The adventures of baby pirate and Captain Nicholas

Hurrah... I have a computer again!

2012-02-11T17:26:00.000+11:00

I started to write a long and lengthy post trying to explain about the rather difficult past 3 months we have just had but in the interests of keeping things in perspective, ie. there are others that that have to cope with so much more on a daily basis that I decided to abandon it and instead update you all as what we have been doing.

I will say though that as we haven't had a computer for the past 6 weeks (details were in the explanation now abandoned!) and have moved out of the house twice and been on holidays, also twice, that blogging and all that it entails were temporarily put on hold. Apologies to those that I alarmed with my lengthy absence and Jane a card will be in the post on Monday to you my lovely!

The house is now painted. The colours that we ended up choosing are Dulux Oyster Linen and Taubmans Aspen Snow for the trims. A lot of people have emailed me about the colour of the house. The number is actually mind boggling.... anyway, if I haven't replied to your email yet I apologise and am getting around to everyone slowly. Hopefully I will answer all the questions here now: Oyster Linen is not on the standard colour chart but if you go into Dulux or Bunnings they will be able to mix a sample pot for you. It is full strength. The front door is Dulux Domino in a gloss finish.

The little blue strip above the door is yet to be painted!

The inside is very slowly getting there...

My clever clogs husband built the bench seat! Well, he/we did most of the work inside the house!

It is a lovely spot for a cup of tea in the morning, actually just lovely all the time! The floors are blackbutt with a matt finish.

The laundry is in, I absolutely love the long bench top but do not recommend the product. Ceaserstone Snow and it stains if you just look at it with a cup of coffee, some red wine or even a slice of fruit... don't ask... Unless you are considering using it somewhere, in which case be aware that it STAINS easily. VERY EASILY. It does look nice though.

Will do some more house updates soon but in the meantime the Pirates are well. We had a fabulous break at the beach house.

They are both their father's sons and love the surf. The little one, although quite a proficient swimmer scares me with his confidence. He is always the smallest person out in the surf.

He started pre-school last week. First time away from me and I was prepared for tears and drama. Nothing. Indeed, the little traitor practically rolled his eyes at me when I was saying goodbye.

I will be along to visit all of you soon! xx

The Captain's Bush Detectives Party

2011-12-01T21:14:00.000+11:00

So.. this was a little while ago, but for the sake of posterity I thought I should document the event with a few photos:

Yes... they came across three of them during the course of the party and yes... it is a Red Belly Black Snake.

Happy Sixth Birthday Captain! At six years old you are a passionate Lego engineer and can spend hours either creating a masterpiece of your own design or following the instructions to build the model. Playmobil, Superstructs, the vintage Thunderbirds toys, craft and reading are your other biggest passions. Your favourite books are The Secret Seven series, The Magic Tree House, The Famous Five and more recently the Just So Stories. It started off with me reading to you and now we are taking turns at reading pages to each other.

You love school and regularly tell me that you are friends with everyone in your class. You often play goodies and baddies and divide yourselves into Teams which you refer to as the BB Team and the Fairy House Team. You leave the house for school looking pristine and come home filthy. At school this year you have learnt how to play chess, the basics of fencing, about respect, to recite verses of Shakespeare, about friendship, the Pause and you earnt so many Merit cards that I could probably wallpaper a wall in your room with them! Your buddy Ethan from the sixth class helped you settle in and was a great role model for you. You will miss him next year when he goes off to high school.

At home when you are not busy destroying our backyard with your brother creating dams and construction sites, you love to swim in the pool, swing on the swing out the front (you both LOVE that swing), have your dad (not so much me) throw a cricket ball for you to bat and throw paper planes off the deck. You keep pestering me to get you some more tadpoles. You are onto your third Venus Fly Trap plant, you solemnly promised not to feed this one any insects and so far so good. I think it is about 4-5 months old now!

Your favourite food is pizza made by your Dad. Your favourite DVDs are The Thunderbird Movie, The Adventures of Clutch Powers, the Lego Megafactories Documentary, Tom and Jerry and Miniscule. I am pleased to say that you really have no idea about computers and certainly have no clue what a DS or Wii are. Please let it stay that way for as long as possible my darling!

You told me once that you are my precious and it is quite right, you truly are my precious boy.

John & Ginger in Freshwater

2011-11-15T21:46:00.000+11:00

Home Beautiful arrived yesterday and as I was quickly flicking through, as I won't have time to properly read it until after Dec 11th or when the majority of the work will be finished, I was captivated by this image:

I was so enamoured of it that first thing this morning, ie. after I dropped the Captain off at school, I raced over to Freshie to have a look. I was desperate to get those blue and white cushions as well...

mmmmm, look how lovely they are!

Imagine, my disappointment when I found out that they were sold yesterday. Some smartypants obviously got their copy of Home Beautiful before I did...

Nevermind, the trip to John & Ginger was well and truly worth it. It is one of the most beautiful shops that I have ever visited and the owner is just gorgeous.

The view from the front door.

2011-11-09T12:33:00.000+11:00

Every time I step out the front door the carpet of jacaranda blossoms covering the lawn takes my breath away. The contrast between the purple of blossom and the emerald green of the grass is divine. Reminds me of playing with my beloved box of 72 Derwent Pencils as a child, I used to love re-arranging the order of the pencils trying to decide which colours best complemented each other.

The little one is in flower heaven at the moment, the garden is in full bloom and he spends ages examing and gathering flowers. Fla fla (flower) was one of his very first words and his favourites are the yellow ones. Lellow being his favourite colour and all!

He is itching to get his grubby paws on some of these and keeps asking me to go "cut some flowers for the house please mumma" but I am loving the gardenias and their glorious fragrance so much that it is towards them that the secateurs are headed:

Lastly Julia... I can't find your email address (or your blog?) to send this to you but I have been wanting to show it to you for ages... just couldn't find my high school year book in the chaos of the renovation! Very boring for everyone but Julia... anyway see arrow below!

Thought it might amuse you!

I love "green waste" collection week...

2011-11-04T19:43:00.000+11:00

Almost as much as Council Clean Up!

Driving the Captain to school this morning, the boys in the back happily listening to Micheal Hordern's fabulous voice narrating Paddington. I was busy scanning the piles of green waste on the side of the road. Occasionally I find some great cuttings and this morning I scored big time:

A pile of silver birch branches!

Well, a couple of piles!

I forced myself to keep on driving. As tempted as I was to squeeze the bundles in the back between the boys car seats. (No room in the boot it is full of QF uniforms, manuals, bags and other Flight Attendant paraphernalia that I have to return to work. Yes, I resigned... but that is a blog post for another day!)

Anyway, dropped the Captain at school. Took the little one to swimming lessons, picked up some supplies for the morning... sushi for him, coffee for me and... hurray... the garbage truck hadn't done our street yet! I squashed some into the boot and the rest into the Captain's car seat and the space between the seats. Hope Husband doesn't read this bit... or the people that service the car...

Back to my find though, just look at how lovely they are:

Now what to do with them?

Maybe this gorgeous hand made Christmas tree that I spotted last year here.

Not sure if I have the skills to make these.

or these, but they are gorgeous and I am keen to try. Both images found here.

Now, this looks the best idea yet. I will have to have a word with the husband about making me one of these! Found here.

so this is what has been keeping me busy....

2011-11-03T17:32:00.000+11:00

The inside of the house has required some attention.... when we tackelled the original parts of the house internally we encountered some problems. The old termite damage is not the problem though... the floors weren't level and not one of the walls was straight!!!! To put the new floor in and the new kitchen... we need level and straight. Consequently, we have been very busy and as a result the blog and blog visits had to be put on hold. Nevertheless, I have loved every minute of this renovation though and I have learnt so many new skills. I have watched the tradesmen and Ross closely and am learning fast. I feel confident helping to put gyprock up on a wall or ceiling and am quite the dab hand with a paint brush. These days I don't even bother with the blue tape!

Life outside of the renovation has been equally busy. Both my little pirates are growing fast. There is so much to catch up on here and I have many blog posts planned but for the time being I will just document the last couple of months with some photos:

We spent a couple of weeks in Canberra, chez Grandma and Grandpa.

So we did a bunch of touristy stuff.

Canberra has some seriously cool playgrounds!

I can actually remember playing at this one, so it has to be around about 30 years old!

We went to the Fred Williams exhibition where Nicasso spent some time creating a Williams inspired masterpiece in the childrens room!

Every visit to Canberra the Captain asks to visit this installation by James Turrell in the grounds of the NGA.

Mt Stromlo (well what's left of it after the bushfires...)

The succulent garden in the backyard is finally starting to take off!

The bench seat in the dining room... can't wait till this is finished!

Front garden looking stunning at the moment.

Main bathroom is finished... we decided to go ahead and create the wet room area, The best decision, no more stressing about my two little ducks creating havoc in the bath.

Halloween 2011... the little one is supposed to be Huckle Cat... he changed his mind at the last minute. Fortunately, we did have some Lederhosen in the house.

Ah well... I did my best with what we had in the house!

My first quilting bee!

2011-09-06T13:03:00.001+10:00

I recently received an email from one of the class parents saying that sewer's were needed. I had a good laugh at "sewers" and then didn't offer to help. I have very little sewing experience despite my mother and maternal grandmother's best efforts! My grandmother used to make wedding dresses for people in her spare time, when she wasn't busy raising her six children and volunteering at the war memorial etc etc, she taught my Mum how to sew, knit, crochet and they both then tried to teach me. Despite their best efforts it was mostly unsucessful unfortunately, I can just stitch a button back on and sort of know how to work a sewing machine.

Another email was received not long after the first, desperately requesting assistance. The school is hosting a Bollywood Ball as a fundraising event and each class year are auctioning an item they have made to help raise some funds. Every child in Lower First (the Captain's year) had decorated an elephant on a square of fabric. The art teacher then suggested that perhaps some of the Lower First parents could make a quilt out of all the calico elephants squares. Gorgeous idea, except not one of us had any quilting experience and only a couple actually had any real sewing skills. Regardless, we were up for the challenge:

Elephants stitched in rows, with 4 cm strips of blue fabric between and the wadding ready to be stitched on.

One clever Mum embroidered this square.

The Captain's elephant!

