Happy Birthday to Moi!

This year I choose no candle counting...

(At least I'm not as old as I will be next year!)

x KL

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Bits & Bobs of my Blogging Hiatus!

It's been super busy around here lately...not so much with house progress unfortunately, but with life!

Poppy Project, Rotary Park GOSFORD

 After the horrendous fortnight of severe storm weather late last month, ANZAC day memorials were fortunately, appropriately spectacular.

Dawn Service with Gallipoli landing re-enactment at TERRIGAL

We went to Sydney in the afternoon to spend the remainder of the ANZAC weekend with Japanese friends who were visiting Sydney for the final few days of their whirlwind trip to Oz.

The last time I saw Nozomi was when she was billeted with us as an exchange student, 12 years ago!

My girls have visited her in Japan several times, so it was nice to be able to reciprocate her always generous hospitality. We met her mother too, who was her traveling companion. She kindly hosted my eldest daughter when she was an exchange student in Japan. Shizuko spoke no English, but we immediately had a strong  connection, and had a really fun weekend!

We had a lovely Mother's Day here, with our nest leavers visiting and spoiling me with a beautiful lunch. We took the opportunity to celebrate my daughter's boyfriends birthdays too, a 21st and 25th!
Love the photo below of the boys and Davo having a wee 'nanna nap' after the effort of making lunch!

It was disappointing to miss seeing my own mother as she (along with my father!) was isolated in hospital with pneumonia. They have both been so very sick, but are on the mend now, thank God!

Me dispensing lots of TLC to poor Mum!

 My son has become a teenager too (Eeeek!) so the birthday celebrations continued!
13! Where has that time gone!!!!?

Three 13th Birthday Celebrations...two to go!!!

Would never had foreseen that my baby (seen below playing PS1 with his sister) would be building his own customised PC for his thirteenth birthday!

And David's birthday is this Saturday. May's a very busy birthday month!

I've been back to hospital for some minor surgery which seems to have been unsuccessful. 

Hopefully I wont now need major surgery, but that's looking like a distinct possibility. Bugger.
Can still laugh at getting older though:

 

Progress on the house front is slow, as usual. One day a week is just not enough time for David to get any consistent work done, so we're considering employing some subcontractors to help. We have previously viewed this as a waste of our capitol (paying someone else to do what David can do for free) but we're both impatient to get the house finished. To this end we are obtaining quotes for the remaining work....

Carpet options. Decisions, decisions!

Hopefully, the second half of the year will be full of progress (YOTH15!) and frequent 'pretty pics' on the blog front as we complete areas.

Fingers and toes!!!!!

x KL

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progress, presents and procrastination

Some more PROGRESS to report!

The top balcony off the dining room has its eave soffit lining complete! 

I begged Davey to use lining boards but never won the argument....he thought they would look at odds with the contemporary exterior.  Pffft.  

Anywho, plain and simple they now are. Next up is to waterproof that deck so the last and largest area underneath can be sheeted too.

Our tiler came back to work yesterday and laid the screed in our en suite. My happy dance was short lived though when he informed me of another job he has committed himself to, starting today. Then Davey will occupy him for two weeks and....well, I'm not holding my breath expecting an imminent return...Damn!

 Being holidays here, the pace for J and I has been  s l o w . You know; lazy mornings, no set bed time, mid-day movies and pj days just mooching. School is on the horizon though; high school no less and it's probably time we got back into a better routine. Dave must have thought so too as he surprised me with a 'present' today: Ducted vacuum hose, fittings and motor / barrel.  

Subtle and thoughtful. LOL.

Daughter No. 2 recently turned 23! She loves dinosaurs ( ! ? ) and i think still harbours a quiet dream of being a paleontologist. My eldest daughter organised a surprise family excursion to Taronga Zoo to celebrate coinciding with their Dinosaurs In the Wild exhibition...and Sydney kindly turned on a heatwave for us! It was a wonderful but exhausting day!

The time has come for us to replace my car too. I've been driving a Ford Territory AWD Gia and it has been a wonderful vehicle. Accommodating us all, plus friends with the seven seats when required and a sturdy and spacious 'work horse' for me collecting building and interior supplies. But the girls now live away from home and with access to a Ute and 3 tonne truck as work vehicles, J and I can scoot around in something smaller.

Top to Bottom: Mazda 3, Honda Civic, Hyundai i30

The final three contenders are the Mazda 3 Touring, Honda Civic and Hyundai i30 SE.

On moi must-have list is a hatch for rear conversion as a work vehicle. Leather seats too...it's hard to downgrade some features! 5 star safety rating, blue-tooth connectivity, maximum leg room for J when he's a rear seat passenger, rear ventilation, usb or power outlets and enough head room for Davey and J when driving as they're tall. (Yes J too as, in just over four years he'll be a driver and we are buying with the forethought of giving him the car at his first vehicle!)
I'd like SAT nav if possible (own a TomTom so not essential) and don't want heated seats or a sunroof.

