South Street.......

Before I moved to Australia I spent five years living in Nelson which is at the top of the South Island in New Zealand & I guess being a typical *City Girl* the pace of life was just way tooo slow for me. My parents bought motels there when I was 16 & I can still see the day we left Christchurch with me sitting in the back of our car tears rolling down my face as I was about to leave behind everything & everyone I held near & dear to me. I never looked on it as a new adventure, all I could see was that we were moving to a poky little town (it is actually a City) where I knew no one & my life as I knew it was rapidly coming to an end. What I did love was the motel which was a beautiful 3 storey house with its own ghost thrown in just to make life a bit more interesting! Down below us was this cute little street that I fall in love with on first sight, a tiny little street with tiny little run down cottages all in a row. This street & these cottages were the start of my eyes being opened to the beauty of Nelson & the oh so many old homes that dwell there. When I went flatting my first house I rented was a beautiful old house as was my second & I knew the first house I bought would have to be old as well. So when I went home in March my mum & dad took me to see South Street & I never imagined the surprise that was awaiting me!
A friend of my mum & dad's had bought the last remaining cottage in the street & as this ladies previous home was huge & she does a lot of entertaining the cottage was too small for her so started the complete renovation of the house. Looking from the street these cottages always seemed tiny to me an ideal place for one person to live but in fact out back there is quite a lot of land to extend on which most of the owners have done. I fell in love with these quaint little cottages all over again when we were given the guided tour of Elspeth's home, it really is stunning. Two extra bedrooms & a bathroom have been added on out the back with large windows along the hallway for extra light. The renovated kitchen is just to die for in fact there was nothing about the house I didn't like, not even the black front door. So come on a guided tour with me & let me show you my most favourite tiny street with cottages that have been lovingly restored......

Alspeth's new hallway...

The back entertaining area....

The main bedroom with french doors.....

The kitchen is on the right.....

The front of the cottage.....

My mum & dad standing at the start of the street, the building

are shops & where the window boxes are is some very lucky guy's

office......


Gotta love the bench out the front....

Love the red door..... (pity about the car out front)

Always wanted to own this one just love it......



Oh so sweet......

They have my picket fence.....

Loving this one as well......

Just gorgeous......

Could just move right in to this one.....

Another view of my favourite one.....

Sweet sweet sweet......

One of the best tucked in at the end of the road......

Dreamy gelato colours.....

Well there you have it, so what did you think can you see yourself living in one of these restored cottages in a tiny street 2 minutes walk from town, myself Id move there in a flash! If you ever find yourself winging your way over the waters to New Zealand you just have to put Nelson on your *to see* list, believe me you wont regret it.....

Hoping your having a great day....

Thinking of Doug......

I think you guys all know I decided 2009 was going to be a good year for me... sadly it has not turned out that way. I have already been to two funerals so far the third was back home in New Zealand & sadly I couldn't make the journey over. I had known Doug for over 30 years & to me he was one of the few remaining gentlemen left on this earth. I didn't manage to catch up with him when I went home in March, the last time I saw him was in January last year & as we were saying our farewells with the usual kiss & cuddle I knew in my heart it would be the last time I saw him. I miss this man & find it very hard to believe I wont ever see that beautiful gentle man again, he really was much loved. The other very special gentleman in my life... my dad had a heart attack two days after I had arrived in New Zealand & the week before my mum had had another cancer scare only to prove to me yet again how precious family is & not to take it for granted. I think it is very true that as we get older the tables turn, the kids really do worry about their parents in the same way they worried about us when we were young. A few months ago we found out a very close friend of ours had a tumor on one of his kidneys, the doctors seem to be at a loss as to how to treat this as it is a very rare place for a tumor to develop! At the age of 40 this to me is very cruel he still has so much living to do. So as if all this wasn't bad enough a very close friend of mine has been diagnosed with melanoma in her face which the doctors suspect has been there for 20 years or more & the guy who owns the corner shop down the road from us - who has become a friend over the last few years- went into hospital with stomach pains & came out with the knowledge his 45 year old body is completely riddled with cancer.

So now I am left thinking what on earth happened to 2009 being a good year.... surely it cannot get any worse.......

Who would believe you could get excited about a loo reno...Part 1....

I really feel I should apologise for being so slack with my posting lately good grief it is a wonder any of you guys even bother to pop in anymore. So its time I got back into blogland again believe it or not I have missed you all.

Ok so the photo below is my lovely laundry floor - to be honest here I do not know what possessed the person to come up with this design let alone colours, but I guess it was probably all the rage in the 70's - this WAS in the house when we bought it & not something we put in! The reason I'm showing the laundry floor is that I forgot to take one of the loo floor before it was taken out! So after I painted the walls & the new throne was put in Mr MP&CC decided it needed new flooring so off we went in search for some not too expensive but not cheap looking tiles & for the bargain price of $17.50 came home with just the right amount! So where did we get our bargain of the day....at our local tip of all places!

