LABOUR WEEKEND

It's a long weekend here.  Steve took ages to get here last night, getting out of Auckland is a nightmare when every other man and his dog is trying to do the same thing.

At least he got here OK.

I've got a few cute photos of the kids from yesterday afternoon.  I had turned on the irrigation system:

ABOVE:  The water proved irresistible to the kids.

ABOVE:  I even managed to catch the rainbow produced from the spray and sunshine. 

ABOVE:  They all managed to get wet, though Archer got super wet.

ABOVE:  Don't they look happy!  
Little imps, the lot of them.

ABOVE:  These two get on like a house on fire.  It's so sweet to see them playing together.

I'm waiting for the sun to come out to get an 'After' photo of the new corner garden.  I'm just SO happy with how it's come out.

In the meantime, I've got heaps of housework to get done.  I also want to pop into town to get some backing fabric for Keera's quilt.  I was going to use some bubble type polar fleece, but I don't have enough.  

The guys will be working on the deck today... rain or shine I think.  Griffin is helping too... he's really enjoying doing it too.  Building could end up being his trade one day, ya never know.

Right, enough for now, I've got stuff to be getting on with.

ONWARD...

ABOVE:  It will look even better once the plants/tree grow.
I chose that tree as it is weeping, and has very soft foliage.  It's deciduous, so won't shade the house in winter either.  

ABOVE:  Of course, I just had to titivate the corner.  Loving the chain!

The rest of the day was spent doing some housework, some sewing, having a nap, and checking out Steve's job and how it's going.

I made ham burgers for dinner, and we all sat around the BBQ table and enjoyed the late afternoon sun.

The guys are watching friggin rugby tonight, so I shall be doing more sewing.  

STEW HOME TODAY

Stew has taken today off so he can get the big gaps in the concrete 'paths' onto the lawn filled in.

So, instead of the railway sleepers, he's going to fill up the holes with soil, then sand, and lay pavers on the top.

We want to get that done before the weekend, as Steve, Bex and the boys will be here, and it's not too safe with big gaps in the paths.  They are quite deep, you would break ya leg if you stepping in one while walking/running.

I'm also hoping we can make a start on the new garden under the kitchen/lounge windows.

There's also a bit of housework to be done... THAT never changes eh?  

Monday is a public holiday (Labour Day), so it's nice that Stew is having a 4 day 'weekend'.

We are going to the movies tonight to see Angels and Demons.  Another Tom Hanks movie... I'm really looking forward to that.

ONWARD...

Well... I clearly 'forgot' to mention it's my Birthday today.... but Leanne let the cat outta the bag!

So... 

ABOVE:  I wonder what my darling husband got me?

ABOVE:   No prizes for guessing!  Another Britto figurine, isn't he gorgeous!

ABOVE:  I don't know WHY?  Tallulah really likes Keera!  She still growls at her sometimes, but mostly, she's very good with her.  Weird dog.

ABOVE:  I went down to Amber Nursery, which is our closest nursery, to get a tree for the new corner garden.
I got one within a few minutes, with the help of a staff member... AND I got the purple/blue flowering standard tree as well, cos it's GORGEOUS.

I will show you the new corner garden tree, once it's in the garden.

Right, we have stopped working outside.  Well I have to admit Stew did almost all of it!
I will have photos of the new garden tomorrow.

For now...

 ABOVE:  We have two strawberry plants... they survived the cull.  Now we have a few strawberries growing.

ABOVE:  Bex and Steve gave me this Birthday gift.  Bex made the little bag... it's lovely.

ABOVE:  Inside the bag, all of this!  What a neat gift... thanks Bex and Steve.

I'm going to sign off now, Stew and I are off to Hamilton for dinner and a movie.

STILL SEWING

Well... in answer to your guess BLONDIE, no, it's not her name under the pink border.
And no, I won't be attaching buntings to her bed as that would be dangerous.  Bunting cord... yeah, NAH.

As soon as I have good lighting, and somewhere to hang the quilt, I will show you how it looks now.

After I've done a bit more sewing, I am going into Hamilton to get some more groceries... we have a long weekend coming up, and Steve, Bex and the boys will be here for three days.

The guys are hoping to get the bulk of the deck constructed this weekend. Steve is building it for Stew's boss, here in Cambridge.

