Make stuff :)

Ive always wanted to try applique and Ive had a few opportunities lately!! Mums boss had a baby boy named Jonah so I embellished this cute little onesie for him.



Libby and Adria got these bibs - I stitched the one for Libby on the sewing machine, but it kept catching on the back so I handstitched Addys and it looks really cute!! :)



(Jessy sent me this piccy of LIbby in her bib!! Shes soooo cute!!)

Heres Johnnys car after a *huge* duststorm hit Sydney last week! We spent all Thursday washing our cars and the house as we could barely see out the windows!! (Theres lots of other bloggers who posted the orange sky.... haha... I dont get up early enough to have seen that!!!)



And today is Neatas birthday!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY NEATA :)

WELCOME ADRIA ROSE!!

My cousin Rhiannon and her partner Ian had a beautiful baby girl Adria Rose on Saturday 5 September.

She is so so sweet and Rhiannon is looking great - she went home after only 2 days!

VEGAS HERE WE COME!!!

Johnny and I have booked our honeymoon!! Our wedding is Saturday 6 Feb but we plan to fly out on 11 Feb so we can spend some time with our families and friends who have travelled to see us!!

We've booked 3 nights at Anaheim Disneyland, then two nights at the Crowne Plaza in Los Angeles and Universal Studios. Then we fly to Vegas for a week, staying at The Mirage!!

We're planning on seeing as many shows as we can whilst in Vegas but the main ones include Cirque Du Soleil's "Love", Lance Burton, Bette Midler and whoever else we happen across! We also want to do a helicopter flight over the city by night and over the Grand Canyon!!!

Im actually really excited now which is good because Im not a very good traveller...

We've paid all the accommodation and flights already so whatever we can save between now and then is just for spending!! (And paying the bills while we're gone lol!!!)

Mattys 21st Birthday 15.08.2009

Matt had a dressup party for his 21st and you had to go dressed as something beginning with the first letter of your name. I chose a Showgirl and Johnny went as the Joker from Batman.

We had to work since it was a Saturday night but Monique let us both leave really early and finished the night for us! How nice!!



























They offered a prize for best dressed and Johnny and I both won along with 3 others!! We had such a fun night :)

Newcastle 10.08.2009

We headed to Newcastle with Johnnys parents to go see David Copperfield at the Newcastle Entertainment Centre. We stopped for lunch at Eden Gardens along the way which broke up the four hour drive, and stayed overnight at the Newcastle Crowne Plaza (apparently thats where Copperfield stayed too!).

We were all a bit disappointed with the show since we'd paid $117 EACH for tickets! There were no programs, the show went for an hour and 20 mins, and much of the show was film clips of Copperfield performing illusions 20 years ago!!

But it was still a fun weekend and we can now say we've seen Copperfield!!

Day two, we wandered around Newcastle which was deserted! Many of the shops were empty and trashed but we later drove to The Junction where the had some really cute boutiques!!

Luna Park 20.07.2009

Kia invited us along to Luna Park as she was taking her sister for her birthday! It was my first time there and even though its quite expensive it was lots of fun!!

Kia and Matts friends Aimee and Justin were there too and we stayed with them after Matt and Kia had to leave.

It was such beautiful weather too!!

Wishlist....

Johnny and I have been on a bit of a splurge this week. We've been looking at changing to Telstra 3G network as Optus have such bad reception in our area that we barely receive text messages.

Telstra phoned about our home phone last week, and while I was on the phone to them I asked if they could do a deal if we ordered a phone through them. We ordered a Samsung F480T (touchscreen) for Johnny which he got free on a 24 month plan, but decided to wait to save some money before buying me one.


Over the weekend my phone decided to start reading Chinese so took it as a sign and we went to JB HiFi to have a look at what they had on offer. I ended up buying the latest Iphone for $395 on a 24 month contract and I love it!!

And JB HiFi had a deal where if you change your mobile account over to Telstra, they give you a $300 store voucher - so bought a Wii and a Wii Fit!! Its sooo much fun and we're both really sore after playing so much! lol!


