Going 40 days off Facebook

My little sister has started on her journey of being FB-less for the next 40 days. I decided that I should be doing the same as I'm an incessant user and my Mum and Popo are arriving tonight for two weeks. It's a good time to wean!

Plus, I have highly neglected this blog as it's always been easier to upload photos onto facebook and I hardly get time to sit down and write more than a caption nowadays. Also, I enjoy reading about Val's thoughts so much that it brings back the days when I actually WROTE in this blog.

I'm staring at an entire day of cleaning today and I've managed to put it off by skyping with my sister and her kids and now blogging. There's not too much to clean but more to organize and I can't wait till tonight when we go pick them up at the airport!!

Last weekend was Labor day weekend, a perfect three day weekend in which you could relax one day, get projects on the way another and socialize for the last day! I'm a huge advocate for a permanent three day weekend. It's so good for the soul.

So here are the happenings around our house recently:

The plants are loving the not so crazy hot weather of Jan past! They are soaking up the mild sunshine and warm temperatures. No more scorching heat for these plants. The roses has responded to this change in climate in the most beautiful way.

I've finished the roman blinds for the craft room. With each blind, I'm getting the hang of it and the results are better than the ones before. I've got one more room to do before I re-tackle the living room, office and the first guest bedroom. For now, they will solely be functional.

This ended up being Aaron's entire summer project. He put in wooden retaining walls along the boundary and then boxed in nice strip drains and did a simple pave for the area outside the garage door. He spent countless weekends and evenings getting that paver to fit just so around the down pipe. He is a man of patience and even though it drives me up the walls sometimes, I adore his will to make things perfect.

The ladies will be helping with the start of the front yard landscaping. I thought a less intimidating task would be to first tackle this odd side garden we have in the front, as a result of the driveway. It is on a slope and last weekend Aaron and I went around the estate and collected a few interesting rocks for our front yard. The lots here are not as rocky as others but when they dig on site, they leave all the rocks in one pile so that they can pay someone to take them away later.  I have succulents growing in the backyard which will look lovely in the crevices of these rocks.

The guest room is 80% done, minus a bedside table on one side. The roman blinds are in and I even finish the Ikea hack low buffet this weekend.

I bought these legs from Bunnings and they so happened to be only 15 cents as the tapping screws were in too deep. We replaced the screws and mounted them onto the bottom of an Expedia shelf. I also gave the legs a few coats of stain.

The whole reason I did this was for Aaron's carnivorous plants. It is hard to find a place in the house where it is not crazy direct sunlight and a place where they could all sit together. The tray is a bit long and deep for our window sills, so a longer buffet near a window was a much better option. In the winter time, the guests room gets a very generous soft sun light.

New fern in the living room, fingers crossed!

The orchids loving the morning sun we get in our bedroom.