Some good news.  Fitbit are sending me a new tracker band, and I should have it in about a week.  Very thankful, as it was out of warranty, and I couldn't find the freakin' receipt either!
One company that stands by it's products, very impressed.

So, that's me for now.  Catch ya later.

ONWARD...

 ABOVE:  I adder a blue border and Prairie Points!  When the quilt is tucked in, you will not see the pink border.  It is a perfect fit on Keera's little bed.

What do ya think of it?  OH and yes, I've gone and hung it upside down.  lol

Keera only has a half day at Kindy today, so I'm going into Hamilton to do the grocery shop while she's still at Kindy.

Shopping is done. So relieved I took the  car out of the garage this morning! We have no power from 9 this morning till 4 this afternoon. 

Rather inconvienient I must say. I had to lug all the groceries in through the front door. 
I hope nothing defrosts in that time. 

Off to pick up Keera shortly.

1.38 pm:  and the power has come back on earlier than expected.  Yaaaa.
I'm beetroot red in the face right now... been unpacking the groceries for over an hour!  It required some more re-arranging of me cupboards.

At some point further down the track I am sure I will finally settle on where everything goes!
Right now, it's still a juggling act.

FELICITY:  Shit a brick, like I need a fully grown granddaughter who is near to my age!  Nah mate, you can be me sister.  *smiles*

5.00 pm:  Just got dinner in the oven.  Roast chicken pieces in a sweet 'n' sour sauce. Hash browns on top.

AND I've booked Stew and I into the movies for tomorrow night.  We are watching the new Tom Hanks movie, Inferno.  It's a follow on from two previous movies in the series.  I haven't seen Angels and Demons, which was the 2nd movie, so I hope it doesn't matter?

Yet another nice day done and dusted.  Time for bed.

SEWING TODAY

My plans for today?

Pure and simple.  I shall be sewing up the top of Keera's quilt.  Hopefully I will get most of it done today, then I will put the borders on, and so on.

ABOVE:  these are all the little blocks, ready to set out and then sew up.
The hardest part is setting out the blocks, making sure you don't have any blocks the same too close together.

I will have to lock the dogs out of the family room, cos they seem to LOVE running over all the blocks and messing them up!  Little shits.  *smiles*

If I need a break, I might pop out to a local nursery to look for the perfect tree for the new garden under the kitchen and lounge window.  I said I was thinking of a crab apple tree... but we will see.  Maybe some other fruit tree? 

ONWARD...

ABOVE:  The lay out. Can anyone see if I've mucked up anywhere?  I can't but ya just never know!  

Now to number the rows and get sewing I think.

Progress is being made.  Working on a little detail before adding the borders.

Picked up Keera, minus her jandals.  Grrrrr, it makes me so bloody angry when your kid's footwear just 'DISAPPEARS'.  If they don't turn up tomorrow, it means they walked out on some other kids feet.  

 ABOVE:  Miss Muppet found Kindy quite tiring today, cos she fell asleep as soon as she got home, and didn't wake up till it was dinner time at 6.30 pm.

ABOVE:  The lighting isn't that good, cos this is much brighter than the photo makes out.  It's really coming along now, I'm about to sew on the last border, then I can start putting the three layers together for quilting.

There's a little 'something' under that border of pink... which will be revealed tomorrow. I think it's really cute.  *smiles*

Another excellent day!  They just keep coming... so good to have life back on an even keel, even with an added 4 year old!

HAMILTON GROUP TODAY

Today I am definitely going to patchwork group.
I will cut out the blocks for Keera's little quilt, and also for some buntings for her room.

ABOVE:  before you ask, that is buntings.  I'm going to have some in Keera's room to pretty it up for her.

I'm not sure what else I will get up to today, but I'll let you know later eh? *smiles*

ONWARD...


I just realised something!

I went past my BLOG ANNIVERSARY!


I've now been blogging for 10 years and 4 days.

My plan to stop blogging on the tenth anniversary seems to have changed, cos here I am, still blogging.


Grrrrr.... I am hopeless at following through. Whenever I say I'm going to stop blogging, just ignore me! It always happens when things get on top of me and I've had a run of nasty comments, they DO get you down after a while.


So. I'm still here after 10 years! Impressed with myself for lasting so long already.

