THIS IS SUMMER

Yesterday was the first day we had what I consider a typical summer day.

Kids.  Sunshine.  Paddle pool. Lying in the sun. Good food and diet coke!

ABOVE:  THAT is summer time in New Zealand.

It's the last day of 2016.  It's been one hell of a year for us.
After a very long and stressful 11 months selling our Auckland home, and trying to buy something in Hamilton, we finally found our new, gorgeous home here in Cambridge.

Then it was 6 months of settling in here, getting the home and section just how we wanted them.

Now we get to look forward to a New Year!  I hope we have a peaceful and happy 2017.

And I wish the same for YOU too.  If you do have stresses in your life, I hope they don't blight your new year and are resolved soon.

Steve has some fireworks for New Years Eve tonight... exciting!

Today will be spent repeating yesterday I hope.  We will be going into Hamilton at some point to see if we can find a decent sized kid's pool for us.   The one here right now is Steve and Bex's.

ONWARD...

4.20 pm:  and we've had a very successful day shopping!
Brylee finally got herself some new summer dresses:

ABOVE:  Doesn't she look lovely!
Now I hope I don't have to look at the bloody jeans and t-shirts for a few weeks.

We also found a nice little paddle pool for here, and more tiles for the ink pictures, shorts for Keera, window shade for the car so the sun ain't on Keera... and can't remember what else!

In other words, we had fun.  Shopping is always fun.  😇

Steve and Bex have friends visiting from Hamilton, they are staying for dinner, so yaa ... takeaways and no cooking for me.

What a lovely day AGAIN!  Dinner was Pizza, which was neat.
After our visitors left, we played 'Pie Face' until everyone had cream on their faces.  Well, except for Brylee ... who pulled back and wore the cream all over her clothes.  

Steve let off a few fireworks around 9 pm, and is saving the last couple till midnight.

If I stay up till then, I will get some photos of the blasts all going well.

LOTS of photos tomorrow.

HAPPY NEW YEAR KIWIS, and a bit later to everyone else.  

GALAXY SERIES

Last night I had another play with the Alcohol Inks.

And I finally hit on something I really, really love!

I did one, and immediately decided to call it 'Galaxy'.  Then I did another one.  And wiped it all off cos it sucked.
The 3rd one came out awesome, so I have added it to my first Galaxy one... so now I've got a 'Galaxy Series' going on...

 ABOVE:  Galaxy 1.

ABOVE:  Galaxy 2.

I think I could have worked on Galaxy 2 a bit longer, and given it a bit more depth, but it was getting late and I was worried I would over do it. (THAT is easy to do!)

What do you think of them?  Like.  Dislike.  I'm thinking of putting them in a frame.  Maybe making more and seeing if I can sell them at the local market?  That's just a thought right now.

It's Friday right?  Which means Steve will be back tonight after work.  He will be staying for the weekend, then both he and Bex will be going home.  And the boys of course.

Hopefully Archer is feeling a bit better by the time Steve gets here. Nothing worse than a grizzly, teething toddler.

Thankfully Keera is coming right.  Her appetite isn't that good yet, but she is eating small amounts, so I'm not worried.

Dante certainly seems to have his appetite back... he was caught hiding under a bed yesterday, eating chocolates!  😄😇😉 *laughing*

So what are we doing today?  No bloody idea.

If it's warm enough, I'd like to think we will get the kids paddle pool out and let them splash around in it.  That should keep them happy for ages.

I'm going to make a couple more, smaller 'Galaxy' tiles.  I bought some little tiles yesterday from Mitre 10, they are like ... $1.16 each!  So cheap!!!  And the best thing is, if you stuff it up, you can just wipe it all off and start again. ♥ LOVE IT ♥

So... that's it for now.

Catch ya later.

ONWARD...

It's a stunning day!  Stew is mowing the lawns, the kid's paddle pool is full and warming up.  Kids are having lunch, then a swim.
Hopefully they get all nice and tired and sleep this afternoon... especially Archer.

He's cried NON STOP ... all day so far.  He's miserable.