We've test driven...talked and slept on 'it'. 

Tomorrow's decision day!

Get in quick with opinions!!!!

x KL

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You are very welcome and encouraged to comment, I love receiving feedback!

if a picture paints a thousand words...

..here is a forty-thousand word essay on 'what we've been doing'!

x KL

Thank you for stopping by my blog. 

You are very welcome and encouraged to comment, I love receiving feedback!

happenings

The blog world and pinterest seem full of images of both red velvet and rainbow cakes. I attempted my first rainbow concoction for Mum's birthday on Sunday. The outside was a bit ordinary but inside....Yay!!!! Happy Birthday Mum!

This is how we spent our Saturday....

...completing an eight hour marathon, painting sealer on all walls and ceilings in the final area to be finished upstairs; the lounge and hallway. It looks very 'white' and bland now. I'm reassured that my intended charcoal feature walls are going to break all that space up a bit!

The weather here has been so odd. As you can see from the pictures above, Saturday was gorgeously sunny, dark and stormy and back again. Sunday was the same. We headed to Sydney for Mum's birthday with the sun shining and temperatures of 30 degrees.

When the storm above hit, the temperature plummeted to 17 degrees and we were stuck, stationary in a traffic pile-up on the M1 for two hours! By the time we got to Mum's, the weather was pleasant enough to eat outside again. It felt very Melbournian!

Ordered my final P.C's for the main bedroom ensuite yesterday. A Caroma Cube wall hung pan and three individual, heated towel rails by Kado. Bought the kitchen sink too, this under mounted Franke double bowl one pictured above. The luck of the Irish was with me as I got the sink for a tenth of it's retail price as it was an ex-display model.

There are only a few very big-ticket items still on the list now.

Carpet. Timber flooring. Rendering and the pool. Oh, and landscaping, driveway and two kitchen's worth of joinery.... and handrails! Eeeeek!

At least were making some forward progress!

 HAPPY ST PATRICK'S DAY 

for yesterday too!

x KL

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Happy Birthday Ploddy!

The Central Coast's iconic dinosaur Ploddy, will share the Festival of 50 with David and I this year. 

Ploddy is a life-sized replica of Diplodocous (extinct for more than 150 million years). Celebrations for heritage listed Ploddy began this week at her home (yes, she's a girl!), The Australian Reptile Park.

Source: News Limited

Ploddy was originally build at the former site of the Australian Reptile Park at Wyoming in 1963 by the park's founder, the late Eric Worrell, as a roadside mascot. 

Sculptor Ken Mayfield constructed her from a photograph of the largest diplodocous specimen.
 The finished product measured over 26 m and weighed about 100 tonnes. 

Ploddy moved from Wyoming to Somersby in 1996 when the park relocated and became Australia's first giant roadside icon! 

She is highly visible on a hill adjacent to the Sydney - Newcastle freeway and is seen every year by over 40 million passing vehicles!

LEFT: 1980: Eric Worrel and Ploddy                                    RIGHT: 1996: Relocation of Ploddy to Somersby

 Her concrete skin is repainted regularly to support local charities and events and is estimated to be 1.5cm thicker as a result.

 

From one dinosaur to another; Happy Birthday Ploddy!

x KL 

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the Festival of Fifty begins!

 Borrowing the term from FF at Faux Fuchsia, the "Festival of Fifty" has begun in in earnest with David's 50th birthday today.

Want to replicate a perfect day? Start the night before with some Jolly Good Indian and then...
take one of each from the list below and combine!

A perfect winter, sun-shiny day.

Excellent company of brilliant friends.

Secret waterfront restaurant with no crowds.

Icy cold Veuve Clicquot & Peronies,

 Enormous platters of fabulous, fresh hot and cold seafood....

Finish the day with a night cap of aged Bundaberg Port-Barrel Rum.

And be ready to continue the celebrations with family on the weekend!

We thoroughly enjoyed celebrating with our precious friends J & C. J coincidentally celebrating her 48th birthday too.

Happy Birthday!!!!

x KL 

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Life

Considering J wasn't having a birthday 'party' this year, (we host one every second year; a cost containment strategy I started as a single Mum many years ago) his 11th birthday has managed to span a week with two cakes and a fun trip with a few mates to see Star Trek Into Darkness with lunch at a local pizzeria.

Mum and Dad have decided to zhush the family home which is 50 years young. New kitchen bathroom, flooring, paint and storage. Exciting! I'll have to get their permission, but hopefully will be able to share the before and afters... Decision 1: Limed Oak Flooring!

