Some more of the new house

Ok - so last post was about the backyard - you might notice that we have a pool (yay) - the girl's will really enjoy it in the summer (I think it's got solar heating too which is good!)
Here's another shot across the deck - you can see all the bushland we own - it's nice and peaceful and yes - we'll be repainting the railings!
There are lots of birds that live in the gum trees - so it will be nice to sit out and enjoy the privacy (or as Claire calls it Privatsy).
The kids are looking forward to having their own rumpus room (complete with bar - won't be hiding the booze down there!) It should be easy enough to run water into the space to make it a wet bar - maybe even a kitchenette! The vertical blinds and the brick walls are another thing that will be going - I hate both with an equal passion - can't stand that Australian colonial look with brick walls, pine furniture or brown leather couches - brown, brown, brown and drab, drab, drab. (Sorry - getting a bit passionate there!) Here's the family room and the peach walls, vertical drapes and the tiffany light shades are going as is the slate tile. It's going to be so much brighter and paler!
Here's the formal lounge - yes the pink walls and green carpet will take a bullet as well as those very unattractive light fittings and curtains. I am tempted to put built in display/bookshelves on either sides of the open fire - not sure if there is enough depth there - I'd like to use the power to the unattractive sconces to have illuminated cabinets.
Sitting above the formal lounge is the master bedroom with equally tasteful light fittings and curtains and paint and carpet with the addition of a wallpaper dado. See - this makes it easy - you just think - bullet - it's a no brainer. I do like the double doors though I'll be painting the wood stained door trims white too.
Last but not least - the kitchen. In it's day I'd say that it was the top-of the line on offer - look at the granite benchtop - it's at least 2 inches thick. It's a bit heavy looking and ultimately I think I'll install a new kitchen based around my choice of appliances (I loathe Smeg with a passion - anyone with me on that?) I think the current oven is a Westinghouse - so I might actually be able to cook with it. In the interim I may well paint the cupboard doors white to lighten the mood a little and maybe change the doorknobs. The slate floor may stay till I decide exactly what I am doing in this space. There is a breakfast room and the family room in a straight line from this kitchen - if possible I'd like to take out the walls and open it up into one large communal space - but that will largely depend on whether the walls are supporting walls or not and implications of beams etc. to span the space.
Well that's it for now folks - my life will shortly be about nothing else but packing boxes.

Home Sweet Home

Ok - so the good news is we sold the house - for $6000 more than the asking price in two and a half weeks. How good is that? The unfortunate downside is that of course the rest of the family has gone into anti-keep-the-house-clean-for-potential buyers (grrrrrr........)
Just to add to the general merriment - we also bought the new house last week - here it is from the front. The tree ferns will be the first thing to go as they block the light into the front windows - I shall either sell them or move them into the bush at the back. We will also get the roof restored - repointed, cleaned, sealed and re-sprayed an get a soft wash and high pressure hose done on the driveway (we were so impressed by what a difference it made to our house!) I am also thinking of repainting the bluewall and trims - but can't decide on a colour - so it may stay the same for a while as I contemplate!
Here's around the back - it's a big block - 1910m2 but mostly it's bush - no garden to take care of which I am feeling slightly ambivalent about. Part of me wanted to buy an acreage and put in some totally splendiferous garden (probably had something to do with seeing a show on the ABC about Sissinghurst - but in reality I am not an upper-class English heiress with a husband interested in garden design - so I am probably having myself on - (you know - just a bit). However - I do have a genetic predisposition for gardening - my grandmother's grandfather was a self educated man who worked at various times as either a groom or a gardner. Apparently he use to go around the Botanic Gardens and point out all the incorrect classifications on the various plants to the gardeners.
Dad's side of the family has an even more impressive gardening history - his great grandfather was head gardener at several big estates in Scotland - he even worked at the Archbishop's Palace in Armagh, Northern Ireland. This is pretty funny as Dad's gardening ambitions have only ever stretched as far as mowing the lawns (and then having a nice refreshing beer soon after).
I remember one time when the grass was about knee high and Mum begged him to at least mow a path to the washing line. Which is exactly what he did - once around the Hills Hoist and back again. She was not amused.
We of course thought it was hysterical - until I saw Muriel's Wedding some years later (which is the most poignant and tragic comedy ever). Remember the scene where the mother had asked and asked for someone to mow the backyard so she could hang the washing out? She ends up committing suicide and when Muriel returns home the backyard is a smoking ruin as her mother set fire to it - evidently she was not amused either.
OK - wow that went off on a tangent didn't it? So I will do another post showing the rest of the new house and I will jot down other notes to myself about things I want to change.

