Saturday 31 July 2010

Rowan’s Room

After a lot of hard work by dh it was time for the fun job of putting the furniture back in.

rowan's room 2

From this……….

room 9

To this………………

room 3

To this……………… & the Beanie Bears are back!!!!!!

room 6room 2 

rowan's room 

The room looks so much bigger & brighter now the purple & green are gone!!!!

room 5

room 1

One curtain done, the other is nearly finished. :-)

Still a few finishing touches to be done. A couple of Canadian flags to go up & some pics & we’re done.

 drums4

We even got the drums set up, in the area outside Rowan’s room.

molly july2010

Of course it all had to get the Molly seal of approval. She managed to rub against the wet paint & when dh chased her out she put her paw in the paint tray on the way, lucky he had down lot’s of plastic. Oh well she needed a bath anyway!!!

Friday 23 July 2010

Fun Weekend!!

Saturday Rowan & I drove up to dd Emma’s.

robeowl driver

 owl tshirt owl tshirtclose

scarves mug

She gave me some gorgeous birthday pressies a patchwork robe, owl stick, owl t-shirt, 2 scarves & a mug..

Then she took us to IKEA. I love IKEA!!!!! I checked out the shelves I’d planned to put in the sewing room, they were ok but I saw some nicer ones that I think I’ll get. First I need to paint the room & then I need to remeasure to see how many shelves I can fit in.

Ikea fabric Barnslig lime white Hippos full 3 yd

Rowan found some fabric he liked & asked if I’d make him some curtains for his room. He hadn’t decided what colour he wanted so this made the choice for him.

image

image We then found a cool rug to brighten things up & Emma bought him a lovely quilt cover. First we need to paint his room then we can set him up. Hopefully next week I can post pics of the finished room.

owl We headed back to Emma’s for a cuppa then set off for DFO (direct factory outlets). There are some great shops there. Emma spotted this cute metal wall decoration at Typo & knowing how I love owls she dangled it in front of me. :-)

I’ve been wanting some new pj’s, the old ones have shrunk, lol, so I headed into Peter Alexander but they only had Summer stock in. Oh well.

Next EB Games where I found a new Murder mystery game. It’s one of those games where you have to find hidden objects & solve puzzles to solve the case. A total waste of time but they’re fun.

soup tureen Saved the best till last & headed into Provincial Home Living for a browse, they have heaps of gorgeous things. Then I spotted it, a soup tureen!!! Now I started searching for one this time last year when we were planning our Dinner at the Weasley’s dinner party. I couldn’t find one anywhere & when I asked in shops some didn’t even know what I was talking about!!!! Am I that old???? Anyway here was the perfect soup tureen that didn’t cost an arm & a leg & is actually the same design as the sugar & creamer I’d bought at the same shop when I was down here in January. So Pumpkin Soup will be on the menu as soon as I find the recipe.

pj top PJ Top

pj pants PJ Pants

owl apron Headed home & Rowan gave me a birthday pressie including some Peter Alexander pj’s!!! They are perfect for the Friday Night Sew-In which is on again this Friday. & an owl apron, are we noticing a trend??? Anyone would think I liked owls. :-))) It’s so cute I may even have to do some cooking so I can wear it!!!

Sunday & Emma came down & we headed down to a huge antique business at Tyabb. It has tons of different dealers with shops all under the one roof. It was cool outside when we went in but when we came out it was freezing. I have to get used to the lower temps.

The final truckload of stuff arrived Monday morning & we are once again surrounded by boxes & have pieces of furniture in random places. The garage is absolutely chockers & I have no idea where it will all eventually fit. Oh well at least there isn’t a deadline to have it all unpacked.

Friday 16 July 2010

Don’t Panic!!!

The quilt will have a border, maybe even 2, as suggested. I took the border off when I replaced the sashing & just haven’t chosen another one yet.

Will It Ever be Finished???