Husband has had a good laugh at me hunched over the sewing machine for the past few days. As he pointed out to me... the sewing maching has been in a box in the roof for the last 15 years. Every move he has suggested that we pass it on to someone who might use it! Never I would cry, I have plans to make beautiful clothes for our children, library bags, cloth nappies, linen napkins, lovely cushion covers. Grrr, he would mutter and curse at me under his breath as he moved the sewing machine into yet another roof cavity!

Last week as I was squinting in frustration at the little strips of blue obstinately refusing to come out at 4 cm despite having been pinned into place, I tried to recall the last time I had actually sewn anything. After a bit of thought I vaguely remembered whipping myself up a french maid's costume to wear to the Mardi Gras party, way way back in my early university days. Hmmm, definitely had been a while then! Even though I only managed to stitich two rows of elephants together I loved the experience and am looking forward to trying my hand at some new projects! Maybe a library bag? Any suggestions for an almost novice?

The weekend...

2011-08-29T16:16:00.001+10:00

Meet Percy:

I love him! Made by a local artist, wish I could credit him/her!

Apologies for the appalling photo, husband took it on my phone. Lucky his job has nothing to do with photography! Anyway, on Saturday night we attended the Ronald McDonald House Gala Ball which was lots of fun and excitingly they reached the target of a million dollars raised in one night! Husband also acquired a signed jersey belonging to Cadel Evans from the 2011 Tour de France in the silent auction. He has been instructed to hang it in his office.

On the Sunday my Mum and I took the opportunity to duck out and explore a nearby garden that was open for the weekend:

Set on 8 acres with meandering paths beside creeks, waterfalls, ponds and rainforest gully's. It was a fabulous place to wander through and explore. Dotted throughout the garden were all sorts of lovely treasures.

Including this divine little fairy house.

One of the highlights of the garden is Lily:

She reclines in the garden permanently! Her face is carved out of sandstone and her body is made from moss. Truly magnificent!

The base of the waterfall, the water trickling down the rock has created a natural waterslide into the pool. The pirates would have loved to try it out!

The garden was also full of interesting plants.

Lastly, I think that this has probably done the blog rounds but as it is my favourite love song and now a love song to an iconic Sydney landmark I wanted to share it with anyone that might have somehow missed it:

A renovation update

2011-08-20T16:37:00.001+10:00

Years ago there was a teacher at my boarding school that eventually went on to write a series of books about Australia at war. The Tomorrow Series. In the first book Ellie (the narrator of the books) says that:

"time spent in reconaissance is seldom wasted"

It is a quote that frequently pops into my mind, along with "touch it once" (but that is a post for another day). If I remember correctly, Ellie names Napoleon as the source of the quote, who was probably referring to military type matters when he said it. Nevertheless, to my mind it is perfect for renovating. My number one renovating tip would be to do your research. Take your time making decisions, think everything through and especially take the time to check references. You are much less likely to make decisions that you might regret if you are not too hasty. This applies to everything from selecting tradesmen, to making decisions on fixtures, colour schemes and layout.

The colours that we have chosen are Dulux Oyster Linen for the weatherboards and Aspen Snow for the trims. My sister in law is an interior designer and recommends painting a house a minimum of three colours to make it visually interesting and her suggestion for the roof is a neutral shade, complimenting the other colours you have chosen. A neutral shade for the roof is probably a wise choice as it will need to work with any future exterior colours changes.

For years I have been collecting pictures of pretty Sydney weatherboard houses so I had a reasonably good idea of what colours we were going to use long ago. Even so we painted lots of sample colours onto the side of the house before comitting to a decision.

The front door is gloss black. The door people were horrified that I was painting a cedar door black. As a teenager though I lived in the States for a few years and really admired how much effort the Americans put into decorating their houses, in particular the seasonal decorations on porches. A wreath looks stunning on a glossy black or red painted door. I would have loved a red front door had we gone with a grey/white colour scheme but that had a more Paddo inner city style weatherboard feel to me rather than a beach house!

The new bathroom is now finished, hurrah! All that we are waiting for is a mirror to hang over the vanity. This bathroom is fairly small so we were very careful with our use of the space and I am super happy with how it turned out. I absolutely love the travertine floor!

Now we are fiddling about with this bathroom:

Yesterday we moved everything around in it a number of times using a chair as a toilet and blue painters tape to mark out the shower screen location. We are doing a wet room area similar to the one that Jenna and Josh (from The Block) did in their ensuite, with the bath positioned behind the shower screen:

Image

We are now wondering whether or not to run a shelf all the way along the length of the wall. Josh and Jenna stopped theirs at the shower screen, probably so they didn't need to have a kick in the glass but we are thinking of continuing the shelf all the way along. I would love to hear what people think about this idea! Does anyone have a shelf in their shower or one of those nook things, are they hard to clean? Love to hear any thoughts/feedback regarding this!

The Tempest and the lovely Lola

2011-08-14T16:59:00.001+10:00

"Be collected. No more amazement." Prospero

(The Captain took his part very seriously!)

The Captain recently performed in his first school play! There are two Lower First (Kindy) classes at his school (about 30 kids) and combined they performed an abridged version of The Tempest. Yes, that would be five year olds acting out Shakepeare and although the play was abridged, the words themselves were not simplified in any way. When I have mentioned this to friends and family the reactions have been varied. Ranging from, "how ridiculous (in the interests of keeping the blog g rated I have edited this comment somewhat...)" to "how fabulous!" To the sceptics though... the Captain can tell you the basic plot of the Tempest, he has a good understanding of the characters and can recite whole chunks of the play. Do we underestimate the abilities of the average five year old? Possibly. It seems his school doesn't though. Thankfully! Most importantly though he adored the whole experience. Well done Captain, I was so proud of you and we all thought you did a marvellous job. Special thanks to Grandma for making the Prospero costumes!

This is Lola.

She has been a house guest Chez Pirate for the last 2 weeks.

And as a child of the 1970s that grew up watching this show:

Image

The theme song of which I can still sing for anyone who cares to listen!

Anyway, ever since I have had a special place in my heart for Border Collies, although Blyton only ever referred to Tim as a mongrel. Having Lola to stay has been great fun though and the boys have adored every minute of her visit. The Captain in particular who is currently as obsessed with the Famous Five as I once was and thus also sees Lola as a surrogate Tim.

We made several visits to the waterfall with her! She loved it there.

Also the nearby lake. Having a dog in the family definitely encourages you to get outside more and at times and moments of the day when you would not normally be out of doors.

I love the photos taken below at dusk. We spontaneously stopped off at the lake on the way home after Music to let Lola have a run around. Normally, I would race home and start the dinner/homework/bed routine but having a dog around encourages you to live in the moment a bit more! I can see why pet owners are supposed to live longer than everyone else!

I will do a renovation post soon, but just to amuse you all in the meantime:

My favourite apprentice!

Queensland has the best playgrounds...

2011-07-22T13:49:00.002+10:00

We have been away on a long holiday... a much needed break from the rigours of renovating! We visited Cairns (our favourite!), Brisbane and the Gold Coast. One observation that I made on this holiday was that Queensland has excellent infrastructure, far superior to New South Wales... despite the higher taxes, grrr! Although, it has to be said that on the whole Queenslanders do not know how to make coffee. (Two exceptions here... Bang Espresso in Cairns is outstanding, better than many many Sydney/Melbourne coffee houses and Campos in Fortitude Valley, Brisbane. Side note... we did our pre-natal classes with a young couple who had opened a little hole in the wall cafe in Newtown, Campos and now look at them!!! They are often on top ten entrepreneur type lists etc etc and deservedly so, Campos coffee is consistently excellent!)

Anyway, back to the holiday. We had a fabulous break, the highlight for me was a week in Brisbane where I got to meet my dear friend Veronica's divine new daughter for the first time:

Here she is looking adorable and fabulously glamourous in her Cath Kidston for Maclaren stroller!

The highlight for the boys though was the playgrounds. Queensland has the best playgrounds I have ever seen. In Brisbane, the playground at New Farm is superb. A brief walk through the gardens from the ferry wharf and you discover a children's paradise, complete with magical Banyan trees. The Captain spent hours exploring every nook and cranny of the trees reminding me so much of my own childhood. I have very fond memories of playing in a Banyan tree in the grounds of my school in India.

In Cairns there is Muddy's Playground on the Esplanade, with both a fabulous waterplay area and a maze of climbing nets and tree houses to explore!

On the Gold Coast we skipped the theme park thing, (hoping to avoid it for as long as possible!) but discovered this brilliant contraption across the road from our hotel at Broadbeach:

They seriously spent hours playing on it! Another brilliant discovery on the Gold Coast was this little gem:

It is called Gov's Espresso and is on the Gold Coast Highway at Mermaid Beach. We were able to scooter there from our hotel at Broadbeach and it was worth the trek!

In the backyard there is a huge sandpit play area, with a boat in it just like ours! (the third photo down). It makes me wonder how many other like-minded derelict dinghy in sand pit people there are out there! Gov's is well worth a visit if you are planning a trip to the Gold Coast. There is a cafe serving drinks and a small selection of basic food (no hot food) and you can sit out the back by the play area and relax while you drink your coffee, as the kids are very occupied with the sand pit and the assorted trucks and sand pit toys provided. Then go and explore all the rooms full of vintage treasures!

Now to adjust back to the school routine and to get back into the swing of renovating... and at some point I will make an effort to finish the photo challenge! Hope all are well and I am looking forward to catching up with everyone! xx

Photo Challenge - Day 16

2011-06-23T19:11:00.000+10:00

"Technology"

We pass these satellite dishes on our way to and from school. It is a lovely shortcut to school as we pass horses in paddocks and often have to slow down or stop to allow chickens and ducks to pass. At one point we drive across a creek. If there has been heavy rainfall the road is often closed to traffic. Situated amongst all this rural charm are these enormous satellite dishes. The boys are fascinated by them and regularly scan the sky as we drive past, vainly searching for the space shuttle!

Photo Challenge - Day 15

2011-06-22T12:31:00.001+10:00

"Silhouette"

The (Baby) Pirate who would be King... of his blankie!

The renovation continues...

2011-06-21T14:12:00.000+10:00

Behold the new front deck:

Merbau boards au naturel (currently anyway!)

