Getting married!

I am so excited, we are going to get married on 9 January 2010 and I picture a lovely sunny day on the beach, ceremony with toes in the sand and the sound of the waves... Cannot wait to finally be Craig's lawfully wedded wife :)
The reception will be in our home in Ashgrove and we are busy cleaning and decorating the house to the big day. SIGH!
My parents arrived last week and my mum is even more excited than me I think? Did not realise that was possible but its wonderful to have them here and celebrate Christmas together.
Obviously, I shall post photos as soon as I can - stay tuned!

Lots of love and happy Christmas wishes,
Tanja and Craigo xox

Getting romantique in the Blue Mountains

Can you believe it? Craig organised a lovely romantique weekend for us in the Blue Mountains, just North of Sydney. We stayed in a cute little loft cottage with a fireplace and spa and great view of the green green forest and it was just perfect!



I was very impressed with the Australian mountains, these are the first big valleys I have seen and I was blown away. It is stunning - beautiful colours, fantastic blue skies, waterfalls and crisp clean air, perfect for a day of bushwalking!



We saw the famous 3 Sisters of course and walked through the Wentworth falls valley, the National Pass and underhand route and over the Govett's leap the next day. Loved it! We had a very romantic weekend indeed...I really did not expect Craig to propose after all these years... but it made me oh so happy!!! FABULOUS!

My brother and family on hols in Oz

My brother and family came out to visit for their summer holidays to send 5 weeks in the Australian winter! It was wonderful to catch up and spend time with my nieces Kathie and Klara - they have grown up so much!
We spent a week of holidays in Cairns and Port Douglas exlored the Barrier Reef and building sand castles - it was great fun! And I am so proud of my little nieces to go diving on the big reef, very cool indeed!




Today we went to the Koala Sanctuary in Lone Pine to say good bye to all the famous Australian animals - a must do!

French dreams come true

I am so very very excited about our BEAUTIFUL new French Bedroom which finally arrived yesterday. Am loving it - tres romantique and we bought the world's most comfortable matress - heaven! Worth every penny I reckon!



Craig and Wilson always enjoy their bath time and I love to watch them. Very very sweet and Willie always gets out smelling like flowers :)



My brother and family arrive tomorrow morning - should be interesting! I have not really talked to them in almost two years!

Flooded in Ashgrove

Can you believe it?!?! After having a tree through the roof only a couple of months ago we have now moved into a new home with a cute little creek at the end of the garden and got completely flooded in last weeks deluge!

Amazing! Thankfully the main bit of the house is on stilts and we are safe and dry but everything that was stored under the house (lots of boxes, aircon, washing machine, garden tools etc) is destroyed and caked in mud. Lovely!

Donna and Tim Downunder

It was lovely to have Donna and Tim visit for a couple of days and we had a great time catching up on life and exploring things Australian...

I spent a blissful weekend with Donna at the beach in Byron while the boys flew down to Melbourne for some Formula 1 action.

As expected the time went way too quickly after months and months of anticipation but I hope hope hope they will come back next year!

Home sweet home

New home is coming together and we are very very happy here! Wilson is very upset he has to share his new territory with various Possums and we really hope he will get used to them soon. His constant growling is a bit annoying!!! And they are so cute! Look!!!

Sunday afternoon at winery

We had a lovely relaxing day with Mark and Isla and Wilson in Sirromet, slurping yummie wines and watching the world go by. Oh what a life!

I know - we are very lucky!

We are moving house!

We have decided to FINALLY rent a place in town and wait a couple of months until we buy a new house. And once we decided, we found a new home very quickly and are moving this weekend. It is stinking hot still and as you can imagine... writing a blog so much more appealing than packing boxes!!!
Craig was going to stay home today as well but had a very convenient important meetings come up... sigh!

Anyway - here are some pictures of the new place, mostly because my mum cannot wait to see them!!!

This is a typical Queenslander Home, very traditional with plenty of gaps for air to flow through and the house is standing on stilts for better cooling. Carpark underneath the house and plenty of storage and water tanks. We particularly love the view from the back deck! Life in the jungle! And the hilarious old fashioned bathroom, I cannot imagine it ever being cold enough for a hot bath!
It is a lovely home and I cannot wait to move in there. Will now start packing boxes so the removal van can pick everything up on Monday morning.
Think of me!!

Australia Day in Sydney!!!

Having Audra over for all of January was just bliss! Great to have some girlie times and talk rubbish all day, fantastic! I think the pictures of us in Sydney on Australia day speak for themselves???