Go on then, a list...

And a crazy photo, Olive decorated me up ;) 

My lovely friend Elaina (http://alittlebitcountrynz.blogspot.ca/) gorgeously had me in her list, and I havne't done a list in forever. Today will be that day! 

Making:  A bloody mess & a lot of (decaf) coffee. I think the coffee is a psychological thing ;) 
Cooking: A pretty weird assortment of food. When Shane's away I kind of lose the will to cook properly.
Drinking: Coffee! And white tea with Jasmine. The gorgeously fabulous coffee maker below was a present we bought ourselves to celebrate moving to the other side of the world! Also a wee bit huge amount of red wine of an evening to celebrate surviving the days with Shane away! 

Reading: The Chimes, by Anna Smail. Quite hard work on my addled brain, but a really great book. I think I need something light to read alongside it. 
Wanting: Shane to get home! Only a few more days...
Looking: at all of the boxes still unpacked & wishing they'd magically do it themselves. 
Playing: Guitar with the kids at Olive's preschool on Fridays. Fun :) 
Deciding: What to make for Jarvis' birthday party on Friday. 
Wishing: Everything was unpacked & in its place. And that the kids clothes were organised in some way! 
Enjoying: Spring! 
Waiting: to meet Shane at the airport on Saturday night. It's been a long month. 
Liking:  Getting to know our new cat. She's pretty cool. 
Wondering: if there are any really awesomely fabulous people in my neighbourhood for me to be friends with! I've met one really nice lady, but surely there must be more! 
Loving:  Watching the kids play really hilarious imaginary games the past week or so. They're great. 
Pondering: 
Watching: The Blacklist - watched about a zillion episodes over the past week. 
Hoping:  the warm weather hangs around! I'm liking not having to turn the heat on! 
Marvelling: at central heating ;) After living in NZ and working so hard to heat our house, central heating is like magic! 
Needing: To get out for a run. Can't really ditch these two here so it's been a month of no running. 
Smelling: Beautiful soy candles mum made & sent in with our stuff. French pear is my fave. 
Wearing: All of the dresses I haven't seen since December! 
Following: My lovely friend Clare and missing her to bits! 
Noticing: Walking out the door & seeing green leaves on trees which were bare last week. 
Knowing: Shane will be home on Saturday night!!! Hurrah! 
Thinking: I must vacuum the house...but it's such a big house! Ugh! 
Admiring: My beautiful drawings by my even more beautiful friend Jessica . So wonderful to unpack & find them. 
Buying: Crap for Jarvis' birthday party. 
Getting: nervous about said birthday party. I don't think birthday parties here are quite the same thing as what I'd usually do...
Bookmarking: sewing ideas for if I ever actually manage to make space to sew. Or can stay awake long enough to sew. 
Opening: Birthday parcels from NZ
Giggling: at the things Olive comes out with. She crept into our room the other morning & informed me she can transform into a robotic cat. 
Feeling: tired, mostly. Grateful to have our stuff though :) 

Home Sweet Home!

Hurrah! We have furniture! We've had furniture for almost two weeks, and for almost two weeks I've been trying really hard to unpack it (ha ha, with limited success). 

We left NZ in such a hurry (it was less than two months from the day we found out we were leaving til the day we left), and the fabulous husband was so busy at work wrapping up his job, that I got pretty overwhelmed by the organising of stuff and as a result a whole lot of stuff ended up here which really should have gone to the op shop/rubbish dump/anywhere other than here! Lunchboxes with no lids, anyone? 

Just to add to the all kinds of crazy, the fabulous husband has been away for work pretty much all month - he was home (hurrah!) for three days, one of which happened to be the day our stuff arrived! That was very auspicious.

So, husband away, and spring break. Two weeks of small children on holiday who open boxes, rip everything out, and throw it on the floor. 

Opening the boxes is a bit like a lucky dip. We'd put almost all of our stuff into a storage unit when we put our house on the market (again, at great speed), and because of the rush there wasn't so much organisation involved. The moving men had to repack everything that was down in the storage unit for insurance purposes, which means 80% of the boxes have completely random contents! Clothes, a bit of fabric, a frying pan, a few my little ponies! 

Anyhow, with Jarvis' birthday party on Friday, I need to at least get one level of the house looking like less than a bomb site. Not sure if I'm winning, but I have a couple of days left...And fortunately I have wine to keep me going!  Anyone want to fly over & give me a hand? :D  

K

                                  

A dress?

Hmm, perhaps this could keep me entertained whilst the husband is away for work? I bought Gertie Sews Vintage Casual a couple of weeks ago, and it's pretty much my ideal wardrobe. I need to put my new sewing machine to work pronto! 

Wherefore art thou, Furniture?

Well hello there! An update from the land of (now melted) snow and ice at last!

We moved into our house on February 2nd - hurrah! It's flipping enormous, they don't seem to do small houses in Canada. Our whare in New Zealand was 100 square meters all up, this place is over twice that size. Lucky we've always had way more furniture than house, huh ;) 

It also has such fantabulous features as this little balcony thingee overlooking the lounge, purpose built for me to recreate 'Don't cry for me Argentina'. Disturbingly this is what I've always wanted ;) The kids are thrilled with the stairs, as Jarvis has had a thing for a few years now about really wanting a house with stairs. Long before the whole 'skip the country and move to Canad

a' business came up, Jarvis told me we really needed to get rid of our old house and get one with stairs.

One of my favourite things (besides the evita balcony) is the sewing room/office. There's actually a room we can leave set up permanently for sewing. It's not a guest bedroom, it's actually a spare room.  The desk was a good score - it was in pieces in the garage, and my fabulous husband reassembled it for me to use as a sewing desk :) Now I just need my sewing stuff to arrive!

Really we just want all of our stuff to arrive. It sucks being at the mercy of the sea! Initially it should have been here February 20th...then March first, then March sixth. It *should* get to Vancouver today, which means by next week the airbed can be deflated, and the house won't echo like a cave any more ;)  Don't get me wrong, I'm so happy to be camping in our own house than renting someone else's, but I've actually been dreaming about sleeping in our bed, then waking up to realise that we're still on a borrowed air mattress.

And having over a month in the house without the furniture means I've had a whole lot of time to plan where I want stuff to go! Which means I can get the moving men to put things on the right floor, avoiding the need to move bookcases and stuff up and down staircases when I change my mind about where it needs to go! (find the silver lining!)

Anyway, so far so good - we have somewhere to live, the kids are loving school & preschool, and I'm figuring out all of the logistical stuff to keep us ticking along. Winning :)