aka R’acquel

Once upon a time, i used to dream of owning a 3bdr penthouse by Sydney Harbour. Oh, only just a few million to buy one but yeah - it was a fierce dream once. So fierce that i even used to fold triangles at the end of the toilet paper, just for the sake of a laugh…

Couldn’t afford one at the time, I still can’t - but that dream hasn’t stopped me from trying to make my own home *feel* like a 3bdr penthouse, or a 5 star hotel. It’s not the object, it’s the *feeling* I’ve been aiming for the last 6 years. A minimalistic form of zen - peace & tranquility, that’s what I want.

I’m estimating that this will be the second last “gutting” of my house. Life is getting very close towards gaining the prized fish fillets of ‘less is more’ now. It’s feeling fantastic.

Let me introduce you to our “Black Cupboard”, the home of hocus pocus and a lot of other oddities. This was the shape that it was in at our former house during a TIT a while ago…

I remember packing the contents of the black cupboard in Newtown 14 months ago, and dreaded re-unpacking them. As our former house had so much storage space, the contents of this cupboard spent the last 14 months on hiatus in 3 boxes that were never touched! This is why this cupboard wasn’t looking like much of a cupboard at the former house.

So - with the much smaller house here, the three boxes could not be housed in the linen closet, so i was left with the need to confront them today. I took a deep breath, made myself a cup of coffee and just went for it!

The state of things after i purged through the contents of two of the boxes. You can see the third box lurking near the window. So much stuff/shit/unuseable “ornamental” souveniers from relatives overseas. Gah! It’s no wonder i was dreading the re-opening of these boxes. Felt good to cast some of the items into the “ebay” box while others went straight into the garbage bags. Ohhhhh, that felt good alright.

My most confronting toss for the day, was all of my report cards & awards. The feeling of holding all the sporting ribbons, crushing them in my hands and then tossing them onto the pavement like a barbarian. It was a very cathartic release to discard them.

Had trouble tossing out a small handful though. Spent 4 years working my butt off for this one. Why hold onto it? Why do i need it? Maybe because it’s not poorly designed piece of paper/certificate. A heavy metallic object that’s a bit like a tallisman which reminds me of Bednobs & Broomsticks? Suitable for a cupboard filled with hocus pocus stuff like crystals & tarot cards for now perhaps.

The most funiest find was OS/2 Warp… erm, Version “3″. Hilarious that it hasn’t got a .31254 at the end of that number. These days, you need internet access in order update the latest patches to fix all the bugs from software you purchase off the shelf. Then again, it’s been many years since i last purchased software “off a shelf” too as it’s been online order or download for such a long time.

Very funny to reflect on the days that it took 20 or so floppy disks to load an operating system. I have no idea if the new computers these days still come with a floppy disk drive. Maybe they do, but it’s been many years since i’ve had to use my own A: drive.

Looking forward to getting rid of the light that doesn’t work and my late FIL’s bar heater.

Why order your DVDs alphabetically when you can do it by colour instead? *lol* It was something an old friend used to do with her books & CDs once, so it was a lot of fun to try and do it like that this time. Felt good to tackle the boxes and purge a lot of dust collectors. It still needs more decluttering work but it really must be my husband who has to review his own posessions within it, as I don’t know how relevant programming books on vrml, C & C++ are these days. Do we still really need that Internet for Dummies book with a free CD that probably doesn’t work on our computers now? *lol* Oh well, only my husband can decide on that one. For now, the cupboard is looking remarkable compared to the days in Newtown. It felt good to complete reviewing the entire contents of those 3 boxes that hadn’t been touched in 14 months.

Dining room area had more boxes to tackle, so there was more purging to get on with. There’s not enough space in my garbage bin to toss all the rubbish, so i’ll have to wait until garbage day on Wednesday. At least it’s not as bad as our first major purge in Newtown 2-3 years ago, when our garbage filled up all the rubbish bins in the entire appartment complex. 555

The state of things in the afternoon, when we get heaps of sunlight beginning to pour into the house from the western facing windows. I’m appreaciating how much warmer this house is by about 2-4°C compared to the former one. It makes a big difference.

