STEVE AND BEX'S FAMILY HAS GROWN!

 

I have a bit of a surprise for you.  One I've held off sharing for fear of trolls having a go.

But here goes:

ABOVE: Steve, Bex, Dante, Archer, Lily AND Marley.

Yep, Marley now lives with Steve and Bex.  She didn't even have to change her surname.  😂😅😊

Why?

Because where we are moving to would not have worked out for Marley (or us).   Marley barks when she sees ANYONE passing our home, or when she hears a strange noise.

Where we are moving to, she would undoubtedly bark and cause a problem.  We could not risk becoming social pariahs at our new village, or being complained about.

So, Steve and Bex were only too happy to adopt her.  We sent Marley to them a little while ago now, to see how it could work.

And it's been absolutely perfect for everyone.

Marley cannot see out to the road or footpath from Steve and Bex's home, so does not bark there.

She is loved and pandered to by all the family, and of course, Marley LOVES them all, especially Lily!  It is the best thing for Marley.

Another huge positive, we get to see her all the time.

And finally, and a big consideration as well....

Coco gets to live out the last few years of her life in peace, without being bullied by Marley.  Yes, Marley bullied her.  Coco doesn't miss Marley at all.

She is loving being an 'only child'.  And we spoil her rotten.  She deserves to be spoilt rotten.

Coco will be 15 years old in 5 days.   She spends the majority of her days following me around the house, and sleeping wherever I am.

So that is our news.  

Moving on to today.  I am going to potter around the house, doing a few odd jobs here and there.

Then I will make a start on some smaller runners.

We have been asked on numerous occasions if we have smaller runners?  Last Saturday was no exception.

So I will be making some over the next two weeks, in readiness for our next market at Tamahere.

10 am:  Lots of stuff got done so far this morning.  I'm very happy with my efforts.

Lacy is here, and she just helped me move a couple of things.

GM:  ONE.  MOMENT.  PLEASE...

ABOVE: Yep, he did pull some faces... until I yelled at him.  lol

Lacy and I just spent a couple of hours out and about.  I showed her around the village we are moving to, then we did some shopping, followed by a visit to Bex and Lily.  We took lunch with us, so a nice visit, just us girls.

ABOVE:  Marley has fully embraced being with the kids. So much so, that when I get up to leave, she doesn't even try to leave with me. In fact the little tart refuses to come with me!

3 pm:   I had a nap!  Lay down and was out to it for an hour.  Must have been tired, I've not been able to nap for ages, try as I might.

It never actually feels good when ya wake up again, but never mind.

ABOVE: The first of a run of smaller runners.  It's just the top, not quilted or bound yet.  I'm going to make about 6 in a row then quilt and bind them all in one go.

8.30 pm:  I got a bit more done in the sewing room this afternoon, will show ya tomorrow.

Stew arrived home and we both had some dinner before settling down for a couple of hours in front of the telly.

And that is me for the day.

Catch ya tomorrow.

BYE BYE BLUE

 

A few months ago, I offered our leather lounge suite to Steve and Bex.  But then I changed my mind.

3 days ago we put an offer in on a much, much smaller home, and realised the leather lounge suite would be too big for the lounge there.

So, we again offered it to Steve and Bex, and they are more than happy to take it.  

So today it is going over to their home.  And we shall be keeping the Cream La Z Boy suite.

The house is going to look a bit empty !

But that's all good, because it means we will have that much less big furniture to move in 3 months time.

Downsizing is extremely freeing I must say.  It's like a MASSIVE declutter.  

I really am loving it.

There will be more decluttering going on once we have moved, and can bring back from storage all we have there too.

ABOVE:  I know I posted this back in December, but it's so appropriate for us now, and worth posting again.

I am sure I will 'WANT' more stuff once we move, and have sorted everything out.  Like a new oven, range hood, lights etc.  But all that can wait for now.

Now all I want is for time to fly, and May to get here quick.   I'm not too good when it comes to being patient. 

And back to now...  better get up and make a start on our day.

ABOVE:  And there it goes, the first load over to the kids.  There's probably two to go.

