RIP Dad

 On Saturday 2nd November Dad passed away.  We had a few days with him palliating as he grew weaker which gave time to be able to contact various family and for my step sister Kathy to fly over from New Zealand.  Both Kathy and I were with him as he took his final breath.  He was 95 years and 9 months old!

I've been busy getting things together for a service for him.  He has gone for cremation and the service will be held on Monday 25th November at Corowa.   We will take his ashes up to Brisbane as per his request and they will be buried in the plot at Hemmant Cemetery on Thursday 28th November.

These were a couple of photos taken of him in the Nursing Home over the past couple of months - where he had more enjoyment than he would ever let on lol

Dad always used to get a thrill out of the blog books we were able to get printed from our blogs ...... what a shame that is no longer available to us.

A big thankyou to those who have been in contact.  Unfortunately I totally lost my voice 3 days after he passed away after a very stressful week prior.  It has gradually come  back, but still not quite there - although I seem to have developed a terrible cough!  Let's just say I will be glad to see December after quite a trying year!   It already seems strange not having to head over to see Dad or check on things for him ect.  I expect after the past 10 years of having to do so much for him, that's to be expected!

Anyhow Dad - You are now at peace and at rest - Home at Last in God's loving arms. xo

The Bar is Closed ......

Lol, yep it was time to take the Bar out from the Dining room area ready to get the big wood heater installed (the one Pete picked up on special in July) ....... As I said to Pete - we have Spring, Summer and Autumn to get it in.  It's our big project for the remainder of this year ....... it changes the dining area but it will also change the outside area ..... not to mention all the items had being stored behind the bar lol 

When we first moved in here there was no wood fire. (There is gas central heating plus a small gas fire heater in the lounge - given the price of gas, we chose to instal a small wood heater which has done a fabulous job and we have never had to use the central heating). Due to the bar being where it was we chose to put the small one in front of it to the corner.  It hasn't been an ideal spot, but at the time we had little choices.

With Pete seeing a big wood heater on special brought down from $3000 to just $900 (floor stock) it was a no brainer to get

it!  We had been discussing taking the bar out just to give us more room and open the room up since we have never used the bar for its intended purpose and for the past 3 years has proven to be nothing more than a dumping zone and storage area!!         

I spent time clearing some stuff out and then the rest was dumped into the guest room to deal with ...... soon lol  First the back shelves came down.  I had an idea that  the Bar would look good if we could get it out in a way that we could move it up to the pool area and use it up there - but Pete still had to work out just how it was put together .......

Thankfully he is handy and was inspired to get to it so it was all systems go while the going was good!!

Oh noooo ........ Just what Pete was thinking might have been the case ...... The previous owners had installed the bar first and then had the floor tiled around it!!! ......... Always a glitch .....  And the tiles were from the 90s and of course no spares were left here - although a couple of left overs had been used to tile the top of the outside BBQ (glued down so hard they only came off in bits!)  Notice below how awkward the space is??  Yep, we got a tiler in to have a look - Nope no tiles similar and they make them a different thickness now as well ....... Talked about taking up a section and retiling with a "feature" - which quoted at $5000 and 5 days of work which would include sanding back the stuff left by the tiles.............  

But now, I think we have a solution!!  At least, its going to be OUR solution and that's that!  After measuring out where the heater would sit and such we have organised for a tiler to make up a hearth with some slate tiles (I had picked out a lovely stone tile but of course that's discontinued!)  

Anyhow the missing section will be filled with "floor levelling stuff" which looks a bit like concrete  (and has now been completed and drying off) - which I will then paint in a colour that fingers crossed will blend in with the tiles.  Hopefully there should only be a smaller section of it that will show once we get the hearth down.

It sure does open the room up now! And the small wood heater will go up to the shed once we have the big one fully installed!  No way will I suggest it gets dismantled until the other one is in working order!!

