Restoring the Old Girl

Reverse nesting
If you have ever had a baby then you'll probably know the term 'nesting'. It's that period before the baby arrives, when you are madly organising the house to accommodate your new family member and your new routine.
Knowing that you'll be spending a lot of time 'in' you need the house to be in tip top shape, clutter free and running smoothly.
Lately, I have been what can only be described as 'reverse nesting'. I am rearranging the house because I will soon be spending a lot of time out of it. That's right peeps, I'm about to join the work force again - on April 27 to be precise.
I have managed to secure myself one of those rare part-time marketing gigs. I'd like to say it was through my sheer determination, but it was more good luck. 
The only way I'm going to be able to manage this whole working mother thing is to be supernaturally well organised. That means rosters, frozen sandwiches, weekend ironing, one-pot dinners and actually reading school newsletters, rather than relying on my good friend Tor to give me the heads up on anything important I need to know (five minutes before I need to know it).
It's going to take military precision to get everyone to their (correct) destination on time, but it must be do-able. Thousands of Australian women do this every week. Some work full-time and have twice as many kids as me. 
I began by de-cluttering my wardrobe. It may be an odd place to start, but for the past six and a half years I've only needed suitable garb to visit one of three places; the park/playgroup, the supermarket, kindy/school. Now I need to step it up a notch or two.
This afternoon I realised my wardrobe is full of what could only be described as the clothing equivalent of 'seat warmers', as in those people who take up seats at the Academy awards while the stars visit the loo. Apparently, it's very bad to see empty seats on tv. Whilst seat warmers in your cupboard may look perfectly keepable, when it's actually time to put them on you realise the fabric is a bit itchy, it's too tight around the waist, the straps don't stay up, the zip's broken or it makes you look like you've suddenly put on 10 kilos.
Some people have this nagging yardstick, by which they decide whether to throw out the dregs or not. It can really work against you. For example how many clothes do you need 'in case you want to paint something', or for 'just around the house'.
If I had thrown out everything I didn't wear, I'd have barely anything left. Enough of leading myself up the garden path. Today I was ruthless. 
I went from this.

To this.

Yes, I was quite startled to see there looks very little difference in the photos too, but trust me, in real life, it's a whole different world.
How about another before.....

After...

Peaches got the brilliant idea of storing my skarves in that little pink basket on the floor. Unfortunately, she upturned all the toys out of it from her room, but it's handy having a four year old that's smarter than you sometimes.
Meanwhile, Mim made off with half the stuff from my throwing out pile, which somewhat defeats the purpose, but anyway.

In the past few weeks that I've had my blogging break, I have also turned 39 and taken up reading again. I'm already onto my third book this month, Tim Winton's Breath. To tell you the truth, I'm finding all the surfing guff to be astonishingly boring, but I have a feeling it'll get very good soon.

We've also had a couple of visits from the Tooth Fairy for the very first time. Unfortunately, due to having a couple of aperatifs prior, she can't quite recall where she's stashed the teeth, but I'm sure it'll come to her soon enough. Let's hope the previous owner doesn't come across them first.

My friend EAP over at www.nostalgiaandnow.blogspot.com is opening a little store in the Woolloongabba Antique Centre. It should be all set by Monday, so pay her some special attention if you're over there. I'm catching up with her tomorrow night for dinner, and can't wait to hear all the juice.

We are currently working our way through Season Four of Mad Men. We've got one precious episode left! Here we go....