Oh wow, oh wow, oh wow!!!

I dragged myself out of bed this morning feeling a bit better after getting a good 8 hours sleep (the first in a long while!); the sun was shining beautifully after a bit of a rainy weekend; it was a lovely, crisp 10C; it was a public holiday (hence the sleep in) and I was drooling just thinking about the strawberry pancakes I was going to make for breakfast.

Whilst the pancakes were cooking, I logged onto UKS in anticipation of finding out which team won the CC overall. I didn't actually find that out as the totals were still being added up, but I did discover that one of my LOs won its class. Oh wow, oh wow, oh wow!!!!! What a start to the morning!!!!

Presenting the winning LO:

It was the Angel Islington class from Friday (or Saturday in my case). Angie (the class designer) picked my LO from about 165 other LOs and I certainly don't envy that task! I'm sooo chuffed as I never thought I'd win a CC with my LOs. I certainly don't do a CC with that intention at all. Especially as I don't even live in the UK! LOL

I'm now eagerly awaiting some beautiful Prima flowers from the sponsor, Creative Craft World. Thanks heaps to them, and I'll definitely show you when they arrive. :D

You know what's funny (and you could tell this from my last post!)? I found this CC to be the most disappointing in terms of motivation and mojo. I didn't really find the classes to my liking and I only completed 4 LOs compared to the 9 or 10 that I did in the previous two CCs. Moreover, I win a class with the LO that I personally liked THE LEAST! Go figure. LOL

Despite all my whinging though, I did actually enjoy myself this weekend and the most important thing was that it got me scrapping (and doing things a bit differently)! I'm now looking forward to finishing the few LOs that I started over the weekend, but never finished due to the time constraints.

Oh, and which team actually won the CC overall? My team of course - the SHIPS!! What a fantastic end to a fantastic day! LOL

*hugs*

A Mojo-lacking CC Weekend!

Here endeth the UKS Monopoly Cybercrop weekend for me. I'm calling it quits now as I'm flaking out even though there is still about 5 hours left of the CC in UK time. In total I only managed a dismal 4 layouts. Not my best work either. I just couldn't seem to get motivated this weekend and my mojo was sorely missing. I'm not sure if it's because I'm already tired (lack of 8 hours sleep every night will do that to me) or if it's because my stomach has been feeling bloated and uncomfortable all weekend. Probably both.

Right, well, without further ado, let's have a look at what I DID manage to accomplish, yeah? Grab a cuppa and sit back as this is going to be a looooong post!!

First up - the Pre-crop Challenge. I showed you a sneak peak of this in my last post. Here is the full thing (click to get a bigger picture).

The challenge was to scrap the constant person in your life. For me, that's God. He has always been there for me no matter what and will continue to be there for me. The poem is called Footprints (you can read the full poem here). It's my favourite Christian poem.

Let me know if you want to know any of the materials I used. This goes for all the layouts I show. I can't be bothered typing each one out!

The first class of the CC that I did was Bow Street. Not really my cup of tea, but it was different:

I stuffed up the letters and paint but doodling inside the letters sort of made it a bit better. LOL

The next layout was a digi effort for the Water Works challenge, which was to scrap a water and/or holiday theme. I think I covered both!

For digi layouts, I use a software package called Scrapbook Factory. It's pretty cool and comes with a lot of it's own embellishments which you can supplement with your own image files. It's not as good as using Photoshop but I've yet to master that. :D

The next class I did was called Angel Islington. Again, not my cup of tea, but sometimes it's good to do different things! The challenge was to hand-cut a frame.

The final class I did ended up my favourite. I guess because it was very open to interpretation and I liked the freedom of that. The challenge was to include something hidden. Here's the layout as is:

The photo of the house opens up to reveal more photos:

And one more section:

Do you think it looks like a house brochure or something?!? LOL

Well . . . that's it! I can't say I enjoyed this CC as much as the other two I participated in. I'm not sure why. As I said, it might be due to lack of sleep and a tummy bug.

Tomorrow I'll tell you all about a fantastic Medieval Festival I went to on Saturday. For now, I really need to get to bed.

***hugs***

Stress, Win-Mobile reborn, new stash and a CC!!