I’ve been having withdrawal symptoms from not sewing for so long. I managed to find my Dear Jane supplies & made 2 blocks this week. Then I decided it was time to bring out a very long term project. This quilt is made from swap blocks from my online quilt group ‘Classics.’ We started at the end of January 1996 & are still going strong. This was our first swap & although I got the top together quickly I’ve never been a fast hand quilter. I’d quilted several blocks when I noticed the navy homespun sashing was fading, badly. Ugh I did what a lot of quilters would do, I threw it in the cupboard. Years later I dragged it out & replaced all the sashing without undoing the quilting I’d done. A bit fiddly but not impossible. By the time I’d accomplished that much I was distracted by another project & it went back in the ufo pile. Now I’ve got it out again & after quite a search I found my quilting threads & have started back on it. I’d really like to get it finished as I have a huge wall in the loungeroom crying out for a quilt.

I used to jokingly tell people I have ADD as I have difficulty sticking to the same project for very long, probably why I have over 40 ufo’s!!!! Then recently I read that ADD is a symptom of Fibromyalgia, oh light bulb moment, that explained a lot.

Anyway here it is & I’d love to be able to post another pic sometime this year or next showing it finished & on the wall. ;-)

Well I can dream. :-P

classics

Birthdays

Well Birthdays for two of us this week. I turned the big 5-0 on July 14th, Bastille Day, which is apt as I have a love of all things French. :-) With Paul back in Narara this week we didn’t bother celebrating. Rowan & I have been having a Harry Potter marathon the last few days which is always good.

Then on the 15th Rowan turned 14. Wow does time fly!!!! This time last year he was off with his dad visiting his big brother Simon in Canada. That was a very lonely time with them both gone for 5 weeks but they had a great time & Rowan would love to return to Canada anytime!!!

He only decided the day before what he’d like for his birthday so we hit the shops on his birthday. Being new to the area we programmed the GPS & set off. We knew there was a shopping centre quite close but we didn’t realise how big it was. There is an EB Games so Rowan was happy & we were lucky to get the last copy of the Harry Potter Lego PC game he was after, it’s certainly keeping him entertained. I also bought him a dvd player for his room so he’s happy. :-)

We’re heading off to IKEA on Saturday with Emma so I’m guessing we’ll both treat ourselves to some goodies as we both LOVE IKEA!!!!

14th bday2

14th bday3

14th bday4

14th bday5

14th bday6

I think it was good. ;-)

Yay!!!

Well we finally moved down to Melbourne. It’s 2 years since we first thought seriously about moving & after a couple of false starts we made it. First we looked in Berwick, then The Dandenongs & finally settled on the Mornington Peninsula.

We were packing up until the last minute & didn’t quite get it all done. Paul has flown back up to finish of the ‘dregs’ before the removalists arrive to pick up the final load tomorrow.

I hadn’t actually seen the house before so I was more than a little nervous as we turned into the driveway. We arrived at 10pm to find the electricity was turned off so Paul had to find the meter to flick it on. Luckily the gas was on so we could all have nice hot showers after 12 hours on the road.

Luckily I absolutely love the house!!!! It needs a bit more work then I’d expected in a 4yo house but nothing we hadn’t done before. Lot’s of cleaning & painting & fixing of minor problems. The ensuite will have to be redone as the shower is tiny & floods the room. Luckily the shower in the main bathroom is fine so we’ll use it for now. The walk-in-robe had only a single rail & needed painting so we ripped out the rods & shelf & started again. The painting is now finished, I put in some shelves & the lower rod. We can put in the top rod when we the rest of our stuff arrives & we have the stud finder. I used to be a dab hand finding studs in the disco’s in the 70’s but seem to have lost my touch, lol. I’ve been able to hang up all my Winter gear & will put the Summer stuff in when the rod finally goes up.

front doorsbed light wall lightsswitchesfretwork The house has some lovely features.

understairs

There’s even a room for Harry Potter!!

truck

It was wonderful when the removalists arrived with the first load on Saturday. Funny how you miss things like beds & lounges, not to mention TV.

Here they are about halfway through the truck, they’d already emptied the trailor.

