transplanting

About 6 months ago we transplanted this little bird of paradise from a shady nook under a dying tree, to a sunny spot near our front door. It's only a temporary home, but it seems to like it, and produced it's first bloom this weekend.



This weekend we did some more transplanting outside (it was perfect weather to be outside). Transplanting old pavers (including sand bedding and edging strips) from the extension site to create a new bin store area down the driveway. Shifting other pavers and old pots to a corner of the garden where they are hopefully out of the way. Stuffing the rubbish bin with weeds. Moving a mass of greenery from the extension site to the freshly weeded garden beds. I can only hope they respond as positively to the upheaval as the bird of paradise has.

baggy trousers

C's pants have started to fall apart. Worn though at the knees after 5 1/2 months of crawling action. He has a deliberately small wardrobe, so everything gets lots of wear (and washing). I've already patched one pair, but given that he's starting to show a bit of ankle (blush) while wearing them I think new ones are called for. I have fabric. I just don't have the right pattern. Yet.

I've made two pairs so far, tweaking Japanese patterns to try to get the fit I want, but so far failing valiantly. Although with the 80's influenced fashions these days maybe he's going to be a trend setter? It's a bit frustrating though when you can't make the right thing right first time when your craft time is limited.

He doesn't seem to mind running about in them though.

Signed

Two years ago yesterday we used this pen to sign our Wedding certificate.

Yesterday we used it to sign our building contract.

All things going well, Father Christmas will have a new rooftop to park his reindeer on this year.

Getting to know you

The oven now works, although I'm still figuring out how to use it.



Yesterday I burnt muffins in it.



I was a bit distracted by the fact that I can actually see into it while it's cooking. It's like having a new TV.

At least I now know how to bake a pie with a crisp crust.

Spring

I'm going to try a bit of a different blogging tactic for a while. Quick posts, short on words, but hopefully not lacking in interest. More frequent posts with moments, observations, happenings from my days.

Today...
A windy spring day.

... our new walker wearing his new shoes (Dunlop Volleys. Takes me back to my childhood. Although mine were plain white and handed down from a boy down the street.) whilst helping us out in the garden this afternoon, playing with the rake and checking out the buds forming on the trees.

A little patchy and frayed around the edges

Blogging, and indeed all internet activity, has been a bit patchy for me of late. Just too much going on.

A flurry of frantic stuff as we sign a building contract and get the next phase of the renovation happening (while simulatneously trying to finish off bits and pieces on the kitchen and bathroom). Excitement and anticipation because this phase is the phase that inlcudes The Extension. That is, making the largely unused open space down the side of the house into highly utilised enclosed space for our lounge and (drumroll please) the Craft Room (slash study slash spare bedroom) (Plans here). Can't tell you how much I am looking forward to that. Don't know that I'll believe it's real until they start on site. Although forking over the desposit money may well bring it home.

Blogging action will continue to be thin on the ground for the rest of the year I fear. Even when I do find time for making and creating, finding time to photograph and blog about it is hard. I was lucky enough to find some time to meet up with Sooz and Kirsten for a weekend craft crawl. Ideas were shared, fabrics acquired and I'm gearing up for a frenzy of sewing on a craft weekend away in October, although at the rate that C is growing, and going through his knees, I really need to uncover some sewing opportunities before then...

just toddling about

For no apparent reason, this evening after his dinner C started walking.
Walking around and around and around.
Falling over and getting straight back up again.
Turning around.
Changing direction.
Laughing and babbling.
For about 20 minutes until he was too tired to get back up again.
It was so amazing to see his face, the realisation, the discovery, the wonder.
We had the presence of mind to capture a short video but the ability to upload me eludes me right now.

Cooking with gas

Another visit from the plumber and a few evenings spent assembling the rest of the cupboard drawers and corner carousels, and all of a sudden we're mostly operational and the Laundry has been retired from Scullery duties (athough it's still picking up some slack as a storage facility).



There's still a lot of little things to happen, but so far we're really pleased with it and I'm loving being in there, using it. The black brown timber looks fantastic and the layout and combination of finishes (soon to be joined by white tile splashbacks in the same rectangular white tiles as we used in the bathroom) is so much cleaner that the original and updates the whole feel of the house.



Of the many little things yet to happen, first up we need to attach all the handles so I can finish unpacking the boxes. I imagine, looking at them all, that there will need to be some judicious editing of the kitchen belongings to decide what goes into the new cupboards and what goes to charity. Only things that we use and (/or?) love will be staying.

And then there will need to be some sewing. New things for the kitchen and more than one person here urgently needs some seasonally appropriate clothes for the beautiful spring weather that arrived this week.

Best laid plans

In the past week or so, while I've been too busy to blog, I've been writing blog posts in my head.

There's the one about the Olympics foiling my kitchen plans*.

And the one about my new scullery**.

And one about the socks I'm knitting, which I'm going to rename my Downtown Socks***.

And the one about C wearing his orange coat as he crawls around the house etc (still not walking on his own, but having a language spurt instead which is possibly even more exciting and delightful).

And the one about how I made pretty tasty risotto in the electric frying pan last night, using the microwave to heat the stock, because the plumber didn't return on the weekend, so our sink and cooktop aren't fitted off yet, and the benchtops aren't fixed, and although we have been able to unpack the pantry boxes and we have a cutlery drawer that isn't sitting on the loungeroom floor, I think I'm starting to go a little bit funny in the head.

Oh, that's right- that's this post. There you have it. Progress pictures here.



* The cooktop wasn't in stock in Australia, and the factory is in Beijing, so shut down for the duration of the Olympics to reduce the air polution. So we weren't expecting to have our cooktop for a few weeks, and I'd been wondering whether I really wanted to cook on it, having such a distinct reminder that it's production and our consumption have environmental consequences. However, having satisfied myself that given the last cooktop provided 20 years of service, and that the new one isn't the bottom of the line, so it should provide at least that to us and our home's future occupants, the cooktop miraculously turned up on day 5, just in time to do the cutouts in the benchtop.

** The scullery. Formerly known as the Laundry. Actually, it's still our Laundry. But also the dishwashing zone, and the crockery storage zone, and the pantry, and the rubbish bin, and the cat's feeding spot, and the painting supplies store and clean up area. But it's no longer the back door. Because there are too many boxes in there to get to the door.

*** Downtown socks are the socks you realise you're making when you run out of yarn on your first Uptown sock, about 12 rows from the end of the toe. You contemplate just starting the second ball, and making the second sock shorter, but decide against that option. Instead, you decide to start the second sock at the toe and do a different heel, imagining that you'll frog the first sock later when you've gotten over being annoyed about running out of yarn so close to the end.