Nice time to do it, not too hot yet.

ABOVE:  Our lounge for the next 3 months.  Not much to move in there now.

ABOVE: Our entry foyer.  COMPLETELY EMPTY!

The new home doesn't even have an Entry Foyer!  lol

We are killing time today.  We are going out later on to check out how our furniture looks in Steve 'n' Bex's home.

So, we went to the mall, had a wander around for about an hour, grabbed a quick lunch (nothing special, just food court crap).

We also went and made sure the Samsung Double Oven is still available (it is), and got a brochure on Range Hoods.

ABOVE:  Waiting for Stew.  Pretty concrete I must say.

Home now, and still killing time.  We might even go for a walk down by the river again, just a little one as OMG, it's a hot day again.

Yeah nah.  No walk, as it just got hotter this afternoon, with virtually no wind.  The heat just simmered and hunkered down.  Horrible.

We visited the kids and admired their new lounge suite, which fitted in their lounge just fine.

Came home and made Vietnamese Spring Rolls for our dinner.  Again, they were just lovely.  Stew appreciated the work involved to make them, but as I said to him, they are no more 'work' than most dinners.

I just finished watering all the gardens and pots.  Time to just relax for the remainder of the evening.

Catch ya tomorrow.

FIVE O'CLOCK IN THE FRIGGIN MORNING!

 

OMG, we are up in pitch darkness!

What the hell are we thinking???

Attending the Morrinsville Country Market means we have to leave by 5.30 am, to get there at a decent set up time.

We are leaving extra early as we have never attended this market before, so want to give ourselves time to get there (it's about a 30-35 minute drive away), and we need time to find where to go.

As you all know, I kinda DETEST getting up early, and this is VERY EARLY.  At least this market only goes until midday.  We will be home by 1-1.30, which gives me plenty of time to have a crabby nap.  lol

I will post a few photos of the market once we are set up and have ourselves sorted.

ABOVE:  well it didn't take us long to get here. And it's still dark.

ABOVE: Still dark... the organizers are setting up. Oh yes, we were the very first people here. Lol

ABOVE: Slowly everyone is getting here and setting up.

ABOVE: His nibs relaxing. It's 7.15 am and we are ready.

1.51 pm:  Home.  Unpacked.  Did a few jobs.

Now... exhausted.  But happy.

We did fairly well at the market.

And that was pretty good as the town had it's A&P Show on at the same time.

So next month there will probably be even more people turn up to the market.

I now reek of dog... cos I bathed Coco, who was rather smelly.

When Stew starts complaining.. I have to act.  😖

Bathing dogs is not one of my favourite jobs, not at all.

The bathroom ends up smelling like wet dog, and so do I.

A shower for me it now top of my 'to do' list.  edit:  Had me shower and cleaned the bathroom... all smells nice again.

Stew is at the supermarket, stocking up on Diet Coke and his work lunch food.

3 pm:  Stew arrived home with the groceries, so I went and lay down on our bed for my 'crabby nap'.  Didn't happen.

Phone kept pinging.  So I'm up.  

We have decided we're too tired to cook anything for dinner, so we are going to our favourite Indian Restaurant instead.  

ABOVE:  Well ... another celebratory glass of wine did pass me lips.  And Butter Lamb.  It is always excellent.  Stew tries a different dish when he has dinner there, but mostly he loves Chicken Tikka Masala, which he had this evening.

Now we are home, and going to settle down and just relax till bedtime.   It is STINKING HOT, but I doubt that will keep us awake tonight.

Catch ya tomorrow.

FIRST COUNTDOWN BEGINS

 

Once the purchase is UNCONDITIONAL, we start the last countdown, which will be:  

Moving OUT, and MOVING IN DAY.  Won't that be fun!  lol

ABOVE:  18 months ago we bought this Peach/Apricot hybrid fruit tree.  It's first season it produced NOTHING.  Kinda to be expected of a very young tree.  

ABOVE:  This season?  Not a huge amount of fruit, but some.   I'm happy we get to taste them before we move.

