burried treasures..

i'm beginning to suspect that my friends are probably thinking i am in a kind of 'groundhog day' state as every weekend for the past three or so they have asked me what am i up to and i reply "cleaning out the garage". i admit it is taking its time and believe me when i say it is a massive task! but i also admit its been done on a casual kinda basis.
there are boxes i have opened and thought -what was i thinking? why do i still have this and/or why did i bother to pack this? other times i am thinking -why am i out here in the freezing cold and not adam? i then recall [to myself] that adam should not be present in this culling of things as the reason for so much of this 'crap' is that he is either way too sentimental about EVERYTHING! or think that we will need that empty box for something someday....? yep that's why its best he is not present!
don't get me wrong i am a sentimental kinda gal, i have a few dresses and t-shirts that i could never give away due to their nostalgia. BUT empty boxes, quadruple copies of music and various types of media do not come under this category.

photos do though...and today i found a shoe box that was like opening a time capsule. i had completely forgotten about even owning let alone keeping these things. it was circa 1997 and it was so lovely [sometimes scary] to see these old photos again and read birthday cards from friends and letters and ahhhh the memories!

crossing items off the list...and getting busy.

its not much but its a start.
the studio has had a few items crossed off.


also went to bunnings and purchased some large plastic tubs to start the enormous task of cleaning out our garage.
i have been putting this off for some time now. i avoid going in there because it looks like a "hoarder's garage" *eek!*.. when i hear the sound of the roller door opening i go into a cold sweat thinking that one of the neighbors will see all our crap and report me to oprah or dr phil.
but really its not my fault!
we have lived in this house for 2.5 years and when we moved here we just loaded all our belongings into the garage while we renovated. i have bags of clothes, suitcases, tool boxes, paints, flooring, camping gear, bikes, skateboards, vhs tapes, cds, dvds, electrical equipment, paintings, mirrors, car stuff and boxes...so many boxes still taped up, haven't been opened for 2.5 yrs ??!? *sigh*

my plan of attack will be to sort into three sections.
stuff for charity shops
stuff for hard rubbish
stuff for storage

then i can devise a storage system and all will be clean..clean ..clean.
ahhhhhhhhh.

and adam will be able to drive his car into the garge for the first time.

can't wait!

which project do i choose next...?

waaahhhaaaaaaa [child cry]

to the drawing board

i have been tossing and turning loosing sleep for many months now on what to do for a pantry...? at present we are using a bookshelf that usually holds adam's vinyl. but seeing we have finally painted the studio the bookshelf needs to be put back to its original -storing adam's vinyl and put into its proper environment -the studio!.
soooo the pantry. adam is for an open industrial type shelving, i toss between wooden wall shelf/boxes and the same industrial type free standing thingy.
sooo we have come to a compromise and it looks like i have enlisted myself to build the dang thing!

it needs to be dual functional: storage of both foods and cookware.
it shall be made primarily of timber -tassie oak, to match the counter along the window. with steel brackets for reinforcement and coz they look good. plus i shall paint the doors to the cupboards in blackboard paint so you know what is stored inside!
oh and the whole thing shall be on castors so you can move it out a bit to clean behind it properly..

so here's the rough draft.

for mookee...