Daria has tagged me to write up a wishlist (which is a bit naughty after splurging on all those goodies! lol!)
Anyway... heres my wishlist for things we want to do to our home..

1. We've been saving since we moved in for a new bathroom. The old one is outdated and a bit leaky. Its really small so theres limited things we can do with it, but we have a good idea of what we want to do we just need the $$$$

2. We have a huge window in the dining room which we would love to convert into some sliding folding doors. The back door is in the laundry, and the laundry is sooo tiny that we've basically blocked the back door with all our *really important stuff* (read: junk) so we climb out the window to get to the backyard hahaa!!
3. We'd eventually like to update the kitchen. Theres only 4 cupboards and no pantry so its very hard to store things!! We'd love to convert the laundry into a walk-in pantry, and update the banchtops and cupboards. Theyre so old that we have to pull the drawers very gently or they fall apart!!
Again, the kitchen is very small so theres not alot we can do about the arrangement, but theres some great ideas for colours etc!!

So there you have it... I feel like a 'material girl' this week hehe!!
x
Oh and Im going to tag Debbie and Brigitte and Rihani

My Birthday :)

We went for a mini-holiday to the Gold Coast for my birthday. We went to Movieworld, had a hangi at dads and just had a nice break! We made a little movie so you can see what we got up to...



and some pics...











On Monday, we had a hangi at the Blue House to celebrate mine, Kia and Rhia's birthdays. Heaps of people came - mum, Liam and Laine, Monique, Roland, Jessy and Libby, Kia, Matt, Kias mum and sister, Nick and Wendy, Brian and Kathy, Granny, Rhiannon, Brandon and Ian, Katherine, Aimee and Justin, me and Johnny!! Nick made a *huge* cake and mum bought a yummy sponge! Rhiannon made heaps of nibblies and granny made her signature cupcakes and apple/sour cream slice. It was a fun night and the hangi went really well with dads awesome photo instructions and several phone calls lol!!












PS Notice our new chairs!!?!?











The next day we went up to the ice skating rink in Katoomba and John and Jess spent an hour on the tiny rink!!







Ive been working Fridays at Elizabeth Rosa for the past few months, but am working lunches at the Cottage during the school holidays. I think I'll pick up a few extra days when the manager goes overseas though. They've just introduced a new POS system, so Im trying to learn it but lucky Im pretty fast at learning new things!

We met with our wedding photographer today! Hes really friendly and I think we're going to have some really awesome wedding photos! We went out to the bush and found some great spots to shoot!

We met with our celebrant a few weeks ago so now we have the legal part of the marriage organised lol!!

Sent off a layout for Ngaire's Top Ten which is exciting - havent been scrapping at all otherwise!!

Thats all I can think of at the moment... Im so hopeless with blogging now but will try to stay more up to date!!

New Car!!

After almost six glorious years of driving my happy little Daihatsu Charade "Trevor" around, we have finally decided to upgrade to a new car.

Dad bought Trevor for me when I was still on my Ls and apart from being a bit leaky, and a bit sensitive with the air-con going, hes been a fantastic little car for me to get from home to work and back.

After this incident 2 years ago, (where Trevor had a slight injury to his drivers door after *someone* reversed into a pole with the door open) resulting in this:


Trevor has finally decided he doesnt want the door to shut properly anymore, and that it would be hilarious for Johnny to drive holding the door all the way home (it was hilarious).

Anyway, Johnny and I decided on a budget and after looking at our used car options, decided we'd fork out that little bit extra and buy a brand new Kia Rio LX. We went to Penrith yesterday to buy one, and they have one on order so we're hoping to pick it up this afternoon!! They had a sale over the weekend which was fantastic timing for us because it meant we saved $4000!!!


Yep - its ORANGE!! Im so excited!

New Zealand - Part Three

I think its about time I blogged part three of the February NZ trip!!

Day 6 - Drove out of Rotorua to the Buried Village, a real village that was covered in metres of ash when the volcano erupted over 100 yrs ago!!









It was the first day of rain, and it absolutely poured!! It was beautiful though, so we had some scones and tea in their undercover outdoor cafe!! Lovely!!



