Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Double clicking on the last photo is worth it to see the challenging look on Henry's face....it's like 'go on I dare you' .... this cat had never seen a staircase before.
Been rather busy around our house and yard the past week so not a lot of time online or scrapping. I have produced a couple of things for our Group blog though so I can relax about that, can't say any more at the moment but all will be revealed in about a week and I will then be publishing and talking about my project.

Well Australia Day here today and the weather has really been beautiful, despite that Bob and I have spent a productive day around the house and garden getting things back up to date. After being overseas for nearly 5 weeks it was amazing how quickly things had become over grown in the garden and how many household tasks needed doing after having a wall taken out while we were away, this meant changing some of the furniture which has been fun and given our home a lovely refreshing feel about it.

Tomorrow is definitely a scrapping day, until Katie arrives that is, she is coming up to spend the night with us which will be lovely. Counting the weeks now of course until her baby is born, it will be so nice to have a grandchild here in Australia, but of course it won't limit us from visiting our sweet little Henry in America as often as we can so he grows up knowing us.

As I haven't got a layout to publish I think I will just give you a look at Henry and the cat which they were cat sitting for Xmas week...trying to out fox each other with the stairwell....the cat won hehehe..

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

How Exciting!!

In following my favourite artist's blog I discovered that she is coming to Australia to teach in October...I can't believe she is coming and as long as I'm not in America visiting my daughter...then I don't care what it costs me, my friend and I are determined that we will be there for lessons.

The wonderful artist I'm talking about is Ingvilde Bolme...wow!! her work is awesome.
Had a busy couple of days in the kitchen...not my favourite place, not that I'm a bad cook, just hate the cleaning up and the time it takes to prepare things when it could be spent scrapping ah!!!

Blanching vegetables from Bob's garden yesterday for a few hours, it was nice coming home to our own vegetable's after our trip to America. Also had to cook up a couple of Mutton Birds for Bob yesterday which he had for dinner tonight...boy are they fatty birds, can't explain how much oil is in the pan when you finish, I have to boil the kettle so the water is hot enough to ensure the pan is fully free of it and the smell it leaves behind, he loves them though.

Then today, rabbits, soaked them overnight then fried them to brown them up a bit this morning before I left for the hairdresser's. Then home to put them in the slow cooker, made the sauce and all the vegies to go in it and now I'm sitting up waiting for it to finish cooking as I don't have a timer on my cooker...why didn't I think of that when I bought it? down in Hobart all day tomorrow for doctor appointments so at least dinner is already cooked ready for when we get home.

Watching the TV stories on the devastating floods in Northern Australia, really hard to comprehend just how bad they are, and so many people loosing their lives, and Brisbane our countries third largest city has been inundated with water, amazing conditions, scary to say the least.

Monday, January 10, 2011

What a lovely day!!

Had a phone call from Erin this morning, it was so nice to hear her voice and little Henry in the background, Erin had to say goodbye to Katie as she headed home yesterday and I know how sad she would be feeling, thankfully only 3 months before they come home and hopefully we will see them lots while they are here even though it is always hard when you have relatives and friends to catch up with as well, everyone wants to see you so it is hard to make sure you enjoy everyone's company without losing too much of yourself...i.e. get tooo tired to enjoy coming home. Henry will be 21 months old, not a good age to travel with but I'm sure they will work things out and hopefully have no problems on that horrible long plane trip.

Then I spoke to Katie as she sat waiting in Sydney for the plane to bring her back to Hobart, she had a good trip home despite her advanced pregnancy so that really topped off my day, I'm sure she will sleep long and hard for a couple of days but she has had a wonderful holiay with Erin.

Then I got busy...I hate house work, but isn't it funny how you always feel so satisfied when you have achieved a big job around the home. Bob and I had decided it was time to clean out underneath our stairwell as we had accumulated a number of excess bags...wonder why!! ... hmmmm...maybe because we over shop when we travel and have to buy extra bags all the time...anyway, at least they are going to a good cause, over to the St Vincent De Paul Society tomorrow, for my American friends that is the same as your 'Goodwill' stores. I was very pleased with myself at what I actually threw out, of course I still have kept things that should go, and will do in time, but small steps for a hoarder like I am...today it was a few large steps with lots of trash as a result.

So, I've cooked a nice dinner, updated my blog like I intended (unusual for me hehehe)...and now off to browse some of my favourite scrapping friends blogs..

Erin, Jarrod and Henry came into Seattle to spend the day with us as soon as we arrived and we visited the Space Needle where this pic was taken. Of course the background is courtesy of the centre's computer imaging fortunately because it was a freezing cold and bleak day.

Another trip to America come and gone

Well this latest trip seemed like the longest we'd ever done. We had 4 days in Seattle in a Hotel which was great, it allowed us time to go on the Underground Tour, seeing in a small way the way Seattle was 100 years ago, I loved it, full of history and interest. Also did the 'Duck' Tour part on road and mostly on the Harbour. What a great way to see Seattle from a totally different viewpoint, something else I would thoroughly recommend.

We had a trip on Amtrak down to Portland Oregon with the intention of seeing and feeling just a little of my Ancestry. Unfortunately without driving it was impossible to get to see the town which was actually laid out by my g-g-uncle in mid 1800's. It was still nice to just be in the area which they arrived in by covered wagon via the 'Oregon Trail' all that time ago. The Coastal area of Oregon is absolutely stunning and we really loved the scenery and I found a new 'I want to live here' place...right on the beach at 'Cannon's Beach' simply stunning.

Then back up on the train to Seattle where Erin picked us up and we got to spend Christmas with her family and also our youngest daughter Katie and her husband who arrived on the 22nd, it was wonderful to be able to do this as we don't know when we will have a Xmas all together again.

Henry of course had changed and is a healthy, cheeky and gorgeous little grandson whom we both adore and love dearly. The only problem with these trips is they just make me realise how much I miss my daughter, each departure to come home hurts more and it broke my heart to leave her this time...not sure why but it really upset me, hope this isn't a 'sign' of the year to come...why did she have to move to the other side of the world is something that is constantly in my mind now.....of course I know, she followed her heart...but!!!!!! she is so missed here.

Again poor old blog has been neglected and another determination rolling around in my mind to make sure I keep it up to date more in the future. I now have unloaded a few of my online responsibilities which in turn cuts back on my computer time therefore freeing up more time for doing more of what I really love and that is 'scrapbooking'.