2013 already...

I really can't believe where the years are going. I must admit reading a friend's blog earlier tonight made me realise how remiss I have been in neglecting my own blog and how much time had slipped away.
It has been a really busy time for us these last 2 years, a lot of hard work in renovating and restoring this house. Something that I really don't think I would ever do again but I do know that the end result will be well worth all the headaches and setbacks.

This is an older picture as I can't seem to locate a more recent one at the moment. We have completed the outside of the house and are currently finishing off painting the interior and a few other smaller things.

House being cut in half ready to go on truck at original location.

Second half on the truck ready to leave in the morning.

 

I never realised how big this house actually was until we saw it on the truck moving. The truck left at 6am on a Sunday morning with an escort as it was so big and they thought this would be the quietest time on the road for its 3/4 hour journey. It was amazing and nerve wrecking to watch it travelling along, it only just cleared the signs on the sides of the roads and only met a couple of cars and trucks and also a cyclist who thought he didn't need to move off the road and nearly got wiped out by the house.

Second half of house being put into place before being taken off the truck.

 

Roof going back on

 

 

old original kitchen minus the chimney.

New kitchen all complete, designed and built by my son.

Original bathroom transformed to a new one.





We had to add another bathroom

 along with another toilet, this was originally a bedroom but the council said we had to have another bathroom and toilet so we cut this bedroom in half and added a laundry in as well. Photos to come of finished bathrooms and laundry when I find them.

Sadly this ceiling didn't survive the moving and had water damage to it so had to be replaced. I was devastated as this was the only ceiling roses I really wanted saved as they were all handmade on site and have so much detail in each of the panels. But I have kept all four smaller corner panels and the large central panel, hoping one day I can have them fully restored and possibly put to some use..

This is what we replaced the above ceiling with, not quiet as detailed as the original but still works ok with the rest of the house.

 loungeroom - fireplace just needs painting and a few finishing touches. Walls have all been painted since this photo was taken.

hallway floors all polished and ceilings replaced and painted, walls painted and lights installed.

underfloor insulation all completely installed.

this little girl even had time to mow the lawns the old fashioned way.

 

  Finally found a more recent photo of our almost complete house. The roundabout and garden need some plants and work done on them still.

   even the wildlife visits us. We quite often get visits from kangaroos, wallabies, emus and lizards but thankfully to date no snakes.

 

So our little project is nearing completion but it has sure kept us out of mischief over the last 2 years or so. It will be great to have all the furniture we have stored in our home here removed and back into its rightful house. My passageway here has 14 large plastic tubs full of kitchen stuff blocking our front door, lucky we haven't used that door in years.

  In the meantime, the kids have all grown, some have left home and moved on with their adult lives. One son has built his own home whilst working on ours and is currently on vacation overseas. I think he has earnt his holiday well and truly. We have celebrated 18ths and 21sts, one has got her motor vehicle licence, found a traineeship and completed it and is now finishing a diploma.

We only have 3 kids left at home now, and when I say it is nice I get some weird looks from others, but I do mean it in a nice way. It is a lot less work and it took me ages to learn not to cook too much food at meal times I was so used to feeding a large family. Our youngest has began school and is now in grade 1, even our granddaughter has started school. I am still sewing and crafting in my "spare" time when ever I can grab a few precious moments which are now becoming more frequent. We have done dance exams and dance concerts, cricket and football and all the usual in between. It is never a dull moment around here.

And surprise we also managed a holiday to Queensland last year, the first we have had in nearly 20 years and it was heaven. We took with us 5 of the kids, one couldn't get time off work and the other one already lives in Queensland so she visited us up there. We had a fantastic relaxing time and caught up with other family members, but it was still nice to get home and back into normality.

We have had family illnesses, family deaths. That dreaded C word has invaded our family again but this time my mum has proven them all wrong and fought it so stubbornly that she has amazed all the doctors and specialists and now 3 years on is getting back into life with the help of maintenance chemo fortnightly.

So really nothing much has changed in my life, just as busy as what we were 2 years ago but hopefully as time goes by it will start to ease off and I can get back into my sewing and crafting seriously again.

Till next time.

 

Stupid weather...

Ha surprised you all and myself by popping in here and updating...

Isn't this cold weather just the pits.... I loathe being cold and when it is wet also like we have been having lately it just doesn't agree with me. I can never get warm and it doesn't help that our heating is still not working.. but that is life... we have to have winter and rain, I am just hoping now for an early warm spring..

I just love this picture. Nik was occupying herself in the car on a recent trip. She was yabbering away to herself and we were not really paying attention until she asked me if I thought poppy (her dog) would be scared of her when we got home... when I turned around this is what I saw.. she had sticky taped bits of material to her face to make herself into a pussy cat...lol she had me in fits of laughter.