Taadaa... here they are laid sorry not the best photo but Mr MP&CC only finished the grouting tonight. I kinda reckon he has done a top notch job good grief where would I be without a handyman in the house. W e have decided now to go & get some more & tile around the bottom of the wall mainly because when the old lino was pulled out the bottom of the walls needed to be painted & I really do not want to do it! So what do you think?? Part 2 will be posted when its finished & then its on to the revamp of the bathroom, I will taken before photos of that grotty little room for yous.

Well that's it for tonight is very late nearly 2am, finding I an having trouble sleeping lately so had better get off to bed or I will not get up in the morning.

Hope you all have a great day.....

Oh nearly forgot hope all you lovely ladies out there had a great Mothers Day

Birthdays in the Merry Month of May.......

This post is going to be short & sweet, dedicated to the one I love.... my Sweetie turns 46 today! So my Darlin' here's wishing you a great day (kinda hoping here that the rain goes away) & may we celebrate many more birthdays with you!
Luv yah heaps xxxx Jack our Grandson turned two on May 1st & sadly the day passed without any contact with him. Our son has still cut all ties with us, changed his phone number, email address etc, we don't even know if they still live at the same address anymore, so what should have been a day to celebrate was in fact a sad day for my Hubby & myself.......

Well there you have it, told you is was going to be short & sweet!

See you all tomorrow.....

From spring cleaning to repainting.... good grief what have I started....

OK so here's the go... after arriving home after the floods up here my poor little P&CC is going mouldy from all the water laying under the house. So I had the bright idea it was time to spring clean (even though it is Autumn down under) my house. I started in the smallest room in the house.. the loo, & have I was washing down the walls I decided they needed repainting! So it has started, I have completely redone the loo, painting walls, door, (white of course) bought new toilet roll holder (which by the way was very hard to find) pulled down the old scabby cupboard even though it was PINK, hung a large picture of my boys (U2) to hide where the old cistern use to hang even though I gave it so many coats of paint, put a calender on the other wall, new hanging toilet brush on another wall & the finishing touch a cane basket painted white to store the extra toilet rolls & air freshener & have to admit it is now a pleasure to *sit* in this little room & while away the hours! There is paint all over the REAL scabby lino which is going to be pulled up by Mr MP&CC & fresh new tiles laid but not before the new LOO is installed!



The piccie above is the old door handles which I had kind of hoped would be brass after I cleaned up one of the handles to find was brass, but these & the other handle are steel so decided to paint them white & then distress them. Photos are not the best but you get the idea right...?

One brass handle & the other painted whited & distressed... lookin' good. So next onto the laundry no repainting here just a thorough cleaning then onto the *little hallway* leading into the kitchen. I honestly have NO idea what possessed me to paint this room yellow (along with my sewing room & bathroom) as I have never been a yellow person so when I started to clean the walls I realised I just could not live with this colour anymore. Friday was spent painting yet again, this time cream instead of white & boy what a difference! Yesterday I got in & removed some of my endless amount of fabric that I store on shelves in this hall, cleaned the shelves down & today when I put the fabric back, colour co-ordinated all neatly stacked have found that what came out does not necessary fit back in! So the left over fabric is now sitting in my laundry waiting for me to find room in my sewing room..yeah right.

Some of my fabric....

And some more...

And even more.....

Now I just have to find room for my boxes of lace, old doilies, ribbons, etc that once all fitted in here!

OK so the photo above is the yellow that once was, if you look very closely you will see the cream round the edges, it really has made such a difference!

I didn't get around to finishing this post have completely cleaned the large hall & repainted the bathroom. Have started on our bedroom so am getting there! Leaving the two worst rooms until last.... the dreaded kitchen & lastly my sewing room, lord only knows where I am going to put all the *stuff* that is in there while I repaint it, going to be a nightmare I think.

Today my Sweet & I went to a Auction (after going to a 21st last night & only getting 2 1/2 hours sleep & with a rather bad hangover) it kind of took the shine off it a bit. Anyways ending up with a brand spanking new *loo* & vanity for the bathroom so although we were both suffering a tad what with all the noise was really chuffed to get a couple of real bargains.

OK so that's it for now had better post this before I forget .. again. Hope everyone had a great Anzac day, the one day Kiwi's & Aussies remember just how lucky we are to live in a free world.

Please spare a thought......

