Usefull skills

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I now have experience in all sorts of building jobs, and can add gyprocking and cornicing to the list. My arm and neck muscles are aching, but luckily the bath has finally been installed so much soaking and relaxing in the evening has been happening.

Cornice in my new bedroom - Gyprocking the carport

I've learnt two things; Keith is very lucky that I'm not scared of heights, and life would be a lot easier if I was just a bit taller . . .

Along the way I found some time to finish my scrap challenge. I decided to make a little zippered bag and use the different scrap fabrics as decoration.

Each one was cut out in a hexagon shape and sewed together. I used a piece of felt as backing to give it a padded feel.

The back is a piece of linen with one of the fabrics highlighted.

It's a little wonky and a bit smaller than I had in mind, but I like the way the fabrics look together and the patchwork feel of it.

There are some really clever things being made, it's well worth a look at the flickr group. A big thank you to Jennifer from JC handmade for organising this swap!

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A very wet Saturday

Our spring weather lasted 2 days before the rain and cold set in again. I think this happens every year but I always get excited that the cold is over and then have to go through a bit more winter before spring weather becomes the norm.

We used this wet weather day to work inside and started the day by painting this wall in the kitchen. It's a colour that Porters calls White Clay, but the guy who mixed it at the store (a friend of Keiths) nicknamed it Sick Camel and it seems that it will only be known by this name now. . .

I also finished this rug that was started a long time ago in a slightly different way. When I didn't have any wool and was looking for something to do one night, I found the squares I'd started and undid them, then started again making a giant granny square.

I like the way it turned out, particularly the wide border and of course am feeling very pleased with myself for getting it finished quite quickly!

Keira's birthday is on Monday but the celebrating starts tomorrow so this Lemon Cake was made and decorated with her name. It's a bit bright for my liking but she loves it.

The kids amused themselves with some cardboard that came home from Ikea, first Keira started with a K for herself.


Then Caley had a go and made a D for Dad in honour of Fathers Day tomorrow.


A good day. Enjoy your weekend!

Playing outside

This was the first load of soil delivered this morning. We're very keen to get a patch of grass growing at the back of the house and hopefully cut down on some of the red dirt that is walked inside constantly.

When I came outside to take a photo, Keith ran over and stuck his spade in the dirt. Which made me laugh because he actually used this to spread it around.

So I refuse to call it work, as this is by far his favourite toy!


This is what my work looked like today, so I guess I can't complain either.

Knock, knock, who's there?

So, it looks like I've completely missed August . . .

Oh well, I do plan to record a bit more of what's happening around here. There's a lot going on in our lives at the moment and finding time to take pictures and jot down a few thoughts has been a bit tough. But I'm disappointed when I look back at this journal and see how little I've recorded so I've set myself a challenge to make more of an effort.

It seems like a good time for a new start, the first day of Spring and all. I have been looking forward to this season with a longing unlike anything I can ever remember before and today really delivered! A beautiful warm day that allowed for the house to be opened up and gave me a much needed energy boost.

We put this door knocker on the front door yesterday and it feels like this is a home now instead of a building site!

I finished Keira's Big Round rug a little while back and it's been busy keeping her warm in bed ever since.

This is the border that I added after sewing the blocks together.


Happy Spring!

Back to School

After three weeks of school holidays, it was a very quiet morning tea time here today. It's been really great to have had Keira and Caley around while Keith and I continue to work on getting the rest of the house habitable. We had given ourselves the deadline of these holidays to try to have the children's bedrooms ready, well we haven't made it. We're waiting on the Electrician, he's now supposed to be here on Wednesday . . .

We take heart by looking at how far we've come, and for me the fun part of playing around decorating the rooms is just around the corner. Time to get that folder of ideas out and get inspired to keep working.

Today's job - working on the staircase. Oiling treads and painting balustrades. All 47 of them!

(ps. I did manage to take the kids on a few outings these holidays and I'm sure they've enjoyed the break - I wouldn't want it to sound too much like boot camp around here!)

Flashback 1980's

Yesterday we had a visit from one of our new neighbours. She had come to see who had bought the block of land that apparently she knows very well and is very fond of. Whilst talking to her, I couldn't stop imagining brightly coloured knits and graphic designs of Australian images, basically it was straight back to the early 80's !!

Yes, Jenny Kee is one of our new neighbours. I knew she lived in the area, there is a large mural in Blackheath that she painted a long time ago, but she was the last person I expected to see when I looked up from painting doors in the garage yesterday!

(It was a good excuse for a break though!)

Escape route

Wow, that last week went by sooooo fast!

The 'staircase man' has just been to measure up our space for the stairs. This is very exciting - upstairs is just sitting there with no easy way up . . .

What I have in mind is similar to this picture. Ours won't be curved, and will have a wooden banister instead of iron but otherwise very much like this.



What's waiting upstairs is the much longed for room of my own!! I can't quite believe it really, a room for doing my projects, where everything can be left out and not packed away.

