked it in the oven and tried to light the grill with the clicker. No dice. So I rummaged through the bottom drawer looking for matches and, surprised at my luck, found some extra long bbq ones and tried again. Success! But as soon as I let go of the oven knob, the flame died. So I tried again. And again. And again. 
I guess these things really boil down to how much you want that hot cross bun. And I wanted it. Real. Bad. 
So I tried again. And again. And then I realised in a conflicted moment of  incandescent joy and deep irritation that you have to light both sides of the element! Aha!
So I finally got my hot cross bun and as I typed the first few sentences of this post I was happily absorbing its buttery goodness, giggling at what a complete doofus I am. I was feeling pretty good. 
Until I looked out the window and spotted my dog digging up our newly planted hedge.
Crap.

Do you think it would be okay if I just wrote this week off as a bad job and went back to bed until the weekend? ; P

What do you do when you having a bad day/week?

Cas x