Looking down onto the deck from the driveway.

We also have a new back deck, with the same divine roof panelling as the front deck, minus the exposed eaves for a bit of variety.

Please admire the balustrading, many hours of research went into it!

We recycled some of the original merbau boards on a little feature screen along the eastern boundary.

Steps down to the back garden. At the top of the steps is the laundry door, on the left are the french doors into the new playroom. Next step is to pick up a paintbrush, which may lead to another possible new career path. I nearly fainted when I read the quote for the painting. So, we shall be doing it ourselves thank you very much! Wish me luck everyone!

Thank you Leah!

2011-06-20T12:36:00.000+10:00

I was thrilled to win a giveaway recently on Leah's blog The Inside Story. It is one of my absolute favourite blogs. Full of stunning and very inspiring images. Leah also lives in one of my favourite places in the world. Lucky thing!

Thank you so much Leah for such a lovely gift. I am thrilled with the bag and the sweet little storage box and they will be well loved.

Photo Challenge - Day 14

2011-06-20T12:23:00.000+10:00

"Eyes"

This weekend I painted the front door gloss black. It looks amazing! I helped husband put the gyprock walls and ceiling into the new living/dining room. It looks ok! Once the plasterer has been I am sure it will look amazing too. Back breaking work though and why I am running so far behind with the photo challenge!

I am also considering re-qualifying as a plumber. They are obviously making way too much money. Any pumbers out there?

Photo Challenge - Day 13

2011-06-16T20:21:00.000+10:00

"Yourself with thirteen things"

Technically I am in the photo... there is a photo of me pregnant with the Captain in amongst those items! All the items that I have chosen are cherished:

1. My bed (it somehow manages to look prisitne amongst the chaos of renovating!)

2. Tolix stool (if only it was vintage... one day, some day I will have a set of vintage Tolix chairs and stools)

3. Fresh flowers in jam jars (they make me happy, look beautiful and remind me of my wedding day).

4. & 5. I collect vintage children's books and I have way too many of these old Enid Blytons. Yes, I have some complete collections. I started collecting them as a small child.

6. See there I am... photo taken the day before I had Nicholas. Edited to keep things decent.

7. iPad. I used to loathe it, it's growing on me.

8. Current favourite sunglasses. Husband gives me such a hard time about them, he reckons I am trying to relive my youth. I asked him what he would like to do for his 50th.

9. My watch. My father gave it to my mother for her 21st birthday, they in turn gave it to me. It is 43 years old, doesn't need a battery and is still going strong.

10. Frog. Picked him up in a tiny little gallery outside Canberra when I was at university. He has lived on the kitchen window sill in every house I have lived in over the past 18 years. He even survived a break in.

11. & 12.The outfits the boys wore home from hospital.

13. A drawing the Captain did when he had just turned four. It is of the Leaning Tower of Pisa, drawn from a photo.

Photo Challenge - Day 12

2011-06-15T21:06:00.002+10:00

It has been raining in Sydney for days now. The chance of my capturing a sunset on the camera is slim... I had to improvise with this photo. Taken on this night!

And a huge thank you to Julia for making my lovely new header! I would never have been able to do it despite having a few people try and explain it to me! Thanks Julia!

A quick renovation update.

2011-06-14T18:59:00.000+10:00

I am interrupting the photo challenge for a quick renovation update, more specifically a bathroom vanity update! Hours of research have gone into the vanities which may help to explain why I am so excited about them! Over the years I have saved many images, filed carefully away in my home inspiration folder. Unfortunately, I neglected to save where I sourced them from. If any of the following images are yours (or if you know who they belong to) please, please let me know and I will credit those appropriate immediately!

When husband and I went to look at bathroom supply places we found lots of sinks that we liked, some taps that we liked... but not a single vanity. Even the ridiculously expensive, high end vanities left us cold. We really wanted something that had a beach house feel and didn't look too modern, but there wasn't really anything in that bracket. After looking through all the images that we had saved and flicking through our extensive home magazine collection we started to get a feel for exactly what it was we wanted, plus I found this vanity that another blogger had had her husband whip up:

As you do, what a handyman!

I wish I could find her blog again to credit her, as her gorgeous vanity and the vanity that she identified as being her inspiration:

became our inspiration and it was these images that we showed to the various cabinet makers. I investigated wood vs stone benchtops, 120 year old Kauri Pine vs recycled hardwood and after much deliberation decided to go with a laboratory style basin on a recycled hardwood base. I decided against a stone top as I love the look of the wood top:

The basin is just balancing on top at the moment as the plumber hasn't done the waste yet or installed the taps but you can get an idea of how it will look. I had intended to put a couple of small cane baskets on the shelf below to store towels/bathroom bits and pieces in but I grabbed one of my vintage wine press baskets, as it was close, and now I love the look of it on the bottom shelf.

Many thanks to the lovely Rupert at Beachwood for making sense of a couple of photos and creating a vanity that we are beyond thrilled with!

Photo Challenge - Day 11

2011-06-13T20:51:00.000+10:00

"Something blue"

Apologies for the interruption in service! It has not stopped raining in Sydney for the duration of the long weekend and we have C.A.B.I.N.F.E.V.E.R! Back to the photo challenge though, I found these gorgeous Eric Carle flash cards at an Op Shop the other day and I have been trying to decide what to do with them. I am leaning towards framing them and hanging them in the new playroom...

or should I just leave them as flashcards and let the boys play with them?

They are so pretty that either way they will be well loved!

Photo Challenge - Day 10

2011-06-11T22:27:00.000+10:00

"Childhood Memory"

These photos were indeed a challenge. It is very hard to photograph old photos in 1980s photo albums...

In 1983, I was 10 years old and we lived in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. During our time in KL we often went camping on the islands off the coast of Malaysia. My absolute favourite trip was the time we camped on Pangkor Island. On one side of the island there was a bunch of big resorts, the other side though just had a couple of thatched huts and was relatively untouched. That's where we camped! To get out to the island we loaded up a Malay fishing boat and hired the "Captain" to take us out to the island. Remember my fascination with pirates and how as kids we were all desperate to be attacked by "real" pirates... well, in the above photo, the pile of luggage you can see there, that is where we were supposed to hide ourselves if we were actually attacked! Ha, those in charge (the parents) obviously had no idea! Luckily, we never crossed paths with any real pirates, much to our bitter disappointment at the time though!

That is 10 year old me in the "kitchen" hut!

Me, my brother and our friend Sean (his parents were with the American Embassy) exploring the lagoon set back from the beach. We spent most of our holiday playing around this lagoon.

Fishing in the lagoon. Tom (Sean's brother) at the front, my brother in the water and me at the back. Not sure where we got those rods from, I am guessing we made them.

There was a dead palm tree hanging over the water of the lagoon. Somehow we scaled it and then dropped into the water. I recall this as being fabulously fun, looking at this photo though I think I might have been a bit uncertain about the whole thing!

My brother looking much more confident!

We took a little inflatable Zodiac with us to explore and also to pick up fresh food and water. I can remember snorkelling at this beach and finding lots of bits of old china that had washed up from shipwrecks.

A truly wonderful holiday and I am forever grateful to my parents that they had the courage and the trust to take us on a holiday like this and leave us to pretty much do as we pleased without any intervention. Yes, we all nearly drowned... but I will save that story for another blog post.

Photo Challenge - Day 9

2011-06-10T21:44:00.000+10:00

"Someone you love"

Most of the time they love each other...

Please boys, continue to love and care for each other...

it will make your mother happy.

Photo Challenge - Day 8

2011-06-09T20:11:00.000+10:00

"A bad habit..."

As you can see by the current state of our kitchen husband and I have our priorities sorted out!

Our beloved Vibienne Domobar Super is the one thing we have ensured is always available and operable throughout this renovation. Mr Vibi produces superb coffee, often far superior to the rubbish served up in many cafes. Our beans of choice vary (favourites include Campos and Caffe Di Gabriel) but they must be freshly ground in Mrs Pavoni, the coffee grinder. There is a Mr Pavoni coffee machine, he was our first. A gift from my parents for my 25th birthday, They purchased him from a tiny shop on the Cinque Terre and carried him back in their hand luggage. Are they my enablers? Anyway, he holds a special place in my heart and thus is still enjoying his retirement Chez Pirate. He lives in relative luxury, in his original box. As much as I loathe clutter I can't quite bring myself to pass him on. He still produces a very decent coffee! Our other past love, Mr Gaggia, is enjoying a sea change at the beach house. As you can see we take our bad habit seriously.

Photo Challenge - Day 7

2011-06-08T20:36:00.001+10:00

"Fruit"

I don't even know where to begin with how much I love fruit... I begin every day with coffee, which is a sort of fruit beverage, sort of... well the seeds of the fruit anyway! I snack on fruit all day long. My children adore it. It is the main ingredient of some of my other favourite beverages... lemon tea, champagne and Pimms (gin based, so juniper berry!). When I thought about today's challenge though, the first thing that came to mind was Richard Scarry.

His wonderful, brilliant and timeless illustrations heavily feature fruit... (as well as the anthropomorphic animals of course!)

Who can forget Mario, the Venetian Gondolier who has a melon boat? (Busy, Busy World)

or Bananas Gorilla?

Mr. Scarry, the world is a better place for your fabulous books. You have inspired countless children to learn to read and generations of children adore the enchanting characters that you created.

All images are photos from books currently in the Chez Pirate Library, many of which date back to the 1960s.

Photo Challenge - Day 6

2011-06-07T21:17:00.001+10:00

"From a low angle"

We stopped off at the playground on our way home. He started off dressed like this. By the time he got to the top he had discarded his blazer and cap... Did anyone else read Richmal Crompton's brilliant William books?

Clearly, the Captain's school uniform assists with the resemblance, but their personalities are uncannily similar as well. I need to start doing yoga or something.

Photo Challenge - Day 5

2011-06-06T19:30:00.000+10:00

"From a high angle"

Who am I kidding... I look at everything from a high angle! At 180cm tall I tower over many. I snapped this photo only minutes ago when I went in to check on the little man. Poor wee chap is sick at the moment so am a bit worried about him. He is tucked in with "big Richard" his lion, named after Richard the Lion Heart. We also have a small Richard, but he is on an extended holiday down at the beach house at the moment. (I know, bad parenting moment # 792). The Wind in the Willows sheets are vintage, they date back to a family holiday to the UK in 1980. I adore them and are so pleased that my mother saved them for me. Get well soon little man.

