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!

To New Zealand and back...way to ring in 2014!

Well hello!!
We left for New Zealand on January 12th and we returned on the 28th, so much to say!! I am really just far too verbose so I have notes I am working from, and then I have to shorten those down too!!!! It's still VERY LONG - so I don't blame you if you don't feel like reading, I know my family will want to though, so I'm putting it up anyhow!

Us on a hike, or "tramping" as they say

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.

See you later 2013!!!

Hi there!

Since the last time I posted there's been a few things -- a lot of working trying to get things finished up before the holidays. We went on a date night to a Tapas place in Darling Harbour...it was fun, but it wasn't enough food for the mister!

We did go to Melbourne at the beginning of December. I was SUPER excited because I got to hang out with my Melbournian friend...and she did not disappoint! We spent the whole day together and I was really wishing one of us had a FitBit because holy moly did we smash out the steps! We had breakfast in one of Melbourne's funky little alley ways, we walked from one end of the city to the other and back again, we walked around the river, we walked through the Botanical park, we did some geocaching, checked out a market, saw some cool shops, and I learned some new and interesting factoids about Melbourne and about many other things! We had plenty of tea, we had chocolate, we did a bit of knitting, I purchased some amazing yarn and fibre and a couple of things from those great shops, AND we both got sunburns!!! It was amazing! There's nothing better than spending a day with a friend, a local in a new area, and in this case one who shares many of my interests and is a part of the same online community as I am. Great hostessing & great conversation, we were already planning our next outing in Sydney!

New friends and new stuff!

Hi everyone!

Well October was a pretty good month! Busy...but good.

We went to the birthday party (which I refer to as a Halloween party!) and they boys drank A LOT lol I haven't seen my guy that sloshed since Contiki!!! Oi! I also found a pumpkin and carved it!! I did it in a hurry so it became a smiley pumpkin, it also went all weird and mushy and the inside was covered in black mouldy stuff within a couple of days!!!??? Maybe that's the norm in warm climes, I've only had jack o'lanterns in cold weather!

The party had an "M" theme

Jerry's donkey was the star of the show

Happy Jack

Fires are burning...

Other than knitting not a whole lot has been going on! We did go to that birthday party - had lamb on the spit & many other things! I met a bunch of new people, the birthday boy had some fun I think!

We've been planning a garden but it hasn't happened just yet. The biggest thing that's been going on is that there have been so many bush fires all around the state. It's pretty terrible just how many and how big they are, also how many homes have been obliterated. It's made for some really strange skies and terrible air to breathe as well.

Smokey skies over Marrickville

Bizzare juxtaposition in the sky

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

So much to say!!

Well hello there strangers! This is gonna be a looooooooooooooooooooooong one!

August was, as expected, a write off! Mum & dad arrived and we were pretty much non-stop on the move from that day until the day they left! 

Airport Arrival

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!