Better After

A while ago now I stumbled upon one of my most favourite blogs called Better After ... read about my finding it HERE

I have been doing a lot of renovating, upcycling and rejuvenating around my place since I moved in. I have a lot of before pics! Not as many after pics but I am slowly getting there!

I decided that I would start doing a weekly Better After post to share with you guys what I have done, as well as encourage me to get MORE after's finished!

So here is my first Better After!

BEFORE

This was how part of my back yard looked when we first moved in. The previous owners had a spa pool set up here, which didn't come with the house. It was ugly and such a waste of space. As soon as I had a think about this space I knew I wanted to put my vegetable garden here. So I put it on the list of things to do.

My BEAUTIFUL friend Sima J told me that she was starting a new thing through her Church called "Help Your Neighbour" and she wanted to come help me do something around the house. Now I am a bit of a typical kiwi who tends to NOT like asking or accepting help. I almost said no thanks I'm all good. But then I thought about it some more. I am on my own now. I CAN'T do everything by myself so just suck it up and accept the help gratefully!! So I did.

So one Saturday Morning Sima J, her lovely family and a few friends and my Mum trucked on up and got MAD busy.

DURING

They were AMAZING. My crazy weird square of nothingness became an amazing vegetable garden all in one morning!! 

Silly time of year to make a veggie garden since it's mostly the wrong time for planting much!! But at planting season I plan to fill my garden with yummy things! I sure hope I am a successful gardener so I can share the fruits with my labourers!!

AFTER

Love Love Love my garden!! Thank you SOOOOO much Sima J and crew. I can not even begin to express how much your help means! 

And anyone who knows about veggie gardening, when and what to plant advice is GREATLY received!!

Exciting Things ....

Some pretty exciting things are happening at my house at the moment. Exciting, busy and a little bit scary, well scary for me anyway!

You see in July my last born baby girl turns 5 *sob sob* That means she will be off to school and well I thought it was time I started thinking about MY future and what I was going to do with my time.

So what did I need to think about?
*Something to make money and pay bills
*Something I enjoy
*Something that fits into the kids routines

I thought about all these things and came up with an idea, not a new idea mind, something Jason and I had talked about a lot before he died. Something I have wanted to do for a long time. So I finally got my A into G and started!

So all I am calling it at the moment is my "Garage Project" I have been a VERY busy beaver working away in the garage to get things ready. It may be easy to guess what I am up to and some of my lovely friends already know! Some of them are helping me out with bits and pieces too.

I will do a BIG reveal soon enough! But for now I'll just call it the "Garage Project" hehe

Anyway here are a few progress shots to give you a little tease!

Now I know my before and afters aren't from OMGoodness what a mess to OMGoodness HOW AMAZING, but I'm hoping that eventually they will be!!!

I have until August to get this garage looking like something quite different! So watch this space!!!

Hair Today .... Bald Tomorrow!!!

Remember back HERE when I told you that I was going to shave my head for Leukaemia & Blood Cancer New Zealand?  Well on April 1st the kids and I got up early and headed to Auckland to join up with 3 other Crazy Brave ladies to shave off our lovely locks!

The Before Pic .... Me, Danielle and Archer 

So after a glass of wine and lots of pep talking the clippers were pulled out and off came the hair!!

It was the weirdest feeling ever! Abbey was NOT impressed. She wouldn't talk to me for a while!! Riley thought it was hilarious and laughed at me .. a lot!

The After pic ... Archer, Danielle & Me

It still feels bizarre! I am continually rubbing my head and wind, rain, hats all feel really strange on my head! I haven't been brave enough to go out in public without a hat or beanie yet. I am thanking my lucky stars that it IS beanie weather!

But it was SO worth it! 

 Me, Archer, Danielle, Nina & Tracey

The combined total of money rasied by these 5 crazy brave ladies was a whoping $3161!!!! AMAZING! I am pretty proud of that effort! Totally worth having no hair for a while.