of disappointment and moving on

Well, for various reasons which I won't go into, our plans to move have fallen in a hole, so we will be staying where we are for the foreseeable future. We are quite disappointed about missing out on the lovely house we had made a offer on, but it's just not going to happen, so what can you do?
Instead, we will be spending the next couple of weeks getting quotes from all sorts of tradespeople and businesses to get some work done on our current house. We have had a few days to think about what we want to do and we have a great list of exciting things to do.
School holidays are coming up and I have two weeks off along with Bloss and MotH, so that will give us an opportunity to look at things like carpet, curtains and new bits of furniture.
I have had a lesson on uploading images, so will put up some of my layouts soon...but don't hold your breath waiting ;-)

of happenings large and small

Bloss has discovered ABBA - well, the "Mamma Mia" version at least. At 10, she wasn't about when ABBA was huge - I was about 14 and was a big fan - so it's all new to her. Growing up in a house where music is always playing, and with a musician for a dad, she has fairly wide-ranging tastes in music, from musical theatre to opera, from classical and some jazz to nursery rhymes and Christmas carols. She doesn't like most of the 'popular' music her little buddies at school listen to, which sometimes leads to a bit of teasing in the playground, but she has a fairly well-developed sense of self and is quite happy to be different most of the time. She has been to see "Mamma Mia" three times in the last couple of weeks and the soundtrack is now her bedtime music of choice, in between chapters of Harry Potter as read by Stephen Fry. We also have it in both cars and in the bathroom CD player... overkill, no?
The house was featured in the local real estate guide in today's paper, and there is another Open Home scheduled for Saturday, so we continue to wait and be positive that a buyer is not far away. We have asked for an extension of the contract we have on "our" new house, and informally the current owners have said that's not a problem. We know them well and they really want us to have the house, which was their mother's (whom we also knew very well), so that's all good.
Spent Sunday afternoon scrapping with Mandy and had a lovely girly, creative time in her beautifully warm loungeroom in front of the fire. Got 2 layouts done - one was a for a challenge - but couldn't upload 'cos my digital camera is cactus...gotta work on that. Did 2 more in front of the Olympics the other night and am planning to do some more tonight as MotH has band practice - which means I can spread out in the lounge :-)
MotH graduates from Uni on Saturday - B. Ed after 6 years of part-time external study - so we off to the ceremony in a city about 1 1/2 hours drive from here. Large Black Slothful Dog is having a night at the local kennels - which he loves 'cos they let him off the lead and he runs up and down all day (did I mention he's a retired greyhound?) - but no doubt we'll get the cold shoulder for a while when he comes home... Anyway, great rejoicing and it should be a great time for MotH - he's worked really hard and had excellent results all through, so he's really earned this. I am so proud of him. Will have to make sure we get some good pics I can scrap - we're borrowing his dad's digital SLR camera for the day.

Softly, softly

A quiet couple of weeks on the house front. We had an Open Home last weekend and there were five lots of people through. Apparently a couple of them are interested, as is the guy from interstate still, so maybe some movement soon. If interest rates and petrol prices come down a bit there may be a bit of a perking up of interest in the housing market, but let's hope we don't have to wait too much longer. Apart from anything else I'm sure the vendors of the house we want to buy are getting a bit antsy waiting for us to sell.
Meanwhile Bloss is getting ready to audition for the local Musical Society's youth spectacular - a variety concert and play - which is happening mid-October. She's doing very well with her braces, and school also seems to be going well.
MotH is still obsessing about getting stuff done around the house, but is being very optimistic about the selling process, which is not like him...
Have done quite a bit of scrapping this last couple of weeks, blind scraps and challenges from a forum I belong to as well as some stuff of my own. Have been given some lovely papers and tools by a generous co-worker, which was a lovely surprise, and this sparked some inspiration. Must find out how to upload pics...and get a new digital camera, ours having died this last couple of days :-(