Tomorrow we start a tour of St Hilda's

There's also some event planning well underway ... more on this in the coming week!

Two and a half years ago we moved from Auckland City to ... well ... the middle of nowhere.  Otane is a tiny little village about 6 hours away from Auckland in the Hawkes Bay.  It is here we purchased the very rundown orphanage called St Hildas.  When we purchased the orphanage it was being used as an Art Gallery with a three bedroom house at the back.  We reinstated all the old walls and it is now a five bedroom home that we love with plenty of space inside and out.  We camped inside for the first 4 months while we completely renovated the place and left our belongings in storage until all the major work was finished.  This week I will take you on a tour of the house as it is now, the places that still need some pinspiration, and give you an insight into my new life in the country!!  

I am desperate to get back into creating and it seems when I blog, I am at my most creative because I love sharing the journey.  Tomorrow we will start with a tour of Pollyanna's room and head down the hallway from there.  We will also be in the kitchen making a cake I found on Pinterest (that clearly I won't be eating thanks to Whole 30) to take to the staff at Elsthorpe School on Thursday for their morning tea.  So good to be back, I have missed this plenty!

Whole 30

It's always raining when I start a new adventure .... Hello Spring!

I am a sucker for any new diet that will help me become healthier and lose some weight!  Over the last several years I have been in a state of permanent weight loss.  I have about 6 kgs to go and I will have lost half of myself without medical intervention or any extreme measures!!  It has happened thanks to the omission of gluten and dairy from my diet.  I was feeling sick and lethargic after eating and with life in general and decided it was time to do something about it.  I did some research and ended up on an Australian website that listed 7 common food sensitivities people had.  It suggested people would intuitively know which ones were causing their problems and to take that one (or several) out of your diet for three weeks and then gradually reintroduce them back.  I felt so good after 3 weeks that I have never put dairy or gluten back into my diet!!  My body doesn't seem to like them at all and struggles to digest dairy and gluten containing items.  I also took up exercising more regularly.  I have always been fit regardless of size so this was an enjoyable addition that I have maintained over the last 3-4 years.  

These last 6 kgs are proving the hardest to remove and I know I need something to align my portion control and get rid of the sugar fix I currently have.  As a person that doesn't like sugar this should be easy to achieve .... but giving up Salted Doritos, well that's a whole other story!!  As I mentioned yesterday, I tried Whole 30 a couple of years ago to support a friend but missed the final, most important part of the story which is the "it's not just about the food you put in, don't use the food you are allowed to create sumptuous sweet things (pancakes, coffee creamer, bliss balls etc) as that goes against the ethos of Whole 30".  My pinterest board, Healthy Food Ideas has a few Whole 30 pins were you can get the full breakdown on the 'dos' and 'don'ts'!!

I did create sweet things like bliss balls, and banana pancakes last time as I didn't realise at the time Whole 30 is about eating whole foods and not looking for loop holes to fill the gaps of what you were doing before.  I think these things are meant to be enjoyed AFTER the 30 days and it's certainly what I will be looking forward to adding to the menu once September is over!!  Breakfasts will be hard for me, the thought of vegetables and savoury food that early in the morning is daunting!  While you are not supposed to snack, I have decided to have a piece of fruit first thing in the morning while the punks are getting ready for school, go on my morning walk/run then come home and make my actual breakfast.  This is probably boarding on not being in the spirit of not snacking but there is no way I can eat a savoury breakfast at 6am in the morning!!

For the remainder of this Whole 30 journey and lifestyle choices for health and well being, I will be using my It Started with a Pair of Sneakers blog to share progress, slip ups, and for keeping myself accountable.  I'll be blogging my meals and exercise daily, along with whats worked and what hasn't. I make plenty of mistakes so come join me, health and exercise is WAY more fun when you can share it with others :0) 

Tomorrow I Start Whole 30 ... and give you an inside into my plans!

Tomorrow is the first day of Spring ... YAY!  Sorry Winter, it was lovely while you were here but I am now officially over you and looking forward to Spring and Summer.  Summer is just around the corner here in New Zealand and I have some definite creating and making goals to achieve by Christmas ... more on those tomorrow.  However, I will let you into one, I am undertaking Whole 30 for the month of September.  About two years ago, I did what I thought was Whole 30 but it turned out I had missed one of the fundamental rules and completely messed it up!!  Oh well, it's time to give it another go and see if we can improve on the previous outcomes in order to stop my current addiction to Ready Salted Doritos and Sweet and Salty Popcorn .... oh, and we could also throw in Whittakers Dark Chocolate.  Ah yeah, not the best energy, body loving foods to be feasting on so I am hoping the Whole 30 will tick the box in terms of resetting my body to love whole foods and find some much needed nutritional balance!!

This is only the start of the story, lots of changes are taking place in my world and I look forward to finding some pinteresting solutions to make the most of them all.  I will also show you the completely renovated St Hilda's Orphanage, which is all but finished and only needs some pinterest styled touch ups.  You will get to see Ben and Polly's finished Bedrooms, the Guest Bedroom, our Master Bedroom, and all the things in-between!

See you tomorrow, and let's hope Spring is the perfect time for taking up lots of challenges and not just for spring cleaning the house :o)

FINALLY MANAGED TO SIGN IN

Hello Friends,

After taking an extended hiatus for various reasons, I have come back to blogging as a way of doing something for myself!  Life has been busy for the last year, we have done everything from skiing to netball, birthdays to Christmas, travel to homeward bound, happiness to sadness, weight loss to weight gain, walking to running, injury to recovery, and more living than I could imagine!  Here are some photos from the last year as a way of visual catch up.  I look forward to blogging again, it takes up time but I love that it's something for me to use as an outlet.

