Too Much?

I'm struggling with where to put some of our paintings and pictures - a few are rather large and
 simply don't suit in the lounge room since the wall space is limited due to furniture, windows or doorways ........ and with the older house, I had really hoped to gather a number of different frames to pop on the wall with various family photos ....... but now, well, I'm just not sure.  I spent hours going through piles of old photos, then having to pick ones that would fit the frames ......... and of course included everyone ......... I still have to fill the middle frame with a larger wedding photo, and also there will be another larger frame at the top

above the middle white one which will have a family photo that includes our DIL, grandchildren and daughters partner (I just have to go through the computer and print it off).    But when I look at the photo of the blank wall and then with all the family frames, I wonder if it is too much?

Sometimes the smallest things seem to be the trickiest - never did I imagine dithering around with the photos and paintings!  Usually I have them up pretty quickly, but now I think I'm perhaps over thinking it all - after all, I'm not going for a magazine spread  lol!

Still, I'd be very happy to get your thoughts ........   

Now, If I could just sort out this study/library area that is already over flowing with papers and files, photos, books and magazines, old files that need to be kept for several years and all the stationary items I seem to have acquired!!!!! ......... Yep, there are still things to sort out, places to find for things to "live" ......... and today I start a new job so we shall see how that goes tooo!

Have a great day everyone!

Supercalafragalistic.........

Expialadoshus!  Maryborough has been celebrating Mary Poppins for the past week with a wonderful "day in the park" yesterday which summed it up beautifully!  I had a lovely walk through the park and out onto the streets that were all closed to traffic and set up with Umbrellas, the most wonderful Chalk drawings that looked like they were something taken straight out of the movie!  


Some of the buildings are from back in the 1800's, and I had meant to go and check out a few more things but somehow I found myself just walking the street taking in all the festivities, It was looking like rain was on the way so I wanted to get back home before it started ...... it poured down all afternoon as it turned out - what a shame for the chalk drawings ...... a bit like the movie I guess!

There were little tiny trains for just one or two men to sit on, and the steam train that runs through

the park that was filled with adults and children enjoying the fun. Theme songs from the  Mary Poppins movie were playing over the loud speakers and many in the crowd found themselves singing along as they walked past the festivities!

  Queens Park is right beside the River Banks of the Mary River so it was a lovely walk.




On Friday night I joined in with Cheryl for FNWF - the virtual handwork which I find is helpful in inspiring to get things worked on ........ I decided to make an all out effort and managed to finish knitting the Fogbound Cardigan (Laura

Aylor design), even getting the ends sewn in.  I just need to give it a bath and block it which I will likely do today since it looks sunny this morning. 








I also managed some secret sewing that I can't show just yet as it will be a gift for somebody that I know reads this blog from time to time.  Oh, and I managed to get the curtains for the dining room finished earlier in the week.  It was so nice to get those horrid blinds down (remember the photo from my last post?)  The curtains make the area look so much nicer now I think ....

Since it rained all afternoon yesterday, I decided to work on some more of the embroidery I'm doing for a table runner.  I got a few more flowers done on it.  Pete had left early to head to Howard with a friend who was doing a stall at the Market up there.  I think they enjoyed having some "bloke time" ..... 



And I certainly kept myself busy ...... I bit the bullet and registered

to undertake my very first Park Run/Walk experience!  And then of course I was off to Mary Poppins and back doing embroidery!  I'm not sure just what will be happening today as yet. 



After spending the past couple of weeks searching, I did eventually locate another tall boy chest of drawers on a buy/swap/sell site.  My hope was that Pete and I could have one each which would allow me to get rid of the horrid wire racks that were already in the house when we bought it! 

We picked it up early Friday morning ........ since it was just near the boat ramps at Urangan, we took advantage and went for a quick walk to have a look ........

