Moving on... Just a reminder to me that I am Living my dream :)

Hi ......... hope your weekend was a wonderful one x

 The first week we owned Rose-Ella we excitedly arranged for a dam to be dug , They are not cheap but we knew water is liquid gold out here , we didn't expect it to be filled anytime soon ,But we had rain and good rain within the first month we had it .. its a great size puddle now ...

 

 I kept as much of our furniture as possible and we have one 40ft and one 20ft shipping container here to store it all in , Love going through them and seeing what can be used next , one day ( maybe :) they will be made into a work shed with doors and windows ...

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So,,, I have been asked repeatedly from people "Why" , Why move so far from the coast , Why out in the hot dry west, Why onto a bush block with nothing on it, What are you going to do for power, water, a home, Why?!!
Honestly it made me ask myself the same questions , got me down for a little while,,, but I had the answers :) ,, I know why, because its our Dream to get a life , thats why....

    Things happen slowly out here, we are learning to plod along and are living with a back to basics , simple living , reduce ,reuse ,recycle mind set..
It keeps us busy in mind and body , our spirits happy..we enjoy the adventure of the every day , having to work for what we need .( water , power) .

I am finding that life is what you make it, and simple is a great way to live..
I know It is not for everyone , To live out here in the bush and start a new lifestyle,,but it has been our dream for a long time and now that dream is reality.

It's a little scary at times but we are working our way through , go with the flow , take one day at a time and tackle each challenge as it comes ..

Learning something new everyday......
I have been hand washing and making my own washing suds, surface spray and liquid hand soap..
Knitting wash cloths and keeping my hands and mind busy with homely creations ..

although hot ( very hot and muggy ) I have a wonderful appreciation for the sun , my washing line is imperfectly perfect and I am grateful for such a lovely space to hang my washing , and enjoy the shade of the tree's to sit , listen to the birds and contemplate life :) ,

Thats all :) ,,, Thank you, I just needed to get that all out of my head and remind myself I am living my dream xox ... 

ooh I nearly forgot , we have two new additions to our little family, this is Gizmo he is 4 months old and our little girl Khaleesi is 9 weeks old , they are Neapolitan mastiffs ... And yes we all know they are not allowed on the bed , hahaha

Until Next Adventure

Take Care 

*Kris*

A little cottage LOVE!

Hello, welcome to Avondale cottage..come on in... ( random ramble alert!!)
Have ya ever had one of those weeks when everything you see seems to take on a whole new light??? I am having one now!, My heart is bursting...I am so in love with this shabby old cottage, I am not sure if its because its getting colder and the cottage is wrapping me up in its coziness, Or if its just the most dreamy little cottage you ever did see,or even if its just I have finally got in my head that I better get to living!!,I don't know, but whatever it is,, its a great warm fuzzy feeling..... Just had to share :)
I will show ya what I mean =
We have had some rain, The tanks are nearly full, the grass is green

and our roses are blooming beautiful!!!

Pip just wanted to spend his days lazing around, but Puddin had other ideas and wanted to play... Get up lazy dog.

I would like to give a shout out to my beautiful sisters,,,,, COME VISIT!!!!
And for every one else :) your more than welcome to ( I have always wanted a quaint little bed and breakfast ;)
See...even on a gloomy rainy day, ya can find beauty out here, I want to share it!

We can bake!! I have been practicing :)

Almond and coconut tea cake in the dining room!!! (Jimmy tries, but he is just not that into siting with me for a tea party)

and with my new iPhone frame application,  doing the dishes even looks fun :)

Look here see, in here, behind the blue door and oh so shabby sash windows..

There is a little semi detached guest room, just waiting for a visit too...Yes,, come "escape to nowhere".....

Inside the cottage walls you can relax, snuggle up with a hot chocolate and we can chat...( Or not,, I do tend to be a flibberty jibbert :)

Morning tea on the porch??..the birds chirping,, cows mooing (and Pip barking at the crows that are trying to get the chook feed) Ahhh bliss.....

OK, so I guess you get the picture now,,, I want to share our shabby old cottage, even if its only in photo's,,, I hope you are feeling the cottage love xxxxx
No more chasing shadows for me ( although I have found some real cool ones, amazing what makes me happy..Jimmy thought I had lost my mind when I was jumping around clapping my hands because I was so excited about a shadow on the kitchen wall! mmm maybe I have lost it...Nah I am only just finding it!!!!!!!)

