Close To My Heart
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May 15, 2013 | Close To My Heart, Health | 6 Comments »
With yesterday’s news of the courageous Angelina Jolie, I thought I’d step a little off topic today and talk about prevention. Perhaps I can slip it in here with my tagline ideas to live with…
I love this photo of my son at the dentist so I thought it perfect to use here for a post that’s a little serious and personal. But hey, this is a blog after all…. My attitude towards protecting my health has changed of late, perhaps it’s just because I’m edging closer to forty and I have kids. Suddenly I don’t feel so indestructible and the fear of something happening to me and not being here for these little people that need me so much, literally rips at all of my heart strings. It’s probably being way too paranoid but I wonder if you ever feel like that also?
You see, I have a long line of history of cancer on both sides of my family; let me be clear that it’s not a sentence at all but certainly something for me to be aware of. In the past I’ve tried to block the thoughts out of my mind in fear of attracting it, but they would always creep back. So instead of worrying about it all of the time, I decided to do the best I can, live (relatively) healthy and be vigilant and get regular check ups and then forget about it. Prevention and early detection is key.
So today, I’m putting it to you. If you don’t already do it, will you? Set up some sort of schedule for yourself to get regular check ups, all the things most of us put off. Get your teeth checked, eyes checked, mammograms, pap smears, prostate checks, bloods checked and whatever else that you need checking – do it. You do it for your car. A nurse once told me to schedule all of these annual check ups around my birthday so that I never forget. I thought it was a pretty fine idea – make a month of it and then enjoy the rest of the year.
My birthday is the beginning of next month so I started this week with a physical and blood tests along with a dental check up and a good clean with a hygienist. It actually feels good.
It’s a simple thing; something that we most ignore out of fear but these few uncomfortable appointments could mean everything. My month is now, when is yours?
I’ll be back on Friday with something a little lighter:)
Mel x
We’re moving!
May 13, 2013 | Close To My Heart | 10 Comments »
I can happily say that a huge wave relief has swept through our household because we’ve finally found a lovely new home!
In the end our current place was sold on Friday and the new owner actually offered for us to live in it for a year before they moved. We were about to sign and then on that very same day, we found and were offered another house that ticked so many boxes. It’s weird how these things happen, six weeks of nothing and at the last moment we have choices.
The new house is nicely renovated, has loads of storage and luxurious central heating (not a standard over this side of the world). It also has a big sunny deck off the open plan living and the other bonus is that I still get to walk my eldest to school.
The only downside to the house is that we won’t be able to fit all of our furniture in because it’s lacking in wall space due to so many windows. Not that I will ever complain about too many windows! So decisions whether we sell some of the furniture or put them in storage…
I’m really looking forward to showing you our new pad! We’ll be moving at the end of the month so not a lot of time to pack.
Any tips on moving and getting organised?
Mel x
Origin of image used unknown but thought it was too cute to pass up!
Our Renovation, The Bedrooms
May 10, 2013 | Close To My Heart, My Home, Renovate | 9 Comments »
I hope that you’re all keeping well. It’s been rather busy for me playing nurse to two out of my three kids this week. The poor little things have been quite unwell, hopefully we’re at the end of it and my eldest escapes it!
Now for the bedrooms in our old Sydney apartment. I was wondering whether to include this because the photos are a little distorted. If you’re new to this series, I’m showing before and afters of our old Sydney apartment. I pulled these photos out of the archives and they were taken by the real estate when we put the apartment up for rent pre-blogging days! As I said, the photos are distorted, the main bedroom was a huge 25 square metres, it was actually larger than our living room, to get an idea of the size, the bed is actually a queen size. The bed you can see in the boy’s room is a toddler bed, so no you’re not seeing things.
We didn’t do anything major to these rooms, just ripped up the blue carpet, polished the floors and freshened the walls with white paint.
You can see our kitchen before and after here and our living room here.
Have a lovely weekend everyone. I just got news that they sold our house and there is a possibility that the new owner won’t be moving in for some time so we may be staying on. That would be a relief, the thought of packing this family up and moving again is the last thing I feel like doing and I’m realising more and more how much stuff we have . But that’s another post – “stuff”!
Mel x
Blogosphere Love – Picks for April
May 1, 2013 | Best Of, Close To My Heart | 10 Comments »
Goodbye April, hello May!
Wow, that flew by quickly. April was a big month for me with the good and… not so good. We were told that our lovely villa that we rent is for sale so we will most probably have to move on. I’m still kind of heartbroken about this, I love this house and the street. We were really hoping that we could stay here until we leave NZ… Being expats means that renting is really our only option and I have to say, I’m a bit disheartened by the lack of decent properties around at the moment. Fingers crossed still.
Positive things also happened! I had my first column published in the “Arts, Books & Blogs” section of the NZ House & Garden May issue. The other exciting piece of news (if you didn’t already catch it on Facebook & Instagram) is that I had an interior magazine here last week shooting my house for an upcoming issue. I can’t wait to see the results and I’ll definitely keep you all posted.
Now to my favourite reads for April:
Catherine over at Farmhouse Home has gone all healthy on us but she’s doing it with a real twist. She cooked up some easy snack bars that won’t leave you feeling guilty, she’s shared a recipe from Gwyneth Paltrow’s new book, “It’s All Good” but the one that really got me was pizza made with a cauliflower base! Truly, I haven’t made it myself yet but I will when I have a second to spare. Intrigued?
Farmhouse Home: The Green Kitchen Book Review
Don’t you love taking a peek into people’s homes? I certainly do. The lovely Corinne over at Emerald Green Interiors has recently had a baby (congratulations again Corinne!) and while she’s settling into a routine with baby number two, a bunch of bloggers are guest posting for her. One of them is Holly Marder from Avenue. She shared a house tour of non-other than Corinne that she did for Houzz website that she’s contributor to. Corinne is an interior decorator based in Brussels with an affection for colour. I always enjoy having a read of her blog so just loved looking into her world and how she’s pulled a rental property together so elegantly.
