...on a jet plane..

Woo hoo! I am leaving for Australia today. A well needed vacation home, taking the baby bump to spend time with my parents, family and friends. The baby peach has been very active, although really only when in one of my fave positions, horizontal on the couch in front of the TV! I can even watch the show the little girl is putting on, as my stomach leaps up as I am resting the book I am desperately trying to finish. I am reading "The Girl Who Played with Fire" by Stieg Larsson. It has been excellent reading and I have the third book ready and waiting. Must check to see if my Dad has read them. So yes, on the plane soon for the long, but worth it trip. I have two bags.....one is meant to be empty so I can bring back my baby shower goodies, but it is actually filled with gifts for people. I'll see how I go wrangling the two on my own. Will play the pregnancy card at some point I am sure!

So what have I been up to this week? Not much. A lot of reading and napping. I tell you, I must need the nap if I am taking one right? I am 24 weeks now and definitely playing the pregnancy card with this one! I have almost finished laminating the inside of the cupboards in the kitchen, and if I wasn't so darn wary of painting whilst pregnant, the insides would be all coated in black as well. It is really paining my eyes to not have painted any of the rooms in this house, bar Kirah's which Jerry did in a flash before we moved in. Perhaps lucky he is away at the moment, otherwise his spare time might just be consumed with paint and rollers. Love you baba! In the meantime I have pasted some colour ideas onto our wall and the Nursery wall for (long) consideration, although am sure Jerry will make a super quick, un-procrastinated decision, unlike I.

Anyway, here are some pics of the cupboards. For some, the laminate came up very easily, but for others, the annoying happened. This:

I have been removing the laminate by hand, and although I do have an exacto knife (Is this what they are called here? Like a Stanley knife...), I find it quicker, and grottier, to just use my fingernails. So imagine this, with all of the extra wood bits covered with black, and perhaps white on the interior walls of the cupboards so I can see in them without a torch/flashlight:

In re-laminating, I did empty out that skinny cupboard I mentioned previously. I found a bunch of baking trays that were black beyond repair so they went straight in the bin, along with some plastic serving trays that I could live without. But I did come across these two gems. A very nice, almost snakeskin inspired cookie tray and a pig chopping board that I am considering spraying white and hanging on a wall for decoration, maybe...

And also came across these cleaning products from some time ago...

Oh, and for someone used to seeing Magpies and the occasional Kookaburra, this Hawk that hung with us for a good 20 minutes was a treat. Except for knowing that he is probably after the snake that apparently lives in my backyard. Take him for dinner! Ok, time to go and get ready for my trip!!

What lies beneath, and above, and inside....

This new house is really a treasure trove of either goodies or baddies, but even the baddies have made us a few bucks in resale. As you know we have been tearing up carpet in the bedroom to discover wood floorboards in pretty good condition. We pulled up the carpet in Callum's room last week (well, I personally didn't so shouldn't take any credit....) and again we were happy to find very decent floorboards. The only issue seems to be some staining, I guess from spillage that soaked through the underlay.

 

Speaking of what lies beneath, this gem lies above in this room:

I am so much happier with our bedroom now that the carpet is up and we moved our bed around. It went from this, to this:

 

I picked up some paint samples, just the little pieces of card, with colours for our room. Any suggestions on what to go with?

  

And what lies inside? Well, a lot of things to still be discovered I suspect. I have shown you the baking loot we previously found in the kitchen cupboards, and the other day I noticed that there is more stuff way in the back of the cupboard I am storing our pizza and baking trays. I think I might just investigate that further this afternoon. At the West Brookfield Flea Market last Saturday, we managed to make some $$$ on selling bits and pieces we have found in this house. I sold the towel rack and toilet roll holder I removed from the bathroom (they were U-G-L-Y) and oil lamps that were probably worth more than I thought. Of course, Jerry and I are unable to attend any type of flea market, yard sale etc without spending, so of the items we purchased, these are my favourite:

This is a $2 baby's cap that I picked up from a lady who specialises in linens. It needed a little wash and it might need some new ribbon ties, but I can't wait to use it! On the baby, not me :)

And this tea pot is lovely, and I see it gracing the counter top of a future (dream) tea shop of ours. Fill it with tea (leaves) of your choice, light the candle below, and gracefully strain the tea into quaint tea cups, and sip the afternoon away.

Oh, and I couldn't resist picking up some things for the baby peach (or mango to be more specific about the baby's size right now - 23 weeks). Some cute tights for the colder months and our new friend Frederick. Pressing his ears brings the sounds of him trotting then neighing happily:

Still with the baby, Kirah and I started to work on the changing table. We have a bureau that was left in the house, that is a good height and the right width for a changing pad. So we removed the mirror and will repaint the frame and attach it to a wall, and removed all of the hardware from the bureau in preparation for sanding, priming and painting. I'd really like to attempt something like this:

Here is our progress:

I am actually going to switch out this mirror with the mirror in the main bathroom. I think.....stay tuned for that decision!

Other than packet mix cakes for my cake decorating class, I haven't had much baking time at all. It's one of those things to me where I have to feel comfortable in my kitchen and have all ingredients on hand before I can really want to bake. I did cook (packet) pancakes for dinner the other night. We were having a "breakfast for dinner" menu. I officially am terrible at pancakes. I have never had any luck. They always burn or I try to flip them too early and the gooey middle gets everywhere and it's just yuck. And, I have no flipper! So here is my fill-in, a cheese grater...

