Family $$$ Matters... Part 1 - Prioritising your $$$ & Setting your Goals...

Welcome to Part 1 of Family Money Matters!!

If you haven't already read my introduction to this series, please go back & read that first before reading on... it'll give you a bit of a heads up on where I'm going with this & why...

Just a disclaimer before I go on -
This is my process... it's not financial advice... I'm not a professional. I'm not selling anything. I don't claim it as perfect. It's still a work in progress! These are simply my own thoughts, my own process, documented for the possibility that it might be of help to someone...
... I'm just an ordinary girl who has learnt the hard way the importance of having an up-to-date financial plan, who in light of current global conditions feels the importance of updating my risk management plan, and who has a tug on her heart to help others in this area too....
    ....So take it as you will... :)

Neither my husband or I were ever really educated growing up on the practicalities of handling money. As a result at the time we got married we were both terrible at managing it. We made some pretty typical but catastrophic decisions in our early years together!! As a result of these poor decisions our money ended up managing us! We will be paying the consequences of that for years to come and that is why I am really passionate about helping others gain the tools to be wise with their money - so that they don't repeat our mistakes!!

So lets get started...

The first part of my financial process is reviewing your relationship with money: There are a few questions I first ask myself:

So what is your relationship with money?

... Love? ... Hate? ... Acceptance? ....

What is the current state of your finances?

... Fantastic?.... Ok? .... Leaves a lot to be desired?.... Dire straights? ....

What type of spending personality*1 do you have?

... Thrifty? ... Planned?... Cautious?... Spend happy?.... Totally out of control need to check your credit card into rehab?...

Do you have a budget of any sort?

If yes.... Great! Is it working for you? .... Do you review it regularly?... Could it be improved?...
If no... I'd recommend that you read on :)

What first springs to mind when you hear the word "budget"? ...

.... Do you swing from the rooftops like a monkey, with insane amounts of excitement - yelling out "YEEESSSS Budget time"!!!!!!? (if so then I'm a little intimidated about you reading this, you are probably far more wise than me, so could you please do me a favour and stop right now?! Thanks heaps!);
.... Do you think "aw yip, I suppose we should think about that..."?;
.... Do you think "ew yuck - too much like hard work? and tuck that Budget thought away to the bottom of the "too hard" basket?;
.... Or are you like me and get a sinking sick feeling of dread at the prospect, knowing that if you did a "budget" it would reveal you didn't have enough income to cover your day to day expenses let alone your wants, would depress you, so you wonder why bother anyway?!

At least I used to be like the last one... I'm a little better these days - but I still don't like the word much! I much prefer the term "Financial Plan"... doesn't it sound just that bit more positive?
A Financial Plan is not just about a day to day budget. It is an all rounded view of where you want head financially. It records everything from your day to day priorities, to your pipe dreams, and it helps work out a way to connect the dots between the two... In my humble opinion, without a Financial Plan - you will struggle to reach your goals... so it's a pretty crucial first step to securing your financial future!

Good Financial Plan =

I'm not suggesting that you need a dedicated 50 page, high tech, pretty bound document... you can do it that way if you are so inclined... but I believe that a good financial plan can be achieved very simply!

There are several different elements to it. But really it doesn't need to be intimidating! In my opinion it's best if it can be all in one sitting - but it doesn't have to if that's not possible.

The different elements that I include in my financial plan are:

1. Prioritising your $$$ & setting goals
2. Working out your plan
3. Assessing your risk management
4. Setting up accountability & a regular review process

Today I'm planning on tackling the first...

1. Prioritising your $$$ & setting your goals

Firstly, before you even start, you need to make sure you have time to fully concentrate on it. Don't do it when you feel out of sorts, or rushed. You need to be relaxed because it needs to be a positive process. That is vital to it's success. Secondly if you have a partner you need to sit down and do it together. That is even more vital!!

So to do this exercise you will need:

   A time when you can relax
   Your partner (if applicable)
   A blank piece of A4 piece of paper
   A couple of pencils & an eraser

To make a start - take your A4 piece of paper and draw 2 columns... Head up the left column "Priorities for now" and head up the right hand column "Priorities for later".

