In a blink of an eye

Where did the last 2 weeks go.  It seemed to take forever and yet went so quickly.  Last week I started working an extra day and my Thursday "off" was packed with running errands and I ended up collapsing  in bed only to not be able to sleep.

The kitchen is almost done.  Just the glass splash backs and power points to go.  The electrician wouldn't put in the power points as the glass guys sometimes don't do it right.  Then Glass guy tells me they need the power points to measure the holes for the power points.   So I am a bit stuck at the moment.

We are still waiting on the glass quote which might mean we are rushing out to find tiles and a tiler on the weekend if it is much more than they quoted on the plans.  We blew the budget when we had to have a plater to fix the sink area.   The plaster has just left after doing the final sanding,  for the first time in 2 weeks I will have the house to myself when I get home.

Here are the pictures so far.

  

We have to touch up the painting in places and do the ceiling and the woodwork which I can't say I am looking forward to.  Hows the light from the fluro, hubby insisted on the fluro and now he says it is too bright well its staying now.  We have a couple of down lights to go in over the sink but we won't need them.

All those cupboard and draws in the second picture are empty as hubby didn't want to fill them until after the plaster had been and everything was thoroughly cleaned (by him) and we don't really have that more to pack in as it has all fitted in the corner pantry and small cupboards across the back of the room.

But it means I can have my cookbooks in the kitchen instead of the laundry and stuff from the linen press can be moved into the kitchen where it belongs.

Can't wait till it is all finished and we can really enjoy but it has been a fun weekend exploring all the possibilities.

Favourite Things Friday

Mrs P is putting FTF to bed so this will be the last FTF.  It was a great idea not that I have been too regular of late but I thought I would take the opportunity to participate for the last time.

I've decided to have a couple of favourite things this week to make up for my lack of blogging lately.

Today it was just Squid and me, Maestro decided to stay at Nan's for most of the day and Squid was in a good mood probably because her big brother was away.  A day with Squid when she is in a good mood is my first favourite of the day.

We had a few errands to run, and I bribed her with lunch at the House Cafe down the road.  She had their folded pancake which are stuffed full of berries with a side serving of ice cream and a strawberry milkshake.  With a belly full we set out on Mum's errands.

First of all was a car full of boxes to pack up the kitchen she liked throwing them in the back of the car.  Then it was paint purchases.  We then headed to the Miele Demonstration Shop to check out the free cooking lessons I get with my new Oven/cooktop.  That leads me to FTF 2 it all arrived today.

We then went to Ikea at Squids request and there was a balloon artist there and we waiting about 1/2 hour for one of her creations (another bribe).  I kind of wanted to go to Ikea to look for some in draw storage dividers so I was happy to go.  Though Squid have me buy her a couple of things that she needed to deck out her cubby house Outdoor Cafe.

FTF3 are these.  I found these at Suzy Hausfrau  last year and I decided I needed a few more in other sizes.  They are just so lovely to use so much better than the old metal ones I used as a kid.  I also started working on a hat last night, I don't think I quite followed the pattern properly so it might be interesting.  But it is growing quite quickly.  Squids put in an order for a hat, I told her to wait and see how this one turns out first.

Head on over to Mrs P's to check out everyone else's favourites this week for the last time.  

Favourite Thing Friday

My Favourite Thing this week is the fact that we have made a start on the kitchen reno.  A few of you have asked for the before shots so I have a couple here of the horror story.

The new kitchen will have floor to ceiling cupboards which has cut down on the amount of wall paper and the painting that will have to happen.   Last week we had the steamer and got rid of the paper.  This week we scrubbed the walls to get the rest of the glue off.  We are debating how much paint we do before the guys come to put the kitchen in and I think we have decided to leave it until every thing is in ... mainly because I can't decide what colour to paint the walls ... well I have the colour in my head ... I'm thinking in latte colour which is in between the dk bench tops and the light cupboards.

