It’s been a while between drinks and blogs, right?
Most of you would know by now that myself and Mr Deb have left New Zealand and have relocated to Australia’s Sunshine Coast hinterland near Pomona.
Moving countries in your 50s ( or at any age really!) is no easy task, but moving countries during a pandemic has probably been the most challenging and stressful time in my life since living after the Christchurch earthquakes.
There were so many times we thought we would never get here with the Queensland border shut tight and a few times we thought, let’s just call it quits it’s too difficult, find a rental manager for the house in Aus, and remain in NZ because every time we booked a flight it was cancelled.
So we flew into Sydney on December 15 thinking let’s stay the mandatory 14 days as international arrivals, avoid quarantine and drive up crossing interstate into Queensland.
The plan whilst good in theory quickly became a nightmare that revolved around finding Covid testing sites.
First the day after arrival, then 3 days after, then 6 days, just as Omicron took off and we became caught up in the madness of 10-hour queues for testing and the huge backlog of people also trying to get across into Queensland.
Of course, Murphy’s Law would have it that the day after we finally made it across the border Queensland dropped the 72-hour pre-Covid testing.
I am a strong, fierce woman – but geez – it nearly broke me.
But we’re here, and our new life has just begun, there’s still a massive amount of work that needs done daily, but there’s so much to discover whether it be new places to visit or new people to meet – It’s exciting and we want to embrace it fully!
In times like this I try to remember life’s not a destination it’s a journey and there’s always calm amongst the chaos and you just need to reflect on what’s important.
As I mentioned a few times on social media there is still a bit of work to do on the studio before we are fully up and running.
Mr Deb likes to build things properly, so has made the decision to virtually rebuild from the ground up where the old art studio space was.
New lining, new gib, plus replacing a sidewall with windows so we now have a view into the garden #jungle .
“ Do it once. , do it right “ is his motto.
This is not an easy task with building material shortages and 30°C, 90% humidity days, but his persistence is admirable, especially as a few of the locals had to be “moved on .”
Just the usual scorpions, a huge nest of jumping ants and spiders the size of your fist, however of the stars of the show were two snakes that needed to be removed from the roof space yesterday.
Luckily they were only brown tree snakes and not brown snakes ( yes, Kiwis there is quite a difference ), but still they reared their heads up at being disturbed.
For once Mr Deb actually listened to me when I said using a leaf blower to move them on was possibly not a great idea and let’s call a snake catcher.
He’s ( Mr Deb ) not at all fazed by all this -but I will admit I now have the local snake catcher on speed dial!
SO WHEN WILL WE BE UP AND RUNNING?
Ideally, I would like to be up and running to some degree by the end of February and even if I am not quite ready for custom work then perhaps I could still be open for one on one ( very casual ) appointments at our house, where I show you what I have in stock over a coffee ( or perhaps a cheeky wine, or cocktail)!- we just need a little more furniture to not look like squatters in our own home.
Currently, our container packed up in NZ with Crown in December seems to be not leaving the country anytime soon. ( Hand on head Emoji ).
An ideal new client is look for custom made jewellery in Noosa. However, there is also the the possibility of travelling to Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney renting an Airbnb and doing one on one appointments.
Would anybody be interested in this?
If so do let me know as I need a reasonable amount of people interested to make this kind of thing worthwhile.
I do generally charge a $100 fee for these appointments but the fee is 100% refundable on any purchase order.
In regards to the Eumundi markets as a selling point, I am in two minds.
The more I think about getting up at sparrows fart and lugging heavy cases ( another thing to buy or construct ), setting up, packing down, and constantly being worried about security makes it a long hard day at 56 years young.
I worked markets for so many seasons in the early days of my career and I know-how tiring they can be, plus if it’s a large crowd you can often spend hours talking to the people that are not, in all honesty, your customer base.
Never say never of course – perhaps I will once our lightweight travel cases arrive with the container.
I still welcome absolutely all enquiries regarding anything please do not hesitate to get in touch with me.
Mobile coverage is slightly challenging here as we are surrounded by ( absolutely stunning ) National Park, but I drive into town often so can always call people once back in full range. we are also looking into a mobile booster for a better signal and have a man booked to come on sight this Friday.
My new mobile is +61473072745, email and website are still the same.
Do remember also I’m more than happy to send my custom made engagement rings and all of my unique jewellery worldwide too!
Deb x
Jewellery is a very special gift for your friends or family. However, it’s not exactly easy to choose the right piece for someone even if you know them well. Jewellery is so personal and what we think we know about someone can never be applied for sure to what this person might like in jewellery. It is much harder to choose jewellery for someone who doesn’t know much about the subject itself or follow fashion and trends.