Initial Heart Swap

I am very late with the boat my for this swap. I was waiting, waiting, waiting for parcel to arrive at Kerrie's house - it only took 3 weeks between here and Australia!! I think we'll blame both NZ post and Aussie post for that one. I know of quite a few people who have said mail to Australia has been horrendously slow lately. it always took a week for mail to get from NZ to Aussie when we lived there. Who knows what the situation will be from July when we only receive mail 3 times a week - I hope they do keep on clearing it evey day???

Anyway this is what I sent to Kerrie  - there was a bit of stress around this as I had forgotten how to do a lined zippered pouch - the cross stitching was the easy part! I am rubbish at doing anything else when studying and the summer went by too fast and then it was, oh my gosh, i'd better get on with this swap! I loved how it turned out and might make myslef one sometime too, without the stress this time!

And a couple of weeks ago, this gorgeous pouch for me arrived from Lyn. I feel really bad as I forgot to e-mail her, and also misplaced the piece of paper in her package with her blog address on. I knew Lyn had a NZ blog, so spent some time on Thursday night going though my huge list of blogs trying to figure out who which blogger it was. Luckily Lyn had just blogged about what she had sent me!
I adore it. It was perfectly timed arriving around the end of my exam. Thank you so much Lyn - you are very talanted!

Day Three

Day three started off like this... we pulled across the curtains and went  OMG - I flew out the backdoor (in my underwear!) so fast and nearly tripped over the dear rabbit who had climbed up onto our deck.... She had bitten her way out of her home... Luckily we had a skip full of rubbish, so half the wardrobe door was cut up and nailed onto the side of the cage. Tonight we are buying a sturdy, strong, quality New Zealand made hutch from Trade Me. We are so thankful that Charlie was not harmed!

Renovations look like this -

i am in l-o-v-e with the original flooring still :).

After school I went to the Massey University website (which I have been stalking!) and discovered a
B+ against my summer university paper. OH MY - I am still gobsmacked and have no idea how I did that!!! I only basically wrote half to three quarters of the exam paper...  I know my internal marks will have pulled me up -WOW - STOKED. 4 papers in 15 months on top of working virtually full time in a demanding job/ children etc etc Whew!.

We don't need any more rabbit dramas here. :)

Days One and Two of bedroom renovation

I cannot believe how fast the builder is working!

Day One: We are amazed at how the original wood has stood the test of time. We have a little bit of borer but otherwise all good.

Day two -

I am STOKED with the original floorboards - I am stunned that anyone actually really wants to lay carpet over such gorgeous floorboards! .The insulation and new gib wallboards will be finished tomorrow or ThursdayThe work is moving fast and the plasterer will be here over the weekend too. Then it will be the fun of painting - that is our job! Flooring polished and polyurethaned a week after.
All is going well!

Weekending

 It has been a VERY productive weekend. We have dismantled an entire room, got rid of A LOT more stuff and now have furniture spread around the house. The builder arrives tomorrow to totally destroy the room, put insulation in the walls (half of the house is un-insulated - so very common in older NZ houses - our houses are NOT known for their warmth and it does freak immigrants out...), rip out the awful wardrobe (not to be replaced by a permanent one either - less space to store stuff one does not need!), rip the carpet up and polish/varnish the orginal floorboards. it will be a lovely enw room for the teenager!

The upside is I get to have his desk in the corner of my bedroom. I have sat here a lot this weekend and written many, many letters, ordered several hundred photos to be printed on-line, found (finally!) Creative Memories stock on Trade Me at a price I am prepared to pay (months and months ago the prices had skyrocketed when the company folded - someone finally put realistic , normal prices on to sell the items - perfect timing for me. Once this is all used, I will flick over to Project Life) and sorted out stuff. I am enjoying the desk and perhaps it will be easier for me to study too. A place to spread out all my pretty writing stuff :)

I've been scrapbooking up a storm too - very basic simple pages to just get it done! And packaging up a few sweet gifts for birthday presents for even sweeter friends. I have also started cutting out pj pants for winter to sew up. The teenager is now spread out in the lounge for the next 4-6 weeks or so... record player included.

I'm looking forward to showing you the progress of the room over the next few weeks.
I have loved this weekend - we have two very tired kids after a weekend at a huge scout camp.

the week that has been

what a week!

*CRAZY still at school - especially with ERO coming next week (the government 3-5 yearly check up on all NZ schools.) 210 new library books and covering, covering madly

*heatpumps dismantled - one going into a new room

*a jampacked car of stuff has left the house for a school gala (ruthless - I am being ruthless with everything!!)

* an entire bedroom is being packed up and we are figuring out where the furniture will spend the next 4-5 weeks spread around the house while we gut an entire room next week back to the outside wood and start again - it will take 4 days to have it to the new walls stage, but then there is plastering and painting and carpet being ripped up and floors polished/polyurethaned....

* the bunk beds need to be rebuilt and think we will sell them but that will entail 2 new beds - oldest teenager wants our bed....

* a lot cooler but really STILL hot enough to have sweat running down you - had a cousin up from Dunedin who was gobsmacked yesterday at our humidity

* THIS - we are a metre out of the zone. It is a NIGHTMARE. The boys are basically banned from any piece of fruit in their lunchboxes - they walk a metre into the zone, catch train in zone to go out of the zone again for school and vice versa. Fruit can go into the zone, but it cannot go OUT... they are big fruit eaters and we struggle with lunchboxes without 2-3 pieces of fruit.... The supermarket I usually shop in - I'm not allowed to buy any fruit or veges and bring it home, a metre out of the zone. Why on earth we need to import Australian fruit and veges into NZ is rather beyond me anyway but....

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11404227

* this vege garden is honestly being watered every day...

*I have done an awful lot of sitting around at nights doing very little. A bit of letter writing, but little knitting or reading. Falling asleep instantly at night.

*Two are at the big Founders Day Scout camp all weekend. We might run way for the weekend, but there is a lot to sort before the builder arrives on Monday...

Happy weekending everyone...

Send a Little Love Swap

it is always lovely to come home to a parcel in one's letterbox - this arrived today from Holly from Leeds in England. I was on the way to bring the double bass home and ripped into it at traffic lights as you do!
So excited to have a gorgeous knitting needle roll - I can fill that up very easily. Gorgeous fabric. A cute drawstring bag and makeup remover pads too - love them!
A lovely notebook, lindt chocolate and Tesco *finest* :) English Breakfast tea. Yay for tea from another country.
Love it all. Thank you Holly - I am envious of your sewing skills!

This is what I sent to Holly -

 Thanks Tracey for another great swap!