More of the Same

My Christmas Decorations

2011-12-18T11:26:00.000+10:30

Pictures of my Christmassy stuff :)

Stitchy Christmas Finishes

2011-12-18T11:19:00.000+10:30

Finally got the sewing machine going to finish off some finished cross stitch.

Rose cutting is still growing

2011-09-30T07:41:00.000+09:30

Now decisions, decisions...when to transfer it to the garden and where to put it?

Rose cutting is growing

2011-09-19T05:57:00.000+09:30

You can just make out the new growth on the one in the front of the pot.

Verandah

2011-09-19T05:55:00.000+09:30

Before and After shots. Now to tidy it up and use it all summer.

Stitchy Finishes and Flowers

2011-03-12T10:28:00.000+10:30

Red Roses that line the path to the door.

Sturt Desert Peas

Double Delight Rose

Another Double Delight rose

I Used to Be Cinderella

Roses won in the Bed of Roses Competition

A quick stitch for the coffee fanatic

Kermit and Miss Piggy Cushion

I'll Take It

Feeding the birds

2011-01-17T08:35:00.000+10:30

Look what I woke up to today.

All enjoying the sunflowers.

Flower Power

2010-12-20T13:46:00.000+10:30

Pink Gladioli

Yellow Gladioli

My garden

Sturt Desert Pea.

I love my flower garden.

Been busy making Christmas goodies

2010-12-13T19:12:00.000+10:30

Some of the goodies I have been making. Lucky there are plenty of people to help eat them.

Toffee Truffles

Chocolate cups

Coffee truffles

Christmas puddings

Marshmallow truffles

Peppermint Ice

Giant freckles

Welcome to Summer??

2010-12-08T06:25:00.000+10:30

Before the rain.

After the rain :( Drooping before falling over.

Think the tank is full.

What happened to the heat. So much rain, the ground is waterlogged and my poor sunflowers are droopy and worse - falling over :(

Sunflowers and Vegetables

2010-12-03T07:41:00.001+10:30

What a surprise when I went outside this morning to pick some vegetables for dinner and found 1 giant zucchini among the other vegetables. Oh and thought I'd show off my 'autumn shades' sunflowers with up to 12 flower heads on each I can't wait till they all bloom. The little yellow sunflowers are the dwarf sunflower bushes which will grow and produce masses of small sunflowers.

Watch my garden grow :)

2010-11-14T19:54:00.000+10:30

Woo Hoo I finished the front garden, well apart from edging the kidney shaped lawn area and nursing the mess that pretends to be a lawn back to good health. The sunflowers may only be waist high this year but a few of them have 12 flower heads on them. Can't wait till they bloom. Here are some photos of my latest efforts. The third photo shows the section I dug today and the fourth photo shows what it looked like by the end of the day. Should be pretty when the geraniums grow.

One of my favourite flowers

2010-10-23T20:09:00.000+10:30

Called pig face it thrives in the full sun.

A seedling bench, a bad dye job and gardening :)

2010-10-12T16:35:00.000+10:30

More photos to share. John made me a bench for my seedlings.

Simon wanted blonde hair, but ended up "blorange".

The garden is still a work in progress, I now have all 10 standard roses planted and one even bloomed. A Harlequin it started off yellow, turned light pink, then deep pink, then red then died. More are on the way though.

Garden progress

2010-09-27T07:21:00.000+09:30

More photos, one side of the front garden is finished, the rest is still a work in progress.

Gardening and Stitching - Yay!

2010-09-08T08:09:00.000+09:30

I am making progress in the front garden between rain days, today it is raining so I am inside rather than in the garden, how will I cope?
The latest pictures of the garden progress and 2 stitched towels I made for myself.

The sun came out so I

2010-08-29T06:19:00.000+09:30

started on my front garden. Now to find the energy to do this amount of work another 5 or 6 times over!! Boy we have a big front yard. The plan is to make it as low maintenance and low water using as possible. The next big project solar panels on the roof, I'll leave some of the garden for after the tradesmen install the panels, so as to avoid crushing of plants.

We have a front yard

2010-08-24T07:05:00.000+09:30

Amazing what a fence does for our house, after all my years of complaining about our lack of a fence and the increasing number of corner cutters invading my space - right outside my front window, which was quite unnerving, we now have a fence. Let the landscaping begin.
The plan now includes lots of flowering shrubs, and roses to line the path from the front gate to the front door.