Priorities for now are the things you are already doing as part of your existing lifestyle. They include things like food, power, phone etc...  - all your fixed costs/bills. But also don't forget to list all the extras that you do now which you want to continue to do. For example gym memberships, pay TV, eating out, holidays, school fees, hobbies, kids expenses etc... be comprehensive... every expense that you have now, which is ongoing, and which you plan to continue into the future needs to be written down into this column. Make sure that you get everything! It is helpful use your bank statements to help you if you have them handy.

** Edited to add - this is just a list - you don't need to put any figures in at this stage...

Once you have finished that list you can work on your Priorities for later. This is the fun column! This column defines your goals... Short term, mid term, long term, pipe dreams - stick them all down on this side. Include all of your financial goals - whether they be material wants, planning for your future such as retirement/kids education, risk management... everything!
The key to this activity is to be specific... It's no good simply putting "buy a new car" or "do up the kitchen". Not just what, but write down things like when, how much, how... if it's relevant then why? etc...
For example we would like to go on a holiday for our 10th wedding anniversary next year. So I would write - "anniversary holiday" then underneath I would put the specifics (these are just examples - we haven't actually done ours yet) - when - January 2012; where to - Gold Coast; how much - $4,000; how long - 7 days minimum. Etc... etc...

You are now finished step 1 of your financial plan... Go you! Easy huh!
Put this aside for later... it will now define where you go with Part 2 - working out your plan.

Further resources I like that you may find useful:
http://www.sorted.org.nz/home - great independant money guide - you might want to check out their  section on goal setting.
Wealth Riches & Money - God's Biblical Principles of Finance by Craig Hill and Earl Pitts.
When the game is over it all goes back in the box by John Ortberg
http://www.wisemoney.co.nz/

Hope it was some help! I'd love to know if you give it a go!

Stay tuned for part 2....

*1  If you're interested you can go take the $$ personality profile test over at sorted.org.nz

Family $$$ Matters... An Introduction...

Yesterday in my post about the Ugly side of Nature - Part 2, I reflected my thoughts on the Christchurch earthquake... Ever since the earthquake happened last Tuesday, in watching the developments unfold and pondering the ongoing ramifications to people in New Zealand - to simply provide themselves with the basic necessities of life such as food, clothing, shelter & sanitation - it has caused me to think long and hard about how prepared my family would be if something similar were to happen to us. As I established yesterday - we are simply not prepared.

I also discussed yesterday working on an emergency supply kit this week as one way I can be better prepared for the risk of a future natural disaster... But my thoughts haven't stopped at just this... I mentioned that I had something else planned to help me get prepared for the future- and this is it...

One of the major things that it's been obvious is a problem for the people in Christchurch, (and likewise any disaster), both in the short term initial survival phase, and the longer term rebuild phase, is the issue of money. Firstly it's needed in the way of cash reserves to buy necessities, while there is no power, amenities are down & general life as they know it is drastically different. Secondly it will be needed in huge proportions to rebuild their lives. Even IF they have insurance to rebuild their homes/businesses, they may no longer have an income if their work has been demolished. How will they survive day to day? How would I survive? How would you survive?

So this week I've really felt the need to reexamine my risk management strategies in our life - in all respects, not just for this scenario. Heavy I know!! ...
I don't know about you, but I usually try to avoid thinking about this particular area! It's not nice to think about it, it makes me feel gloomy - and quite frankly I'd rather just bury my head in the sand. But this week I've decided it's time to address it... I have 2 beautiful girls relying on me for their protection, and therefore I need to step up and be responsible and get myself prepared for unforeseen events, natural or otherwise.

As I've thought more about this process, I have also felt compelled to share the process with you... It's totally outside my normal realm for this here crafty journal - but I just feel strongly to...
... So if you don't mind I'm going to take a brief break from posting my crafty endeavours this week, and post about addressing my risk management process instead... There are lots of different topics I plan to cover... The main ones...