What a day! You'll be glad to hear that I haven't been working on the Sydney house. Did that yesterday and have the aches and pains to remind me. LOL At least it's all done now and all I have left to do is get the keys and the lease agreement to the real estate agent and let them deal with it.

So, what's all this about stress, a Win-Mobile and a CC?!?

Let me start with the "CC". I belong to a scrapbooking forum called UK Scrappers (see sidebar for link). A CC is short for Cybercrop (basically lots of online classes and scrap challenges and some fun and games thrown in as well), which is run twice a year and this weekend is the first one for the year. It will be my third CC. The theme this time is Monopoly and I've been assigned to the Ships team.

Ok, now onto the "stress" bit. There was a pre-crop layout challenge which I thought I could get done and get some early points. God had different ideas though. All week I've been really tired with work and the long train journey home, so I haven't had any time or energy to do any scrapping. I did have an idea and had started with printing the photos and pulling out stash. To cut a long story short, I thought the deadline for uploading the layout was midnight UK time on Thursday 22 April. This meant I had until 9am on Friday 23 April AEST. So this morning I got up and started working on the layout. By 8.30pm, I was getting a bit stressed as I just had the title to cut out on the Robo, but he was playing up and wouldn't do as he was told. Eventually he cut out my title and I stuck it on. Crooked. ARRRGGGHHH!! Next to fail was the camera. Well, not the camera, but the operator was a bit of a failure. I find it really hard to work Gus' DSLR as there are so many buttons and functions and features! A frantic phone call later and I was sorted. Somewhat. The photos still came out a bit dud. Time was ticking though and I didn't want to waste it by taking more photos. So I jumped on the computer to upload the photo. Computer was running VERY slow and Firefox kept dying on me which caused me loads of angst. The air was a bit blue by this time and I was going insane.  Even the dogs were keeping out of my way. LOL  The photo eventually uploaded.  At 9.27am.  Okay, so I was 27 minutes late . . . or so I thought. Reading through the threads again, I realised that the actual deadline for uploading was 6PM UK time. 6PM?!?! ARRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!! *cry*

Here's a sneak peek of the layout anyway:

Fast forward four hours later. The Win-Mobile is reborn!!!! Huh? I hear you say. Let me explain. Several years ago, when I got my second car (my first NEW car), I got personalised license plates, WIN282. It was a cute little Toyota Corolla sedan. Silver. With a spoiler - ooooh! LOL My friends christened it the Win-Mobile (that's "mobile" as in automobile). Unfortunately the Win-Mobile got sold off due to lack of use and the need for $$$. I wish I could find the photo of my first Win-mobile. It's around somewhere, in the piles of junk stuff that is still around. With the move up to the Mts this year, we needed another car, so I got a blue Subaru Impreza. I love it! I ummed and ahhhed for weeks about getting personalised licence plates as the RTA are charging me a yearly fee now. Boo! But I bit the bullet and got my new plates. Today I picked them up and put them on the car.  Introducing the new Win-Mobile!!!  What do you think? Snazzy huh?

Finally, here's all the stash I received today (all bought in sales - gotta love that!!). It all arrived just in time for the CC. Yay!

Well, that's all from me today. I've got to get to bed early as I have to adjust to UK time this weekend. The first class starts at 4am AEST! Ouch.

***hugs***

A Yummy Present!

I got a wonderfully delicious present today. :D  My work colleague had a "baking party" with her bible study group over the weekend and she made some "cupcake pops" (see Bakerella).  She was an absolute star for bringing in two for me to try and here they are!

I was surprised at how well they were presented - wrapped in cellophane bags and tied with ribbon!  Gorgeous!  Just like the ones Bakerella made.  I'm sure they're delicious too, although I'm saving them for dessert tonight.  LOL

Here is where I state categorically that I am not a baker.  Oh, I can make muffins and a banana cake and maybe a cookie or two when the mood or need arises, but that's about it.  I shy away from doing anything that needs icing (mainly because I'm not a fan of icing) or anything that needs more decorating than placing choc-chips or chocolate sprinkles on top.  I do admire those who can bake and turn out gorgeous cakes and other delicious fancies.  Like Bakerella.  And Shimelle.  And my work colleague.  Not me.  The most adventurous I've ever been was when I made a Triple Chocolate Mousse Cake.  It was edible, just not that asthetically pleasing.  Mind you, that cake didn't even require any baking at all as it was a cold set mousse cake. -wink-

Therefore, today I dedicate this blog post to you ladies (and possibly any gents) who excel at the art of baking (and decorating those baked goods).  Cheers!!