Compassion

I haven't tried uploading video before so this may or may not work (or may well crash the computer!)

This is a video of Claire (my youngest) being interviewed after church for a video presentation at the annual dinner that kicks off the year.

It's a moment in time which captures her compassion for others so well. The little girl she mentions, Sophie Delezio really captured Claire's attention - I think because she has come through so much for one so young and also because of her unfailingly sweet smile despite life's difficulties. Whenever Claire has a whinge about her hair not behaving or (God help me) her thighs being too "jiggly" I ask her if she thinks Sophie whinges about the way she looks. It's snaps her out of it quick smart!

Psst - Want to buy a house?

Well - all creativity has ground to a screeching halt as we've been getting our house ready to go on the market. The only painting I've been doing has been up a ladder or on my hands and knees touching up scratches and scuffs etc. We have reached the Harbour Bridge status where you get to the end and have to begin again. The house (and garden) are looking pretty good having decluttered (all in storage at my brother-in-law's house - God Bless Him!)

Our first open for inspection was last Saturday and of course it rained constantly - at least people will know the house is water-tight! It's open today too and you guessed it - it's raining again! Despite the rain there was a good number of people who turned up for a sticky-beak and at least 8 contracts have been sent out. I am hoping that it won't take too long to sell as the whole keeping everything neat as a pin (with husband, three kids and a cat) is frankly not a whole lot of fun.

Prior to the decision to seriously put the house on the market there was some creativity happening between Christmas and school summer holidays! I was invited to be part of Patti Culea's new book - but I can't show pics of that of course!

I also made a fairy chair from Aves Apoxie Sculpt by following the instructions by Jean Bernard on the Aves site. It turned out pretty well I thought and it gets lots of comments from people passing by the shop. Here's a picture of it under construction - will take a picture of it totally finished when I can. I painted it with Lumiere Bright Gold - looks fantastic.

Cherry Tomatoes

One of the nice things about the rain we've had is that the garden is growing. Early this summer, we went and bought a bunch of seedlings. Some got eaten by the snails - but this little tomato plant has produced a punnet of tomatoes already - and boy are they sweet as sweet!

Happy New Year

OK - so now I've got the Christmas thing off my chest - happy new year everybody!

2008 looks like it's going to be a big year. First off the husband wants to move house - which sounds fine if you say it really quickly but that entails:
a) getting your own house in order so that it looks somewhat more desireable than a "renovate or detonate" proposition
b) keeping your own house actually in order so that it's ready for inspection at the drop of a hat - this is hard when two parents are working and the three kids are at home - eating (plate? what's a plate?) drinking - (coaster? what's a coaster?) and going for swims (think wet cossies and towels dumped in sodden piles along with several changes of clothes a day.
c) keeping the garden in order - it's summer and a reasonably wet one at that - so all the plants (and more especially the weeds) are growing like mad to make up for the last three summers when it was so hot and so dry they weren't allowed to do anything above barely survive).
d) finding a house where one would like to live - we've found a couple but they are in a different area so would entail changing schools for all three kids. I don't even want to go there!

Maybe it would be easier to get a divorce -hmmmm.

Now you may well be thinking why not just renovate, detonate, put on an addition etc. to deliver what we want? Well - that's all very sensible but as we have had gee - I don't know - at least 1 million iterations of this question the one thing we know about ourselves is that we are not knockdown rebuilders, renovators or anything else like that - mate - we can barely maintain!

So we will search for the perfect place and hope we eventually find it. We did see this place - but someone bought it three days before Christmas. Who buys a house three days before Christmas I ask you? We're also thinking about this place - but it may well go before we get our act together.

So how did I spend my one week of the year off?

Painting.

Steven is a great starter ( I call him the gusher) - he is however totally crap at finishing- anything. So he started painting the laundry, the outside bathroom and the inside bathroom ceiling with great gusto. I of course finished them all - you know those boring fiddly bits where ceiling meets wall, second coats - that sort of unimportant stuff which requires going up and down the ladder a thousand times? I also repainted our bedroom and took down the curtains and washed them, stripped the bed and washed all the linen including the quilt and dusted and mopped every nook and cranny.

