Custard and Banana, the new decorating trend

So spring is here but unfortunately I have not quite been bouncing around with a spring in my step. Possibly because my kitchen is in dire straights. It appears that all my kitchen appliances have got wind of an impending renovation and have decided to simultaneously revolt. The dishwasher is hanging in there, just, but is doing a decidedly dodgy job.  The expensive stove installed by previous owners is a grim situation. Three of the five burners work, the oven seal collapsed and recently the oven itself has shorted out the power twice and now runs continuously unless we turn it off at the wall. You can imagine how long it takes to heat up and how joyless it is to cook with. Have I mentioned before that I cook nearly everything from scratch due to children with food issues? Then there was an incident of superhuman strength from the three year old who managed to pull out and break my implements drawer.

To say that we had storage issues before would be an understatement, but now when I go into our office to get all the pantry items that will not fit in my pantry, I  also have a large plastic bag full of egg flips, whisks, can openers and the like. The final straw was the discovery that two of the three kitchen lights have blown and cannot be fixed with a new bulb as it is actually the fittings that have corroded. Grrr. Did I mention we have been shopping for state of the art light fittings?

Yes, that would be a ten dollar industrial work light  from Bunnings. See how the banana of the cage fitting perfectly complements the custard of my kitchen wall ? The only upside of all this is that it is highly motivating us to sort out our house plans. We have a new draftsman who has been able to produce some great images to help us make the final decisions we have been struggling with. These are still a work in progress, but it's getting close.

Now I am just spending my spare time bribing  a three year old with biscuits while I study the merits of louvre windows and learn about the principles of cross ventilation. (There is now an assortment of high end window showrooms that  have little trails of biscuit crumbs all over their posh lounges).  And distracting myself with some spring blooms.

Very excited to pop back soon and share some milk glass magic.

Holiday Happenings

Well, Easter holidays are in full swing over here at Betsy's. We have had plays in the park with mates, working bees at school, and very important trips to Bunnings for supplies of the painting variety. The gerbera  pot was a  holiday survival present to myself as was the spotty dotty contact to cover the pot.

I am not beyond a little child labour on holidays. Window cleaning never loses appeal when you have your own spray bottle and paper towel. It must have dropped below 20 degrees so miss Liongirl felt that dressing gowns, ugg boots and beanies were required. We are obviously not remotely suited to living in a cold climate.

Miss Liongirl also had an end of term performance for ballet. That's her 4th from the right taking it all very seriously with the toe pointed out thing going on. I love her dance school. It's very casual, the kids can wear whatever they want, the hall is old and peeling and there is not even a whiff of preciousness anywhere.

For Roboboy, holidays mean dragging out every piece of duplo he can find and creating animal rescue centres. Pretty much every holiday he has to whip up one of these old favourites.

And for me all this sunshine means just one thing.

PAINTING of course! The great de- custarding of my lounge room is back on and in full swing. Look, that one big yellow stripe is all I have left. Perfect timing as Legoman is around for the next few days to help me lug heavy furniture out of the way. At this stage he is still completely unaware that I have also started painting the ceiling ( this was not actually part of the deal but it just looks so shabby now that the walls are so good that I couldn't help myself).

Actually, even the really nasty pole in the middle of the room is no longer yellow. This pole will be going when we add a new deck, but so nice to see it white for however many months I still have to live with it.

So I'm resting a sore wrist tonight  and hoping I can knock this room over before the long weekend is done. Let's hope the sunshine holds out a bit longer as we have lots of outdoor plans as well.

Happy Happy Easter to you all. May the next few days be full of family and chocolate feasts.

Pedals and Poppies

I trotted off to the Flower markets at Rocklea today, as one of the school mums had given me the heads up that poppies were now available. These are my absolute favourite flowers and the window for them in Brisbane is very brief due to the heat. They started popping open almost the minute we left the cool room. What a treat to have fresh flowers again, the last time (before the snapdragons that is) that we had fresh flowers in the house was for the open inspection on our old house just over a year ago.

