Home & Family TO BE FIXED

Ripped off … Sound of Music

OK, now I feel quite disappointed … I just jumped online to work out how to get to the State Theatre in the city, only to find out I’m actually going to a sing-along Sound of Music, not a live show! 😦

One of the guys at work laughed that that’s probably where I was going, but I’d never heard of the sing-along before … people go in dressed as nuns etc (which now explains why Brenda asked if I’d got my Nun’s outfit ready yesterday!!!).  I must say I feel really really disappointed … I was looking forward to seeing a live show, not paying $50 to watch a movie on the big screen with people screaming their lungs out 😦

In my day I have paid on numerous occasions to get dressed up and go to a stage show of the Rocky Horror Picture Show, but never in my wildest dreams would I have considered doing this to the Sound of Music … mutter mutter mutter.

Note to self … whenever Brenda invites you to anything, find out what it actually IS before coughing up the money!!  As it is it took me ages to get the details of the show out of her, ie venue etc – I only found out on Thursday afternoon, after having the tickets booked since November … ho-hum … good thing I’m not going to be driving tonight, I think some serious drinking might be in order before the show!!!  I am soooo not in the mood for this now … mind you, that normally means I’ll enjoy myself because I don’t have high expectations for the night! 😉

Home & Family TO BE FIXED

An unexpected stitchy day

I have the weekend to myself this weekend, as Lisa headed off to Melbourne in the wee small hours of this morning and won’t be back until Monday … I thought I’d have a lazy start to the day by laying in bed and catching up on a couple of blogs, when I heard the doorbell go and the screen door open … not expecting anyone I threw my dressing gown on and padded out to the front door to see a strange lady standing there with bags in her hands (I say strange because she is an unknown lady, and not because she’s weird at all! haha).  Thinking she’s trying to sell something I am a bit tentative in my greeting … but she announces “hi, I’m Robyn!”.  The penny then dropped as to who this lady was – I was driving her to our stitching day down south … but the only problem is the stitching day is tomorrow, not today!

I felt so sorry for the poor love, but I quickly threw on some clothes and made us a cup of coffee and we shared nibblies over a coffee and talked.  Robyn had the ‘honour’ of being shown all my stitching works in progress and finished items, which always breaks the ice when meeting new people.  We ended up chatting the morning away and Robyn didn’t leave until lunchtime – it was wonderful!  It is always so nice to meet fellow stitchers, and discuss stitching loves in the way of fabrics and designers and just stitching chat in general.  What an unexpected and pleasant way to spend the morning!  And the best thing is we get to do it all over again tomorrow! 🙂

I think I’ll spend the next hour going for a walk up the beach, before having my shower and getting ready to head into the city.  I was hoping to spend the morning finally setting up a CA Wells project for stitching, but having an unexpected stitching visit was way more fun! 😀

I can’t believe how long it’s been since I’ve picked up a needle … I haven’t touched my stitching since finishing the stitching on Karen’s Shepherd’s Roll needleroll, which is soooooo unlike me!  I haven’t had the urge to stitch whatsoever, perhaps because there is still so much clutter to be unpacked and sorted in my bedroom … and I think that’s cluttering my brain.  I also haven’t really felt like blogging, or even reading blogs.  Once I feel more settled and under control with the unpacking I might be ready to tackle some more stitching projects and get back into a routine once again.  The problem is the CA Wells class is in about 8 weeks time and I haven’t even started yikes!  Oh well, no point stressing about it … I might stitch some calico onto the edges of Sailor’s Valentine and take it with me to the stitching day tomorrow, as that could be relatively easy to stitch – either that or take a freebie along … perhaps that should be a priority for me right now instead of sitting at the laptop hmmm …

Rightio, time to pull finger out and get into my stitching stash and kit something up for tomorrow … the walk will have to wait!!  I’m now on a stitching mission … kind of …

Then I’m heading into the city to have dinner with friends Brenda and Kerrie before we see the Sound of Music stage show – it should be a fun night!

PhotoHunt

PhotoHunt – Wooden

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I’m totally spoilt for choice for this week’s theme of “wooden” … so I’ve chosen one photo that I’ve already used at the start of the Photo Hunt, plus two others.

Here is a boat sculpture on the shores of St Kilda Beach:

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Plus two wooden sculptures by the artist Ken Blum, at the Enchanted Maze Garden, Mornington Peninsula:

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And lucky last, the beach huts on Dromana beach, Mornington Pensinsula:

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Gifts TO BE FIXED, Home & Family TO BE FIXED

Happy social days

My goodness what a wonderful week of socialising this week has been!  First of all our friend Bek came up from Melbourne to visit Wed and Thu nights – we managed to christen a few things during her visit … first of all we christened the sofa bed of my ‘new’ lounge suite, and Bek has given it the seal of approval that it’s very comfy!  Then we christened the pretty comprehensive bar by spending Wed night slurping back numerous Illusion cocktails … which meant Thu at work was pretty low key haha.  Thu night we had antipasto foods and nibbles and a few wines sitting outside while christening our new balcony.  It was really lovely just sitting outside and chilling out with friends!

