First Impressions's

love the stripes makes such a statement
 

I love hallways and foyers, we have a side entry that everyone uses and we rarely use the "Official" front door.   They give you a chance  to set the style and mood of your home when people enter. I would say my home has a relaxed country feel with a dash of a Hampton' s  I was a bit of a Shabby Chic fan years ago but am over all the fussy floral but still love my white furniture.  My colour palate is mainly neutrals and my favourite colour is blue, but I am loving a lot of the grey schemes that are around and I have painted a few pieces of furniture black. I love a good  bargain and their is nothing more fulfilling  to me than buying something at an auction or clearing sale or second-hand store and then taking it home renovating it and finding a place for it in your home. 

What a transformation

  I also change things regularly much to my husbands disgust, I have now learnt to do it when he is not around, and this is hard as he never leaves the farm much.   When I want to move something that's too heavy for me and only have a small window of opportunity I call my neighbour and she pops over, (thanks Jude she gets me now.)
 
I remember years ago when my husband worked for a Cotton Merchant and was regularly away on business, I wanted to change our bedroom to a " Traditional English Manor" I sewed the curtains and bedspread weeks in advance, red toile print with co-ordinated stipes put away in the cupboard and hid tins of red  paint in the shed.  So when he left my friend came over and we started to paint the bedroom fire engine red with a white picture rail. (Ok this was when changing rooms first aired on TV back in the early 90's )OMG no one told me I need to undercoat it took five coats had to race down and buy more paint and took forever to dry.  He was away for two days and just finished it 1/2 before he came home we couldn't sleep in it for two days as the paint fumes where so strong.




How to create a Hallway

 Ok  back to hallways  I'm addicted to pinterest it is the best place to get inspiration or find out how to do something. I have a board just for Hallways and entry's, even if you don't have a hallway you can create one by positioning your furniture, e.g.  place your lounge inline with your front door then on the opposing wall add a mirror hall table and couple of chairs either side "ta ta"  there you have it hallway. I also love stripes and love the horizontal ones at the moment, they make such a statement, I painted a hallway and staircase at a house we owned at the Gold Coast huge job but OMG loved it.  But as I have got older have come to the realisation that living with four children  7 dogs and 3 cats and  a husband that never put things away and living in an environment that is always dusty I have de-cluttered a lot, I find this hard as I am used to styling my furniture, I think this comes  from having my business, slow and steady can't rush this process. 

Love this mudroom

 I love multi- function entries like the one on the left how cool a place for everything and would be relatively easy to put together. No excuses for kids not to put their things away when they walk inside.

I am not a trained interior stylist I just know what I like and love nothing more than looking though magazines or other forms of media to get ideas, also after 14 years of boarding school fees and now university I am always sourcing thing at the cheapest possible price, sorry some might not agree with me but if I can get a copper vase at the $1 shop that looks exactly like the $190 one from some other place will buy the $1 shop, also who would have thought two years ago copper would be the next big thing?

But it was a sad day when I realised that I had enough furniture, I literally couldn't fit another piece in and that was a hard pill to swallow but I still cant go past a bargain or a really nice piece that needs a home, I have started putting it away for my children.  I tend to buy or make accessories now for the style or look that I am trying to create.

I hope you have enjoyed this post and it has given you some inspiration on what you can do, I think I might be going to mask off some horizontal lines in my hallway will keep you posted.

P.S.  I would also like to add I did this post all by myself no IT support (family who are sick of me asking how do I do this) its not very fancy but hopefully over time will be able to get the hang of this.
                                      
                                                            Bye for now Maz xx

How cool is this for a farm house mudroom



I think I feel some stripes coming on



This is my Hallway at the moment, I brought an old bedroom suite at garage sale $100
separated the mirror from the dressing table painted it black, used the bedhead in sons room
the side tables in my bedroom, love a bargain.

I can feel some inspiration coming on will keep you posted on the outcome.