I am hoping to achieve something similar to the flower garden in the backyard, just on a bigger scale. Minus the vegetables, since the photo of the backyard shows my vegetable patch too.

I found the pumpkin photo

2010-08-05T14:05:00.000+09:30

After a morning in the vegetable garden and then potting seeds in the little bit of sun we had today, I decided to upload the photos from the camera's memory card and found the pumpkin photo. So here it is along with a shot of the little 'helper' that joined me in the vegetable patch.

Long time between posts

2010-08-05T09:58:00.000+09:30

I can't find the photo of the pumpkin crop, must have deleted it. We are however still eating the pumpkins and they are Yummy. We ended up with about 30 butternut pumpkins and were able to share with family.
If the rain holds off I plan to venture out to the garden and do a bit of weeding and planting, also have sugar cane mulch to spread. Winter crops growing now include potatoes, leeks, brown onions, red onions, beetroot, brussel sprouts, red cabbage, green cabbage, carrots, tomatoes, celery, peas, beans, snow peas, strawberries and garlic.
I have a few seedlings to plant too weather permitting: corn, tomatoes and capsicums.
My next big project outside is the front garden, as soon as the fence is up work will begin, I already have a load of plants in pots ready to transplant and 10 standard roses to line the front path to the mailbox. The fence should be up in a month and then the fun can begin.
I've also decided to reclaim one of the flower beds out the back for more vegetable space, all the flowers and plants will be transferred to the front yard. We have a big front yard to fill. WIP photos of the garden will follow - as long as I upload them to the computer before I delete them LOL.

Made Friends with my sewing machine

2010-05-03T07:19:00.000+09:30

and managed to finish a few things that I had cross stitched and started quilting some time ago. Lots of new cushions, wall hangings and ornaments are now almost ready, just a few finishing touches and they will be good to go. All the photos can be seen in my Finishing Finishes album http://www.picturetrail.com/stitchingnutz

Here are a couple

Some Work in Progress pictures of the yard

2010-04-18T08:30:00.000+09:30

More photos taken in the backyard. The bulk of the backyard is a concrete jungle, so I am breaking up the grey with some big pots, just potted some shrubs which will grow and give the yard some colour.
Also my sad potting table, which John will replace with a custom designed one, the length of the wall under my kitchen window. A perfect spot for flowers and herbs.

The back yard is transformed

2010-04-18T08:20:00.001+09:30

After the latest few hours of work, weeding and mulching I am happy with the back yard.

The gardens are done.

Long time no post

2010-03-03T05:50:00.000+10:30

Boy, time flies. I haven't posted for over a month.

Yesterday we finally lay new lawn in the back yard. All that is left now is some more red bark for the rose garden. Next we can move around to the concrete jungle that make up the rest of the back yard and make it more pleasant.

Here is the back yard before and after the lawn went in.

A Tote Bag and a Pig Cake

2010-01-16T20:39:00.000+10:30

My first stitchy finish for 2010, a tote bag. I have another 3 to do with different designs, now the trick will be remembering to take one with me when I head out shopping.

And for my birthday - my Pig Cake :) Made by me.

A 2 headed sunflower and a tattoo

2010-01-10T07:37:00.000+10:30

Out of 15 sunflowers that we grew this year only this one had 2 flowers on it, quite unusual. I plan to save the seeds and see if any more grow more than 1 flower.

And Simon, now 19, got his first and probably only tattoo.

2010 has arrived

2010-01-02T08:24:00.000+10:30

...and a friend challenged me to
"think back and name 5 things that come to mind of things that you remember" from 2009.
So let me think, maybe I can even come up with a few more Kathy.

We -
continued renovations on the house adding new blinds to the front windows.
started on the road to fighting John's skin cancer, ongoing and another appointment at the end of the month.
survived the trauma of Shane's movement disorder, Shane stopped twitching in August.
celebrated the third anniversary of the kidney transplant
bought a new (to us) car.
watched our youngest son graduate high school - yay! no more school run.
renovated and landscaped our back yard, and planted the new lawn on January 1st, 2010.
and personally I finished a lot of stitchy stuff and actually got my stuff all organised for a fresh approach in 2010.

Happy New Year everyone

Christmas and the garden

2009-12-28T07:19:00.000+10:30

Another wonderful Walter family Christmas had by all of us. Despite work schedules and a house full of now almost adult males it was still fun, exciting and a lot of laughs. Too much food, too many presents - scratch that presents are fun!

