Hammer (& Nail) Time

We are having a good clean up around here today.  I'm toiling in the kitchen - wiping out cupboards, cleaning all dishes etc., whilst Lyndon is clearing out the dead plants on the balcony from their lovely huge ceramic pots.  We have a lot of tenants living here we didn't know about, both in the kitchen and in those outdoor pots.  (Can't believe I slept soundly knowing there was a baby gecko lurking in the lounge too last night!)

It is break time here.  'Kid shows' are on the telly and Lyndon has gone down(?)/up(?)/across to Bunnings with a list as long as his arm.  

Friday's night 'gig' for Lyndon was great.  Everyone turned up and a great meal was had by all.  The restaurant owner was very pleased we were all there.  I imagine the bill at the end of the night was quite big.  

Here is Miss Monet and I ready to go out on Friday night (gee two photos of me in the last few days!  What's going on??)...  Notice the new dress for Miss and my new bangle?  *grin*

See those smiles?  Well, mine anyway.  They are genuine.  Can't believe that the ball is rolling with Lyndon finishing up work, with real estate agents we have chosen for the management of this property and the removal company pencilled in from our quotes we sent to the Lyndon's new employers - we could be out of here before we know it!  

*scared*

*excited*

And because any excuse will do, last night the three of us went out for tea and had a lovely meal.  We got 10% off the total bill price, just by mentioning we were locals.  No proof of ID needed either.  Email me if you want the name of the restaurant.  *wink wink* ;-)

Guess I better get back to it.  This place doesn't clean itself you know.

For Rent

So, you interested?

Top storey, three bedroom apartment.  Spacious, with bathroom, en suite, internal laundry, two 'roomy' balconies. Front balcony includes built-in 'Beef-Eater' BBQ with stone benches for all your entertaining needs.  

Modern kitchen, including new lights...(bought yesterday!),

with stainless steel appliances, including double-dish drawer Fisher and Paykel dishwashers.  

Two car parks and storage shed.

Complex includes lovely big pool (bit cold this time of year to use though, this photo taken late last year...)

Apartment outlook over park and playground, short walk to one of Cairns best northern beaches.  Close to kindergartens, schools, local shopping center.  

Nice neighbours.  (Except for the people downstairs and over one.  They play their electric guitar too loud at ridiculous hours sometimes, but otherwise, who is complaining?)

Weather is lovely most of the year round. (Except the months where there is constant grey skies which get you down a little.  But the months of blue skies cheer you up.)

The local beach is rather stunning, (like yesterday - view from the local pub)...

(Except when the water doesn't look brown and stirred up and when it is 'stinger' season and you risk your life/health by entering the ocean's waters.)

No water restrictions (as such) are attached to the property and the water is probably some of the best you have ever tasted.  (However, it does not contain fluoride like 99% of the rest of the country and is a 'touchy' issue with locals so don't bring up that subject!  Sometimes you have to agree to disagree.)

Otherwise, a lovely abode for rent. 

Still interested?

Hiding, Hiding...

To help bribe (yes, I bribe!) Monet out of the bath each night (she'd play in there all night given half a chance), we offer a few games of 'Hide and Seek'. It works a treat.

So we play 3 games, most nights. Lyndon hides first, followed by myself, followed by Miss Monet herself. When doing the 'seeking' we stand with our face at the front door and count loudly to 10 (or to 16 or 18 - depending when Monet wants to stop) and then say "Coming, ready or noooot" and go on our search for the hiding parent. It doesn't take long to seek us out, I mean, we live in a 3 bedroom apartment and there are only limited hiding spots!

Monet is getting awfully good at playing.

She used to run from her hiding spot out to we were once we finished our 'counting' and say "Here I am!!!!!" Not now though. She hides and sits still. I know the day is coming where we won't be able to find her.

You can imagine how great she thought it was the other night when Lyndon had Monet's new shelves pulled out from her bedroom wall, as he had been painting her room.... (see look!)

The three of us were in there, admiring the paint work (Yay!) when I suggested to Monet to stand behind the shelves and pop her head through one of the sections so she'd look like a doll. She did a great job not moving...


...Did you spot her?

Maybe not quite 'Where's Wally', but pretty good all the same.

Busy Baking Bee...

I was a busy little bee in the kitchen yesterday. I had the 'in-laws' who are holidaying up the road, at Palm Cove, over for dinner. And you know that I enjoy baking/cooking and it is always nice to prepare a food for others.

My FIL, Mark, is an electrician so last weekend after they had arrived, he put some new lights in my kitchen...

...and lights over the BBQ area outside.

It is nice to be able to see what you are cooking both indoors and out.

For dinner I spent the day preparing a few salads, including the delightful (yes, delightful!) Moroccan Salad, and even made some fresh baguettes. Yes, I was busy.

And we finished off with a slice of the delicious Strawberries and Cream Meringue Cake, which I had never made before but will definitely be baking again because it is divine!!! Just by looking at this photo I am tempted to go and get another slice from the fridge.

Oww...I love a good meal. And I enjoy preparing them. Most of the time anyway!! *heehee*

Pride (In The Name of New Shelves)

A few weeks ago we ordered some new shelves for Monet's room. I had been asking, well really, nagging is more the word, Lyndon that she needed some bigger shelves than what she originally had. Her room is constantly a mess with books and toys and I was getting sick of walking into a bomb-hit room. Now I know how my mum must have felt when my room was messy. *smirk*

So we ordered shelves. Ones that I had been spying for ages.

And they arrived last week. In a flat box.

