Monday, February 27, 2012

Hello my pretty!

About a month ago, on a drive home from a Saturday morning shopping trip to Rutherford, I noticed a new 'opening soon' store in Neath (a tiny 'town' on the road from Maitland to Cessnock).

The name rang bells for me 'Vintage In The Valley', I LOVELOVELOVE vintage, when we were house hunting 3 years ago, Mr Mel was convinced he wanted a new build, and somehow we ended up with a Federation beauty built in 1908 (very happy Mel) :).

I've always loved vintage, when I moved out of home all I wanted was some of my Nan's overrun of pots & pans, instead of the brand new set of shiny pots my family bought me.

Don't get me wrong, I was very grateful for the generosity, but the 1 saucepan I took with me from Nan, her 'gravy pot', was and is, some 20 years later, my pride & joy.  It's dented and old looking, but I use it almost daily for cooking.

When I wanted some canisters for the pantry, I went to the Salvo's and found some anodised gems, my Mum & Aunt were horrified that I liked 'all that old stuff'.  And every time I moved (which was fairly often, 18 moves in first 16 years out of home!), they'd ask me I had got rid of 'all that old rubbish'. To which I would always reply, I don't own any rubbish thank you :)

So anyway, back to the point of my post!


On Friday, driving home from our 31 week ultrasound (all good, yay), I noticed that the 'coming soon' sign had changed to 'now open'.

Mr Mel didn't really understand my excited squeal, but agreed to come for a look on the weekend.

So on Sunday morning as soon as Mr Mel had finished his work, I excitedly said 'C'mon let's go hunting', he rolled his eyes and headed to the car.

On the way he said 'you know these places are never cheap', to which I replied 'oh bah humbug, let's just see what they've got, you never know, we're not in Sydney'.

We walked in and sitting on a table near the entrance was this beauty.
For me it was love at first sight, I have had it in my mind since we bought our home in mid 2009 that I would love to have a pendant light hanging over the dining table, to help separate it from the open living/dining area.

Mr Mel's reaction to my delight and sqeal of 'look look', was 'I don't see it'.  I must have looked at him like he was speaking martian, as he laughed and said it again 'I don't see it'.

I replied 'how can you not see it, it's gorgeous, it's perfect for over the dining table, gimme your mobile'.

I took the photo, thinking that I'd have a think about it, and imagine it over the dining table, work on Mr Mel for the next week, then go back and get it.

On the way out I realised I didn't know the price, I asked the lady as I couldn't see a tag.  She found the tag and said 'Oh it's $35', I had to bite my tongue, $35, holy moley.

Mr Mel & I went for a quick bite for lunch, down the road a bit, and I said '$35 is a steal, even if we get it home and hate it I think I could get $50+ for it on Ebay (my recent Ebay exploits!).

That seemed to tip Mr Mel to my way of thinking, we drove back to Vintage In The Valley, and I picked up the piece of gorgeousness, handing over $35.

Next weekend I'm going to head to a local renovation store and see what sort of roses they have to use on the ceiling (we have fancy ceilings and cornices), and change the white cord to something more suitable, plus get a lightbulb for it.

I'm not sure what she's made of yet, it's very light weight, shall do some investigating, it has a pattern of the inside of pearl shell, but not sure, yet!

The next dilemma is how/where we hang it, directly over the dining table is a steel beam covered in plaster board (from a renovation to extend the living area, before we bought).  But I'll let Mr Mel worry about that, I'm happy to look at my precious green lovely anywhere she sits.

I shall post more pics once she finds her new home :)

Till next time,

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Our 2011 edition - foal

I just realised that during my slack hiatus aka all day "morning sickness" of 5 months I hadn't posted anything about our 2011 edition foal!

Well we were blessed on 18 September to have our mare deliver another magnificent colt.
Our lovely 2011 colt

Unfortunately the mare had a bit of a torrid time, she retained some of the placenta, and got an infection in her uterus, we ended up having to send her to the Vet Clinic, after a week of the vet treating her at the farm, she wasn't improving quickly enough.

It was touch and go for both mum & colt, with them both having very high temperatures and infections, but after another week of (expensive!) treatment, they were both fine.
Our 2011 colt at about 3 weeks old, with milk splatter on his face!

