We've known we'd have to move out of our current rental for a couple of months as the owners were selling it and we started looking at new rentals. After being turned down for a couple of lovely places we applied for, and feeling a bit disheartened, C's parents were kind enough to offer for us to live in their old house (they just bought a new one and aren't ready to sell the old one yet). It was the first house we lived in when we moved to Tasmania (as C's parents were away on holiday for a few months) and it's always been a place I loved and felt at home in. I am a bit in love with this little cottage and can't wait to move in completely and for it to start feeling like home. I'd like to do a proper house tour when we're all moved in, but for the moment, here are some little bits.




Some of my favourite things about it are: the clawfoot bath (I'm going to treat myself to a big bubblebath when we've moved in), the lovely English country garden (I'm going to have to grow some green thumbs to keep up with all of those plants!), skylights, the polished boards, the original fireplaces and the location - it's not far from the city and my uni and it's totally flat, so bike riding is a go! We're looking for a little bike trailer for Theo to sit in and I can't wait to take him for rides.


There's a little studio out the back which used to be a boat shed. I'm going to set up a desk out there for making things - I just hope I don't get too distracted by the garden outside - perhaps it can be inspiration?



The view from the kitchen window. There's a glass business building behind the back fence which blocks out a bit of sun in Winter, but I'm going to lap up the sunshine in the backyard this season while I can.


The neighbours gave us some zucchinis and said that they'll give us some squash and pickles when they're ready. I said I'd swap them some apples and lemons.


The clawfoot is calling my name.


I counted over 30 apples on the apple tree! They're nowhere near ready yet though, but I've had some from this tree over the last few years and they're the best apples I've ever tasted!



This little guy was tuckered out from all the moving.

Posts over the next few weeks might be a bit few and far between as we slowly move to the new house. Thankfully, we can move out over a couple of weeks, which will work much better with having Theo around all the time while we're trying to pack and move furniture. I'm really trying to declutter and donate a lot of items because the new house is quite a bit smaller than where we are now. I think it might be time for a paper destash - how did I accumulate several huge boxes of miscellaneous paper?! I am so looking forward to living in this house and I love that even though we likely won't be in this house for a long time, it will probably be the first house that Theo has memories of.

Today Mary and I are swapping posts on each other's blogs - we both like lists a lot - I am sharing some post-it note lists on Mary's blog too - you can see my lists here.

Hey, lovelies! I'm Mary from Uncustomary Art, and I'm really excited to be sharing some lists with you today. Bianca and I have a lot in common, but lists are one of the great things we both enjoy. I hope you're having a wonderful day!

This year I decided to put more effort into choosing some Christmas/Summer solstice gifts for my nieces and nephews. We usually don't have much money to buy and post gifts, but lately I've felt like I really want to make more of an effort and plan ahead and also make at least part of my gifts. When I was a kid my Aunts and Uncles always sent me sweet little gifts and I thought it would be nice to send my nieces and nephews something at least every now and then, especially because I don't get to see them very often and I want to stay connected with them and know what they're into.




I decorated these two little sketchbooks as part of little bundles of gifts for C's nephew and my niece. Both of them are great little artists so their presents were mostly art supplies. The other nieces and nephews who aren't as into art were much more difficult to buy for! I know when I was a kid art supplies were ALWAYS my favourite presents. Other little gifts for my nieces and nephews included Roald Dahl books, new pencil cases and stationery, fabric pens, a fancy new lunch box, a dream catcher and I re-gifted a couple of great books. I had so much fun putting their gifts together and I set a little budget for myself so I didn't go crazy buying things.



My sister has recently started drawing. She started reading some great art books (like 'An Illustrated Life' by Danny Gregory) and I think they gave her the confidence to give things ago. Her drawings are great and her ability is getting better and better and I'm so proud of her because it's so hard to persevere with creative pursuits when you don't have a huge amount of confidence or practice. I was looking for fun art books for her and I saw the book '642 Things To Draw' in a bookshop and while I really liked the idea, I couldn't justify paying almost $30 for a book of blank pages with some prompts. So I thought I'd buy a nice hardcover journal, decorate the cover and make up my own prompts and write them in it for her. I filled the entire book with prompts from the top of my head (although I did ask C and my friend Tess for some suggestions towards the end). Earlier in the year I went through a long period of feeling totally lacking in creative ideas, so it was really nice to be able to think up over 100 different ideas of things to draw without having to Google for ideas. I think I'll have to make a book for myself and attempt some of the drawing prompts too.

Here are some of the ideas I filled the pages with:

+ A hand-painted postcard on a piece of cardboard for a lovely lady named Maria.


+ A little letter for Kate. I love cutting out the letters of words and sticking patterned paper behind them.


+ A package for the fantastic Miss Mary. I can't wait for her to receive this package. She has sent me many lovely things in the past and is such a sweet person. I hope she likes the contents! Also, it never fails to amuse me that Mary lives in Maryland.


+ A painted canvas postcard for a sweet lady named Monica.

Remember when I used to send lots of mail? I really enjoyed it - it was a good time in my life and it made me be creative every day and I think about it fondly. However, I know I can never return to letter writing in that way again (writing 10+ letters per week) - it was a bit like a full time job and I didn't have a job at the time, so it kind of was my full time job! Very occasionally I still send a postcard or letter, but I don't put any pressure on myself to write them. Sending and receiving so much mail was (often wonderfully) overwhelming and it has taken me a long time to get back to wanting to send mail again. I see lots of lovely blogs about mail popping up (like Letter Loves) and it makes me happy to think about the wonderful correspondence they are having with people that they've never met, who live in other parts of the world. I loved playing mail tag - it was a game that I started based on a really great TV show called Our Hero and there are lots of people out there still playing it. Writing letters really made me feel more aware of the world - of the differences and similarities between places and people (and I am so much better at geography now). It gave me a social outlet when I was quite antisocial. There are some people I've written to (like Missive Maven) who I felt like were total kindred spirits. Letter writing is wonderful and so enjoyable and one day when I have more time I'd like to write regularly to half a dozen people (at one point when I was writing letters I had a backlog of over 100 letters to respond to). I still receive beautiful mail and when I can, I like to try to at least make a fun postcard to send back to people who write me ridiculously kind things (like Monica in Chicago) or send me ridiculously lovely things (like Maria in the UK). If you've sent me something and I've not responded, I do apologise - life at the moment is not very conducive to letter writing, but I really appreciate each lovely epistle that has been sent my way.
Who was the last person you wrote a letter to?