Paving progress

As promised here are some paving progress photos. It took so long. We are still not completely finished but here is what unfolded 2 weekends ago. And a look back at what we started with here.

Last weekend we filled in the gaps, compacted, brushed paving sand into the gaps. As there were only two of us on the job I didn't take any photos. It's blowing a gale and raining at the moment - first test to see if we got the levels right, fingers crossed there's no puddles - but I'm not going out to take any photos now either!

Jobs still to do...

-sand and paint retaining wall

- put in small drain and permanent supports for edges of paving

- stain new bifold doors and give the front door some love

- paint front step

- replace plant that got squashed by 5 falling pavers - doh!

and in an ideal world, get rid of the bottle green fascia, drain pipes and window frames.

It's looking pretty good though, if I do say so myself! Can't wait to get some furniture out there and enjoy it!

So much to tell

Phew. Where to start? Holidays I think.

We had lots of visitors over the school break and it was so lovely. We are often the ones heading down to Victoria to visit but this time people came to us!

One of my good friends from uni, who was around when A and I first met (and told him in no uncertain terms that he'd better be good to me or he'd have to answer to her) and her husband came to visit. I love it when they visit as they always know what they want to do and where they want to go so I don't feel like I have to entertain too much.

First on their list was a visit to Floriade and second, a bike ride around the lake. So much fun. 

Beautiful tulips at Floriade

View from the Ferris Wheel. The theme was food - much easier to identify things from the air!

Watermelon!

Look who we met on the bike ride! So, so cute.

Once they left, the weather turned good and I got to finish my garden painting, plant the new veggies and generally sit in the sun and relax. Nice.

We had mum and dad up this last weekend and as the weather held, we set them to work paving. OMG, it was such hard work. I am so grateful for them always being willing to help with this kind of thing. It would have taken us weeks without them. Thankfully the hard work is done and we just need to finish off the fiddly bits next weekend. In the meantime, praying for no rain! I'll put pics of this up later.

In other news, new window/doors going in today and tomorrow, we finally got onto the ACT Housing fence people (as we share two fences with government housing) who are putting together a fence quote and a quote for our bathroom reno is on it's way. Yikes, hopefully so is a lotto win!

Hope all is well with you!

Game of skill?

I've married a gamber! Not a problem gambler, just a bloke who likes the odd game of poker, plays on the stock market and is not turned off by the improbability of winning something on a timezone game machine. A went off on a bucks extravaganza last weekend and got home late last night. I was asleep but woke up when I heard the car pull in. This was our conversation...

A: Hey sweetie.
Me: Hey.
A: How are you?
Me: Sleepy (roll over and close eyes again)
A: Want to see what I won at timezone?
Me: Mmm, sure. (expecting some manner of ugly soft toy)
A: (holds up iPad)
Me: what? You won an iPad at timezone?
A: yep, game of skill. I was this close at winning a PS3 as well.
Me: what?! How much money did you spend trying to do that?
A: About $40. But most of that was trying to get the PS3.

So here I sit testing out the iPad. Unbelievable. I didn't think anyone ever won those things.

Another sewing challenge

I think I mentioned the other day that my friend J, has just had a baby boy named Oscar (such a cool name). So after my chair success I got all sewing inspired and decided to make a hooded towel from this tutorial. I was skeptical to begin with but it was easier than I expected and I'm so proud of how it turned out! Hope both J and Oscar like it too!

Making the hood - step 1

Hood - step 2

Hood - step 3

All sewn together

Folded up with 'O' taggy toy

I made an 'O' taggy toy as well with the left overs. It's not quite so polished but I'm
thinking that Oscar will be far too busy playing with the tags to look at my wobbly stitching!

I'll definitely make the towel again. My confidence with the sewing machine is growing so I'm on the lookout for new projects too!

Taste test

Once we were sure we had an egg from each of the chickens it was time for a taste test! Rolled omelet with spicy eggplant relish. Mmmmm.

Delicious. And so nice to no longer need to support the commercial egg industry, especially with the recent discussion around changing the guidelines for 'free range' farms from allowing 1500 chooks per hectare to 20,000!

Rain, rain, go away...

You're making my outdoor jobs unpleasant, if not impossible. The pavers and sand are still sitting out the front waiting and I had just one coat of paint left to do out the back...

Looks like I'll be waiting until next Tuesday to finish it now :-(