Photo Challenge - Day 4

2011-06-05T19:48:00.000+10:00

"Something green"

Green, in particular depression green, is one of my most loved colours. As I was wandering around the house and garden today I spotted literally dozens of green things that I found beautiful and struggled to make a decision about what to photograph today. In the end I took a photo of the top of my dresser.

Top of my dresser!

It was too hard to choose, between the green Carlton Ware bowls that I use to store my jewellery and beauty odds and ends in. The tea cup with a splash of green that I store my bobby pins and hair ties in. The milk jug full of camellias from the garden with their glossy green leaves and the green detail in the tiles on the back of the dresser...

Green is a magical colour. It is fresh and wholesome and makes me think of new beginnings, I associate it with both land and water and ultimately it is a lovely soothing colour.

Photo Challenge - Day 3

2011-06-04T20:04:00.000+10:00

"Clouds"

The Captain and I love lying back on the trampoline and looking up at the sky through the leaves of the jacaranda tree. We spot the sea plane flying to Cottage Point or back to Rose Bay, kookaburras, lorikeets, butterflies and the occasional cockatoo. The little guy just likes to run round and round in circles on it!

We have had so much rain in Sydney recently that I was fortunate to capture some clouds dancing across a rare bright blue sky. Even as I type this it is raining again...

Photo Challenge - Day 2

2011-06-03T18:19:00.000+10:00

"What I wore"

Cardigan, possibly my favourite item of clothing, frequently worn in the evening on the couch - Country Road

Peasant Blouse - Country Road

Singlet top, I love layering, (not that you can really see the singlet top in this photo, but for accuracy thought that it's presence should be noted) - Petit Bateau

Scarf (our house is freezing!) - Country Road (can you tell I love their basics?)

Jeans - GAP

Shoes - very dusty Campers (have had this pair since university and they are still favourites!)

Accessory - the Captain's scooter (these scooters are so cool they deserve a blog post of their own one day!)

Location - the new living room (perfect for scootering in)

"What he wore"

Cargo's - Country Road (love their kid's clothes too....)

Vest - Baby Gap

T-Shirt - Hand me down

Model's own scooter!

Photo Challenge - Day 1

2011-06-02T12:17:00.001+10:00

Two of my blog friends, (well Pen and I know each other in real life as our big boys are good mates), are doing this photography challenge and as I am a joiner (FF 2010) I am giving it a shot. Nevermind that I know nothing about photography and don't even have an SLR or a DSLR!

I think it will be an interesting journey, and educational. Today I discovered how to turn the screen around on the camera so that you can see yourself in-order to take a self-portrait. There you go. Thankfully, husband didn't charge me the equivalent of a small countries GDP for this most recent tech call out.

So, without further ado, Day 1's photo:

I am 38 years old and am practically blind in my left eye (hence squinty, not quite looking in the same direction, unruly left eye). I rarely wear make-up, save for the occasional evening out! Make-up was one of my former job requirements so I am quite enjoying not wearing it now. I usually wear my hair up, but have recently been making a bit more effort to wear it long. I am trying to decide whether to cut it all off.

As the other girls are one day ahead of me, I will try and catch up and post a photo of what I am wearing today... if I can master the self-timer thingy! Starting to regret not reading the camera instruction manual now as don't think husband will appreciate another needy phone call. Wish me luck!

A nocturnal visitor

2011-05-30T22:25:00.001+10:00

I woke at 5am this morning to R shaking me and saying... "I think there is a possum on top of the printer," ha ha I thought, he must be dreaming, He wasn't. There it was, a little ring tail possum perched on top of a stack of paperwork sitting on the printer. The first thing I thought of was this book:

A popular bedtime read chez Pirate, about a possum that gets into the house and wreaks havoc in every room. AAARRGH! What is it with the wildlife around these here parts, stuff like this never happened when we lived in the Eastern Suburbs! Anyway, as these thoughts were racing through my head, amazing really considering the time of day and that I had just woken up! Mind you I did have the presence of mind to reach over and grab the camera! The possum observing our discussing it sensed that it was time to make a jump for it and yep, made a flying leap into the space in the bed recently vacated by Ross. I screamed. The possum wisely jumped back off the bed, dived under the bed, emerged on the other side and then clambered up the wall to a hole in the ceiling (grrr renovation) and back into the roof. Now to get it safely back out of the roof before all the holes are sealed.

Street Shopping

2011-05-25T14:19:00.000+10:00

Behold the latest street shopping finds:

And... yes! That is a Le Creuset pan. Seriously, who chucks out a Le Creuset pan? Both in the same pile along with a whole bunch of vintage tools. Luke, one of the apprentices working on our renovation, as soon as I mentioned that there were tools in the same pile jumped into his ute and drove around the block to claim all the tools!

The fry pan has a new home in our kitchen. I will have to show you a photo post-reno as that is currently a construction site.

The little guy's new toy box.

I love council clean up!!!

The renovation so far.....

2011-05-23T14:22:00.001+10:00

For Betty in Brisbane (R's old flatmate who is a lovely friend) and Grandma and Grandpa in Morocco (having a glamorous holiday exploring places like YSL's holiday house) and for all the other people who keep harassing me/us for photos of the reno.... this is where we are at people:

The front of the house, photo taken standing on the driveway. New roof (Colourbond windspray) and new front deck. Loving Ross' decision to do double deck posts, so pleased with how they turned out!

Panelling under the new front deck. Also thrilled with Ross' insisting that we do exposed eaves here. I was initially a bit reluctant as all I could think about was the spiders that would be nesting around them, but I am so glad he won this one as they look fantastic. Warning to all spiders: those eaves are going to be brushed regularly with lemon oil. Move on hairy legs!

Standing on new front deck looking towards the driveway. As you can see one of the apprentices has been "helping." Mum and Dad, note the new retaining wall. The Czech guy, who brought his Mum along to supervise and yell at him (in Czech) did a brilliant job. It matches the rest of the retaining walls perfectly and you would never know the wall was moved to accommodate the extension!

Front of house. Front door will be in the centre little nook, set back a bit.

Inside the new front bedroom, we are putting vertical VJ walling in all the bedrooms, above the fireplace and also the laundry. I really wanted to do it in the bathrooms as well but Ross the spoilsport was worried about waterproofing. It looks similar to groove and tongue for anyone unfamiliar with VJ.

Looking down the drive into the new "garage/playroom."

The first half of this room will be garage storage for bikes, skis, surfboards, scooters etc etc The back half will be a playroom/spare room.

Looking up to the new extension from the garden. Ash (one of the builders, as in a real one, not a pint sized wannabe one) is standing at the new playroom doors. The next door/window to the right is the new laundry.

Looking up at the new back deck and bifolds into living room.

The back half of the house, the current living/dining/kitchen which is inside the frame in the above picture is getting pulled off next week to be re-built! Aaaaagh! Further renovation updates to follow soon.

A fabulous discovery on the Northern Beaches!

2011-05-11T21:44:00.002+10:00

One of my most beloved cafes, The Boat House at Palm Beach, which I adore because of it's fabulous garden/beach setting:

and the scattered lobster pots:

Hmm, lobster pots, I definitely have a thing about them! As a littly we often holidayed with my cousins at our grandparents house, south of Bateman's Bay at Circuit Beach. One of our many school holiday traditions was to jump into bed with Gran in the mornings. Grandad would then serve us all (6 of us!) breakfast in bed. In summer it was always buttery vegemite toast fingers and freshly squeezed orange juice. In winter, porridge with brown sugar and cream. As we ate breakfast and fought, sort of good naturedly about whose feet were coldest and who was taking up too much room, we would all simultaneously be keeping a weather eye out on the little beach and rocky inlet that was literally at the bottom of their garden for the lobster pot man. He would row out to the pots in a little white wooden boat that we could spot from the bedroom window and it was always a great thrill if you were the one to sight him first. This early obsession with lobster pots has had some impact on me I think!

Back to The Boat House though:

Fresh produce and flowers are for sale and the way it is all arranged is stunning!

But!!!! Even better is The Boat Houses' new sibling Armchair Collective, a very short drive from Pirate HQ. It is in Mona Vale just by the SLSC for anyone interested in popping in (worth it):

Same styling and fresh produce:

Inside there is so much more though:

Am trying to convince husband that we need this lamp (on my side of the bed of course):

Because of this chap that hangs out on the deck at Depot:

A claw foot has been on my wish list forever (still haven't got my way on that one) so I spent ages admiring this one and it's tree of birds (hoping to make evil husband feel guilty):

Anyway, the coffee is excellent and we have now eaten there a few times, everything has been delicious except the burger, husband is a burger connoisseur and he only gave it a 5/10. He is very burger fussy though so it was probably delicious as well.

As for the renovation. This is what our house looks like:

And, we are living in it. Naturally, my dirt monkeys are adoring it, me though.... well, it is time consuming and overwhelming and the reason why I haven't been in here much or had time to catch up with all of you properly. I don't want to jinx anything by typing into words here so will just say... hopefully I will have more time to catch up with everyone soon!!! x

A holiday, a hiatus, the horror of living in a construction site and of course, the Wedding

2011-04-29T20:49:00.002+10:00

Hello, not sure if there is anyone still to say hello to after such a long and unplanned break, but if anyone is still interested... I am back!

Firstly, many thanks to the gorgeous people that emailed and left comments checking in on me. I was so touched to hear from you, and Julia, your comments had me giggling (they always do though!). We actually have been sort of at sea! We have been away at the beach house, a place so lovely but also so remote that there is no mobile service and also no internet service. I know, it is kind of hard to believe in this day and age, but yes such places do exist!

The other reason for the lengthy hiatus is that our house is currently a construction site. Anyway more about that to follow soon but for those that have asked, we are 99% sure that we are going to paint the house Dulux Oyster Linen, the same colour as the house in the first two images of last post, with chalk USA trims. The front door will be either black or gunmetal grey but this is still to be decided, ...the door knocker I have chosen is black and is currently on it's way from France. When it gets here I will make a final decision regarding the house/door colour! More about the renovation to follow very soon!

