Inside The Home Of – Cindy Alfino

It’s time to start a brand new series.

Unfortunately it was time to say goodbye to Behind The Scenes Of Mixed Race families because the well of people willing to be interviewed had dried up.  It’s one of those things.  It can’t keep on going for ever.

But what now?

Well, I thought and thought and I found myself wondering about my fellow bloggers.  What their houses look like, where they curl up to tap out a new post, what their house looks like when it’s a total mess.  What their favourite part of their home is.  You know, things they may never show you on their blogs.  Call me a nosy, inquisitive so and so, because that’s exactly what I am!

So to break the ice and give you an idea of what you can expect from this series, I thought I’d interview myself.  And also, I freaking love answering things like this, so there was no way I was going to miss this opportunity to let you in to this side of our lives.

If there is anything you have always wanted to ask you favourite bloggers or a specific blogger you want to me to chat to, leave it in the comments section below and I’ll make sure to ask them 🙂

1.So, who the heck are you?

Sheesh guys, if you don’t know who I am yet, then you haven’t been reading for very long.  The long and short of it, is that Seth and I have been married for 10 years this March and we have three children who challenge our patience daily and yet we still find them to be the best thing ever.  Yeah, we might have jumped onto this whole responsibility train a little earlier than most (I was 20 when we got hitched), but we’re having fun trying to figure out how to be adults with kids in tow.

We live in Cape Town and love to  explore all the fun things that we can do as a family in our city.  Or – equally as fun – Seth and I enjoy sneaking out for date nights where we end up doing weird things like visiting all our old clubs or you know, sleeping.

2. Give us the low down on your blog. We want to hear it all.  (What’s your niche, what kinds of posts do you do, that kind of thing)

This blog is my 4th baby.  It started back in 2010 as a place to record all the things we did as a family and it’s morphed into so much more.  I like sharing stories.  You know, snippets of real life.  This includes ALL of the up’s and down’s that go with parenting, because let’s face it, it’s not all ice cream cones and beach walks.  It’s also tantrums the entire car ride home making you almost regret going out in the first place.  I hope to never give the impression that I have this whole parenting thing figured out, because it would be a big fat lie.  And mostly, I just enjoy sharing parts of our lives so that we have something to look back on in the years to come.

3. Share all your social channels so we can stalk you…

 

 

 

4. What does a regular day in ‘the life of you’ involve?

I struggle out of bed as late as I possibly can, then I go and despite every fibre in my being telling me not to, I wake up my peacefully sleeping children.  Who then promptly roll over and go back to sleep.  Once we’re eventually ready to leave the house, I drop Kyla off at school before heading into work in Cape Town CBD.  While at work I try my damndest to cram 8 hours of work into 6 and then head out to fetch my kids from my in laws.  We then either go to an extra mural or sometimes a play date.  Then it’s time for home work, supper prep, bath time and kids bedtime.  When they’re finally in bed we have couple time where we have the occasional date night, watch series or sometimes just read a book in bed.

5. When do you fit in time to blog?

Good question (if I do say so myself).  This is harder than it seems.  Sitting down, ready to type doesn’t happen as much as I’d like to, but I try and do it on the weekends when Seth takes the kids to gym, or during the week in random pockets of quiet – either at night or when the kids are playing in the afternoon.

Here’s a look at my blog space – where all the posts get written.

6. Please can you share your top 5 tips relative to you blog niche… So for me, that’s parenting…

1. Go easy on yourself.  As long as you love your children and would do anything for them, you’re on the right path.  Whether or not you manage to prepare a healthy meal for them today or not, or if they sit in that nappy a moment longer than you’d like them to because you have to see to another sibling, or bottle/breast, or homeschool/normal school – whatever.  These things are irrelevant.
2. The hard days are hard.  Nothing used to irritate me more than people saying “This too shall pass”.  In fact, being so deep in poo and tears, I’d actually want to punch them in the face.  But the thing is, it does pass, it does get relatively easier and you will survive it.  Feel free to punch me now.
3. Build your village.  This is obviously easier for some that have parents close by, but even then they may not be keen to help you with your kids.  Find friends that you can count on to look after your kids for a bit.  Or even just a couple of Mom friends you can chat to about being a Mom without worrying that they won’t understand you or what you’re going through.  This would have helped me so much in those first few years.
4. You’re not their friend.  I know from experience that it sucks to be the Mom who says no.  To instill discipline in them even when you don’t want to or you’re feeling exhausted.  The thing is, we are largely responsible for how our kids turn out and teaching them right from wrong is just not negotiable.
5. Being fun is good too.  Yes yes, you have to be the disciplinarian sometimes, but for things that really don’t matter, let it not matter!  I struggle with this, but it’s OK to let go sometimes and let them get full of mud, or have bananas for breakfast or whatever.  Not everything needs to be planned/structured/ serious.

