Friday = Frustration

Ahhhhh, how can we spend so much time doing so little when there are so many other things to be done? Friday, a day of clear skies for the first time in weeks. Friday, my first day off work and I’m acutely aware of the piles of unwashed clothing laying in the laundry and the items of washed clothing suspended around the house in a futile attempt to dry them inside whilst it’s so wet outside. Friday, my day of domesticity. Friday, DH is off work too and decides we need to make to make some decisions about ‘things’ we need for the new house. So from 9:30am to 3:30pm we were out and about looking at various ‘things’; two timber joineries in Wauchope getting quotes for the stair treads, wooden louvers, entry door and hand rails, then to Port for a very quick lunch and visits to a kitchen showroom and a plumbing supply place. Great news – at least now we know what toilets and tapware we’re having! And it only took one entire day to make that decision! Wow weeeeeeeee

I must admit it wasn’t all bad; one of the places we visited in Wauchope was much, much more than a joinery. They also create gorgeous furnature; handcrafted works of art out of exceptionally beautiful Australian timbers. http://www.bagowoodworks.com/index.php                                                                     As soon as we walked into the showroom we fell in love with a table they had on display, it was absoluetely stunning and perfect for our new dining room. And of course we had to have chairs to go with the table; all 10 of them! I shan’t recount the discussion we had around our need (or lack there of) for 10 chairs but that’s DH’s decision and that’s what we’re getting! The table and chairs will look a lot like this (below) but we’re planning forbrown seat covers, waiting to see the actual hides before we make a final decision as there’s so much variation in colour and texture from hide to hide.

The Divas made me do it!

One very sad, neglected blog; one bad, technophobic blogger equals lots of empty pages and vacant spaces. Silly me was seduced by a cyber crop this weekend and now I’ve gotta get the pages I’ve done up here……… somehow!  Oh those Divas!  Great scrapping site and fantastic challenges but they have no idea of what a klutz I am when it comes to things like this. So if you want to see what the Divas are up to and join in the challenges (guaranteed to cure scrapper’s block!) you can find them here: http://www.scrapbookdivas.com.au/ You too may end up being prodded outside your comfort zone! LOL

 

Efforts in earnest

 

Finally! After over 2 months of waiting the plans for the rennovation have been approved by council. They came out just before the holidays but with 3 weeks of wet weather and our planned trip to Sydney and the Hunter there was little we could do. It’s all happening now though! 3 blokes and some heavy machinery: the walls are falling and the earth is moving literally! Here they are digging the footings for the extension at the front of the house. Big boys and their big toys!

 

 

 

Excitement!

Popping in quickly with a very proud Mum moment! Here we have the Nipper club champion for 2008! Not only did she win her age division but also achieved highest pointscore overall. That’s my baby!

Bountiful

  

   

A gorgeous package from ScrapAWhile arrived just in time for the weekend’s playing, here’s a couple of the pages I completed. Since it was my baby’s 13th birthday (and I’m still in mourning: my baby isn’t my baby any more!) party in town on Saturday and Nippers Club Championships on Sunday I didn’t get near as much complete as I’d hoped. This is just the start, the Cherry Arte papers are so bright and vibrant and funky, very stimulating to work with.

One step closer ……..

No, the plans aren’t out of council but since council was sacked last week by the State government that’s not surprising! We’re trying not to be concerned about when and if they’ll be approved as obviously there are far more pressing concerns for local government than our little home.

The good news is that we spent the morning with the designer who has put the plans into a very sophisticed CAD program. We could actually fiddle with the colours, textures etc changing things around to suit. They had difficulty getting the roof line right so the roof will not look anything like this pic when it’s finally done.  Thus the pointy-up long bit at the front (which looks like a turret LOL) won’t extend up into nothingness as shown here, rather it will be the height of the RL roof and angle across between 2 sections of the roof. But this is a rough view of what our new home will be like. It’s so much more real llooking at it like this rather than just viewing plans.

A week in review ………..

Finally my program at work is sorted – what a mixed bag! Orientation to Working with Older People, Orientation to Working with People with Alcohol and Other Drug issues, Orientation to Working in Community Services and two work placement classes. So I taught my classes, interviewed students for placement and made futile attempts at getting the Cert IV in Mental Health up and running. It will all fall into place I’m sure ……. I hope! Even worked an extra day covering for a colleague who has just become a first time grandma and needs to be with her daughter and bub.

At home between washing, cleaning, shopping and cooking I made 12 birthday invites for youngest DD’s 13th birthday party, got together with friends to make pages for mini albums for the special kids camp and completed 3 layouts for a cybercrop. Still working on the Easter recipe cards and the boxes have been put on hold – just gotta find the right Stampin Up stamps on Ebay to continue with those! Not really but that’s the excuse!

In search of a perfect box

Rescue Crew used the wonderful Paper Inklings PP from the even more wonderful ScrapAWhile store! Although it’s a floral theme to me it suggested ocean swells and waves breaking on the sand hence using it with SLS pics. The second layout is based on PaperLoft ‘Well worn’ range.

Another sedate Sunday

What have I achieved this weekend? Very little it seems! A house full of children as we had friends in for sleepovers both Friday and Saturday night. Along with a friend and her beautiful baby Ellie went into town for a stamping demo on Saturday. Did really, really well – didn’t buy a single stamp. Probably due more to the fact that there was no single stamps for sale rather than my shopping restraint! If I had wanted to buy any stamps I would have had to order an entire pack of 6 or more. A costly exercise and I know I wouldn’t use all the stamps in any given pack.

Nippers club championships today between showers, high seas and events cancelled due to the poor conditions. Fortunately I was helping with recording so I was able to sit in a tent out of the rain – much more preferable than standing on the beach getting soaked and wind swept.

Spent the afternoon scrapping; wet and windy weather was the perfect excuse. Caught up on recipe cards and Easter ATCs for swaps. Had the pleasure of playing with a wonderful array of goodies from ScrapaWhile! Beautiful embellishments, some great new patterned papers and the latest release core colour cardstock.

The Core’dinations cardstock is amazing! It looks like Bazzill Linen, has a very similar texture, but the outside layer can be sanded, torn or heavily creased to reveal another colour underneath.  I tried the mid blue (sorry, don’t know its product name) which showed through a much lighter blue. Used the smallest file in the Basic Grey tool kit to distress the edges of the page and also to mark out the semi circle for hand stitching. Hasn’t come up well in the scan, I’ll attempt to take a close up photo so you the difference in the colours can be seen more clearly. This has got to be my newest, favourite product -  gotta have the entire range now I’ve tried it.  That’s just who I am – an all or nothing kinda girl.