Meanwhile, here are some holiday snaps:

... and, despite the construction site it is wonderful to be home! I am currently watching the Royal Wedding (and typing this!) in a room in which two of the walls are comprised solely of orange plastic. The doors out to the backyard are nailed shut and the rain is slowly drifting in. Nevertheless, I am curled up on the couch, cocooned in a blanket that my grandmother knitted for my brother when he went off to boarding school at Timbertop (where Prince Charles went briefly), enjoying a glass of champagne and reminiscing about the last itme I watched a British Royal Wedding. It was 1981 and we were on posting in India. I think my parents might have been out or away as I watched the Wedding with my Ayah (nanny) and all the other servants and their families, in the servants quarters behind our house. There were at least a dozen of us squashed into a tiny room, watching the wedding on an even tinier black and white television, but I can still remember how thrilling it all was to a little 9 year old. It was the only thing that I saw on television in India and in English during the course of our posting to Delhi.

Hope all are well and I will be along to visit you all soon. xx

edited to add:

Julia, this is the new spa:

Exterior/Street Front Inspiration for Chez Pirate

2011-03-10T13:43:00.000+11:00

The renovation is about to begin in earnest and the pressure is on to make some decisions. For some time I have been photographing houses in our neighborhood and the surrounding suburbs for inspiration and one of my husband's hobbies is to spend hours perusing real estate sites so we have amassed quite a collection of images to inspire us in our latest renovating endeavour! Currently concentrating on exterior colour, weatherboard style (ie. classic,rusticated etc) and fretwork...

Love the colour of this house (am pretty sure it is the house in the Dulux ad!) and we are also planning to do a similar path of sandstone pavers across the back lawn to the pool.

Closer shot for y'all of the colour!

This house is in my Aunty's neck of the woods and everytime we drive past I swoon!

Another divine weatherboard!

Love the porch light!

This house is even further North at Palm Beach and is truly spectacular. Image is from Architectural Digest and if you want to see more photos of the interior (divine) see here.

Love the colour of this house as well, in fact I love it so much that I knocked on the door once on my way back from the beach with dripping wet hair and still in my bathers and asked the owner what the colours she had used were. She was just gorgeous and very kindly shared with me! (Image originally from Domain.)

Another jewel on the Northern Beaches. The pirates often play at the playground across the water from this house and I find it very distracting! (Image originally from Domain.)

Here are all the colour samples painted onto the side of the house... we are leaning towards the centre one. Any thoughts?

Two lovely things happened to me today!

2011-03-08T13:45:00.001+11:00

Which is especially lovely as I have a horrible flu like cold at the moment!

Lovely thing number one:

In the mail arrived my first giveaway win ever, infact my only win ever!!!! I won a copy of The Outside Boy on Julia's fabulous blog and I am so looking forward to reading it! Thank you Julia!

Lovely thing number two:

I popped into our local Salvo's store (my favourite shop EVER) and look what I found!!!! A perfect, unchipped immaculate Carlton Ware single flower plate. AAAAHHHH! Rufus Wainwright was singing the chorus from Hallelujah in my head as I walked out of the shop!!!! I have been collecting Carlton Ware since my early university days and I have been looking for one of these plates for a LONG time. I feel better already.

A lazy weekend.

2011-03-01T12:53:00.000+11:00

Recently we have been frantically busy. Partly as we are just about to undertake a fairly major renovation, (plans approved, builder engaged, organising storage and rearranging bedrooms right now!) and partly due to the Captain starting school and Ross' business expanding. So it was a lovely change to have a relatively quiet weekend with only a few comittments to attend... and for the first time in ages we actually managed to capture all four of us behind the lens. This is such an unusual event that I have posted the photo! Here we all are, admittedly not the best photo of all of us, but as Jane would say... we're keeping it real people!

Saturday night we went to Hugos Manly for dinner. A truly great local restaurant. It is in a fantastic location on Manly Wharf and has an amazing colonial/plantation style ambience. It also manages to simultaneously be both intimate and romantic and yet family friendly! We have had dinner there on date nights and also pizza early in the evening with kids and it is perfect for both. Not many restaurants can accomplish this! Can you tell I love it?

The view from our table. Note the bicycle leaning against the railing outside. Every time I looked at it I thought of Julia and her fantasy bike collection.

This is the dish that we go there for... not the little one's pizza, although the pizza is fantastic, proper crispy thin crust! No, we get cravings for the... Wagyu beef carpaccio with roasted baby beetroot, whipped goat’s curd & balsamic glaze!!! Delicious! I also recommend the Pimm's cocktail. As a Pimm's aficionado I often find it undrinkable unless I have mixed it myself. Hugos gets it right everytime, half ginger ale, half lemonade and just the right amount of fruit to cucumber! Refreshing, delicious and perfect for a late afternoon or early evening cocktail.

The boys like it there as well. He is spotting fish!

Project Organise: The Car (plus some photos of the wall mounted TV for Rachael)

2011-02-20T13:34:00.000+11:00

As the back seat of our car always seemed to look like this:

I decided that some Project Organise was necessary. A quick trip to Kmart and I purchased this little canvas storage unit to put in between the boys car seats. I measured the space first as there is not much room between them. I know this as I had to squash myself in the back the other day when we were dropping my MIL home... to the other side of Sydney! Anyway, inside I put all the various items that the boys use to entertain themselves on car trips. Books, colouring-in items, a couple of puzzle toys and a few small matchbox cars and planes.

Fits perfectly! At the back is a Crayola Travel Turtle. I am really hoping to avoid going down the DVD player in the car path, so this is my way of trying to keep the boys entertained on long car trips! Audio books on CD have been fantastic as well.

For Rachael:

Photo of the TV, it is wall mounted above the sideboard. The bracket for the TV is not centered above the unit as it needed to be attached to a load bearing stud. Something to think about if you are wall mounting! The TV moves around on the bracket though so we can position it at different angles. In the above photo it is pushed back to the right against the wall.

My paternal grandparents were anthropologists. I inherited many of the artefacts that they collected in the 1930s/40s. These pieces are Aboriginal and Samoan and are hiding a speaker. The DVD player and Foxtel are also here, but when we renovate next month and this wall gets ripped out we will relocate these items into the sideboard itself.

At the other end of the sideboard, is the amp, another speaker, one of my WW1 ashtrays, an aboriginal knife and a painting by June Bird.

Bling on Love!

2011-02-14T22:52:00.000+11:00

Happy Valentine's Day to all and in the spirit of Maxabella and Felicity's "Bling on Love" here is my story:

I met my husband when I was 25 years old. He was dressed in head to toe lycra the day that I met him, which is definitely worthy of a blog entry at some point! Tonight though I will share the story of our engagement. So, several years after our first fortuitous meeting we were now living together and enjoying our hedonistic youth! I had been away on a trip and walked in the door at about 10 o'clock at night, exhausted and filthy, this was after all in my ~~glamourous~~ flying days. Husband-to-be was lovely and welcoming, offering me a glass of wine as I walked through the door, but all I wanted to do was have a shower and crawl into bed. Ignoring his requests to come and sit down with him I went and had a shower. Afterwards feeling a bit more refreshed and a touch guilty I sat down with him on the couch where he kept trying to engage me in conversation. Getting increasingly irritated with him, I growled at him what do you want?

To marry you was his response. As you can guess I had not been expecting that answer! Looking at him in confusion he suddenly whipped a little black velvet ring box out of his pocket and flicked it open. Inside I saw the most spectacular diamond!

Sliding off the couch into an awkward kneeling position, squashed between the couch and the coffee table, he then asked me to marry him. Yes, I jubilantly replied and promptly burst into tears! He hadn't actually been planning to ask me that night but the diamond had apparently been burning a hole in his pocket the whole day and he simply couldn't wait for excitement. Although my crankiness had not been part of his grand plan naturally!

I am not really a jewellery person and rarely wear it so he wasn't confident to select a ring for me, but as he wanted to present me with something when he proposed he decided to go ahead and just buy a diamond. Opening the ring box and seeing the diamond sparkling inside was an unforgettable moment and although not exactly a well planned or executed proposal it was actually suprisingly romantic and special!

Happy Valentine's Day Ross!

The Joys of Boys, Part 2....

2011-02-10T13:55:00.000+11:00

A few snapshots highlighting some of the pleasures of life in a male dominated household...

Visits to the lagoon involve weed hurling and mud:

Emptying the pool skimmer basket you find various random objects (I could actually devote a whole blog post to this subject):

Be prepared for the suprise gifts:

And you will be on a first name basis with the local hospital Emergency staff (That would be the remains of a black eye, a scab on his nose and you can just see the stitches in his chin... there are four of them!):

Ah, my rambunctious little rascals, I love you both so much! xx

The Pirates make some Bontings

2011-02-07T12:11:00.000+11:00

If you are unfamiliar with award winning childrens author Shirley Hughes, I highly recommend her wonderful books. Written and illustrated by her they capture the everyday magic of childhood. Timeless stories, illustrations with a minutiae of detail and charming characters. Indeed, they are so brilliant that I actually don't mind reading them countless times.

The Alfie Out of Doors storybook is a gorgeous collection of stories and poems about children playing outside. One story tells the tale of Alfie's beloved stone Bonting. Both Pirates have long adored this tale and have often asked if we could make some Bontings. Finally, we got around to it:

Supplies were sourced from the garden! And the craft box.

They were busy for nearly two hours! (An excellent activity...)

These lovely stones are the little one's work.

The Captain made this gorgeous ladybird as a birthday present for his father. R loved it and is going to use it as a paperweight.

The Captain starts School

2011-01-31T13:16:00.000+11:00

Last Friday my darling Captain started school. We spent a great deal of time preparing him for this new adventure. For instance, I let him accompany me on many outings dressed like this:

Yes, that would be an old silk tie from the mid 1970s that belonged to his grandfather, his new school shoes and a hat from his old pre-school. I know, he looks so handsome!

The school was very specific about hair. Short back and sides apparently. This was harder for me than him.

We read an awful lot of these and that is exactly what they were, awful. Can anyone recommend a good book about starting school? Luckily, the school had made a fabulous book that included photos of his teacher, photos of the school itself and many details about the school's daily routine. We read it many times in preparation for this momentous event.