Basically I've come back to work for a rest.

Now apart from all the moaning the exciting thing is that lovely Patti Culea has asked me to do a project for her new book. A great honour and the timing is pretty snappy which suits me as the longer I have to procrastinate then that's exactly what I do. Mind you the inner critic is having a lovely time with me - but I think I've got an idea that will work - knowing me the overachieving perfectionist will do at least two different ones - you know - just in case.

Better go and extract my digit!

Ok - I'm ready for Christmas

Well - in true Megan fashion I feel about ready for Christmas now - even though it's the 3rd January.

Every year I tell people I'm ready for Christmas by early January and they laugh (they are usually the people who have done all their Christmas shopping in the June sales and put their fruit for the Christmas cake down to soak on the 1st July). But I kid you not - I find the rush up to Christmas and the responsibility for Christmas somewhat overwhelming - so I am not emotionally ready to kick back and relax until - well - the 3rd of January or thereabouts.

Am I alone in this feeling?

That said we actually had the tree up early this year because it was the 7 year turn to have Steven's family. I don't normally put the tree up until after Em's birthday (who wants their birthday upstaged?) But ahhh - the blessing and the curse of a large family - blessing because you only have to host the event once every seven years - curse because when it's your turn it's a very large number of people to have in your house all at once. Thankfully they have this family event well in advance of the actual day - so we don't fight about who's parents we spent last Christmas with and all that other stuff I know many people have to contend with.

I did make a gingerbread house too - because there was a gingerbread house "outreach" night at my church. Couldn't really give a tinker's cuss about the gingerbread house - just wanted to hear the speaker - Rebecca Manley Pippert. I have read all her books - and my copy of "A Heart for God" is truly well thumbed (but missing in action at the moment - may well have to get a new copy). She is truly a gifted speaker - we were very lucky that she had a cancellation on the Sunday and so was able to speak in church - you can hear that message here (you might need to scroll down to 2nd December to find it).

I also snuck out of the shop to go to the K-2 infants school concert and awards. Every kid in the class gets a certificate - so no biggie - but Claire's teacher did say that she always kind and friendly to everyone in her class - which was very heart-warming and much better than "works hard to improve at maths". It's nice to know your kids are nice to others (even if they scream like banshees to their siblings).

Emily of course finished up Year 6 - and I totally missed it because she told me it was at 3pm. Of course it was at 2.45pm - so haven't got a photo of her walking down the "tunnel of love" or anything else. Bad mummy!

My blessed father paid for us all to go out for Christmas lunch - so we didn't have the whole food shopping/cooking/serving trauma although Mum couldn't help herself and cooked a chook, a pud and a cake anyway! She said she felt funny not doing any food - I told her all I felt was relief. You might remember this photo from last Christmas - well I have to confess that was me this year - I totally conked out on Mum and Dad's bed and had a good long snooze. (No photos though - I'm not that silly!) I managed to buy Christmas presents for the children who have everything - helped along by the fact that Chris wanted a guitar and at 14 you can get away with a single expensive present.

So that was the end of 2007 - jumbled up and rushed. 2008 isn't looking very different at this point - but more on that later.

Summer is here

Ok - so this post was supposed to happen in late November/early December but...... you know - I've been a little busy!

One of the first signs that it's really summer in Sydney (well - the part where I live) is the jacarandas coming out in full bloom. I adore jacarandas and love the way they turn an area purple - both in the tree tops and carpeted beneath when the blooms start to fall. Here are two shots which look rather maudlin as they were taken in a churchyard at dusk - but I couldn't resist as the trees looked so pretty.

After the jacarandas there is more purple when the agapanthus come out.

And can't forget the christmas bush - both those things signify Christmas in Sydney for me.

Sometimes Turning 12 is easy......

Well - we are the other side of the birthday party and it was smiles all round. They all came, they all ate, they all had fun and they all pronounced the party as "so cool" and "really awesome".

I did my best Uber-mummy effort and am completely exhausted by it - but it was worth it to see the beaming face!
It's been raining cats and dogs in Sydney over the past week so I decided to set up inside - wise decision it was an absolute stinker of a day - must have been high 30s - so I was loving the new air-conditioning let me tell you. Turned out to be a wise decision as at about 4pm it actually hailed. My friend Erica (who was having a party at the same time )reported on it here - amazing!