**  Financial goal setting, Financial management/budgeting, risk management etc...

Prior to having children I worked as a consultant for New Zealand Home Loans, helping people with a Personal Debt Management System and helping them get out of Debt Faster. I learnt a lot of valuable really practical stuff during my time there, and we are good at using some of it in our lives to great success. But it's time to reexamine my whole process, keep risk management more in mind and update it. It's some of these practical tools that I learnt as part of my role as a consultant that I plan to share with you over this week, in several different parts...
...It's my process, definitely not a tutorial or by any means financial advice (so play nice - no suing allowed ;) )... and it's definitely a work in progress... but maybe some of it might be of some help to you too...
                ... So stay tuned...

As always I really value your feedback...

The ugly side of nature - Part 2

 numb  (nm)

adj. numb·er, numb·est

1. Deprived of the power to feel or move normally; benumbed: toes numb with cold; too numb with fear to cry out.

2. Emotionally unresponsive; indifferent: numb to yet another appeal.

~~~~~~~

I don't know about you but I am still reeling after hearing about the Christchurch NZ earthquake last Tuesday... Up until this morning I was numb. Don't get me wrong - I hurt a lot! But I was "emotionally unresponsive" and a tear had not shed from my eyes...

I'm very seldom a TV watcher - I especially rarely get to watch the news, because I'm usually in the midst of cooking, feeding, bathing & putting to bed my children. I also just don't like to! However I have not been able to tear myself away from it this week. For at least the first few days I just sat there numbly in silence for hours, watching is disbelief (along with much of the world I'm sure) as the true extent of the devastation in Christchurch is revealed and a city centre lies in a ruin resembling a war zone...

It is so unreal for me to see streets that I have visited, walked & driven look so destroyed!! Whole hill faces that I have seen and driven up, just disintegrated in a heap of rock on the ground, with houses teetering on the top.

This morning, 6 days after the earthquake, the death count sits at 147. However over 200 people are still listed as missing in the areas affected. over 200!! - so the death toll is expected to rise considerably. That is HUGE.
NZ is not a big place!! They say in the world there are 6 degrees of separation - I think there must be like 2 or 3 in NZ.

Then this morning I went to church and finally on came the inevitable - I shed some tears. Church has that knack for me of making me blubber. Our Pastor spoke about the earthquake shortly after the worship had finished, and prayed for all of the people affected - then came the part that broke me... our Pastor's son-in-law, also another ex-pat Kiwi, said a long prayer for Christchurch in Maori. To hear the NZ Maori language spoken in the middle of an Australian church was so surreal. It made my heart finally accept what my head had been seeing, and it made me weep for my country.

In Australia & New Zealand we live lives of abundance. Our countries are rich. I mean that in many senses. We sometimes moan a lot, but really we have great infrastructure, awesome employment oppotunities, a generous welfare system and we do not often want for much!!
Yet 2011 has already created havoc - the shell of our comfortable lives has been broken by not just one, but large numbers of natural disasters all in quick succession.

As a result of the Christchurch earthquake, still over 30,000 customers still remain without power. 55,000 homes remain without water and 75,000 are without sewerage.
This is 2011 and these are all basic amenities that we completely take for granted in our everyday lives!!

Growing up my parents took the risk of earthquakes very seriously...  I was not allowed my bed/shelves/furniture in certain places because of the risk of earthquakes. It used to annoy me greatly at times, this what I considered as a child, to be an overreaction.
We used to have earthquake lessons, and practise drills at school in class. Even as a small child I can remember having to jump under my desk - head down, bottom up, with our hands clasped over the backs of our heads and our bottoms facing the windows. Funny what you remember!
I grew up in Wellington - said to be the next city to experience the "big one" (I guess those predictions were wrong!) - so my parents had a very comprehensive emergency kit. We had a HUGE crate full of canned & other emergency food. Bottles after bottles of water (probably about 150L or more), torches, radios, batteries etc... etc...

I even studied Geography all through school and into University. I learnt all about the plates, the faults, earthquakes, how our NZ buildings/bridges/roads were built as best they could to withstand the effects of "the big one". But in spite of all this knowledge... these facts... the frequent small, but regular, earthquakes I felt growing up...
I never for one minute thought that it would happen in reality - that it would happen in my lifetime!

But it did!

And it has resulted in the biggest natural disaster in New Zealand's history!

This has had me thinking all week...

