Pumpkin free zone

Hi everyone.

I have nothing against others celebrating Halloween. I'll keep a small stock of lollies in case anyone comes door knocking on the weekend, and may even take my kids along to a Halloween dress up party a friend has organised - but just letting you know I'm not doing any form of Halloween decoration.


I'll admit to spending way too much time looking at blogs, and gee, those Americans get carried away with it, don't they? I'm sure it's lots of fun, but let's just say that any holiday where orange and black are the predominant colours isn't going to win me over.



And let's face it, the seasons are all wrong. Here in Australia it's spring, and images like this are far prettier:



That's Under the Jacaranda Tree by Richard Godfrey Rivers. If you're ever in Brissie, pop into the gallery and you can check it out. The girls and I decided it's our favourite painting there. The girls may have been swayed by the pile of jacarnada leaves the staff leave at the base of the painting at the right time of year.

At the moment, the jacarandas are blooming everywhere. The girls play a little game when we're in the car to see who can be first to call out 'Jacaranda!' everytime they see one - even they same ones we see everyday.

It was funny reading A-M's post today about the connection between the jacaranda blooms and the start of exam study. Being from Victoria, I never knew about this, and so thankfully I can simply enjoy the purple prettiness.

Back in action

A big thank you to everyone who sent their thoughts (here and through messages on EB and emails) after the passing of my beautiful father. It's so lovely to know that there is a bunch of people you've never met in real life who care about you. Really touching.

I've been using one of my favourites forms of therapy: thinking about and working on making my home my castle. Lots of questions to ponder there.

• Will I ever finish sanding and staining my deck? And what's the ideal ground cover plant to replace the awful grassy things that look like weeds in around the pool area? One with pretty flowers?

• Is Tapestry Beige (Dulux) a good colour for a feature wall in our master bedroom? Is it the right kind of beigey grey I'm after? If not, what is?

• How am I going to finish sanding and painting our hoop pine entertainment unit, without unplugging all those very complicated cables? And if I do unplug them all, how am I going to put it all back together?

• Will the home design police come knocking if I put up a print I bought at Target in my main living area?

• Where can I buy mini lamp shades to replace revolting glass bulbs on lights in the dining and formal lounge?

• Where will I ever find a huge, stylish yet affordable light fitting to replace the gigantic very unattractive one in our foyer?

• Should I sand back the dining table top to natural or leave it the slightly orangey stain when I paint the legs white? The obvious answer (Sand it back, of course), leads to the next question, how will I find the time?

• When am I ever going to get to Ikea? So many items on the 'if I ever get a window of more than a few hours to myself, I'm going to drive all the way down to Ikea and buy' list (rugs, storage units, picture frames,etc)

If you know the answer to any of these questions, please let me know!