Birthday Celebrations Have Begun ...

Well yesterday I had the rather surprising pleasure of being called to reception in my office ... I had a delivery that needed to be picked up. Imagine my surprise to find a dozen long stem red roses sitting in a box with my name on them.

Hubby had them delivered early of both my birthday (tomorrow) and valentines day (Thursday) so I can enjoy looking at them while I work all week long.

His quest to make me smile continued when I said I didn't want dinner ... just a few rissoles he delivered me this ....

Obviously right now I am feeling very loved despite my old age. Add to that the fact that 3 people who have found out I'm nearly 30 have stressed I don't look any older than 26 and I must say .... the end of a decade stuff isn't half bad!

Onto other news, tonight is my photo club meeting and as per my new years resolution (submit 3 photo's every month) I am anxiously awaiting feedback on my images. This month the 'theme' is framing either naturally or taken literally. I have done a bit of both and god am I hoping they like these shots!!!

We Beat The Heat - Progress Continues

Despite the ridiculously high temperatures forcing most normal people to hide indoors under their air con's or fans my darling hubby battled the heat and we now have the start of our garden beds.

To me the idea of doing a raised garden bed seemed simple, dig a hole, fill it with a concrete footing and then just plonk bricks on top.

However I have since been re-educated and now realise that levels and angles are involved and there is no plonking allowed. While it can be frustrating to have everything take so very long I am sure that in the end it will be worth it to have everything looking so perfect.

So all the footings for the pool area and the alfresco are done, one small wall by the pool is complete AND we managed to fit the glass gate for the pool fence so things really are moving forward.

I cant wait for more progress to show you but please remember ... "these things take time"

Landscaping Begins & General Ranting

Let me start off by saying I am an angel of a wife (cough cough...) and there is no reason for hubby to get snarky with me but every so often he makes up some offence I have apparently engineered and he feels he has the right to pay back.

How on earth does he get his own back against me .... you ask? Easy - he disrupts my perfectly organised pantry - he will turn all the tins upside down, take things out of neat rows.

What kinds of cruel person does that!!!

Ok so my rant is over - my tins and milk all neatly lined up and we have progress on our backyard.

Footings are in which is brilliant and things are going surprisingly well. Retic pipework and electrical cables are going in today along with the gate .... love it when things start coming together and I cant wait to show you more!!!

Cladding .... Cost vs Want

How bloody hard is it to make the decision if a product that is almost perfect is good enough if its cheap enough.

Ok so a convoluted question but let me explain.

On our big long wall we were hoping to clad it in stone. Problem ... there is 36 meters of it time 2 meters high meaning a hell of alot of cladding.

Now in my head I had a sort of rustic textured lighter tone however everything I love is in the $70 - $120 per sqm price range.

Driving past a local stone company I saw they had cladding for around the $36 per sqm. This is less that half the price of most of the options I like but not exactly what I want. Its a little bit too modern and my concern in that it will date.

So - my question is .... do I settle for something a hell of a lot cheaper or do I hold out and pay alot more when I'm really not sure it will be any better.

In order to make a smart decision on whether we can settle I have decided to wait it out just see how I feel about the below cladding options in situ.

What do you think? Are any of these a good option?

Landscape Design .... Cont

I don't know if you remember the pain and anguish we went through with the last garden but now that we are starting on the planning of this particular piece of work its all coming back.

Poor Mr V and I are sitting with our heads in our hands trying to remember which bit goes before the other bit in case we miss a bit.

So far we have  .... footings, retic and electrics and then raised garden beds and then finally we can start thinking about paving.

Ugghhh - in order to do footings before we pave we actually need to plan out exactly where everything from garden beds to BBQ's to tables are going to sit.

So we are starting ... its a slow process and to be honest our heads are already aching before a spade touches the ground.

But we will get there - we just forgot what a pain "getting there" can be.

However in order to keep your interest I have some sneak peeks available for our garden design.

Not quite set in stone this will give you an idea on what we are hoping to achieve.

Landscape Dreaming - Getting it Right

This trip hubby and I have decided our main focus is going to be on the alfresco / pool area.

The thing is - before you can actually "do" anything you need to have a plan. You need to know where you will be running retic, what you are doing with lighting and pretty much the basic order or works.

We are finding this particular aspect quite overwhelming, unlike the house a garden really cant grow organically, you need to have a method to your madness and have it all set down before you start actually working.

I have seen some lovely on line garden design tools but me not being the most technology savy means this looks more scary than not.

So im kinda stuck hand drawing my ideas and lets be honest .... its looking rather primitive. I will be working on improving these over the weekend and am hoping to show you my ideas on Monday but for now .... we have edited our wants / needs down and decided on a lush, semi formal style with lots of structure and boundaries.

I want it to feel almost like a lush secret garden like image number 2 while also trying to keep in fairly low maintenance.

Let's hope it comes out right? I have confidence, the pool looks amazing so we must be on the right track!!!

Keep Calm ... It's Only a 30th Birthday

That's right people - Miss V is no longer as young as she once was .... and in order to celebrate the start of getting old she has decided to host a party. Lets be honest, a part of the joy im getting out of organising this event is poor Mr V cringing. See its also his 30th so we are having a joint party and I am loving it. He is obviously hating it and thinks he may have married a geek.

The reason for my recent geek-hood? I am having a theme .... and not just any theme but a bond style theme.

With casino tables

Lots of lovely champagne

And gourmet cocktail food

A buffet desert station with a black and gold theme....

And obviously a red carpet dress code!

I am hoping hubby is going to look like this .....

And im sure he is hoping I will look like this....

Overall this is just the beginning so you will have to bare with me as I show you all sorts of idea's I have about this wonderful event!!!