SIN BIN

We now have a 'sin bin'.

Where naughty dogs get put.

Well I should say DOG. Singular.  Only one dog has to go in it.

TALLULAH.

She is getting right up my nose now.

The kids took both dogs for a walk yesterday, in the rain even.  You know, so they wouldn't get bored.

But when they got home they both had dirty, wet paws.  So I confined them to the garage and outside...  and well... Tallulah decided she wasn't happy about that.

So she did this:

ABOVE:  This is the THIRD time in as many weeks that she has done this... and if we are not careful she is going to escape!

So.  I locked her in JUST THE GARAGE, thinking she would be ok in there.   Then I re-thought that pretty quick.   Out came the vacum cleaner... cos I don't want that chewed up.
Then I just said, stuff it, she can go in a crate.

So:

ABOVE:  She went into the big crate.  And she can't do ANY damage to anything while in there.  And her paws can dry out and then she can come back inside the house.

SORTED.  It makes me so crabby when she's like this.  Coco is perfectly content no matter where she is, or what she's doing.  Or not doing.  

Both dogs are going to the groomers today.  Trying out the groomer(s) at Animates on Te Rapa Road now.  Not happy with the groomer at the other Animates in Hamilton.  Not sure if I told you but I witnessed her PUNCHING a dog she was grooming!!!

Like hell is she ever getting her hands on my dogs ever again.

While the dogs are at the groomers, the kids and I will go to The Base for lunch and a wander around.

And that is all for now.  Catch ya later.

ONWARD...

Well... back from the groomers.

The dogs look awesome.


Oh and while I'm fucking pissed as... ANON... you can go fuck yourself.  What I do with my dogs is MY FUCKING BUSINESS.  

What do ya do when you are that angry and frustrated?  React.  So.  I reacted. 

I'm coming up to the 10th Anniversary of this blog (14th October).  I'm considering (VERY SERIOUSLY) making my last blog post on that anniversary.

WHY?

Because of the haters.
Because of family not liking me blogging.
Because sometimes it's all just too hard to carry on with it.  
Because I'm heading for another downward spiral too I think.  No idea why.
I just feel down more days than not right now.

 EDIT:  I reacted TO YOUR COMMENT ANON.... I was NOT talking about my dog.  And stop wasting your time leaving more dumb arse comments, they will just get deleted.

Right, it's been a funny old day, so I am going to sign off for the day.  

Thank you for the positive comments girls.

THE DRESS

Today's JOB:  Shorten my Mother Of The Groom dress.
It could be tricky.
It's a mesh type fabric.  And I haven't given it much thought on how I can shorten it yet.

I'm hoping it's a simple, straight forward fix.

If not... I will have to figure it out... obviously!

*smiles*

I have decided to make a table cloth for the BBQ table in the same fabric as the squab cover.  Matchy-matchy!  lol  It will tie it into the other seating eh?

After that, there's quite a bit of housework to get done.

I swear, Tallulah makes more mess than everyone else in this house!
She chews up and spits out her plastic toys ALL over the bloody house. 

And it friggin well hurts when you walk on a chunky piece of chewed up plastic in the dark.

So, time to get moving.  I've got quite a few things lined up to do.

ONWARD...

2.34 pm: And the dress is done.  It was way easier than I thought... though it was with some trepidation that I cut off the excess!  It's ready now, so that's one big job off my mind.

 ABOVE: The girls in bed ... it's a wet day again... so I asked the kids to take them for a walk, they needed to get outside even though it's drizzling.

ABOVE:  working on the placement of the blocks for the table cloth.  It's not as easy as ya think getting it right.

No more done on the table cloth as Kelly, Gordon and Rena popped in with a cake for us.
Gordon got to see the house and yard for the first time.
They stayed for around an hour, then they left for their home.  And now... I've got to sort out dinner.

Something with mince tonight.  Probably mince stew and veges.

SNEAK PEEK

Well.. I don't have much on for today.

All that's planned is to finish the squab cover.  If I get that done by lunchtime, maybe I will take the kids out for lunch.