Finally, this week, check out these puppies my grandparents found in their cellar. "Give them to Kirah" they said. They fit me. They are mine. I promise to wait until the baby is born before I start skating around the world in them!

I Heart Peonies

This week has flown by. It seems only yesterday we capped off a wet and parade-cancelled due to rain Memorial Day with a visit to Ikea. Any trip to Ikea is always exciting, even though you do tend to see the same stuff over and over again. This time we were looking for a desk, side table, shelving, eyeing off what they had for sofas and baby items, a doona cover, a rug and white photo frames (for my photo wall that I am eager to start on). We came home with most of the above, bar any baby furniture or a sofa, and with those little bits and pieces that you pick up along the Ikea journey like waste bins, ice cube trays, a toilet roll holder and this time, an Orchard! But before I get too excited or even hit the upload photo icon to show you how pretty it is was, unfortunately, it was left behind at the cash register....after it was paid for.....Hey, not my fault. I was busy with my $1 frozen yoghurt and a comfy chair waiting for the purchase transaction to be complete. Am I kinda pointing a finger here? So I have a photo to accompany this para, here is the rug that will go in the nursery!

Anyways, later in the week I got a phone call from cousin Mariah warning us of the tornado approaching our way. In a moment very unlike me, I actually had the TV off and had no idea. Sure, it was dark outside and there was most definitely a storm coming, but a tornado? Last tornado that did damage to MA was back in the 1950's apparently. This tornado touched down for something like 50 miles. We ran around closing windows, looking for torches/flashlights and blankets, preparing for some time spent in the basement, all while I was still trying to cook my beef bourguignon. I really didn't want to shelve this dish and was half way through prep so on I cooked. The sky didn't turn the gnarlish blue green I had been told about, the wind hadn't picked up a whole lot and it was raining, but it wasn't pelting down. Thankfully West Brookfield was spared, but a number of towns very close by were devastated and people are working around the clock to either bring the towns back to operating levels or helping out those who lost everything. Here is a photo I snapped from our front window:

 

So, back to my beef bourguignon. Pies, savoury pies specifically are not big here in MA. Sweet pies, sure. Even savoury pies of the fruit or vegetable variety. But good meat pies? Nope. How can you have a Servo without a meat pie? Hard to cook one though, and there is one simple reason. Pastry. Now I shouldn't be surprised that Big Y and Walmart do not stock a variety of ready made pastry. I probably would find what I need had I ventured to Hannafords or even Whole Foods or Trader Joes. But, Big Y and Walmart were my only options to buy pastry in time to make the pie. So I was stuck with filo. No options for puff or shortcrust, nada. Rather than attempting to make puff pastry (I am so not ready for that), I forked out over $4 for filo. Fail. The pastry just sat on the top of the pie and ended up getting all soggy once it was spooned out with some of the beef. So mine and Jerry's grand plans of pie making might be on hiatus now til we find a store that sells ready made pastry. Our little pie maker will just have to sit and wait a little while longer....

Friday I went shopping in Milbury. Mainly to pick up a stroller that the lovely parents have purchased for us. Coupon Dad as I will call him for this post, emailed me a 20% off voucher for an item at Babies R Us. I pretended to know what I was doing as I test drove some strollers around the aisle, until a sales assistant finally offered to help me out. It came down to a Graco we had seen online and a something-other that had an MP3 speaker on the handlebars.....am I really going to pump music while strolling? So I went with the Graco and visited the restroom twice. I think the bladder thing is kicking in now in my 20's weeks. There is a Gap at Milbury so I couldn't resist stopping in to see if they had any more maternity pants on sale. I mean, I am going to Australia in Winter and I do need long pants right? Yay for stopping in as I picked up two pairs at only $17 each! I bought these two, and no Mum, sorry this is a model not me!

I shopped further in Northampton on Saturday. My main excuse for going out there was to pick up some sneakers my wonderful friend Libby had asked for. She is very smart and taking advantage of the strong Aussie dollar. If Liba went to a store in Australia like Glue, these would set her back close on $170. Here this super stylish pair cost her $69.95. Here they are Lib, safe and sound in their home...

Arriving in Northampton I had one of those singing angel "Aaahhhhh" moments. It is exactly the place I need to go when I need an escape from the town here. It has excellent shops and food, glorious food! I ate Moroccan - woo hoo!!! They even have an Urban Outfitters and I couldn't resist these two finds. One is a wire C that will eventually hang in the kitchen I have decided and the other, an owl knob perfect for when I redo a cabinet or desk or something:

My DIY effort this week? I decided it was not cool to have a lockable gun cupboard in the nursery any longer, so I took it apart. It went from this:

via these two (I made myself feel a little tougher with the use of a power tool so ditched the pansy screwdriver):

To this:

I figure the nook as it shall now be known, will become a storage space for extra wipes, lotions, diapers, powders, all the baby stuff I am still yet to learn I am going to need! I think I'll paint the inside of it a different colour to the gray of the walls, to make it pop a little!

Finally this week we celebrated a 1st birthday party and I walked away with a hell of a lot of cake (feed the pregnant lady?) and these peonies that are to die for. I could look at them for hours on end. They were my wedding flower of choice til I learned they wouldn't bloom for me at that time of year. I love them so much I have to try and grow them. Maybe Aunt Kathy's father can give me a lesson!

So I'll leave you to imagine the scent they are beautifully spreading through the living room right now....bliss....