Storms,renovations,holidays,new pandora beads and jewellery!

Hi Girls,

Its been a while since i posted,where does the time go?I have been super busy since christmas,we are in the middle of renovations here and the house is chaos!We just had it restumped 2 weeks ago,lovely big cracks on all our walls now,so requiring a full inside house paint! Not sure whether to keep it antique white or to go a pale swedish bluey grey!! Ahh the dilemma!I have also been painting the outside,which is no mean feat considering this is a 2 storey 5 bedroom 80 year old house,needing lots of prep!!I have chosen a deep cream with white trim and black guttering and iron work,very French!!!We have a lot of black wrought iron balustrading and old garden scrolly lights,so is coming along nicely!Have also been getting stuck into the garden,will post pics of house and garden soon!
I have just returned last week from a trip overseas,had a fabulous time and bought lots of great treasures which i have listed on ebay!beautiful new pandora beads,lots of jewellery,fabulous sparkles and bling! Even some sparkling rhinestone iphone covers,which i am in love with!A girl can never have too much sparkle!
Havnt had much chance to do much sewing lately,i have a lot of customer orders,so that keep me busy working on those,so no new stuff for ebay i'm afraid,but once the house is over and done with,sewing machine here i come,i have missed you my friend!

Only 3 weeks until Ryan comes home from his overseas trip,it has gone very quickly!! He is skiing in Sweden this week with his father and grandparents,wish i was there!! I did have a brief visit from his grandparents 2 weeks ago,they flew out for a medical conference in Sydney and drove all the way down to see me,so we had 2 lovely days together before they had to head back off to Denmark.It was great to see them!Hopefully i can head off there myself in the next year.
We had a HUGE storm here in Melbourne last night,torrential rain and hailstones,my car has big dents in it and many friends lost windows and windscreens!! Our house is a bit less leaky since being restumped but we still did have some water coming in!Not as bad as usual though,thank god!The pictures i have seen on the news makes Melbourne look like a war zone!
Anyway,i have just about run out of time,i have to go to work soon! Thats my other bit of news,i have a new job!! Working at a local hospital in the emergency department,i still have my other job at the other hospital,but now doing some extra shifts a bit closer to home!
Anyway,i certainly hope to get on here a bit sooner and add lots of pics and more news!!Have a great week ladies,will try and catch up on blog reading as soon as possible!! I miss you all!! lesley : )

OOOhhh,the blisters!!!

Hi Girls,

Been a while since i have posted,have had so much to so and no time to do it!Been to Sydney for several weeks over christmas and new year,had a fabulous time!!New years eve was unbelievable,we had a big party at my cousins house,which is waterfront in front of the bridge,so we had fabulous views!Great food,great company,what more could you want!
Since coming home,we are madly renovating,getting the stumps done in 2 weeks,sanding weatherboards outside ready to paint the whole house,we are going cream black and white for a French look.I also have to scrape paint of 300 pavers on my deck to repaint and all the black wrought iron work as well.So huge job,but will look so good when it is finished.After we have done the stumps we are knocking out some walls to join my old daggy kitchen into the back room and have a HUGE kitchen!Complete with 2 chandeliers!! I still dont have much idea how i want my kitchen yet,well rather i have about 300 ideas but can only have one!So have to think carefully! Also working hard in the garden,since having 3 very large trees removed,i now have sunny bits!So getting a nice cottage garden planted as well as a herb and veggie garden for all the weird things i need for my Thai cooking! Lemon grass,Kaffir limes,vietnamese basil,coriander,mint,chili's and all sorts of other herbs that the shops charge a fortune for a small bunch!!

Been busy sewing as well,i seem to get more orders in January than i do all year round,just when i think i am having a break!I do have a new range of gorgeous vintage fabrics and velvets,so dying to test them out!Also have a new range of pandora beads,will get around to listing those as well,they are selling fast before i can list them!











Ryan is still overseas,he has been to paris and Copenhagen in the last month,he is having an amazing time,i am so jealous!! I will have to sort myself out a trip i think! Dont think it will be this year though as i already have another overseas trip in 3 1/2 weeks!! Cant wait!Wish it was Paris though,but Thailand will still be nice!

Anyway,will get back into the garden whilst it is still light,i have some rose bushes to plant!

Have a great week everyone!

Lesley : )

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE !!!