In all I had 12 sunflowers in full bloom for Christmas, along with plenty of roses. So pretty I enjoy my time in the garden so much now. One of John's gifts to me was 13 packets of assorted seeds and a new pair of garden gloves. I am already planning the additions to the garden.

My garden is almost finished

2009-12-20T06:38:00.000+10:30

Remember the disaster we started with?

Look at it now. Final stage is new lawn.

And here is the latest installment of the sunflower.

Soon to be joined by friends.

It is a tall sunflower

2009-12-16T10:18:00.000+10:30

...it is just taking a long time to open LOL. Can't blame it with the heat we are having at the moment. Here it is with Shane 181.3cm tall standing as close as possible to it.

and a close up of the bloom, so close to opening. I'll measure the diameter once it opens.

Impatient for sunflowers :)

2009-12-15T07:22:00.000+10:30

Come on already sunflower!!

My Garden - Hurry up Sunflowers!!

2009-12-14T12:18:00.000+10:30

A load of sunflowers ready to bloom, the tallest one is my height 173cm tall.

The other big thrill in the garden at the moment - my pumpkins.

My Tree Skirt is ready for Christmas

2009-12-14T09:48:00.000+10:30

YAY!! I finished it. Alma Lynne's "Alma's Country Kringles".

Gardening, Christmas, Sewing mess, Oh My!!!

2009-12-11T06:37:00.000+10:30

Seems lots of things are under way at the same time around here. With me confined by a moon boot John has been busy outside extending the garden bed and putting a path down to the mail box.

The green plastic will be the fence around the extended garden bed. Low enough for me to step over and high enough to keep the dog out. So in front of my vegetable garden I will have another flower bed. Plenty more room for roses.

I decided to pull out and organise all of my projects a few weeks ago now. Piles of 'mess' will become quilts, cushions, wall hangings and framed stitched pieces. I even managed to sew up one QS quilt top from fabrics that my mother gave me.

And finally Christmas at our house. This year I have 2 ornament trees and our main tree - which is decorated mainly by stitched ornaments and things the boys have made over the years.

Watching my garden grow

2009-11-08T07:35:00.000+10:30

Remember when I first posted.

Then it started to look like a garden.

Look at it now.

A little stitchy finish

2009-11-02T05:37:00.000+10:30

This is a kit from Displaymates, I am trying to finish up all my little things that have been accumulating over the years.

Roses of many colours

2009-10-31T19:19:00.000+10:30

John took photos of the roses today, despite the heat they are doing really well. One of the pink rose bushes has 43 blooms.

I also have white roses, yellow roses a red rose and another pale pink rose. The miniature roses have stopped flowering for now and the Black Beauty roses are just starting to bud.

The red, as John calls them or dark pink as I call them are almost ready to open.

Why?

2009-10-27T07:00:00.001+10:30

Do my photos move themselves after I publish the post? The photos in the previous post were all set out side by side and it drives me crazy!!!

Miscellaneous Stuff

2009-10-27T06:47:00.005+10:30

The gorgeous flowers John gave me for our wedding anniversary, the roses in our garden and some stitchy stuff. Once again in random order as I have yet to work out how the pictures show up one way in my draft and another in the published post LOL. Oh and a picture of Shane ready for casual day/dress ups at school.

Flowers and vegetables, Yay!

2009-10-19T07:01:00.003+10:30

All the hard work is paying off. Here somewhere (since my photos move after I preview and post) you should see the growth of the vegetable garden, the yellow roses, irises and a pinky/peachy rose ready to bloom and my potted vegetables waiting to grow big enough for the garden.

What was I thinking?

2009-10-19T06:54:00.003+10:30

When I decided to renovate the back yard LOL. Here is what it looks like after my first effort.

The plan is to dig up all of the grass, pave from the house to the mail box, along the border of the flower garden. Replace the clothesline with a retractable one. Replace the grass with nice lawn and pave alongside the driveway to even things out and reduce the amount of lawn to water and mow.

Flowers in my garden

2009-10-14T05:53:00.003+10:30

The first time the irises have bloomed in years. I forgot they were yellow, my favourite colour.

Cars

2009-10-13T07:47:00.003+10:30

From the old black car - note the oil stained driveway, to the newer green car. Yay!

Stitching and the garden

2009-10-07T13:27:00.003+10:30

Tigger towel for John.