They have been awesome... just keeping themselves occupied.  Teenagers... mine are just LOVELY.  Nice for a change I must say.

Now... a sneak peek at the squab cover:

ABOVE:  It's got blue in it!  But... a dusty red to tie in with the chair cushions we bought the other day.  No green though.  I might make a green cushion for the lounger?

Right, I shall bugger off and get the squab finished.

ONWARD...

Well the quilting on the front of the squab is taking longer than I thought it would.  So... it's still not done.

The kids just got up... it's 12.17 am!  What a life.

Right... back to it.

It's DONE:

ABOVE:  I chose this fabric as it matches the reddish squabs we got for the BBQ table and chairs.  I think it's gorgeous.

2.00 pm:  LUNCHTIME!

Well after making the squab, we had a very quiet afternoon.  A thunderstorm too, which was neat.  I LOVE storms.
Not huge, damaging storms of course, but nice little ones.  *smiles*

We had chinese takeaways for dinner.  It was YUK.  We still have not found a nice chinese takeaway here.  I think we have exhausted the options too I think.  Bummer.

Hmmm... it's going to be a quiet evening too.  Watching the telly.  I could be sewing, but well... I did quite a bit today already.
Tomorrow I have another sewing job I must get done.

WHAT TO DO....

Hmmmm.... I'm thinking of taking the kids out today.

There is a neat movie on at the moment, 'The Magnificent Seven'.  Because Stew wants to see it too, I will just send the kids to watch it, so Stew and I can go another time, just the two of us.  You know... like a DATE.  lol

While the kids are at the movies, I will probably just fill in time at the mall.  Won't be too hard to do I'm sure.

It's a shame the Hamilton patchwork group isn't on over the holidays.  I miss it already.  
At least these holidays only last for 2 weeks.

Once we get home I am going to sort out what fabrics I am going to use to re-cover the sun lounger squab with.  I want to get that done in the next few weeks.

Well, that's all for now... catch ya later.

ONWARD...

DAMN!  I got that wrong.  The Magnificent Seven isn't on till Thursday.  As there is bugger all on till then, we will wait and go to the movies on Thursday.

So, I am going to get on with making that squab cover now instead.

Well... I worked on the squab cover most of the afternoon.  Then I stopped to cook dinner.

Dinner was chicken/basil ravioli, in a tomato based sauce with bacon and onion.  It was bloody nice.

Now.... chilling out. Looking forward to finishing the squab cover tomorrow.

KIDS HOME

Well ... it's the school holidays ... AGAIN.

They come around so bloody fast.  It seems like they get more and more holidays as the years go on.

As for senior kids like Brylee, their learning year is pretty much DONE.  It's now just revision and study, then exams.  
So I expect her to be home more than at school from now on.

I don't have to worry about 'amusing' them in the holidays though.  They are both old enough to do their own thing.  They both have 'square eyes', and prefer to be in their rooms or watching TV.

Today I'm going down to Mitre 10 to find something to remove the tar off the concrete.  Those sleeper seats left a real mess!

I'm really chuffed with how the patio looks now.  New seating in the corner, painted BBQ table and chairs, and new squabs.  We are all set for the summer.

Monday patchwork group... I'm not sure if it's  on today?  Most of the ladies in the group don't have to worry about school holidays as they don't have school age kids.  I better ring my neighbour and find out!
If it's a night meeting, I will be going.

Right, that's all for now.  Catch ya later.

ONWARD...

Feeling like utter shit right now.  So TIRED.  And ikky.  No idea why.

The teenagers... are still in bed.  It's 10.21 am!
I wonder if they will actually get up before lunchtime?  I'm amazed Griffin's stomach hasn't woken him up yet.  *smiles*

At least the weather isn't too shitty today... so far.
I can actually see how good the concrete looks after it's cleaning, cos it's DRY.

Somehow I don't think that will last, we are supposed to have wet weather most of the week.

 ABOVE:  *sigh*, this dog puts her toys all over the house, but mostly, in the lounge.

