I love "green waste" collection week...

                    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....

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!

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!