***hugs***

Another Exhausting Weekend

Yep. Another exhausting weekend. Spent ALL weekend down at the Sydney house cleaning out the inside of the house this time. It seemed to take forever, and I'm STILL not finished. :( Since it takes us so much time to get down there, we don't have a lot of time left to do the cleaning. Saturday night we stayed really late (after having dinner with my parents in Kou Gee in Eastwood) and I was really struggling on the drive home. So much so that Gus wouldn't let me drive on Sunday. He's such a sweetie. :D

I have to admit the house is looking very nice. It's cleaner than when we moved in eight years ago! I just hope that it draws a good renter that will take care of the place otherwise all this cleaning will be for nought.

I did meet the Real Estate Agent on Friday and she was quite positive about the house and getting a renter, even though the current market is slow, so that's a good thing. The sooner we get it rented out, the sooner these manic drives down to Sydney can stop!

Anyway, I've taken today off work because I'm just too exhausted. My arms are aching, my RSI has flared up again and I can barely type this!

On the plus side, I may just have enough energy to do a LO today. Watch this space!

Until next time!

***hugs***

Shopping & Stash!

What a tiring day!   Spent ALL day in Sydney, despite only wanting to spend HALF a day down there!  I have to admit that it was a much more productive day than yesterday though.  I managed to meet the real estate agent (eventually after a bit of muddle up as to WHERE we were meeting!) and get the ball rolling on leasing out the house.  I got my haircut and feel great now.  What do you think?

I managed to do some shopping too.  My bag strap broke today, although I wasn't too annoyed as my bag was looking very worn and tatty.  Got a nice new black one now.  I also managed to pick up some lovely Pashmina scarves which are very useful as it gets quite cold on the train, not to mention here in the Mts full stop. LOL  The other two little things are a purse and a mobile phone holder.  The purse I'm actually using to store my MP3 player.

Also went into Ikea to get a couple more Kasset boxes.  I really love those boxes as they are such a great storage medium, especially for my megaloads of stash, AND they look good. LOL

Rang hubby and told him to catch a train to Rhodes so I could give him a lift home.  Traffic was a nightmare getting on the M4, but once past the Parramatta Road onramp, it was flowing beautifully.

We decided to stop at Vaby's in Penrith for dinner and it was great.  Pity my phone had died otherwise I would have taken a picture of dinner for you. :(

Never mind, I think I'm waffling now as it's nearly midnight and I'm exhausted!

Oh, one more thing before I head off to bed.  There was a pizza box waiting at the front door when I got home.  That can only mean one thing since I didn't order pizza - a stash order had arrived, yay!!!  Lots of gorgeous and yummy items to tryout!

Well, that's about it for today.  I'm excited about the stash, but even more excited as the UKS Monopoly Pre-crop challenge (more on this later) had been announced and I've got a bit of an idea floating around me head  Just gotta find time to do it this weekend.  My eternal problem - finding time.  ARRRGGHHH!!!

***hugs***

Oooh, Lookie What I Got!!!

Courtesy of my fantastic UKS friend, Misteejay!  Thanks Toni! :D

I'm now supposed to list 7 crafty things that I have done and then pass it on.  Okay, here we go:

1. I've always loved to make cards to give to friends and family and still do!
2. I discovered Scrapbooking and UKS three years ago and haven't looked back since!
3. I made my own wedding invitations, Order of Service and table placecards.
4. I sew some of my own clothes (when I get the time!)
5. I've set up this blog (although it's yet to show any of my crafty abilities LOL)!
6. I try to get to every Craft Show in Sydney where I can.
7. In addition to giving cards, I occasionally like to give crafty gifts too and some of those gifts have included ribbon weave cushions, jewellery, appliqued door name hangers, mini-books, decorated photo frames, knitted scarves etc.

There you have it!  Now I'll pass it on to Kat (Sutty), Tracy (Tianne), Amanda, Gillian, Ally (Allycat) and Alana (Gingerscraps).

