Dutch Adventure #1

J has been in the Netherlands for about a month and is loving it so far. It's all a bit surreal actually. Six months ago neither of us would have imagined that he would be working there and we would all be spending Christmas in Europe (EUROPE!) I still can't believe it.

A & I leave in about a month (sorry potential burglars, we have a big tough housesitter staying to look after our not so big or tough puppy) and will be staying in a village called 's-Gravendeel in South Holland. It looks just divine and I can't wait to get there and live like a local, or at least pretend to for a little while.

J bought a new camera when he arrived there and has already taken some great photos:

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Three cheers for sticking to the plan!

We had a lot of things planned for the weekend just gone, steam clean carpets, repaint A's room, de-clutter everywhere and put up our new bed among many other things. To my great surprise we did it all! Not bad for a pair of chronic procrastinators.

For the carpets we rented a carpet cleaning machines from the local supermarket. We originally wanted to get someone in the do them, but as A was sleeping over at my parents place while we painted we decided to rent one and just do it while we had the chance. It was about $70 for 24 hours, including the three different cleaning solutions required. We did our lounge room, two bedrooms and our six seater lounge so I was happy with what we paid for it, and it did an excellent job for what it cost.

A's room is now a lovely shade of "Grand Piano" half strength and looks amazing. The old colour, "Straw Loft", is a colour I still love but it seemed to clash with the new carpet we had put in last year so a change was needed.

I'm excited to start looking for some bright and happy accents to put in her room without having to work around the bright yellow walls.

App time

Maybe it's the lazy side in me but I'm so glad there is a dedicated blogger app. I find it much easier to post and comment regularly on my iPhone compared to my laptop, so now would be a good time to do a catch up post I think.

Time seems to be going so quickly and there is a lot happening in our lives right now. My brother in law introduced us to his lovely girlfriend earlier this year and they are getting married next month! I'm going to make their cake and little A is going to be one of the flowergirls. J has a new job and will be working in the Netherlands for a few months, he leaves two days after the wedding and A and I will be going over there to spend Christmas with him. And uni is taking up the rest of my non-existent time.

So it has been a happy, crazy, busy year with lots of nice memories to come I hope.