While there, I also did a little reconnaisance work regarding the expected arrival dates for peonies (my other favourite flower) and was super excited to discover that they are due, give or take a few days, right around the time of our wedding anniversary. Lets hope Legoman is still reading this blog.

Imagine spending all day looking at a view like this. So much choice , the ranunculus bunches were lovely too .
Pretty much the only place with such a sea of pink would be the little cloud around miss Liongirl. Check out her new wheels, the big girl sort, with pedals. Was meant to be sequestered away until her upcoming third birthday in December but she kind of found the hiding spot and was overcome with rapture. Comes with a zip up bag for snacks and a basket for friends to ride in.

We are very big on ride-ons over here at Betsy, there is an assortment scattered around the place and a few ready to be retired. Thought you might want to see where miss Liongirl developed her fearless hooning tendencies. Probably started with this, one of my earlier curbside finds.

Or maybe this. You could really build up speed  down the very long hallway in our old house.

 And when it's your first birthday, there is usually at least one of your mates to give you a lift.

But then for out and about, you need some serious wheels to keep up with your big brother. Cause prams are for babies you know. This one will be retired to some friends now but was an old faithful and has done some major mileage.

And when you want to get about under your own steam, big brother hand me downs are fine, especially if they have a trailer for your friends. This was our recent rope along trike.

And within a day of hopping on her new bike, look what happened.

Mama, let go I can do it MYSELF. Minor details like the fact that she does not know how to brake or stop at roads or the fact that training wheels cause tippage on uneven surfaces, appear to be irrelevant. Of greater concern, this was a few days later.

Roboboy backed out. She did not. Who says that 2 year olds on pink Dora bicycles are not allowed on the bmx dirt biking track?

Spring is sprung

I was so excited about the arrival of Spring today that I shouted myself some snapdragons. Frankly, I have been counting down the weeks, as winter here at Betsy's has been fraught with lurgies of every possible kind. It has been quite reminiscent of the Winter of 2008 when I was 7 months pregnant, had recurrent sinus infections and Roboboy was hospitalized for removal of both tonsils and adenoids. So you can see, the deserved status of the snapdragons is not in question.

The weather here is currently best described as divine. Perfect blue sky days, a hint of breeze and comfort in jeans and a T shirt. These spring days usually seem to last around 3 weeks before we are dumped into full humid summer heat so I plan to make the most of every day. See this here custardy corner?

I attacked it today and it has been undercoated to oblivion. Top coat hopefully complete on the weekend. Earlier in the week I found some more lovely white birdy treasures to add to my collection. They were being unpacked as I arrived at the oppie, $2 for both.

Now, remember my recent post involving a chenille find of the century? Well, take a look. A king sized fringed chenille bed throw in perfect condition. I was initially quite undecided about the colour, probably best described as peach or flesh or perhaps fawn. I am trying to only buy opped things that I actually have a spot for, not just because they are amazing. I was vacillating when I asked her the price. Would you belive $5? And incredibly it looks fantastic on our bed, and goes well with the painting we recently purchased. Still to get a decent photo of this due to the dark south facing state of our bedroom.

And just when I thought the day could not possibly get any better, looked what arrived in the letterbox.

I could barely contain myself to not rip it open instantly. Let me just say it contains my very own Naughty Shorts tea dress. It arrived in the nick of time as Liongirl and I have a High Tea to attend on Saturday. It fits beautifully and there will be photos, come Saturday.

The only hitch in the whole day was having one of those moments, were you stop and notice how quiet the house is. You know, a little TOO quiet. What on earth was miss Liongirl doing all that time in her room, so quietly?

Nothing like a little chair makeover, wiggles stickerbook style. Yet another proud mother moment*. Did I already mention that whilst in recovery after her recent operation she received an " I have attitude " sticker, complete with a picture of a feral child. So, so proud*.

Insert sarcasm here*. Just in case you thought I was celebrating having a renegade 2 yo in the house.