How would we cope if there was a natural disaster here tomorrow? I don't mean that I've gone into panic mode or anything - I just mean - how is my family set up to cope if we were put in the unfortunate situation that we had to...?!

The answer is we're not. Quite simple.

The risk of earthquakes here in Australia is not that large. But as the recent floods & cyclones in our Eastern States have shown us - the risk of natural disasters is still very real.
It used to make me shake my head at my parents sometimes - their preparedness. The bottles of water in the hallway seemed a little excessive - and "clutter". This is not news to them - they know me & how much I dislike "clutter"... But you know what - they were right. Did you read that Mum and Dad - you were right!

Now I'm the adult - I'm the parent. And you know what? I'm letting my children down because I have been apathetic to the risks and I am not prepared. As well as feeling unnecessary, lets face it - it also is expensive and seems wasteful to have a whole lot of food & water lying about "just in case".
But this week it is my challenge to change that mindset - because it is important to be prepared.

I think I might make it my Project 52 - emergency kit here I come...

How are you prepared? I know that the NZ government put out a list of suggested items that I can use as a template, but I'd love to know any extra thoughts you have!

If you are interested in donating money to the Christchurch relief fund then the NZ Prime Minister has now set up a special fund if you are able to donate. Christchurch will need all the help that they can get.

I am also planning some other ways that I/we can be better prepared - so watch this space...

** Images from www.3news.co.nz

Rainbow wheel block - a tutorial

Thanks everyone for your kind encouragement of my Doll Quilt 10 quilt!!
You all sure know how to make a girl feel good about her work!! :) As per popular request I have decided to put together this tutorial... it's my first quilting tutorial so let me know at the end if anything is unclear!! And also please excuse the name... I'm rubbish at coming up with names LOL...

I originally got the idea for this block from the Quiltmakers 100 blocks Winter 2010 Volume 2 magazine. Such a cool magazine! However I pieced it completely differently (aka the lazy fast way) to how they say to in the magazine - and also completely changed the colour arrangement. - Stuff mucking about with teeny tiny squares of fabric I say!!

Ok... here goes...

Rainbow wheel block - A tutorial

This tutorial is for a 12.5 inch finished square block
I made this block using charm squares, so I'm going to assume you are doing the same - I only used charm squares because I wanted to use the sunkissed range specifically and therefore that's what I had available to me... but it could really easily be adapted to be made with fat quarters/yardage or whatever size fabric you have so I will try and put notes for adaption for other sized fabric throughout...

For this tutorial it is assumed that you already have knowledge of how to cut using a rotary cutter and have basic piecing skills... BUT I have aimed it at the beginner for the benefit of some of my friends, so if you know how to strip piece & make half square triangles just skip those parts because you won't need the extra detail...

To make each block you will need:

White:

6 squares 3" x 3" (you can make these 2 7/8 if you are very accurate but I like to leave myself some extra room to trim)
12 squares 2 1/2" x 2 1/2"
1 of 1.5 inch strip x width of fabric (112cm wide) or equivalent

Coloured:

If like me you are going to be using a different prints & coordinating solids charm squares then you will need to choose 8 different coordinating charm squares - I used 4 patterned and 4 solid. I will show you how I cut these shortly

If you are using other colour arrangements then in total for all the coloured parts you need:

Inner pin wheels - 4 squares measuring 3" square
Outer diamond squares - I used strip piecing so to follow my method you will need at least 36 inches of combined length 1.5 inch wide strips... The break down of that could vary as to how many colours you are doing those squares so you will have to do the maths...
Corner edge triangles - 4 squares measuring 3" square if you are doing 4 different colours such as me. If you are doing these all the same colour then you will only need 2 3" squares.


So if you are using charm squares this is how I cut them:

So once you have done these 3 cuts, put the 1.5 inch strip to the side for later, discard your scrap & spin your 3 inch stip around so that it is lined up straight with the lines on your cutting mat... then do the following cut:

Put the scrap aside for later. It's a very usable chunk so I used these all pieced in a rainbow strip for the back of my quilt along with my spare half square triangles...

Repeat this step until you have done each or your 8 charm squares.

Your pile should look similar to this:

Ok so next we are going to make all the half square triangles for the central pin wheels & the corners of the block...

Take all of your 3" coloured squares and lay them right side up in a row/grid on your table.
Take your all of your 3" white squares and lay them right side down, 1 on top of each coloured square.
