{here :: being present}

I'm still here.Sort of.
Living in a very present :: now :: conscious way.

One tiny house.Four people.Lots of happiness.

For the first time in a very long time,longer than I can remember, I am living and happy to be living right where I am. Dreams&ideas&wishful thinking has taken a backseat to playing in the creek everyday with two little (naked) ones; listening to the radio in the evening with Sam as we wash-up (no electricity means no tv,CDs,computers,minimal (I)Phone games); going to bed early under the mosquito net with a good book and a torch.

Of course we are still talking,planning,thinking,dreaming about the big house we are to build. But we sit on our little verandah and look directly to the spot where our new house will be. When a long-held dream is sitting looking at you, then somehow it's easier to happily be in the moment. To let the dream evolve by itself and not have to be propelled along.


Until we organize Internet options (phone plans aren't that good for blogging or browsing), I'll be scarce around here.I'm trying to work out how to upload photos to blogger from my iPhone (4), anyone know. I do miss my laptop,don't much like the web world in minimised,app form.

Hope you're all well.I'm missing you. Promise I'll be back soon with beautiful photos to make you jealous of out 'tree-change'.

from the quiet

Just a few photos I took when Sam + I were down at the land, on the weekend. Sitting quietly at the creek, listening to the water tumbling and the cicadas calling. We had the most relaxing and quiet time; no kids, no worries, no thoughts but what meandered through our minds and sometimes came out as words, sometimes didn't need to be spoken at all.

We scrubbed and cleaned and swept and mopped. Years of spider webs, and dust in the little bush house. All gone now. {Except that the bush has a way of creeping back in when you're not there for even one night, let alone all the days we have to be back in Brisbane planning our move}.

We walked along the road, for at least an hour. Just ourselves to talk to. No one demanding to be picked up, or that they were tired or hungry or any number of other things that those little kids of ours often proclaim. 

We skipped across creeks; stepping on stones so as not to get our shoes wet. We stopped and watched little birds playing in the grasses and trees. We saw dragonflies flit and dash around the water.

We chatted about how we imagine our new home. Talked practical things like solar power, hot water systems, water tanks and pumping water from the creek. Planned our studio - how big, and where, and what things we really want + need to have. 

Our little dreams. Slowly creeping forward and being realised.......

this will be.....

...... our new home.
the sunlight is bright.
                             the grass is shimmery and brilliant.

the (tiny temporary) house needs much work before we can move in.
                                                                                           the creek is perfect for exploring
                                                                                and walking and drinking the freshest water around.
and finding lovely little water spiders.
                                                                     and rocks shaped like a heart.
                      i put it in the roots of a tree. i wonder if it'll still be there next time we visit.

As I put Ari to bed tonight, he asked if we could just get up in the morning and go to the beach. We live about 1hr+20mins from any decent beach I like to go to, so this isn't something we do often. In fact it's something we do not often enough. Tomorrow is a school day. So naturally I said no, we wouldn't go to the beach. Then I stopped and thought. ...... and perhaps we will go to the beach tomorrow afterall. And stay with my grandma and make a little holiday of it. Ari, Mish + me (while poor Sam has to stay at home, and go to work). 

{In the school newsletter that came home today, it said that parents were not to just take their children out of school for days off, without written notice, and permission from school. They wanted to make sure that it wasn't an interruption to their education. Can someone please remind the  state schooling system that a little thing called life is education. Spending time with family, doing whimsical, wonderful, important things - like skipping school to go to the beach - is education!

In other school news - we visited Ari's new school on Monday, and I love that they have a sustainability program that includes a wonderful vege garden, chooks and a kids in the kitchen weekly cooking class, where they use fresh garden produce to cook themselves lunch. I'm so excited.}

more house inspiration

our house is just a wee bit teeny tiny much too messy at the moment (still picking up thread from all the sewing for the market weekend....). these images are fueling my imagination, and providing moments of beauty in my day. total inspiration for our own home building next year. 

Newly remodeled lounge/living room, from the Queen of all beautiful, and quirky, Ms Rummage ::

Not sure if I've posted these (below) before, but I love everything about this house. It's Geninne's. I love everything about her design and art work as well, and it flows into her house so beautifully. This house is exactly as I can see myself living. That grey/slate blue wall with the wooden window frames is perfect, don't you think. You can see more of the house here.

I really can barely wait until we can start building our own home. From ground up. It is taking much longer to get to the start of the prep and design and ideas and planning as it should. We are caught up in being in Brisbane still, and won't be able to really start until Sam finishes up at his work, and Ari leaves school, and we move down onto the land. Then, it will start. In the meantime, I dream and think and plan and wish.

it feels like monday

but it's really tuesday.

we spent a night at my dad's house, and came home late-ish yesterday afternoon. and i missed yesterday's studio work day.

we walked around the land and chatted and dreamed. and drew pictures, diagrams on the back of envelopes of how our house would / could be.

we talked plans for making sheds {for Sam's car + all the bicycles + all the junk one ends up owning + a smallish skateboard ramp}.

building materials and time frames and possibilites. and what the kitchen could look like, and how the bathroom would be.

i got up early-ish (it's still late Winter after all, so not too early) and watched the way the sun rose over the trees. and saw two wallabies hopping through the paddock. and picked citrus from the trees.

my dad picked perfect white blossoms (which Sam photographed on his phone, and i'll show you another day).

the kids and i walked up the hill. we saw mushrooms and moss and the king and queen of trees. and listened to the birds calling and talking. they saw forest fairies - but i wasn't quick enough to see the magical spots of fairy light.

we came home tired and happy. with lots to talk about and plan and decide.

in six months we will be in a new home, living with the forest fairies (and goannas and birds and mosquitoes). and my kids will become the bush kids that we were........

 *all these photos were taken on Ari's camera (which automatically uses it's flash at times of low-light). but i'm enjoying letting him take the photos, and me not having to carry around my bigger camera.
** he took that moss to school today - with much excitement and pleasure; carrying it in a container with a bit of water and showing all his classmates. so good to see.

Things for a home

It seems like a lifetime that I have been collecting images and ideas, for when I build my own home. All those endless piles of magazines, and collected clippings, and half-vaguely remembered things I wanted. 

Scattered throughout my current home {in suitcases, and folders and files} and in my mind {lost} and also in my computer.

We are going to look at the land again this weekend. This time without the kids. A proper look. Where we will talk and walk and plan and measure and dream a possible dream. Who knows..... we may have our own piece of wildness in the very near future. {And then the wildness starts when build our own home, and live in a shed for the next five years - showering out of a bucket. Reality!}.

In the meantime, I'm going to start compiling bits and pieces that I really really like. You'll probably start to get the idea that I like wooden homes; timber floors, hardwood doors and windows, big wooden benchtops, tongue-and-groove wall and floorboards, raw exposed timber ceiling..... That's what I grew up in, and really have never wanted anything different. My dad is my dream architect and builder (pity he feels too old, or something, to want to promise to build our home..).

 I love the little holes in the wall for displaying pieces. Though of course, I imagine that it's a pain to clean....

Interesting wall feature. I love semi-floating staircases, with lots of light shining through. Though takes up a lot of space - when you could use the underneath of stairs as storage. {I've once seen a staircase where each step pulled out as a little draw. The higher up you walked the smaller the draws.}

I love love love these shelves. I think would be easy to make and hang. So very me. Okay - I'm getting Sam onto something like that soon as we have a loungeroom to put them in. Must have a roof and floor before we make the furniture. No?

*Images from Hotze Eisma (found on a link from The Red Thread).