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Archive for April, 2009

That’s it! I’m leaving.

Glory tree flower in my new front garden. … Leaving Sydney, that is.

Yes, I finally do have a home to go to after months of looking and will be departing Sydney after over a decade of living here.

But I’m not going far – just up to the Blue Mountains, a bit over an hour’s drive from my current home in Sydney’s inner west.

I’ll be living in a town in the upper Mountains which is close to everything I’d like to be close to up there. Of course living in the country will be a big adjustment, but the Mountains has so many Sydney refugees in it that it’s a bit like an outpost of Sydney and is quite urban in some ways, so it shouldn’t be too much of a shock.

My new home is a mostly wooden cottage which is probably around a hundred years old at a guess. It’s quite large and potentially has a whopping four bedrooms, but I will be using just two as bedrooms – one for me and one for any visitors I may have.

The other two will function as a studio and office respectively. Finally I will have working space which is entirely separated from my living space – and enough room to work a lot more effectively than I do now. Can’t wait!

My new studio will be in a decent sized room with two big windows looking out over the very pretty cottage garden at the front and side of the house. And my new office has one good sized window looking out over the side garden. The photograph above was taken of one of the lovely plants in my new garden-to-be.

The room which will be my bedroom has a beautiful bay window with a seat in it which also looks out onto the pretty front garden. There’s also a big living room with a fire and a decent sized kitchen and dining area, plus a separate laundry. And the bathroom is a big space which has been beautifully done up – it has a big deep bath in it which I’m looking forward to spending lots of time soaking in!

At the back of the house is a garden which is so large I’m going to feel like I’ve suddenly got my own private park! It’s a lovely green space. And someone else will be caring for it, so all I have to do is enjoy it.

The house is going to be a challenge to get looking right as the walls are all painted very bold colours … but luckily I’m up for a challenge on that front!

So now I need to get into moving mode for the first time in a few years. I won’t get the keys for a couple of weeks, but there’s an awful lot to get done in that time, especially given how insanely busy I am even without the move! Keep your fingers crossed that I survive it all in one piece.

Once I’m in and have started to set up my new space I’ll share some photographs with you.

An Easter treat!

It’s Easter – already! The year is whizzing past.

In Australia we are fortunate to get a four day holiday for Easter. Huge numbers of people go away for the weekend – and equally huge numbers stay at home to avoid the traffic created by the people going away!

I am one of the latter and plan to spend the weekend catching up with friends and making some jewellery – and of course nibbling the odd hot cross bun (better than chocolate!).

A treat for you!

For those others who will be around this weekend I’m offering an Easter treat in my handmade jewelry shop – if you make a purchase, just enter the code easter when you checkout and you’ll receive a 15% discount.

The discount is valid from Good Friday through to the end of Easter Monday and will work in my Australian jewellery shop as well.

Enjoy your Easter!

Lost in limbo: an update

Well the acute feeling of being in limbo and wondering if I might be moving house next week or not is over, which is something. But the general sense of limbo goes on: I’m back to house-hunting again!

Yes, the house I mentioned in my last post fell through – believe it or not, the new owners have decided to sell it again rather than renting it out. What a saga!

So I hope to be back up in the Mountains looking at other houses next week. And I have my fingers and toes crossed that very soon I’ll actually know what I’m doing and where I’m going. Can’t wait to be getting on with it.

In the meantime I need to keep getting myself organised to move as soon as it works out – something I’ve been working hard on over the last several weeks anyway.

Lost in limbo

Jamieson Valley view from the Sublime Point lookout at Leura.Oh yes, I certainly am in limbo just now! The reason being that I am about to move house … or maybe I’m not. Or maybe I am! But then perhaps not.

For a long time now I’ve had a plan to get myself out of Sydney – a city I’ve accidentally stayed in for over ten years when I only meant to be here for a couple of them. I’m not sure how this happened, but somehow it did and for the last few years I’ve been planning to rectify this.

However, the next issue was working out where on earth to go! I have all sorts of competing desires and responsibilities and relationships which make this a very complicated issue to resolve. So that’s been a big part of feeling in limbo for a long time now.

But in the end I needed to do something to get moving and change my life around, so I settled on a relatively easy option which is to stay within reach of Sydney (and my work, friends and networks here), while also getting out of the city.

For now I’m looking for an interesting and beautiful place to be. Somewhere that has lovely and good sized houses with pretty gardens which I can actually afford (as opposed to tiny apartments that I can barely afford, as in Sydney!). In the longer term I’m going to buy a place and then see if I can figure out how to spend six months of the year in my affordable Australian home and six months somewhere else entirely that I feel a bit passionate about – Spain seems like a great option!

I’ve decided to see how I go living in the Blue Mountains, up around the towns of Leura and Katoomba. I’ve even applied to rent a lovely house up there – a circa 1910 wooden miner’s cottage – which I’ve been looking at and thinking about for quite some time.

So for weeks now I’ve felt even more lost in limbo as this house has been on the market for rent, off the market, back on again, for sale, sold, for sale again and sold again … as I’ve thought about moving in and where everything would go and how to make it perfect … as I’ve pondered not getting it and needing to start looking again, etc.. If I don’t know the answer soon my head will explode!

Last I heard the decision was down to two applicants – me being one of them. I should – in theory – know the outcome today. Keep your fingers crossed for me!