 ABOVE:  And when she's not chewing on SOMETHING, she's like this.  Bloody hussy.

ABOVE:  I finally got a moment to take the squabs out of their plastic bags and get a photo of them on the seats.

I'm actually really happy with the colour of them now.  They 'go' nicely with the house and setting.

ABOVE:  I've just put stain on this coffee table.  It is going to sit at the end of the corner seating.  

PETA:  we would love to cover the outdoor area with an Archgola, but it's not in the budget for now.  It's a much bigger area than our Auckland home, so no doubt at least double the cost!

Chicken steaks, bacon and veges for dinner, so yum.
Amazingly, some half decent tv programmes on tonight.
So, a lazy type of day, though I did get a few odd jobs done around the house.

Weird the things I dream about ...  I dreamed of tidying up the bathroom cupboards last night.  So I did that today.  

I'd much rather dream about shopping!

Time to go and get to bed at a decent time tonight.

DAYLIGHT SAVING

Well, it has come around so bloody fast!
Daylight saving started today.

So ... we all got up an hour earlier, yaaa.  NOT.

ABOVE:  Spring has sprung ... and we are getting blossoms.  No idea what sort of tree this one is... but it's going to be covered in those gorgeous flowers soon.

Today we are planning on doing odd jobs around the house this morning, then later on today we are going shopping for new outdoor chair cushions.

My friend Sharon is calling in on her way back to Taupo late morning, so we will hang around till she's been, before heading into town.

Today it's supposed to rain... and keep raining for the next few days.  Typically, I watered the potted plants yesterday!  Murphy's Law eh?

Oh well... better go and do some more washing, hang it on racks in me bedroom and so on.

ONWARD...

4.22 pm:  Well... it's been a nice day so far.  We had a late breakfast, then Sharon from Taupo called in on her way home.
After she left we went into Hamilton and picked up Lacy and Keera, and we all went out to Te Awa for lunch.

Then we found some squabs for the outdoor seating:

ABOVE:  No one had BLUE squabs, so I had to get these.   They are still nice I suppose.

After squab shopping, we dropped Lacy and Keera back home.

ABOVE:  A happy Miss Muppet.. till we took her home.  Then she bawled... as kids do.

Now I'm going to think about re-covering the squab that goes on the lounger.  The lovely, bright cover I made for it has faded considerably, so it needs a new one too.

Might do that this week sometime.  Oh, and shorten the dress I'm wearing to the wedding. 

Well, it's 12.55 am !  Whoops.  Didn't realise it was that late.  Better go to bed!

JOBS... JOBS

Today is dedicated to getting a few jobs done around here.

I'm going to have a go at painting the outdoor BBQ Table and chairs.  I'd like to try spray painting them, if possible.  Then it won't take so long.
But that will depend on whether there's a wind blowing or not. Obviously I can't spray paint if it's blowing!  And I'm not even sure if our paint sprayer can be used with a wood stain?

I'm sure I will find out.

Brain fade!  I can't think for the life of me what else we have to do!  Stew did mumble about doing something else... derrr.

I know I will be attaching the name plate to the house today, weather permitting.  I'm using a fast setting all weather glue, as recommended by the bloke at Mitre 10.  Fingers crossed it works.

All going well, I will be able to post a photo of it on the house later on today.  

Right, that's it for now.  It's been a late start today, we were really tired last night.  Stew went to bed quite early, he was a little bit tiddly I think. *smiles*

ONWARD...

10.44 am:  And everyone is up and doing stuff.
Stew's gone to Mitre 10 to get the timber for the corner seating on the patio.

Brylee and Griffin are staining outdoor furniture, and I've just got our Name Plate on the house.

Now... it's on with the painting of the chairs.  That is going to take a while.

1.45 pm:  And with three of us doing the painting/staining, it's done!  AND Stew got the new timber seating affixed to the original uprights, and I've stained it too.  So all of the painting is done.

Now I need to wash all the stain off me with Mineral Turps and have a shower... cos mineral turps friggin well stinks!