We were toying with the idea of painting the ceiling but there is fair bit patching that have to be done after they have removed some of this kitchen's "Features" (1960's fan and the lovely fluro) so we might leave that as well.

The cork floor is staying for the moment, DH loves it as it is soft to walk on and is still in good nick, the   Kitchen company are modifying the width of the cupboards slightly so that it covers the edge of the cork.  They are also modifying the cupboards along the back wall of the kitchen so that the sliding door can slot in behind the cupboards.  What I am most looking forward to is draws that work, doors that don't fall off and new oven and induction cook top.

 

Fridge is going here (where the doorless cupboard is) and then I am having a corner pantry and 2 more floor to ceiling cupboards with the door sliding behind.

Check in with Mrs P to find what everyone else's favourite is.

15 Minute Challenge

I can't say that I have been over productive this week.  We did stripped wallpaper in the kitchen on the weekend, luckily not all of the room had to be done just the bit that was not going to be covered by wall to ceiling cupboards but it did involve getting round all three door ways which was not fun.  We got the hang of it in the end.  I assure you the pores are all clean from all the steam as well an added bonus. At least today my calves have stopped hurting from climbing up and down the ladder.  I am still unsure of the colour I am going to paint the walls now was going for an off white but I don't know anymore.  First we have to plug a few holes and prep the walls so I have a week or two to decide.

Maestro is on camp at the moment he is due back today. What a roller coaster that has been, he wasn't going then he was happy to go up until the weekend then he didn't want to go again.  Just hope he has had a reasonable time.  He played a trial game of footy on the weekend and managed to sprain his thumb so I doubt he would have been doing any obstacle courses or whatever it is they are doing on this camp.  We are still waiting to hear on the High School program I keep thinking the letter will arrive and it hasn't maybe today the suspense is killing me.

The crochet is nearly finished I am working on the edge stitching, I got the pattern from Attic24 great site for all things crochet and lots of lovely pictures of english countryside.  Will post pictures of it all done.     Yesterday I picked up some fabric for the next online event, lovely Kate Spain range.

I purchased a bike late last week... I will be overcoming my fear of riding on the road, but thought it would be a good way of upping my exercise and I can always just ride along the beach bike track.  It is a repro Vintage Bike will post pictures when it arrives.  I plan to make a matching Pannier from Lisa Lam's book a Bag for All Reasons.  Have purchased the oil cloth all ready to go just a few more supplies are needed and I can get going... mostly I need the bike to go with it.

The week went like this:

Wednesday: Crochet
Thursday: Nadda
Friday: Crochet
Saturday: Nadda
Sunday: Starburst blocks / mixed media
Monday Nadda
Tuesday: Crochet

Real mixed bag of something and nothing this week but on the days I did do something I did more than 15minutes so it kind of makes up for it.

Head on over to Kate's to see who else has met the challenge.

Favourite Things Friday

I know this working week was only 4 day but I feel like it has been about 8. I don't know why I just think I have done more in this 4 days than I do in a normal week.

 
 

Maestro has a trial footy game on Sunday but apart from that we don't have anything on so we have decided to tackle the wallpaper in the kitchen as the next few weeks will be more footy matches plus crows games and school holiday and the New Kitchen starts on the 29th of April.

One thing I have been doing this week is spending lots of money.  I have bought my oven, cooktop, taps and water purifier.   I got the sink a few weeks ago as it was on sale.  I put a new set of saucepans on layby as only the frypan we currently have will work with the Induction cooktop I have bought.  DH is ignoring most of my purchases at the moment he is trying not to think about it, while he isn't looking I am going to sneak in a Breville Mix Master shhh don't tell.

On to Favourite Thing.  I have mentioned these a few times on the blog but this week they are my favourite thing as they have been in use for a couple of months now and I don't know how I survived without them.

As you can see I have 2 one for all my mixed media stuff and the other is for my sewing stuff.  They hold a mountain of bits and bobs and everything is at your fingertips.  They are both pretty much full now so they look pretty amazing.