On March 31st 2009 the skies opened up around Coffs Harbour & surrounding districts & swallowed it up..... the second time in 13 years. I was over in New Zealand & just could not believe what I was seeing on the news, we were told in 96 that we had had a one in 100 year flood, boy one hell of a quick 100 years! My family was very lucky the water only went into our garage & garden shed although quite a few thousand dollars of damage was done. People further down in my street lost everything. The other night I was looking at the photos people had posted on Facebook & cried for the damage that has been done to this beautiful part of the world, & can only imagine what they went through trying to keep the water out of their homes & businesses. So many of them do not have Insurance & like my husband & I the ones who do are now left wondering if we are going to be able to replace what we have lost as news is coming out of Insurance Companies not paying out in full. I don't think I need to say how I feel about this.... to me it is just disgusting, the amount of money paid into insurance polices & there are a lot of people like us who have never made a claim before. I will find out next week if the company we deal with have a heart!
These photos were taken up at Dorrigo, the road is very aptly called *Waterfall Way*!

The photo below was taken by one of my neighbours, cannot even imagine how this poor lady must have been feeling....

Down the side of her house...

Looking toward the back of her house....

The street behind us, the house with the picket fence is directly behind us.....

The street behind us, at the far end is my street.....

In 25 days Coffs Harbour had 2 days without rain, it has only been in the last day or so that we could walk on the front lawn without sinking in mud, we still cannot go down the back yard without gummies on. The water stopped short 4" coming into our house if it had been high tide far more damage would have been done. My Darlin' went to pick Dylan up from school (in the next street) & was up to his knees in water, Dylan was up to his waist. That amount of water was dumped on Coffs in 10 minutes, Dylan was lucky to get home Taska had to stay at a friends house over night as our street was cut off.

We are seriously thinking of raising our house, think after being lucky twice in a row the third time may be pushing it.

So please spare a thought for the people up here who now are living in what has been termed *A natural disaster area* the one thing we can be thankful for there were no loss of lives.....

Flying away & 18 years of Wedded Bliss........

Good lord..... it HAS been a while, long time even since I have posted on here truth is have been busy, been away visiting my family. I didn't realise just how much I needed to *go home*, yah know sort the old head out, get rid of the cobwebs & come back home feeling refreshed & eager to tackle the *to do* list I had written last year & seemed to get nowhere with it all. This time it was Dads turn to be surprised & just wish I had my trusty camera at the ready to capture his face!

Ok so the above photo was taken at the airport just before I flew out....... I'm on the left, Dad, Mum, my sister Sue & brother Deane. Normally do not like having my photo taken but suppose it could have come out worse! Came back to Coffs after the BIG flood & cannot believe it is still raining, out of 21 days have had 1 day without rain.
Have to make this one short, today my Darlin' & I have been married 18 years so a very special day & looking forward to going out to Dinner tonight.
Hope you are all having a great Easter & talk to yah tomorrow.

Yah know that sickly feeling in your tummy you get when........

Saturday was very hard for me, you know when you get that real sickly feeling in your belly, cannot eat & just feel sick, well that was me on Saturday. I felt like I did not want 4.30 to arrive, dreaded it in fact & although I told myself I would not cry well sorry but the tears flowed like buckets! We received a call from Ryno just as we were getting in the car to go to the Airport asking if his Surf Board was here & if so could we bring it down! I stupidly said *yes* its here & even more stupidly took it to the Airport only to realise once it was safely on its way to the plane that there are *White Pointer Sharks* over in WA, OMG my little boy surfing amongst them, a mothers true horror especially after the amount of shark attacks that have been happening in Oz lately!


Sadly we only had about 5 minutes with Ryno & Chloe at the Airport, they sat in that bloody plane for soooooo long & I kept thinking to myself *that could have been another kiss & cuddle* but really it would have just been more torture I suppose, the parting just had to happen. Ok so I'm going to admit here that I was a bit obsessive & got on the net & actually watched their plane travel across Oz (they were a dot) watched it land & then went into Goggle Earth & had a look at where they are living, over protective Mum, no, just needed to feel the closeness I have always had with this special man, way too hard to let him go! I have spoken to him a few times on the phone (very hard to hang up) but he really seems to be enjoying Perth, the beach is just down the end of his street, has been partying & I think they are both just enjoying having time off until they get back into the reality of life, you know the real boring stuff, working for a living etc!

So as this week went on I thought I was doing pretty well, not crying ALL the time just on the odd occasion when I would walk past his photo in the hallway & happen to glance at it, until yesterday arvo when I heard a motorbike pull up the front, the dogs did their normal *this is MY place* bark, told them it was only Ryno, waited for the *shut up its only me* which didn't come, & off I went again something I just have to get use to huh! I rang Chris (Chloe's Mum) last night & it went to messages & here was Chloe on the other end, thought to myself *I bet Chris rings her own number heaps just to hear that* her youngest & only daughter left on Saturday, needless to say Chris was also a tad on the messy side!

This time in 2 weeks I will be on a train for the start of my holiday, so am now on countdown!

Hey guys hope you all have a great weekend...........