Now For Something A Little Different

It seems my last few posts have been very much about my health, my weight loss and my bariatric surgery, so now for something a little different, cause there are lots of other things that have been happening in my life.

So what's been happening in these parts in 2013?  We can start with my surgery in Jan and then move quickly to the 4th Feb, the first day back at work post op in fact.  Well, on that day some not very nice people decided to break into our home and trash and steal, kick in doors, break windows and generally make themselves at home.  I was the person to arrive home and see the door off our carport swinging in the breeze, and following our burglary last September I kinda knew what that meant.  The neighbours across the road where almost on me before I had a chance to get out of my car, as it seems they came home and disturbed the low-lives (there were 2 of them) who then casually drove off and waved.

Needless to say, it was a little devastating, all my replacement jewellery was gone, my DSLR and point and shoot cameras (and hubby's point and shoot Christmas present as well), my iPad, my iPod and our laptop.  The front door was kicked in, the bedroom window smashed and the carport door damaged as well.   The insurance company was less than useless and it is only this week that we have finally got everything replaced and this was with me having a major meltdown on the phone to them over 2 weeks ago.  Even when we rang them on the day it was going to take them a week to send someone out to  fix the doors and windows, so we had to organise that ourselves and then they quibbled over the price.  Seriously our house was not secure!  On a lighter note, cause there has to be one doesn't there, just to stay sane - we also found that they were very hungry burglars, taking ice creams, bananas, iced coffee, and some diced fruit in natural juice from the pantry.

Then lo and behold 8 days later the crap heads were back to make more mess and take the TV, smash another window and scarily they came in with a key this time.  The whole window smashing was a ruse to cover the fact.  But it was fairly obvious that the window was broken from inside to outside this time, unlike the week before, so all the locks had to be changed - again (had them all done in Sept 12)

So nearly $10,000 later we now have security cameras, a monitored alarm system, security film on the windows, solid core doors with deadbolts on all 4 external doors and 2 new three pin lock security doors.  We live in a prison to keep the crims out, nice world isn't it?

The worst thing of it all though, has been how traumatised Max has been by it all, he still continues to cower if there are any loud noises or races for cover if someone new comes into our house.  This has of course been exacerbated by our renovations.  Yes that's right, all of this has since been followed by a bathroom renovation, a huge new patio constructed out the back, a new built in bookcase and a scrapbooking nook in my study, oh and new floor covering throughout the whole house.  Gluttons for punishment aren't we?

My poor hubby has lost 10kgs in weight, moving all the furniture countless time to paint walls, ceilings, cornices and skirting boards, put it all back only to move it again totally when the carpet and vinyl went down.  He is now down to his pre-wedding weight way back in 1977, I on the other hand have to have major surgery to lose any weight at all, gotta laugh at that.

Today marks the penultimate chore in the bathroom, the roof has been painted, now we just wait for the glass for the shower screen and the mirror and it's all done.  Was supposed to take 2 weeks, and we are up to week 4 or is it 5 with no end date in sight - sigh.  But it is looking good and when it is finished I will post photos.

You may remember I posted about my green cocoon, well it is even more green now, as two of my study walls are a glorious deep limey green, I just love it.

So without further ado, here are some photos of the scrapbooking nook in my study.

Pic on the left shows the desktop away and on the right with it out.  It is a great invention that allows me to work and then pop the desktop back out of the way when I am either not using it or part way through a project.  No more having to put everything away every evening.

Strangely though, I am overwhelmed thinking about which project to start with.  I have so many photos, so many empty albums and so much scrapbooking paraphernalia that it is sort of scary.  My daughter says to choose one small project and start there, so maybe that's what I will do this weekend.

But my newest favourite space in our house is my floor to ceiling built in bookcase.  I love books, I love to read, I love to keep my favourite authors books.  My shelves are still overflowing even though I have given so many books away over the years.  Rows and rows filled with Kathy Reichs, Patricia Cornwell, Alex Kava, Dean Koontz, Stephen King and James Patterson to name a few.  My knick knacks have found a home there as well as my gorgeous Enjoy Lighting candles.  Every night they light up on their timers and cast a beautiful glow down the hall, even hubby is loving them.  I wish I could curl up right inside my bookcase but instead I can enjoy looking at it each time I walk down the hall, or lie in bed as it lies just outside our spare bedroom where I seem to spend so many of my nights now (better for my back and mental health than sleeping with hubby and his snoring, sorry honey).

Sorry about the quality, is is grainy as I had to have the flash off to get the glow effect, I just love these candles.

left is looking up the hall and right is looking down toward the backyard and our new security door

Some of the shelves, knick knacks and all

Hubby and I have also just sent off to renew our passports so we can be part of the wedding celebrations in Seattle as my daughter marries the love of her life, can't wait to meet Kam and her daughter Kiera and Kam's parents.  Going to be a few emotional and fantastic days in September.  USA, here we come.

So all in all, a busy and somewhat stressful start to 2013 and we are only just of a quarter of the way through the year.  Still I can only see good things ahead, some time relaxing in our new patio, having a wonderful new bathroom and scrapbooking and reading to my hearts content.

Thanks for popping by xxx