And then there was knitting!!

How behind am I? I truly thought I would get this post out a couple of days after the last one. Oops. The time does just get away from me!

So since we've been back we took a little time to decompress, Spyros got feeling like he needed to do some more creative painting in the office. He's beginning to love the geometric look!

I really like this wall!

Bring it on 2014!

Happy New Year !!! 
Did you make it to midnight?! 
We did, but not in the way we intended. Our plan was to go to the city to watch the "FAMOUS" Sydney fireworks since last year we were too tired as we were just finishing up building our granny flat. This year as soon as we boarded the train and a group of seven intoxicated teens sat behind us (and proceeded to behave as intoxicated teens will...) I started shaking my head (while madly knitting on my socks) that I was in the wrong place. Too old for this and lacking patience for large groups of rowdy and ridiculous youths! We went, we ate some dinner, it drizzled and cleared up and we found a spot near the bridge.

I've always loved October!

Welcome to my month! October is a great month, back home in Canada it's becoming fall (autumn), everything is changing colours, it is gorgeous. Also, my sister & I have our birthdays, my cousin has a birthday, my good friend has his birthday. Even when we were young there were several kids whose birthday's were in October. (Pretty obvious what everyone was doing 9 months earlier when there was loads of snow on the ground!!!)

Here it's a little OPPOSITE - we're experiencing spring. Which of course has a beauty all it's own:

Fun flower that popped up in our front flower bed one day

Let the spinning begin...

Two posts in June - say what!??!

Not a lot going on though! Seriously! We went to the NRL (Rugby League) game and it was a bit chilly. Think ice rink temperatures but with wind because it's an outdoor stadium. It's a MASSIVE outdoor stadium (we went to ANZ) that holds 80,000 people. There were 20,000 for this particular game. The Doggies lost, they deserved to though, they were playing pretty crap. However, it was cool to see it live. I would like to see another game at a smaller arena because we could only see what was going on if they were at the end we were closest to.

ANZ Stadium during warmups

Lots of goodies...

Happy June! Back home the weather is warming up and it's heading into summer, my niece just graduated High School in the US, and school is nearly done for my brother in Canada. He's in grade 11...he just got his drivers license (which is scary as all get out, but apparently he's a very good driver) and he's looking forward to summer. He's not coming to Australia with my parents, instead he's going to go stay with my sister and work this summer. I dunno, if I was 17 I would want to go to Australia for free rather than work in a mill, but I've always had the itch to travel!

Soccer is still happening. Last weekend my fella got into a "challenge" and ended up with some guy kneeing him in the ribs. So this past week has been a lot of cursing, moving slow & groaning while trying to sleep. Just bruised though, not that they do anything for ribs anyway! 

On the topic of the fella - it's his BIRTHDAY today! He's 32 (old butt) and so far we've slept in, had pancakes, and opened some presents. We'll see what else the day holds. I see a fair bit of couch time & some Spartacus in our future! 

Paleo Pumpkin Pancakes for brekky!

 

May Madness....it's nearly June!

Hi! So apparently I such at blogging these days. It's been nearly TWO months!!

The rest of April? Well, the boys are playing soccer now (my guy, his brother and friends) so I attended a few soccer games on Saturday afternoons. This is new to me. My sister played basketball in highschool, and I dated a hockey player (c'mon I am Canadian!) but soccer is not something I have watched a great deal of.

Ev (my guy's sister) and I ran a 5km race. Quite a few of the ladies from the running group ran it & it was fun. My second one, but this time I did run the whole 5km without stopping. There were hills, so I was pretty proud of myself!

Our Before & After race photos & the map of our run!

HOPPY APRIL!

Did you have a good Easter? We sort of did. On Saturday night we had a BBQ with the family (that's right BBQ for every occasion!) and made some cupcakes with Ellie.
 

Makin' cupcakes with the girls

On Sunday we went to the Sydney Royal Easter show. Which is kind of a big deal, but also WAY overpriced. It's a massive 2 week event, at which there is:

March Madness!!

Really, the only madness is that I am JUST NOW getting around to doing another post! Crazy. Quite a bit has gone on too, but quite often when we sit down I am working on a project, skyping with friends or family, or we are watching TV or a movie!

February ended up fairly uneventful, the biggest news was probably the news that mum & dad booked their plane tickets!

YAY!!!!!!!!!

They are coming to visit for a month at the end of July! I am very excited about this, so Spyros & I are trying to figure out what to do with and for them (I am sure Spyros will get to see a bit more of his country too!)

It's beginning to look a lot like progress...

Happy February! The month of love & hearts & red & chocolate...and I am trying to lose weight! It's OK, I can do this! It's a lifestyle change!!

For Australia Day we didn't do anything, we hung out at home and missed out on the fireworks. Since then we haven't done too much. We've done a bit of texturing and painting on the outside of our place, so it's about half-way done. Also some laying of pavers around the house to make a nice pathway. However, it has been storming and raining a lot because of cyclone Oswald. It didn't really come too close to us, it was in the water in the North of Australia, but it definitely affected weather throughout most of Australia. Which has led to quite a bit of flooding in Queensland state and the storms here.

