Room Makovers: Room 1 Day 5

Today i picked up a paintbrush!!! While one of us painted all of the 'trim' around the window sills and wardrobe the other painted the ceiling. Still doesn't look too much different but hopefully tomorrow we'll start on the actual wall colour, which we picked today, it's called 'Peppermill'. We are very excited to do a primer coat int he morning and then hopefully apply the first coat of paint. Now it feels like something is happening.

Room Makeovers: Room 1 Day 3

Am writing about day 3 only it is day 4 right now. I didn't really want to blog about day three as it was very much a hump day... slow going, didn't look like we had done much at all even though our necks, backs and hands were telling a very different story. We got all of the sanding done, patched up some holes/gouges (ha ha) and resanded. I was so excited to pick a paint brush but it wasn't to be. We finished early had and early dinner and planned to have an early night, however my little Finny boy had a different idea. Let's just say little guy cutting his canine teeth is very far from restful, poor little guy.

Items we came very used to using today

Wall of shame ha ha

Patching up

Room Makeovers: Room 1 Day 2

Day 1:
The goal for today was to remove all of the wall paper from the walls, the main bedroom is the only room in the house that had been wallpapered. The entire room had been done from the walls to the wardrobe doors! what the heck were they thinking! Turns out the job was harder than expected but once we got into the groove we got it done.



Above: Attempt #1 at wallpaper removal included placing tape in random areas all over the wall and leaving it over night and then tearing it off the next day to remove enough paint and reveal enough of the wallpaper so that we could use the solution to soak it off without the paint preventing it from seeping through..... Wallpaper 1: Us 0

Above:  Attempt #2 involved using a scoring tool and running it over all of the wall in the effort to create enough little abrasions to allow the wallpaper removal solution to seep through..... Wallpaper 2: Us 0

 Above: Attempt #3 We got the paint scrapers out and scraped the paint off the top off the wallpaper. took a little bit of time and effort but finally we made some progress! Wallpaper 2: Us 1

Owen Helping

 Finally the paint had been scraped off and the solution had been applied to the wallpaper and it started coming off!!! Such a good moment! Wallpaper 2: Us 2

The random red mark on the wall (no other red pain anywhere as i said it was all wallpaper) i kept saying it was a blood spatter ha ha

 The room stripped naked, including the wardrobe doors which we only decided towards the end that they would get stripped too.

In the end we reached our goal!! Wallpaper..... NONE!!!!!

Room Makeovers: Room 1 Day 1

In the beginning....

Our Room

Wardrobe Doors one wallpapered and the other painted over wallpaper

The wardrobe

Feature wall (wall paper painted over)

Feature wall colour

Main walls (painted over wallpaper)

All of this came out of one wardrobe eeeek!

Our sleeping arrangement for the next week (toyroom)

Unstuffing Journal

The process to unstiffing this life requres for me to create a journal to help me along the way, where better to keep it than here.
Chapter one encourages us to establish that 'you are not your stuff', it requires for a list of  49 questions to be answered, so here goes.

1. Do you often feel stuck? Yes
2. How often do you feel overwhelmed? Regularly
3. Do you ever feel that there's something else you should be doing but can't ever seem to get to it? Yes
4. Are there things you keep telling yourself you'll do as soon as some other things are finished? Yes
5. Do you ever finish those other things and actually get to the things you've put off? Not often
6. Do you ever feel caught up, as if everything on your to-do list has been checked off? No
7. Do you ever complain of being bored, or having too much time on your hands? Hardly
8. If so, how do you address that? What do you do to fill in the time? If i have spare time i procrastinate
9. Do you stop what you're doing when anyone calls and shift your attention to them? No not generally.
10. Do you do this whether its an emergency or just an everyday call? I would stop if an emergency not just for a chat.
11. Do you always agree to do a favour for someone, whether it's convenient for you or not? Sometimes
12. If so, do you ever feel put-upon or get resentful as a result? Yes sometimes
13. Do you think that saying no makes you a bad or selfish person? Sometimes 
14. Is there ever an appropriate time to say no? When? Yes if i have previous commitments.
15. Do you get resentful if people say no to you? No not generally
16. Do you take "no" personally- do you sometimes think that they might have yes to someone else under similar circumstances? No not generally
17. What's the difference between an excuse and an explanation? an excuse is giving yourself permission not to do something using either truth or lie to yourself or the person you are giving the excuse to. An explanation to someone invloves telling them of the current situation that you are in and why you cannot do what it is they want you to do.
18. Do you think you're often offering valid explanations for things and not making excuses? Sometimes excuse sometimes explanation.
19. Have you ever had a disagreement with someone over this interpretation? No
20. Does your stuff seem to have a life of its own? Sometimes
21. Do you set something down and swear it moves sometime during the night? On occasion
22. How often during a week do you misplace something you need- keys, wallet, cell phone? On occasion
23. Are you mostly upbeat, except when you think about your stuff? Generally
24. Or did you used to be, and now you just feel beaten down?
25. Do you have piles of papers around but swear you can't find anything in them? Yes
26. Have you ever freaked out- become panicky or unreasonably upset- when someone has moved your stuff? No
27. Have you ever lost something that was important to you because someone confused it for trash? Not regularly
28. If that has happened, do you feel partly responsible or are you the victim of someone else's mistarke? Feel responsible
29. Do you get nervous when the phone rings? No
30. Do you screen your calls? Sometimes
31. Has stuff made living in your home challenging? Can do
32. Does your stuff seem to force you into smaller and smaller living spaces? Not really
33. Do you sleep to one side of your bed because you have a pile of stuff nect to you? No
34. Do you sometimes have difficulty breathing? Not regularly
35. Do you spend more time looking for things than doing the things you love? Not really
36. Is looking for things threatening to overtake your passions? No
37. Are you often just a few minutes late to get someehere? No not regularly
38. Do you tell yourself that being late is no big deal? I dislike being late
39. Do you think that the people you love are more important than your stuff? Yes they are
40. If someone looked only at your behaviour, would they objectively see that? Not necesarily
41. When you are feeling blue, do you think that shopping will get you out of your funk? I do but i hardly give in to it.
42. Does the act of buying something give you a warm and fuzzy feeling? It can
43. Have you ever said "i'd die without ___________?" Yes
44. If  you've said the previous sentence, were you talking about a person or a thing? A person
45. Do you often speak in absolutes (I always or I never)? Sometimes.
46. Do you have stories about most of the things you own? Some of them
47. Do you like to tell them to your friends or family? How about strangers? Anyone who'll listen? Not often
48. Do they find the stories as fascinating as you do? Rarely
49. Do you think you spend more time talking about stuff or about things you've done or plan to do? I think so.

