Sunday 30 November 2014

Fibres and Fabrics Yarn Bombing for Christmas

Read the post here




Don't forget their Christmas Fair this weekend coming: 6th & 7th Dec, QCWA Hall, Denham Street, Townsville (if you happen to be around).

Arlene


Friday 21 November 2014

My new craft room

Well this time 12 months ago I was moving into my BIG new craft room, the renovated half of our double garage.
12 months on and I am moving again, but downsizing this time.  This is the area that will be my 'new craft room' for the next couple of years. The cushions and back board will be removed and a board placed on the bottom for extra support.
Yep, it's in a caravan. Now I only get the area where the cushions are, the bottom section below the cushions is where the 'operating system' of the caravan is. Batteries, charging system, fuses etc.  Now I have to put into this area: 60kg approximately. My bead box, with the hands free hoop,
 these 9 drawers
 The blue box, red bag on top, the bright blue box and the school port.  Other than my sewing machine, cutting mat and rulers that's it.
Could you cope with such a small area????? I'm going to have to and I'm still reshuffling stuff, as I'm still over weight (not me, but my gear - ha ha ha).  I didn't think weight would be one of my issues, but we only have 400kg to add to our van, as it would then become overweight and that can cause big problems on the road. I still need to cull about 10kg, so I think I'll be leaving some of the beads behind, as there really is no where else for me to remove that kinda weight.

The 400 kg includes all food, water (yes water too), gas bottles, BBQ, hubby's Kite surfing gear, kitchen gear, all the linen, our clothing, washing machine (twin tub weighing only 5kg), laptops, TV, etc.  It all adds up.  Thankfully hubby has got most of the real heavy stuff sorted (Tools, his diving gear, pushbikes) as it will live in the back of our towing vehicle.

Here's our new home:

The floorplan:
Just swap the bed over to the other side, it also doesn't have the slide out option, but the bed extends/retracts to give you more room to walk around the bottom.



Well would love to hear your thoughts.

Arlene

Thursday 13 November 2014

.... and so a new chapter in our lives is about to begin

Do you sometimes think that your life is a endless book, with mini chapters and long ones too. Some that have continued fragments from others. Well Michael and I are about to start another new chapter in our book. We're moving, but not just out of our house but we're off travelling our great country.

We have lived here in Townsville for the past 26 years, although I have often complained about the heat, we really didn't want to live anywhere else, but circumstances change, health mainly, so we will be leaving the Tropic's early next year to travel Australia for an undetermined length.  Michael's current employment with BAE will terminate on the 29th January, 2015 so from then, he will be an unemployed person for the first time in his adult life, I think secretly he's ready for the rest, he's worked hard and has been a loyal employee.

What's the plan, well, sell up and move, it's simple, right, yea, well kinda.  We have started the packing and cleaning of our home, decluttering and selling off anything that we didn't want to put into storage or take with us (which is going to be kept to a minimum).  Select a real estate agent and put both the house and the unit on the market.  The unit is now sold, waiting for the contract to become unconditional. The house has just gone on the market this week. The house at the moment is the cleanest it's ever been, with inspections from prospective buyers every day, it has to look 'smick'. I wonder if Rosey and Ally suspect their little world is going to be disrupted.  Son is also moving, to Brisbane, so Rosey and Ally will go to live with him.

What to pack, oh boy, parts of this has been easy, but my craft room has been the hardest to pack up. As I intend to continue working and improving on the App, to teach online and on our travels I obviously need 'stuff' to work with.  How do you plan for future projects when you just don't know what they are going to be.  I'm also restricted to just 70kg of 'stuff' which includes my sewing machine.

I think I have worked it out, but I know for sure I will be culling it more when the time comes to move out of the house.

So if you were given the opportunity to live in a caravan for a couple of years and were able to take some of your 'hobby' with you what would you take.  Would love to hear your comments.

Arlene