The kitchen was a challenge, moving from a large kitchen to a medium kitchen is a bit tricky. Of course I have too much stuff & I swear the Tupperware breeds in the dark, lol. Luckily I have a lovely old leadlight kitchen dresser we bought about 20 years ago & stripped back. I was able to store all the things that aren’t used very often. The Christmas crockery, my lovely old floral cups & saucers, & the big serving dishes.

I love the central heating, even though it’s only been 10C outside it’s toasty warm inside. The ducted vacuuming is wonderful too. The garden is lovely & I’m really keen to spend some time weeding & pruning. By the time the house is straight & I have time to work outside it will have warmed up, I hope. There are big decks on 3 sides of the house. I’m hoping to get some of the tank style raised bed planters to grow some vegies in. I’ll put them on the deck outside the kitchen as it catches all the sun.

The area is really nice too, on Sunday morning we picked Molly up from the kennels, we’d flown her down the day before we left, & it’s very rural quite close to where we are. I love rural, I prefer it to suburbia, so it was great to find the area is so pretty. I’m really looking forward to exploring properly when we have time & perhaps even going for a walk. The area is quite level & actually has footpaths, something that is pretty rare on the Central Coast.

The first weekend was great, dd Emma, the reason we moved here, came over to help. She also cooked us a fantastic roast chicken dinner. She was back on Sunday & friends arrived with home-made pumpkin soup & enough food for a feast. We’ve spent weeks eating fast simple food, spag. bog., chips, toasted sandwiches etc coz we haven’t had the time or energy to shop & cook so it was lovely having a ‘proper’ meal!!!

The local shops are great, everything we need for day to day living. We also spent a few hours at Bunnings (hardware store) stocking up on all the stuff to sort the wir. Thank goodness for the GPS or we’d be totally lost. Mind you it led us astray, as we left Bunnings it told us to turn right where there is no right turn, we found ourselves on a freeway to the city. Luckily Paul managed to get us off but we had to get across 3 lanes of traffic to escape!!!

bunnings for wir

The Bunnings haul, the timber was still in the car. We only have a minimum of tools with us, just my toolbox, so we have to make do until the real tools arrive in the last load. Not good planning. :-)

Of course Molly had to get in the photo.

SEWING ROOM

My sewing room is wonderful but I want it painted so I’m not unpacking anything in there. I’m really looking forward to having time to get it sorted & potter around. I’ll leave it ill the other stuff is done so it will be my incentive to keep going. First thing i did in here was to knock down the awful bar, it was simply a brick wall, all unfinished at the back & taking up valuable space. We’ll have to take up the tiles & make good the timber floor. 

Please excuse the outfit!!!

a. most of my clothes were still packed

b. I was knocking down a wall

c. OK, so truth is I’m a bit of a dag. :-)

The ‘Before & After’ shots. Hopefully I’ll be able to post After shots where it is painted, set-up & all sorted before too long. :-)

bar   sewing room3

                  

sewing room 2 sewing room 4

sewing room 1

P1010547

There’s also a pile of boxes outside the door & another huge pile in the garage. Will I ever get straight?????

rowan's room rowan's room 2

Rowan is a little underwhelmed with the colour of his room so repainting is on the list. He just need to decide on colours.

The other upstairs bedroom is hot pink with the same teal ceiling. It will be painted all white & decorated with red & white accessories as the guest room.

main bathroom main bathroom 2

The main bathroom is lovely, the bath is cast iron & I love the luggage rack!

I’d hoped to make it to the Miniature Show at Mt Waverley on Saturday, I went to the Sydney Show a couple of times & it was wonderful but a 3 – 4 hour round trip was pretty off putting. I love miniatures & I’ve built a dollhouse & a quilt shop with separate classroom. But after an early morning call from my Mum to tell me my favourite uncle had passed away overnight I really didn’t feel like going anywhere. My aunty & uncle, Joyce & Hedley were married in 1942 & were the happiest couple I’ve ever known. They were the perfect pair, Joyce will be lost without Hedley. Luckily she has 3 dd’s & their families living quite close to her.