So then we had to move the bar out ..... great fun and a few bruises later we had it sitting in parts up at the pool undercover area.  I was able to use that base board piece to show Pete what I meant about the Bar being up there and we used it to check out various positions where it might fit

More work has been going on up at the pool area with Pete changing the brickwork on the BBQ to fit the bar in how he wants it, and the shelves will be going up on the wall as well.  And of course more to do inside ....... as I said, its a big project (or several projects connected into a large one)

Time in Melbourne

 Like most of you out there it's been rather busy around here ....... just day to day stuff I guess but I sure would love to get on top of it all at some point lol!  We had been planning to travel to Townsville for the Granddaughters 16th birthday but with them having to go to the Gold Coast for a wedding and deciding to spend time there having a holiday ect ect ect ....... it just had to be put to the side.  Instead I decided to head to Melbourne to celebrate the daughters birthday with her and we had the best time making some lovely memories!  

Since the train was all booked up, I chose to drive down which meant I could take down some of my homemade soaps for them and also a birthday gift for her friend who is like an adopted daughter to us since they have known each other since the start of high school.  I drove down Thursday for a late lunch with Stacey and Carly.  Carly has a little baby girl, Abbie and it was lovely getting to meet her in person - and of course I had some handmade knitting for her!

Abbie in the little knitted cardi

She is such a good baby

Friday we headed to do a bit of a quick shopping trip then into the city for a Persian Lamp Class which had been booked and was our gift to Stace for her birthday (her choice - although I'm not sure who had the most fun lol).  During the class we enjoyed some turkish delight and a hot apple tea which were both very yummy.

Saturday it was off to the Werribee Zoo which has some "open plains" for the animals to roam in........

The Giraffes decided to get up close to the open bus we were on 

Keep your hands in or they will bite we were warned lol

Meerkat babies 

Since they live not far from the Zoo we were back at her place in time to head to lunch with John and then to the pet shop which has some of it's birds out of the cages so they continue to interact with people ........ John had some fun with the Macaws lol

I headed back home Sunday morning as I needed to get some clearing out done of the bar area which is being removed  ............ I'll be posting about this shortly 

Until then .........

Sewing Room Turnover

Before

I've never really enjoyed being in the sewing room here at this house.  Probably because I had the "office/paperwork stuff" in here as well - unlike Bundalong where I had a little cabin dedicated to the sewing and Maryborough which had a lovely large room ..... here its a smaller bedroom.  Some stuff has not been sorted since our move and just dumped into the "sewing room" and more stuff gets dumped when you don't enjoy the room......... I guess it's when my sewing mojo started leaving.  It got soooo bad that I was ready to throw out sewing stuff but then I got a visit from Christine and we talked about another girls trip to Scrub Stichin next year and just like that my mojo returned BUT a I had to come up with some idea that could turn the current disaster spot into something I actually enjoyed spending time in!  

Before Photos from various angles

As per usual ….all good ideas come as you are drifting off to sleep and it coincided with Pete heading off Friday for a 2 day fishing trip!  Bingo!!! We have a winning situation!!  Off to Wangaratta to visit Bunnings with my list ……. 2 cubed 2 x 2 modular unit flat packs with 8 fabric drawer inserts and some paints ( chalk pink, green and cream) ……

 Friday night was putting together the flat packs while watching some TV renovation shows to keep the momentum going

Saturday- up early and after taking Lucy for her walk it was time to clear out the piles ( to the guest room to deal with afterwards) - the plan today was to clear half the room to allow for furniture to be moved and painted …..first up the little white washed desk was changed to a pink wash 

The cupboard used to keep my yarn needed to be unloaded, painted and then moved to its new position beside the window.  How I hate the curtains in this room (see top photos - they were here when we moved in ) - so the one where the cupboard was going was taken to the bin and with that a whole flood of light came into this dark dingy room 🤩 WOW! Light just makes such a difference to a room!  The other curtain is yet to come off - at the time it was unreachable during the process lol 

While the paint dried I started a bit of the sorting process.  I’d already moved the big desk into its new position and I began the touch up painting on the white bookshelf.  

Once the cupboard, pink table and white bookshelf were in position the modular cupboards were moved into the room to create my vision of making them into a “table top” with 8 large drawers underneath to hold materials and such! 

I think it worked well!  What do you think?? Still a bit to complete the room but getting there .....

The black filing cabinet was moved into that position - initially to get it out the way as I had planned for it to go into the wardrobe in the guest room ...... 

 And by Sunday morning I was able to briefly have room to sit and zoom with a few of the girls before I had to start my prep for a colonoscopy today.  Yesterday.  I had to move a couple of things to get to the desk and set up the laptop lol

One of the main reasons for the 2 modular units being placed back to back was to make a small cutting table for myself in the room whilst also providing lots of storage!