Stew is now busy water blasting the concrete out the back... and I'm going to suggest he does the front too.  It's quite dirty, especially by the front door.

I've already clocked 10,000 steps for the day!  Busy, busy, busy.

3.30 pm: And all the outside jobs are finally done, and I've had me shower and can now RELAX.

Photos:

 ABOVE:  The concrete has come up really well after the water blasting.
And the BBQ table and chairs look good too.

 ABOVE:  The new corner seating.  It's not as long on the left as it was before, as we wanted the BBQ against the house, as opposed to where it was, against the window.  There is still HEAPS of seating, so all good.

 ABOVE:  I moved the orange life preserver to that post (which also got stained today) and I think it looks awesome there.

 ABOVE:  We are thrilled with how all the new plants are doing... I can't wait till they are even bigger and fill the garden out.

 ABOVE:  Our 'Hidden Vista".  I love our back yard.
So does Stew.  

ABOVE:  The man admiring his view.  He's cleaning the BBQ now... poor bugger.

It's been an awesome, productive day... time to enjoy the evening.

A SAD FAREWELL

Today we are attending the funeral of a really lovely man, a man who we have known for over 30 years, and for Stew, even longer than that.

He's the father of one of Stew's best friends, so it's going to be a sad day.

It's expected to be a HUGE funeral, as Dick was a very well known and loved business man in Hamilton.

Stew has taken the whole day off so we can go and not worry about getting there on time, etc.

So that is pretty much our day planned.

I will show you how my Name Plate is looking:

ABOVE: I used a crackle effect, and it's pretty cool.  I don't have any wood glue to stick the letters on with, so will get some at some point today.

And that's me for now.

ONWARD...

Thanks for that Lynda.  The letters were not in their final place in the above photo, I still had to align them and then glue them down.

Which is now done, and if it's not exactly aligned... I'm not bothered.

About to get dressed and leave for Hamilton.  We want to get there a good half an hour before the funeral, so we get a car park not too far from the venue.


Well... it was a really lovely service and farewell to an amazing Gentleman. It's sad that sometimes the only time you catch up with old friends is at funerals.

We are now heading off to the after drinks 'do' at the rugby stadium.

Poor Brylee and Griffin will have to get their own dinner tonight.

10.09 pm:  We got home around 8.30 pm, it was a long day!  The kids managed to feed themselves, and not burn the house down.  Yaaa.  It's wonderful having teenagers who can look after themselves.

Time to relax, get the shoes off and watch what's left of Coronation Street.  Some dick deleted my scheduled recording, so I've missed the first half of it.  Grrrr.
I will have to go onto the computer and watch it there.

Signing off for the day. 

BLOODY DOG!

I got the vacum out yesterday, and set it up so Brylee could vacum out my car.  I put the crevice tool on the floor beside the vacum... and left it there for Brylee when she got home from school.

She did a really good job, but I noticed she hadn't gotten into the really tight spaces down the edges of the seats.  I asked her why didn't she use the crevice tool?

Now you can see where this is heading eh?  It wasn't on the garage floor.  Hmmmm... we had a quick look around.  NO crevice tool.

Then I knew.  I just knew... that little bitch Tallulah had it.  Sure enough, there she was outside with it in her gob.

ABOVE:  Munted.  Should not have a hole there!  Grrrrrr.

OK...  it's not as bad as eating my expensive rug, but still.  I was bloody mad as hell at her.  She has a box full of toys she can chew on, so why must she chew shit that's not hers???   *sigh*

When Stew came home, he got the hacksaw and cut off the top chewed up bit and hopefully it will still be useable.

ABOVE:  not as long as before... but should still work.

Today I am expecting a visitor from Taupo.  Sharon is coming through, most likely on her way up to Auckland to see her son.  So that will be lovely.  

Once she's been and gone, I will get on with my name plate.  

Right... outta here, got stuff to do.

ONWARD...

Wow what a morning.  I got some of the painting done on my house name plate, then Sharon from Taupo arrived.

