Wednesday, January 25, 2012

The Beginning Of A New Chapter

The view from the new house. 

What a week. 

Packing up takes a lot of effort, especially with two pre-schoolers 'helping'. But I am pleased to say, we are in our new home. Unpacking was a lot easier than packing... thank goodness. I am so relieved we got rid of a lot more stuff recently, because what we have left, fits perfectly into our new home. 

This place is the total opposite of our Christchurch house in so many ways. Our old house was an old cottage, this place is near new. But, what they both share is a certain off beat charm, a house that is not your usual square box, I love that. 

It feels good to be here, in this quiet, perfect little corner of the world.

Friday, January 13, 2012

Simplicity


One of my goals for this year has been to continue our journey towards living a simple life. One of our first steps in 2012 has been to further simplify our possessions. 

My first realisation that we needed less 'stuff' came when we lived in Melbourne for a time, in our pre-kids life. We lived in a small (tiny!) apartment in the central city. I learnt to be very careful in what I purchased. In my mind I found it had to fit into one of two categories. It had to either have a function or it had to be beautiful. If it fitted into one of those two categories, I then had to think of where it would actually live in our apartment. If I could not think of an appropriate home for an item, I did not buy it. Simple.

Fast forward 5 years and our lives are now very different. We live in a three bedroom home, with a garden and two kids. We have more possessions, having kids will do that. You get more 'stuff' in your home but you also don't get the time to sort through it. When we left Christchurch last year, we got rid of a lot of stuff- we donated it, we sold a little and we dumped some too, although I dislike sending items to landfill if I can find another option. Now we find ourselves moving house again (I will tell you more about that another day!). So last weekend we had a garage sale, selling off a lot of items. What did not sell, we have given to charity. It feels good. To look round my house and know that packing will be easy, as everything in our home will be coming with us. They just need to be boxed up now. 

I am hoping to post a series of posts this year about simple living, this being the first. If you are traveling along a similar journey at the moment, please feel free to post your own links in your comments. I always love reading others inspirational posts. 

Sunday, January 1, 2012

Why Hello!

Some street art on the Wanaka lakefront. 

Hello 2012. Welcome to my world!

2012 has been good to us so far. We welcomed in the new year camping out with a small group of friends. We woke to a scorcher of a day, into the low 30s in the southern lakes district today. We also discovered an amazing swimming hole to cool down in. So yeah, the year is kicking off to a good start.

My new years resolution this year is a continuation of a goal I have been working on for the last few years- to live with simplicity. Simplicity not just within my physical home but also in my finances and within me, in how I approach life. 

I always find this time of year so exciting, filled with the anticipation of the new, like a nice new crisp book just waiting to be opened.

Wishing you all the very best for the year ahead x


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