We drove past the Blue Lake on the way, but didnt get out cos of the weather.



After the Buried Village, we drove back north until we reached Off-Road NZ and decided to stop. It cost us $38 each to ride in their 4WD which was awesome. I remember going there with my dad about 7 years ago, and it was still just as cool - the truck goes almost sideways and youre practically falling out of your seat! Since there was no one there that day he took us for a little extra spin :) Awesome.



We drove through Hamilton and found a campsite advertised called Waingaro Hot Springs which was about 25kms off the main road. It had 3 large natural hot pools and water slides but there were only SIX guests in the entire park so they didnt open the slides. It was the creepiest place we stayed, and also the most expensive and it was a shame it was so run down. We spent a while in the pools, had ravioli for dinner in the camp kitchen, showered and then went to watch TV in the common room. It was so bad we didnt even take any photos!!

Day 7 - We did take pics on the drive towards Tuakau - it was the back road rather than the highway, so it was even more scenic. Its so weird to see animals wandering around outside of their fences!







We passed through Tuakau and headed to my Uncle and Auntys home in Pukekohe. After a quick drive around town we went to a tapas restaurant called Poco Loco - it was soooo yummy and we had so much to eat!!







Day 8 - Linda drove us to the train station and we were amazed at how clean and new their trains are!! You buy the tickets on the train from someone who comes around selling them! Incredible!

We caught the train into Auckland - I think it was about a 1 hour ride. We walked to the SjyTower but decided it was too expensive to go up. You can do the "SkyWalk" for $195pp, where you are harnessed in and you freefall from the top!!

We wandered over to the wharf and paid $33ea to catch the ferry around Auckland Harbour. We had a short stop at an island volcano then came back again.

Had a quick look around the "Downtown Westfield" where Johnny had a tshirt made that says 'balancer' on it. Then we caught the train back to Sylvia Park - a huge shopping centre that has traffic lights in the car park!! After that we went back to Pukekohe where Uncle Dave picked us up then we had dinner and chatted until bedtime :)

I left my camera at the house and didnt take a single photo all day!! *gasp*

Day 9 - FRIDAY 13TH!!

We drove into Syliva Park to have 2 tshirts made (one for Roland "Rosti King" and one for Rhia's baby "Hendrix") We had some yummy lunch and hot chocolates at a chocolate shop!!





We drove into Auckland and parked near the SkyTower which we hadnt realised was a casino! We played a few games and watched someone jump off the top, then drove back to Tuakau where my parents grew up.







We drove around the tiny little town and then looked up the address of my mums best friend from high school. I'd never met her, but thought we'd pop in and say hi - they were so surprised!!





We went back to my Uncles house for dinner then he shouted us tickets to see a comedy show at the local club - it was really funny!!

Day 10 - Dave and Linda took us on a bit of a tour past my dads old school and where they used to live.



We then drove to Manukau Heads to see the old lighthouse! It was fairly overcast and miserable but was a beautiful view!!











The beach had black sand which was really bizarre!!





We stopped in Waiuku for some yummy meat pies, then went to a bird sanctuary which had an amazing amount of birds!



This cockatoo spoke to us and asked us our names! His name was Charlie :)





Day 11 - our last day!!
We had to return the van by 11am and had to fill the tank. We reached $9 worth of diesel when an announcement came over to tell everyone to hang up their pumps! We waited for ages until the guy explained their new computer system had frozen and he couldnt take any payments!! We left him the $9 and tried to put the fuel cap back on but none of us could do it!! We FINALLY got it back on and another announcement came over saying the machines were working again!! Gah!! So we filled up with $40 and left! lol!!

We returned the car and did all the required paperwork and after half an hour we went to Subway for lunch where we had the most hopeless trainee ever, then Uncle Dave shouted us a game of mini golf!!













They dropped us at the airport at 3:45pm and we checked in and waited for our 6:30pm flight home!!

It was an awesome holiday and quite relaxed even though we did quite alot! The hardest part is just choosing my favourites from the 900 photos we took!!! Hehehe!!!