Simplify

After reading through everyone's resolutions and to-do lists for 2012 I was inspired by one blog to choose a word for this year.  At first I thought it would be Organise, but then I realised
what I really want is to

Everything. To take everything I have and pare it down until I have a representation of what I like, rather than excess amounts of it. To fight through the maze and clutter of my life and find a clear pathway. This involves abandoning my collections and keeping just the absolute-love-love-adore-cannot-part-with-it-stuff. Because I have a lot. of. stuff. And I don't need it all. Books, magazines, records, CDs, paperwork, ornaments, toys, craft stuff, you name it,

I've got it in excess.

This new leaf turned over when I read Corinne Grant's book Lessons in Letting Go: Confessions of a Hoarder. Luckily, I don't keep bouquets of flowers from ten years ago (yikes!), or a scrunchy from when I was 12, but I do hold onto things for a long time. And they just sit. On shelves or in boxes. And like Corinne, I realised that I am hoarding for no good reason.

And I procrastinate. I reeeaaaallllly do. I drraaaaggg things out for as loooonnnng as I can before they have to be done, which has annoyed everyone around me for ages, and now is annoying me. So I want to simplify the processes in things that I do.

I am devoting my year to

A Project A Week

I have made a list of things I need to do to simplify my life and improve it, so the systems work better, and I am going to work on one each week.

I have spent this first week on updating my blogs, by refreshing my profile, blog buttons, and backgrounds, and catching up on
posting my adventures. 

My every day blog

My book blog

My film blog

My teaching blog

 I will be adding mpre posts to my sideline blogs very soon!

 My second project is to simplify my magazine collection down to the bare minimum. (Some of my mags are 10 years old or more!)

 (image from Google, my pile is bigger!)

My sister gave me a gorgeous notebook for Christmas so I am going to use it to journal my achievements for the year with the 52 projects I have named. I won't tell you what they all are yet, because they might swap and change with time limitations, and then I will just feel like a failure!

 I invite you to join me if you like on achieving A Project A Week. Some projects will be big like 'paint the bedroom', and another one may be small like 'sort through books and sell some'. You might want to choose some projects like 'make a dress' , 'sort through the back shed', or 'finish crocheting a granny rug.' I certainly didn't find it hard to come up with 52. Keep in mind you have to be able to do the project while normal life goes on around you. I also included some projects from my workplace.

I'll show you the pages from my journal as I do them.

Let me know in the comments section if you would like to join in! xx

 
You can check out some more Words of the Year
at the Linky Party below:

Getting Out and About

You can't come to stay with us without having a visit to the Yanchep National Park. Koalas aren't native to WA, but we have some in the Park. How cute is this guy?

I have a thing for pretty buildings too.

We went for a game at the Botanic Golf in Carramar. Gorgeous gardens, and heaps of fun.

And here are some photos that we took in a little town called Gingin, on the way to New Norcia.

Isn't this little church adorable?

It was so green here, before we went off down the open road where it was very dry either side.

A Walk through King's Park

While Michael and Aleisha were here we took them for a walk through some of King's Park. It would take hours to see the whole park, so we mainly went where there were views of the city.

   

This is the war memorial.

 This boab tree was trucked down to Perth from the Kimberleys.

Down this path we saw a lot of joggers, which made us feel a bit guilty.

This little lake has small fountains that shoot up every five minutes or so.

There are lush green picnic areas everywhere, and we even took off our shoes to enjoy the soft grass.

Another pretty place to visit in Perth!

Day Trip to New Norcia

One day close to Christmas, we went for an adventure to New Norcia.

New Norcia is a unique town, only inhabited by about 10 monks, with a handful of people, some shop assistants and tour guides, who come into town on a daily basis. The monks produce their own olive oil, nut cakes, and bread, that sell in the shop. There is also a wide selection of touristy items, teatowels, autobiographies, gift cards, pottery and much more. 

There is a museum documenting the history of the town as a monastery and a mission for Aboriginal children. Many of the Aboriginal children in the early days were taken from their families to be raised on missions with white people, but the first monk, Dom Salvado, encouraged the families to stay on the mission too.

There is an art gallery in New Norcia where you can get up close to the paintings, and they even have an original Raphael.

It is a very pretty place, peaceful. With beautiful architecture. The first monks to settle here came from Spain and brought building materials and labourers with them.

One of the monks painted these detailed scenes on the ceiling.

This organ was imported from Spain and they had to rebuild the end of this building to house it!

                                     

At one point, Queen Isabella of Spain was going to visit New Norcia, so they built this extravagant hotel for her, but unfortunately she became ill and died before she could make the trip. Now this building is a hotel for tourists.

This is the the monastery. There are guest lodgings in this building where you can live, eat and pray with the monks. They have six prayer sessions each day.

                                           

This is one of the original houses for the families of the aboriginal children. They have been lined, rendered and re-roofed to stop them falling apart.

New Norcia is now a gathering place for the aboriginal families whose ancestors lived here. There are regular cultural meetings, and an outdoor display of aboriginal paintings.

If you live in Perth or the surrounding areas, or are thinking of travelling to our part of the world, it is worth taking a trip to New Norcia some time. Be sure to book ahead for the 2 hour tour where the guide will tell you all about this curious place, its people, buildings and even the miracles that occurred here. Amazing stuff!