1.47 pm:  Home from patchwork group... where I cut out 5 inch blocks for Keera's quilt.  It's going to be a very simple quilt, but I'm sure it will be pretty.

Time to relax for a little while before I have to pick up Keera and the kids.

9.18 pm:  Dinner over, kids to bed, blocks cut out ready for stitching together.  And shortly, bed.

It's been a good day.  

TAR, EVERYWHERE...

Those bloody tar sleepers have been the bane of my life, why the previous owners thought putting them down on the paths is beyond me!

The little kids kept playing in it, and walking in it, then coming inside and getting tar on the carpet!

 ABOVE:  It took the guys a lot of hard work to get them up, they were sunk in the ground quite deep, and wedged in with the concrete too.

ABOVE:  The guys put the sleepers in this corner with the other ones we had from the seating.

I am thinking of putting a weeping crab apple tree in the inner square, and low, flowering things in the front.

I've got patchwork group today, and Keera has kindy till 3.30 pm.
I hope to go into Hamilton after patchwork to get a piece of foam cut to fit Keera's new bed.

And there's also a shit load of housework to get done, the house is very untidy after the weekend.

So, it's a full day.

ONWARD...

3.50 pm:  Totally exhausted.
Today has been as busy as I thought it would be.
Instead of going to Patchwork group, I decided it was more important to do the grocery shopping.  So I did that... and stopped into Spotlight to get some backing for Keera's little quilt. 

Then I went to Para Rubber and bought a piece of foam to fit Keera's bed... it wasn't as cheap as I expected... in fact I should have just cut the single foam mattress down to size, but oh well, it's done now.

I've not had a chance to even start on Keera's little quilt yet, but I am going to get to it at  tomorrow's group in Hamilton.

After all that I sat and tried not to fall asleep in the 30 minutes left,  before I had to head out to pick up Keera and the big kids.  

Well... the rest of the afternoon and evening was normal... cooked pork spare ribs in a sticky rib marinade... bloody nice.

The rest of the evening was spent relaxing and enjoying some mindless TV.

NEW PROJECT

Today Steve and I are going to be working on my new project.  We hope to get the guts of it finished by the end of the day.

I designed it, and Steve is coming on board with the know how... though I probably COULD have done it on my own.

But, it's good to have help.

So far today, it's all about our youngest grandson... I took a few photos of him last night after the other two went to bed:

ABOVE:  I gave him a fringe trim, with Bex holding him.  He needed it.... it was his first ever 'hair cut'.

ABOVE:  Bex giving Steve a back rub, Archer 'helping'.  

 ABOVE:  All he really wanted to do was scrag Steve and jump and stand all over him.

 ABOVE:  This wee man is JUST ADORABLE!  Sometimes gorgeous, sometimes a ratbag.

 ABOVE:  Explanation:  Archer was wanting to kiss Coco, so he grabbed Coco's head hair and pulled downwards, hence the MAD, CRAZY look on Coco's face!
Coco wasn't impressed and took off pretty quickly.

Well... that's all for now.  MAYBE you will get to see my next project tonight?

ONWARD...

ABOVE:  progress...Steve is doing all of it so far.  I might be left just having to paint it.

BUT... we've hit a speed bump!  It won't fit through the door into the house from the garage... or through any internal door.  So the guys are having to make adjustments.

I've left them to it... my design is GOOD, but a bit tricky when you factor in BLOODY DOORS!!!

Well... after our speed bump with the 'project'... we had to change tack and adjust...

 ABOVE:  You guessed right girls... it's a bed for Keera.  I had wanted it to be a short bunk to fit over the queen size bed in the spare room... but because we couldn't get it through the door...

ABOVE:  We cut off the extra length and went for a little bed on the floor.

She LOVES it.  

OUCH!

I stubbed me little toe 2 days ago.

ABOVE:  Dante wanted to know why my toe was like a sausage?  Why was it all big and fat?

It hurt like hell when I did it, and it's still freakin' sore.

Steve is taking Matt to Hamilton airport first thing this morning, he's flying back to Invercargill... and back to life without screaming toddlers and pre-schoolers.  Something tells me he is going to delay 'fatherhood' for a decade now!  lol

Steve, Stew and Griffin will be heading out after breakfast to do more prep work for the deck Steve is building for Stew's boss.  Meanwhile, Bex, the three littlies and I will probably go ... SHOPPING.  