So proud to be wearing his new uniform!

Not a tear either. From him or me!

My darling boy, I am so proud of you and wish you all the best on this new and great adventure.

Carmen at Sydney Opera House

2011-01-25T21:30:00.001+11:00

Last night, for the first time ever, I went to the Opera... at the Sydney Opera House!

And... I went with my dearest and oldest friend, (her lovely Ma has a subscription),

and...

we saw Carmen!

Here we are having a quick champagne beforehand. That is me on the right and Veronica on the left.

The entire experience was amazing. Highlights included; listening to the orchestra. A lovely reminder that music doesn't just come out of a little rectangle. Hearing Habanera sung so exquisitely, although as a child of the 1970s this image popped into my head during the performance! And in the tavern scene in Act 2, the cast performed a dance similar to the Pasodoble (my only knowledge of which comes from Strictly Ballroom though so I could be wrong) with tambourines that was a visual and orchestral feast for the senses.

Thank you Veronica for a truly wonderful experience.

The Wind in the Willows

2011-01-21T15:52:00.000+11:00

For the past few years, every January we have taken the boys to see the brilliant Australian Shakespeare Company's production of the Wind in the Willows. Performed in the Botanic Gardens, located on Sydney's spectacular harbour, it is a truly magical evening. Although it is possible to attend a daytime performance, I have found attending the evening show the most fun. It is a lovely opportunity to sit on the grass and have a picnic dinner with the kids before the show actually starts and the Botanic Gardens are stunning, with bamboo groves, ponds and sweeping lawns by the harbour for the kids to explore. Then as the glare of the sun fades and the sea-breeze picks up, you can relax on the picnic blanket with a glass of wine, as the kids watch the entire show in wide-eyed enchantment!

The boys simply adore it as audience participation is encouraged and the location outdoors is well utilised. About halfway through the performance the entire show moves from the Main Pond to a nearby location (about 150 metres away) which is the site for Toad Hall. From here Ratty and Mole then take the older children to the Wild Wood to search for Portly. This year for the first time Nicholas raced off with all the other kids to join in the hunt!

Allowing the children to participate and have a run around during the preformance ensures that they stay focused on the production and thoroughly enjoy it.

Anyone unfamiliar with the Wind in the Willows, I highly recommend the book. Written by Kenneth Grahame for his son, it is an unforgettable tale of adventure and friendship and most certainly a childhood classic! Reading it aloud to Nicholas recently I have found it as entrancing as I did as a child.

I so love having flight attendant friends!

2011-01-19T11:06:00.000+11:00

This just in from London:

A lovely new cover to go with my new phone!

New bed linen for the little one, he has just moved into his big boy bed!

Thanks Eva!!!!

"On the Loose" Lego Exhibition and Sydney Aquarium

2011-01-17T12:50:00.000+11:00

As I am currently CEO (Chief Entertainment Officer) of the School Holidays, I have been busy trying to keep the Pirates occupied and out of mischief. Lots of excursions have taken place and one of the best was a trip into the city to see On the Loose, a Lego exhibition at Sydney Aquarium and Wildlife World.

The pirates (and friends) examining one of the lego murals up close. These were absolutely spectacular, even for a non-lego person. Created from one dot lego pieces, up close they resembled a pixelated image on a screen:

But with some perspective became a remarkable mural:

The lego murals and figures, life size models of sharks, mermaids, scuba divers and so on were dotted amongst the exhibits in both the Aquarium and Wildlife World, making the experience of attending the exhibition twice as exciting.

I adored these dainty little glow-in-the-dark Jelly Fish:

The boys favourite?

Yes, the sharks were a highlight (especially the feeding of them) but it must be said that they spent most of their time in here:

The lego play room at Wildlife World. Luckily, there were chairs and a Cafe in this room!

Danks Street, Waterloo

2011-01-10T20:45:00.001+11:00

On the weekend I had a brief break from the massive de-cluttering that is taking place Chez Pirate to head East as Ross was craving Wagyu Burgers from Cafe Wah Wah. I love Dank St as many of my favourite shops are located in the area but I had never been to the Bromley Arcade, clearly an oversight as he is one of my most loved artists. I have one of his paintings, which I treasure and I am also obsessed with Mark Tuckey. Tuckey and Bromley established the Bromley Arcade as a joint venture and for me it was a heavenly combination....

The boys recognised Pirate Boy immediately!

This would be divine in the little one's room!

Love!

My pond yacht obsessed pirates adored this little boy as well.

After exploring the wonders of the Arcade (if in Sydney you must visit!) we popped into Eco Outdoor. The shop where we sourced the stone for our retaining walls around the pool and I noticed that they had the same vintage wine baskets as I do. Only I had never had the brilliant idea of using them as hanging baskets for plants. They literally had them hanging en masse at the entrance of the shop and they looked stunning.

Watch this space to see my interpretation of this brilliant idea!

They also had very interesting lighting, I guess for any room but especially fantastic for outdoor rooms. These ones reminded me of Mark Tuckeys work and also conjured up images in my head of paddocks and barbed wire fences (I went to boarding school in the country!).

These lights are made from Tumbleweeds and were very impressive in real life, unfortunately the photo does not do them justice. A visit to the shop is well worth it!

Project Organise is in full swing!

2011-01-07T14:29:00.000+11:00

This is what I have been up to for the past 24 hours. Organising. De-cluttering... (is that actually a word?) and Donating (8 garbage bags so far! )

As much as I loathe plastic, today I have admitted to myself that it has it's good points and just quietly it is fantastic for storing things in the garage and the laundry. Never in my life would I have thought that I would say that aloud, let alone write it down, but it actually suits my slightly OCD personality. I am loving that the plastic boxes are clear and I can see what is in them, although I have been wielding the label maker as you can all see (more OCD issues), and that the boxes are watertight and stackable. Genius really!

Am currently cullling items according to the if I don't absolutely love it, need it or use it rule. Anyone have any further suggestions?

A salty, sandy Christmas in Sydney

2010-12-30T15:55:00.000+11:00

I hope everyone had a magical Christmas! I will be along to visit you all soon. In the meantime, here are some photos of our Christmas in Sydney:

Decorations hanging from my beloved rusty lobster pot.

The ~~Captain~~ King and his favourite gift from Santa!

A ~~Snow~~ Sandman

Wishing you all health and happiness for the New Year!

It's been 6 years... and best wishes to the lovely Jane.

2010-12-20T14:54:00.000+11:00

Recently I celebrated my sixth wedding annniversary. In this relatively short time, together we have experienced the truly magnificent and also the one rather random and unexpected shock, it has almost all been magnificent though and I am truly grateful to my wonderful husband for the last six years.

It hardly seems possible that it was six years ago that we gathered all our friends and family together to celebrate our marriage:

and drank copious amounts of champagne and watched fireworks and celebrated till early the next morning:

at my favourite place in the world:

A special day, but it all seems rather insignificant though in the scheme of things when I think that today the lovely, dignified and courageous Jane undergoes surgery. Best wishes for a speedy recovery Jane.

Getting ready for Christmas!

2010-12-15T14:46:00.000+11:00

This year for the first time I am hosting the family Christmas. Admittedly not the entire extended family is attending, however there will still be 10 adults and 5 children and I feel a little overwhelmed by it all! So far, all I have done is dress the tree and put up some of the decorations around the house.

Not these ones though! My beloved vintage Shiny Brites are well and truly out of reach for the time being and I am currently undecided as to where the safest place to display them is. Obviously somewhere high though! Very high, as I am afraid I can't trust my two mountaineers not to attempt an expedition to retrieve them.

The rest however are fairly hardy and have been hung by the boys on the tree, with a little tweaking by me afterwards! I am loving the baby's tongue poking out in concentration here!

And his tippy-toe stretch here!

We have been reading Christmas stories every evening before bed. We only have this small selection, some of which date back to my childhood and I would love to get some more, does anybody have any good recommendations?

And if anyone has any ideas about what Dragon Island might be, I would be even more grateful!

Another trip South...

2010-12-13T13:40:00.000+11:00

On the weekend we flew down to Melbourne for a Christmas Party and look who I ran into outside our hotel:

I know!!! I can't believe it either!!! I had taken the boys downstairs to go for a quick scooter along the river before the babysitter arrived and had noticed the police cars/boats/helicopters as the boys were scootering about. About 10 minutes later Oprah sauntered past us chatting with the Prime Minister! Apparently not long before she had made an appearance in Federation Square with 26 000 fans... there were maybe 50 people outside when we saw her!

This is how close she was to us!

A trip down South

2010-12-06T14:08:00.000+11:00

We have just returned from a weekend away on the south coast of New South Wales. The highlight of which for me was a trip to nearby Milton, a tiny little village up on a hill loooking over the coast. It is a lovely little spot full of charming cottages, cafes, boutique homewares shops and best of all some great antique shops. I have been visiting Milton for years, (although as a kid I was more into the Scarecrow Festival they have annually than the antique shops), and have watched the gentrification of the town with interest. At the moment I think it is just about perfect and definitely not too touristy like Berry is nowadays.

A lovely cottage in the main street of town:

The view from where I parked the car:

I spent Friday morning exporing several antique shops and there were numerous items I desperately wanted to bring home with me but considering the amount of luggage that our car was literally stuffed with I was obliged to "look and not touch" (as I warn the children every time we enter a shop in a steely voice).

How I would have loved this old lobster pot to decorate our back deck with.

I can't stop thinking about this rustic meat safe, with it's crackled old blue paint.

I already have way too many of these old suitcases, but I still adore them!

I don't have any of these old trunks however and surely they would make great storage for something...

Lots of divine items here...

and here!

Tretchikoff prints can look amzing in the right houses and this one of the "blue lady" against the wall paper looked fabulous.

Looking forward to my next visit and this time I will make sure that there is some room in the car!

The joys of boys...

2010-12-01T19:22:00.001+11:00

As the only female in the house I feel a little outnumbered, especially when I come home to find...

A tadpole on the dining table... (plus random peg)

Alongside, a very furry caterpillar...

Just in case you couldn't see the little guy (yes, everything is male around here I am sure of it!)...

and... that would be a bike in the background. Apparently it needs to live in the dining room until it is added to the insurance. Hmmm.