Well my sweets..I will give ya ears a rest for now, I am off to find some more amazing sights to click away at,,, and I really do need to get out into the creation station and get Candy Rose Creations back on track,,,Thanks ever so much for popping in... will be seeing ya xxxxx

Until next adventure

Take care

Kris

xxx

Friday, What ever happened to the last week??????

Hi all, hope you are all well...
Wow, where did that week go???? For me I think it was a whirl wind of cleaning and farmy stuff, and Family catching up time .... Yay...
Starting off the week and this old cottage was in need of a good scrub after our guests over the week and weekend, not saying they where messy or dirty, but an extra 5 people in this tiny cottage and it sure does get , well lets say crowded...
I took to the bathroom first, it was looking a little well blah..I not only needed to clean it but I felt it needed a little revamp as well... nothing dramatic as its just a rental, but after all I still like to make it homely. In I go House bucket in hand and got to work..

She is a largish bathroom, tacked on to one end of the cottage porch ( actually you have to go through the dining room to get to it, soo quaint,, and the toot is the other end of the porch, through our bedroom).
Soo as ya do , while pottering around and cleaning I decided I needed more cupboard space, (cue hubby and his awesome cabinet making skills)..I drew a picture and he went from there...

He got me this gorgeous jug and bowl set from our local auction and , well, I needed something to show it off, right???
so with bathroom as sparkly as I was going to get it and the new little red cedar hubby handmade cabinet in, I think this shabby old bathroom has a little bit of elegant shabbiness about it now... I am happy..

OK now its out into the yard to tend to the chickens, Pip is the over seer and made sure his girls had plenty of food and water, he was flat out running around and barking trying to scare the crows off... gosh he looks so tiny up against our big Chickie's,,mmm they still haven't started laying yet but with these big Rhode island reds they say could be up to 24 weeks before they start laying , that's not to far off now, so we are hoping for eggs soon..

Back inside and it was onto the vacuuming, pip is such a good helper....NOT.. I don't know what it is but he just loves to catch and chew on the vac head... makes a yukky job even harder, but most of the time I am just laughing at him because he hides to jump out and catch it..I know its naughty, but he is just soooo cute lol

And then it was rest time for pip, cause ya know he has been working soooo hard lol..

Tuesday sent us off on a little road trip down to the gold coast ( a road trip is just not a road trip with out one of these babies,, yummo and with extra drizzle....

We called in here and grabbed some lunch and went and had a picnic in the park with our son on his lunch break from work,,, Can tell I don't get off the farm much lol I was ever so excited for kfc,,

Then it was onto our daughters, as our beautiful granddaughter was having a birthday...they grow up so fast....
                                   eldest daughter and son in law,     2 princess granddaughters..

                                        beautiful daughter #2           and gorgeous son,
Happy Birthday to you,,,,,,,,, Princess A xxxx

Beautiful, beautiful princess...

We had a sleep over with the kids and then it was back to the cottage and back to reality...
Pip missed his kittens and was so trying to get them to play ball....

This is one of the many views we get while out doing our grocery run.... I so love the fact that the landscape out here is ever changing, and that most of the vegetables we buy are local produce and on top of that we have the opportunity to see it growing.....( other than the veg we have growing here in our own little cottage veg patch that is :-). Love supporting local.

I have been having so much fun with instagram, I love sharing things that excite me ( and it don't take much... loving life and the awesome sights around us)...
GO THE SIMPLE LIFE....OH YEA....
Oh and how good does this old cottage look in black and white,,, she was built for it.... Loving our shabby old girl right now...just like a big ol cosy cuddle.

Well my lovelies, that's my week in a nut shell...Hope to catch ya soon I will be back with some more random ramblings...

Until next adventure

Take care

Kris

XXX

Rocking this old cottage

Well hello,,, Hope you all had a wonderful weekend.
Ours was just delightful, we had a rocking good time here at Avondale cottage...
Friday was interesting with a helicopter flying so low over this shabby old cottage, Oh so low it made the windows rattle and the cottage shake, not once or twice but like 10 times . I didn't even get any photo's of it as I was to busy holding things so they wouldn't break,,,mmm not to sure what that was about but as soon as I know I will tell ya.

