New additions to our family...

Chooks....

Back in April we brought four chooks in the hope of having our own freshly laid eggs. In preparation of their impending arrival I built the chook house and Andrew finished it off by putting the roof on it for me.

The chook house came in a flat pack which was surprisingly easy to put together on my own. I had it all finished all but the roof when Andrew can home from work. Unfortunately we lost one of the chooks (Henny) who never seemed to thrive. The disappointment of losing one of the chooks quickly changed to happiness when Ruby laid her 1st egg. Ruby is now giving us an egg every second day while the other two are yet to lay an egg.

With the new chooks Charlie had a new hobby chasing the them up and down the fence and has spent many an hour trying to work out a way of climbing under the gate. The novelty has worn off a little but that's more because of the cold weather than any waning of desire to get into their patch!

the ramp to the nesting boxes

On goes the roof!

finished ready for the chooks!

Ruby, Rose, Henny & Penny

Charlie's new past time - trying to get in with the chooks!

Our first egg!

Quilts for my nephews and nieces..

One of the things I had really wanted to do was finish all the quilts I'd made for my great nieces and nephews so that I could give the quilts to them when they visited for my wedding. Unfortunately with my hand out of action for about a month I didn't get Lucas or Lachlan's finished in time but with some clever folding you couldn't tell for the photos.

For me it was a special moment to treasure.. my dream of all the children having a quilt made by me had come true... they would all have something that they could remember me by in years to come.

Jake, Lahclan, Hannah, Sarah, Olivia & Lucas

Jake, Lachlan, Lucas, Hannah, Sarah, Jessica & Olivia

pleased with their quilts...

My little sewing accident...

A lesson learnt the hard way.... don't use a rotary cutter when your tired!

One fine Sunday afternoon in February I decided to do a little sewing. I had been working out ways to finish a quilt for my nephew Lucas. I had already sewn six blocks by hand and decided to finish it off by machine. Having sorted the fabric and the design I was keen to start cutting so having a little time before dinner I started to cut the fabric into strips.  Using my rotary cutter I'd cut 4 strips and had decided to cut 'just one more' as I was a little tired.

Well that 'just one more' was 'just one to many'!

Looking down at the fabric I saw a bit of my finger and finger nail and thought 'that shouldn't be there!' I then looked at my finger and new it was not good!

I raced to the bathroom and wrapped my finger in a towel while calling out to Andrew who was doing some gardening outside...  honey I need you, honey, it's serious can you come now, Honey really, right now!

Realising that something was wrong my knight in shining armour raced inside saw my finger and rang the ambulance. The brave man watched from a distance and took photos and laughed while the ambulance men tried to control the bleeding.

Off to the hospital emergency room we went with my finger still bleeding - it took 4 hours to control - not a good thing! Later that night I was sent home with my finger bandaged and an appointment to see the plastic surgeons the following Friday. Thankfully my appointment was brought forward as if it wasn't I would not be sitting here with my finger basically intact.

By Wednesday afternoon infection has taken hold, I was admitted immediately and spent the next 3 weeks in hospital having 2 operations to clean the wound and IV antibiotics to control the infection. As we couldn't save the bit of finger doctors planned to cover the wound with a skin graft but that couldn't be done as the wound had become too infected and doctors feared I would loose my finger if they couldn't control the infection.

Thankfully my finger healed before my wedding and I only lost a bit of my finger tip - the official diagnosis is a partial amputation of index finger!

the guys trying to stop the bleeding

15 minutes later.... still trying to stop the bleeding

not happy.....

 laugh.. what else do you do in situations like this?

Wedding invitations still had to be posted!

arm in sling to put my hand out of action after 2nd operation

trying to get blood was never a fun process so gloves filled with hot water were used to warm my  veins!

looking cleaner after the second operation

3 1/2 weeks later and looking really good

it's been a busy and exciting few months..

 WOW... the last few months have flown by so fast... might just have had something to do with getting married!

Andrew and I were married on the 20th April in a beautiful ceremony and reception held at my church.

Being biased of course but I think it was the best wedding ever!

getting dressed.. my mother and sister helping!

My four gorgeous 'great' nieces, Sarah, Hannah, Olivia & Jessica were flower girls, two of my handsome 'great' nephews, Lachlan & Lucas were my page boys with Lachlan having the special job of carrying the ring cushion and my other handsome 'great' nephew, Jake along with Phil, his father & my nephew walked me down the aisle and gave me away. Tracey, Andrew's friend was grooms-women and along with Phil were our witnesses.

me with my dog Charlie

My handsome husband!

We had a lovely day which went all too fast!

  I am now Mrs Vicki Tootell!

Andrew & Tracey

2 handsome boys - Phil and Jake walking me down the aisle

The wedding party, Tracey, Phil, Jake, Lucas, Lachlan, Hannah, Sarah, Jessica , Olivia and Andrew &  me!

Our wedding guests!

Mr & Mrs Tootell 

My sewing room and visit from Jake

My sewing room has finally taken shape with new shelving put inside the wardrobe to help contain my fabrics and other bits and pieces.

My nephew came for a visit and had fun helping put the shelving together using my new little electric screwdriver. After putting together the shelving we filled the day with a trip to the movies, a try out on the John Deere ride on mower, a few games of noughts and crosses. We finished off the day of making a ginger bread house and a roast dinner.

putting the screws into the backboards

concentrating to get the screws straight

lying down on the floor to get the bottom screws in place

trying out the John Deere ride on mower

at the movies

our ginger bread house

my first ever ginger bread house

very pleased with his efforts

oops.... its a bit fast to start off

having a game of noughts and crosses

the cube shelving

my sewing room from the door

I've filled both sides of the wardrobe :-)

another view into my sewing room

Our new house... the gardens taking shape

Things are happening fast with setting up our new home. The blinds were installed 2 weeks ago and the landscaping has begun.

I have put Roman blinds in all the rooms and wooden Venetian blinds in the bathrooms and toilets. They are a neutral colour which will let us dress the rooms in whatever colours we like with cushions, my quilts and pictures. Unfortunately by being a neutral colour they are hard to photograph but I've added a couple of photos to try and show them anyway.

Here are some before and after photos from day 1 and 2 of the landscaping work. It will be exciting to see how the garden takes to shape over the next few days.

front yard

the veggie tins

down the side of the house

from the lounge room door to the back fence

Our new letter box put in by Andrew

the back yard

the bob cat digger up everything from the side of the house

the truck unloading the reinforcement for the concreting

from the lounge room window to the back fence where the clothesline will go

from the lounge room doors to the back fence where the veggie tins will go

the bob cat in action

the back yard

the bob cat

the pile of clay moved from the back yard

the side of the house ready for concreting

Charlie checking out the wire reinforcement 

the white wooden Venetian blinds in the bathrooms

The lounge room blinds

the front door