The vegetable garden is growing and now has solar lights LOL.

The flower garden still needs weeding, but the miniature roses are gorgeous.

Despite rain and hail...

2009-09-26T19:27:00.002+09:30

I finished my garden. YAY!!!

Now fingers crossed that it all grows - corn, peas, capsicum, tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, zucchini, pumpkin, broccoli and even a few sunflowers for decoration.

Pig Presents

2009-09-22T06:32:00.002+09:30

And it isn't even my birthday. I found this little book in a newsagent and couldn't resist it and Simon bought me stacking mugs.

Cloth Book Pictures

2009-09-18T05:30:00.001+09:30

Here is the monkey and the frog, just working on the dog now :)

We Are Making a Garden

2009-09-16T14:08:00.006+09:30

A wonderful garden. Or at least it will be when we finish it. What started as an overgrown, weed infested back lawn is becoming a vegetable patch. Measuring 7m x 3m it is a good size and plenty of hard work to get it started.

Here are some in process pictures of the vegetable garden and some pictures of my pretty flowers in the flower bed (which is in need of more weeding).

Oh...

2009-09-09T06:05:00.001+09:30

I finished the B is for Ball square too

Another Page Done

2009-09-09T06:03:00.002+09:30

Here is the cat page for 'my cloth book'

Wednesday Washing Day

2009-09-02T05:45:00.004+09:30

But I would rather be stitching. I currently have my UFO pile to work through, which I guess is becoming my WIP pile.

I pulled out the afghans I have on the go and thought I would share.

I've also started Rainforest afghan, just can't find the picture on the computer at the moment.

Finished the front cover and a duck

2009-08-28T16:44:00.003+09:30

Managed to finish the front cover of the book today and the duck page. Only 5 more pages to stitch.

One of my other UFOs

2009-08-28T06:26:00.002+09:30

I am working on a cloth book and had stitched part of the cover and the word pages before it got put aside. Now I have almost finished the cover and one of the picture pages.

This was the front cover before I started stitching on it again, now it also has a monkey, a pig and a dog on it. The word page is to show you why all the word pages are stitched LOL, not much effort there. I have however almost finished the duck picture page now. Only a dog, cat, frog, monkey and pig page to stitch.

This will then be made into a book and stored for future grandchildren.

Making progress

2009-08-23T08:33:00.001+09:30

Stretch is starting to take shape.

A finish and UFOs

2009-08-19T07:10:00.002+09:30

I managed to finish Who Are These Kids? Then pulled out a couple of other things to work on. Stretch - the one with the border done, will eventually be a dragon. The other is Family Tree which needs some work.

Stitchy Pictures

2009-08-18T06:48:00.002+09:30

The 2 little finishes and the almost finished

The Pile is Shrinking

2009-08-15T05:26:00.002+09:30

Since last posting I have finished the little card and the Santa Tigger ornament and ditched Will Work for Chocolate - it became a UFO because I made a big mistake stitching the border and the Listnen Honey lady wouldn't fit in the space remaining. No point trying to unpick the bright red floss either as not only is it a pain to unpick cleanly, there would not have been enough room on the fabric to make the necessary change.
Now I am working on Whose kids are these? This one became a UFO as the chart is not the best, too small and hard to decipher, but I will finish it.
My stitching time has been interrupted though as I am helping Simon pack 10,000 bags each with 28 items to be handed out to competitiors in the City-Bay Fun Run on September 20th. His athletics club will be given $1500 for the job, but trying to get helpers is proving difficult, so Mum to the rescue.
I'll return with photos of my finishes next time.

I am on a roll

2009-08-10T09:42:00.003+09:30

Having finished Nature's Home I decided to tackle my WIP/UFO pile, shock, horror I had 30 projects started - not to mention my quilting and scrapbooking LOL. So I pulled out the first one and finished it last night, the hardest part was the backstitch as it was so random, and the reason this one was a UFO for so long.

Now what remains on my list:

Rainforest Afghan

Map of Australia

I Live For Laundry

Family Tree

Australian Alphabet Sampler

Pigs in a Blamket

EMS Animal Babies Afghan

Tigger towel

Outback Dunny

My Book

A card

Who Are These Kids?

