Walking off into the sunset

On Friday I walked off into the sunset. I left work behind and haven't looked back. It helps that first thing Saturday morning we jetted off to warmer climes and spent the weekend just chilling. I've been able to wean myself from my blackberry without any withdrawals. I'm so used to being on holiday and still checking my blackberry and sending emails, but this time it seems perfectly natural to be blackberry free.

It also seems as though work is a million miles away. It's not uncommon for me to dream about it, but since Friday I've slept like a log and can honestly say I haven't thought about it at all.

It's bliss.

Now it's time to get stuck into the post-work bucket list.

Nothing to wear

Why is it that my wardrobe can be technically bursting at the seams, but I never have anything to wear? Why do clothes that I want to wear just randomly disappear into thin air only to reappear two weeks later when I don't want to wear them?

I'm going to the theatre tonight and I just can't find anything to wear. Nothing looks any good. Nothing fits and nothing says 'night at the theatre with a gorgeous girlfriend'. All my dresses are either too dressy or not dressy enough. My pants remind me of work and who the heck knows where all my skirts are hiding? Even if I could find my skirts I can't think of what tops I might wear with them.

So I've added wardrobe organisation to my post-retirement bucket list. If I do manage to organise my wardrobe it will be a minor miracle. Keeping it organised will be a miracle so major that someone seeking sainthood really should consider claiming it as one of their three miracles.

If only I had the ability of a toddler to throw on any combination of items in their wardrobe and totally rock the look. Then I wouldn't have to throw toddler-esque tantrums about having nothing to wear.

Stopping to smell the roses

I've started to make my 'bucket list' of things I want to do during my 'retirement'. Things I never really find time to do now - or at least to do properly. Attending to my blogs is right up at the top of the list. As is reading and following other people's. I love reading about other people's adventures and thoughts and loves. It's a bit like reality television without the trash.

I often read about blogger's fatigue - where they've diligently blogged and shared daily for a long time but life is finally catching up with them and they need a break. They need to step back and reinvigorate themselves. Blogging has become a job in a sense (oh I can but dream).

I'm the same except in reverse. I'm dying to blog daily. Not that I flatter myself people will want to read my random rants and thoughts on a daily basis, but I want to write them all the same. Bring on blogger's fatigue!
ps how gorgeous are these roses? I walked to the shop the other day to get some bread rolls for lunch and walked away with all these roses ... and totally forgot the bread rolls! Oops!

Wanderlust: Falling through the cracks of the system

Wanderlust: Falling through the cracks of the system

When I started Puddleduck's Basket I very enthusiastically joined the blogging 'community' through Digital Parents and started following a whole heap of Mummy blogs. Typically, life was always just that little bit too crazy for me to consistently keep up and my following fell into abeyance.

As part of my new focus on the small things and taking time for myself, I've tried to rekindle my connection with these blogs - some of them are inspiring, some are hilarious and some are humbling.

Some, like Wanderlust, are beyond words. Read this post from Kristin. Read more too if you have time, but if you don't, please just read this one. Her strength is beyond description.

Growing up

When did my little girl get so big? I know they say the first year of a child's life is where you see the biggest changes, but honestly the closer my little duck creeps to three I'm blown away by how much she's grown and changed.

And it kills me that I'm not spending every single day with her while she grows and changes and more and more personality reveals itself. Instead, we tend to pas her by - racing to get ready for work in the morning and dying to relax and wind down in the evenings.

Weekends are a little bit different, but she still gets dragged along to what we want to do rather than having two days devoted to her wants and needs and general fun-having. Not that I don't think she doesn't have a great time tagging along, but when do we ever stop and just go with her flow?
So I've decided to take some time off. Become a kindy mum and wife. Maybe even a domestic goddess-in-training (okay, okay I'm dreaming there). It's a huge wrench and change, but at the same time I can't begin to describe how much lighter I feel at the thought. I know it's the right thing for our little family. I simply can't wait.

I've always said I'm not cut out to be a stay at home Mum, but all of a sudden I feel ready to try. Wish me luck!

Little people

Not that I often get the time for reflection, but when I do it is generally when I am struck by the sheer joy and abandon toddlers are capable of. I mean they throw their entire self at everything they do. We're renovating at the moment and Puddleduck has embraced it with her usual enthusiasm.

Even when the job is something as boring as unscrewing tables and shelves from walls she loves it. We spent the afternoon last Saturday unscrewing while she sang songs about her new house and her new tools and how Daddy goes 'bang bang bang' on the walls.

I think we're going to need all this gorgeous enthusiasm to get us through the project. I'd also like to borrow some of this for the rest of my life. To be able to embrace new things, boring things and challenging things with the 'full steam ahead' approach of a toddler would be a wonderful gift.

Renovation Rescue

This is our new front door. Pretty cool, huh? It's ludicrously heavy and hard to open and the key to it looks like it comes from a different century but it's all ours. Well, partly ours and mostly the bank's. But let's call it ours for now.

The Puddleduck family are getting ready for a renovation project. Something I've always secretly hankered for (Mr Puddleduck can confirm my desperate desire to create 'projects' in other houses). Mr Puddleduck does not share my general excitement about projects. Yet he fell just as much in love with this place and its potential as I did - in fact, possibly more so in the beginning. The result? Something first time renovators probably should run screaming away from.

The front door does look ok. Now for the rest of it ...

This is currently the home of the third bedroom and the only bathroom in the house. We're turning it into the kitchen. It's attached to the large open plan living space upstairs and opens onto the upstairs courtyard (*makes note to call it roof terrace so as to sound fancier*).

This is Puddleduck in what will become her bedroom. It's currently a massive room at the front of the house that we'll split in two. It will adjoin the downstairs living area and the internal courtyard.

Do I sound suitably casual writing all of this? I'm trying hard. I mean the more I say or write it the less daunting it will become, right?

Enormous thanks to my talented and visionary friend Ms M for helping us get our heads around how to make the most of such a quirky and exciting space! Had we been left to our own devices who knows what we would have ended up with.

Good heavens I have overused the word 'space' in this post. I apologise and blame new found addiction to interiors mags.