i suppose i have been hesitant to write anything because it means mookee's post won't be the first thing you see anymore when you visit our blog. so i have decided to dedicte this one to her.
it was so awful to loose mookee, so so awful..we were not there with her when she passed, we were on holidays visiting my parents for christmas. luckily our roommate green was at home to detect that something was not right with her so we are grateful for that and that she received the utmost care at the veterinary hospital, who were all so supportive and loving. mookee died from acute kidney failure. she had no symptoms prior to the day before she died. we still don't know what caused it. supposedly it can just come on that fast. it was so surreal and so terrible that this happened while we were away form her. i did not want to return home to a place with no mookee. but we had pudge waiting for us at home and he had just lost his sister.
mookee was my first kitten, well my first meaning she was my responsibility. i wasn't living at home anymore and i thought it was time to get a little friend... i got her when i was 21 through the cat protection society in sydney. i chose her out of many that had been picked up a few days before, they were from a dumped litter. she had just had her surgery for desexing and was very wobbly and was sitting in the far corner of the cage while all the others were meowing and turning tricks up front wanting my attention. at first i really liked this little fluffy ginger kitten who was cute as a button but as soon as i picked it up the shrill of its meowing and its razor claws i thought oh no you ain't my type!!
and so i chose mookee..i had her name picked out already.. her ears were huge! she was adorable.
i had bought this tiny tote bag i had found at an op shop it was a kids bag i think. it was red and had "sandcastles" printed in white and a picture of a little girl building sancastles. it was the perfect size for her. i caught the train home and she dozed nearly all the way snuggled in it.
i lived with 6 people..well kinda we shared two halves of a 3brm semi -hence 6 people!
5 girls, 1 boy and she was loved by all!
the vet nurse said that the next day her personality would come out as she would have slept off all the drugs etc..and she was right. she was such a girl..she would lay on your lap and gaze into your eyes like she was batting her eyelashes at you.
and her purring was absolutely unique! she kind of meowed while purring so it was a squeaky purr... which never stopped!
she loved luke, the only boy in the house..she had a thing for boys. if ever there was a new fellow in the room she would claim his lap quick smart. and they all went ga ga over her.
she met her brother about 3wks later... pudgie. my mother had saved him from an abusive owner. there were a few arched back hissy crab like walk offs but after a week or two, both of them were inseparable.
pudge was a little bit "special" you could say. he had been used as a tennis ball and thrown up against a fence many many times..but also had been starved. he's a bit of an "emotional eater" you could say.
but having mookee as his sister made him want to do the things she did.
she was very very adventurous and would jump over the rendered fence to visit the girls in the other semi...pudge had no idea how to jump so we would have to call for one of the girls to come out and we would pass him over so he could go where ever mookee went.
it was like two kittens on time share! they slept with all of us and were very very social and never ever scratched. they turned many a cat hater or fearer into lovers and fans.
we moved to melbourne, all 6 of us plus the 2 cats. they loved moving house, especially mookee. new things to climb, new smells, new laps to claim.
adam had decided to join me in melbourne too. i suppose you could say the "daddy's little girl" thing happened between mookee and adam. and when we decided to live together she would only sleep on his side of the bed..i became second choice for those times when he wasn't in bed and she was cold and had no other choice then to snuggle under the blankets with me.
also pudge was a total sook and chose to sleep with his mommy!
but one thing i can always remember is from that first night when she was just a little kitten with big fluffy ears i took her paw and we fell asleep paw in hand. whenever she came for a snuggle or she was asleep and i would pat her she would always put her paw in my hand.
and i suppose that is our bond..she was my friend. my cat. my mookee.

she was loved by all our friends that they gave us a tree in her honour.
we burried her in our backyard and planted her tree next to her.
it was a very very emotional but beautiful ceremony that adam and i did by ourselves in private.
but out of the blue while we were wrapping her in muslin pudge came to say goodbye to his long time friend and companion. he said goodbye to his sister then sat beside us like he knew exactly what was going on.
after we had finished planting he lay next to moookee's tree rolled around a bit and these are the photos we captured from this very special moment. it made us smile.

we love you mookee with all our hearts and we know that we can take a cutting of the tree and plant it in our next home if we ever move ...so that you will be with us always.

mookee 1998-2008

the pics you've been waiting for...

yes here they are..our lovely kitchen is complete!..well 95% of it.
we still have to figure out our pantry and i'm on the hunt for some vintage stools that can be easily stacked on top of each other and placed near this so call pantry..... refer to our plans of the kitchen for where the pantry will be.

so here they are!








we had a bench made for the window -reason why i'm on the hunt for stools!