Tree Skirt

Poem for Sandy

Pig Table Runner

Spring Angel

Stretch

Christmas Afghan

Tall Sandwich

Portia Pig

3 Faces of Santa

Pig towel

Christmas Candy Roll

Will Work for Chocolate

Santa Tigger

Heavenly Hogs

The Water's Great (Tigger)

Now I Know my ABC afghan

You'd Better Not Pout Christmas ornament

I think I had better start finishing some of these before I tackle anything new LOL

A Long Time Between Posts

2009-08-07T05:19:00.003+09:30

Well it has been a long time since I last posted and I have a few stitchy finishes to share. The big news NATURE'S HOME AFGHAN IS FINISHED!!!!! here it is along with a few other finishes. The giraffes were stitched for Charlene's 17th birthday (Simon's girlfriend), the Dancing Free pig is for me and the Fridge magnets were just a fun stitch.

Today is Tuesday

2009-05-12T05:46:00.003+09:30

More Nature's Home squares and a picture of my kitchen with the new blind. We opted for silver venetians in the lounge and dining room and are loving the look.

Stitching and an exchange

2009-04-25T09:01:00.003+09:30

Another Nature's Home Square done and a nice package of goodies from an exchange I was in with a fellow Aussie.

Water, water everywhere

2009-04-25T08:53:00.002+09:30

Look what I woke up to today. Water, water everywhere.

Tiling and Stitching, Oh My!

2009-04-12T05:25:00.002+09:30

What a busy few weeks. We finally tiled our kitchen, now we just have to touch up the paint work around the window frame and decide on window treatments - I am over curtains so we are debating blinds of some description.

On the stitching front, finally finished another square on Nature's Home and stitched myself a little pig towel.

Another week and yet another square

2009-03-11T16:25:00.002+10:30

My name is Sandy and I am addicted to stitching Nature's Home afghan squares.

Another one bites the dust

2009-03-05T09:36:00.000+10:30

I finished the square!!! It's an addiction I tell you LOL

More squares

2009-02-26T10:02:00.001+10:30

Another square finished on Nature's Home and another started. I can see the end in sight LOL

More Stitchy Stuff

2009-02-24T16:32:00.002+10:30

Still working away on Nature's Home Afghan. Really enjoying it and am managing a square a week at the moment. Fingers crossed I can stick with it till it is finished.

Finally some birthday photos

2009-01-26T06:11:00.002+10:30

Blogger finally cooperated so I can share some birthday photos.

First some more birthday balloons from Charlene - so pretty.

Here I am opening a basket of goodies.

And my girly laptop bag from John.

Stitchy Finishes

2009-01-26T06:04:00.002+10:30

Some more stitching. I finished another square on Nature's Home afghan and a little stitch'n hang kit of Santa. A couple of friends and I are planning to stitch an ornament on the 25th of each month. Little Santa here is my first ornament for the year.

OOPS I forgot

2009-01-18T05:45:00.002+10:30

Shane's girlfriend, Zada, came for dinner too and she brought me a 1000 piece Mosaic jigsaw of a pig. The pig picture is made up using a thousand tiny farm life pictures. That will keep me busy.

Dinner was takeaway from the Noodle Box along with Dim Sims, Spring rolls and fried rice made at home - and there is enough left over for dinner tonight.

My cake was a Chocolate Torte from The Cheesecake Shop, complete with pig candles.

Another Year Older and ....

2009-01-18T05:32:00.002+10:30

what a great birthday!

The morning started slowly yesterday, as usual I was the only one awake and I enjoyed my peace and quiet for a few hours.

First phone call was from my oldest sister, then from my mum and dad, then from my youngest sister. Text messages from Simon and from his girlfriend Charlene.

John woke up after a call from the TV repair guy, so the TV repair guy was our first visitor of the day. He was only there a few minutes and off again to order the part - we'll see him again in a few weeks.

Shane was the first 'kid' out of bed and he gave me new measuring spoons and a new pastry brush. Much needed and appreciated.

Simon and Charlene arrived next with a bouquet of balloons Charlene made, 3 big balloons filled with little pink and black balloons. Then they gave me a big basket filled with gifts: a pig pen; coffee to go - so cute Char wrapped a single coffee and sugar up; a coffee mug that says Love and Cuddles from your little boy; a great big soft toy pig; 2 boxes of chocolates; a pig music box; a pig air freshener; an oinking pig; Brothers and Sisters Season 1 dvds; 3 Sharpie pens; 10 regular pens; a notebook and 2 cards. Talk about spoilt.

