Renovator

One of the main reasons for visiting Adelaide during the school holidays - no photo shoots, barely any catch ups (just one family day) - was to help my cousin Bec with a working bee on her house. Here are the bigger things we achieved, with the help of some other lovely people includingmy sister Kell and her husband Roh (gas plumber extraordinaire, he fixed the toilet AND installed an oven, as well as painting the ceiling)... On the day of the working bee, the main thing achieved was the preparation, undercoating and ceiling of the blue room, which Bec and I finished during the following couple of days. It went from this:

To this (though the wall colour is the same as the 'after' hallway pic and that one is far more accurate)

The hallway was just Bec and I, though, and most of my clothes and shoes are now covered in paint! Not that it's very unusual for me for that to be the case. To be fair. Here is how that room changed style (and actually looks better than this in real life, where you really get the feeling of the 12ft ceilings)

The other big visual change was the front yard and fence. Bec's mum totally sorted the whole yard and pruned the rose down like crazy, a friend put the remaining pickets on and the kids and I painted them a few days later.

Family train ride

Inspired by Artsy Ants, joining in with Soulemama's 'this moment'. This was from the family trip to the National Railway Museum in Adelaide on the weekend, my niece Lana and her dad :)

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Home again

The kids and I have been in Adelaide for a week, and took yesterday to get used to the idea of being home again, doing dishes and stuff like that. I've got things to share after a week of cooking, family visits and painting rooms in my cousin's house, so stay tuned! This is Sienna and Ash with my cousin's dog, they adore him....

Rollerskating super-Ash

We all had fun, but Ash really loved it... he went around and around, all by himself, for most of the 2 hours we were there. He was wearing his superhero outfit for about half that time, but got too hot after awhile ;)

Toot Toot

This is my 'steampunk' themed layout from the latest Scrapboxx newsletter. I love this photo of Cedar in his Polkadot Lane hoodie that Kell made him, looking quite the funky monkey with his little pose there! I made this page when on my girls' weekend away, and rather enjoyed scrapbooking on the floor in front of the telly and the fireplace, not worrying about little people I even left my things out for the night. On the ground. It was quite a thrill (the excitement never stops around here, I'm telling you.)

Cedar loves loves loves trains, and calls them 'Toot toots'. He is pretty fond of anything on wheels, actually, and while he used to call all of them 'Toot toots', he has now progressed to distinguishing 'car' 'truck' 'bus' and 'toot toot'. His speech is developing really well, and he is an enthusiastic little parrot. We'll have to be careful what we say ;) As always, of course. Hehe.

One of my favourite things the kids have accidentally picked up is Ash repeating 'dammit' (which I must stop saying) but re-interpreting it as 'Bam it!', which sounds rather fantastic actually! I might just switch to that... it sounds kind of Flintstones or super hero or something.