2015 Science Winner ... Ben did exceptionally well

Me and My Polly

Morning cuddles with my girl and my niece in SG

I adore her, my beautiful sister inside and out

Easter creations

Summer fun at Taupo

ANZAC Day speech

And they have continued to learn

I love these two Auckland girls

Polly's hair for wacky hair day ... birds nest!

Ben continued to read .... no surprises there!

He also found time to ski

HB won the Ranfurly Shield

Pollyanna's Drive-In Movie Birthday Party

We made the cars out of cardboard and they decorated them at the party

Ben started High School .... YIKES!!

Al's Birthday Cake

Tri-athlon 2014

The OT Family

There is never anything better than Legoland!

Its been a while .... :o)

Yes, its definitely been a while.  I discovered much to my horror organising a home schooling household, renovating an old orphanage, sorting building contractors, painting, adapting to a new life in a new part of the country all while camping in your new house with all your household effects in storage for months was ... well ... exhausting!  As a result the HB edition of Pinterest 365 and all other creating, blog hopping, and general downtime went out the window while the renovations took place.  It was disappointing to fail after such a spectacular win with the first 365 days of Pinterest Creations but that is life and that's ok.

Tiong Bahru, Singapore ... the view from my sisters home :)

 

We moved our household items into the house on the 12th July, exactly three months after taking possession.  Its not finished completely but it is coming along nicely :o)  Three days after "moving in" properly the kids and I left for Auckland and landed in Singapore later that week!  We are still in Singapore spending some quality time with my sister and her peeps ... its been amazing and rejuvenating all at the same time.  In two weeks time we head back to New Zealand after being here for six weeks just in time for Spring to start and a home warming party to happen.

The pair of sneakers that started the new 365 day goal!

 I have put my time to good use over here and found my mojo again, especially for a personal goal that has been hanging around for years.  It's another 365 day project but this time it's very personal and something I have now found the energy and belief in myself to do it and succeed at it.  It all started with a pair of sneakers and some advice from one of my sisters dear friends Caryn.  If you are interested I have started a new blog for this journey and really want to encourage others to come join me, start a blog of your own and get a fitness or health goal that meets your needs for the next 365 days!  I figure that way we can all inspire each other to keep going :o)

I will be back posting on this blog ... my first, my baby ... in a couple of weeks time when I return to New Zealand.  I have missed my Pinterest creating and now with the major renovating work complete it is time to start the decorating and turn the orphanage into a home!  I won't be posting daily projects anymore but there will be a couple a week and plenty of recipes I will try and want to share as well. 

Thanks for all the lovely feedback over the last several years ... it means so much, its been highly motivating, and I have met the most wonderful people from around the world because of this blog ... I have been so lucky, so a heartfelt thank you to you all xx

 

Ben's Walls Finished: Part Two!

The city scape is finally finished!  Really happy with the finished result and Ben can't wait to move into the city ;)    In Part One, the building outlines were finished and Part Two was all about adding windows and details back in with the lighter colour.  This lighter colour i am using for the windows is the same as the base colour I used to initially paint the top of the walls with.

For this part you need painters tape, I used three different widths, and a spirit level that will become your best friend during this process ... nothing worse than having wonky windows when you have gone to this much effort!  I went for a skyline like you would see at night, so the big prestigious buildings would have their light effects on and the little buildings would have windows dotted about with lights on from some hard workers still at the grindstone!

Once again, this idea was sprung from all the awesome cityscape wall murals I have seen on Pinterest.  While I couldn't get a wall mural for Ben's room that would fit our really tall 3.66m walls (or afford to have one specifically made!), the inspiration that lead to this idea definitely came from all the amazing ideas on my favourite website Pinterest! Ben's room is all about travel, cities, and Lego so if you have a child that might fit in with these decor ideas check out my board on Pinterest Ben's Bedroom for some decor ideas :)

Finally ... The Wall is READY to be Pimped: PART ONE

I have spen the last few days painting up a storm ... sometimes it feels like EVERYTHING needs painting and to be honest when you start any major renovations, it can be a tad overwhelming to pit it mildly.  At the moment we have a builder putting up walls, and electricians making the house safe redoing all the old and unsafe wiring.  It feels full on and I am trying hard to work around them and make progress with lots of painting so I can get on to the fun stuff!

Finally we got to a stage in Ben's room where lots of late nights have paid off and we can have some fun tonight!  Originally I wanted to put a wall mural up on two of his walls of a sunset skyline from one of the major cities around the world.  The only problem with this plan was our 3.66 metre stud height ... I couldn't find a wall mural tall enough to fit the walls!  Roll out Plan B make one at a fraction of the cost and one that will fit the height of the walls you have at hand ;)

While I was looking at wall murals I found heaps of wall decals of city scape silhouettes, very cool but again far to small for what I was imagining.  But it did get me thinking, I could make my own using two shades of paint, painters tape, a level, and the help of a handy dandy husband who isn't as afraid of heights as you are.

To start this adventure we painted the top half of the walls with the background light colour.  This way you don't waste paint on the lower half that is going to be mostly your darker colour.  The silhouette is only going on two walls, all four would be too much, not a fan of a feature wall so two became the logical choice!  Once the lighter shade is painted you can get jiggy and create a skyline out of painters tape.  This initial taping is only the outline of the buildings, windows and details will happen tomorrow in Part Two.    Once the taping was done, the underside of all the painters tape was painted out in our darker shade.  I chose two greys for this project, the dark shade is four times the tint of the lighter shade.

Photos below of the process, sorry they are so terrible it was late at night and the light was foul so it was the best i could get. Waited until this morning to take the next lot so hopefully they are a little clearer! Next stop windows and details!