*drool*

 Here, the  s l o w  progress continues.... David has finished painting the ceilings in the main bedroom and installed doors, skirting and architraves whilst I've been playing around with some on-line wardrobe planning programmes.

 Is it cold where you are? Winter has hit the Central Coast of Australia with a vengeance today. I'm happily wearing my new boots and living in comfy jeggings (long tunic jumper on top of course!)

x KL 

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Eleven years ago...

 Eleven years ago my gorgeous little boy came into this world. David's first child. My first son.

He is a miracle that we didn't think would happen...never say never!

His presents this year were a total surprise. He wanted little. He has an amazing sense of humour that belies his age, laughing with us as we presented him first with 'work' boots before the real loot was given. 

We are all off to our local Thai restaurant for dinner, a celebration to be revisited on the weekend when his elder sister and pseudo 'brother' (S' BF) can visit from Sydney.

Happy Birthday my darling boy!

x Mummy

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milestones

This year is a biggie for major milestones around here.
Daughter # 2, A has just turned 21 as does my nephew, D
Mum (Nana) commemorates her 80th whilst
David and Moi hit the big half century!
And we have several friend's celebrating their 40, 50 and 60th birthdays as well!

Not a good year to become a tee totaler....

Looks like a busy but exciting year ahead! Yippee!

x KL

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Happy Birthday To..... Me!!!!

Yesterday was my birthday.

The family went all out with wrapping presents and organising cards for the event.

An enormous effort given that I had bought the actual gifts.
For myself. To save them the guilt of not having anything for me.

Darling hubby prepared a beautiful dinner.
It was a shame that cooking the BBQ coincided with Home and Away.

In 364 days I will be 50!
They're obviously not practicing so perhaps their saving their energy to pull out all stops next year!

Exciting!

P.S: There was no husband or children injured as an aftermath of this day. 
I had lunch with my oldest friend, (who is, unfortunately, younger than me) and was bombarded by cards, texts and facebook messages by other friends and family. I had a looovely day!

x KL

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the weekend that blew away.....

Howling winds, freezing temperatures and horizontal rain on Friday night scared us off from attending the Rabbitohs V's Manly NRL game. J was inconsolable. I hate throwing money away (we had pre- purchased Reserve tickets) but I'm sure we made the right decision.

J's final Saturday Soccer match for the season was cancelled too. Nice one.

The 1st Nest Fliers were to come home Saturday for a finishing room clean-up but the bad weather delayed them. At least we had a nice catch-up Saturday night!

Today was miserable too. Soooo windy! Thank God we has a miraculous break in the horrid conditions to attend a birthday party at Treetops Adventure Park. J went to a party here last year (info HERE) but this year the children qualified in height and age to do the first of the higher, adults course.  J was quite challenged by it but still completed two of the three sections. Woo Hoo! 

(I was stressing just at the harness instruction stage! LOL!) 

I'm off to deliver the skull I sold on eBay tomorrow to an address in Lindfield. Thank goodness for google maps and directions! I'm feeling a bit sad passing 'her' on to someone else. Best to do so before she's named, like our Bali skull. Bindi.

I hate driving the freeway in wet conditions so am praying for a fine morning.

How was your weekend? Washed away like ours?

x KL

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Bits & Bobs

We celebrated J's 10th Birthday, again on Sunday. Although his birthday was in May, he missed out on a promised and keenly anticipated party with his friends because we were overseas. He chose a Laser Tag party and invited all the Year 4 boys, two good girl friends and a couple of other mates. J and I designed Lanyard VIP Access Invites which were J's idea and all the kids loved.

Two hours of mayhem and it was all over...with no cleaning up! Yay!

 Thanks to Sara Lee, I was able to create a Halo / Army inspired birthday cake very easily!

 I also learnt that you don't send a child to the hairdressers with their father with no prior styling direction. A number 3! In winter? Eeeek! Below is J with the 'spoils' of his event!

Been EBay-ing some designer clothing that no longer fit's J and a few other bits and bobs. Sold some, not all. I underestimated postage costs so made only a few dollars. Not sure if it's worth the effort really. Here's the postage pile ready to go!

Now The Terrigal Project is complete, David is focusing his attention on a new build at Point Frederick. It's at the exciting stage....choosing fixtures and such. Here is a picture of the stair style we have suggested. Nice, Eh?

I helped the middle child complete her Tax return and now have to get the business' ready for our accountant. Office work is sooo tedious and boring. 

Hope you're set for a more exciting week! 

(Am loving following the excitement of Katrina Katrina from The Block and AM The House That AM Built in New York!)

x KL

Thank you for stopping by my blog. You are very welcome and encouraged to comment. I love receiving feedback! I also love watching a new pretty picture box added to my followers - would love you to join me so I can get to know you too!