Well well well, I’m still here! A little update!

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Sorry for the total lack of blogging in the last few (many!) months. Life has been crazy.

September saw the last of my clinical placements (including lots of night shifts which really tipped my sanity over a bit!).

October brought my final assignments and exams for my nursing degree (enough said!). It also involved a lot of soul searching and many days / weeks of discussion and heartache and tears, which cumulated in us making the decision not to move back to France at this stage. The political and financial situation in Europe at the moment is just too scary (even with the strong Aussie dollar making it in some ways more appealing!). My qualifications wouldn’t be recognised so I would be back in the situation of not being able to have a decent career and we decided that the risks of everything going pear shaped just outweighed our love of France and the life that it offers us at the moment. On the positive side this spurred me to follow my almost life long dream of becoming a midwife and I applied (and was accepted) to start my Masters of Science (Midwifery) at Wollongong University (I had my first class today!).

November had the last of my exams (woo hoo!) and I was thrilled to come out with a Grade Point Average (GPA) of 6.0 – this is an international score out of 7.0 and to put it in perspective I needed 5.5 to get into medicine in Queensland! So I was thrilled with the results and pleased that the hard work paid off! We decided that we needed to make a trip back to the UK and France so planned that around our departure from Hervey Bay. Within about 10 days of my exams finishing we moved out of the house there. We had a garage sale to get rid of the furniture and gave our boxes to a removalist to deliver to my sisters garage in Sydney. We cleaned until 7.30pm on the last night then with the car ladened with boxes and towing a trailer we set off for Brisbane airport, stopping late at night in a hotel in Caboolture to get some sleep. Joel dropped the kids and I early next morning at the airport to fly to Manchester (via China and Holland!) and carried on with the car and trailer to Sydney which he then flew out of a few days later! We had a fantastic trip which I’ll blog about very soon.

December was spent visiting friends and family in the UK and France (and shopping of course!) I’ll fill you in on that soon.

January we returned to Oz and spent the month searching for a/ and area that we liked around Wollongong and b/ a house for rent that we could afford among the handful that where available. We fell head over heels in love with Kiama and Kiama Downs but I held little hope of securing one of the 2 houses that we liked, could afford and were available as each had about 8 other couples at the viewings! We were thrilled to get a call about the house that we are now in that was J and the kids first choice! It has issues (like being on the steepest hill you have ever seen, no garage, a bit flight of stairs down to house then back up to get in, no storage and cathedral ceilings (am thinking freezing in winter!) as well as a garden that needs a lot of TLC) but it is all made up for by stunning sea views from the wrap around deck and the whole of the open plan living and dining room! Will do a post with pics and more details!

Early February we moved in and the rest of the month was spent getting the kids settled into the local school (WOW I love it and have even joined the P and C (or PTA as you may know it)!), finding furniture, fridge etc. When my lovely mother in law asked what I wanted for my birthday when we were in England I said that I wanted to be in my own house and spend the evening on my sofa. Well we moved in 2 days before my birthday and we didn’t have a sofa but spent the evening on the deck looking at the sea, with mum visiting, a takeaway Chinese and and bubbly – bliss! We still don’t have everything but we have the basics so that is the main thing and we are comfortable and happy :).

Uni has just started and I’m in the process of finding some nursing shifts and still getting organised but life is good!

I’ll be back soon – promise!

Whale Watching – September 2011

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Oh dear my blogging is a little random and I’ve obviously not kept up with it as I’ve just found this post in drafts!!!

Mum came for a visit last week back in September when we were still living in Hervey Bay and we had a girly day and went whale watching – it was fab – we went on a nice boat that only had about 40 people on it (as opposed to the big one we went on last time that had over a 100 but was great for toddlers at the time!). I thought I’d share some pics of the day.

Here was one of the first whales that we saw:

Mum and baby whale:

Here is the first time I saw whales actually breaching – there was a clipper ship that sailed over to see what was going on, it was very cool and came quite close. The splash was the whale hitting the water – was so hard to get the timing right and I’d stupidly forgotten my camera and only had my phone!:

Luckily we had a great time with a lovely couple from Sydney who were kind enough to send me a great shot that they took with their fantastic camera, I can’t stop looking at the photo and remembering how magnificent it was to watch in real life:

The boat itself was a big cruiser – you could easily and happily live aboard with a great kitchen (sorry mum – galley!), bathroom, 2 en-suites to the main bedrooms, big living areas and great decks fore and aft.

If you ever get a chance to go whale watching please do it is good for the soul!

The wind…

Aside

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The wind doesn’t always blow where we first think it should, sometimes it takes a twisty turny path to pick up good things along the way. 🙂 It’s making the call and stopping fighting against said wind that is the hard bit :(. I guess trusting in the universe is needed.

The Apron Chronicles part II

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Managed to get this finished this week – it has been a WIP for a while now, I ran out of the black drill and had to go out for it and then got busy so it has been a long time finishing! It’s for my little sister and I’m hoping she’ll like it as she has a black and white kitchen and loves blue!

Eek I’ve just spotted some threads hanging – will have to go and sort them out!