We will endeavour to get the kids good and tired so they don't wreck havoc when we get them home again!

Those three kids are SO LOUD... and Archer?  He's in destruct mode right now, and 'touch everything' mode too !  It's amazing what mischief he gets into.

So that's us for now.

Catch ya later.

ONWARD...

 ABOVE:  The two monkeys pretending to be asleep.  

Bex, the kids and I went into Hamilton to check out Knit World in Victoria street... and even I found something!

 ABOVE:  They had a small selection of fabric.  So I grabbed some... of course!

 ABOVE:  I even got some wool to try making some socks.  

ABOVE:  This is the wool Bex got.  She is going to be making little blankets for babies in NICU in the hospital.  She's made lots of wee hats for the hospital NICU too.

It's lunch time now and we are home again.  I've got heaps of housework to do... so that's what I'll be doing this afternoon... unless I can find something better to do.  *smiles*

HOW did I do me toe in?  I smacked it into the corner of a cabinet.  I was carrying a basket of washing so didn't judge the distance too well.  Shit happens.

The guys came home for lunch... so we spent an hour or two enjoying family time.  An ice cream truck came down our road, so we all ran outside and got an ice cream too.

Then Steve and I popped down to Mitre 10 for a few bits 'n bobs... for my next 'building' project.  I will show you when I've finished it.  It's quite a big project.

Now it's stopped raining (again), the guys have gone back to the job.

The guys couldn't do as much as they wanted to do on the job today... as the owner (Stew's boss) hadn't got all the wood.
So they came home fairly early.  We had takeaways for dinner... nice and easy.

Time to wind down for the night.
The guys are watching rugby, and I will cut out 5 inch blocks for a little quilt for Keera.

HEAPS TO DO

First up for today, some photos from yesterday:

 ABOVE:  One of my blog readers (Heather) sent these to Steve and Bex via me, how lovely are they!  THANK YOU so much Heather. ♥

 ABOVE:  Bex and her new Grandma. 

 ABOVE:  That is Bex's brother Matt, he lives in Invercargill... he now thinks he's got a new mother (ME) and a new Grandma too!  LOL... why not!  He's part of our family now, via his sister as far as we are concerned.

 ABOVE:  'Official' brothers-in-law now.
Matt is staying with them until he flies home on the weekend.

ABOVE:  My Mum and her sister Jean, and Jean's hubby Rainey.

It was a really lovely day yesterday.

Today is going to be a busy day, as I have a lot to do in the house to get it back to 'normal'.

I will enjoy that after the past week with people coming and going constantly!  

I'm hoping by this afternoon I've got it all done and can RELAX before Steve, Bex and the boys arrive.

Yep... they are coming back as Steve has a big deck to build for Stew's boss.  

That's all for now!  Catch ya later.

ONWARD...

My, what a busy morning I have had!
I took Keera to Kindy, and Brylee and Griffin came in the car, and walked the rest of the way to their school.  Now they have half the distance to cover every morning.  They are happy about that.

Then I headed into Hamilton to buy a small vertical freezer, it is my Birthday gift from my Mum!  My birthday isn't yet though!

After that I went and bought a few Christmas presents, and looked for a bed for Keera.  I might just end up building one for her, then I will get the right size.

Home, unpacked the new freezer, re-arranged the garage so I had a space for it... and now?  It's almost time to pick up Keera.  I think she will be having an afternoon nap today, she's rather tired after the hectic week we have had.

 ABOVE:  The new little vertical freezer on the left.  It's going to be awesome not running out of freezer room now, and NOT falling into a chest freezer!  lol

ABOVE:  My bloody FitBit died... fell to bits.  Cross and crabby about that.  Not sure if I will get another one yet.

Thanks to Mel... I've emailed the Fitbit company and I'm awaiting a reply.  With any luck it will be replaced.

My 'back to normal' day didn't last long!

We now have Steve, Bex, Matt and the little boys here for the weekend... AND our friend Jacqui is here for the night too.

She's in transit, home to Tauranga, and stopped in to visit and now is staying the night.  

So, we have a busy weekend ahead.