I'm glad Lyndon is very handy when it comes to these type of things. I'm no good at understanding packaging diagrams and if I had to put something together it would take me literally hours to build. I've done that before, but now I leave things like that to Lyndon. I'm sure he enjoys the challenge. *chuckle, chuckle*

After Lyndon assembled them, I helped move them into Monet's room, then I packed them with her toys and books. Her room looks a hell of a lot cleaner and we all love them...

...so much in fact, we are flirting with the idea of purchasing more for our living area.

Monet has been taking a bit more pride in her room now. She spends minutes, oh I meant, hours, lingering through her books and then, believe it or not, putting them back on her shelves. (I wonder how long that will last?)

This morning I was busy vacuuming when Monet asked if she could vacuum her room.

It seems as if the Little One is taking a bit more pride in her bedroom. I wonder how much more pride she'll take in her room when we get around to buying her a bedhead for her bed, along with a new Dora the Explorer doona cover? (They are on our, well really, my, list to buy...) Hmm....

Completed. (?)

Can you remember this post, where Monet was helping Lyndon with doing 'works' to the balcony?

Well, the outdoor area is just about completed. I'm not sure if we are thinking of doing anything else 'major' out there, bar the fact we are waiting for Lyndon's dad to come up and install some down lights above the BBQ and put in a power point for the little bar fridge out there. Lyndon is talking about putting in a gas wok burner to the left of the BBQ. Lucky for us, Lyndon's dad is an electrician. *grin* (& so is Lyndon's only brother and his brother-in-law!) We still think that we will *ah-hem*, well, Lyndon will paint the metal area under the BBQ black, to tie in with the edge of the fridge door and our windows/glass sliding doors.

So here I present our outdoor area...


Notice the painted walls? It's the same colour we have painted for our feature walls.

It looks pretty good if you ask me. It is so lovely to sit out there, either eating breakfast with a cuppa tea or sipping an afternoon ale or eating a BBQ dinner. It feels good out there. It's seriously like another room and so much better than the balcony it once was when we moved in about 6 months ago.

Can I tempt you with something to drink?

The Apprentice

Lyndon has been busy for the past few weekends building an outdoor BBQ area on our balcony. It is looking rather splendid and Lyndon's carpentry skills are really shining through, as he is a qualified carpenter!

He got his hands on some gorgeous 'latte coloured' stone which was measured and cut and carefully put in place. He has been cutting boards to put underneath the bench space and our BBQ now has pride of place in the center of the benches. It's looking really good and when it is finished I'll make sure I post a photo for you all to see.

But this post was named 'The Apprentice' for another reason. And no, it has nothing to do with Donald Trump and his hair.

"You've made lots of crumbs daddy!" Monet told Lyndon on Sunday afternoon, as Lyndon was busy pre-drilling holes in the timber slats.

"You want to help me?" Lyndon asked his daughter.

She was very excited to be sitting there, not only watching her daddy doing some blue-collared labour, but she helped him by handing him the correct screws as he put the slats in place.


It was a very important job.

I think Lyndon was tickled pink having his 2 3/4 year old daughter out there helping him, because, well, I wasn't going to do it... I'm just looking forward to the finished product!

Woodland Walls

Lyndon was the one who did all the hard work on both Saturday and Sunday, but we are really happy with the result of his painting efforts...

The colour is called 'woodland' but the photographs don't really show the colour too well. It is kinda like a 'camouflage' green colour. We love it. Beleive it or not, the colour is the same on both walls but in the photos they look like different colours, but they're not.

The lounge feature wall... and our bedroom feature wall...
Our bedroom leads out with double doors into the lounge/dining/living area. It is the first time we've actually had a bedroom that is to be constantly clean without storing 'junky' items in it. We bought the bed as a housewarming gift to ourselves (it is soooo comfortable - you have no idea!) and I had to buy a new doona cover last week as the other one I loved to use didn't reach the sides of the bed! Those are new funky bedside tables too. We just need a couple of new lamps to finish off the room. Oh yeah, and we are flirting with the idea of replacing the horrible vertical blinds (we HATE verticals here - urgh) and the venetian blind too...but that is down the track...

We are in the process of making our apartment into 'our home'. Yippee.

Easter Sunday, Our Way

Monet slept in this morning, she was a 7:30 am riser today! But when she woke and told her that we thought Easter Bunny had been, well, didn't her eyes light up. They even lit up more when she noticed the trail of six gorgeous little Easter Puppy Toys leading down the hallway to a Dora Toiletries Bag and a Princesses Bowl and Spoon... Her eyes seriously got so wide I thought they might pop out of her head!...

Monet 'woofed' down in quick succession, three Easter Eggs before moving onto her normal breakfast of Yoghurt and Toast, which took her to lunchtime to eat...
Lyndon spent the afternoon painting the feature wall in our bedroom (lounge was done yesterday) whilst I spent the afternoon 'supervising' (someone has to do it!)

How did you spend your Easter Sunday?

Mental Note To Ones Self

...it is a good idea to avoid Bunnings Hardware on Easter Saturday in Cairns.

Cairns has a population of over 125,000 and only has one LARGE hardware store (Bunnings). I think every man and his dog were there this morning. And every woman and child whilst I think of it.

We arrived at 9:45am to a nearly full car park. When we left 20 minutes later you would have been lucky to find a park. Urgh. Don't you hate that.

At least we knew what we were after and weren't wandering the aisles aimlessly. We wanted a paint roller on a long handle, a paint dish and some plastic sheet covers. Maybe you could guess what we will be up to this afternoon....

At least we didn't have to line up to buy the paint there (there were a few in the line waiting for their paints to be made up). We had liked the paint samples from the Bristol Paint store, further down the road....where no one else was (they were all at Bunnings of course!)

Stay tuned to see our results...