This was how the room looked. We bought jumbo sized playing cards and stuck them all around the walls. Bought colourful posies of flowers from the $2 shop - they are pretty $2 shoppish in real life but massed altogether they looked very Wonderlandish - and they photograph like a million bucks!!!

The rose garlands were a score - picked them up at a shop called "dusk" which sells girly candles etc. They were only $5 a pop - the original price tag was $39 each.Love a bargain! Will save them for Valentine's Day - maybe wrap my naked self in them like the birth of Venus and see if the husband notices???


Anyway - back to the party.
Here's another shot down the table - do you love the pink and green plates? Found them in Target - $3.99 each - thought they were very funky!!! Did I mention that I was Uber-Mummy? I decided in a fit of mental instability to make Neenish Tarts. From scratch. They turned out beautifully but took about 4 hours to make. I will never begrudge paying for them in a cake shop ever again. They looked (and tasted) spectacular though - here's a shot of them mixed with the chocolate dipped strawberries we did (and for those of you who don't live in Australia - yes they are huge, lush and we get them all year round - we are a fruit lucky country!)

When the girls arrived I got them to decorate the cupcakes (I hadn't got them done due to the marathon Neenish Tart making) - it's a great thing to do at a party. Here's some cupcake love.

It was also a great excuse to buy a cupcake tree!

Turning 12 is hard sometimes

Em is turning 12 soon. She wants to have an Alice in Wonderland party. No problems here kiddo. We've come up with some great ideas for decorations and games. I've told her she can use real china cups, white linen, the silver tea service - and have a Mad Hatter's Tea Party. She wants to be Alice and after a small spat with Claire at 7.30am one morning we resolved that Claire will not be an alternative (read smaller/cuter) Alice but the White Rabbit (bribed with the promised use of an impressive pocket watch on a chain that I just happen to have).

So what's the problem? Well turning 12. Her great enthusiasm has been dampened somewhat by the response of a couple of friends. She made the mistake of seeking approval of the plan rather than just extending the invitation to come and join the fun. These little girls are turning into young women - this is her last chance to have this sort of party. Next year she'll be in high school and turning 13 and she and her friends will be old enough to think it's naff rather than fun. Some are already teetering on the brink - involved with boyfriends and flirting with eating disorders. She's worried that everyone will think she's a baby and/or that they won't come.

We had a long conversation about deciding whether to follow the crowd or lead it and whether pursuing friendships with people who think they are better than you or too cool to come and help celebrate your birthday are worth the effort.

In the end mummy logic prevailed over the quivering bottom lip and the boo boo face and she's now back into highly enthusiastic mode. Gulp! No pressure there - I'll just be eternally damned if the party's a flop.

So the invitations are printed and ready to hand out. We'll put up a marquee in the garden (a friends gazebo), lay trestle tables with white linen and put out the silver tea service (probably filled with peach flavoured ice tea) and the china tea cups. We'll serve ribbon sandwiches, jam tarts, chocolate dipped strawberries, cookies iced with the word "eat me" and little iced cupcakes. We'll decant the fizzy drinks into coloured glass bottles with labels that say "drink me". I've promised a red velvet heart shaped birthday cake with red fondant icing and iced flowers. And if anyone wants to get too snooty then I shall say "Off With Their Heads".

Hiro Nakamura wins the Australian election

Is it just me - or am I the only one who has realised the resemblance our new fearless leader has to Hiro Nakamura from Heroes?

It was bugging me last night that Kevin Rudd looked like someone I knew but I couldn't think who. Then it came to me this morning - Hiro Nakamura!

So Banzai Kevin. Now could you wind back some of the nastier elements that have crept into Australian life since John Howard got to set the agenda. You know - things like locking up people in detention for very long or indefinite periods in the name of "national security". Thank goodness that the US will soon be rid of the dreadful George W.Bush.

Looking forward to a kinder, gentler world. Be gone peddlars of the politics of fear. I've had a gutful.

Just an update - I read this article by Hugh Mackay in the Sydney Morning Herald after the election. It really hit the nail on the head for all the things I'd been feeling (and I'm not even a "doctor's wife". It will be interesting to see whether this pans out to a long term trend.

They Came, They Saw, They Gave

Well I am happy to report that the Watoto Hope Charity Dinner went off without a hitch! The rain ,which we've had all week, stopped and it was a lovely cool spring evening on the Harbour.