Anyways there was home grown , homemade pumpkin soup bubbling away on the stove and making the cottage smell Divine

A quick snap of the soup before it was gobbled up by hungry cottage dwellers.

we have had lots of lovely family and friends popping in and staying over at the cottage, I am so glad they all find Avondale as inviting and cosy as I do.
Mums rose is loving it out here, woke to yet another adorable bud.

My high school Besty and her family have been coming and staying for weekends and her sweet teenagers have been staying the holidays here at the cottage with hubby n I.
 My BF and her hubby came and stayed over the weekend to collect her eldest who had stayed for the week.
Saturday morning just us girls went into our little local country town to pick up supplies and just happened to stumble ( lol OK so one of my fave haunts) across an op shop.. I got a cool little basket, yet another crochet knee rug ( can never have enough, even though I am learning to make them myself ;-) a little cane and wood try and some sweet little bottles.

Then it was back to Avondale for a wee rest under the big ol tree in the yard.

A little light refreshment and a spot of cloud watching and snoozing...

Then the male kin decided it was to quite in the cottage and came to join us,, Our quite time was then non existent, trashed by 4 noisy boys and Pipin ruff n tumbling,,,but I must admit, it was a great afternoon.

Sunday morning had us all up bright and sparkly for a trip to the local markets, I have a obsession with white jugs and , well this one "was" only $2, the tea pot was $3, can never have enough tea pots ;)... hubby bought two of those thick wooden curtain rods, he is going to make a ladder to put in for the chickens,, so I got to keep the ends to them...not sure what I am going to do with them but I can see them painted white and maybe screwed onto something lol..

Got home from the markets to find mums rose in full bloom, so we all sat out on the porch, cuppa in hand just chatting and marveling at how sweet the simple life can be..

Sunday afternoon and we seen this... smoke = fire and the one thing I am terrified of is bush fires,,, luckily this one was under control, but it still amazed me at how fast these grass fires can move.

The local rural fire brigade where on hand, I am just glad the breeze was blowing away from the cottage and as of yet haven't even smelt the smoke..

Well my lovelies, That's it from this shabby old cottage today.... Hope you all had a great weekend and have a glorious week xxx

                                                             Until next adventure
                                                                    Take care
                                                                         Kris
                                                                        XXX

It"s a bouse life at Avondale Cottage

Oh yes it is,,, Hi Sista's and Roft, hope all is well in your world xxxx
Sorry I have been afk for a while, I have been a little lazy on the blog side, well all round really, we have had some company staying and boy does time fly, hours roll into days and days roll into weeks, anyways no excuse, I am back xxx

I have been thinking about my little blog, why I started it and what direction I would like it to go in???? anyways,, Then I thought, Oh I might even have to change the name , cause , well I did start it while we where living and travelling in the bouse ( bus + house) .. but well to be truthful changing things on the computer is all a bit beyond me, I am lucky to be able to up load photo's and blog sooo changing the whole thing without loosing you guys,, mmm nah I couldn't have pulled it off...sooo instead I thought I would find out if there was actually a word "Bouse" out there and what was the definition????
First I came across the free dictionary on line and the definition of "Bouse" is Nautical to raise or haul with a tackle, mmmm Life can be like this ,, up and down, raise and haul,,,,, maybe it could work, leave the name thebouselife????
Then I came across the Urban dictionary,, haha,, well yes then,, with definitions like,, Bouse ~To be #1, the best. To be sick wit it. To be incredible
and,,,, Bouse -An adjective to define someone or something as pure awesomeness
MMMM, OK so I can work with this, because our shabby little old cottage is pure awesomeness, and life is what you make it, so pure awesomeness is something I could get used to,,,,
Hhahah well on with it, the blog will stay the same,,, the same name, the same rambling random writings xxxx

Here we go, I have been playing around with the chicken coop, well a while ago now, I made some bunting, as the crows have been flying in trying to eat the chook feed, I thought it might scare them away, Oh and a lantern for good measure.

Humphrey loves it, slowly the chicken coop is starting come together.

The roses are blooming beautiful, and we had one moment in a day when we got a drizzle of rain, other than that its been dry and the tanks are feeling it.

could not resist and bought the rose inside, the fragrance alone is Divine, but just love looking at her too.

I had a change up in the shabby old dining room tossing the square table outside and bringing the round outside table in.. Its feeling much more cozier :)

Well my awesome lovelies, that's it from me today, I will be back with my random ramblings

Until Next adventure
Take care
Kris xxx