It’s all pretty crowded inside my closet. I’d really like some built-in cupboards in our bedroom. I like to be able to see what I have, hence draping the scarves over some rails on the inside of the door. Hats, clutch bags, gloves and stoles are on the shelf.  The opposite door has lots of hooks and nails to hang necklaces. I mostly keep my shoes in boxes, with photos or descriptions on the end so that I know what box holds what shoes. It could all be a little prettier and more elegant, but it works as it is.

Sitting on the upstairs balcony, quietly enjoying the newspaper, my breakfast smoothie and a very long black decaf.  Listening to my husband cooking pancakes with our daughters downstairs.  Knowing that many of the morning’s mundane chores are already done and that a quiet day at home is ahead of me.  Bliss.

Before I show you my next challenge photo, I have to let you know that I am finding it difficult to find enough words to express how touched I am by the responses to yesterday’s post.  They have brought tears to my eyes and joy to my heart.  Thank you more than I can say.

So this is going from the sublime to the ridiculous!  Here’s my handwriting – it’s my to-do list for yesterday.

I am a list person, which probably doesn’t surprise many of you. And I put even the most mundane things on my to-do list for the day, so that I will get to cross some things off it (if not all of them).  My little trick to feeling as though I have achieved something.  I like to be organised, and I like to feel that I use my time wisely.  There are never enough hours in the day.

In terms of my handwriting – it’s not all that aesthetically pleasing.  It tends to be a combination of printing and running writing, and I write the letter “a” differently depending on how quickly I am writing (and yes, it can be written differently within the same word).  I went to primary school in the mid-late seventies, but my current writing style doesn’t really reflect what I was taught then.  I altered it when I became a secondary school teacher in order for my students to more easily read it on the black board.  My mother has beautiful handwriting, typical of her era.  Apparently your handwriting can say a lot about you.  I wonder what mine is saying to me?

This challenge is a photo a day challenge – it’s not necessarily a blog post a day challenge!  But these are yesterday’s photos.  The theme was “inside your home”. Many rooms of my home have appeared in my blog posts over the past almost five years.  Usually my sewing room, or bedrooms/bathrooms reflected in mirrors.  This time I’ve photographed living areas.

We bought our house in November 1997, and the living room was pink then. We thought it was weird, and it was right up there on our list of things to repaint/renovate. But we very quickly learned to love our pink living room. It’s warm and cosy, and contains many elements that are sentimental to us. That rug? I bought it in Morocco (made from Australian wool however!) back in 1993 when I was a young thing travelling around Europe and beyond. I shipped it home wrapped in brown paper, along with one for my parents. And it arrived! Dad made the TV cabinet and the coffee table, as well as round side tables and a book case that you can’t see in the photo. The standard lamp was a wedding present from our best man and his wife, who are also Clare’s godparents. And on the mantelpiece are family photos and other objects of sentimental value.

The rest of our house was painted yellow, and we’ve kept with that too. As you know by now, I like colour! We renovated the house when I was pregnant with Stella and added the upstairs. My husband was working out of our garage prior to that, and it was time that he had a proper office inside the house! The renovation also gave us a third bedroom, bathroom, a massive linen cupboard, and my sewing room. And downstairs we gained a terrific under-staircase space where my computer now sits. And a back deck. The renovation was so worthwhile for us. This is our retirement house – we have absolutely NO plans to move anywhere from where we are. We love our local community and amenities.

Then there are the dining room and kitchen. The kitchen was renovated by the previous owners quite a few years before we bought the house, and will need it again in a few years time. But I’m hanging out to avoid that expense for as long as possible! The house floor was tiled throughout when we bought it, in very thick, very early 80s Southern European tiles. One of my husband’s first jobs after moving in was to rip up all those tiles and get the boards polished. He did a great job with the crowbar – those tiles were concreted down onto chicken wire.  Yes, the owner who laid them was a concreter.

We really do love our home. It’s a bit of a mish-mash of styles and it’s not one that would ever be photographed for a magazine, and it isn’t immaculately tidy (although I do my best to make sure that everything has a place and is mostly kept in that place). It’s plenty big enough for a family of four without being massive like many homes are nowadays.  It holds many memories for us and is comfortable and, well, it just feels like a home. Not a house, but a real home. We love it.

I’ve really been enjoying the wonderful photos and accompanying prose that my dear friend Megan has been posting over on her blog Indigo Midge each day since she started blogging a month or so ago.  Her obvious pleasure in capturing images and thinking about why they are so meaningful to her has really inspired me to have a go at a “photo a day challenge” myself.  Although I started blogging as show-and-tell for my sewing and crochet endeavours, I figure that since it is my blog I can post whatever I like (with good manners and consideration for others, of course).    So if you’re not so interested in my photo-a-day-challenge efforts, feel free to scroll quickly through these posts!  I am no photographic whiz, and am actually much more focused on why the images might be important to me than their technical merit.  We’ll see what happens!

I’m starting off with “hands”.

There are a few things that I notice in this photo.  The manicure – something that rarely happens.  I had the opportunity when Clare was at school yesterday and Stella was at childcare to treat myself to a manicure and pedicure.  It felt like an extravagance, and I guess that it was.  But it was lovely to spend a little time on me.  And I notice my manicure in contrast to Clare’s short bitten nails.  I used to bite my fingernails too.  As short as Clare’s, even shorter.  I stopped biting them when I was in grade 5 or 6.  I wonder if she will too.  Her little hand is so small, and so smooth and young.  Mine show my 43 years.  I am so grateful to have full use of my hands, enabling me to do the crafting that I do.  Around 15 years ago I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis, and one of the areas that was particularly affected was my hands.  They were swollen and stiff and sore, and I feared that I would have major joint damage and lose the ability to do so many of the things that I love to do.  I was lucky.  Treatment worked for me, and I am in remission.  But every now and then I feel a twinge or an ache, and know that things could have been different.  I am so grateful for my hands, and for the hands of my children in and on mine.