JUST ANOTHER STAY AT HOME DAY

 Well... here we are.

At home instead of the beach.

Still slightly crabby about that.

But... the only consolation is that we won't be in returning holiday traffic at the end of the day.

School holidays end today, so everyone who went away will be coming home today.

ABOVE:  Late yesterday afternoon I sat down and traced out three complete patterns onto the Steam A Seam, then cut them out, ready to fuse them onto fabric.

It's quite a shitty job.  Bex helped me cutting them out, so that was awesome.

Today I will try and get 2, if not all three blocks sorted.

Then I only have two more to do.

Then the fun begins!  Joining them together and then stitching all the pieces down.

It is going to be a long process.

Before settling down to work in the sewing room, I'd like to go for a drive here in Hamilton.

A new road has opened and I want to check it out.

It's just an extension of Wairere Drive, connecting up with Cobham Drive... but it's been under construction for a few years.  It means you don't have to drive through the Hillcrest shops any more.  Worth checking it out.

Right... I'm off to start me day.

Stew... I don't have anything for you to do except drive me around!  OH and can ya get something out of the freezer for dinner?  Ta.  😂😆😋

We had two lazy boy lounge chairs in the sunroom.  They take up a lot of room, so I was thinking of selling them on TradeMe.

But Stew decided he didn't want to get rid of them, so we re-jigged the lounge and sunroom:

ABOVE: The two lounge chairs came back up into the lounge, and...

ABOVE: The smaller two seater couch is now in the sunroom.

It gives me a bit more room down there to use the drying racks over winter, which was my main aim.

I don't like using the clothes dryer unless it's absolutely necessary, which is hardly ever.

Now I've got room to put up at least two drying racks down there.  And stuff dries so well there over winter.

Stew suggested we get a couch cover to protect the couch from sun fade and grubby kids.  So we'll do that a bit later on.

We are going to do that drive on the new road, then have lunch out somewhere nice.  So just pottering around the house till then.

ABOVE: we are at Punnet in Tamahere for lunch. It is crazy busy out here! They have a huge area with lots of separate areas of dining seating. Its really lovely, and clearly very popular. 

It will be interesting to see how long it takes for our lunch to arrive.

We had a quiet walk around the Hamilton Gardens lake before coming out here.  It was very busy there too.

2 pm: 

ABOVE:  A few photos of our walk around the gardens.  The bumble bee was so funny, it went into raptures every time it settled on a poppy!

ABOVE:  Our lunch at Punnet.  Without being mean, the Bacon and Eggs was just that.  Stew had some Portobello Mushrooms on the side of his.  The Sourdough bread crusts were so HARD you almost could not cut it.  I was underwhelmed to be honest.  The drinks on the other hand were amazing.

Probably won't go there again for a meal, but would for their cakes.  Which we didn't get any of today.

Now home and and just relaxing for a while.  Such a big meal in the middle of the day just sends me to sleep!

8.05 pm:  And it's been a lovely afternoon/evening.  I've done some more block preparation.  I realised my blocks 4 & 5 were 'wrong' in their orientation.  One I managed to save as I'd not fused the fabric on the block, the other one is now gunna have to be used in another way.  Maybe a block cushion.

So relieved I checked before I'd made 6 the wrong way around.

And that's me for the day.

Catch ya tomorrow.