So there are the answers to the list of questions. Now what's next.

The next part goes on to give a great explanation of what 'stuff' actaully is:

Stuff (noun):
Miscellaneous inanimate unspecified objects.

Unstuffing this life andFood shopping experiences

Eventually i hope to take on some organisational techniques and i am hoping that this will be sort of life changing for myself and my little family. I am hoping to use this book that was given to me by my wonderful mumma to help me out

Today I did my usually weekly shopping trip, we shop withing a budget and most weeks i'm pretty good at keeping under it. Today i went to the usual two grocery stores: Aldi and Woolworths. I had to share the pics that i took of the two hauls to show the difference in pricing. Granted shop number two (Woolies) was most of our meat but i still did buy meat at shop number 1. I spent almost the exact same amount of money at each store and this is what i came out with.

Shop 1

All fruit (bananas,pears,apples, capsicum)



All veg (potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, mush, spinach, beans, brocoli,onions)
Meat (mince 1kg, bacon 1kg)
Cheese, milk, sour cream
Tea, tinned tomatoes, cerial, mustard, popcorn, fish oil tablets,eggs, english muffins, wholemal wraps, disenfectant, lasagne sheets, snack rice crackers.
May have forgotten a few things but this is just an example. Approx 30-35 items

Shop 2

Meat (mixed mince, steak, roast, chicken breast (its cheaper at shop 1 but i forgot it)
Yoghurt, parmesan cheese, rosmary
Fruit and Veg juice
Vege chips and coffee
12 Items.

As i said shop number 2 had more meat and i plan to try and get it cheaper elsewhere as suggested to me by my lovely friend.

So the next thing is to write out the meal plan for the week (which is in my head) and i did shop according to it.

Hopefully i'm ont he right track to my unstuffed life!!

A few links

popping a few links on this post so that i can remember to check them out later.

http://homes.ninemsn.com.au/

http://greenlivingaustralia.blogspot.com.au/

http://interiorporn.tumblr.com/

http://webecoist.momtastic.com/2011/07/25/diy-decor-inspiration-14-eco-crafts-for-the-home/

http://www.lifestyle.com.au/granddesigns/factsheets.aspx

http://www.bhg.com/decorating/do-it-yourself/

http://www.ikea.com/au/en/store/logan

http://www.bunnings.com.au/

My Inspired Life

The things that inspire me are my children, my family, the world, the environment, tv, books, music and the list goes on.
The point of this blog is to accomodate for the fact that i have so many interest and aspirations, i have another little blog about my family, hobby craft project (tie dying) and general interests. This one i have created to link up to the other blog but its content will be different.
I would like to share with you the journey to find peace, harmony and happiness within my home, be it this current home or the home that could possibly be ours in the future. The reason i am starting this now is because my partner in crime (whom we'll nickname Poc) who is also my husband and i have decided to start making over our home. I am going to use this blog to put links, pictures and ideas of what i would like. I also want to share some of our home makeovers.
I am also planning on using this blog as a tool to help me make over myself and this life, i want to be a better role model for my children and ensure that they have a better future by doing so. My dream is for us to become as self sufficient as possible, have respect for the environment and try to choose the 'greener' choices where possible.
I hope you enjoy the journey.