Yep, Scruffy came for the road trip in the ute with us!  He is on borrowed time now as he has recently had a couple of little seizures - at 16 1/2yrs we are just letting him enjoy life.
Once back home, I was kept busy then for the entire morning as I dismantled the horrid wire racks

that had been left here (no idea why somebody would set a wardrobe up like that!) ...... and then moved the wardrobes we bought so they lined up where the wire shelves had been, and put the two

tall boys in place which now hold all our clothes that can't be hung.  This dressing area looks soooo much better, feels sooo much better and works wonderfully!!!
Have a great rest of the weekend friends!

The current favorite spot at the top of the stairs to catch the breeze and keep and eye on us both lol ...... at least when he's not in his bed or in the "flower garden"!

June Round Up - Yee Hah!

Time to round up for June ..... our first full month here and wow have we been busy and enjoying life!
As most of you know we arrived here on May 22 with our furniture and goods arriving a couple of days later ......... so much of this first month has been busy unpacking boxes and finding places for furniture to go, getting a couple of new bits of furniture to hold things like the wonderful bookcase and the glass cabinet which are both full already!  The kitchen has been set up (well, pretty much so - there are a couple more bits to do), and it's been nice to begin putting a few touches here and there.  Alot of work has gone on in the yard area with Pete removing the chook yard and pen, putting in water tanks, changing gates and we've added an extra vegie garden bed!

On the crafting front .....  I've been busy making curtains for several windows, working on the cardigan, and brought out some WIP's thanks to walking down to the local sewing/ patchwork shop and joining in with a lovely bunch of girls on a Wednesday morning!  I think I've done more sewing this past month than I have for the past few months down in Bundalong before we moved!!




We've enjoyed drives around the local area and checking out various markets and have begun to make progress with all the changes needed on the admin side of things (car rego change overs, changes of address for numerous things etc etc - still got a few more to go!). 

Unfortunately poor little Scruffy has not been well.  Once again his mouth was playing up - even though he had dental surgery just a couple of months ago where they took out 5 teeth.  So we headed up to the local vet here and it seems that he must have a bone infection in the jaw which is why his teeth keep playing up and becoming so loose ...... due to his age of 16 years the best option is some high dose antibiotics to manage the infection and pain meds as needed.  He is still eating and enjoys being around us ....... although he was pretty keen to be leaving the Vet's rooms!!

Yesterday was such a beautiful sunny day ....... I've finally worked out where I'm going to put a flower garden ....... so yesterday afternoon I got to digging over the area which took quite a bit of work pulling up all the grass that was there.  Sometime this week I'll begin planting it up after I put in a few soil additives to help boost it up a bit. This view is from the top of our back stairs, so I think it will be a nice sight to see once it gets going

   With today being the first day of July and a bit rainy here in Maryborough ...... I decided I would begin working on the next lot of curtains.  I've been waiting for the fabric to arrive at Spotlight and was able to pick it up yesterday.  What do you think?

  These curtains will be going in the Dining area to replace this wooden blind that doesn't work and

seems to be a great dust catcher!  I got them finished (apart from hems), just a little while ago but they will have to wait till Pete gets up and removes the blind and puts up the new curtain rod .......... he's really excited to have that job to do again lol

Well, I'd say all in all we have had a very successful first month here ... Yee Hah indeed lol!   And now with the Sunday Roast in the oven, I'm going to grab a cuppa and sit down and knit and watch a movie  ........

See ya next time!

Cloudy Days

Today its rather cloudy and overcast - rained overnight and more is expected - so different from Sunday when we went for a drive after visiting the market at the showgrounds.  We headed down towards the Sandy Strait to check out what the boat ramp situation is like ....... the tide was out ...... way out and it reminded me alot of the Wynnum area where I've lived on and off over the years since I was a baby!  




Anyhow, its nice to go for a drive and look at our new area - lots of sugar cane currently in flower whilst other cane is getting cut and transported to the mill - took these photos on our way 

I've been a few times now to meet up with some of the other girls down at the sewing shop - attended

the club meeting last Saturday where they showed us how to make a quick scarf    - knowing I had some fabric that would likely work well - I gave it a try and am pleased with the results, while the colour doesn't suit me, it will work as a gift for somebody else!

