Crowning achievements?!

Are we finished?  Nah, not even close. I had a long visit to the dentist this week, for crown restoration work.  

(I wore my Cookie Monster brooch - you know, cookies are a sometimes food - and took my headphones, so I could listen to an audio book and focus on that, rather than the drilling).

Nick and I still managed to go house-hunting afterwards.  House-hunting is a major focus of life.  Online.  Street viewing.  Open houses.  In-person inspections.

We've broadened the search to include rentals.  There wasn't much point looking at them too far ahead. At this stage though, four weeks out from our exit date, taking on extra stress and expense may be necessary.  Plenty of Plan B options are being considered, costed etc.

We try not to be affected by media coverage of the current "housing crisis" but one house was leased even before the inspection times.  We only saw another from the road before applying - unsuccesfully.

Of course there's good stuff happening and in these trickier times, it's even more important to focus on and enjoy the positives. Nick and I attended a Leonard Cohen show last weekend (the night after Nick's first, official gig).  We had a quick dinner in a beautiful Italian restaurant beforehand.  That venue is on our list for a longer visit, when we have time for full enjoyment.  Praps a birthday dinner.

At some stage amid all last week's busy-ness we made an impromptu visit to West Bremer Radio, introduced ourselves to Rachel Vickary (host of The Drive Home) and chatted of Nik Hamby's music.  After a house inspection this week, we again called in - and Nick did an interview, then and there!  He'd received an email that same morning, confirming his return gig at Platform 5! 

We do all the usual stuff around the other happenings.  Working.  Walking.  Washing.  Shopping.  Cheffing.  Chiro.  Medical reviews.  Sourcing hard-to-get medication.  Culling.  Packing.  

Week 4 tally.  Boxes packed:  3.  Total boxes packed:  36.  Total tape rolls used:  2.

What a week!

What a rollercoaster ride our third week was!  So much happened.  It was very hard to keep up - even for us!  

By way of background, four days after receiving our Notice to Leave we met with a mortgage broker, who submitted our application on Friday (a week after Notice).

Yes, on top of all those Week 1 box gathering and packing missions we also rounded up detailed figures and necessary paperwork to present our case to a broker (and lender).

By Monday of Week 2 we had finance pre-approval and could start seriously looking at houses for sale.  Many properties were viewed online, quite a few were inspected from the street and we attended a number of in-person open houses also.

It was an eye-opening week.  So many house already under offer or contracted within the first day of being listed.  So many that looked quite fine in photos but weren't fine in real life!  By the end of the week we were contracted on an older home in a lovely location.  Exciting times.  We toasted our success and good fortune over that weekend (as well as taking some time out to collect Nick's "new" amp).

There was a flurry of activity in Week 3.  Erin packed one box.  I didn't pack any.  Of course there were all the usual work and household missions - drat!  Nick and I both had several medical appointments. As well as attending those, we organised building and pest reports - discussed construction issues and ways forward, fine-tuned finance paperwork (which highlighted another problem, one we'd thought resolved after a long saga).  

Over lunch on Friday we realised that purchase wasn't going to proceed.  The day had been quite busy and the afternoon prelude to Nick's first gig was even more full-on, sending emails right up to our departure from home.

How did the gig go?  We had a fun night, made even better cos friends surprised us by driving down specially to see Nick play.  Nick/Nik enjoyed being on stage, only forgot a few words a couple of times - and has been invited back. How good is that?!  Even more impressive when you know some of what was going on behind the scenes.

Week 3 tally.   Boxes packed:  1.  Total boxes packed:  33.

Whimzee-cal packing?!

Two quick weeks since receiving our Notice to Leave - and far too much going on!

Nick and Erin went back to the retail dumpster last weekend and sourced another 64 great boxes, including one for a uekele, which might just fit one of Nick's uekeles!  How obscure is that?!

Two extra-large boxes were brought home, not for packing so much as containing our packing boxes - which are now nicely organised in the shed, for easy access.

Bandit wanted to be part of the action as a quality control inspector. Yep, some of the collection came from a pet supply store - and they have now been taste-tested! 

Although we've been in this house for over five years, we do have a lot of moving experience.  

During our 18-plus years together we've had eight homes - as well as an 18-month stint based in our vintage caravan.  