It was just lovely visiting with her... we yakked for HOURS!

And she gave me these:

ABOVE:  How lucky am I?  I am thinking they might just be worn for the wedding.  

1.57 pm:  Just had lunch, and am about to go do some more painting.
It's coming along nicely.

So... a lovely dinner tonight.  I made a seafood salad and garlic bread.  So YUM.  Sorry Steve!

Time to chill for the evening.

NAILS!

Bloody hell Felicity!
Suggesting I go on Pinterest to look at nails was such a good idea.  I spent a good hour or so doing just that.
And I have come up with a few possibilities:

 ABOVE:  I like this shape...

 ABOVE:  These are SO PRETTY!

 ABOVE:  But I'm leaning towards something like this... OR...

ABOVE:  THIS.  I prefer the curved blue line in these ones, as opposed to the straight line in the other one, but I like the pattern on the other one... so maybe a combination of the two.

While looking, I saw these ones, and thought of Bex:

ABOVE:  What do you think of that idea Bex?  I thought it was pretty cute.

Right.  Today.  Washing.  Housework. Then start making our House Name plate for the front of the house.  I would like to get it done before the wedding, which should be perfectly do-able.  
That's about all I think... for now.  *smiles*

ONWARD...

9.27 am:  Washing on... tick.  Floors washed...tick.  General tidy up... tick.  Aching back... tick.  Wet socks... tick. Paw prints all over the floor... tick.

And that has been my morning so far.

I'm thinking of going into Cambridge to get a few things ... like knickers for a growing girl, and who knows what else?

PENNY:  Brylee's butt.

So, I just got home from town... Cambridge has a decent Warehouse so I got some knickers for the girl there.  I don't believe in spending big bucks on kids knickers!  Actually, I don't spend much on me own knickers either. lol

It's not like anyone gets to see them eh?  

It's a very quiet day here today, very dull and overcast.  Not inspired to do much.  Though I have gotten lots of housework done.

It has been a MOST productive day, just the sort of day I love the most.

I have filled some small holes in the garage wall, and two in the lounge where a wooden shelf was attached to the wall... tomorrow I will be sanding them and painting them.

I've put the undercoat on my little letters, and later on either tonight or tomorrow, I will put their 1st top coat on.

I also have to decide what shape to make the name plate.  If I run the two words together, then it will need to be long ... if I put one under the other, it won't need to be as long.

*smiles*...  time will tell. 

HAMILTON AGAIN TODAY

I'm starting to think I go into Hamilton too much!
I seem to be there every other day.

Poor Cambridge.  I do love it here, but the shopping is better in Hamilton!

Perhaps I need to have another really good look around our little shopping centre, and write down what's where?
Then at least I might be tempted to do more shopping here.

It's just so easy to pop into Hamilton though, it's only a 12 minute drive from my house.

It's patchwork group in Hamilton this morning, so clearly I'm going in again today.  *smiles* 

I shan't be tempted to spend any money though... I've spent QUITE enough this past week on clothes and shoes!

So, that's my plans for the next few hours... catch ya later.

ONWARD...

2.26 pm:  Well patchwork group was lovely again.  I got three centres stitched together which is great.
After group, I went to Bunnings in Hamilton, and found what I'd been looking for for AGES.

ABOVE: a decent sized kids picnic table, it seats 4, so now we have plenty of little tables and seats for little kids.

We did have one of these (above), but I gave it to Steve and Bex when we were decluttering our Auckland home. Dante and Archer use it all the time.

So, I've just had lunch and now I'm going to chillax for a little while.

Donna, the owner of the Quilt Shop I go to in Hamilton, always has amazing finger nails.  So I asked her where she gets them done... and now I'm about to make an appointment, so I have gorgeous nails for the wedding.  

Should I go all blue, or blue/black/white like me shoes?  Ideas please.

Bloody hell!  Purple?  Blue? Orange? After thinking about it, and the 'suggestions' ... I have decided to go with.... French Tips.  With some bling maybe.

I'm going to look online and get some ideas.

Bedtime soon.