This sucker is a LONG one (but mostly photos)!

Seems like I am always waiting for more to happen, and then I get busy and plenty happens and it's overwhelming to write it all out!

To summarize: We are 95% done the "inlaw suite/granny flat"! We are living in it now, we still need to finish up the outside, and get a few things to decorate the inside (a rug, some artwork, do something with the stairs)...

Walls can be beautiful things...

Since last I wrote a few things have been going on! Mostly it's been working on the Granny Flat, but there have been other milestone's. Things like sending off packages to Canada, there are more to go but I sent off a couple! I have done a great deal of my Christmas shopping, there's not much left. Which is nice since we don't have much time for shopping!! Also, we went to a dance recital - Spyros's neice is 5 and is in jazz and tap. It was three hours of random people dancing, but she was in three dances, it was pretty cute! One of the songs was "Ballroom Blitz", it was excellent, a lot of jumping around. She also won her first trophy so it was a pretty big day!!

Aside from regular work, a few days that were pretty hot and humid and difficult to want to DO anything in, there was progress on the Granny Flat!!

Losing a friend...

Yesterday I found out at the end of my day that Karrie, KnitPurlGurl had passed away suddenly on Monday. I felt the blow physically, though I have never met Karrie, in person, she was the first knitting blogger/podcaster that I started following. Through her podcast I discovered many others, and Plurk and began to really feel like a part of the knitting community at large. For me this was very important, as I do not have a lot of friends who knit, crochet or spin, and the few that are interested in fibre arts do not live near me. It was amazing to be able to chat with and learn from these women (and men) who loved fibre as much (and more) than I do.

Someone was spoiled...

Hello everyone!!

Melbourne...my mister & I took a little trip to Melbourne! A little "get away from it all" time, after not having seen one another for 2.5 months I think we deserved it! So we got a hotel room, and we spent the few days we were there, wandering around. Spyros had never been before, and I had been with my girl Jenny ages (2001) ago!! So it was a bit different than I remembered,

It's beginning to look a lot like....SUMMER!

Not a lot to say since last I wrote as I have been working a lot, and when not working we have been working our tails off in the yard & garage. Work to make a "granny flat" (in-law suite) in the garage space. There has been some things in the yard getting dug out & sorted into recycling & garbage piles, and sorting through the stuff in the garage for the same reasons. A full week of that got us a bit further ahead,

Aussie, aussie, aussie, oi, oi, oi!

So - I have arrived. In fact, I arrived on Sept. 13th, right on time. After 3 flights, all of which were fairly pleasant, uneventful & I had great seatmates!

I arrived at around 7:30am and Spyros & his brother came to meet me. Went went back to the house to drop off my things & the brother and see the family. We headed out to the job site to see how it was going. I was pretty shocked to see it in person!

In the nick of time...

Time flies. It seemed like forever until I was going to be leaving for Australia, and now it seems it's coming too fast for all of the things I want to get done & all of the people I want to see before I leave! I know 2 years is a blip on the radar of life, and I know it will go quickly, but it also seems a long time when packing up to head off for it!

August is flying by!

Work work work, all day long!

I worked a lot again...probably up until Tuesday - that will be my last day. Then a few days for packing & visiting & then I will be headed for White Lake to visit with my family for a couple of weeks before I head to Australia!

This past week has been gorgeous, more lake weather than painting though!! The paint is drying on the brush & we are just dripping with sweat & red faced. Yep - sexy!

Overtired & overjoyed

Sooooooooo...following a wonderful weekend on Vancouver Island where I got very little sleep, I proceeded to have a very busy week with very little sleep because the guy I am working for was away & I was kinda organizing things for him while he was away. With painting this means figuring out who is where & what they will be doing, also going to & fro to his place to get specific tools, ladders, and cleaning dirty gear each night. I was so looking forward to a mellow weekend, maybe a night at the Drive-In, and I was going to paint my friend's bedroom for her while she was away as a bday gift.

Time flies....

Two weeks?! How does this keep happening to me?! I always mean to write, and then I don't. Too much going on all the time. Still working a lot. For the last month I have been working pretty much 6 days a week, 8+ hours a day, and on Sundays I clean the house & do laundry so that I have work clothes for the week ahead! On top of the I have friends to squeeze in when I can, dinner to make & clean up, a body to wash & a man to Skype with in Australia.

Too much vitamin D!

Last Sunday I did not work. This is no surprise, I don't generally work on Sundays - however on this particular Sunday my friend called me to say he was going to go for a hike & invited me along. Now I have been longing to go for a hike or a canoe in this gorgeous weather & so I jumped at the chance! I hurriedly finished up my breakfast & got my camelback ready. We headed up Golden Ears; it is a hike I have never done, and I definitely want to do again.