Officially a crazy person...

Hello interweb! Its been a while. Time has seriously evaded me lately and sadly dear blog, as so often happens, you have slid on down to the bottom of a huge list of priorities. Juggling everything and trying to stay afloat has become a 24 hr a day job. Either we are really bad at managing our life or, and i fully suspect this to be the case, we love it all crazy.

Our life is fairly bursting at the seams- running the final sprint to get the house finished- so many jobs to do, so many lists! And to top it all off I decide to add another thing into the mix- with my spunky friend Elle I have set up a mini shop at our local hugely awesome vintage megastore, The Mill Markets. It's been a flurry of sorting labelling & organising but we did it! Just in time for our wee towns busiest of weekends. Insert large sigh of relief. Come visit if you are from around these parts :)

Kitchen cabinetry sneak peek...

So excited!!!! We are now at lock up and now the real fun begins! It's time for all hands on deck and a race to the finish line!! The kitchen cabinetry is done and looking pretty fab I've gotta say. Oh how I cannot wait to cook in there! I wonder what will be my first meal? What do you think? What would yours be?

Yay for today!

There is lots happening at the strawhouse, this makes me very happy. Very happy indeed. Today is the fist day that I can really see an end in sight. The windows arrived and the boys started fitting them today. Having a window in totally changes the feel of the place- without it it felt far from finished, with it, it feels Kinda complete. Amazing! The plumbers came to start fixing the cladding (where the smurf blue lining is) and I'm not feeling completely sure about our choice now that I'm seeing it in the flesh. Is it too dark? Is the proportion of render to cladding weird? Is it sitting to close to the window tops? Grr- it's so hard to conceptualise all these things and think of every aspect. But hey it's still progress! I'm feeling really excited about the next few months and the lovely visual and creative treats in store. This is the part of the build that I've been waiting for!

Also I had a whole day sans small people to attack some weeds, feed the natives and start mulching the windbreak with the mass of leftover straw. I worked in the garden for a full day! So good.

But possibly best of all, it's raining! Actually raining! First time in months. Hopefully it continues and fills up everyone's tanks and gives the whole town a much needed drink! I hope your day was a good one too ;)

Holly Cottage

If I could remove the stress and time pressures of our build, life at Holly Cottage would be sweet indeed. In fact even with those pressures life here so far has been a blessing. The forest, the birds, the butterflies, the textures and smells, the trees dripping with fruit, the visitors, the sweet little house with so much personality, the flowers and the bathtub that feels like its in the middle of the woods- I just adore it here. It's so peaceful, so picturesque, so harmonious. Such a completely perfect place to spend the summer. Even the things I anticipated being problematic (no mod-cons, no internet, dribbling shower, lack of space) paled in comparison to the surroundings thank you for having us Holly Cottage, when the time comes I will almost sad to leave.

Mud.

The strawhouse is coming along in leaps and bounds now that we've finally moved on from Christmas- ugh let me tell you that holiday is no good for house building! I think it's set us back about a month, but it's all systems go now to try and get to lock up. The first coats of render are on and there's a lot of mud being slung about as corners and edges are sculpted. It's so beautiful to see the details coming to life!
The windows have been another set back and as anyone who watches grand designs will tell you, it's always the windows! Hopefully they will arrive on Friday- only four weeks late.
Water is proving to be our other issue right now. It's not rained for weeks and trying to keep my trees alive (and leave enough water to make mud) has become a daily battle. Has the drought returned after just a brief reprieve? I hope not.
C 'mon rain, we need you!

Hello December

As of this weekend we will no longer have the Internet. Or a dishwasher. Or a washing machine. Real first world problems! The he he. We are moving into a 150 year old miners cottage, with a rambling Beatrix Potteresque garden that meanders down to the forest. I feel like we're going on one of those reality tv shows where they go back to the 1800's and have to live like the pioneers would have.

I'm hoping it will be fun and interesting. The cottage is tiny, and Im hoping living in such close quarters will be bonding and special. We are only taking a box of stuff and a suitcase each and I'm hoping the lack of 'stuff' will make up for the lack of mod cons. I hope my chickens survive the move as their new enclosure is rather rustic and probably not entirely fox proof. I hope the kids don't find the move too unsettling and they embrace pioneer living with joy. I guess I'd better be sure to model exactly that!

And meanwhile the straw house keeps moving along. Heres a few recent pics and one of the half built fort / sandpit/ pirate ship. The bales are in and trimmed and straight and pinned in place. The finishing touches being applied ready for a couple of coats of render before Christmas. Next is the tricky nitty gritty of the detailing- the kitchen design, tiles, taps, doors, lights- decisions decisions! Night after night nutting out designs. Oh I really am very tired.

But a few more months and we should be living in our new home and it will all have been worth it! I imagine the contrast from old miners cottage to brand new strawbale should be quite astounding!

Wish us luck friends! I hope December is treating you well so far ;) do you have big plans for the final month of 2012?

40 feet of heaven.

For so long I've been crafting on the go. You know, 5 minutes here, 10 minutes there. On the lounge room floor, quick toddler is awake pack it all up. On the kitchen table, oh it's time for dinner, better move everything. I spend more time packing up and moving stuff than I do actual crafting! I'm sure there are many out there who share my pain!

Enter the shipping container studio!

We are not even in the straw house yet I know, but I have big plans to convert two shipping containers into a studio / guest quarters. Container #1 (my studio) has arrived! Oh and I love it already. It feels like my place already- I just want to hug it tight and whisper lovely things to it. My precious.

So if you like yourself a shipping container conversion, stay tuned! The journey has just begun ;)

I sew.

This is a portrait of me, drawn by one of my big boy's besties. She's 8. That's me doing some sewing. How awesome is that? Me doing what I love. Man, the children I have the pleasure of knowing constantly surprise and amaze me.  Thank you Maya for the beautiful drawing :)

The straw house progress....

 Last weekend had a working be down at the straw house. The aim was to do as much as we could of the stacking of the bales for the external walls. We had 450 bales delivered to unload and stack. Lucky we had a few big strong men to help! Also fortunate was the fact that we had a roof, which was put on just two days before!

That's our living room full of bales. The truck that delivered the bales. The bottom plates full of scoria, and some of the aforementioned big strong men doing their thing.

There was measuring, squashing, tying, cutting and stacking of bales. That's me and the big boy taking care of the very important and highly skilled task of sweeping up the stray straw so that it didn't catch on fire.

There was a LOT of chainsawing. (very loud).

A tribe of children.

and of course a bbq at the end of it all to celebrate!

 And this is how the walls looked when we finished!

Boy were we exhausted at the end of  two full days of action. I think I actually passed out at about 7.30 on the Sunday night and told the big boy he'd have to put himself to bed! In fact I think I'm still recovering. Once again I am humbled and oh so grateful for our friends who came to help and this amazing community in which we live. I'm so very looking forward to spending the rest of my life here... :) 

PS- I love you already straw house.