John then brought out his gift for me. He gave me a lovely card and an instant scratchie - which one $7.00. The gift was a girly lap top bag and he filled it with wrapped gifts - a slow cooker cookbook; scented soap a Wii classic controller; strawberry chocolates and a funny face thing that looks like a stress ball with hair, eyes and nose, but it is really pliable and you can make all sorts of expressive faces. Reall cool.

Bradley gave me My Sims Kingdom for the Wii and Justin gave me My Sims for the Wii.

Pictures were taken, so I'll post some soon.

First Stitchy Finish for 2009

2009-01-13T19:54:00.001+10:30

This was another fun stitch, Lizzie Kate Double Flips, Living with Charm

My Early Birthday Present

2009-01-08T09:28:00.003+10:30

Look what I get to enjoy for a whole 9 days before my birthday is even here. Simon's girlfriend Charlene made it for me.

Playing with our new camera

2009-01-06T07:25:00.002+10:30

I decided after disastrous graduation photos of Simon that we needed a new digital camera, so we hit the sales after Christmas and found a nice one, another Kodak but lots of nifty features.

John has been playing with the panoramic feature, so hope this works in blogger. 3 Shanes Oh No!!

Forgot the Christmas Tree

2008-12-31T07:24:00.002+10:30

So here it is

Increasing Pig Population

2008-12-31T07:15:00.002+10:30

Christmas saw an increase in my pig collection, along with a pig calendar complete with a free pig jigsaw puzzle, John added the pictured pigs to my collection.

Post Christmas Post

2008-12-27T06:15:00.003+10:30

I have been a very slack blogger, quite possibly as no one reads this LOL.

Anyway we had a lovely Christmas, I was suitably spoilt as were John and the boys.

This is my latest stitchy finish, Lizzie Kate Christmas Double Flips. Definitely a fun stitch.

And some more

2008-10-01T08:12:00.003+09:30

Hoping Blogger cooperates LOL

Yay, it worked

Some Stitchy Finishes

2008-10-01T07:53:00.003+09:30

Fingers crossed I can actually get some photos to upload

Boy, almost a month

2008-09-04T06:37:00.003+09:30

since I posted.

What a month LOL. My Kia was written off after an accident, though it didn't look too badly damaged, the impact at speed pushed everything under the car forward doing a lot of damage. The frame of the passenger seat I was in broke, the driver's seat cracked, the engine mounts broke and the chassis was bent.

For now we will remain a one car family, much to Simon's dismay, but it won't be long now till he buys his own car.

I bit the bullet yesterday and bought myself a Wii and Wii Fit, was having such fun on Bradley's and could keep using his, but having my own in the house means I can use it at my convenience. Will let you know if I get fit LOL.

Stitching wise I have finished a few things this month, I'll post pictures if Blogger plays nice, if not they will be in my picture trail album.

AARGH!!!

2008-08-08T19:14:00.002+09:30

Just had to do a quick run to the shop where the boys are working as Shane had started twitching so severely he couldn't stand even stand up without support.
So the merry go round begins again.
All the specialists could put it down to was something like Tourettes, but this is ridiculous and I have to find some answers for him. First stop back to our GP and then a referral to a neurologist for a second or third opinion.
There is definitely something wrong, this time Shane complained of a stabbing pain in his back and then the spasms began. He is exhausted and in pain, poor kid.

Some Stitchy Finishes

2008-08-08T18:06:00.002+09:30

Hopefully some photos of some of the latest finishes if blogger cooperates.

A big finish

2008-07-06T07:53:00.000+09:30

Fish City is DONE!!! Hip Hip Hooray.

A Good Report

2008-06-12T17:35:00.002+09:30

YAY!! John got a good report from his renal specialist yesterday. It hit home just how far he has come since his battle with cryptococcal meningo-encephalitis in December when his specialist said they didn't know then if he would survive with his brain intact. John still has some word difficulties, searching for words when he speaks, but that is nothing compared to what could have been.
The kidney took a battering and dropped a little in function, but is holding steady, so no cause for concern. Back we go again in August, fingers crossed for smooth sailing till then, and for a long time to come.

What a week, what a night!

2008-06-01T06:51:00.003+09:30

What a lovely night we had to top off a less than lovely week LOL.

Bradley's 21st birthday party went well, he isn't officially 21 until the 4th of June, but we celebrated and had a great night. A highlight was of course the much awaited chocolate fountain.