Friday night we had another ex-Melbourne colleague and friend of Lisa’s here in Sydney, so we ended up heading into the city straight after work to have dinner with him, followed by coffee and dessert at the Lindt chocolaterie cafe at Darling Harbour, before waddling back to the car and drive home.

My birthday started by being very quiet – we were going to go out for breakfast, but I was up at 7am then fell asleep again at 9.45am just as Lisa was getting up … needless to say when I woke up again it was lunchtime and Lisa had gone out shopping.  So I baked myself a birthday cake, and just chilled out for a while.  When Lisa walked in she came in with a big bouquet of flowers for me, then suggested she shout me out for dinner … we went to a local pub called the Intersection or something, and had a lovely dinner followed by a few cocktails.  We toddled in home at about 11.30pm … so thanks to Lisa I had a very special birthday night 🙂

Something else made my birthday extra special too, and that was the parcel that the mailman brought me on Thursday (I haven’t been anywhere near the computer to write about it until now).  There was squishy mail from my good friend KarenV, and I have been spoilt rotten!  Not only did Karen send the remaining Summer Snapperland charts from my wishlist, but she also send the most beautiful pinkeep and floss fob … how gorgeous are these??  Funnily enough, I’d recently kitted up the peacock chart that Karen used for the pinkeep, ‘cos I love it so much, and now I have my own all stitched up!  I absolute adore the little scissor pocket on the back, complete with my very own pair of Putford scissors … yep, you can definitely say I spoilt rotten!!  Thanks once again, my friend, I absolutely adore everything, and the Summer Snapperland series is going to remind me of my new home here in Sydney by the beach (although maybe I should stitch it on grey fabric to match the summer skies we’ve had most of summer haha).

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Now I’ll leave you drooling over my gifties from Karen, while I run up to the local shopping centre to buy my Dad some blank DVD’s.  I’ll do another quick post tomorrow, as I need to load up some photos of my plants for Mum and my camera battery has just died …

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In the meantime, I want to wish my good friend KarenV a WONDERFUL BIRTHDAY today – hope you have a fantastic day being spoilt rotten, and may 2008 be a stupendous year brimming full of goodness in every single way!!

Blogging Memes

Happy birthday to me!

Your Birthdate: February 16

You’re incredibly introverted and introspective. You live inside your head.
You spend a lot of alone time meditating and thinking.
People see you as withdrawn, and at times they are right.
You are caring and deep, but it may be difficult for you to show this side of yourself.Your strength: Your original approach to thinkingYour weakness: You tend to shy away from othersYour power color: Pale blue

Your power symbol: Wavy line

Your power month: July

What Does Your Birth Date Mean?

PhotoHunt

PhotoHunt – Free

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Even though the photo isn’t a great one in terms of skill or technical ability – this is my choice for this week’s theme of “free” … I always think it must be such a sense of freedom to be sailing over the earth with nothing but a basket under your feet. Although I haven’t been hot air ballooning myself yet, it’s definitely very high up the “to do” list! This is the view I had from my kitchen window one morning in Elwood …

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Cross Stitch, Gifts TO BE FIXED, Home & Family TO BE FIXED

Happy Mail!

Finally I can share with you a couple of amazing gifts I received last week from two very generous online friends.  After such a stressful time, it was amazing to open up my PO Box and find two envelopes bursting with goodness sitting in there!

First up was a scrummy skein of Gloriana silk from Susan – it might be a bit fuzzier than it originally arrived, as I kept stroking it at work haha.  For anyone who hasn’t fondled a skein of Gloriana before, it’s a sheer joy!  Thanks so much for your lovely thoughtful gift Susan, it’s been a pleasure to call you “friend”, and your gift really touched me! {{hugs}} 🙂

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Next up is an absolutely exquisite biscornu from Andrea – this is so perfectly “me” in every sense of the word!!  Look at those scrummy colours and that beautiful finishing … isn’t it a real stunner?!!  This was a gift to welcome me into my new home, and it’s now sitting on display in the lounge with my other smalls – it will always be treasured, Andrea, I really love it to death! I love the personalisation on the back too! 😀

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See, I told you last week the piccies would be worth waiting for … and I was right, huh? 😀

Thanks again to my two dear friends for making last week a wonderful one!