This morning I am picking Lacy up, then going over to Bex's.  From there we are going off together so I can show them around the OUTSIDE of our new home.

Neither has been there before, so it's going to be fun showing them around.

At this point in time, I will not be sharing any photos, not until it is ours legally.  At the end of May.

When we get back home again, I will come home and do some sewing.  No major jobs today.

12.31 pm:   Well you will be happy with me.  I've done bugger all today!

Bex, Lily, Coco, Marley and I went out to look around the new home.

Lacy couldn't make it after all.

We enjoyed ourselves, and even had a couple of lovely chats with ladies who will eventually become my neighbours.

It seems to be a very friendly village I must say.

I am so looking forward to moving there.

PETA:  We have an area out the back that can easily be contained for the dogs.   We just need to put up a gate.

ABOVE:  Vietnamese Spring Roll ingredients...

ABOVE:  Lunch is made.   And it was delicious.

I shall be making some for Stew's dinner later on.  They are best eaten very fresh.

ABOVE:  Well our coffee table runner is done.  I agonised over what to bind it with... black, multi coloured strip or pinkish.  In the end I stayed safe with black.  It looks great.

I shall make some coasters tomorrow.  edit:  no I won't, I'll be at market!

I'm holding off making chair arm covers for now.

JUST.  IN.  CASE.  I decide to do something else in the lounge in the 'new to us' house.

Today has been very cruisy for me, no rushing around getting some job done.  

When Stew gets home we have to pack the car for market tomorrow.

It is going to be our very first time at the Morrinsville Market. 

ABOVE:  It's in Canada Street, which is off the main shopping street.  Easy to find.   I am hoping it goes well, because we would like to find one more market to do on a regular monthly basis.

7.27 pm:  Stew arrived home and we immediately loaded the car for tomorrow.

Then we had something to eat, and have now settled down for the evening.

We won't be up late considering we have to get up goddam early tomorrow.

And with that said, I'm outta here.

Catch ya tomorrow.

SLOW DOWN!

 

My mind and body are telling me to SLOW DOWN.

We have three months until we move.  And I need to stop racing around like a mad thing, trying to get everything done NOW.

ABOVE:  I need to heed those words.

This afternoon we will be making an offer on the home we saw on Monday.   If all goes well, and our offer is accepted, it will go UNCONDITIONAL in a couple of weeks.

It's all a waiting game right now.  I hate waiting games! 

With those words (above) in mind, I'm actually not going to do much today.  

First up, I will paint the last two walls.  I have been procrastinating over them, they should have been done yesterday, but I just couldn't face yet more painting.     

Once that is done I will have some enjoyable sewing time.  I was going to buy some fabric that would suit the lounge suite we will be taking with us, but I might not need to.

ABOVE:  I have decided to use one of the Dragonfly Panels instead.  I shall have to cut it down a bit so it's not too big, but I reckon it works.

It certainly 'tones' in with the Patchwork Chair!  lol

ABOVE:  The other thing I need to make is fabric covers for the  arms of these chairs.  Stew is a bit of a piglet, the arms of his chair will be filthy before we know it.

IN FACT, last night he dripped Soya Sauce on one of the arms!  So yeah, I will be making quite a few, so I can switch them out as he messes them up!  😂😁😅

A conversation with Stew the other night.

He looked at me and said "I'm worried about this move."

I was like "Why?  This was your idea!"

And he replied:

"I am never gunna know where I'm sitting in this new house when I come home, because you will be able to move our lounge chairs around all over the place!"

One 'downside' of not having the big Blue Leather Lounge Suite!!!!  Or is it an UPSIDE??? LOL

I'm going to LOVE moving shit around.  😂😅😁

ABOVE:   8.25 am and the second to last wall is painted.  And the skirting boards are cleaned, one less job on moving day.  Ignore the weird lights on the wall, they are from the kitchen lights reflecting on wet paint.

One more wall and I can put the goddam paint shit away.  

10.22 am and all the painting I intend doing is DONE.  Paint tray, brushes, roller etc all cleaned and put away.

I had a shower to get all the paint off ME.  