**hugs**

A Bit of Indulgence on a Workday

I think I'm really getting into this blogging business!!  Suddenly my life is full of things I want to share with you! LOL  Mind you, it might get boring again from here on.

Today started out just like any other workday.  I got up at the crack of dawn, stumbled into the bathroom, then downstairs to have breakfast and to prepare for the day.  I was already asleep on the train by the time we were less than halfway down the mountain and didn't wake up until we pulled into Central Station.  Got to work, made my pick-me-up cold Milo (with milk of course!) and sat down to do some work after a quick morning chat with colleagues. Ploughing through the accounts was a bit boring, but at 11.30am, things got a bit more exciting.  I was to meet Gus for lunch in the city so I hopped on a train and headed to Town Hall Station and then walked down to Darling Harbour.  I had a heart stopping moment on the train when I remembered that it was still school holidays and Darling Harbour was likely to be packed with tourists and school kids/families.  To my surprise, it wasn't so bad.

After deliberating for a moment, we decided to have lunch in . . . wait for it . . . the LINDT CAFE!! YUM!!  They have a lunchtime special of a gourmet sandwich and any beverage for $14.  So we ordered a pesto and marinated vege sandiwch and a lamb sandwich with a Lindt Iced Mocha each.  YUM!

(DISCLAIMER:  All the photos in this post are pretty bad quality.  I guess that's what you get from a mobile camera!)

After lunch, I just HAD to go back into the Cafe to do some shopping.  We emerged with four variously flavoured dark chocolate blocks, some dark chocolate easter eggs and various Lindt balls.  I was feeling nice and generous so some of the balls were meant for some of my work colleagues.  All this packed into a beautiful blue Lindt bag and we were set!

Did the indulgence stop there?  No way!!  Walking back towards the IMAX theatre, we bought gelato from Gelatissimo - one of the best gelato shops in Sydney!  I got Green Tea flavour and Gus got Veronese Chocolate (imagine a cold and creamy Ferrero Roche!!).  Mmmm . . . absolute heaven!!

When a horde of little kids on a holiday day care centre outing descended on where we were sitting, we took that as a sign to leave!

Of course after such an indulgent lunch, I really didn't feel like doing any work!  But since I was the only one in my department today, the reality was a bit different. LOL

Well, that's my little adventure for today.

Until next time! ***hugs***

A Weedy Weekend!

I’m sore today. I can feel every muscle in my body. In particular the ones in my legs – they seem to be causing the most havoc.

Why am I sore? Well, I’ve just spent 80% of my weekend weeding the garden at the old house. Squatting down and trying to pull out stubborn weeds that are so huge and ugly that they look like they’ve come from the prehistoric era is not my idea of a fun weekend. The tiny blades of grass trying to pose as weeds and the awful and irrepressible Oxalis and Kidney weeds weren't any better.  It had to be done though as we want the property to at least look presentable to prospective renters. Mum and dad even came to help out which was good as mum pretty much single-handedly weeded the front garden by herself.  Dad was savagely pruning the Murrayas out back and mentioned that we really should prune these every three months.  Gus looked at me and laughed and told dad we probably prune once every three years, if that!!  We are sooo not gardeners. LOL

(savage pruning of the Murrayas!)

(Gus mowing front lawn)

We also cleared out the junk that has been left in the cellar and under the house. I was pretty much gobsmacked to discover just how much rubbish there was! Thankfully this week is Council Cleanup week so we dragged it all out onto the sidewalk and piled it up!

The downside to leaving it all nice and tidy is that the scavengers will come around and mess it up. They really make me mad. I don’t mind them making money from our junk, but seriously, if I’m sitting out on the front verandah in FULL VIEW of everyone on the street, isn’t it just plain courtesy to ask if one can go through the pile and take items?!?! Grrrrr . . .

Now that I've had a chance to ponder over the events of the weekend, I’m actually glad that the weeds didn’t take up too much of my time. There were much more interesting highlights to the weekend . . .

