Archive for 2006
5th December 2006
This is a picture of the corner of our massive back deck. In the last couple of months it has decided to spontaneously fall apart. Not only are all the boards popping up, but the support structure underneath seems to be disintegrating. To walk across it is a little like a walking across a trampoline for a small person and for a large person it’s like participating in some kind of Japanese TV show where you may be plunged through the boards to certain injury at any moment.
We had a guy come out to give us a quote for the replacement last week. He hummed and haahed and told us that it isn’t going to be cheap and hummed and haahed some more until we asked for a rough guesstimate to which he replied “well, a job like this can keep changing as we go, but I would say around $15,000.”
…
…
“$15,000?!!!”
Hear the sounds of our jaws dropping, see our skin pale and start to perspire. Watch as we reel and gag.
When it was clear that Big-P and I are going to find it very difficult to spend $15,000 on a replacement deck, the builder started to jump up and down on the worse bits to demonstrate just how dangerous the existing deck is and just how dire a replacement is needed. He was not a small gentleman and I was seriously worried that he was going to go straight through and we would feel obligated to him to not only pay damages but hire him to build something close to a sea-going vessel all around the back of our house.
So he left promising to call us with an official quote. And he hasn’t – I guess we looked like a lost cause. And now? Of course we will get at least two other quotes. Presuming they all end up in the same realm, we are thinking it might be easier to remove the deck and reclaim the garden. This is a a daunting yet inspiring prospect. Actually it’s complete madness I’m sure, but surely cheaper than paying someone to replace the deck, and surely less harrowing than attempting to build a deck ourselves.
Surely!
1st December 2006
I have been hand quilting the little dress for Lily’s doll and I love doing it. I am not sure if I am doing it correctly but it seems to be working ok. And the binding is a little wonky but the colours work well with the Denyse Schmidt print so I’m happy. Inside is a lovely buttery yellow flannel which is a pleasure to catch a glimpse of.
Tomorrow we put up the christmas tree. We are going to pick up my Grandmother (and some brioche from the local french bakery) in the morning and bring her back so she can sit at the couch and laugh at us attempting to put all the branches of our fake tree in the right spots. I am looking forward to it – there is nothing nicer than opening up the ornament box and rediscovering all the lovely little things. Now… if only I can remember where I stashed the box. I swore I put it under the house but Big-P assures me that it’s not there. Hmmm.
30th November 2006
It’s the last day of November and I managed to post every day of the month. Most of the posts even seemed quite cheery.
In the end I quite enjoyed it, most days anyway. I feel like it has got me back into the swing of it all again which I really needed to do after Lily’s arrival and my blogging hit an all time low (four posts in two months!?). It’s also got me thinking about my craft pursuits again, and taking more photos and thinking about writing a book – so that’s all a wonderful bi-product of a seemingly daunting task.
And what about December? I would love to keep up this pace but school holidays descend upon us as does Christmas madness and in truth it would be lovely to have some evenings where there is absolutely nothing that needs doing after 8pm except cleaning my teeth so I am not going to set myself any crazy tasks.
But there you go. Whoo-hoo! And now I must away because there is an advent calendar which needs making.
29th November 2006
Wow – I love Wists! I use it to keep track of great kids’ finds for Kiddleylinks (which I mark private so I can reveal them later!) – but I can see that it will be useful to keep track of other beautiful things I find on the web. I just started this evening but I know I won’t be able to stop adding to it – it’s like a giant wishlist and gallery rolled into one. Mmmm.
28th November 2006
I think I might have broken my toe, or a bone in my foot. It’s purple and it’s very sore but I have no idea how I did it. I have a vague recollection of dropping something on it and saying “ow, that really hurt” but it seems to have snuck up on me. So I am limping around feeling grumpy. I did a tag search on flickr for “grumpy” and it’s quite a good one really. The tag search for “broken toe” is off putting but confirms my fears that I have a break none the less.
We have just come home from Amelia’s Christmas concert which was lovely, of course. Amelia was a cute little angel and sang like a star. Lily was very well behaved and even smiled through a huntsman incident – which involved not a very big, but still spidery, spider crawling all over her baby car capsule just after Phil had put her back inside it. We all shouted, screamed, stamped and panicked embarrassingly in front of most of Amelia’s class mates, parents and teachers, but the huntsman didn’t touch the baby which I feel is the most important thing. I guess big spiders could be one draw back to sending Amelia to kinder in a school set in beautiful National Park settings.
Anyway, I must go. Amelia is hyped on post-concert biscuit sugar and won’t go to sleep. I can hear things getting tense out there.
27th November 2006
Good things:
A big tall glass of unflavoured mineral water after a salty bowl of hot chips.
A hot cup of chai first thing in the morning almost before I even open my eyes (thanks Big-P)
My smallest girl rolling from back to front and front to back and looking so pleased with herself
My bigger girl full of love and smoochy kisses
Emails and photos from my parents in Japan
Fresh sheets
Guest contributors to Kiddley
Bean plants getting bigger
A family trip to the dentist – all good, no holes
Good packages in the mail
Green and Blacks white chocolate
Christmas shopping almost done
Felt ornaments from AK Traditions
And now 4 more posts until the end of NaBloPoMo!
26th November 2006
Amelia got really excited this evening when I suggested that we might have a Solstice dinner in December where we each choose something to prepare. Not only will it be the Solstice, but it will be six months since Lily was born and, while she has been a delightful baby, the first six months is pretty tough for one and all so reaching this milestone will be one for us to celebrate. Amelia decided she needed to do some research so out came all the kids’ cookbooks and her little stash of sticky bookmarks. As you can see actually settling on something is going to be a tough challenge but whatever it is it will surely be spectacular.
25th November 2006
My dentist told me that it takes 30 days to create a habit (she was talking about flossing) and I think she might be right. Starting off blogging every day this month was really hard, most evenings I sat down and moaned about how I had nothing to say and how I was too tired and how I wanted to watch TV instead and so on. Now, 25 days later I most days I feel I still have nothing to say, but I have relaxed a little and accepted that not every entry (or any for that matter) is going to be groundbreaking or change lives or inspire anyone or even make anyone laugh, and it has got a lot easier. There is less than a week left of NaBloPoMo and hopefully, unless there are unforeseen circumstances, I should make the distance.
I wish I had more time to write about the things which are really on my mind – to talk about creative stirrings and a feeling that life is gradually getting back on track and how much I love my little girls and why and what they mean to me. I also wish there was time to talk about the days when I find that being a mum is still something that feels so unnatural to me and I wonder what on earth I am doing but somehow usually when I wake up the next morning things feel much better again.
But there isn’t time to explain it all, so I post snippets instead and hope that they somehow convey a sense of all these things.
24th November 2006
I was hoping to have more of Lily’s doll finished for today’s W.I.P. photo, at least the hair sewn on if not the head attached, but it was not to be so here she is so far. Amelia is up at Kinder today so I am about to start cutting out her Ugly pink monster and then begin the arduous task of sewing on the 4 eyes… that is if Lily’s nap turns out to be a long one, which would be unusual, so we’ll see.
I haven’t mentioned here that during November and December we are having guest bloggers over at Kiddley. So far we have featured a book review by Kath from Whipup, a fabulous pinecone hedgehog by Myra from My Little Mochi, some Fall leaf art by Blair from Wise.. Craft and Amanda’s advent calendar that she made for her lovely Soule family last year. There will be plenty more to come, so stay tuned!
