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

I am good at being slack...

I cannot believe how long it has been since I last wrote here.. it is just mind boggling how quickly time is passing.. but I do have a reasonable excuse apart from all the work with the kids and the farm.. I have been busily getting 2 kids organised for their 'Debuts'... DD and DS both made their debuts together this year.. and boy am I glad that is over and done with now.. talk about hectic.. hair trials, dresses, suits, dance lessons.. well you get the idea... Peer pressure tried it's best to lure us into doing things dd wanted but I stood my ground.. lol no $300 hair extensions, no expensive dress or jewellery... I was a meanie...hehe DD did get hair extensions, they cost all of $5. It pays to know your hairdresser. They blended in beautifully with her real hair, you couldn't tell which was her hair and what wasn't.

She wanted a particular style of dress and we spent months looking for just the right dress with no luck..... so we bought a plain sweet heart neckline dress off the rack and I stupidly said I would adjust it to make it like she wanted..... never again. I finished the dress at 3pm on the afternoon of the presentation..... after many late, late nights spent sewing on beading.. but she got what she wanted and was pleased which was the main thing.

I can honestly say boys are much easier when it comes to debs.. DS only needed to be measured up for his suit, he wouldn't even let me get his hair cut.... but I must say they both looked stunning for the deb. This is DS and his partner. I am constantly amazed to see how much the kids have matured and grown up. It only seems like yesterday we were spending hours in doctors waiting rooms and surgeries with this little man as sick as, bucket under his chin and stripped down to only his nappy... I am so glad those days are behind us..

And this is Miss DD. See all those ruches...... they took a looooong time, there are tiny beads all flowing outwards from each ruche all the way around the skirt. The skirt consists of 10 layers although you can't tell in this pic..

This picture shows better the fullness of the skirt, although the lighting in the stadium was not good for taking photos. See all those black drapes in the background... there were meant to 32 drapes all up but time got the better... we did manage to finish and hang 24... not bad...... another never again I am making note of...lol

This pic shows the detail in the back of the skirt. For some unknown reason I didn't get a photo of Lauren and her partner together apart from when they were dancing... but we are still to get the professional photos so they should be good.

so I have been busy just not neglecting everyone....

New job for DS..yaye

We have been holding our breaths and hoping that something good would turn up for our son after he was laid off from his apprenticeship well over a month ago.... but as it seems to be a sign of things to come around here we were not hopeful.
He has been working very hard here at home and on the farm since he returned home and has even said he enjoyed the farm work.... He has built me an archway I had been asking for since before christmas, DH really isn't the handy type around the home.....lol but now I have a nice new archway for my passionfruits to grow on.. and they have already been planted and are hopefully going to bear us lots of fruit in the coming years...I will take a photo tomorrow in daylight if I remember... plus now he is painting the house.. we finished our renovations 7 years ago and DH still hadn't finished painting the new parts...lol they just needed the top coats... but Josh is starting at the older part of the house and working his way around and redoing the whole house..lol it looks so much better already......
Anyway a friend of ours heard Josh had returned home after being laid off from work and put the wheels in motion for him to pick up some casual work labouring with a local builder.. fantastic.. well the best was to come... Josh started working on the Wednesday and by the following Monday the builder had signed up Josh to finish off his apprenticeship. This builder is also a qualified joiner so Josh can finish his apprenticeship with him. I wasn't game to believe or even dream this was true until all the paperwork was done and signed.... but it is now and fingers and every other limb I can cross is crossed that this will be long term and get him thru his apprenticeship.. at long last someone up above is looking out for us...... yaye..