Take a ruler and a pencil (close your eyes here if you are the quilting police...) I just use an ordinary pencil - just make sure you have it really sharp - and draw a diagonal line on each of the white squares from the top right corner to the bottom right corner:

 

Sorry this isn't the best photo - hopefully it's clear enough!

Next we need to pin them all.

** A side note for the pinners among us. - I'm not normally a "pinner"... you will notice a distinct lack of pinning throughout some of the steps in this tutorial due to my lazy techniques - so just be aware that further on you will have to close your eyes to my lack of pinning & have to insert your own pinning instructions.... LOL...

** For everyone else:  Even if like me you do not make a habit of using pins I would recommend that you pin when making half square triangles - because they are sewn on the bias and just love to move at the most inconvenient of times...

This is how I pin:

So now you are ready to start sewing them. You need to sew 1/4 of an inch either side of the pencil line as illustrated above.
I used the method of strip piecing to make it a little faster. If you are unfamiliar with strip piecing then it's really very simple:
Just sew your first line on the first square - then when you get to the end of the fabric, instead of cutting off and starting the next one, just feed the next one on through so that you end up with a big chain of squares...

Once you have sewn down the first side of all of your squares and you are at the end of the last one, cut off your thread, turn the big chain around, and sew all down the other side...

Once you have finished all of the squares, you now just need to cut the threads in between the squares so that they are all separate to each other again. I use the thread cutter gizmo on the side of my machine to speed it up, so you can use that if you have one too - just be careful not to cut any of the fabric.

Next you need to cut down the pencil line in the middle to make them into your half square triangles:

Repeat for each square until you you a neat little pile of triangles looking like the ones above.

Next iron your triangles open to make the squares. Iron from the white side so that the seam is pushed to the colour side and will not be seen:

The next part is the one I find the most tedious necessary...
Trimming your squares...

One you have all of your squares nicely ironed you need to trim them up to 2 1/2 inches. It is SO important that you take your time doing this accurately because it makes all the difference to your piecing later on!

Find the 45 degree angle line on your cutting mat
Line the angle of the diagonal sew line up with the angle on the cutting mat.
I do this is 2 stages of cutting. Step 1: Cut down the right side & the top.

Step 2: spin the fabric around and do the same to the other side:

You are now finished with these until later so set them aside... if you have used charm squares like me then you will notice that you have 4 extra half square triangles - I used these to piece the back of my quilt, so they don't need to go to waste.

Time to make the mini squares:

Make a pile of your coloured strips. If you're just doing the same colour this part will be easy as you may only have 1 width of fabric long strip... Take your white 1.5 width strip x width of fabric hold it right side up.
(We are going to strip piece again by adding the coloured strips onto the white)
Start with the first coloured strip - place it ride side down on top of the white and sew 1/4 of an inch from the edge the whole way down (making sure that you are very accurate with your seam allowance).

Go a few extra stitches then add and sew the next coloured strip. Repeat until you have sewn them all onto the white strip and it looks something like this:

Now we need to iron them: Iron them from the white side so that them seams are over to the coloured side and won't be seen later:

Time for cutting again.
Line up your (hopefully straight) top edges with the lines on your mat and square off the end. Cut the strips up into 1.5inch wide strips:

Once you have cut them all up you are ready to sew...

Take 2 corresponding pieces of your mini squares, lay them right sides together (making sure that your middle seams nest and meet together), and sew them together using a 1/4 inch seam.
-Whoops no photo for this - but once they are sewn and ironed they should look like this:

Except for I'm sure yours will not look wonky like my photo does :)

Repeat until you have them all sewn together in their pairs...

We're on the home stretch - YAY!!

Time to lay out your blocks in final arrangement. I worked on 1/4 of the block at a time:

Once they are laid out, sew together the top & middle pairs as pictured above. Then sew on the bottom row.
Once you have your 3 strips sewn together, iron the seams. I ironed them so that the seams on the left & the right strips' seams were ironed 'out' (towards the top and the bottom) and the middle strips seams were ironed 'in' (towards the middle) so that when I sewed them together in the next step, the seams all nested nicely...

So now you are ready to sew your 3 strips together. Re-enter pins...
I pin at every point where you have a seam to match:

Sorry this photo is awful - one of the downsides of sewing at night...

