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Old dogs, new tricks.

muser — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 09:44:17 +0000

I’m hopeless at remembering to take ‘before’ photos. I had to trawl back through time before I found one that was good enough to show how the old couch looked. Brown. Corduroy. Mmmm. The bonus is you get an old photo of 3.5 year old Fraser and six week old Lincoln to enjoy.

And here’s how it looks with a charcoal commercial-grade fabric. It feels like mock suede and looks FAB!

I just got my Ampersand cushion cover from Aunty Cookie last week. I’m totally in love with my ‘new’ old couch. She’s a sturdy thing, a little over ten years old. With a solid wooden, sprung frame it was well worth recovering to give it a new lease of life.

And this week, I get to lay all over it because Matt and Fraser are away in Sydney all week.

Learning curves

muser — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 10:52:29 +0000

We’ve had some exciting firsts lately.

Fraser has learnt to ride his bike without training wheels. Since the long weekend he’s gained so much more confidence. He’s ridden to our friend’s house, around the corner, and regularly goes riding with Matt.

We had his parent-teacher interview last Friday, the first day of our school holidays. He has settled in well and is keeping up with the rest of his class. He got a glowing report from his drum teacher and I’ve just signed him up to start back at swimming lessons next term.

BUt that’s not all he’s been getting up to. Last weekend we spent Sunday in Manly with some friends, where we had Yum Cha with the boys for the first time. They both seemed to enjoy the different types of food, Lincoln especially.

And finally, we’ve had a busy first week of holidays, ice-skating every day for the last three days. We’ve got a temporary ice rink set up in Bowral just for three weeks. I’m so proud of Fraser, who has only been skating one other time, last year, and he persisted to a stage where he could skate without holding on to the side.

I expect my next post to be about our re-upholstered couch that just came back. It’s had a whole new lease of life. I’m so impressed with how it’s turned out, so now I’m in the midst of amassing new cushions.

Office space

muser — Thu, 06 May 2010 00:50:24 +0000

I’m working through Mount Boxmore and have finally made my office into a workable space. Obviously, I still need to straighten up the bookshelves. That’s my next job, I promise.

H&B’s suggestion for the question in my last post was spot-on. Thanks for the tip. I’ve gone and photographed the memorable items from Fraser’s school work and snaffled one particularly excellent piece for my office wall.

I’m still getting used to some aspects of suburbia. Sir Yapsalot, next door, yaps a lot whenever I hang out the washing; the light spill from the street lights keeps the house bathed in an eerie relative daylight, compared to the absolute darkness of our acres; and the proximity of neighbours means I must be mindful of the noise we create in the back yard.

All things considered, though, I’ve no doubts we’ve made the right move. I’ve volunteered for the kitchen garden committee that is being set up at school and Fraser is about to start drum lessons.

Settling in

muser — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 05:04:46 +0000

We’ve been in our new house for 2.5 weeks now and I’m still the Mayor of Box Town. Although, the boxes are slowly receding and I’m coming to realise just how many half-finished craft projects I had shut away in cupboards.

Then there’s all the artwork I did when I was at school. Mum hung onto it for 30 years and has finally handed it over to me. I’ve just started collecting my boys’ school work and paintings with no end in sight. What to do with mine? I must admit, I’m not the most sentimental person in terms of keeping mementos. My memory has held up pretty well and the last ten years of recollections have been blogged somewhere or other. And then there’s the boxes of photo albums I have from before the age of digital cameras. So do I chuck it out, like I’m wont to do? Surely, no future civilisation will benefit from my crude drawings of caterpillars etc.

And what of boys’ artwork and school work. Do you keep all the books of handwriting and drawings that the teacher gives you at the end of each year? Do you keep a few pearlers and chuck the rest in the bin?

Fraser’s almost done with his second week in his new school. He’s taken to it well after some tears upon delivery on the first day. He’s already found a new friend and has a few others there that he already knew. Lincoln has had a harder time adapting to his new preschool environment. Today is only his second day but he was quite emotional yesterday and I can only hope it will get better with time.

Kami has settled in remarkably well. He’s been allowed outside this week and hasn’t yet run away. Perhaps the cream cheese on his paws actually did work!

Revolution

muser — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 01:40:38 +0000

So i guess you’ve been waiting patiently for the big news. If you follow me on Twitter or Facebook you would have had that hot gossip yesterday. I couldn’t contain myself.

Now that this crazy cat is out of the bag, I can tell you what’s happening.

You already know we’re moving. We’ve rented our house out and will be moving into a rental ourselves, next week. We’ll be living within walking distance to Fraser’s new school. There’s a playground across the road, friends around the corner, streetlights, garbage collection and a five minute trip to the shops.