Slowly getting very close to resembling a hotel room in small steps. Although things are a little sterile & cold right now in this space, i’m sure it’ll warm up rather nicely after i finish my painting of succulent flowers on fire. The chairs could do with some cushions so i look forward to knocking some up on the sewing machine soon.

That’s another thing i’m enjoying about this house - there’s painting hooks on the walls everywhere, even in the toilets. When you rent over here, you’re not allowed to nail hooks into the walls without gaining permission from the landlord in writing first - so it’s been great that all these hooks have been inspiring me to paint even more.

As this place is a temporary shelter for the next 6 months, i’m hoping that i can achieve my 3bdr penthouse goal before we move to the next place but placing the deadline for this goal before the year ends, regardless of where i’m living by then.

Must get on with tackling my workroom space today and get the sewing machines in a position to return back to my fashion design work, so I’d better get cracking!

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After much trepidation & stress over this house move, due to being forced to uproot ourselves with the sale of the former house - I am relieved by the amount of tension that has subsided upon settling in our new home.

Welcome to the new front yard, which features a waterfall fountain that we have no intention of using as I’m unsure of how things stand with the current water restrictions here, so for now - it’s functions as a 24/7 mosquito farm. The garden is more low maintenance than the former place we were at, so that’s a relief.

A shot of the other water fountain at the front of the house, which i can’t help but laugh at - a lion who dribbles water out of it’s mouth?! Ah well, at least it’s not a pissing cherub. *lol*

The move was a great challenge, as we had a strong male back who was unable to help us out so the burden was left entirely on the shoulders of my husband & me.

My preparation work for the Oz Whistles office. It was a huge mess of boxes but we had a pretty tough challenge ahead of us with regards to the transportation of the 24 inch geeky computer nerd rack my husband acquired a few years ago, so the room needed to be adequately cleared in order to get the ruddy thing inside. It made me laugh when i saw Debbie show hers off during a recent TIT because at least we only have one of them! *lol*

Ah…yeah - much to our relief, we managed to get the bloody thing in without dismantling the bugger. Thank goodness that the truck was equipped with a trolley as there’s no way we could’ve done it without one! *phew* My husband was impressed by how much stronger my body has become since we first got together. *blush* Let’s just blame that on motherhood for now, as my son currently weighs 24kg and we still carry him around in an “uphug” at times (…and oh! How heavy i thought he was as a newborn!). I was equally impressed by my husband’s skills in tying ropes to hoist the giant in and out of the truck, but i’m not sure if i got around to complimenting him back - so i’ll be sure to return it upon his arrival back from the St.Alban’s Folk Festival.

This house is a lot smaller than the former one, so things were looking rather cramped once we got everything in.

…but it’s certainly starting to shape up rather nicely and i’m beginning to enjoy the really pleasant vibe in this house. The new space is really intimate, warm & cosy. Pictured above is also the sofa that i designed & built together with my husband way back in 2001. When i first suggested the idea to my husband, he thought i was crazy (like, completely bonkers) …until he saw me designing the floor & elevation plans on my computer and began to see how achievable it was, which then got him hooked onto translating the design into 3D using Lightwave. We spent a lot of time sitting on heaps of sofas in furniture shops and got all the key measurements for what constituted as the most comfortable sofa in the world. Just about everyone who sits on it, often comments on how comfortable it is, so it was a dream come true to design a truly ergonomic piece …that could function as my retreat during those nights when my darling husband used to snore so loudly once upon a time.

I can also finally shit in peace now, because the location of the toilet paper no longer requires a feat of muscle straining gynmastics to reach for it. I haven’t had this kind of comfort with reaching for the toilet paper for nearly 7 years in the last two places i’ve lived in, so as you can imagine - it’s been a greatly welcomed relief & creature comfort to both the heart & “down under”. =D

View outside of the driveway. As so much of the house is west-facing, i guess this will be the first of many sunsets to start enjoying in the next few months.