 ABOVE:  Bex blowing up the paddle pool, while 3 little kids wait... then finally get to step in it.

 ABOVE:  Their little faces say it all!

ABOVE:  They didn't last long... the sun went behind clouds and they got cold.  

In fact, Dante is BLUE!  I'm going to cuddle him in a blanket to get him warm again.  Scary seeing his lips BLUE!

After lunch we went down to Mitre 10 for a couple of things for framing the Galaxy tiles, then came home and had a wonderful afternoon on the lawn with the kids.

Steve is on his way ... hopefully the traffic isn't too horrendous, but something tells me it will be.  Thousands will be heading out of Auckland for New Year's Eve somewhere else I bet.

Steve got here safely, and apparently the traffic wasn't heavy coming this way at all.
A....mazing.

I made a lovely seafood salad for dinner tonight, we had it over lettuce.  Really healthy.
The ice cream afterwards... not so much.  lol

Winding down for the evening... 

MOVED SOME STUFF

Yesterday afternoon I told Stew I wanted to move some stuff around in the house.

He knew better than to disagree.

It took us about 3 hours, which I didn't think was too bad.

Basically, I wanted the dining table and chairs in the lounge, as we hardly ever use it.  And I wanted to de-clutter the Family Room and just have more room in it.

So, that involved moving the china cabinet out of the lounge, it went into the hallway at the other end of the house.

The Britto Cabinet, and TV in the Family room got moved to one wall... then we spaced the other furniture around in the bigger space.

Photos:

ABOVE:  Stew's being fairly non-committal on how he thinks it looks/feels.  But I'm really happy with it.

There's heaps more room for the kids to play in here, and it doesn't look so cluttered or bunched up.

I don't have photos of the Lounge/Dining room as it's still being used by Steve, Bex and the boys to sleep in.

As we don't use the table and chairs much, they can clutter up that room instead!

Today we all have stuff to do in Hamilton.  Bex wants to visit a couple of craft/wool shops, and we have a few things to do/get/exchange too.

So... out and about at some point.

ONWARD...

I'm now mucking around with the idea of making a new valance for our bed, to go with the new white linen...

ABOVE:  Two shades of the same colour... which one to use?
And I think I will make those two little white cushions plain peppermint too... and the cloths on the bedside drawers too.

And that painting above the bed?  Might try adding peppermint to that too.

LOL... let's go all MATCHY MATCHY!

We just had a massive win!
We bought new bark collars for the dogs back in July.  They NEVER WORKED.
But I couldn't return them cos I simply could not find the receipts!
A week ago, while looking for me togs (again), I found the receipts in one of my drawers.  
So, today we took the bark collars back to Animates.

And they said we had to talk to the suppliers of said bark collars, and they rang them for us, right there and then.

After a long, half hour discussion, where we were made to jump through hoops AND the staff at Animates had to as well... they finally conceded that we had done everything possible to 'make them work on our dogs', and they gave us back our money!

I'm talking A LOT OF MONEY.  I was thrilled to bits.  It had been pissing me off for ages, having spent a lot of money on a product that DID NOT WORK.  Our dogs literally laughed and laughed wearing them, they could bark their bloody heads off and nothing happened.

We are now back to using their old collars, that do work...even if they do look huge and ugly on them. That was the reason for changing to smaller, more compact ones in the first place.

While out, Stew and I also grabbed some fresh groceries.  Man is this house going through some food!

I also stopped in at Spotlight and got a couple of things for the Ink Art.  Just a little spend, I have no plans to plough too much money into yet another craft!  I have far too much already.

So nice in the evenings now, cool and refreshing.  Took the dogs for a walk around 8 pm, it was so nice.

All the little kids are now in bed, asleep.  Archer is miserable and letting us all know it too.  Teething... snot everywhere and grumpy as hell. Joy.

The guys are watching a shoot 'em up movie... more joy.

Might go and do another ink tile.  They are such fun.

APPETITE BACK AND INK!

So relieved.  Dante's finally go this appetite back, after being quite ill and losing A LOT of weight for a small kid.