Swimming Pool Update and a visit to Abode Bazaar

2010-11-29T20:20:00.000+11:00

We have had a rather industrious weekend at Pirate HQ. My parents have been up visiting, which has been lovely as R and I were able to complete various tasks around the house. Often a challenge when small children are "helping" or feeling needy, so it was fabulous to have some extra pairs of hands! One of the main jobs on my to do list was to source some pots similar to the one above. My mission was unsuccessful unfortunately, however at Abode Bazaar in Willoughby (one of my favourites!) I found some other lovely pots that I decided were perfect anyway!

This is one of the new Abode pots with a lovely Bromeliad in it, I so love the aged, stone effect of the pots. They remind me of the gardens in India for some reason. Whereas, my blue and white china pot makes me think of KL and Singaporean gardens ( that particular pot was purchased years ago when we were on posting in KL though.):

Another to do list job was to complete the landscaping around the swimming pool. R has been pottering away at it for the last few months slowly but having my Dad around for a few days, they both got stuck into it and I am truly impressed with the result. The stone is from Eco Outdoor and is the Random Ashlar "Clancy" one and they did it themselves! In one day! R also did all of the decking himself, that did take a fair bit longer than one day though!

In this photo you can see the pile of stone that was delivered. They then stuck each piece of stone onto the cement sheeting, fitting the pieces together like a puzzle. The more random the better it looked we decided!

My Dad hard at work,(R is cracking the whip somewhere in the background!):

The end result! (Ignore garden and pool furniture for now, still working on those parts...). Although, you can admire the lovely new glass pool fence!:

The Apprentice

2010-11-25T13:28:00.000+11:00

There is a new apprentice working on the decking around the pool... I so love his choice of workwear.

A new bedside table.

2010-11-23T13:53:00.000+11:00

For a while now I have been using a stack of magazines and books as a bedside table and it was starting to irritate me no end each time I entered the bedroom and glanced at my side of the bed! Clearly, I desperately needed a new bedside table and as we are about to renovate and my bedroom will be completely different once finished, I was reluctant to spend a lot of money on something that might not work in the room post-renovation. I also didn't want to spend a medium amount of money on a stop gap bedside table that I didn't love. Instead, I popped into our local Salvos store and picked up this rather ugly bookshelf for $15.

I gave it a light sand and a new coat of paint and I am delighted with the end result. After the renovation is complete and once I have found the perfect bedside tables I am going to move it to the future guest bedroom as a new bedside table where it will work perfectly next to my old black wrought iron bed that is currently stored under the house. Well, I hope it will work anyway!

David Bromley's "Pirate"

2010-11-22T15:08:00.010+11:00

For many years I have coveted David Bromley's paintings, in particular the "Childrens Series." My passion for collecting vintage childrens books, in particular first edition Enid Blytons probably led to my love of his artwork. More recently, since the arrival of my two little pirates I have longed for a Bromley featuring "pirate boy." Well, my wonderful husband just arrived home from work with a suprise package for me.

I recognised the painting immediately, despite the packaging and burst into tears! I have long adored it, other bloggers have blogged about it! I really can't quite believe that it is hanging on our wall! Thank you to my lovely husband.

Cairns and Palm Cove

2010-11-19T14:17:00.000+11:00

Some holiday snaps:

Exploring the parks and gardens of Cairns and Palm Cove has ignited a new gardening obsession... I now NEED to have a tropical garden in the backyard and around the pool area! Some of the extraordinary plants we saw:

Arriving home late last night we had a quick dinner at one of our favourite haunts and it was just so good to be home!

The Garden

2010-11-09T20:19:00.000+11:00

The garden is just looking marvellous at the moment. The lawn and the swimming pool are sprinkled all over with Jacaranda petals and just look divine. I used to have issues with Jacarandas, as when I was at university there was a saying: "If you haven't started studying by the time the Jacaranda in the Main Quadrangle blooms, then it is too late!" I had Archaeology in that corner of the Quadrangle and had to pass the tree a few times a week. Anxiously I would examine it for any signs of blossoms! University now seems like a lifetime ago and as I live in a house surrounded by four jacaranda trees I have grown to adore them!

The "exam tree" in bloom! Aaaaaahhhh!!! Image is from here:

The rest of the garden is looking fabulous as well! I recently read (I think in House and Garden) that for every $1000 you spend on plants for the garden, the value of the house can increase by up to $5000! My planned New Years Resolution preventing future nursery purchases might be unnecessary, I am investing in the property!

Mr Mischief (aka baby Pirate)

2010-11-08T20:12:00.001+11:00

When your children are born you imagine that one day with your loving and nurturing care they will grow up to be Noble Prize winning authors, eminent surgeons, you know pillars of society types! Then gradually your ambitions for them start to disentegrate and you realise that all that really matters is that they grow up to be happy and in this one's case... we are doing our best to prevent him from spending some time at Her Majesty's Pleasure. Yes we have a two year old delinquent Chez Pirate.

Vandal? Check! Indeed, this one has a future career as a graffiti artist. Most significant crime? He walked up the hall with a purple crayon and left a line running the length of the hall and the very large, rather expensive painting hanging in the hall? Yes, went straight over the top of that too.

Thief? Check! Twice now we have found him harbouring stolen goods in his pram. He lunges for anything in reach and then hides whatever takes his fancy. We now have to search him and the pram before leaving any shops.

Identity theft? Check! He raided my purse and ran off with the drivers licence. Who knows what he was planning to use it for? When we finally found it, he had somehow snapped it in half. The mind boggles just thinking about it!

Here he is perfecting his break and enter techniques. Note the collection of tools at his feet:

Hmmmm.

Look what I found!

2010-11-03T14:12:00.000+11:00

After dropping the Captain off at pre-school this morning, the baby and I raced around a few of our local op shops and look what I found!

This divine vintage pyrex bowl, which is going to be used to house the rest of my boring and non-vintage pyrex bowls! Four dollars!!!!

And the discovery of the morning, this lovely unchipped, immaculate (and genuine!) Cornishware vase... Five dollars!!!!! (Flowers from my mother-in-law, thank you Pat!) The stack of books, yes picked all of them up this morning... 50 cents each! I am so pleased with my mornings shopping!

A Tag - Thank you Sarah!

2010-11-02T18:27:00.003+11:00

The lovely and always thoughtful Sarah at One Perfect Day has passed me a getting to know you tag. One day I really hope to sit down and have a coffee and a slice of her raspberry cake with her!

What is your favourite time of the day?

It used to be the morning,but since I have had children I love the end of the day. After everyone is fed and washed and the boys are in bed I do a final tidy up of the house and then sit down and have a chat to my husband. Sometimes we will have a glass of wine together, often I have a peppermint tea. A brief moment of peace and quiet, knowing that the boys are safe sleeping and all is well in the world, before bed!

Where and when did you meet the love of your life?

In 1997, I was at university and had a part-time job in a big law firm in the city. One day a bicycle courier walked in to the mail room in head to toe lycra ... and I will have to do a blog post one day with the rest of the story!

What three words would your friends outside of the blogging world use to describe you?

Loyal, clever, fun (from Veronica who I met at Girl Guides when we were both 12!)

What country would you like to visit and why?

India. It was my favourite posting (my father was a diplomat) and I would love to go back to see my Ayah (Nanny) and introduce my boys to her! I have been lucky enough to travel the world, both through my job as a flight attendant and my childhood travelling with my parents and India was the most magical and wonderful place. I still dream about it and I haven't been back since I was 10 years old.

What is your favourite dish to cook?

Scrambled eggs, made properly with cream and buttery toast.

Salt or sugar?

Both. I love Asian cuisine (having grown up in predominantly Asian countries...) and both flavours are fundamental.

What are your must have make up or beauty items?

Jojoba Oil (love it as a moisturiser) and Moroccan Oil (hair), as I had to wear make up every day for work I quite enjoy not wearing it now. If I am going out at night though, a bit of bronzer (Nars Laguna), Mascara (Covergirl Lash Exact) and Lip Gloss (Mac) always makes me feel groomed!

What are your favourite flowers?

Do I have to choose....? I adore so many, favourites include peonies, blossoms, singapore orchids and roses.

What are your worst vices...honestly?

Champagne and coffee.

At what time of your life were you happiest and why?

When we found out that the hole in Nicholas' heart didn't require surgery. I was so grateful that my tiny and precious little baby would not have to have open heart surgery.

Thank you Sarah for tagging me, I feel very honoured!

Happy Halloween and out first Jack-o'-Lantern

2010-11-01T15:26:00.000+11:00

This weekend was rather frantic, on Saturday I drove down to Canberra to attend my 20 year school reunion (yes, I am that old!). On the way down, just as we were passing through the Southern Highlands there was a serious car accident right in front of me. Literally, the car in front of me lost control and ended up swerving across both lanes twice and crashing into the median barrier. Fortunately, the driver was uninjured and I was able to stop in time and thankfully the car behind me also managed to stop in time. I was driving with my oldest and dearest friend who is pregnant with her first baby and also my not so little baby and I am so grateful that we are all okay! Anyway, the school reunion was fabulous and it was a lovely opportunity to catch up with friends that now live overseas or that I had lost contact with.

After a wonderful night out, including dinner at Ottoman! I then got up early on Sunday morning to drive home as I had promised the Captain that I would be home in time to help him celebrate Halloween. Halloween, although not typically an Australian celebration, is taken very seriously in my neighbourhood. A letter was deposited into our letterbox, instructing as that Halloween was appproaching and that if we were interested in participating to please tie the attached balloon to the letter box. The Captain was entranced! During the week we had purchased a pumpkin with the anticipation of making a Jack-o'-Lantern, never having made one before I was not sure how difficult it would be. Luckily, it was quite straightforward!

We started by carving a hole, to make the lid, in the top of the pumpkin. Once the "lid" was able to be lifted out we scooped out all the seeds and excess pulp.

We then used a pencil to draw a face onto the lantern and I then used a small paring knife to carve along the lines we had drawn.

A candle popped inside and it looked fantastic! The Captain was delighted with our efforts.

Sitting out on the front porch.

