My first quilting bee!

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...

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

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:

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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

"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:

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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...

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

"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

"Silhouette"

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