He ate heaps yesterday, so all going well he will continue to do so today.

Today's plans?  I'm going to get this house vacumed, do a general tidy up then relax.

Last night I gave the Alcohol Inks a go!
Some photos of my first two attempts:

 ABOVE:  All set, ready to go!

 ABOVE: The first drop EVER.

ABOVE:  My very first attempt.  Ink on ceramic tile.  I shall seal it, then it can be either a wall hanging/tile/heat pad for the bench.

ABOVE:  My second attempt... it's not finished yet.  I'm not sure I like it, so might even wipe it all off and start again.

ABOVE:  My third attempt, using a different technique again.  I love it, and am going to try and add a 'word' on top of it today. (try to ignore the camera flash, bottom left)  

I'm just trying several techniques I've seen on YouTube Tutorials.  It's fun, but you have to work fairly fast as the ink dries quickly.

Here's a couple of photos of our Mike, taken yesterday.  He didn't really like our Tallulah, he didn't like the look in her eyes.  *smiles*

But, she LOVED HIM!  

ABOVE:  She didn't growl at him, not ONCE!  Strange dog, normally she growls at anyone she doesn't know.

Right, I'm off to get that housework done.

ONWARD...

Our day's plans have changed a bit.  I won't be going to the WW's Pink Lunch.

 ABOVE:  Poor Miss Muppet has been awake and vomitting since 5 am.  At 8.45 she was still vomitting, just green bile, so I took her to the Doctors.

ABOVE: I'm firmly in the 'do something fast' camp when it comes to sick kids over summer.  I know little kids can get dehydrated very fast when they are sick like this, so she's on a medication to stop the vomiting, and the Pedialyte.

Fingers crossed that helps and she perks up quickly.

Poor Stew had to attend to her since 5 am... I can't handle kids vomiting!  I end up vomiting too.

Bex and the boys have gone out visiting a friend this morning, so it very quiet in the house.  

ABOVE:  No# 4 tile.  Not sure I like it, but it's part of the learning process.

POOR STEW.  I've gone nuts and asked to move shit again.
The biggest shift of stuff so far since we moved in.

No photos for now.  I want to see what Steve thinks of it when he comes back on Friday.

Thankfully, when Dante came home from visiting his Mum's friend, Keera perked up and started playing with him.
And so far, no more vomiting.

She's only had liquids today, which is just fine.

Stew is cooking dinner, it smells lovely.  I am sure it will taste even better, it always does when you don't have to cook it.

Well dinner was just lovely as expected.  Pork and apple rissoles, mashed potatoe with cream cheese stirred in, peas, mixed veges, par boiled cabbage and gravy.  Yummo.

All the small kids are in bed and asleep.  Time to take the ear plugs out (just joking)... and enjoy a couple of hours in peace.

2012 vs, 2016

This is what happens in just 4 years:

ABOVE:  Can you BELIEVE the difference in everyone?
And of course, we added young Archer into the mix too.

Who knows, in another 4 years there might be ANOTHER little Harvey child there!

Today we are thinking of going out to Lake Karapiro, check it out.  It will depend on the  weather of course.  I'm not sure what the forecast is, we missed it last night on the news.

ONWARD...

11.45 am and I'm home, almost alone.  Just Keera for company for a little while.

Mike and Joyce have left for Whakatane, her family are holiday'ing there.  Once they have seen them they will be heading back to Palmerston North.  We are so thankful they came up.  THANKS KIDDOS.

Bex, Brylee and the little boys have gone down the road to get some groceries and shop.

A few minutes ago I had a man at the door... and he had Coco in his arms and Tallulah at his feet!

WTF?  Seems Keera went outside to get something off the driveway,  and let them out.

So lucky he found where they lived!  They didn't have their 'normal' collars on, so no identification.  Yikes.  Better keep them on them I think.

We haven't headed out to the lake after all.  It's very overcast, but still nice.  But... I've got heaps to do around here... so a quiet home day is happening.

10.01 pm:  It's has been a quiet day.  Really needed it too.
Time to head off to bed.

