I think I'll call it a tranquil townhouse

“I think I’m going to call it A Tranquil Townhouse” I said to my daughter. “How about the Serene Shack instead?” said the first born?  Oh ha ha….very funny.  Not a shack, certainly not a mansion, just something modestly in between that suits me…almost perfectly…there being few options for structural changes in any case.  Just decorating, a few nudges here and there...and a project or three…I will achieve tranquil….I will, I will.  Perhaps something like this (from Living etc)?

I’m new to the world of house, decorating and design blogs, but I’ve become seriously addicted to them.  No stranger to the world of magazines though…I’ve been a magazine junky for decades.  Goodness knows how much I’ve spent on Home Beautiful, House and Garden, Country Style, Inside Out, Upside Down, Belle, Elle, Real Living, Living etc, Living on the Edge (oops that’s the job!).   When I moved into this townhouse in November 09 I seriously culled the hundreds of magazines I’d hoarded over the years…I miss them, I really do.  But I'm collecting again!

I'll become a better photographer with time, or I'll just ask the MGM (my most gorgeous man) to do it for me...he's trained in it after all.

I have a busy full time job, a ‘living apart but together’ relationship that takes time and care, two grown up kids who still sometimes need their mum, some very lovely friends I don’t spend nearly enough time with and a real desire to make my home into the tranquil townhouse that I want and need it to be. 

So, will I have the time and energy for this…why am I doing it?  Long story short….because it seems like a good idea…and because my daughter made me do it!  I was pondering a transition plan from my current work as a HR consultant (which I do love I want to make that clear) to someone who one day might just be able to do something else (maybe write for one of those magazines...cue violins and wistful look)…and Jess, the aforementioned daughter, who just coincidentally works for a very well known women’s magazine, said “mum, just start a blog and get practising.  I’ve heard it’s quite easy. And then maybe when you get good at it (thanks Jess) you can pitch some ideas to an editor”.  Out of the mouths of offspring!  I ummed and ahhed and found a gazillion reasons why it would be too hard but she shamed me.   So, here I am...and it only took me a week.

I imagine everyone thinks when they start a blog that only their relatives will read it…and those friends who’d help you move a body.  Hey this is scary!  But then I asked myself why I enjoy the blogs I read quite religiously and I realised they’re so great because they form a community of like minded people who share... and isn’t that a nice thing to be part of?  So here’s hoping one day I might get someone other than my Facebook friends (who I will of course bribe) to think there are some interesting things going on here and drop in from time to time.

So this blog, like so many others is just going to be about the stuff I love, the things that interest me, and the places and people I see, and that’s probably a good enough reason as any.

  

To get you started, a few pictures of the house as it was when I bought it, with the previous owners’ furniture.  Small, with some nice spaces.  But the overwhelming brown and beige just has to go…and it will, I promise. Join me?  I'd like that.