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A quick update on the car is that it’s running nicely again – everything requested was fixed … although admittedly it was a bit more than I expected in the end, as the alternator ran into a few difficulties so it ended up costing an extra $100 – anyway, all up it was just over $750 so it didn’t quite hit the $1,000 horror mark … and I’m so happy that everything is now fixed, including the airconditioning and aerial … I’m one happy camper!!! And to top things off I’ll be using it to drive down ‘south’ next weekend to my first stitching weekend in Sydney – I’m really looking forward to meeting a few more stitchers up here 🙂

We have a friend from work coming up from Melbourne tomorrow morning to stay with us for 2 nights until Friday, which will be fun. That means we’re off out to dinner for the next two nights – tomorrow night we’re just popping across the road to the local RSL, then Thursday night we’re heading into the city for the first time. I still haven’t worked out what to do for my birthday yet, hmmm … no doubt I’ll make my decision on Friday night – 24 hours notice is OK right? haha.

I’ve also just been very bad and organised Mum’s birthday gift … we’re now off to see Phantom of the Opera here in Sydney.  Mum’s never seen it before, and she’s always wanted to see the live show, but we’ve never managed to organise it before.  It’s so awesome to finally get tickets for her to see it … and of course I get to share the gift as well (even though I saw it in New York years ago, I’m looking forward to seeing it again).  I hope it lives up to your expectations Mum! 🙂

Rightio, time to quickly run around with a vacuum cleaner before hitting the hay for the night, as I think we’ll be having a late night for the next two nights, and I’ve spent most of tonight in the kitchen cooking … time to quickly cram the entire night’s housework into 15 minutes hmmm 🙂

Home & Family TO BE FIXED

Feel like crying … in a good way!

I’ve been speaking to ‘my’ mechanic today and I’m off to pick up my car tomorrow … and it seems it’s going to be a relatively painless bill, much to my total amazement and joy (for me relatively painless is under $1,000!)!  Hence the feeling I could cry tears of joy!!! 

Out of all the problems with the car, he’s managed to find that they’re quite ‘minor’ things – the airconditioning flooding the car only turned out to be a blocked drainage tube; the ‘broken’ windows just turned out to be that the idiot who ripped out my alarm system last year hit the ‘child lock’, so the windows were fixed at the push of a button (that gave me a bit of a giggle) … the ‘big’ costs are a reconditioned alternator and a new battery … and he’s replacing my car aerial that got killed in the hail storms before Christmas, plus the dashboard light and hopefully the door remote.  I’ve got my fingers crossed it won’t be too much over say $600, but time will tell tomorrow morning!

I must say it’s a real pleasure having a mechanic that’s not out to stiff you and is truly reliable and trustworthy – even if he is on the other side of town, I’ll definitely be taking my car to him on a regular basis now!

In other news I’ve requested from Dodgey Brothers R Us a copy of the receipt for the extra rental truck expenses, and he’s refused to give it to me … which I now have in writing from him in an email … bless you Mr Dodgey, that’ll come in very handy for when we take it further to claim back those costs!! 😀

And if that all isn’t enough, I’ve also managed to ‘unpublish’ all those future WordPress posts as well, by just clicking on edit timestamp and saving again … so over the next few weeks it’s going to feel like Groundhog Dog with everything you’ve already seen haha.

Still no gift photos to share with you yet, as I need to buy some DVD’s to get rid of some files on my laptop … but I promise you the wait is worth it! 🙂

I’ll try to remember and pick up some DVD’s tomorrow while I’m out picking up my car!  For now, it’s time to head off and unpack another couple of things before bedtime.  Hopefully in another week I’ll have more time to get back into my stitching again.  We’re having a friend come to visit from Melbourne next Tuesday, so we’ve got to get cracking and get the place tidied up … it’s going to be so good having a social event next week and entertaining at home!  That cocktail bar will finally get a hammering … and I will have a Chardonnay drinking buddy here (no-one else I know drinks Chardy … everybody else in Oz seems to be Sauvignon Blanc fans).  I must say that today “life feels good” 😀

Rightio, time for bed so we can get up early tomorrow … hope to be back tomorrow with a fun-filled post of stitching goodies! 🙂

Uncategorized

Sorry about all the ‘future posts’

Not sure what’s happening with WordPress today, but all those posts are dated for the future, and shouldn’t be published!  I’m not sure how to ‘unpublish’ them without deleting them either … oh well, you get a sneak preview of the next load of Photo Hunts haha.  And no, it’s not my birthday either … well, not for another 9 days anyway!  Thanks for the early birthday wishes, though – that’s what made me realise the WordPress glitch had happened!!

 I will do another post later, as I have some exquisite gifts to share … but I need to send a couple of emails first, plus my laptop hard drive is full and won’t let me crop or edit the photos ho-hum … will post piccies as soon as I can 🙂