Looking forward to getting the rest of the house shaped up, so that’s fair amount of things to be getting on with my TITs in the meanwhile! ;D Enjoying the new space and looking forward to the adventures ahead.

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Life’s been sending me so many signals of “Stop!” “Not Now!” & “slow right down!” with this house move. Phone calls engaged, road blocks, no car spaces in car parks, a blocked back door that wouldn’t open, the big & boisterours barking dogs sensing a stranger arriving at the new property, a car which has been parked so close to our driveway that it not only makes it difficult to drive in & reverse, but i couldn’t put the garbage bin outside our house either! Had to put it several metres away from the driveway! The 55m lens doesn’t do it justice. *lol*

Gah! I hope i can get past that on the day of the big move… which was initially planned for Saturday, but now shifted to Sunday - beause the trucking company called an hour ago to say “we can’t do it for fri/sat”. Another road block? *lol*

Upside is with the moving date changed, we can attend another person’s housewarming party on the Saturday, where kids are welcome so it’ll be a good opportunity for my son to meet other kids. =D …and we could possibly find another extra strong back for the Sudnay move too. Who knows. I can’t wait to get out of here now!

I’ve been feeling sensitive about the bad feeling vibes i’ve been getting, as though it’s a bad omen - but in another way, it’s as though there are external forces demanding that i must endure a course of internal shifting in preparation for big changes around the corner.

I began digging around in my front yard, to rescue treasured tulips bulbs, but couldn’t find many. The daffodil bulbs were saying,

“Please don’t uproot me, i want to carry out the rest of my destiny of turning into a perpetual weed here please …and besides - it’ll save you from all the hard work it’ll take to replant us guyz at the new place anywayz, so yeah - take it easy!”

A great reminder to myself that i should never expend the amount of effort & money that i did in trying to maintain this current garden and that such energy should return solely to my pot plants that i do “own”!

I guess this was the ultimate signal which told me to stop my efforts in the garden today. Check out this hibernating little bugger that i dug up in a place where i would never think that a possible funnel web could live! For those who don’t know what a funnel web is - they’re very poisonous & deadly Aussie spiders. While the venom is really poisonous, you will be ok if you can get to a hospital. It’s quite funny how a funnel web entering our house after a big storm last year made the humble huntsman spider look very cute in comparison afterwards! *lol*

I didn’t have the balls to check out it’s ass and back legs to confirm it, so while it could be a trapdoor - i was in no mood to muck around with it because we do have many funnel webs living in the backyard! It was very sleepy, so it didn’t move much when i tried to flick it away with the shovel and deciding to kill it during the process. Phew! *lol*

So for now - i’m taking things easy. Life’s telling me to slow down and enjoy the now, so that’s what i’m going to do!

Though i’d indulge the reason for why i’ve never been able to venture out into the backyard to hang out the laundry here and why I’ve had to use a clothes horse instead!

Alright - lets start walking down the stairs and dare to walk over all that ivy and the millions of pine needles that have made the dirt really soft & squishy!

Lots of funnel webs living under this area, so it was really freaky for me to walk across it without any gum boots on!

A momentary shot of some of the back yard

And here we are at the redundant washing line, slowly being burried by pine needles so you can’t lift it up. It’s quite dirty and not a good idea to leave the laundry out at night, as you don’t know what creatures will want to crawl into the clothes to make a new home for themselves! *lol*

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I thought i would be burning the midnight oil tonight, but i’m glad that i’m not. After printing 30 pieces of embroidery, i was only able to (sort of) finish one whistle bag!

The construction panned out to be much tricker than expected and the polar fleeced lining is to blame. Too hard to line satin with it due to it’s stretchy nature, although the finished bag does have a lovely soft plush feel to it. I still need to spend more time reflecting on the closing mechanism, as velcro’s just not right for this kind of finish. A press stud could work well, but yeah - i need to spend more time just thinking about taking it to a whole new different level.

The last time i helped my husband out before a festival, i didn’t sleep at all and spent hours upon hours sewing in structural panels & waterproofing the walls further. Even sewed in tie-up tags for the floors & wall. I vowed to myself that i would never spend another night like that without sleep ever again. I vowed to myself that i would never spend the excessive hours that i did preparing documents for our insurance claim when a lady ran into our car.