Been a while since i posted,so i have finally have some spare moments!!!
Am on holidays up in Sydney,housesitting for my cousin and his 2 westies!!! That would be westhighland terriers,not the bogan sort!!! I have also brought my own westie with me,so have three of the little buggers to look after! Quiet a joy when they start barking at 3am!!! We are staying on the harbour and at the moment there are a lot of party boats cruising by at 1am with lots of loud music which sets the dogs off!

After a very hectic early december with ebayimg and orders it was so nice to take a break!We had all our christmas dinners early at home as we were going away,so had a pretty quiet christmas day here!Santa was good,i got a lot of lovely pressies,my fave being a thai street cooking cook book,as i just love Thai food and cooking! Looking forward to testing out recipes when i get home! I am off to Thailand again in 6 weeks,and am doing another cooking course,so can practice before hand!
Been chatting to my boy on skype over in Denmark,he has been away 5 weeks now,it has gone so quick! He is having a great time with his father,little brothers and sisters and grandparents and has been spoilt rotten!He had a white christmas,he was staying at the holiday house in Skagen,which is the most northern point in Denmark and at this time of year only gets a few hours of daylight!He was out for a walk ysterday and a seal just parked itself out of the water and came over to say hello!

He is back to Germany on Tuesday to finish of his school exchange,which he has enjoyed a lot!He has been on many excursions,one which was very sad,but enlightening,to a concentration camp,Buchenwald.As awful as it was,i think he learnt a lot,my grandfather spent 5 years in a concentration camp in Poland.It is very important that kids dont forget the atrocities that happened in world war 2,especially when family is involved.I felt very sad looking at the photos,i have included one,which particularly made me sad and brought tears to my eyes.

But on to a happier excursion, he is off to Paris next week,i am very jealous!!! They go for 6 days with school,i would love to join him!!I am so happy he has had this opportunity to go on exchange,it has cost a lot of money,lots of ebaying,but the experience will stay with him a lifetime and that is what counts! I am sure he will want to keep on travelling once he has finished school,i hope he takes a year off before going to uni and has a good break.

Anyway,i have probably waffled on enough here,i think bed is calling!!I am reading some good books,it is so nice being on holidays and having plenty of time to do nothing but veg out and read and sleep! I have even left all my sewing at home,but did bring my beads to do some jewellery!!

Will post some more soon and read some blogs!

Nighty night all!!

lesley : )

A month of catch up!!!

Hi girls,
Honestly where does the time go???? I say that every time i post and realise a month has gone by and i havnt had a spare minute to look at blogs!So much has happened in the last month,let me fill you in on all my news!
My son left for Germany last week,he is spending 5 months over there,half on school exchange and then off to Copenhagen to spend some time with his father and grandparents and little brothers and sisters!He is off to Paris in 3 weeks with school and then Skiing with his grandparents in Sweden and Italy.I am very very tempted to hop on a plane and go meet him!......very very tempted.......
And because he was leaving early,i did all my christmas shopping in November and have finished! Yes,thats right,all done!!!And boy do i feel good!And christmas decorations and tree up as well,i wanted him to see it before he left,so did it 2 weeks ago!I dont think he gave a shit !!! teenage boys hey!
Been doing a lot of work in the garden,we had 3 very very big trees chopped down,still moving bits of trunk away and chopping firewood!No more needed for the next 10 years!And i have some sun finally so can get my vegie patch growing and some roses! I have so many big trees that my garden is rather shady in summer,which is nice,but downside,its hard to grow my favourite plants!!
Working on the inside of the house as well,we are getting the stumps done,reroofed and a new kitchen,so its all madness!
As well as getting organised for the bushfire season,in between the flooding we have had 3 times in the last month,torrrential downpours,all coming in through my ceiling in my back room like niagara falls.I have been up here in the Hills for 5 years now and just love it,except for the weather extremes! I cant believe it was 5 years ago this week we have moved here,made so many wonderful friends,the people are so lovely,with the exception of the odd headcase or two!!!But you get them everywhere,not worth worrying about!
We are off to Sydney in 2 weeks for christmas and New year,spending time with my cousin and his partner!Looking forward to New years eve on Sydney Harbour,they are very lucky to have a water front house with bridge views! Cant wait!!!!
Anyway,have been busy sewing and creating,have made some lovely christmas hampers which i have just listed on ebay and some new pandora beads!!! Great for gifts!!

Here are some recent pics!Have also been getting back into my painting which i have neglected over the last few years,but have had quite a few commissioned pieces,so its a joy to get the brushes out again,my new years resolution is to spend more time painting!

have a great week girls!Will try and catch up on some blogs!

Lesley : )