Images from this post have been collated from Pinterest and my own personal images. If you would like to find their origins  you can find them in my Pinterest folder Maz Lifestyle

Why I Love Where I Live

 I really  do love where I live and I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else, (except maybe an island like Richard Branson’s).  Like many small communities in the bush, they are unique and filled with wonderful, hard working, salt of the earth people, who would help anyone at the " drop of a hat”. Who love their town and would do anything for it, then add in a couple of local characters,  an extensive calendar of events and there you have it.

 My family and I live near a small remote town called Carinda in far west NSW, Australia.  It has a population of about 30 in the town itself, but in the wider region there would be about 180. It has a sort of "Walkabout Creek" vibe like in the movie Crocodile Dundee, a real diamond in the rough, though without the crocodiles. Its mainly a farming area made up of sheep, cattle, cotton and cropping and quite isolated, and with summer temps reaching 45 and winter -1, I will be honest its not for everybody. There is no Starbucks, no grocery store, the nearest town is 80kms away, but for the people that call it home they would say they are extremely lucky.  Everybody knows everybody and its very hard to keep a secret, and you've heard of the “Bush Telegraph” its not just a saying, it truly exists. Generally by the time a rumour or conversation has been overheard, it usually gets back to the person concerned stretched, pulled, added and embellished quite a lot and sounding nothing like the original version.

The Carinda Hotel

 It may look like a quiet sleepy town and you would most probably drive through and not give a second glance, a town that had fallen on hard times, and with years of drought  certain industries closed down and jobs lost. Though blow the dust off  and you would find a small town with a band of hardworking community  minded people who love where they live and have immense pride for their town and community. They love to share and promote all the great things that make us unique.  You will notice in the Anzac pictures, we are a very patriotic bunch and on Anzac day the  whole district gathers to pay tribute to our fallen. We then cross the road to the pub, people catch up, stories are swapped, an old carpet square( used only on Anzac Day) is position in the centre of the pub floor and "Two Up "is played.

Anzac Service 2015 record numbers turned-out

Main Street bustling  with Rally Competitors.

We hold many community events and fund raise for many charities over the year, our annual races swells the town to 800 people, this year marking a 100 years of racing in Carinda, so god only knows how many will turn up this year. Numerous car Rally's come through Carinda and we have quite a reputation in regards to hospitality and  our culinary delights that we provide (we have some amazing cooks that would rival any  Master Chief contestant). Wool days, Golf days, Camp Drafts, then toss in an odd Black Tie Ball and you might have just scraped the surface of this diverse little place, and the people which make it GREAT. (I would just like to add everybody volunteers their time for all the events, so you can imagine the hours that  people provide, and they do it with a smile on there face.)

How hot was he back then.

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-26577308

One of Carinda’s big claim to fame was that David Bowie filmed his “Lets Dance” music video in our little pub, yes thats right “David Bowie” came to Carinda ( god I wish I lived here then). I remember a couple of years ago a BBC TV crew came to town do a documentary about the 30 year anniversary of the filming of the video. They went to the pub and asked if any of the original people that were featured in the video were still around in the town. “Oh yeah” said a local sitting at the bar “there all still around” he said, “just go down the road take the first turn to the left they are all down there”. So off they went, they returned to the pub about 1/2 an hour later looking a bit flustered, “we followed your directions, but it took us to the cemetery”, ” yep that's right there all their" (only in Carinda). I have added a link to the documentary if you would like to see first hand our little town. Also Eccels who is featured in it has since passed.

David Bowie in the Carinda Hotel.

Now I don't want to make this sound like a history lesson but there are a few quirky things, well a lot but I won't bore you with too many. Now Eccel's house withstood a mini tornado, quite a few roofs were lost around the area and one house was lifted off its footings, the consensus was that Eccel's house had so many gaps in it the wind went straight through. The storm also took out  all the towns power and in the wider area. The service station had a generator so they ran an extension cord from the Servo across the road to the pub (I will add this was after locals and SES tarped, tied and assessed all the damage). Our  Police station has a bit of a funny story too, you see there is a town quite bigger than ours called Quirindi and is pronounced “Carindi" and our town is pronounced "Carinda" close right? Well the plans for the Quirindi police station came to us by mistake, so now we have a double story flash as "Michael Jackson" Police Station, it even has a court room which in used by our bush nurse for weekly medical clinics (only in Carinda would you get your blood pressure checked in a Court Room).