We kicked off with Drumbeats performing on the balcony. Anyone who wasn't sure where the venue was only had to follow the drumming! Everyone then moved inside and was able to join in the performance with the drum or tambourine placed on their chair.

It finished with a conga line round the room and out the door (which is how they cleverly collect all the instruments). Lots of fun and a great icebreaker. They generously performed for half their normal fee - so if you are looking for a great icebreaker /team building exercise for an event - give them a call.

The venue looked terrific - no photos yet but I'll update this post when I get a hold of some pictures. We also had the Australian Girls Choir perform - they walked in singing "I Still Call Australia Home" (their signature song) and followed up with "Starlight Express", "Keeping the Dream Alive" and finished with "O Yeah - Can You Hear Me Calling" . They were really marvellous and everyone enjoyed their performance so much. They even did an encore.

Matthew Smeal is a Sydney based photojournalist and he took us through some of his very powerful images that he took while on trips to Uganda. I have copies of his photos but don't want to post it without his permission - so I'll ask if it's ok to put one or two of them up here.

There were so many people who donated their time and skills.

My friend Allison asked her friends Lee and Graeme and to do the A/V which they did - free of charge. The normal fee would be around $3500 for an event like ours. Friends like Ken (see below on saxaphone) and Dave came and provided fantastic music for the evening - free of charge.

Elisa Colla - a very gorgeous and very talented young lady from our church sang with the band - her first real "gig" - but certainly not her last. If she doesn't end up very famous I'll be very suprised!

Even the session muso who turned up to play keyboard free of charge refused to take the $50 travelling money.

In a world that is often dark and cold - isn't it nice to know there are so many people willing to do wonderful things just for the asking? It's been a real lesson to the four of us to always ask. Sure the answer might be no - but so often it's "yes" and an enthusiastic "yes" too.

Mark Bradshaw from Watoto's Australian Head Office was there as were Unia and Michael from the Watoto Children's Choir.

Unia travels with the choir and Michael is an 11 year old who is in the choir. Isn't he gorgeous?

It was wonderful that they were with us - not only to be part of the evening but also to answer people's very valid questions about how much of the funding reaches the kids versus admin costs etc.

It was good to stand at the back of the room and just take in the fact that it was all really happening. Everyone was switched on and attentive to the information - which was great to see. It's always tricky to present a pretty graphic story of desperate need on the one hand and on the other hand not make people feel so uncomfortable that they look for the nearest exit. After all people have come to hear about the charity but also to have a fun night out with friends. Without tooting our horns too much - I think we nailed it - people were engaged in the information but obviously also had a great night. We were supposed to finish at 11pm - there were still people sitting at their tables chatting etc. at midnight!

So - what was the punchline? From a room of 165 people we raised $104,000! I was hoping for a house which is $38,000 - so $104,000 was just gobsmacking. I am rarely a) lost for words and b) near tears - but believe me - I was both. Unbelievable. And the great thing was that it wasn't a few people giving a lot but everyone giving something which I think is a wonderful thing as it means everyone was engaged in the message and everyone made a response.

Thankyou everyone who came. Thank you to everyone who gave their time and effort to make the evening so successful. Thankyou to those who said yes to bringing a table of friends. Thankyou everyone who gave.

Now we can build two houses - which will totally change the life of two mothers and 16 children. Plus the additional funds can be used towards another building.

Thankyou. Thankyou. Thankyou.

It Never Rains it Pours

It never rains ... it pours - wow - three posts in one day. I go for ages not posting and them - whammo - I can't stop.

This time it's a few pictures of my Tome. The tome was designed by Patti Culea and I have a group that meets once a month at Idyll Pleasures. We get a new pattern each month and do some work on the page for that month. It's suprising how much we get done in three hours actually. It's been fun and a good discipline for me to actually work my way through the patterns. Here is my cover - the three girlfriends.

The fabrics are actually from the Girlfriends range by Sis Boom for Freespirit Fabrics. They are offcuts from the quilt I made earlier this year.

This is the back page (front and back) It has tyvek leaves and some free motion embroidery on it.

Page 2 is photo transfers and windows- the pics are of my kids.

The rear of this page is a pocket with an angel (she needs finishing).

Page 3 is fabric collage. I am still working on this page - need to collect some more flowers. I traced the face from the pattern and coloured it with prismacolour pencils. Cool. I am looking forward to completing the whole tome - I think it will look awesome when it's finished.