Our Estate Agent just rang, she's working with the other agent to get our Contract to Buy ready for us to sign.  She just has to get a couple of points sorted out.

So that is ticking along in the background.

I have sat down for a rest.  YES.  Rest.

It may not last long, but I am taking breaks when I feel I need to.

Seriously, there isn't too much more I can do around here now.

1.47 pm:  I went out at lunchtime, picked up Stew and we headed over to the Real Estate Office.

ABOVE:  We have signed a contract to buy.  Now we have to wait for the agent to present it to the current owner.

Hopefully they don't want to haggle, cos I'm really not in the mood to haggle YET AGAIN over a house.

I tell ya, the paperwork on this deal seems bigger than the darn house!

I don't know if I've mentioned it on here, but the house we are buying is a TEENY, TINY place, and will be only just big enough for us.

Next thing.

I know I'm going to upset a few people (obviously), but NO, we will not be replacing our La Z Boy Lounge Suite.

WE like it.

It is very comfortable.

It is practical for the space in our new home.

And YES, we will have arm rest cloths, cos they are easy to clean.  I don't freakin well care if it looks like an old folks home.

ONE day ... we will be old folks.

We only have to please ourselves at the end of the day.

I'm now having a rather late lunch of crackers and salmon dip.  Really YUM.

AND ... my feet shall stay up for at least the next couple of hours.  See?  Taking it easy.

VERY QUICKLY... I do have some news, but am out right now so will fill you in later.  

House purchase negotiations went on for two hours... and by 5 pm we had a result we were all happy with... and our contract was signed by all involved, dated and sent off to the solicitors.

DONE.

We have a two week wait for that contract to become UNCONDITIONAL.  Our conditions of purchase are standard, and should not hinder the purchase.

Stew went to the pub as per usual for a Thursday night, I visited the kids then joined Stew for an hour or so.

Home now.

Knackered.

Feel wrung out.

I detest 'house negotiations', but this time we came out much happier than in previous negotiations.

Time to sign off for the day, it's been A LONG DAY!

Catch ya tomorrow.

LOSING TRACK OF TIME

 

I'm exhausted.

Some days I wake up and I have NO IDEA what freakin' day it is.

I know I have a big list of things to do, and I am slowly getting through them.  But not necessarily in the right order.

I start one thing, walk down the hallway and see something else I need to do, and do it.  Then wonder why that other job isn't already done?

Derrrr.

Yesterday I didn't get our bed made until almost 5 pm!  I took the headboard off our bed, to clean the wall and skirtings behind the bed.... so that delayed making the bed.  Then,  halfway through doing that job, I started doing something else, and so the bed didn't get made.  See?  So distractable. 

ABOVE:  Our Estate Agents gave us this lovely gift, to celebrate selling our home.  How nice is that.  Those two little blue pottery dishes for the relish's are delightful.

ABOVE: As I mentioned yesterday, I'm giving Steve and Bex the blue Leather Lounge Suite. It's already in the other lounge awaiting the weekend, when it will go over to the kid's house.

We will be left with the cream La Z Boy Suite, and the Patchwork furniture.

With that in mind... the teal/blue table runner I made for that coffee table, and the matching smaller one for the small coffee table between our lounge chairs are now not the right colour.  They do not 'go' with that furniture at all.

So they are going back into my market stash.

And I will need to make something else for the coffee table.

YAAA, something to sew!  I might even need to buy some fabric that will suit... such a shame (but not really).  As ya all know, most of my fabrics are in storage.  😖😕😂

Well... I better get up and start the day.  I wonder what I will get done today?  

- take a load over to the storage unit.

- finish the painting.

Dunno what else yet.

Ooooh, I just remembered something.  I'm going to Cambridge this evening to catch up with some friends.  Something lovely to look forward to.

11.22 am:  Well a good morning so far.

I took a load over to the storage unit.

I bought more vacuum bags.

Grocery shopping for fruit etc for this evening.

And once home, Lacy visited me for a while.

Now... I am going to tidy up the sewing room, as it's a bloody tip right now.  Boxes/stuff to wrap etc all over the place.

