Been waffling a lot on my photography blog, photos of chocolates, macarons, cute cats, mushrooms and other things all feature here :)

http://lensaddiction.wordpress.com/2012/05/20/photography-what-have-i-learned-in-the-last-3-years/

http://lensaddiction.wordpress.com/2012/05/19/food-photography-the-macaron/

http://lensaddiction.wordpress.com/2012/05/17/challenges-of-photography-composition-aperture/

http://lensaddiction.wordpress.com/2012/05/16/tech-tip-11-stabilizing-your-tripod/

http://lensaddiction.wordpress.com/2012/05/15/weekly-photo-challengeblue/

http://lensaddiction.wordpress.com/2012/05/15/challenges-of-photography-composition-autumn-leaves/

The post that got the most action and comments was the BLUE photo challenge, because that one features the cutest of kittys :)

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I am so very tired and sore, I had to move everything that was in the house out, and I had it nearly all done when the carpet guys arrived early. Man they worked really really quickly, no messing about. Were not impressed that I had two sofas and a bed and a free standing cupboard to move, but Im here by myself, I couldnt move them.

They had to take the doors off all the bedrooms and none of them will fit back on til they have had their bottoms shaved off to fit. Will ask a friend around the corner to do that in the weekend, I dont have a plane.

The good news is the carpet is down and looks AMAZING and feels great. Cat is confused but has been lying on it all evening. Pellet fire is properly installed again and bolted down, apparently it had sheared through its bolts during an earthqake at some point.

Saturday the rest of my stuff comes back home and then I am all settled in again. I am taking the opportunity to cull a lot of crap and am being fairly ruthless. Now I need to buy new curtains and then eveything (except the rooms I need to paint skirting and frames) will be done :)

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Its mushroom time, and all sorts of strange things have popped up over the city

http://lensaddiction.wordpress.com/2012/04/22/autumn-means-mushrooms-pop-up-anywhere/

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So the house renovates are mostly done, in the end I was without a bathroom/shower for about a week and a half, but its all going now and looking fab.

Bathroom needs another coat of paint and there has been some cracking in the lounge ceiling after a largish aftershock a couple of weeks ago, and they are looking at possibly fixing it.

Tiles on the roof still need to be dealt to as well, and I need to get my act together and paint all the skirting boards in the next week and a half, as the new carpet is due to go down end of next week hopefully.

And I got a FABULOUS lounge suite on Trademe tonite, a really nice modern and very comfy one, I only need one of the two sofas but I should be able to sell the other one and get an even better deal.

Work is also going quite well, had a couple of big sales come through that have been on the boiler for AGES and our end of financial year is looking .......OK.

Taz is much better now he is on feline valium (I keep wanting to type viagra LOL) and he is back to the cat he used to be, sleeping through the night and waking me up at 5am for breakfast and attention, instead of starting about 1am climbing the walls and constantly meowing and not settling til 5am or so. God its SUCH a relief to get a decent nights sleep for a change!

His stay at the cattery seems to have been good for his appetite as well, he is eating really well and has good condition.

I have been reading a lot on my Kindle lately, going thru reading all the Sam Vimes books from the beginning after reading Snuff over Xmas holidays. I really like it, it does what it does excellently, and the battery lasts for AGES. Its survived really well in my handbag in the leather folder I got for it and great for reading at work. I do have to resist going nuts and buying hundreds and hundreds of dollars of books because they are so cheap and our dollar is quite good. How many can it store? More than I can ever afford I am sure :)

Autumn is well underway and the weather has been lovely, warm settled days and Easter was fantastic. Everyone has commented how nice the weather has been after the crap summer we didn't have, maybe now more people will appreciate why this is my fave time of year. Though I am hating going off daylight savings, why can't we stay on that all the time? I don't need it to be light in the mornings, I dont DO anything in the mornings. Now its dark so early I cant take advantage of the nicer weather and do some gardening or go for a walk or a bike ride

*grumble grumble*

So plans for this weekend involve gardening, I need to weed the front flowerbed, and then dig in the mushroom compost I dug in the bare section over the rest of the garden, around the plants that are still left. Then I can transport over the plants I managed to move and save from being trampled, and also plant the new plants I have sitting in a box outside hardening off. It will take a couple of years but hopefully the flower garden will look good and I have a wider range of plants now to give colour from spring into autumn, and some texture and colour for winter interest.

I bought an interesting book on using fences and vertical space to advantage in the garden and I have some ideas around using that better for veges. I have been considering digging a vege garden into the middle of the lawn, it gets all the sun. I didnt do it this year because of the water shortages but maybe next year.

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Did you even notice I was gone? Testament to my slackness in updates, but this time I have an excellent excuse. I have been out of my house for the last 4 weeks, staying at a B&B while my house was having all its earthquake damage repaired. It was originally quoted as 2 weeks, but as these things go, they keep uncovering new and exciting damage not previously seen and it goes on and on.

I moved back in yesterday (Thursday) and they ripped out the bath/shower on Wednesday. Fortunately I still have a functioning toilet, but am washing out of a bucket and the kitchen sink until its fixed. Even though its Easter they are coming back Sat to carry on working so I might yet get to have a hot shower in the next couple of days *woohoo*

Good news is the lounge/kitchen, bedrooms and hallway walls and ceilings are all fixed and repainted and look lovely. I updated the colour scheme as well so its all shiny. The outside broken panels are all fixed, all the cracks fixed, new exterior sprayed on and painted a lovely pale apricot which looks quite swish (the neighbours opted for dark boring grey, me I like colour)Oh and I have a whole freshly laid concrete carport pad too.

Bathroom is having a new bath, new waterproof surrounds, and bathroom/toilet/laundry are all to have cracks fixed and walls repainted, and then everything Fletchers were doing will be done I think.

So the most exciting bit is I decided seeing as everything else was being fixed that I would talk to the bank, and borrowed enough to get new carpet, as the carpet here is awful (and still smells of dog). Its the nylon smart strand stuff as I cannot afford even cheap wool carpet but its really nice stuff (and doesnt fluff!). The best bit is there was a stuff up with my order, so I am now getting the expensive stuff for the price of the average stuff. The bad news is part of the stuffup means I have to wait another month for it to arrive.

So I am camping out in my house with the essentials (cat, bed, sofa, tv and washing machine) for another month with the rest of my stuff in storage, waiting for new carpet. I may also have to upgrade the curtains as well as they are worse for wear for being scrunched in a bundle and shoved in the bath for a month :(

Then there will be LOTS of photos as I have before and during shots, just waiting on the carpet for the after :)

I have new sympathy for the red zone people having to deal with more and more red tape and processes that change depending on the day and who you speak to, its been so frustrating the last couple of weeks, there seems to be no feel of urgency, or possibly they have so many things on the go they cant keep track. Every week there is a different person handling your claim/ job and you spend so much time explaining all the history and everything to them, its really stressful. And I am one of the lucky ones.

So on with the painting, I have to do all of the skirting boards and windowframes and door frames before the carpet arrives (not covered in the equake repairs) but I quite like painting. Had my first go at lifting carpet and that was hard work but fun. I quite like being domestic and its SOOOOO good to be back in my own comfy bed :)

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My tribute in photos to the Cathedral, whose fate was announced today. It is to be demolished

http://lensaddiction.wordpress.com/2012/03/02/christchurch-cathedral-the-bells-are-silenced/

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