The Police station

Eccels House

You will notice I say "Only in Carinda" quite a bit through my blog  I say this because, its such a wonderful, quirky place and funny things happen that make me smile and laugh quite a lot, and that I feel extremely blessed to live in this great little spot and call it home.

So what is it about where you live that you love?  Is  it the people and the community, a sense of belonging to something special like me, or is it the climate? Do you live by the sea and love the lifestyle it offers? or  do you live in the city and love all the things that are available to you.  Wherever you live please embrace it and be part of it, get to know your community, it will truly enrich your life for the better.  Also whilst next on your travels if you happen to be passing through a small town, stop, take the time to look around maybe  buy a coffee or some fuel or even a beer, just stop and say “G'day."

The Hardworking Canteen Ladies at the Races (Love these Guys)

The Carinda Races

Welcome to Maz Lifestyle

Hi I’m Maz, and I am so excited that you have taken the time to read my blog.

I am new to the blogging world, (I only learnt how to copy and paste the other day). I’m 52, a mum of 3 girls and a boy aged between 18 to 26 and have been happily married for 30 years and always on a diet, I live on a farm in outback Australia and have always loved fashion, interior styling and DIY.

Many years ago our family had a sea change to the Gold Coast. Coming from the country and always being busy I felt completely lost, and my husband suggested "just do what you love ", so I opened up my own interior design business “Maz Interiors” at the Gold Coast, what a ride! I took the lease on a showroom with a workshop at the back.  It was one of the happiest times of my life, people that were clients became friends, I would jump out of bed to go to work because of projects or things that were happening within the business. We also added shopping tours and workshops for sourcing and restoring furniture. Though after 6 years we realised that the fast pace of the Gold Coast was not for us, so I sold the business and we returned to the country.

“Ok so the purpose behind this blog” I’m at a crossroads since turning 50 the kids are growing up, living on a farm in an isolated community I am generally dressed in work cloths jeans T boots work shirt, (not very glamorous), being on call at a moments notice to help the hubby on the farm, you never know what you are doing from one day to the next, also the restrictions of where I live 5 kms to the nearest town with a population of 30 on a good day, with a pub and service station, with maybe 1  or 2 caravans passing through a day, and three hours to the nearest regional town make it impractical to open up another business,  but in saying all this I absolutely love where I live and wouldn’t live anywhere else.

So I though why not write a blog? I have got plenty of experience 40 years of getting it wrong and right, working  from home doing something I love, fashion, talking and taking photos, (my family would vouch for that). I’m a curvy woman and try to dress for my shape, and would say my style is classic with a dash of current trends, and I love layering, but don’t want to look like mutton dressed as lamb. Included in my posts I will be giving you an insight into all the wonderful fashionable, creative people  and business that are in my region of the outback (as only a local can). There will be posts on interior styling, cooking, living in a remote community, health and beauty, and DIY.  I would just like to mention whilst researching for this Blog I found a vast number of wonderful talented women, wearing and writing about fashion and lifestyle that look amazing.

Also a big thank you to my children for all your support and “keeping it real”…sometimes too real, and telling me honestly what you think. To my wonderful husband Peter, thank you for supporting me in this new chapter of my life, believing in me and never saying that my dreams are too big (and just go for it). And finally to my dearest mum Peggy, for making me the person I am today.

So please sit back and enjoy my posts I hope I can give you some inspiration and wonderful stories on this personal journey. I also hope overtime that my words flow a little easier, and the self doubt diminishes and that I am not second guessing every sentence.

Maz