The ~~Captain~~ Bat waiting anxiously for Trick or Treaters.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Birthday Captain - The Pirate Party

2010-10-25T13:45:00.001+11:00

I woke on Saturday morning to the Captain standing next to the bed, fully dressed in his pirate outfit. It was 6.03 am and the first thing he said was, "how long until everyone gets here?" Blinking in the light shining in through the shutters he had opened, I was so thrilled to see it was a beautiful day.

A sign outside the house welcoming our guests!

Eye-patches, bandannas, cutlasses and hats ready to hand out to the little pirates.

Warning sign on the pool fence. As the decking is still unfinished we wanted to avoid anyone going into this part of the garden for safety reasons.

Baby Pirate.

The ship cake.

Cup-cakes.

The "thank you for coming" favours. We wrapped little chocolate bars in gold paper as "ingots" and the skull shaped cookie cutter I found on the Thurs at Aldi of all places, after trying all the more obvious baking suppliers unsuccessfully!

Finally, some pirates arrived and so did Pirate Peacock. From the moment these little pirates spotted Pirate Peacock sauntering down our street, lugging his pirate chest full of treasure, they were mesmerised. Apparently he had docked his ship nearby and was looking for some buccaneers.

Pass theTreasure Chest.

Tug-O-War (the little pirates LOVED this activity!)

Even this super-cute Pirate Princess had to walk the plank for being rude to the Queen. (Pirate Peacock was also very funny!)

The Treasure Hunt

Where is that treasure? The X is on the ship wrecked dinghy!

Finally they found it and had to whack it open with their cutlasses to get to the Pieces of Eight!

The Captain and his cake.

Thank you for coming to my party!

For those that have asked about Pirate Peacock contact:

http://www.fairycrystal.com.au/

He was absolutely fantastic! Brilliant at keeping in character and entertaining the children, I could not recommend him more highly!

Mayhem Chez Pirates!

2010-10-19T19:05:00.000+11:00

An eventful few days were had at Pirate HQ whilst R was away in Melbourne playing golf, staying at a glamorous hotel and dining at establishments like Gordon Ramsay's new restaurant. He had lobster and apparently it was outstanding, can you tell I am a teeny bit jealous...

Incident 1. The Snake

The Captain announced calmly to me from the french doors that lead out into the garden, "Mummy, there is a snake in the garden" the calmness of this statement threw me and I ignored him! In my defence, I was thinking to myself that it must be a stick he is looking at. A second, more urgent sounding "Mummy, there is a snake in the garden" got my attention though and I got up to have a look.

"Get inside the house and shut all the doors and windows!" I screeched, grabbing the phone to call husband and seek his advice on what to do. Of course he was in Melbourne playing golf. Admittedly and in his defence, it was a charity match raising money for Ronald McDonald House, however at that point in time I was outraged that he was not at my beck and call. He suggested I ring WIRES. They were very helpful and identified the snake as a non-venomous tree snake! Phew!

Incident 2. The demise of the Dishwasher

Out of frustration and to punish husband for his neglectful absence in my time of need I went and bought myself a shiny new Miele dishwasher and to go with it a lovely new Miele oven. Well, it was on special and that never happens with Miele. Plus, our stove top is Miele, so now everything matches and looks lovely!

Incident 3. The Power Failure

Tree-loppers across the road in their attempt to remove some Bangalow Palms managed to accidentally knock down a giant Strezlitzia straight onto the power lines! No power for hours, this was merely inconvenient compared to incident 4 though.

Incident 4. The Wardrobe Malfunction

I left the house at half-past eight and dropped the Captain off at pre-school. Then with the baby went to do the shopping, pottered around Spotlight buying party items, had a coffee and some lunch and then visited several of my favourite junk shops. During the course of the day I chatted with numerous people, but it was not until half-past two when I went to collect the Captain from school, that one of the other lovely Mums sidled up to me and whispered in my ear, "Emma, your dress is on inside out!" I was mortified! I have decided to blame R for this incident. If he had been at home he might have perhaps noticed such a significant wardrobe malfunction. Also I might not have been so distracted (see incidents one, two and three).

Thankfully, throughout the mayhem, my two little pirates were angels... thank you boys!

P.S. I love my new oven and dishwasher and it made walking around the northern beaches with my frock on inside out all better, admittedly some rather extravagant retail therapy though!

Pirate Party - Preparations Continue.

2010-10-18T19:48:00.000+11:00

Preparations for the Pirate Party this weekend are well and truly underway now. So far we have made the treasure map, as you can see the Captain got into the spirit of things:

The clues for the treasure map are stored inside these little pouches I found at a $2 shop. The sword is the final clue and is the weapon to "open" the Treasure Chest pinata:

Filling the pinata full of "pieces of eight" (chocolate coins):

Making the pinata shell, hopefully when it is finished it will loosely resemble a Treasure Chest:

I am making 21 of these newspaper swords, see Alphamom for the tutorial:

The Captain's hearty approval:

Lastly I chopped up the sun-shade umbrella to begin converting the outdoor table into a pirate ship. Do you think my husband will be cross? As he has been in Melbourne, gallivanting about and wining and dining with friends and I have been at home, alone with two children. Left to deal with amongst other day to day things, a rogue snake (eeek!) and a broken dishwasher (gah!), he had better not say anything:

More on the rogue snake and other recent domestic issues tomorrow!

Have a nice day then!

2010-10-14T13:38:00.000+11:00

Conversation with the little one at 7pm last night, moments before bedtime:

LO: I am going out.

Me: (grabbing camera off kitchen bench to fire off a few snaps quickly) Where are you going darling?

LO: (Smiling beatifically for camera) To work.

Me: Really? Are you sure you should wear the bunny ears to work?

LO: Yes, dadda always wears bunny ears to work.

Me: (Laughing, all other photos now blurry) Does he now? I must have a word with your father about that then!

Embracing thrift with cute cowboys!

2010-10-12T18:27:00.000+11:00

As I have two boys, my intention has always been to buy good quality clothes for Boy One and then hopefully pass some of his wardrobe onto Boy Two. Boy One though has turned out to be extremely active and enjoys playing in the dirt, trees, sandpit and other typical boy joy places. Most clothing has survived the mud and the dirt very well. Seed, Country Road, Gap and Old Navy are definite favourites. However, almost all of Boy One's pants have suffered in the knee area. It seems so wasteful to throw out a pair of trousers just because the knees have worn through, so in the spirit of thrift and with noble thoughts regarding the environment, I asked my lovely Mum if she could sew some knee patches for me. I am so pleased with the end result that I am blogging about it!

I knew that if I was to be happy with the patches that the fabric had to be cute. So after quizzing a clever pre-school Mum (Thank you Susan!) I found some gorgeous cowboy fabric at a nearby quilting shop. A fat quarter of cowboy fabric cost a few dollars and if you think about the cost of buying a new pair of decent pants, a few dollars is nothing.

The patches were stitched on by hand, with some additional fabric stitched onto the inside leg of the jeans (basically behind the patches), in order to meet boy play standards. This will come in handy as Boy Two is following in Boy One's gumboots and is equally as fascinated with mud, dirt and general outdoor mischief.

Perfect play clothes for the little one! Thanks Grandma!!!

The Gruffalo

2010-10-08T15:52:00.000+11:00

This morning I took the pirates to see the stage production of The Gruffalo. The Captain, who can almost recite The Gruffalo in it's entirety, just loved it and the baby watched wide eyed and adored roaring when the "mouse" requested that the children in the audience roar! To anyone who is unfamiliar with the books and has young children, I highly recommend all of Julia Donaldson's books but in particular The Gruffalo and The Gruffalo's Child. Written in rhyme, the story will appeal to most children and is so clever that I actually don't mind reading it over and over again!

Berrima

2010-10-06T21:49:00.000+11:00

I met up with my parents for lunch today in Berrima, a lovely little town a few hours south of Sydney in the Southern Highlands. They have very kindly had The Captain to stay for the last few days and so we met in Berrima so that they could return him to me! I adore meeting up with them here as we can have a lovely lunch at one of the numerous cafes and then I can have a leisurely stroll through the many antique shops whilst they entertain the grandchildren in the park! Today we had lunch at The Magpie Cafe on the verandah.

The Captain dancing about with excitement on the verandah at the cafe, telling me all about the wonderful time he has had with Grandma and Grandpa:

Although it would have been just as lovely to eat outside on the pavement under the blosssoms, petals were drifting down with the slight breeze and filling the air with their delicious scent:

The highlands are in the midst of Tulip Time and there were half barrels full of tulips lining the streets:

Even the post office had tubs of flowers outside:

This cat is a local identity. He gracefully permitted me to photograph him outside his home:

A must in Berrima is a visit to Peppergreen's. An absolute favourite of mine:

It is full of vintage kitchenalia:

Glassware:

Vintage linen:

Other collectibles:

Beautiful things:

There are several rooms full of collectibles and it truly is a feast for the eyes!

Thank you to my wonderful parents for having Nicholas to stay! He had a marvellous time and we had a lovely break!

It was far too quiet...

2010-10-05T20:11:00.000+11:00

I was on the phone to my husband, discussing the necessity of my latest nursery order (as in garden nursery, yes it is a weakness. Note to self: think about making NYE resolution preventing future nursery purchases!) Anyway, during the course of the phone call I suddenly noticed the absence of the little one. Wandering through the house looking for him, I spotted this:

That would be a 2 kilo jar of sugar next to his feet. I hastily said to my husband. "Um... I need to go. Bye!" I grabbed the camera, as I really regret not taking the photos of this child covered in permanent marker aged 3 months (didn't find it that funny at the time... unfortunately!). Licking his lips:

Quickly shovelling in the last mouthful whilst Mummy snaps a few more photos:

Mwaaahhaaaahaaahaaaaaa!!!:

I recall saying some time ago that this child has a sweet tooth!

Addendum: all nursery purchases for CURRENT garden need to be completed by Christmas 2010

Pirate Party - the Invitations

2010-10-01T15:18:00.000+10:00

So this is what I have spent my morning doing! I copied a treasure map image I found through google images, faded it to make a background and then typed the invitation wording across the top. The font is blackadder. Once printed, I cut out the invitation and dunked it in a baking tray of very strong tea. Singed the edges with a lighter and lastly, tied with twine!

I think I will have to hand deliver them!