Emerald Green Interiors: Houzz hometour by Holly Marder
Okay bloggers, we all have our days where we ask ourselves “what on earth are we going to write about today?” Brittany from The House That Lars Built has compiled a list of tried and tested blog post ideas – and there’s a whopping 50 of them! Thanks Brittany, I think I might give some of them a whirl sometime…
The House That Lars Build: 15 Minutes to a Better Blog: 50 Post Ideas for the Rough Days
Enjoy!
Mel x
Dreaming of Brocantes & Flea Markets
April 29, 2013 | Brocante, Close To My Heart, Flea Market | 8 Comments »
I had a skype call with my mother in-law in France last night and she was showing me some of her brocante finds from the last couple of weeks and oh how it got me dreaming! It’s the springtime there so the market season is in full flight and right now I’d love nothing more than to hop on a plane and spend the next month travelling through the countryside of France visiting friends and family and scouring all of flea markets, brocantes and vide greniers along the way. I’d fill a truck or perhaps even a container and finally open that shop that I’ve been dreaming about.
To me, walking around a market would have to be one of the most enjoyable experiences. I might not necessarily purchase something every time but I love people watching and seeing the purchases they have under their arms and imagine what they might do with it. Market finds are the things that make a décor really interesting don’t you think?
You might be wondering the difference between the three markets I mentioned. Here’s a little explanation:
Vide Grenier – The translation is ‘empty the attic” and it’s like one massive garage or car boot sale. There’s a lot of junk, broken toys and old games but there’s also loads of treasures to be found.
Brocante – A market full of small storeowners or collectors selling vintage wares.
Flea Market – Professional and casual store holders of clothing and bric-a-brac. You do also get brocante storeowners at flea markets
If you’re ever visiting France, you can find all of the markets of regions listed here. Note that there’s an English button down the bottom.
Before I leave you today, I’d like your opinion. I really would love to one day open a shop but I’ve seen many friends with their own shops and like most small businesses, they’re slaves to it. I’ve heard about bloggers in Europe and Scandinavia opening their stores just once a week. What do you think about that? Would that put you off or perhaps it makes it all the more appealing? I do wonder how it works financially but I think that the shops are in their homes and/or studios so it wouldn’t make such a difference.
Enjoy the rest of your day everyone and see you Wednesday!
Mel x
Trays for Mum (or me!)
April 17, 2013 | Close To My Heart, Homeware | 5 Comments »
Mother’s Day is just a few weekends away and the tradition for many families, including ours, is to treat Mum (or me) to breakfast in bed. So I thought I’d make a selection of my favourite trays for your mother’s special day…
1. Tiva Large Tray by Country Road
This is the perfect breakfast tray to surprise mum with a scrumptious breakfast. I can imagine the high sides would be quite useful, keeping everything in it’s place.
2. Kompotti Tray by Marimekko
I love how bright and happy this tray is, it reminds me of an old friend’s family who had a cupboard full of trays like this one. Every evening they’d each grab a tray to sit their meal on their lap. It’s not so large so probably better to just bring mum a pot of tea on and treat her to breakfast out…
3.Bärbar Tray Bird by Ikea
Another one probably only big enough to bring a pot of tea on, but just so lovely and inexpensive. Ikea I still can’t believe that you’re not in NZ!
4. Splash Tray by Fine Little Day
I featured this same design by Fine Little Day in a cushion in one of my first posts here. I still love the design and was so happy to see that it’s also available as a tray. I would love to wake up to this!
5. Dual Serving Tray by JIA
This is the royals-royce of trays. It’s big enough for a breakfast feast and perhaps even the weekend paper and it’s reversible with a choice of either black with an anti-slip surface or classic white.
6. Bärbar Tray flowers by Ikea
Simple and sweet; another winner by Ikea that doesn’t break the bank.
Do you do breakfast in bed in your house? I love it, although I do wonder if I prefer the sleep in I get beforehand.
See you Friday!
Mel x
Our Renovation, The Living Room
April 10, 2013 | Close To My Heart, Decorate, My Home, Renovate | 4 Comments »
This is the second part to the renovating story of our Sydney apartment. You can catch the first part of our kitchen before and after here.
It’s amazing what ripping up the carpets, polishing the floorboards and painting the walls can do isn’t it? I’m a huge fan of classic white walls; it brightens a room and is the perfect canvas to add colour and texture with art, decorative pieces and furnishings.
Because we couldn’t do all of the renovations straight away, the walls and floors was the first thing to do to make if feel a little more liveable for us. I pulled up the carpet (with my very own hands), removed the trillions of staples, prepared and painted the rooms with the help of friends and family.We actually hired a sander and attempted to polish the floors ourself but gave up pretty quickly and hired someone when we saw the damage we could do.
What I loved about our lounge was the old windows that opened into the sunroom. The windows brought so much character to the room and a lovely feature that was also a handy place to add our decorative pieces.
In the sunroom we laid tessellated tiles. The tiles were such a find at the time! The cement tiles were made in Spain and have a chalky finish. We chose to use three colours, milky white, light blue and grey, which brought a bit of fun to the area without being over the top.
Before I go, I wanted to thank you all so much for the lovely comments and emails I received about us having to move out of our house, I felt really loved! The news has fully sunk in now and while it’s a huge upheaval for our family, I’m feeling a little more positive and I have to say that I’m a tad excited to decorate a new home! Now to find a place that ticks all of the boxes…
See you Friday!
Mel x