All those who like to sew, paint, read, knit, crotchet, drink tea, daydream . . . . will be welcome.

Too close for comfort

After all the rain, it was wonderful to have the sun back for the weekend. All of us we're keen to sit and bask in it as much as possible. We also went on many walks around our new back yard.

There's quite a bit to explore, with 20 acres of bushland that's only slightly been cleared. Of course that means we're living quite closely with the wildlife! So far that's consisted of grey kangaroos and a little mouse-like marsupial called the Yellow-footed Antechinus. All quite cute and easy to live with, especially now that we've stopped the antechinus from coming inside the house!

But this morning we met another resident, a rather large Brown snake. Keith, Keira and Honey were walking along, when Honey ventured off the path and started madly barking at something. Keith and Keira kept walking and then Keira waited for Honey to follow. When she wouldn't come, Keira went back to see what was going on. Only to get the shock of her life!



Honey, apparently was very close to the snake which as Keira put it (through much wailing) "was moving towards me". She couldn't get Honey to follow her, so raced ahead to catch up with Keith and he ran back and picked Honey up and brought her back to the house.

Honey was extremely excited and we were all very worried that she might have been bitten. But she's shown no sign of it and I think she's been very lucky to get off so lightly from such a close call!

So now I'm wondering who else is out there for us to meet!

A new home

Well, that little break I planned to have from posting on this blog has really blown out!  I needed to get so much done over Christmas and New Year that I just had to let it go.  But it's interesting that I really feel like getting back to making regular posts, I think blogging gets under your skin after a while.  It's also something only other bloggers 'get', I think.

Anyway, we have a new home! Yeh!! We moved in early in January, to a not-quite-ready house and have been living in a building site ever since.  It's not too bad really, I shouldn't complain, I mean we've got walls and windows, a roof, a small bathroom, mmm, oh and our kitchen has just been installed!

The plan is to live in one end of the house (approx. 1/3 of the house) while the rest is being finished.  I just couldn't face moving into a rental house and then having to pack it all up to move again, and this way more seems to be happening with us here to keep things going. 

It's a beautiful spot that we're all really enjoying, especially at the moment with the children on school holidays.  We're having a break from schedules, early starts, homework, etc and just taking it easy.

Back soon, hopefully!

Feels like Spring

I found this pot around the side of our house, discarded from last year with the bulbs still left in it. A nice surprise to find it growing happily amongst various other abandoned items! So today its been brought inside for everyone to enjoy.

This is our second day of true warmth and sunshine. Everyone seems to have just that little bit of extra energy and a big smile on their face. I've opened every window in the house to let the fresh air in, really hope that's it for winter this year.

Comfort Food

I got a hot tip about this recipe - it's Chicken sauteed with cheese & milk from the beautiful Apples for Jam by Tessa Kiros. As promised, it was very quick to prepare and loved by children and adults alike when served in our house. It is now destined to be a firm favourite around here. That's the great thing about this cookbook, it's full of the sort of food you want to make for your family and the sort of food your children will remember when they've grown up. Many of Tessa's recipes I can remember my mother and grandmother making for me, actually I would never of thought of them as recipes, just quick dishes that you loved, for me there are a couple that I always asked for when I wasn't feeling well and I now make them for my two.

We took a quick run up to Blackheath to check on the progress of our new house this morning. Most of the internal walls are now in place, so you can get a real feel of what it's going to be like living there. Very exciting!

This will be our kitchen one day . . .

Kitchen colour

I'm thinking of doing something like this in our new kitchen. The painted chairs are fun and something I can do myself. It shouldn't be to hard to find inexpensive pine chairs to paint and then I can look for a rustic, country table. I wonder if everyone will want to sit on their favourite 'colour' each morning!

A very big WIP

Our New House is coming along quickly at the moment. After what seems like a lot of work, we are now seeing it emerge from the ground and there have been lots of decisions to make about windows and doors, for example. Of course a lot of these things have already been worked out but there is something about standing there in the room to really crystallise how you'd like it to be and luckily with Keith as Owner/Builder/Project Manager and our builder Peter working together we can finalise some things as we go.

It was a beautifully warm and sunny afternoon on Sunday. Keira was at a rehearsal for the school musical so Caley, Keith and I pottered about imagining how it will be like when we live here. It's really lovely to see Caley running around making up games in the bush, he seems so at ease and relaxed.

Was very proud of Keira for going along to audition. They had to go in by themselves and sing a short song and then recite a poem or say a reading from a book in front of two teachers from school. She learnt a small poem and decided to sing "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini". Afterwards, I asked her how it went and she was very happy - it really seemed to be a pleasant experience for her. I can't begin to imagine singing (especially unaccompanied) in front of anyone when I was 8 years old or now for that matter! I hope she can keep some of that beautiful carefree and unselfconcsious way about her as she grows.