Firstly, whilst we were almost heading off for lunch on Saturday, a guy in a ute pulls up and asks if we want some of our trees trimmed as they were pretty overgrown and one was almost touching powerlines. That was weird as it looked like he was just casing the neighbourhood for a job, even though we did need our trees trimmed. Who am I to argue with God’s providence?!? At least it saved us time ringing around for someone and waiting for their quotes. So we agreed to let him prune our trees and we went off to lunch. He’d almost finished by the time we got back, and it was pretty good. The trees looked better, although there was a lot to be said about the NEATNESS to which he pruned. LOL  (Let me add that this guy was actually supposed to be an experienced tree lopper!)

Secondly, for years whilst living in North Ryde, we've heard the dulcet tones of Green Sleeves echoing through the area which meant the impending arrival of the Mr Whippy van. We've never actually stopped the van as most times when we hear him, it's too late and he's already sped right past our house. This time we were all outside the house in the front garden when we heard him and so we stopped him. Unfortunately, I had placed my order BEFORE looking at the price. Can you believe that he charged $8 for an adult sized serving and $5 for a kiddie sized serving??!?! 8 bucks?!?! That's highway robbery, or more to the point, kerbside robbery!! That wasn't the only shock though. When he finished dispensing the "adult-sized" serving of soft serve and handed me the cone, I almost fainted. Check this out:

Woah! Can you believe the size of that soft serve?!?! The "kiddy" sized one (which you can just see mum holding hers in the background) was about the same size as an adult one from any other Mr Whippy van. Okay, so the size of the thing was massive and I will admit to having a love of soft serve ice cream, but this was ridiculous and definitely not worth $8!  We all felt sick after that ice-cream cone. Not that it's put me off soft serve . . . see further down. LOL

I barely made the drive home on Saturday night as I was so tired and sore. We had driven both cars down so we could load up as much as possible into Gus’ car whilst I had the doggies in my car. Unfortunately this meant that I didn’t have the opportunity to have a nap in the car as I was driving. Mind you, it didn’t stop my eyelids from wanting to droop! The ad campaign says I should Stop and Revive every two hours. That’s too much. I have to stop and revive every 20 minutes!!! LOL I hope I get used to this long distance driving soon.

On Sunday morning we headed over to the Blackheath Growers Market, which is fast becoming my favourite market for fresh foods. We had a yummy sausage and egg sandwich and a coffee for breakfast. Nothing beats a sausage and egg sanga from a Market - any Market!! We also managed to buy a lot more than last time as we were early and hadn't missed out on all the good stuff already!  We managed to get a loaf of multigrain sourdough from my favourite bread stall, Shepherds Bakery; a jar of garlic wholegrain mustard; some hand-made biscotti and a huge box of the yummiest muesli bars I've ever tasted!

After our little early morning shopping expedition, we were late in getting down to Sydney, so the day was partly wasted (also due in part to the other shopping side trip I had to do after lunch!). However, we eventually finished unearthing all the junk from under the house and put it all out on the Council strip ready for the garbos to collect. The garden is 90% done and all that's left to do is paint the side gate and get an electrician in to fix a couple of lights. I'll be so glad when North Ryde is rented out and I can go back up to the Mountains and hide in my craft room where I belong!!!

On the drive back on Sunday night, it was pretty late when we left North Ryde, so we decided to stop at the Service Centre along the M4. For the first time in years, I had Macca’s as a meal (not just the odd coffee or McFlurry as I am wont to do). For a meal choice that is supposed to be “healthy”, the Sweet Chilli Chicken Wrap was very disappointing. Of course the gorgeous picture above the counter shows a huge wrap with lots of chicken, oakleaf lettuce, tomato and cucumber hanging out of it. The reality was very far removed. A couple of sad looking strips of iceberg lettuce and some cucumber slices made up the supposed "salad". The fries were way too salty and I’d forgotten how thin they were. Thankfully we only shared the fries. Hmmm . . . at least the iced coffee made up for it. Why I know that Macca's is totally wrong but I still went ahead and ate it is totally beyond comprehension. I think it was the hunger and exhaustion that did it.

20 minutes later, we stopped again at the Blaxland Macca’s for a McFlurry (am I a sucker for punishment or what?). Okay, I have an awful weakness for McFlurries (see paragraph on soft serve above), but not when the soft serve is . . . well . . . soft and mushy. Ugh. The soft serve machine wasn't working properly. Again. This is the second time. Sad to say though that this STILL hasn't put me off getting soft serves/McFlurries in the future. Yes I know, I'm a lost cause. LOL

I finally made it home although the last leg from Blaxland to Leura was difficult. Not even the doggies could keep me company as they had fallen asleep! Oh well, at least I made it home in one piece and I live to tell you all about my adventures! LOL

Hope you enjoyed my interesting weekend as much as I did!  Until next time.