Things are getting well sorted out in the craft room (AKA _ The Beehive) ....Things are finding homesand the curtains for the bedroom and dressing area are now made (just the tie backs to complete)...... and I've been pulling out some WIP's  -  Getting back to "Down the Rabbit Hole" at long last and spent some time cutting out the applique bits for the next tulip and rabbit which I've begun sewing down (needle turn ......)
I also pulled out the hexies from ages ago!!!  







 Last Wednesday during the sewing morning I found a

little purse pattern using hexies so naturally I purchased the pattern and have spent some time this morning working on making up some hexies ready to begin this project which I think will make some lovely little gifts!!  It occured to me that it just might be EPP week with Anthea from Hibiscus Stitches  which it is, so I'm linking up with her to share the EPP love!  It's been rather nice pulling out my little material bits to make up some hexies with them!

Yarn Cupboard is now sorted

Evenings are seeing me continue work on the cardigan ........ the knitting of the band seems like an endless task as each row currently takes around 30mins to complete due to the huge number of stitches sitting on the circular needles!!  I think I only have about 5 or 6 rows left of the band - Hooray!!  Then just one sleeve to knit up after that and it will be done!

I've begun the process of putting in some applications for work - hoping to just pick up a couple of days a week - 3 at most is really all I want but it depends on what turns up ....... 


in the meantime, I'm enjoying setting things up in our house ........ which is very much feeling rather homely already!  I'm really enjoying getting back to doing some baking (biscuits and a lemon slice yesterday)

and I wouldn't mind making a batch of lemon butter a bit later.  I'm really enjoying this slower pace of life again, and the easy good nature attitude of everyone we seem to come in contact with here!  And I've been pleasantly surprised yesterday by a kookaburra coming into the yard for a visit with us!  Naturally I threw him a couple of goodies and he was happy enough to hang around for a couple of photo shoots lol  At some point I'll begin doing more in the garden and get a few herbs growing and things that bring the birds and bees in for a visit and provide some fragrance and flowers for us to enjoy ....... all in good time!  

Sewing Time

This week I've been busy with the sewing machine ...... mostly making curtains for the bedroom  dressing room/wardrobe area.  It's like a sleep out attached to our bedroom and has 3 windows which all had those pretend wooden spotlight blinds that no longer worked and were caked with dust.

  Pete pulled them down and put up new rods and that elastic stuff to out some lace curtains on behind the block out ones I was making ........ still have a rather large bedroom window to do as well, so I took advantage after lunch yesterday and linked in with Wendy and FNSI to get the lace one done and one drop of the large curtain.  I'll get the other drop done over the weekend sometime.  I still have to buy some tie backs so I'll show the finished photos once it's all completed!

Scruffy sticking close and helping

Last night I sat and worked on the fogbound cardigan again!  The band is worked in the round and makes for a very long round each time so it's slow progress for sure!

What I did do during the week was walk down to My Local sewing shop just on the corner and joined

in with the Wednesday group for a sew and stitch.  I didn't take any photos of the group being my first time and only just meeting people I didn't want to scare them off lol! But it meant having to unpack something to take to work on .......out came "Down the Rabbit Hole" the first border which just needed an inner ear stitched
Then I worked on this table runner which I found while trying to locate the other Rabbit Hole bits .......so I worked a little on it getting another bit of stitchery completed.  I just unpacked sewing/craft boxes and have shoved the stuff just anywhere, but now I really do need to get it somewhat sorted out where things will go so I can easily locate bits and pieces .... and there may still be another couple of boxes to unpack lol  I've really been blessed with such a wonderful room to become the new Beehive!

 I found I needed some more choices of cottage garden threads to do the large flowers .......while this shop didn't have have them, I was told that Dew Drop Inn at Harvey Bay had them , and very conveniently

hubby was having to take the boat back down there to have some things checked on it  and to visit the Fishing Club........so after dropping off the boat, he was happy to make a detour so I could pick up these yummy threads!

