At last… Moved In!

Above: You will all get very sick of photos taken from our back deck!  But its the big positive point of the house. I’m currently looking at the view from the study window and its completely different from the one above (which was taken about 6.30am). It constantly changes due to the time of day and the cloud cover.

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Yes,,, its been busy..

Our second house move in six months.

We are across town again…  and I’m not moving again for 30 years... (I hope)

Although Sean is threatening that for the  next move it will be Autumn Lodge  … (Which is the local retirement village)

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We are really happy with the house, although there is a lot more work to do than we thought and hoped.

 

We found that we had really poor TV reception…. No ABC! (We think due to the new enormous house next door). So the aerial man has installed a new aerial at the other end of the house.

The paintwork is extremely worn with lots of mis-coloured patches… sigh… we will need to paint at some point soon. At least I get to pick a nice colour and get rid of the cream.

( I have picked Dulux ‘Handmade Linen’ another neutral, but I hope with some more warmth and character).

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Then, the bedroom is so light at night with these vertical drapes that one wakes up at 3.00am and thinks its 6.00am! It also faces west so gets the really hot sun.

So having new curtains in the master has become a priority!

 

 

What do you think???…

I’ll think I’ll go for floaty sheers with a good quality  block-out curtain behind, and I’m sure I’ve found a wonderful new curtain lady who understands my taste! ………….

THE GARDEN! Well there is only one plant! Poor little cycad thing! (Although Graham did discover some mystery bulbs the other day,,,, we will wait and see what they are…)

The backyard is so,ooo dry that there are cracks that you could loose an Alfie in!

Once the weather improves we will start on the front garden because at the moment the poor house looks so unloved and neglected. (WE NEED RAIN!)

BUT, on a positive note I’m really looking forward to putting in my style of garden and planning it from scratch!

And,, I’m also looking forward to getting stuck into a Kitchen renovation.. I’ve kept some money aside from the house sale to sort that out.

The last people had no taste… well, to be fair, they didn’t have my taste. (Which I think is reasonably okay!…sometimes) The kitchen layout is great  but the cupboard doors and bench tops are yuk!

I’ll keep the 3 year old carcasses and change the rest, the oven is filthy and worn, and only 3 years old!

A lot of this house is dirty and worn… But.. its only 3 years old!

So, it will be a bit of a challenge. But in a few years we will have a lovely house, (and remember Kim), we got this house at a very fair price for the area. So we still have a little  $ left over to spend on it.

 

Oh, and you may also notice that I’ve updated my blog template! Woo Hoo!

Isn't it pretty!!  – so simple and modern. I love it!!

But.. Like….  Didn’t have enough to do with moving house and ‘everythink’…

This time I actually paid for this look, I got it on ESTY, great site if you like handmade stuff…

READHEADS–Big quilt finished!

I have finished the big quilt of the  ‘Redheads’ project…..

You may remember that this is the quilt made of the vintage Kimono fabric..

 

.. I gave it to Sean & Emmy for Christmas 2013.

(that's Georgie Girl sniffing around and helping with the photo)

Its named ‘Redheads’ as the gold 
and red blocks look like matches…

Here is a scan of the label.

Georgie loved the quilt while I was binding it.. very snuggly..

(and the yucky sofas will be recovered for the new house)

The quilt has a lot of Japanese rabbits..

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I’m hoping it will promote fertility.. ((whoops))!!

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I’m now sorry, that I didn’t make it bigger, as they put it on their bed!!!

One row bigger each way would have been easy, as I still have a lot of leftover blocks

that were originally destined for a smaller quilt…

But, now I think they may become a table runner

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However, the pieces are all in a cupboard  - and awaiting the NEXT house move!

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.