SHOPPING

Well... tis Boxing Day and I do believe everyone is going to town to do some shopping.

Mike and Joyce want to go to the Base and the Outlet stores.  Brylee and Griffin have vouchers and cash to spend.

And I want to return some bark collars we bought a few months ago, that simply don't work.

I've been meaning to for ages, lately the dogs have been barking more and more and it's doing my bloody head in.

So... hundreds of dollars WASTED ...  they can go back!

I'm going to start taking down Xmas decorations some time today too.  I know it's REALLY EARLY to be doing that, but I really want the house back to some semblance of normal soon.  I don't like things out of place for too long!  OCD... probably!  *smiles*

That way we can use the dining table again too.  And not for eating!  For playing cards on.  And Jenga.  Family games ... we are really enjoying playing games as a family.  Hee hee... I got 'Pie Face' too... we haven't played that one yet.

I must whip some yummy cream for it. lol

For those of you in the Northern Hemisphere, I hope you are having a wonderful Christmas Day!

ABOVE: Our three sons.  First time they have been together in years, so wonderful to see.

ONWARD...

BOXING DAY SALES! And I got an excellent buy at Farmers... got a dream duvet cover for my bed! Totally love it... can't wait to show you.
I wont be making a full sized Dresden Plate quilt for my bed now... just a throw for the end. 

The kids, big and medium sized are happily shopping too.

It's utterly nuts here at The Base... so many people...BUT not as bad as Sylvia Park will be.

 ABOVE:  Hmmm... who does he look like now?

 ABOVE:  Been shopping, everyone is very happy with their purchases.

 ABOVE:  My new linen.  It's a bit wrinkled right now, but it's supposed to look like old fashioned pin tucking.  It's crisp and fresh looking for summer.

 ABOVE:  Young Archer FINALLY getting close to his Uncle Mike.  Up till now he's been wary of him.. but he's getting better.

 ABOVE:  Steve had to leave to go back to work tomorrow, so we took the moment to get some family photos.  Mike and Joyce will be gone by the time he comes back for New Year.

 ABOVE:  Getting a smile out of Mike is as hard as getting Dante to smile properly!  Grrrr.  Finally got a nice one of him though.

It's been another stinkin' hot day, humid as buggery.
But, it's now 8.15 pm and it's finally cooling down.  
The little kids will be in bed soon, then we can all just chill out and relax for the evening.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

SANTA CAME

May you all have the most wonderful and happy Christmas Day!  All the very best from my home to yours.  Thank you for visiting my blog over the year(s)... I appreciate it very much.

ABOVE:  These two kids arrived last night, so happy to have them here.  

First time we have spent Christmas with them in YEARS.

Mike has a cough like me, so I don't feel bad.  At least he can't catch mine!  

ABOVE:  Our Christmas Trifle is made.  I'm much happier with how the layers came out this time.  I made my own custard, so it didn't run everywhere... and I remembered to put the trifle sponge on the bottom this time too.

I will be adding some strawberries and cherries on the top later on.

Right.... time to go and join the fun opening presents!

ONWARD...

Randon photos of our day so far.  I'd have more, but the battery on my camera died at the worst time.

My fault, I should have checked it last night.  
Derrr.

 ABOVE:  Ha ha!   I gave Stew the painter Mickey, and he gave me the Drummer Mickey!  

ABOVE:  I said 'Smile', and that's what I got.

 ABOVE:  Mike trimmed the facial hair ... looks slightly tidier!

 ABOVE:  My Christmas lunch, it was delish.

ABOVE:  Our three sons and our 'bonus' son Griffin.

ABOVE: Kelly sent us this lovely photo of Rena with her Christmas gift from us.

Mid afternoon I had a bit of a nap.  Mike, Joyce and Lacy took a flying trip over to Mount Maunganui for a wander on the beach and up the mount, but there were too many people there, so they came home again.

Then the boys took Lacy back to Hamilton, and then went around to Russell's to play pool.

It's now 12.15 and the buggers ain't home yet.  I hope they are not out too much longer.

It's been an awesome day.  I hope your's has been too.