HappY NeW yEAr–2014

Hi everyone! AnD WE wish YOU a HAppY 2014!!

AS  USUAL….. our New Years Day was spent on the Car Club’s ‘Mystery’ New Years Day run.

MORE than half the vehicles got lost, and it all turned into a bit of a debacle!

The ‘Mystery’ was if we would ever all end up at the the same place at the same time!!

But we  met up AGAIN….  at the Uralla swimming pool.. and bravely continued on…

          We ended up at the old Race Course on the out-skirts of Uralla.

It was, lovely and cool under the trees.

We had a nice picnic.

I made, Egg & Ham pie,,, with Ginger, Lime & Coconut slice.

And of course I made enough for 6+ people…….

(I’m sure..  that in a former life.. I was THE cook in a big English manor house)

 

Christmas Day 2013

Here are some of the photos that we took on Christmas Day.

Above is me, Andrew & Sean.

We had lunch with Sean & Emmy.

It was prawns, ham & salad.

We took the doggies so they could enjoy Christmas with their cousin dogs.

 

And of course,, Pavlova for dessert..

 

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

A Nearly Normal Morning

The alarm goes off at 6 a.m.

I’m up, showered.

Then I open the back door for Georgie to do her morning business.

Alfie stays sound asleep, he’s not a morning dog.

I step into the backyard to look at the weather,

I say good morning to the koala in the gumtree in the backyard…!!!

I grab my Camera!

I wake up Graham…

“Graham, Graham, there's a Koala in the gumtree!”

Georgie could smell it but couldn’t see it,

and it was having a lovely time, nibbling on the leaves in the tree.

However, our Magpie family were definitely unimpressed, and harassed it until it felt it was time to move on.

so down the tree it came and wandered all around the backyard.

The Magpies are NOT happy… Magpie bullies!

Georgie, of course went ballistic,  but that didn’t stop it coming right up to the backdoor (although we missed that photo).

I never thought in my wildest dreams that  I would  ever see a photo of Georgie AND a koala!

It found its way out of the backyard while we were at work, but now the council want to investigate the tree so they can plant more!

So CUTE!

Its Nearly Christmas

A quiet Christmas for us this year.

I have made a bit of an effort and put up the tree. It has a Mardi Gras theme. Which means I just put every colour bauble on the tree rather than my usual designer colour scheme!

I haven’t put out the Christmas village this year. We just don’t have the room.

Next year – I’m going ALL OUT with the decorations – new fairy lights all over the house!!!

We will have Christmas lunch with Sean & Emmy.

I was expecting to be working on Christmas morning  BUT,  SuRpRiSE,  now I’m NOT WORKING!

As for the first time in history they are closing our ward for Christmas and sending all our clients to Tamworth.

(how this will work? I don’t know. Maybe I’ll hire a mini bus.

No one in Armidale must have Mental Health issues at Christmastime)??!

We might go away in the New Year period but currently I am Nurse Unit Manager and I am really busy and sTReSsED  trying to organise this last minute shut down business. 

I haven’t even had time to think about holidays yet.

Bugs in Jars

I have always wanted to do a bugs in jars quilt, so this is my latest project.

I have collected lots of bug fabric and will use a nice ‘Michael Miller Painters Canvas’ black fabric for the background.

 

I have designed 3 different jars, thick lid, thin lid and shelf jar.

One jar will be without its lid so the contents have escaped and will be running amok on the borders.

This quilt should be completed early next year.

Ripe Strawberries for the Table

Finally complete is the second of the Ripe Strawberries quilt.

This is the smaller, sister quilt to the larger version pictured below.

I completed that one 3 years ago.

I always struggle to complete quilts that are for me as I have no deadline!

And they get put aside until I complete other projects.

This quilt has four of the basket blocks and I used up the remainder

of the lovely afternoon tea fabric in the backing.

It fits our round table perfectly – although when we move I plan to get a new larger table.

Its too sunny in our current backyard to take good photos of the quilts. I’ll have to find a better quilt photo spot when we finally in the new house.

 

New House

Finally, the contracts are exchanged and the purchase of our new house is going ahead.

The downside is that it currently has tenants, and they have a lease until early May 2014.

Our lease here runs out in February 2014, so hopefully we can extend it.

The good news is that their rent is a lot more than our rent!

Ours is the one with the red roof and yes it was a big turn off when they built the enormous house next door, which didn’t exist when we first looked at our house back in January.

Can wait to get into the garden and start planting some trees.

Its on the northern edge of town. These photo taken from the park next door.