Our house is still sitting waiting patiently for the moving men to return.... they do say we are high priority for getting this house moved but I sincerely doubt that. They are waiting on fine weather to remove the roof then load onto the trucks...... we had a fabulous week of glorious sunshine a fortnight ago and they never showed up.. to say I am a little peeved would be an understatement... the ground is so wet and waterlogged now that I doubt we will get it out until late Spring which is really disappointing for us but what can we do!

It is the second week of school holidays here now and I am really enjoying not having any routine to stick to, no netball or football training or games as they don't play (seniors and Juniors) on the middle weekend of these holidays, so I should have been having some quiet time at home... lol that doesn't happen in this household.

We have been slowly since April working our way through an overgrown frontage to our new property that due to the new Bushfire Assessments we have to clear all the undergrowth and weeds and the pile of cut trees the previous owner dumped there before we can be issued with a certificate to live in the house once it is moved.. wish we knew this before we bought it.. oh well we are now almost 100metres from the end and it is starting to look good. We currently have 6 or 7 huge bonfires on the property of scrub and weeds we have removed. We are leaving all the native plants and only removing what needs to be removed but it is so overgrown with shiny leaf and prickly bush that it is hard going.

We have enlisted the help of most of the kids, some are useful, some are not..lol

This is the first small heap we started, the rest of the bonfires are at least twice as big now. Will have to get new pics to show an update. We were going to have one of the bonfires this weekend to celebrate Josh's 21st but the weather has not been kind of late and it is too wet and cold so instead we are celebrating it elsewhere this weekend. To think it is 21 years since he first came into this world is quite scary. We have been looking back over old photos remembering him as he has grown from a tiny little baby into a wild little boy and now into a grown man who we are very proud of.

Apart from land clearing we have also had Netball training with the Victorian State Netballers, this is Tahlia posing with one of the girls.

Below is Zoe's quilt she made ( purple/green), notice almost all her squares meet up. I am not happy with the way the teacher taught them to quilt and sandwich but at least it is finished not languishing in a bag somewhere. The red,black and white blanket the girls made themselves one each and boy are they being used lots lately. The purple/white top is Lauren's quilt she started and I am finishing off....

The red knitted top is Nikayla's Acacia top, it just needs a ribbon and some blocking.. and she can wear it, very easy quick knit designed by my designer sister Tikki.

Stupid blogger won't let me put the pics where they should be so I will just have to write here about them and hope it turns out okay..

The pink and brown vest is another item I have finished along with the diagonal lace white blanket. The blanket took forever or so it seemed to finish but is nice and soft and warm. The half finished item is a diagonal lace baby jacket I am presently knitting during the school holidays, just have the front and sleeves to go. Finally the little green pants are dolls diapers I made and beneath them is 7 little kids black scarves made from polar fleece, very quick and easy and nice and snuggly warm

I also have some other items I have finished off but they are charity items so will blog about them on my other blog.

Until next time enjoy.

OK Who pinched my life!!!

As the title says who pinched the last 12 months of my life... cos I have no idea where it has gone.

wow to think it is over 12 months since I updated is a tad embarrassing to say the least. I have been actively doing things in that time though. Farm, family and sporting commitments have kept me well and truly out of mischief I can assure you.

But one of the main things keeping me busy is this "little" project..

This is my in laws family homestead, circa 1900s, that we have been busily emptying of 100+ years of hoarding everything possible from school books to old clothing and jewellery plus all the furniture.. it is presently cut in 2 pieces down the middle with a big gaping hole in the roof where the chimney used to be and hopefully it will soon be on its journey to its new location... Yep we bit the bullet and are relocating this beautiful old home to another location that suits our lifestyle more, which will also see me doing a lot less than the current 1000kms a week I am presently doing in travel.. it has been a nerve wracking and stressful time, dealing with government departments etc. etc. it is definitely not something I would do again in a hurry..lol but hopefully it will be well worth all the sleepless nights..

We have been fortunate to have found some amazing personal items including my father in laws war medals and all his gear neatly packed away in the bottom of a cupboard along with photos from the war.

So that is what I have been busy with!!

I just recently got my sewing machine back from the machine doctors where it has been sitting, waiting patiently to be fixed for the last 9 months!! No that is not a misprint, it actually took me over 9 months to get my machine fixed and returned to me grrrrrrr.. I did have to contact their head office to get any action in the end which frustrated me no end.. but I now have it back and have been sewing... yaye..