***hugs***

The great finale!

Here it is!  The post you've all been waiting for. LOL

It will be a quick one as I'm exhausted after pulling weeds all day.  I'll tell you all about it tomorrow or on Monday when I've recovered.  If I've recovered!

I've shown you downstairs and I've shown you around upstairs. Now it's time to step outside and admire the view. Follow me . . .

This is the view I get from just outside the kitchen window or the craft room.  Oh look - that's where the furbabies have gone!  They LOVE it here.  So much more room to run around, chase birdies and sunbathe. :D

As the land is quite sloping, the previous owners have stepped the land and created three tiers. This is the view from the edge of the first tier, looking down on the second tier:

Going down a little further to the edge of the second tier and we see this:

You can now see the fence we had erected to keep the dogs in. But isn't that view amazing?!? I don't think I'd ever tire of looking at it. :D

This next photo is of the house from the back.  The garden shed (Gus' domain) and back of the garage to the left.  In the middle of the photo is our own little Christmas tree.  I can't wait to decorate it at Christmas time! LOL

And finally to really get you jealous, my hubby dearest took the following panorama on a really, really, REALLY good sunset day. We've seen a lot of sunsets so far, but to date, this one takes the cake. I can't wait to see more that beat it!!

(This one you have to click on to get the full effect!!)

So there you have it!  You've been through my whole house and even seen the backyard and awesome view.  Now I feel as though you've all been here!

In future posts we'll take a closer look at that craft room that have you all so jealous! LOL

For now I'm off to bed as it's been a loooooong and tiring day.  Cheers!

Let's go upstairs!

I'm exhausted today!  Before 9am this morning, I had already tided up two rooms and the foyer, put on two loads of washing (with a third waiting to be done), vacuumed and mopped the floors downstairs, cleaned up the laundry, and took the dogs for a walk. Phew!!  Needless to say I slept for the rest of the day. LOL

Right, as promised, here is the second part of the tour of my house - the second level.  There are four bedrooms all with built-in wardrobes, except the main bedroom that has a teeny walk-in-wardrobe.  The main bedroom also has an ensuite.  In the hallway there is a massive linen cupboard.  The stairs, hallway and main bedroom seem to have been re-carpeted.  The other three rooms are still sporting fluffy cream carpet right out of the seventies. One day we'll get around to replacing it. LOL

That's enough waffle.  Shall we?  Please close the gate behind you as again the furbabies are not allowed upstairs.  If the gate is left open, they'll be up there in a flash!

(DISCLAIMER - all the rooms look a little narrow and a bit out of proportion.  That's due to the wide angle lens I was using.  Just imagine that the rooms are a little wider than you see them in the photos!)

At the top of the stairs to the left we have the main bedroom.  Thank goodness I remembered to make the bed, sort of!  Our clothes are still piled everywhere as we haven't been bothered to unpack them as yet, especially all the summer gear.

Around to the right in the main bedroom lies the walk-in-wardrobe (WIR) and ensuite.  Don't get too excited about the WIR - it's actually quite small.  We had more wardrobe space at our old house, but this will do for now.  I've always wanted a WIR!!  The ensuite is usuable and is only marginally smaller than the main bathroom at our old place!

Right, let's go down the hall to the other rooms shall we?  I forgot to open up the curtains in the guest room at the end of the hall, hence why it looks a little spooky and mysterious.  The hall looks a little weird in this photo as the wide angle lens has distorted it.  It's really not that narrow!

First room on the left is a massive main bathroom.  It's broken up into three rooms.  The washing/primping & preening area in the middle, the shower/bathroom on the left and a toilet on the right.  My dad was complaining about not having the toilet and shower/bath together and I said that if he wanted to run from the toilet to the shower in the nude, nothing was stopping him.  We weren't going to look! LOL

(I'm not going to show you the toilet.  It's just a toilet and I'm sure you all know what that looks like!)