A walk down to the Pier to check it out before heading to the sports club to meet with the fishing

Tide was out and we only walked half way out this time

crew, dinner and then back home!  Such a wonderful day! 
 I guess reality will hit home before long as I'll need to get onto some work options in the next week or two ........ by then I might have my sewing room in order lol.    Today Patchwork on Pallas (my local sewing shop) has a club morning , so I'm heading down to check out what that means ........





Earlier in the week I decided I had to do something with the Laundry Area ..... you see its located under the house here, as it often is with the Old Queenslander Style Homes ....... however that also means it's caught up with the workshop area to an extent as well lol ....... This photo is just after I started working on it - its actually much darker than this, but the camera has made it appear quite bright and light ........

And this is after ....... I've yet to get those bits of concrete scraped off the tile section and wash the tiled floor ...... and at some point I feel I will likely be painting the laundry area to brighten it up a bit perhaps .......... but for now, at least I can get to it a bit easier and have somewhere to put things!  I'd be keen to hear how others fix up laundry areas located under the house ...... my last under house laundry was in Brisbane and we left there in 2002!

 But for now, we are Absolutely loving our new home, our new area and our new chapter of life!

Sorting Things Out

Firstly a big thankyou to those of you who have left comments on my posts - it seems something has changed with Blogger and where the comments used to come to my email and I could respond direct to you there, this is no longer happening for many blogs.  Please  know that I do appreciate all your lovely comments, for now I may have to begin responding on the comments section till I work it out a bit better............ And now onto the news update for this week!
It's been interesting working out where various pieces of furniture are going to "live" in our new home ...... We needed firstly to get hold of some wardrobes so our clothes could go somewhere as the old Queenslander Home didn't have any built in robes in the main bedroom ...... During the search I did find the perfect bookcase to fit into our "library/study" room 

And Pete surprised me when he suggested we could also get a glass cabinet to hold some special pieces as well as a new sideboard for the TV to go on .........  It just needs moving up a tad before I begin to put things into it

While I've been busy unpacking boxes, I also decided to join in with the virtual party held by Chooky and got a bit more of my knitting done - still have to pick up the band, but figured I would work on the first sleeve till I got to unpacking the other knitting needles I'm going to need ......
I also partied by getting some of my new crafting room set up and partially unpacked .... it's a work in progress as you can see ....

Pete has been out and picked out a new boat to enable us to go out safely on the bay ...... 

We had a look at a few places including taking a drive up to Bundaberg ...... loving seeing all the

sugar cane which is a major crop around this area.  I'm sure I'll have more to share on the area as we begin to get around and find things, but meantime ........






I'm looking forward to us being able to head over to Fraser Island to explore it at some stage in the future - given this is just week 2 in our new home we have quite a few things keeping us busy ......

Since we've decided we won't be getting any more chooks for quite some time (if ever), Pete has pulled down the chook yard and small chook house to arrange a place for the boat to easily fit down behind the carport.  We will also be getting some water tanks, so this helps give us alot more room.  Pete is also planning on building me a little shelter area for my gardening bits and bobs - so stay tuned ..... can't wait to see how it turns out!

Can I just confirm how much I'm loving our new home!  I'm also enjoying finding places for things

and getting to explore the local area bit by bit ........ yesterday we went to Howard to a market and we got to try some Mango Melon which I had never heard of before ...... it has more of a rockmelon taste to it, but smoother/creamier.  Very Yummy and even Pete who doesn't like mango enjoyed this melon ..... one came home with us and I plan on keeping some seeds in the hope of being able to grow some for ourselves!

Before I go and see to the roast, I just have to share this great photo that Pete posed for when we were in Bundaberg and came across this lolly warehouse ...... talk about a quick U Turn!!  I guess he has certainly found his sweet tooth the past few years lol ....... we came out with some yummy rocky road - original for Pete and Ginger for me as well as a couple of other little chocolates lol.  He said to take this photo to send to our daughter who also shares the love of lollies since she was just a little girl.     
Big Hugs to all,  Sharm