For the first 10 years of Vaughan's life we moved seven times, including an interstate relocation from New South Wales to Victoria in late 2012.  We did another interstate relocation in 2017, which brought us from Victoria to Queensland.  Our current home is the longest we've stayed at one address together - and we're a bit chuffed with that!  On reviewing our childhoods though, it seems around seven years was the longest either of us spent at one address. 

As a child, my family lived in a 25-foot van for a period also, on the road and stationary for various periods (sometimes with additional living space in an annexe).

I've lived in rental properties since August 1997, when I separated from my first husband.  I choose the timing of that initial move and the one following but from 2005 onwards all moving timelines have been set by others.  I've always found the early weeks to be difficult, knowing that leaving is necessary but not having any idea of where we'd be moving to.  Of course, given the current housing crisis, I was even more concerned than usual.

I bought myself two cyclamen plants last weekend, to add some cheer to our bathroom during these tricky times.  They are holding in well at the moment though it seems caring for them could be an extra challenge.  Hah!  They've survived a week so far!

House-hunting has been our main focus this week, which has taken up a lot of time and energy.  We've been diligent about daily walking for physical and mental benefit, eating good food and maintaining evenings for relaxation - to help all family members through our current stressful period.  Erin has continued voluntering and is doing some craft work as a distraction.  Vaughan is on a term break, so socialising online and with local friends.

Nick and I both have health appointments, so we've been attending those in between various other missions.  Our days have been very busy and an impromptu trip to Toowoomba yesterday afternoon was a wonderful, welcome break.  We bought a speaker for Nick's first proper gig (this coming Friday evening) and enjoyed a wander through Queens Park gardens while there.  I reckon we deserved some time out!

Week 2 tally.  Boxes sourced:  64.  Boxes packed:  5.  Boxes donated:  0.  Tape rolls used:  0.

Total boxes sourced:  120.  Total boxes packed:  32.

Packing - again ...

When I was about 8 years old, my parents decided on a round-Australia road-trip.  I talk about it on a long post over at Happy Hamby Campers (my main blog).  I remember lots of packing.  

Proper tea-chests were bought to safely house our belongings, those that would be stored in my Granny's garage till the end of our travels.

Those tea-chests were made of plywood and some still had small amounts of tea in them, which was fun!

The younger me was tasked with selecting toys and books for my brother and I keep in the caravan.  Yep, I've been culling and packing from a young age!  Scroll forward 40-plus years and I'm once more culling/packing, faced with a moving deadline set by someone else.  

We were given our Notice to Leave a week ago and have achieved such a lot in that short space of time.  I'm very chuffed with all that's been managed so far.  We've sourced 56 great boxes for packing and four of those were stuffed with packing paper - bonus!  Nick and I collected some boxes, swathes of bubble wrap and foam sheeting from a retail dumpster and I was also given other packing materials via FaceBook marketplace.  We bought two tape guns, heavy-duty tape and special tape labels from Bunnings, for just under $50.00, which is our only outlay so far.  

I read one marketplace ad where the seller had purchased all-new moving boxes etc for $700.00!  Just amazing.  We've always strived to spend as little as possible on moving, so mostly do our own packing - using whatever boxes and packing materials we can find.   (Once we've unpacked, we've happily given away boxes, paper and so on). 

Although we've been fortunate to stay at one address since moving to Queensland in February 2017, we have a lot of moving experience.  (In 2015 we even self-packed a 20-foot shipping container for interstate relocation and only suffered a couple of breakages). I talk about those moves in more detail here, which was the starting point for our Great Cull of 2015.  

We had 110 days notice of our 2015 deadline.  Queensland's notice periods are different, so we have just 60 days - which will see us very busy till mid August.

I wake early, have my breakfast - and start packing.  When I was little I would watch my Granny wrap freshly-laid eggs for us to take home with us.  She'd roll them deftly, using half-sheets of newspaper - two eggs per neat little parcel.  I was reminded of those compact packages when I was packing fragile china and glassware this week.  I used white packing paper but there was a similar rhythm of tearing sheets, rolling, creasing and so on.  The house is quiet and my mind drifts doing this simple, repetitive work.  Little concentration is necessary.  At this early stage, packing is almost enjoyable.  Almost.

Week 1 tally.  Boxes sourced:  56.  Boxes packed:  27.  Boxes donated:  5.  Tape used:  one roll.