This is the guest room that is at the end of the hall.  At the moment we have two single beds set up in there (as my parents were staying with us over Easter and they like to sleep in separate beds), but we'll have a Queen bed in there for other guests.  This is the only bedroom that has a view too.  We figured it doesn't matter for us as we see the view everyday whereas our guests won't. :D

We haven't really figured out what we're going to do with the two single beds when we put in the Queen bed, that is, where we're going to put them.  I know, I know, I can hear you thinking, "The woman has four bedrooms in the house and she doesn't know where to put two single beds?!?!".  Wanna know why?

Yep.  Two rooms currently full of junk stuff we don't know where to put just yet.  No, I'm not currently using those exercise machines.  Doesn't everyone have exercise machines in their house that are just there for decoration?!?  Sigh, the original buying impulse/intentions were good. LOL  I shouldn't complain.  They did serve their purpose two years ago when I lost a heap of weight.  Then I discovered dark chocolate Tim Tams and all that hard work went flying out the window.

Well, that about wraps up the tour of the upstairs bedrooms.  Nothing really that exciting.  Let's go back downstairs and take a look at that view . . . tomorrow!

Cheers!

Welcome to my new house!

I've been busy taking photos today so I think we're in business now!

For my first "official" post, I thought I'd give you a quick tour around our new house (as so many people have been asking about it!).  We'll have a look at the downstairs for today.

(Please excuse the watermarks over all the photos and the mess in all the rooms!  Click on the photos to get a slightly bigger view.)

So, here it is. Ta da!

What do you think?  Lovely, isn't it?  It certainly looks nicer than our old place.  It’s much airier, sunnier and wow – no immediate neighbours!  Well, the block on the left hand side has an old shack and is up for sale, so we could have neighbours in the near future.  Anyone got any funds to lend us so we can buy it? LOL

Right, well, let’s go in, shall we?

We enter the ground level via a teeny Foyer.  To the right is the Living Room, and to the left are the stairs to the second floor.

This is the Living Room.  The heater is on, but it's really not that cold.  Normally I turn the heater on so I can get the dogs to calm down and they lie quietly in front of the heater.  Obviously it's not working today as you can see they are NOT sitting on their cushions!  In fact they're nowhere to be seen ... hmmm ... must be up to some mischief!  Excuse the dog toys lying around everywhere.  I have yet to train them to put away their toys. LOL  Excuse the boxes piled up on either side of the fireplace too - we're slowly chopping them up for the recycle bin, but the bin is only so big.  If you're wondering, that's a digital piano peeking out in the bottom right hand corner.  I do play.  Sort of.  Sometimes.  Okay, okay - very rarely then and most of my learning has been forgotten so I can't play much more than chopsticks!

Through the Living Room around to the left is my Craft Room or Scrap Room or Studio or Work Room or whatever you want to call the room where I sit and try to be creative.  I'll show you more of this room in depth in a later blog post. :D

Oh, and this is the view I have out the Craft Room window.  It doesn't look like much in this photo, but all will become clear when I show you more of the gorgeous view we have out the back in a later post as well.

Shall we have a peek at the kitchen then?  It's not very exciting - it's just a kitchen, which needs a bit of a facelift as the doors are looking a bit old and worn.  That's our dining room in the middle background of the photo.  I'm not going to show you more as the dining table is a mess and there is laundry all over the place. LOL

Through the dining room to the left is Gus' "Media" room (self-explanatory if you know Gus LOL).  More mess in here.  We haven't found a home for everything yet.  Yes, that is a baby gate and no, we don't have babies.  It's to keep the dogs out.  They aren't allowed in there as it's carpeted and we don't want dog hair in the carpet.  There's enough of it around the rest of the house as it is!!  The shelving on the right is filled with our CD and DVD collection.  Even we're in awe of how many CDs and DVDs we own (and never listen to or watch!).  Shocking, isn't it? LOL

And finally, here is the Laundry, or Doggie's Bedroom.  There is a toilet to the left which is very handy.  We'll be renovating this room shortly.  When the tradesmen finally get back to me.

Right!  Well, here's where we conclude the tour of the downstairs level.  I hope you like my house so far!  Tomorrow I'll take you upstairs and maybe sometime on the weekend we'll have a peek outside at the backyard and the awesome view I've been teasing you with. ;)

Cheers!