The colt also had a few issues with his legs, with Thoroughbreds, especially if you want to sell them as a weanling (9 months) or yearling (12-18 months), having straight legs is the goal.  Buyers are looking to buy a horse with as few conformation issues as possible, and having wonky legs will cut the price you achieve dramatically.
A friendly fella
Mum & Bub, healthy and happy to be home from the vets!

We had the farrier do some corrective work on his hooves, and we're continuously monitoring his progress, and thankfully with the colt now being 5 months old his legs are just about spot on!

We weaned him off his mum in early Feb, and he's currently enjoying life as a kid with a gang of 7 other weanlings, bucking their newly aquired brands off morning & night, tearing around the paddock, playing chasey and pretend fighting for dominance and just fun!
Not a great photo - from my phone - this is at about 4 months of age

At this stage we'll be selling this bloke at the June Weanling Sales in Sydney, where we sold his brother last year, and his sister the year before.
2010 edition
2009 edition

I'll hopefully get some good photos of him soon, before I go on maternity leave!


Till next time,

Friday, February 17, 2012

Nursery on the way!

We're getting there with converting our 3rd bedroom/study/storeroom into a nursery for our bub due in April (we're at 30 weeks now!).

Luckily the room was already green, so no painting required, yay!

We've been very fortunate to have picked up alot of baby stuff free or cheap.
  • We found the Boori Cot & change table on Ebay, $200 for the two of them
  • Great 3 wheeler pram from Sister-in-Law
  • Bassinette from Sister-in-Law
  • Nursing rocking/sliding chair & footstool for $80 from a garage sale
  • The wall unit we bought new from Ikea for $385
  • Baskets in the unit cheap from $2 shops, and garage sales
  • The small canvas art and the mobile were a $20 find in a garage sale
  • The bunting (edited to take out surname :) )  was converted from the bunting I made for our wedding 
  • Capsule for the car from Sister-in-Law
  • Bagloads (I'm talking big rubbish bin bags) of clothes from Sister-in-Law
  • Fisher Price bouncer from Ebay for 1/3rd of RRP
We just need to find a nice rug for the floor and we'll be just about set!  

Apart from the usual supply of creams/powders etc, which we're hoping to find organic versions of.

Thanks to everyone for your lovely comments & emails about our news, we're very excited :)
 
Till next time,

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Ummmm I'm back!

Ah yes well, to say it's been a while would be a tad of an understatement!

My last blogpost was back on August 30, when I was under the weather. Where do I start from there?

How's about some news?  Something along the lines of WE'RE PREGNANT!!!!

Yes, my under the weatherness from August was also morning sickness, altho I wasn't 100% sure at the time!

We returned from our Honeymoon on August 9, and on August 26 at 2am we got 2 lines on our home pregnancy test!

I had been feeling sick for a few days, and had an odd full/heavy feeling in my tummy, I thought oh wow what if.  So went and bought some preg tests, the first 3 came back negative, but I was sure something was up, so I kept buying & taking them!  Then at 2am on Aug 26, I got up to go to the loo, and thought bugger it I'll test again, and up came the 2 lines, I ran in and woke up hubby waving the stick in his sleepy eyes.
Test 1 - on day 35 of my cycle


Test 2 & 3 - on day 36 of my cycle
Test 4 - day 37 of my cycle
Our GP confirmed our home test by blood test on August 31!

From August until 2 days before Christmas I had dreadful 24x7 nausea and vomiting, I was vomiting up to 20-25 times a day, and about 5 times overnight, I just about nightly awoke with vomit on it's way and had to run to the toilet!  Life wasn't much fun for those 5 months!

At Christmas we drove 15 hours each way to my hometown to have Xmas with my family (we told my family via Skype on Fathers Day, saying that hubby would have a very different Fathers Day in 2012, they got the hint!

Since Christmas I haven't had much nausea and only a few vomits, more related to heat/tired than morning sickness, I think.

We're now at 29 weeks, and have met with the great midwives at John Hunter Hospital in Newcastle, and have been to our first 2 ante-natal classes. I'm reading everything I can on natural childbirth, to try and overcome my birth fears, I want/hope/would like to go as natural as I can, but we shall see.

Everyone has been calling us old fashioned, with us conceiving a honeymoon baby, but we feel so lucky and blessed to have 'fallen' so quickly, old fashioned or not we'll take it :)

So in answer to one of my initial 'Can We Do It Questions'

Ah YEP WE SURE CAN!

Till next time, I promise it won't take so long!

LinkWithin

Related Posts with Thumbnails