First on the to-do list was a very long overdue swap for a very dear friend.. no hints until I post.. haha..just need to find the postal address..VBG

Then I finished off all the paid jobs I had waiting and now am enjoying sewing for myself, something I haven't done in a very long time..

Zoe has also spent time sewing together a quilt top for school and she has done a really great job of getting her points and corners all lined up. Would never think it was her first time sewing a quilt, so proud of her. I have been playing around with different things, I pieced together half a quilt top that Lauren was doing at school 2 years ago until she moved schools and it was never touched again. So I finally decided if she didn't want to finish it I would. We couldn't remember how the pattern went so I just winged it and put it together how I thought it should be.. guess what!! she likes it again now and would like it for her room now........ hmmmm. we will see..

I have also been busily knitting away as usual, with lots of different projects either on the go or finished, mostly all charity knitting but I have completed a couple for family and myself.

The last 12 months we have had an 18th birthday, confirmations, reconciliations, school graduations, a large family christmas plus many other family occassions. We have had many happy occassions along with some sad occassions, we have had family illness which continues to affect and sadden us. We have endured floods, nothing like those in the north of the state and the country got but nonetheless still floods. The kids have all continued to grow up, one in particular has taken a liking to moving home again and again..lol he is currently residing at home again whilst he waits for his and his girlfriend's new home to be built, so I am guessing he won't be moving home again in the future, here's hoping anyway..lol I do love him being home though.. another son has moved out of home and started his adult life in employment. Our oldest daughter along with our grand daughter have moved interstate to live, hopefully not for too long, they are returning home tomorrow for a fortnight visit which will be nice as we haven't seen them for a long time and miss them greatly.

Well that is about it, our last 12 months in a nutshell... I will not make any promises of updating in the near future as there is no guarantee what will happen next in our lives... thanks for staying tuned..lol

wow time really does fly when you get older!!!

I really cannot believe where the time has gone.. almost a year since I last blogged.. what shame....lol
Really my life has changed and I am a LOT busier than what I was this time last year...
Some of the changes since last year have been relocating a child to a new school in another town due to some bullying in her former school. We now have to travel 20 mins morning and night to catch the bus. Her younger sister also started Year 7 this year so is now also attending this same school. We still have a son at the previous school as he is finishing VCE and is doing Year 12 this year so thought it unfair to expect him to change schools and he seems happy there with his friends. We still have one child in Primary school, grade 5, at the local school so we have 3 different bus runs morning and night... makes life interesting..
Nikayla is still at home, not attending Kindergarten or anything yet as she wasn't ready for it earlier this year but now could possibly go but I am undecided still.. don't really like the teacher.
Last year our oldest DD came back home to live with her darling little girl.. her partner turned out to be a not so nice person!! so we had quiet a houseful for a while...lol we eventually did settle in to a sort of routine albeit a really busy one.. She has since found her feet and is now getting on with her life and has gone back to Uni to get a degree. Josh has also moved out of home again. He is now into his final year of his apprenticeship, and yep I am still getting lots of new bits of furniture as he has to make all different types of things for the school side of his apprenticeship. I now have a long tall table in my hallway, a wine buffet thingy in my lounge room, a marble topped cupboard in my dining room and am expecting any day a glass doored trophy cabinet for who knows where I am going to put that. Probably are a few other items I have forgotten also.. DS2 is also into the furniture making and is about to start making me a tv unit for in the family room, but that may take a while to finish..
Cricket season came and went in a blink this year or so it seems. This year DH was president and I again did the treasury and data input.. and the club also won two premierships, A grade and D grade.. what an awesome effort on the boys behalf, we are all very proud of them. Lauren only played cricket at local level this season due to the bullying and nonsense at her last school. She lost all confidence in herself and became a very different person to who she normally is.... we pushed her to at least play cricket at local level with her mates and it did her the world of good. We at least saw her smiling again. All is well with her now in her new school, she has a great bunch of friends and seems to fit in well with all the kids...and the teachers are telling us now how happy she seems in class, we were so worried with the decisions we had made but now we know we made the right decisions. It isn't easy changing schools especially when you have been involved in that school for over 20 years... Zoe started Year 7 in Lauren's school this year, it must have been hard for her but she didnt let on once that she was too worried. She only knew 1 or 2 kids of her year level of over 200 kids.. she knew no-one she went on the bus with except her sister but has fitted in really well, has a nice group of friends and is really enjoying 'High' school..the best thing about this school is that it keeps it class sizes to a maximum of 24.. and any troublemakers are dealt with swiftly and either pulled into line or sent on their way..
Tahlia is still in Primary school and is doing okay.. one day she likes it, the next day she hates it..... small schools have their pros but also have their cons......
Both Tahlia and Zoe are playing netball this year which is great, a lot more work and travelling but it is so good to finally see Zoe participating in a sport. She has always been so little and picked on for her size but now she seems to have found confidence in herself and has been in the best players in all but 1 or 2 games.. Tahlia does really well in her grade of netball also, even though they dont score they still have encourgement awards of which Tahlia has received one or two.. and they have both met new friends through the netball... only drawback is really on Des and I.. All 4 kids play for the same club but 2 play on the Saturday and 2 play on the Sunday, that's okay we've done that with the older kids before, the problem I am finding is that they have trainings Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights. Trying to work out having kids where they are meant to be for sporting commitments etc is mind boggling but we are getting there.... Monday nights are taken up with confirmation/ communion lessons so that gives me Friday/nights at home if I am lucky. .lol
On the sewing side of things I have done ...... hmmm well not much.. dare I say.. I have managed a few small embroidery jobs for customers throughout this year and dare I say it I have done some mending.. sshhh. can't even remember last year so we just scrap that...lol have unpacked and packed my sewing room up a few times... moved things around to try and fit another bed in there.. which is about to be moved out into another bedroom real soon... now we are back down to only 5 kids at home...lol
I lost my office when Brooke and Josh moved back home last year and it is still being used as a bedroom.. and my sewing area seemed to be shrinking for awhile.. hopefully when things settle here I may get a chance to reorganise the house and my sewing room may get a bit more spacious.. it really needs a good cleanout but.........lol
One thing I have still managed to do is a bit of knitting but not much really, just enough to keep my sanity level.....I think...haha but always the optimist and looking to the future and what I can do when I get time...lol
anyways I think that is enough from me and time for bed before we have to start again tomorrow.. early start as they are having walk to school day at primary school with breakfast at school at 8am... same time Brady catches his bus.lol