3.03 pm:  The batteries died again.   I'm just SO DAMN TIRED!

And my legs hurt.  I did lots of 'squats' yesterday painting the lower half of the walls.  I don't like doing bloody squats!

So, not doing much else for the remainder of the day, just making a plate up to take to my friends this evening.

9.59 pm and I'm home from Cambridge.  It was a really lovely catch up with my friends, lots of laughs and yakking.  My friend 'D' made us some Vietnamese Rice Paper Spring Rolls, and they were so delicious. I'm going out tomorrow to get the ingredients to make us some in the next few days.

I have made them before, but forgot just how lovely they are. 

And well, that's me for the day. 

Catch ya tomorrow.

NOW WE HAVE TO WAIT

 

Well, I thought all the stress was over.

But, it probably isn't.

We have to wait a few days before we can make an offer on the home we viewed yesterday.  

When you are dealing with rather elderly owners, you can't rush them.  

So... there's a few days before we can put something on paper.

Meantime, I'm stressed out... AGAIN.  

Today I shall continue packing stuff.  I still have the Britto to pack up.

And I will probably make a start on sanding all the little spots on walls that need sanding, then painting.

I have a load I can take over to our storage unit as well.  So see?  Plenty to do.

Stew is back at work today, it was nice having him home yesterday I must say.  Nice to have company on a Monday.

OMG, 10 minutes is all it took for me to sand all the little spots on the walls that needed it.  I can now get the painting done.  

I shall work on that today before anything else I think.  Get it off my bloody mind.

ABOVE: Lunch and dinner cooked for the next few days.  I'm going to have a chicken wrap for my lunch.  It smells SOOOO GOOD.

ABOVE:  I should have the entry way walls finished in about half an hour.  Making good progress, but heaps more to do.

I can't just spot paint, the entire wall has to be done or it looks Ikkkkk.

12.15 pm:  And I've had me lunch, it was delicious.

And... I can't believe it.  I reckon I will have all the painting finished by this evening, if not sooner.

ABOVE: This corner in the kitchen/family room is the worst of the lot, and I've got it prepped for painting.  It won't even take long.

Then I have to do two more biggish walls and I'm done!  

DOGSTARS:  I have the right paint because when we had the entire interior of the house painted about 4 years ago, we bought enough paint for just this sort of thing.  Touch ups.  And you always have to do touch ups along the way, even if you are not moving.

In order to access the family room wall, behind the blue lounge suite... I had to move that lounge suite.

OMG what a job.

But.  Triple blessings.

1.  I can get to the wall to paint it.

2.  I can try and remove all the furniture dents IN THE CARPET now.

AND the third blessing... we are gifting that lounge suite to S 'n' B.  It is too big for our potential new home.

It would have been massively cramped in the new lounge with that suite, PLUS my new Patchwork Chair and Ottoman.

Something I really shouldn't have bought in hindsight.  But it is what it is, and I have them now.

3.44 pm.  And I've ground to a  halt.  Totally spent.  Moved furniture.  Vacuumed.  Cleaned the last walls ready to paint.

Didn't paint them.  Just too tired.  They can wait until tomorrow.

I'm very, very happy with what I got accomplished today.  3/4's of the walls are done.  

Our Estate Agent rang to talk to me.  She was gobsmacked I was painting walls!

But I couldn't not do it.  I would hate to move into a new home and find shitty looking walls.

In fact,  the last house we previously made an offer on had shitty walls.   It looked to be a really bad, rushed job by someone who didn't even bother prepping.  Even the ceiling was botched!  Note to self, never wash or paint just one small section of the ceiling, it makes the rest look hideously dirty!

So, I'm just sitting here now... looking at a basket full of washing that needs folding.  I might just keep looking at it for a while.  😃😂

5 pm:  I got a 2nd, or was it a 3rd wind?  And finally got all the Britto wrapped up and into boxes.  That is a big job done.    NOW I am going to stop for the day, cos I am now seriously DONE.

A funny for the end of the day:

"We must all do our part for the planet.  

The other day I unplugged a row of electric cars nobody was using".

Stew and I thought it was rather funny.