Crafty Road Trip

I am part of a weekly craft group. A group who have gathered together to craft, chat and eat chocolate. But for me this group has wise women who have stories to share, knowledge to spread and just awesome women who each week get together.

We decided to do something fun- so we took a road trip last month.

The 6 of us (not everyone was free to make it on our road trip) headed off at 8.30am on a Saturday morning- child free and ready for an adventure. We headed south and drove to The Tin Shed in Geraldine and then into Geraldine town centre for morning tea and browsing the main street.

We booked a table for lunch at Verde Cafe Deli just off the main street and it was a great meal.

We did a spot of shopping in Geraldine and then headed back to Ashburton and stopped off at Annie's County Quilt Store

I may have found a large container of scrap fabric for sale and after looking through it all I was very happy with my fabric finds for the day.

Before we headed back we stopped off at Ashfords in Ashburton

Enjoyed one last coffee of the day and then headed home. It was a great day with awesome friends. Now to get on to planning our Op-shopping day!

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bye bye carpet

We had eqc repairs done in June/July which required us being out of our house for 5 weeks. We took advantage of this time with them repairing all the cracks and we had a few extra things done to our home at our expense while we were already moved out. This post has LOTS of photos!

Two of the biggest changes happened aside from painting the whole house was taking up the carpet and polishing the wooden floors and replacing the kitchen.

The kitchen process was great to see. It was bye bye 50's cupboards, floral wallpaper, cream carpet and the random space after the 2 fireplaces were taken down that was home to the fridge.

We spent a few months working with Kiwi Kitchens working out the best way to get a functioning kitchen in the space we had. It was so nice to see it all being ripped out.

We had to wait for for the floor to be laid and the plastering/ painting/ electrician and plumber to be done before we saw anything that looked like a kitchen.

So bye bye carpet and hello easy to clean planking for the kitchen floor!

Now we have a fully functioning kitchen with a nice rangehood, dishwasher dish drawer's and its so much easier to bake and use my amazing kitchen. 

Before we moved out we ripped up all the carpet in the house. I don't miss the floral carpet that was different in each room.

We got professionals floor sanders Christchurch Floor Sanding in after the house had been painted

We discovered as they were sanding that the floors are white pine not Rimu. This turned out to be great as the floors are not dark like the skirting, doors, windows in the house.

The floors looked wow after the 1st coat of varnish. All the wooden floors had 3 coats total.

Lounge floor

Master bedroom looking down the hallway

Front door

Laundry

Boys room

Boys enjoying finding all the toys while unpacking

Its so awesome to have the wooden floors. Its so easy to vacuum and mop the obvious tumble weeds of dust and fluff that accumulate behind doors and furniture and its great to know its all gone and not hiding in 50 year old carpet! We haven't found the floors cold (we already had insulation under the floors)

Master bedroom

Boys room

And the trim around the fireplace looks great with the floor!

So after lots of changes and stress its so nice to be home and enjoying our home and the boys are loving how easy it is to drive cars over the floors. Wooden floors are a win for everyone!

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Milestone Press Master Planner winner

And the winner is............

Lauren

SAHM I am

Thanks to everyone who entered this awesome giveaway. I will be in contact with the winner by email and thanks to Milestone Press- The Master Plan Family Diary for 2014 diary will heading your way in the post!

Thanks again Milestone Press!!

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Photo Friday

Time for a new quilt and enjoying the spring flowers and sunshine.

<p style="text-align: center; margin: 5px 0;"> <a target="_blank" href="http://mrsaldridge.blogspot.co.nz/search/label/photo%20friday" title="Creative Mama - Photo Friday"><img src="http://i1285.photobucket.com/albums/a598/Treena-Marie_Aldridge/PhotoFriday_zps2aaffbf1.png" /></a> </p>

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Milestone Press Master Planner (+giveaway)

I just received my new 2014 Master Plan Family Diary from Milestone Press in the post. Mr B orders me one every year!

I have previously had black, pink, blue, lemon and now mint!

I use my Master Plan Diary every day. It has spaces for birthdays, meal planning and of course you open up a page and can see a whole week- prefect for us with the boys now at school and all the extra activities and play dates and it helps me keep track of scheduling 4 people!

It comes with a plain white paper note book at the back and cute little note books as a free gift. Very handy for creative thoughts!

Other features of this Planner include school term dates and a month by month plan.

I find having the elastic that closes the planner amazing so extra paper I accumulate doesn't fall out (and yes I honestly have that much extra stuff in my master planner)

The past year's planner ran October 2012 to December 2013 and the next year is the diary runs September 2013 to December 2014. I tend to use the spare months that I don't need when I start in January as extra note taking pages.

(*Disclaimer- all views and opinions in this post are my own)

Sine I love my planner so much I have one Master Plan 2014 Family Planner  in the colour smoke to giveaway thanks to Milestone Press!

To enter this giveaway all you need to do is leave a comment and tell me what you plan to do in 2014 to be organised or even a quick tip that helps you get organised. I will pick a winner and contact them for their postal details and they will be sent a Master Pan 2014 diary in the colour smoke. (this is open to Australia and NZ) Entries close at 6pm Friday 6th September.  ***GIVEAWAY NOW CLOSED***

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