More picnic upcycling ...

Erin's picnic project was the catalyst for more pleasant upcycling.  

I'd made several high school art cases for her, around 12 years ago.  

I've used the purple-trimmed pencil roll in my beverage case for ages.  It holds various teaspoons and some other items.  Now the green case is Erin's picnic cutlery roll.  (The rainbow ribbons were the girls' hair ribbons from primary school).

The autumn floral lino tool case was folded differently and modified slightly to become storage for Erin's cheese serving set. 

I've recently been enjoying some hand-sewing and enjoyed slow-stitching the new geometric ribbon tie to the upcycled cheese tool case. 

I also made a cover for a picnic salad bowl - which was a lot easier than I expected! 

The salad servers were last to be housed.  After pondering I decided on a padded case for those, using some pre-quilted fabric from the stash (which I probably had since before Erin was born)!

I quilted over the original fabric, using several of the fabrics that feature on her other picnic items - along with a few other choices.  (Erin isn't big on matchy-matchy but had specified bright and cheerful).

Re-usable rainbow metal straws are accommodated in a lightly padded pencil case(ish) zip pouch.  The bird print was part of a 50c remnant - and also features on the upcycled library bag.

I'm really pleased with how all the pieces look together.  It's definitely a fun, happy theme - which was the aim.  Of course, it's nice to be able to upcycle some favourite items as well.

Now we just need to test it all with a proper picnic!

Picnic upcycle ...

I mostly keep track of my sewing projects in a personal FB album but even so, there are items I made long before social media was ever a thing.  Yep, really!

When my girls were in primary school, I made each of them a library bag.  The bags were quite similar, they just had different coloured stitching around the applique, which also matched the colour of the straps.  Those two library bags were my first-ever totes!

Erin has hung onto hers all these years and recently requested it be upcycled into something more useful (as she has other, newer bags for her craft work). 

There was a lot of pondering and lengthy discussion before deciding on the bag's transformation. She was putting together a picnic set and wanted a bag to store plates, which were too large to fit inside her cute picnic basket.

I took the library bag apart and washed it.  Erin then had fun spray-bleaching the denim outer, trying to disguise some of the fading - while being careful not to damage the bright bird applique.  

After the bleaching, there were still darker areas, so I replaced the original straps with similar (decorative) dark blue webbing.  

Once I'd decided to make a large zip pouch, the rest of the upcycle was quite straight forward. I had a bright green zip in the stash, which worked well with the original bird print.

I'd picked up a different bright bird print at an op-shop on a road-trip, so used that as part of the revamp, together with a scrap of macaw fabric.  

In funny co-incidence, I was using Erin's macaw ruler when measuring during various stages of the upcycle!  

I'd taken very rough measurements of the plates before starting but really, the fact that the pouch fit snugly on top of the basket was a marvellous fluke!

Here's hoping the "new" picnic bag does most excellent work for another 20-plus years!

Bagged a bargain!

Nick and I have recently returned from a 23-day road trip. It was an awesome adventure and we've been easing back into the real world.

I took a laptop for photo processing while away.  The bottom of the carry bag was deteriorating though and I'd started thinking of a better option, preferably one that was in keeping with our Gladstone bags!

We had a couple of outings over the weekend.  One was to collect a "new-to-us" mower and from there we ventured further to explore some local-ish areas we hadn't previously visited.

There were a few op-shop stops along the way and one of those had all items listed at just $2.00 each.

This bag caught my eye.  I could see it had been very well made, though was in serious need of TLC. 

On the way home I googled and found a new one listed on Amazon for $304.92 as well as a  few on Etsy for varying prices. Yep, a great $2.00 bargain!

It was a little different working on this bag than when I've given my Gladstone bags their spa treatments, because this leather is softer.

As usual, I started with a saddle soap clean - and then decided the best approach would be some rejuvenating shoe cream.  The local bootmaker had the right tint for just $9.95.  (The bag has an expansion section that looked to be it's original colour and I matched the cream to that).

I applied several coats of cream yesterday, buffing with a soft brush between applications.  I did a lot of hand-washing also!

You can see how well the bag now looks.  A vast improvement, eh?!After the leather was nourished, a lot of the rub marks/fading were far less noticeable.

The bag had obviously been extensively used but now it looks cared for, which was my aim.

A great outcome for just $11.95 total spend!