Yay! Laundry and Bathroom finished at last! Yah..Hoo!

My hope and my trust is that you are really very well and that you have just had a fantastic month! Yes, another month has gone and November is as good as here. Let me share our October with you…and I look forward to hearing about yours too. Don’t forget now!!!

Tree falls in front yard — Remember our poor tree that fell during the cyclonic weather?

Well, here are the final remains… at last! We had to wait for dry weather… it was a big job. Most of the main trunk and branches were collected by some friends for firewood next year.

We kept a large piece of trunk… but I’ll tell you about that another time. 🙁

Spring is here! Something we look so forward to each Springtime is the blossoming of our Apple Tree. I have always loved Apple blossoms – simply glorious! Early next year we should have more apples than we can handle.

The perfume of these roses out of our own garden is divine! Selwyn loves roses and makes it his job to tend to them.

Bathroom Renovations

Our bathroom originally had the bath running lengthwise along the room. This gave it a very long and narrow look and I always disliked it immensely. We had to buy a new bath so we had it put across the width of the room… it looks so much better no.

We got rid of the old very long vanity and cupboard and have had installed a new modern one which looks simple but smart.

Last month I showed you our work in progress… I’m so happy to be able to show you the finished product!

We wanted to create a natural look – sand, stones, water. To begin with we used Island Sand (1/4 strength) paint which is right throughout our entire house.

We added natural stones as I told you last time which we found at our local beach.

Recently we were at a shingle beach which was absolutely filled with flat stones. We grabbed a handful to sit beside our Maiden Hair Fern.

There’s nothing quite like a natural piece of driftwood. I thought how wonderful it would be for my candles. I love a bath with candles and essential oils. I only use good candles though as paraffin gives off toxic fumes.

A couple of swans was relevant… especially living where we do. There are a lot of swans in the Tamar Valley. Haha… they are black though, not silver!

Water and dolphins – beautiful and fit nicely into our theme. The water is created with glass gemstones.

Here I let my hair down! I found these beautiful stones on our local beach and I’ve used a couple of old pieces of timber that was hanging around here. I’m happy with how they came up. For some reason photos tend to make them a bit wonky but you can be assured they’re not.

Laundry Renovations

On top of all that, we’ve been working in our laundry. I wanted my laundry to be as nice as any other room in the house. The theme in this room is frogs – lovely little creatures such as they are. I know not everyone shares my enthusiasm for frogs but I think they are really special.

I remember when I was just a kid when Mum and Dad took us on a holiday along the Hawkesbury River. This particular evening we camped by the river where there was a swimming pool. My brother (Rodney) and I couldn’t wait to go swimming (see water – must swim was virtually our motto), so down to the pool we went.

Splashing around in there we soon became aware the pool was full of the most beautiful frogs I had ever seen. Rainbow colours. Wonderful. I remember I caught one and ran back up to show Mum how lovely it was.

You know, these days I would be more careful as of-course, colourful frogs can be poisonous, but it was the last thing on our minds. Now the fact that the pool had countless frogs in it would suggest the water wasn’t very clean, but according to my memory that wasn’t the case. Anyway, it sure didn’t stop us, but then, what would??

Closeup of this wonderful picture. Wish I could say I took it myself but not sure where to find these kind of frogs though I guess they’re around somewhere. Incredible how good it looks once enlarged on canvas by K-Mart .

Not to be satisfied with straight tiling, it was decided to add some crazy tiling! It was fun to do really, as if I didn’t have the correct size or shape I simply had to smash up some more to find it. Weird thing to do but actually we’re really happy with the end result.

Just some random frogs I found on the Internet with a couple of photos of our dam. The round one was taken at sunrise with the sun reflecting.

We added a pegboard so I could display a few more things. Another piece of driftwood with a Grandfather’s Beard attached to it. This plant doesn’t require soil and lives off the air with an occasional spray of water.

A group of frogs gathered around a pond… each one has written on his stomach words such as Love, Hope, Faith, Dreams, etc… they were a gift from Trent and are special to me.

We have plans for a nice red/orange cactus to go in the pot… then finally, there’s my boat…

I picked up this piece of driftwood and instantly saw a boat… but a boat that had known better days! So I created a raggedy old sail and decided it needed an old flag on top.

Recently I was given a birthday present from Graham and Margaret which was tied up with this beautiful ribbon. On it was printed “Taste and see that the Lord is good!” (Thanks guys!)

Haha, I thought a piece of it would make a good flag and be testimony to the fact that the boat did arrive safely home! That is…. home to our place!

I’m so happy to have all the work involved in these rooms behind me. On top of that there were also 2 toilets but I didn’t think you needed to see them. 🙂

A few little bits and pieces left to fully complete the job, such as painting the new door… then I can mark them off as done and move on.

Trent strikes gold… er, I mean… fish!

I wanted to finish off by showing you what Trent got up to yesterday. He went off for the day and came back sporting 5 decent sized fish!

Apparently a Rainbow Trout and a Golden Trout shown here. We ate one of them last night – yum, yum… One was twice the size of these and then a couple smaller ones.

Well done Trent!

That’s all for this month…

May the Lord continue to bless you this coming month *|FNAME|* and provide all your needs. I find it really great when people contact me back to share their good news – it makes me realise that we have not been forgotten in the land down under the “land down under”!

I guess I’m finding that the older I get, the more precious my family and friends become to me.

Selwyn sends his love also…

Warm regards,
Marilyn