7. Give us a brief tour of your home and garden – tell us about renovations you’ve done – before and afters, parts you love, parts you want to change, go crazy…

Our home was apparently built around the 1960’s or 70’s according to my architect husband.  When we moved in three years ago, the previous owner had already knocked out walls, repainted and tiled, so compared to our old house with a massive hole between the kitchen and the lounge – it was bliss.  Even though we’d never have chosen the colours currently in play.

We’ve managed to do a few things to the house as we’ve lived here – we’ve painted outside, planted a few things and redone the fire place, but there is still lots to do.  The list is literally endless.

Our girls share a room and Knox has his own room.  We don’t have a toy room or any spare room actually, our house is pretty small when you compare it to others in the area.  Nevertheless we have enough, so it’s not a problem.

This is the house on a fairly clean day.

Our room

Girls room

Knox room

Kitchen

Lounge

Dining Room

8. What’s your favourite room/area in your home and why?

Definitely the lounge.  It’s got the best afternoon light and it just feels homey and comfortable.  Plus in Winter we get to light fires here which makes it really awesome.

9. If you had endless money and you could change anything in your home, what would you do?

If we could had endless money to be able to do renovations we would extend the front to include a semi enclosed porch (with Moroccan tiles and ivy growing up the pergola thing) – big enough to have a 12 seater table or a nice spot to chill.

Inside we’d extend the kids rooms out into the garden by a couple of metres each, just so that they have more room when they get older – for desks and things.  We’re toying with the idea of going up a full level on the top of our house or just changing the roof space into a guest area with TV room.  We’re finding that the kids need a space that they can chill with their friends while we chill with ours – it would nice to be able to have two separate entertainment spaces.  Also, I desperately want to have one of those houses that the whole family comes back to and stays in for the holidays – ah the dream.  We’d also redo the cupboard in the kitchen, the tiles and the wall colours throughout the house.  In the back we’d add another deck and pergola and LOTS more plants!  So, um, basically everything hahaha.

10. Where’s your dumping ground – you know that place that you dump all your clothes and frantically have to clean before you have guests over…

For us it’s not a chair.  We have this box thing right by the door as you come into our room.  It is ALWAYS covered with things.  From boxes from press drops to presents I still need to deliver, the big continental pillows go there at night and every article we own too.  Much to Seths disgust.

11. Do you have a book collection? Let’s see it. Which one is your fav?

Yes, one of the best things about our house is finally having book shelves to store all our books on.  My favourite is a little bit cliche probably.  Harry Potter (all of them), Twilight (sorry), Gone Girl, anything Jodie Picoult and gosh, everything really!

12. What’s the oldest and newest thing in your home?

We have my grandmothers record player, Seths grandfathers typewriter and slide viewer.  Not sure which one is oldest, but I’m pretty sure they are all ancient.  The newest is harder to think of.  Um, the last thing I bought for the house was a mohair blanket that we got in Tulbagh for my 30th birthday.

13. Show us a typical messy day at your house.

I know this could be messier.  It usually is.  But I’m always too angry to take a photo of it and so this is going to have to do 😉  Picture overflowing dishes all over the kitchen, toys all over the floor and me sitting in the corner with a book trying to ignore it all.

Thank you for reading!!

If you like this series, I’d love for you to join me in the next instalment!  Either leave your email address in the comments, mail me on cindyalfino@gmail.com or um, like send me a smoke signal or something.  I’d love to have you.