Love my new Tim Holz distressed paints fitting perfectly in a couple of bins.  My only complaint is that bigger bottles don't fit so the top of the spinner is pretty much overflowing at the moment.  But it is perfect for my Aurifil Threads, machine feet, needles, scissors and other sewing notions.

I love the fact that all I have to do is change seats and I can move from sewing to mixed media without having to pull stuff from the cupboard.

I got them from Blue Bazaar however they are from the US and I think they are originally a Hardware product.

So that is my favourite thing this week I'm ready to get out the crochet and sit in front of the box for a couple of hours rest.  Head on over to Mrs P to see what everyone else's favourite is.

15 Minute Challenge

What a week we had last week Maestro was off school for the whole week with a throat infection, he is still on antibiotics but is pretty much over the worst of it.  He is going on school camp next week fingers crossed he doesn't have a relapse while he is away.

The Kitchen reno is going full steam ahead and we have a date for when they will start.  Lots of yucky jobs to do before that though like removing all the wallpaper from the walls (something I have wanted to do since we moved in nothing like waiting 15 years).  I bought all my appliances yesterday... that was fun can't wait for new oven/cooktop.

My back has improved some more though it is still painful at night, but during the day I don't have any pain and I even went for a long walk with the dog yesterday.

I have managed the 15 minutes quite well this week mainly because of the crocheting which I have been doing for at least an hour each night.  Its nearly finished well I have just about run out of wool so it is nearly as big as it is going to get.

I got out my mixed media kit and got a bit messy, Squid joined me which meant I had to clean up twice because she decided to come back and do some more after I'd cleaned her workstation up but she had fun.

I have finished another starburst block and cut out another couple to join the 12 blocks cut.  I want the quilt to fit on my queensized bed so I have enlarged the background template by an inch each side so the blocks will be 22" finished instead of 20".

The breakdown goes like this:
Wednesday: crochet
Thursday: crochet
Friday: crochet:
Saturday: starburst/crochet
Sunday Mixed Media
Monday: Crochet
Tuesday: Crochet - great to do while waiting for footy practice to finish.

Head on over to Kate's to see how everyone went.

Favourite Things Friday

Did you like me use Google Reader to keep up with your list of blogs, I lamented its demise and quickly went about searching for a replacement.  I found Google reader a bit weird at times on the ipad/iphone but liked using it on the computer it was easy to get all  my reading done quickly but I probably didn't realise how much it customised what blog feeds it was putting up until I found my Favourite thing this week.

See the problem with google reader is that it pushed those blogs that you read often to the front page, which is ok you can just go down the side bar and select the blogs you want to read but I have a lot of blogs that I like to read and well if have missed out on quite a few over the months.  There is also those bloggers that only put a summary of their blog on the feed so you don't get to see all the feed unless you get out of reader to read the blog.

So back to the search.... Google gave a couple of products to try basically I found they were crap for reading blogs they were more for news reading the various American News services,  sorry just not interested and I couldn't work out how just to get to the blogs it was just to flashy for little old me.... and I am not a technophobe and embrace most new technology with gay abandon.  So the search continued and then Janelle's daughter put up a blog post about the blog reader she used and I thought I would give it a go how bad could it be.  So I gave Bloglovin

Got to say I love it.  I have found old blogs that I had forgotten about, even those pesky bloggers that only give you a sample are catered for.  Each blog entry gives a summary and you just click on it to go to the actual blog not just the blog post so you get the full blog experience.  You can make a comment and then when you close the window you pop straight back into bloglovin and that feed is marked as read.

The main blogs in the summary feed are the most recent blog posts not ones that you have read recently so I have rediscovered quite a few gems that I had forgotten about.  And the import of my google reader went really smoothly and it was all set up so quickly and I have just loved it from the first.

So that is my favourite thing friday this week.  Head on over to Mrs P to find out what everyone else's favourite is this week... though she might be having a lye in this morning.