Colour in my Kitchen

It's not often that Steve unloads the dishwasher in rainbow order LOL.

And with the school holidays the washing is a lot more colourful than usual.

And right next to the rainbow of dishes

is a jug of spectacular bulbs 

which are growing in our backyard as weeds,

below the scaffolding.

A good antidote to the sound of circular saw and nailgun upstairs.

Knitted Hangers - Bunchy Bloomers and Clean Striped

Steve gave me the lovely Jane Brocket's The Gentle Art of Knitting for Christmas.

(which I actually found for myself a few days before, on special!)

and I couldn't get knitting soon enough.

On Christmas night,

Steve headed off to bed with a migraine :-(

and I sat down to watch

my new DVD 

Lark Rise to Candleford

and knit.

I needed something quick and easy with little

decision-making involved.

I chose the Bloomer pattern hanger from the book

and a pale yellow acrylic yarn from my stash

and got knitting.

Then I added some cuteness.

Done!

Not as bloomer-looking as Jane's, perhaps, but satisfying nonetheless.

* * * 

This week the knitting bug caught again 

and I craved stripes in cotton.

I started knitting up some cotton yarns from my stash

which are really too pale to go with most of my cotton yarns.

 

And then for some contrast on one side I added a few brighter coral stripes.

After a couple of nights of watching 

Mentalist and Band of Brothers 

it was finished.  

No rush here,

the pleasure is in the knitting

and the mixing of colours.

I sewed it over an old satin-covered hanger

And I love it.

But perhaps it needs something else?

A little more aqua?

Too floppy

Better.

Or maybe I'll go back to the plain, striped look?

Next up, something more ambitious ....

The Builders are Back

After a 3-week break, the builders are back.

Actually, just a carpenter with other men dropping in occasionally ....

In those 3 weeks, we have ...

celebrated Christmas, 

had a family get-together, 

relaxed a little, 

shopped,  

been to church,

went on a picnic,

saw Tintin,

slept in,

watched DVDs,

Steve worked 4 days, 

we celebrated Emily's birthday 

and then we split into two groups (adults and children!) 

for a short break last week (post to come!) 

But mostly, it feels like we have painted

and painted

and painted.

At least the progress is obvious:

As we first saw Laura's new room on 20th December

Same corner early this morning

But there's plenty more to come, 

today the carpenter started on the doors and door architraves.

Then there's the rest of the gyprocking to be done,

and the stairs to be finished 

and the skylight to be put in ...

and then there's the slight matter of the toilet door that can't fully open

due to the new stairs above.

Yes, sad but true.

(But we have a plan for that!

Thanks to my dad.

Anyway, that's another story ....)

All of that will need to be painted.

We'll be at it for weeks yet.

But we were pleased to paint almost everything we could

before today, just one more coat needs to be done on a couple of windows.

Which is pretty good, I guess, 

considering everything we've fitted into the last 3 weeks!

Emily turns 14

Emily turned 14 on Saturday!

She is such a lovely girl,

we are proud to be her parents.

We celebrated with a trip to

the Olympic Aquatic Centre at Homebush

then a movie night at home

watching Fantastic Mr Fox.

Emily loved the Sylvanian Families ambulance

we gave her, although she asked for it months ago

she wasn't really expecting it!

On Sunday Mum and Dad came over for lunch

and yesterday afternoon the girls went to Mum and Dad's 

for a 3-night sleepover.

* * *

And what are we doing with our child-free time, you might ask?

Well, yesterday afternoon there was lots of this:

Painting under the new stairs.

Apparently if you don't paint two coats under the stairs

they will warp and cup after you varnish the tops of the stairs.

Steve's job was the high parts, including this tricky and dusty spot 

between the ceiling and the new floor.

And my job was to paint under the main part of the stairs.

To paint this I had to lie on my tummy

or my back

or my side

whatever it took to get each surface covered.

Yuck!

But it's done now, 

and we have nicer plans for the next two days :-)

Stay tuned!

Our New Favourite Picnic Spot

We took a day off from painting today,

before Steve heads back to work tomorrow.

A beautiful summer's day for a picnic

28 degrees: warm in the sun 

 and cool in the shade.

Turkey, bread rolls, chips, salad

boats to watch

shells to collect

chatting 

sitting

and a playground.

This could become our new favourite picnic spot.

New Year's Day at Our House

New Year's Day,

gorgeous summer weather

and we are working hard.

After church and lunch we got stuck into some work.

Sorry, no sabbath rest for us today

... there's too much painting to be done!

(before Steve heads back to work on Tuesday)

on 20th Dec the upstairs looked like this

but now after 5-6 days painting it looks like this:

(wardrobe and roofspace)

(loving the colour of the linen cupboard) 

carpenters' notes

Stairwell still in progress - it's very hard to reach!

But it's all worth it when you get to this point

- where you can see the wall colour clean against the white cornice

... sigh ....

Emily's washing the car ....

I got tired of juggling ladders and the pile of timber in the hallway

so am taking a break to blog ...

Laura is in the front yard cleaning up 

all the little bits of builder's rubbish, plaster, gyprock

... still looking at the stairwell and wondering how to get the next two coats done ...

Steve finishing the second coat in Laura's room,

soon I will go in and cut-in and that room will be done too, 

except for the trim.

We have had a few breaks this week,

two walks to the park

a BBQ in the backyard

a visit to the cinema to see Tintin

... but I was so tired I fell asleep during the movie!

Time for a cup of tea

before I pick up my paintbrush again ...

Hope you are enjoying your New Year's Day too!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

This was a quick portrait taken on Christmas Morning, 

as we headed out for church.

In the chaos we couldn't find the tripod, 

so the camera was balanced on a kitchen stool 

.... hence the odd angle.

Laura wore her yr 6 Dinner dress again,

Emily finally fit into a dress she got on sale last autumn

and I wore a new dress too

since the weather was lovely and warm for once ...

Today is a lovely 27degrees or so ...

If the weather stayed like this

summer would be perfect!

Wishing you all the best for 2012.