Every photo I take makes me yearn more and more for a mannequin!

School Fete

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Things have been even more crazy than normal around here, finally finished all my placements and the paperwork for it so I am hoping I can actually have a week or two to relax (and perhaps even do some blogging 😉 ) before I get back into it in the lead up to final assignment, practical exam and theory exam. 2nd of November I should all be done!

Last weekend was the kids school fete. There are 1000 kids at the school and they had about 6 rides so that worked well – NOT! Josh was determined to go on the gladiator fight thing but of course as there is only 2 at a time for 5 minutes each he was lined up for the best part of 1.5 hours – I would have given up long before!

This is when we finally got to the end of the line and they were next and had to put the very attractive hats on!

Finally they were on and at it – for all of 5 minutes! He assures me that it was worth the ridiculous wait time and he got 10 points for tenacity! I only took a couple of pics as I did a video which then didn’t work – very disappointed about that but at least I got the pics!

While we were hanging around waiting for Josh Louis went on a big blow up wave (what on earth will they think of next!) – we only had about a 15 minute wait for that – much more reasonable (although I would have been furious if I’d actually bought the ‘unlimited ride’ tickets at $23 a pop).

And just because he is a bit cute!

We bought a lovely home-made cake and a few bits for father’s day (which was last Sunday here in Oz) but missed out on food as we were in the line so long! The kids had fun so that was the main thing!

My snap press has arrived!

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I feel a bit silly to be all excited about a slightly oily obviously made for sterner things snap press but I am!!! I have been wanting one of these for ages and they are so much cheaper to order her in Oz so I decided to go for it and get one! It is a KAM press which are meant to be the best at the job. I spent ages debating on whether to get the DK-93 model or the DK-98 model. The 93 being smaller, lighter, prettier (a nice green and a graceful handle!) with screw in die sets and the DK-98 sturdier, heavier and not so pretty (kind of a baby-poo brown :lol:) with slide in die sets that you tighten with an Allen key. Anyway after much deliberation over head v’s heart I decided to go with the DK-98 model – I can always spray paint that baby to suit my sewing room when I get one!!

First view in the box!

Out of the box waiting a clean (yuck it was very oily and dirty – they warn you that is how it comes so I made sure I gave it a good wipe!) and it’s handle attaching.

The man shape helped me screw it all together (he likes doing that kinda thing so I’m nice and let him 🙂 )

We then had a good play and got some of the little suckers attached to some material! I’d ordered a full set of white, navy, and pink (which is a bit lighter than I’d hoped but never mind!) and some 1/2 sets of light blue, lime green and pumpkin orange!

I can’t wait to use them on a project – just not sure what yet – ideas on a postcard please!

The only project I have on a to do list is Joshua’s quilt cover which I need to get done from some flat sheets. He wants a scene appliquéd on it and of course the easiest for kids with a duvet cover is snaps so that will take up at least 8 of them!!

Stash building!

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For those of you that sew you’ll understand the important art of stash building – you know when you have to buy any gorgeous material that you see because your stash obviously needs more building done to it ;)!

I have discovered that the best way to stash build is to explore the delights of all the fantastic American on-line fabric shops. I know that I should support my local shop (and I do when I can) but we are talking some pretty major savings. I’ll give you an example – Amy Butler (or any other of your yummy designers) fabrics retail here in Australia for around $28/metre – those exact same materials are sold in the US for around $8.50/yard. Of course I need to pay my post as well but USPS do a flat pack envelope that you can fit about 8 yards in for $14.95, so it works out less than $2 a yard extra in postage. What can I say – I’m a student, I’m a thrifty girl, I just can’t justify spending nearly 3 times the price for exactly the same material ! I’m glad I shared that with you – my guilt is slightly reduced :).

My most recent order was delivered yesterday (just about a week from ordering – not bad). I was so excited! I ordered from the Fat Quarter Shop who I hadn’t used before. I had a lovely email from Kimberly to keep me up to date with the progress of my order and as usual I had lovely customer service (gotta love the Americans for that ;)).

This is what I found when I opened my envelope:

I thought that was fab that it was in a zip lock envelope as the US post envelope is only cardboard so if it got wet your fabric would too!

So this is what 8 yards looks like (I got 2 of the fabrics with 1.5 yards to make some PJ pants for me and probably another apron with the other). Mmmmmm yummy colours jumping out:

I thought I’d just add in what the fabrics are – top left to right:

Art Gallery Fabrics: Alhambra II Garden Cashmere Cameo

Amy Butler – Soul Blossoms Lemon Daisy Paisley

Art Gallery Fabrics: Alhambra II Green Granada Arches

Bottom row left to right:

Alice’s Wash Day blues Cream Embellished Floral (Circa 1880 – how cool!)

Ann Kelle for Robert Kaufman: Confections Pink Cupcakes and Sweets

Amanda Murphy for Robert Kaufman: Swiss Chocolate Chocolate Lovely Lotus

Amy Butler – Soul Blossoms Tangerine Disco Flowers

I’m very excited and just need to work out what to make now! I often need to sit on new fabric for a while before I do anything as I can’t bear cutting into it! 😳