The house is quite a bit smaller than what we’re used to. Luckily, we’re already fairly minimal in terms of stuff, but we’ll be sharing a much smaller space. We’re going to try and have the boys sharing a bedroom so that we can have a dedicated playroom and office.

I think the boys will enjoy their time sharing a room but Fraser is easily disturbed at nights when Lincoln cries out for his lost blanky or pillow. I hope that over time he just gets used to the occasional disturbance and learns to roll over and go back to sleep.

Downsizing means we’ll be storing some furniture but also selling off things we can no longer fit in the house.
(I think I’ll be having a garage sale in the near future.)

This isn’t the only change, though. I’ve also resigned from work. I’ve been working in IT for around 13 years. My work has always been a part of my identity and even though I’ve spent so many years in IT, I’ve never been particularly passionate about it. The roles I’ve had have been varying degrees of challenging but I haven’t been fully engaged with this work for many years.

Last year I had something of a revelation. A friend was looking for a copywriter and it was like a lightbulb went off. I thought, “I reckon I could do that.” So I started talking to people and investigating options and work fell into my lap. My brain came alive. It’s interesting, creative, but still technical enough to satisfy my left brain, and I can do this work from anywhere.

So, I’m parting ways with the IT industry on the 22nd April. (We’re still friends, though.)
I’ll be more available to the boys while they go through their primary school years, I can grow my business and I’ll contine my Open University studies.

While the decision to move was easy, the process of working out how to do it most effectively was a long one. We kicked off the conversation a year ago. Once the plan was finally set down, though, we put it in action straight away. Within two weeks we had our house rented, a rental house confirmed, the removalists booked, and Fraser’s new school uniform bought. The only thing left to do is organise Lincoln’s new pre-school for just two days a week instead of the four that he currently does.

Phew!

We don’t muck around.

More to come

muser — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 11:26:33 +0000

Can you hear that? It’s the winds of change.

Sorry to keep you in suspense but there’s more to come since the last post. Alas, I can’t report back until next week. In the meantime, have a fabulous Easter break. ;)

How to make a big move

muser — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 09:40:55 +0000

Step 1 – List property for rent CHECK
Step 2 – Kit out child in new school uniform CHECK
Step 3 – Find house in target area to rent APPLIED
Step 4 – Wait

Lego Management

muser — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 23:45:54 +0000

Lego is big in our house, finally. Fraser got two new Lego kits from his fairy godparents Bindy and Dan for his birthday and since then, Lincoln has been championing the Lego cause. He started taking Lego men everywhere with him and we’ve lost one in the car somewhere, as a result. It’s the Bermuda triangle in there because I’ve cleaned out the car and still can’t find the “spaceman”. To combat Lego men disappearances I bought this supersized plush Lego man from Kmart. He has a velcro removable hat and articulated arms. He’s about 40 cm tall and comes in four different varieties? characters?, from the Lego City range.

Anyway, cute..and highly visible. Much less likley to get lost or lose a hand or, God forbid, a head.

So the Duplo is being retired to the shed for the next baby in the family and the Megabloks are being given away to a neighbour for her fledgling daycare business. That leaves us with Fraser’s collection of Lego City in one small tub and Matt’s original Lego collection in another tub.

I’m now wondering how to manage all of it. Do I continue keeping them separate? Should I combine it all? Do you split yours into different colours, keep your Lego ranges separated, or merge the lot into one big knobby, kaleidoscopic mountain?

Light and Bright

muser — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 22:24:22 +0000

It’s time to lighten things up around here, kids. I have a few design blogs in my RSS feeds and decor8 had a fabulous link in it this week to Will Taylor’s Bright Bazaar blog.

I promise not to become one of those design blogs. I simply don’t have time to sit and trawl flickr and hundreds of design blogs all day. But with our house for sale, I dare to dream. We’ll be moving and I’ll have an established house to makeover.

So, I went through Will’s entire blog and selected a few photos that speak my name. Each photo clicks through to the post it came from. Photo credits availble from the source.

Casette tape wallpaper that you can colour in!

An entire wall of whiteboard.

Craft room. Though, it's a bit too red for me.

Bold blue bedroom. I love the floor.

Cath Kidson cutlery. I'd love this set for everyday.

These are a few of my favourite design blogs. Which ones do you love and what have I been missing out on?

The Design Files, Making it Lovely, Decorno, Door Sixteen, Brabourne Farm, Knack Studios, Ish and Chi.

What’s on your bedside table?

muser — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 02:55:38 +0000

I’ve been tidying the joint up a bit today and was inspired to start a sharing game.
What’s on your bedside table?

I have a mosaic lamp—a wedding present to me from a primary school friend, uni text books, Lincoln’s board book, a Real Living mag, and the first half of a draft manuscript that I’ve been meaning to read.

Play along!