As usual I was worried about having enough food for the masses, but ended up with leftovers. Easy day today as I don't need to cook dinner or make dessert tonight.

The weather was beautiful and when it got a little chilly we lit the patio heater and it really worked.

Great way to end the week after being told the Kia we just spent another $1200 repairing has now cracked the engine and is not worth repairing. Oh and although the bank will lend us money for a car, we can't actually afford the repayments so it looks like we are stuck for at least the next 6 months or so. AARGH!!!

I'll have to share photos later as Blogger is not cooperating.

What a Week

2008-05-04T06:24:00.002+09:30

A hectic week for sure, and some things I could do without.

Bradley and I went and had an interview with the counsellor at the TAFE, which was very productive. We will go again on June 10th to finalise his enrolment and all going to plan he should be enrolled in Certificate IV in Multimedia. Just 2 afternoons per week to start with and school starts on July 22nd.

The in law side extended family continues to meltdown and what a soap opera it has become. As much as I want to ignore it and hope it goes away, that isn't happening. Daily, lengthy phone calls are the norm.

To cap the week off my brand new stove had a hissy fit and shutdown all things electrical on Thursday afternoon, while I had a cake in the oven of course. We bought it late January and only had it installed in March, so I am not happy. It is under warranty for 2 years, so repair or replacement shouldn't be an issue. The serviceman is coming out Monday.

I have not stitched at all and am suffering withdrawal. I did however start knitting a jumper for myself.

Too tired to cross stitch as I have only been getting 4 hours sleep each night - not fun.

The birthday boy

2008-04-17T06:05:00.002+09:30

From metal mouth to stunning smile. Oh and one of the cute couple too.

Another Stitchy Finish

2008-03-26T06:31:00.002+10:30

Another little finish, a Showcase Huck Towel. I have stitched quite a few now, and have more to stitch. They wash up well and it is nice to have some useable stitching, if useable is a word LOL.

Shane is really reluctant to actually dry dishes with them and Bradley thinks they look like pictures not drying clothes, but I like them.

The other photo is the boys Easter baskets, they made them in 1996.

A Stitchy Finish

2008-03-23T07:17:00.003+10:30

Though the bathroom and toilet are done, I will wait till we put in the finishing touches, towel rail, cabinet, shower curtain, etc. before taking more pictures. It is just so nice to have indoor plumbing.

So instead of more toilet pictures, I have a little stitchy finish to share. I put my big projects (Nature's Home Afghan and Fish City) away while we have been renovating inside, but now that the bulk of the indoor work is done I can get some more serious stitching time.

This is for Shane as he loves pie. Well I think he actually loves pudding more as he often leaves the pie crust LOL.

How Exciting

2008-03-18T20:27:00.002+10:30

Another coat, this time on the floor. Called a Stone Finish, where we once had yellow terrazzo flooring we now have a granite stone finish. Gives the same terrazzo look which I quite like, but clean and fresh. We will be painting the walls in both rooms bright white too :)

I'm Going Insane

2008-03-18T17:30:00.003+10:30

But it will be worth it in the end, that is my mantra LOL

Hot weather, 6 of us in the house with no bathroom or toilet access....(we do have a portable toilet in the back yard), a couple of strange men in the house all day for 2 days straight and another 2 to go and being confined to the lounge and kitchen while they work is driving me crazy.

Add the chemical smell and the constant droning of the exhaust fans, and various tools and you can probably understand the insanity.

But progress is being made. Fingers crossed the bathroom is all finished by Thursday night, ready for the Easter weekend.

Yuck! This is my naked bathroom

2008-03-16T08:59:00.003+10:30

Yuck is right. Stripped down to the bare bones this is one dismal looking bathroom.

But work begins tomorrow and by Easter we should have something much more sparkly and white.

Stayed tuned for the after photos.

The Lounge - Nearing Completion

2008-03-12T17:16:00.003+10:30

Here it is, the new lounge room. I've attempted to show the before and after shots. We will be replacing the TV and stand with a new lowline unit and HD TV. The DVD shelves will be replaced with full height bookcases which will hold all of the DVDs John collects and family books.

We will move the 2 seater sofa out to the room Bradley and Shane share and then our room will be grown up.

I will of course have to add some pictures and cross stitch.

Time for a change

2008-03-11T06:29:00.000+10:30

I decided on a new blog, somewhere to share pictures of my stitching, my home renovations and my family with my friends and family.

Stay tuned.