Repeat for the rest of the 3 quarters of the block.
Once you have all 4 quarters completed, join them together in the same fashion as above... sew them together in pairs first, making sure you pin every place that a seam joins. Then sew the pairs together and wallah - your finished block...

Let me know how you get on!! If you try it I'd love to see pics.
I'm dying to make this again as a rainbow quilt but this time just using really vibrant solids. I'm also thinking of making some with just either a plain centre instead of the pinwheel or a fussy cut diamond...

Watch out people in my bees - I think this might appear as one of my future bee blocks ;)

Happy sewing everyone

Project 52 - Week 7 & 8: Show & Tell Friday

Welcome to Show & Tell Friday!!  .... Wow week 8 already!!

You may have noticed an absence of a Project 52 last week for week 7. I'm pretty sure it was obvious what my last weeks project was... just a little bit of discussion on Blog Etiquette :) It was pretty self explanatory that I had a lot on - and you all had enough reading for the week from this blog so I didn't bother posting any more.... my project was a week long series, with my something new being having a whole lot of guest bloggers. It was a great week!

This week I really wanted to try and get close to finishing my Dolls Quilt 10 quilt. It has been stressing me out and I needed to at least make a start & know where I was going with it. Well I did better than just make a start... Here it is all finished with the gorgeous Abigail trying it out for size...

Shockingly I didn't even leave it until the last minute for a change - I've actually had it finished since Wednesday - yay me!! Here's another close up -

And the back...

The Stats:  It measures 24 inches by 24 inches. The half square triangles measure 2 inches finished, and the little squares you see measure 1 inch square once finished. I stitched the binding by machine.

I like this quilt but I have to say that I'm not head over heels "in love" with it. I would prefer the colours to be a bit more fresh & vibrant, and I would also prefer it less busy (I really like the back more since it's more minimalist & punchy...) But that's ok because that's not what swaps are about! I would also prefer it to be the same fabric for all of the little squares - but I only had a charm square pack of Sunkissed available to me so I had to work with what I had...
 ... My partner specifically mentioned this fabric range, and I know through stalking her likes/dislikes & favourite Flickr items that this pattern will really appeal to her. I'm hoping so anyway LOL...

In saying all that (and with the risk of sounding completely up myself lol...) I am so impressed at the job I did with this quilt on a technical level!! It is quite possibly the best piecing and quilting I've ever done - the points nearly all match up... the piecing is tiny... the quilting is really tidy... the binding is really neat & has perfect 45 degree tucked corners...

 I'm not quite sure why/HOW that happened - maybe partly because I haven't made a quilt for a while and have improved technically since last time? Or more probably because the calibre in this swap is really high and I'm competitive and I don't want to look like a loser *hanging my head in shame at this confession LOL...

Here are some more close ups

The first for me this week is the coloured quilting - for the first time ever I tried quilting with a different colour in the top to the bobbin...
I'd heard in the past that doing this could create havoc with the thread tension and ruin the quilt, but despite hearing this I just couldn't imagine quilting it any other way and having it not look stupid on the back. So after a few tests I bravely decided to give it a go. I'm very relieved to report that my machine coped with it beautifully (they weren't even the same brand threads) and the quilting looks great!! Have I mentioned before how much I love my sewing machine!!!
I'm really pleased that I gave it a go because I think using the same bobbin colour as the top would have ruined the minimalist pieced back:

And that is my dolls quilt submission! YAY for it being complete!! One huge weight off my mind!!

... Now on to my modern swap. As of my start yesterday I have ordered her fabric & decided on what I'm going to make for her - but I probably won't get to make a start for a little while. I have the most awesome partner ever & we have really really similar taste - so I'm looking forward to creating something beautiful for my modern swap partner too.
I wish I knew which dolls quilt was for me LOL...

How did you all get on with your projects?

PS is anyone keen for a tutorial on how to make this block? I used a really easy piecing method so those 1 inch squares aren't nearly as intimidating or time consuming as they look! If there are a few people interested I took photos to post a tutorial - so let me know. xx

2 years ago...

... My bubba & I packed our suitcases...
got on a jet plane & bravely "upped sticks" to Australia..
     ... Perth to be exact...

 
It had been 9 months in the making - 6 of which we had been living apart from Neil, while he waited for his job in Australia to become permanent. So we were all SO pleased for that day to come and to finally be able to start our Australian adventure ourselves....