Look who came to visit..

Kaylee came to visit us and stay for Easter. She has grown so much and is a real character. She is so full on that she wore me out but we had fun.

We only lost her twice while she was here.... lol we found her upstairs happily playing with all the toys. This pic shows her with her easter bunny. She loved it that much all she wanted to do was cuddle it.. we had an egg hunt which all the kids had fun with, we just had to be really quick as Kaylee had a tendency to chomp into the eggs paper and all...

One of the funniest sights for the stay was when her mum and dad left and drove out the driveway, this little character, who refused to say goodbye to them, trotted off down the driveway after them. No tears, she wasn't upset, she was just following them.. all we could do was sit and laugh before we realised she was not going to stop... pity I didn't have the video camera at the time, as it looked so funny her chasing the car. Mind you we have a rather long driveway so she was in no harm....... I did ring her mum and reassure her that all was okay with Kaylee and that she wasn't upset and that she was having a ball playing with all her aunties and uncles.. and gran and her pa......

see we wore her out...lol

I have also been making things...

After falling in a hole the week after the kids deb, I finally got my butt in gear and have made a couple of beanies for the boys.. they asked me for new ones so what's a mum to do..lol


I have finished off 3 so far and have another on the needles that I was hoping to have finished by tomorrow but that is not going to happen as I have 2 pairs of dress pants I have to hem tonight for DS2 who is leaving for Melbourne tomorrow...
This is Josh modelling his beanie.. he looks a bit rough as he had just got home from work... it is made from wool and alpaca using the 2 x 2 ribbed beanie pattern, it is nice and soft and warm. He likes it... bonus..
I have also finished Brady's but haven't got a photo yet, he grabbed it as soon as I finished it and I haven't seen it since apart from on the top of his head...lol the 3rd one I made ended up being a tad small for the boys so it has been put away until a suitable recipient is found..

My mother's day pressie..

This is what got delivered to my house last night..by Ds himself.. DS has made me this table and has also got 2 more smaller tables coming.. He has been making it at trade school during the year.. I have been really spoilt by DS when it comes to furniture. this is about the 8th piece of furniture he has made for me.. and the second coffee table. The other one he made is a squat table with storage underneath, it measures approx. 1m x 1m.. I think I am running out of room for his creations but don't tell him that... lol He is in the process of making me a wall unit/display shelf... for in our hallway.. then I think our house will be full.

While on the subject of Ds making me stuff, this is the arch way that he made for me back in March/April of this year. Isn't he a clever cookie.. I have passionfruits growing on either side of it, so hopefully they will bear us some yummy fruits..

Also he has renovated his bedroom. He removed all the 20 year old wallpaper we installed and plastered all the walls. Together we painted his room and now he has a nice new bedroom.. no pictures as yet.. I will have to make a mental note to take some...lol