Some Sewing

I made Miss J a nightie



using this pattern .

It's a rather ancient pattern I found in my Mom's sewing drawer. On it are my granny's notes from when she made it for my cousin who is now 43! It's size 9 - 10 and it fits my still six year old girl.  I used some pink flannel which has been very disappointing - it is already pilling horribly. You never know with flannel! There will be bolts of it in the shop, all the same price. Some will still look good after years and the rest looks like a rag in a few days.

Miss J looks like something out of the 19th century. She just needs a candlestick and a nightcap. It reminds me of Anne of Green Gables, pining for puffy sleeves! But she chose it and she loves it! And increasingly I am realizing that my one and only little girl will not want to wear pink puffy home made things for much longer and I must make the most of it while I can :-)

Mommy's birthday

I am 37 today. It feels rather old. And this week is my 20 year Matric Reunion!

I got a K-Way jacket from my husband which I love! It's so nice to get something you really love as a gift. He chose perfectly. One little boy decided he wanted to give Mommy a GREEN gift. That was his only criteria! And so he chose ... wait for it .. an APPLETIZER!!!! Which he helped me drink this morning, of course! I also got a box of carefully chosen chocolates and some equally carefully chosen dishcloths. I love them all :-)

Lots of people wished me a happy day. Well, I had a hard day. It was back to school today, and I had shopping to do. Then I discovered my angel domestic helper was ill. I had tantrums, laundry, spills and a still unfinished kitchen to deal with today. But Baby had two fantastic naps. Most of the schoolwork got done, the washing got hung out and a friend visited in the afternoon. We made models of plant and animal cells out of jelly. And Daddy made supper and did almost all the evening routine. So it was hard, and I lost my temper once, and I nearly cried in the parking lot, but my birthday ended well!

Pics

I love the bumbo, but no more now after he squirmed out of it and whacked his head on the cupboard door. This one has already got the wriggliest of our babies award. Lately he's also in contention with baby his sister for drooliest.

He smiles so hard it must hurt.

My brood.

Brudders. What very very different personalities they all have so far!

Fixing up the kitchen

Here's the kitchen before. - a separate room with a little hatch out to the dining room. There were patches of rough plaster on the walls where we removed an ugly wine rack, and very old fashioned tiles with little pictures of fruit on them!

My parents just had their kitchen refreshed a bit so we got the same builder to come and do a few things to ours. So the walls have been bashed out, the tiles redone, the walls plastered and a cupboard built. (Well, half built so far!)



I could not find any tiles I liked. I dragged kids around tile places, feeling indifferent and worse about pretty much everything in a reasonable price range. Then I saw the terracotta with little colourful squares and I was sold! Unfortunately tiling terracotta is a little more complicated than ordinary tiles. They can't be cut with a tile cutter; you have to use an agle grinder. They need bigger spaces between them so you need more grout. They need a few coats of sealer. I was so happy to see the concrete floor covered up. We had spent two weekends walking around that dusty grey floor!

Love my new floor! (Here without grout or sealer of course)

The whole process has been frustrating in its slowness. There have been lots of delays. But soon ... SOON it will be done. Steve and I are going to paint it ourselves - a challenge with these littles around all day. I have half finished making blinds. The builder has a few things to finish up and getting that done is taking forever. But soon ... well, children and building are both good for learning patience. (See, I'm trying to be positive here.) We have never done any kind of building before and we have certainly learnt a lot for next time - if there is one!

Getting there!


I can't seem to move the pictures around after posting from Picasa, so these photos are out of order! I am so glad this level of mess is over!

Pics

I posted these straight from Picasa and can't seem to get the cursor above the first picture!

Sweety pie at 5 months old. He's not exactly one of those happy gurgly contented little things, but now that he's sleeping better and I feel better after ditching the breastfeeding, I am managing much more to enjoy his babyness and not wish it away. He has his first tooth!

Evidence that things are a little less crazy these days (though not since the building began!): I made a dress. I used a free pattern from the internet (The Oliver + S Popver dress) and it was SUCH FUN. I bought this material months and months ago and it was so nice to be able to sew it up for my girl, who won't be happy to wear Mommy made dresses for much longer. I wish there was time to make more - actually, I could make little bits of time to sew - it's the fabric shopping that's hard to do!

I love this photo. I so hope they are friends when they grow up.

Before picture. Ugh.

During picture. This is what I have been living in for weeks. Every now and then there would be a day when NOTHING happened and I would nearly cry. But now it's starting to take shape and it is going to be so worth it.

This little guy had his third birthday. Here he is licking the potato salad bowl after his party - which we had at Mom's house because of the state of our house. He wanted a Mickey Mouse cake so out came the black food colouring I had left from Robin's racetrack cake last year. I managed to make the cake in the building site at least!

Mommy misery moment: humour me

Kitchen has been half demolished and plastered in the last two weeks, so decluttering and tidying not going so well.

I had great intentions to tidy something last night but after getting washing ready for the morning, tidying some mess, sorting out supper dishes, getting bags of baby clothes sorted and ready to give away - I was bushed. Beat. Good for nothing much at all.

Tonight my man is away - the house is so quiet. The kids are asleep at last - it was a looooong day. Poor things, they had a dreadful mommy today. I may or may not have yelled, cried, ignored, and forgotten someone's art exhibition. Dreadful mommy. F. I feel defeated and tired. And tomorrow it's the same again - building, baby, homeschooling, lifting, feeding everyone. It is sometimes so hard. Today three of them needed assistance with poop within the space of about five minutes. Maybe I should just laugh.

Nope, don't feel like laughing. I feel like driving away for a weekend. But then again I don't. And of course I won't.

One thought though: HOW DO MOMS DO THIS WITHOUT DOMESTIC HELP? Today PLUS laundry and bath scum? Today PLUS mopping and cleaning up cement dust? Today PLUS waking up grouchy baby from his nap to fetch big kids from school? I would be more brain dead than I already am.

Right now I'm going to get up, go to the cement-floored plaster-spattered kitchen and clean out a cupboard. Only joking, I'm going to make some tea and go to bed. MUCH better plan.

I am on a mission ...

...to declutter and organize our house.

I was one of those kids with a messy room.

My personality is one suited to build ups of mess, then big cleanouts.

That does not work in a smallish house with four kids in it.

Since baby arrived and homeschool began things have deteriorated BADLY. And now my kitchen is being fiddled with by builders with big heavy hammers, the floor is filthy cement, there are vegetables in the laundry and the microwave is on the dining room table. The mess has suddenly started to bother me.

I MUST be organized, and I must be ruthless with clutter.

And besides that, I WANT to have less around us. I think it's healthier. Less stress, less mess.

BUT ... I want it all cleaned up and organized NOW!

Not an option with my current lifestyle, which includes baby, building and homeschooling.

So I have a list of areas (I couldn't believe how many areas I could come up with!) and I am going to clean out at least one every day. I am, I am, I am.

I've already ticked off my dressing table drawer and the kids' books. And I do love me a good ticked off list!

Watch this space. I might even get my camera back from my mom's house and do some before and after photos. The one of the garage will be amazingly impressive, because at the moment it is a black hole of trash. And tools and lawnmowers and bikes. And a huge aircon unit. And 4 enormous empty paint buckets. And quite possibly a few kilograms of plain old dirty dust, spread over most of the surfaces. And perhaps some cockroaches.

It's gonna change.

YEAH!