I feared i would be facing the same again tonight, another feat of unreasonable excessiveness - but i’m glad it’s come to an end. It’s only 2:30am atm, so I have a few spare hours to slip in some sleep of some kind.

Upside - i’ve mastered my sewing machine with embroidery and printed many custom-designed motifs, in beautiful colours that look like jewellery. I’m pleased with my design work - that on it’s own, was rewarding and i know i can turn all of that effort into something incredibly breathtaking with time.

I hope this is a lesson i am beginning to learn - that it’s not ok for my time to be sucked up by things that take too much time away from where i need to go myself. I can’t afford to not sleep. It’s far too hazzardous to my health when i do that.

The habit of pushing myself too hard, feeling too responsible for things which are beyond my own sphere. I’m glad i can put the hard efforts of the last 48 hours to rest. I’m glad i spent yesterday tending to the housekeeping. I got a phenomenal amount achieved.

Tomorrow, i will have about 5hours to work on making a chicken. I look forward to having the time to wind down and take things at a slower & more reasonable pace.

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I set myself the goal of trying to keep my kitchen tidy for 30 days way back in October last year. The experience certainly changed my habits to a fair degree, and if you want to indulge the long journey - you can follow it up over here at NM.

What happened around February was that I had the tidy kitchen routine down pat fairly well, so it was time for a new goal - to get out of bed at 5am in the morning for 30 days. That too was a really incredible experience, which shifted my body clock forward by about 2-4 hours, turning me into a morning person when i’ve naturally been such a night owl for the last 3 decades of my life.

My husband thought the getting out of bed at 5am routine was really draconian - but it pans out that being draconian seems to work well. I’ve now set myself the draconian goal of trying to keep the entire house clean for 30 days.

It is too hard to keep everything clean 100% everyday, so i have a smaller goal embeded into it to atleast have most of the house in good condition once a week, so i’m using the TIT to check in.

This morning, i woke up to this….

With so many clean mugs to choose from, it was very enjoyable to make the morning coffee whilst half asleep. The other night, i was facing this corner of the living room that was in a state of work in progress…

The laundry was packed away, another load on the run - and i also had to work on my son’s new giant snake. His occupational therapist recommended that we considered the use of heavy weights to help his body “settle” & calm down, so i have plans to stuff it with heavy filling of somekind.

I managed to achieve this the next day. Sorted through another 2 rounds of laundry and the basic construction of the snake was completed. I haven’t measured the creature yet, but i suspect that he’s longer than 3 metres atm!

This too was stressing me a fair bit for a while since my husband’s return from the Blue Mountains Folk Festival for his business Oz Whistles. It was one of the first things i tackled today during my journey of trying to get the entire house in relatively respectable shape by the end of today.

…and this is pretty much what i enjoyed tonight, by being able to eat dinner at the table again with my husband & son.

The house is in pretty good shape atm, so I’m feeling pleased with my efforts as there were no “guests” involved to motivate me. I am rather tired atm and look forward to sleeping soon tho!

I have another unconventional project that I’ve chosen to take up in my life which is pursuing my long lost love for taking up fashion design. It was one of those really strong callings that entered into my heart during my early teens - but one of those things where my parents didn’t exactly encourage as a serious career because they were affraid that i would never make any money out of it.

I haven’t exactly quit my day job in graphic design, but as i’m now predominantly working for my husband without pay - it’s not really something that gives me as much of a lift as it has for me to take up the sewing of formal garments in the last 2 weeks.

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For a snapshot of my first preliminary pieces, you can find some living in my suitcase that i had to pack for the crazy & amazing Cyber Cruise adventure that i’ve had my head stuck into lately. I have a crazy hat to design for my son’s Easter Hat Parade at his school in April, so although i probably won’t be able to finish it by tomorrow, i’ll be posting the draft for the Crazy Hat Parade anyway.

Happy tackling until next time!

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