Tuesday 2 February 2010

January in Review

Goodness a whole month went by without a single post, not a good start to the year!!!

Late last year we decided to push forward with our plans to move to Melbourne. We had planned to move the end of 2008 but things didn't go as planned & we decided to stay until Rowan finished school. The truth is we don’t like living here anymore & the 5 years stretched ahead like a prison term. I then rethought the whole idea of moving after school ends & realised that’s exactly what my parents did to me & I hated it. I lived in Goulburn from age 9 to 16, we moved back to Sydney when I finished Year 10 & of course I left all my friends behind. Arriving in a new place at 16 & not knowing anyone is awful, so the best idea is to move Rowan now in Year 8 so he has time to make lots of friends & keep them when he finishes school.

We were originally looking in Berwick but this time decided to look in The Dandenongs because it is so pretty, the land sizes are bigger & there are some lovely older homes. With this in mind Rowan & I packed our bags & drove down to Melbourne to have a look around. For most people that would be no big deal but as I have agoraphobia the idea of driving to Melbourne is the same as flying to the moon for others. I am pushing myself hard at the moment as I really want to get out there & have a life.

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Lunch in Goulburn Macca’s.

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Yay Melbourne right on dusk!!! I’m nightblind so if we hadn’t made it this far I would have to stop for the night. Melbourne is very well lit & with the occasional help from Sean (my Irish GPS) we managed to find our way to Lynne & Graeme’s. I was totally freaked when I had to actually drive on the tram lines. Poor Rowan was saying it’s ok Mum don’t panic, lol.

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We stayed with our dear friends Lynne & Graeme who luckily have air-conditioning so we didn’t melt on the lovely 45C day Melbourne laid on for us, lol. Lynne & I also managed to sneak in a quilt shop crawl one day. I also found a wonderful patchwork shop in Tecoma, Foothills, I think it was called, hey they were right near the estate agents, I had to have a look. Well maybe I didn’t need to go there 3 times but……… it is such a lovely shop & the staff were really friendly. I also took the chance to ask them about areas to live & get info on the schools.

I looked at some houses although there really aren’t very many on the market at the moment. It was disappointing to find that a lot of the houses I’d seen online & thought would be ideal had actually been sold, many of them months ago!!!!!

While I was away I had an email saying 3 of my wall hangings had been accepted to be published In the US mag Quilter’s Newsletter. Poor dh had to get them out & ship them off asap. That was quite a kafuffle (lol, Little Britain) but he did manage to sort it out with UPS. They will appear in the June/July issue along with a few other Aussie’s who were chosen. It’s an article about Aussie stitcheries. One of mine is the red ‘My Crazy Heart’ shown in the header on this page.

Dh flew down the following week after putting Molly in kennels for the first time. We found what we thought was our dream home in Kallista bit the building report was not good & after doing our sums we decided it was more of a nightmare than a dream. Unfortunately believing we’d found the right house we drove home right after the building inspection not realising how bad it was going to be. So now I’m back to trawling the internet for houses. My dd lives in Melbourne & she went to look at 3 houses for us last Saturday, none suitable so the search continues. At this stage we are leaning towards Belgrave Heights & perhaps The Basin, though we didn’t actually see it while we were down. It’s a good position & not quite as cold as higher up in the hills. We’ve also been told termites are an issue & everyone has their house sprayed. With my numerous auto-immune diseases spraying my house with poison is not an option!!

We took time out to go late night shopping in Chadstone, it’s enormous & has the most incredible shops, lots of designer stuff which is nice to look at. While there I went in search of a “Kirsty Allsopp’ ring. I loved the huge blue ring she wore in her Christmas craft specials. I’d looked locally & couldn’t find anything but the first jeweller I checked out in Chadstone had a ring I couldn’t resist. Kirsty’s is an emerald cut stone (rectangular), mine is oval but I love it. Hers is more likely to be an aquamarine, whereas mine is a blue topaz. There’s a big difference in price. :-)))

ring

It’s blurry It’s hard to photograph up close.

So back home it was time to do the back to school thing with shoes & books & stationary. I swear this is the last year I will do battle with contact, from now on it’s wrapping paper covered with plastic!!!! Molly enjoyed her time at the kennels & made friends with all the dogs there. We will probably get her a playmate after we move.

in the bath

Molly turned 1 in January. She’s finally booked in for a clip this Thursday. Everyone’s been booked out since before Christmas!!!

Rowan didn't quite last the 2nd day back at school, his attempt to jump a brick wall failed miserably so he spent 4 hours in hospital under observation for the egg size lump on his forehead, he also has a bad scrape under his eye, a fat lip, bruised finger, scraped knee & shin. We decided falling over a brick wall was far too boring so the story is he was ‘roundhouse kicked to the face’ by Chuck Norris, lol.

 

Rowan Quigley

OUCH!!!

A much happier pic ‘forcing down’ a sundae in a Disney Resort in Flroida last July.

Right now we are rearranging the house to be ready to put it on the market as soon as we find a house. All my sewing stuff is being moved from my big studio so we can set that up again as the bedsit. I have to go through everything & get rid of stuff. We already cleared the study & storeroom & turned them back into bedrooms.

I have managed to cut all the squares for my January calendar quilt. I took my diary with me & jotted something down each night so I didn’t have to try & remember all the days when i got home. Hopefully I’ll get time to sew them later this month!!

january squares

Well that’s January in a nutshell. I’ve also been working on my Kaffe Fassett quilt whenever I get a chance.

I’m sorry i don’t have more pics to share. I looked at all we took in Melbourne & they’re all just houses we looked at.

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