Yes It's Me - Scars and All

It's not often that I make an appearence on the blog but there is a reason behind this photo.
Yesterday I finally took out my head, which had been firmly wedged in the sand, and went for a FULL BODY SKIN CANCER CHECK!  (Yes Mum, I can hear you clapping from here)

Being a child of the 70's and a teen of the 80's you can imagine how much inappropriate sun exposure my poor body got - even for that time I was addicted to my suntan and it was with great trepidation that I showed up at the doctors and stripped off for his camera.

That bloody camera showed up every single mark on my entire body and believe me it was not a pretty sight - I saw in close-up areas of my body I haven't seen in years. 

To cut a long appointment short, I have masses of sun damage which was totally to be expected but fabulously I have nothing sinister on my body.  My face was a different matter and although not dangerous, I had 5 areas frozen as a precaution.  My Mum will be nodding at this stage as she has had numerous procedures to almost identical areas of her face and the hope is that with maintenence I will not have to endure the procedures she has had to put up with.

So, today I look a little like I have been beaten around the face - I have two large burns on my nose, one on my temple and two on my forehead - and not one customer has commented!  I'd love to know that they think has happened to me.

My big tip to all of you out there reading this is to man up and go and have a full skin check up immediately.  It may just save you a lot of grief later.

Jen xx

Princess Watch

 Kate attended The Queen's Garden Party today and although Will was working, she had a wonderful time accompanying her in-laws.

 

Interestingly she wore the Emilia Wickstead coat dress that she wore to the Sovereigns lunch  and teamed it with a pale pink straw hat by Jane Corbett.  I think she looks absolutely perfect for a garden party.

Reno Update

Our plasterers have been hard at it for the past few days and when I dropped in today I was thrilled to see such a big change.  They're working on the room upstairs and hopefully next week we'll be able to start painting.We figured it would be a lot easier to paint before the skirting boards and architraves go on.  It seems smaller with the plaster on but it is a lot lighter and will be even more so once it is painted.

 

  

  

Our House Is Puffy!

Caravan Love

Crafting Bug

Both kids are getting excited about the prospect of having their own rooms and Gidget in particular is starting to think about how she wants it to look.  I came across this ides over here and thought it would be a fun activity for her in readiness to hang when we move back in.

We have an old set of string lights that I luckily saved and as this project requires no sewing and I have tons of fabric scraps I think this will be a winner.

CHALK Quilts

Invaribly when I make a quilt, be it a customer order or stock for the shop, I forget to photograph it which is such a shame.  Each quilt is a one-off and I'm sure there are dozens out there that I have no record of.  You can't help but invest a little of yourself in each one as I'm sure all crafters will attest to. 
Luckily I remembered to snap a couple of the above quilt as I put it out in the store as a couple of hours it was gone! I posted a photo of it on our store Facebook page and one of our lovely customers saw it and came straight in to buy it!  
There is a boys quilt on the machine at the moment so as soon as it's finished the camera will come out - I think I should make them a proper file so I can document them all.

Our House

The day we bought it - 2000

Before the renovation - 2010

  During the renovation - 2011

Last weekend, nearly there - 2012

The Doorbell

Out of all the decisions we have had to make for the extension, I didn't think the doorbell would be the most difficult.  We decided we wanted a hard wired bell as opposed to a battery or wireless operated system.. We also didn't want a tacky plastic bell like we've been putting up with.  We're sick of batteries running out, not be being able to hear it, and the whole thing falling off the wall.  The problem is that most bells these days do involve batteries so it proved a much more difficult exercise than first thought.  What to go with......


THE BELL -Very tempting but not easily heard at the other end of the house.

 

THE DOWNTON ABBEY - Fabulous but not very practical.

THE RESTORATION TWIST - This is the doorbell I had growing up so it pulls the heart strings for me.  It also works with the era of the house.  Definitely a possibility although possibly one that is less ornate.

