MY JOYFUL ORDINARY LIFE
Welcome to my joyful ordinary life. I’m Anita and I live on the Gold Coast in Australia and I am one lucky lady. I have been married to my childhood sweetheart Tony for 32 years and have a beautiful 25 year old daughter Emily along with two crazy cats – Lola and Billy. Having a happy home is something that’s very important to me. I love trying to make sure that my family and friends feel welcome and hopefully loved. I am a big believer in gratitude and am thankful everyday for the many gifts I’ve been given. Renovating our home has become a serious hobby and I have been planning and hosting Christmas and special occasion parties for as long as I can remember. Travel is another passion of mine and we have had some wonderful adventures over the years.
About 13 years ago I started to develop an interest in home décor. The trouble was our house, due to limited finances when we built 22 years ago, had absolutely no redeeming features. We had to weigh up whether we should consider moving and building what we wanted or stay put and renovate. We love where we live, we have great neighbours, some of whom moved in when we did. Our home is close to our business, the beach and everything we love. We would not be able to find a suburban block the size of ours again (not one that we could afford anyway) and the cost to move with agents fees, stamp duty etc not to mention the fact that we would have a mortgage again was not appealing.
What to do with an ordinary house
Soooo the decision was made to stay put and make our little ordinary house into a home we love. The challenge will be not to over capitalise while still getting what we want. Did I mention I’m also interested in finance (lol!). Our house had no features at all, no high ceilings or a beautiful staircase. No fireplace or large rooms and definitely no style. For many years I found it hard to work out how to turn it into a home that we all love. I have now realised that we had to add some of those features and use the blank canvas to our advantage. My style is a mix of modern farmhouse and coastal and I am definitely not a minimalist!
Our first major renovation was a new kitchen and that was a huge project. Check out my blog posts on the kitchen renovation and let me know what you think. Then move on and see the other renovations we have completed so far. Our home is definitely a work in progress so I hope you will join us on this journey to see where our little ordinary house ends up.
What else can I offer you
I love food and entertaining. So check our some of my recipes and give them a try. The saying Jack of All Trades, Master of None definitely applies to me. I love trying different things some I succeed at others I don’t!! While I’m a very good planner of all things like renovations, projects, parties and holidays its sometimes my execution that lets me down 🤣 but I always have fun and give it a red hot go. Perfection is not my aim but I always want something beautiful, delicious or fun.
I really wanted to start a blog to connect with people from all over the world who enjoy the same things that I do and who also love living an ordinary life. So don’t hesitate to say hello, share your favourite recipes, projects or just share some things about your ordinary yet wonderful life.