 ~~~~~~~~~

In May 2008, after much careful consideration, Neil and I decided that Australia, land of the "young and free", was calling us and that it was time for a new adventure. We had considered our financial situation, seen that if we were to stay in NZ then I would have to go back to work full time almost immediately after having Hannah, and decided that the work & lifestyle opportunities over here were really too much to refuse...

To cut a really really long story short Neil flew to Australia in September 2008 and started a short term contract, while Hannah & I rented out our house in Hawke's Bay and moved in with my parents in Wellington until his employment was more certain. We had no money (a bit of an understatement), as both of us had been out of work for considerable time over the previous year (me due to a really rough pregnancy & Neil due to losing his job a few months prior to the move - totally another story), so the only real solution was to live apart for a time since Neil had all of his food & accommodation provided for him while away at work. It was a rough couple of months of Neil pulling double swings - 7 weeks away, 9 days home to visit us in New Zealand & then back to Australia to work again. Hard for us all!!

In January 2009, Neil was accepted into a an Electrical & Instrumentation apprenticeship and signed a 4 year contract. There was much celebration in our house that day I can tell you!! Finally this was the ticket that we needed and our little family could move to Australia and be reunited again.
After a few more months of preparation we were ready, and off we went on our journey... filled with excitement, anticipation and a little apprehension I must admit - but after 2 years in this sunny place we are happier than we've ever been before!!

Living in Australia has it's disadvantages...

Namely of course being away from our families and friends. Although with my family in New Zealand & Neil's in England, this was always going to be a inevitable for one or both of us. At least now we are almost halfway in between lol...

Then there is of course the disadvantage of Neil having to work away for large periods of his apprenticeship. However, this disadvantage really is outweighed by the fact that he is earning such good money for studying a valuable qualification. And it is only for a short season! It will be worth it in the long run!

Then there are these "disadvantages"...


**  We share our house with plenty of these -

* photo curtesy of creative commons

**  We regularly have these hopping through our garden and at times our house -

* photo curtesy of creative commons 

** A mouse ran out of our chimney yesterday and made it apparent that I need to plug up a tiny whole in the mortar.

**  This guy came to visit our garden last week -

** My brother found this little guy yesterday when he put the seat up to go to the toilet - AFTER I had not long been myself obviously with the seat down...










Then of course there are the snakes *shudder*  LOL.... luckily the only snakes we've seen are in the zoo!!!

But despite these "small" disadvantages to a creepy-crawly-a-phobe like me there are PLENTY of advantages:

**  The constant sunshine !!
- sunbathing in the middle of winter:

**  An ABUNDANCE of absolutely devine beaches

**  Views and a lifestyle reminiscent of an idyllic holiday destination - except we actually LIVE here (I still have to pinch myself sometimes)...










**  And most importantly there are the most valuable aspects - spending life bringing up our beautiful little family, the ability to survive on just 1 income, an absolutely incredible network of friends and a fabulous church.

Perth really does have a lot to offer our family and we love it here!!

What the future has for us long term who knows, but for now Neil still has 2 1/2 years left of his work visa, we have just signed a 2 year lease for this house and we have no plans or desire to move.

Just a bit of history for you :) ...