THE STAG - I tried to convince S.B. that this one was the answer, to no avail and although I usually get my way on matters of styling - this one he was adamant about.
I am still hankering after it but as the whole point is to be able to hear it at the back of the house I guess it's not very practical. (Lorelai Gilmore would get this one)

THE HORN - Then there is the down right ridiculous - great for a laugh but perhaps not that practical in the long term.

 

 But in the end I think this one is the winner -  (available here)

 

Hardwired!

 

WE have a friend, Michael, who practically begged us to let him come over and run cable through our walls.  Apparently this means we are hardwired to the internet in every cranny of our house and can connect to anything and everything in the future with no effort.  We didn't understand half of his explanation but it sounded good and he was so enthusiastic that we gladly gave him free rein.  He came over last weekend and spent the day running lots of blue cable through every wall - we even have a cabled doorbell now and cable leading to the deck for our outdoor sound system (who knew we were having one of those?) Surfer Boy even has cable out to the shed, just in case. 

 

And he did it all for coffee and a doughnut!

 

He has promised me that he will come over after the house is finished and help set up everything although he didn't seem that keen on hooking up my Video player - apparently times have changed.   

Thank you Michael - that's a lot of dinners we now owe you.

The Kitchen

Surfer Boy is doing all the cabinetry in the house and for the past week he's been working on the kitchen and bathroom cabinets.  We roughed out the design for the kitchen together and then he wove his Surfer Boy magic and turned our scribbles into proper mathematical plans that actually fitted.  He then took these plans to a wonderful company called Kitchenbox.  These guys turn your plans into reality - in our case we gave them our specifications and chose our finishes and they produced our kitchen in lots of lovely pieces that Surfer Boy is now putting together in to what will hopefully be a fabulous bank of soft-close drawers and cupboards. (oh and doing it this way costs about a third of what a Kitchen Company would charge)

I keep teasing him about his 'Ikea' kitchen and checking to make sure he has his elan keys with him which is driving him bonkers.  These are 'real' cabinets apparently.  They don't look like much now but I have every faith that soon they will evolve in to an interior delight.  It's bizarre as a lot of the decisions were made so long ago that I have no memory of details.  A friend asked me what finish our cupboards were - vinyl wrap, laminate etc - and I honestly have no idea.  I am assuming that when I made the decision I was happy so I'll just keep my fingers crossed.  I do know they are white, which really shouldn't be a surprise.  Neither of us remember ordering soft-close but what the hell, we'll take it as a bonus.

 

We've now moved on to thinking about the top of the Island bench which will be timber.  It's rather large for an island as it is 1200 x 3000 and I opted not to put a sink in it so it is rather a glorious expanse of bench top.Yesterday we went through S.B.'s stash of reclaimed timbers and chose some beautiful lengths that will now become our bench.  We are using oregon beams that began their life in a wool mill in Collingwood, Melbourne.  This Mill became 'The Mill Rockclimbing Gym' in the 90's and as such was quite a big part of our lives back then.  S.B. and I used to go there once a week with friends to climb and it holds strong memories for me of our early dating days.  I'm thrilled that once again a major part of our home will have strong associations for us. 

The Foy and Gibson Wool Mill began it's life in 1895 and we were rock climbing in it exactly 100 years later - how amazing.  It also makes me wonder just how old our oregon is!  Below is a photo taken in 1921 with the trucks lined up ready for the Toy Fair.

Princess Watch - Queen's Sovereigns Lunch at Windsor Castle

Kate wore a pink, pleated, double wool crepe coat dress by New Zealand designer, Emilia Wikstead.

 

 

Love & A Polo

It's amazing how much emotion you can convey in a couple of minutes.  I know it's an ad but it's worth watching for the gorgeous father/daughter relationship.  Enjoy.

Peeping In - Jackie O

 

Jackie and her husband Lee have built an amazing home at Kangaroo Valley in the Southern Highlands of NSW.  I think you would be hard pressed to find a new home that looks as authentic as this one.  I would not have been surprised to find out it was an original colonial home.

 

 

 

 

 

 

What's the bet Kyle's home is not quite to stylish and classic? I kind of want to show you just as a comparison but it may hurt your eyes....