During Zoom, I mentioned the material pile stuffed in the guest room wardrobe ……. Karen suggested I should make note of it as others might be in the same way lol  As it turns out, it wasn't quite as bad once I got started on it.......

So while I waited for the prep to begin its effects I decided I’d start pulling out the little scrap bits of fabric …….which ended up in me sorting all of it ……… and stacking it in the drawers of the cubed modular units .......   I decided to sort the larger pieces into colours - Pinks, Purples and Reds

Cream, White, Yellow, Apricot and Beige

Blues and Greens in the green drawer and jelly rolls/ Fat Quarters ect not yet unwrapped into the pink drawer

On the other side in the bottom green I have non Cotton fabrics and in pink bottom are the christmas fabrics and a pile of new tea towels and face washers (which get crocheted into hand towels).  The top drawers are relatively empty at this point ........ and now that I'm placing things around I've decided to keep the black filing cabinet and a smaller 2 drawer filing cabinet in this room.  I plan to paint them both to tie in with the room and 4 of the drawers will be used for patterns/magazines ect and  WIP's for both knitting and sewing projects  During the sorting into drawers process I was finally able to unpack the bag of goodies from Scrub Stitchin and put them into the drawers!

So over the next while I will continue to work on the finishing touches and remaining piles ...... I've even managed to use the small TV and DVD player that Dad had and have it sitting on top of the currently black filing cabinet while I checked out if it would work....... it does!!!  And I already L O V E being in this room!!!!   So until next time ........... Hugs Sharm xo

The Winter Holiday - the last bit (Lots of Photos)

I had attempted to get the other posts to publish on various dates but obviously I didn't do it properly and so they had to be published the last couple of days when I realised what had happened.  I also thought I had already completed this post ...... apparently not lol so here is the quick run down.  We spent 5 days at Copeton Dam with friends who live just down the road from us.  While the men went out fishing during the day - Deb and I took Lucy and Bella on various walking adventures..........

Lucy & Bella

Wild Goats - We also got to see wild deer and a wild pig

After our long morning walks and rambles through the bush - rest time (play time) was the agenda

Using the tennis court as a lead free zone!

Pete and Dave after another hard day fishing on the dam with no fish!   Evening camp fire was a must and a few evening meals shared before bedtime

Morning!!!

Soooooo many Kangaroos everywhere - Dogs had to be on the leads all the time unless in the little yard at the cabin (or the tennis court we found and used a lead free zone)

And this was how many of our walks went ...... getting huge prickles out of paws/ tails/ fur!! From the below Prickly Pear and below further a most awful looking prickle bush

A great 5 days and then it was time to pack up and go our separate ways ..... we headed to Nundle where I was looking to do the Woollen Mill tour.......

Lots of Solar Farms around the area with solar panels stretching as far as the eye could see in some places

Nundle Working Woollen Mill - the machines are over a hundred years old

Above is the dying area with a close up below

Then onto the cones and into balls ready for selling

13 people died in an aircrash in the area and a memorial is in the park

We stayed in Nundle overnight and then headed to Mudgee the next morning.  A big Cotton Growing Area on the way

I love the look of cotton all fluffy white rolled up into coloured bales lol

Its a little hard to read - but we kept passing signs for Coonabarabran turn offs and I couldn't help but message Chooky to let her know we were passing signs that go within a relatively close area to her lol

 We were meant to be staying in Mudgee for a couple of nights but heavy non stop rain ended up changing our plans and after Mudgee we headed straight for home to try avoiding getting caught in flooded areas.  It was only a couple of hours drive from Nundle to Mudgee and rather a nice drive.

I managed to have a quick catchup with a friend - Lynne - from the 50+ group who lives in Mudgee. It was great to finally meet in person after all these years!  The coffee shop we went to was an old chemist building ....

The cabin at the Mudgee Caravan Park catered well for dogs - even providing a bed inside for them.

This place states it is the home of the "Black Stump" - Coolah 

The trip home was just a tad longer (about 7-8 hours) but we did it in the one day and were pleased to get back home again.  Hopefully you've enjoyed seeing some of the photos.  I had originally planned to do blog posts as we trekked from town to town - clearly that didn't work lol - till next time xo