General
Loungeroom Makeover!
May 6th
Jer had another trip away this weekend, so time for another project! (and yes I am slightly insane, I really shouldn’t have set such a huge goal for such a short time period, and over a weekend too – craziness! ….) Crazy Clarks had some bookshelves on sale for $29.95 instead of $59.95 that matched one we already had so I thought I’d try and get some more of them and find some funky fabric to cover the inside of the backboards with.
We went to Ikea on Saturday (Brianna and Ellia enjoy the playcentre there, only there was a big wait because it was full so we had a few dramas trying to sort that one out!) I found some fabric and bought 1.6m of 150cm wide figuring I just needed 1 drop of the fabric to cover each backboard…
Then onto the book cases…. Greenslopes had one in stock (we were driving past on the way back from ikea) then I decided to try Brookside as it was on the way home too (I was hoping to get two of them for that price). Brookside had “3″ in stock, only once she bought it out i realised it wasn’t the same thing (for starters the original price was $79 not $59) … I figured the one I already had would match the one already at home so decided I’d get it anyway.
Roll around monday morning and I open the box from Greenslopes… it’s broken! So we pack it back up, pack all the kids up and head back to brookside to swap it. Now we have two matching ones! (pity it required that nonsense)
Dad came around to help me put them together (well actually he came to put up a mirror in the bathroom but was kind enough to help with the book cases as well).
The book case I was expecting to buy had a single back board… only these ones had a piece that slid in between each shelf and the one above it… which meant I didn’t have enough fabric! I didn’t have enough to do each one and have enough hangover to go around the top and bottom a bit for the sliding in. So in consultation with dad 
we decided to leave the bottom ones uncovered.
Anyway… long story… this is what we ended up with – i really like them!!!
Now all that’s left is a trip back to ikea to buy more fabric for cushion covers… oh, and to fill the book cases!!!! 
Bedroom Makeover
Apr 11th
For those who don’t know, Jeremy spent the last week in Thailand with one of our Pastors from church who is living over there now. Whenever he is away for a few days or more I try and have some sort of project to work on… this time I decided our bedroom would get a makeover! I didn’t realise just what a process that would be!!!! I spent every spare minute trawling the internet and walking around shopping centres looking for the perfect quilt cover so that I could base the room around that… what a disaster! Everything was either waaay too expensive, waaay too ugly, totally the wrong colour, or too girly… I had tossed up the idea of making one myself, but struggled at the thought of trying to find fabric, work out how much it would all cost and find the time to put it together. Finally on Tuesday (He left last Thursday and arrived back late this Thursday pm) I decided I would just buy a new set of sheets, a new quilt/doona (I accidentally washed our wool one a few years ago and shrunk it…. so we’ve been without one for a while – oops!) and dye an old quilt cover that I had hung in the garage to make a curtain when we had the birth pool in there last year. Then on Wednesday after visiting with a friend in the morning I stopped in at a local fabric shop and found the bargain of the week! A lovely mocha brown fabric with a pale stripe through it for……. $1/m!!!!!!!!!! so I bought all of it (12.6m left on the roll). I also found a shiny teal fabric for $2/m and got 2.5m of it. I still had about 1m of the fabric I had used to make new curtains last year sitting in the cupboard.
So Wednesday night I started cutting…. and Thursday morning I finished putting it together. During the day Thursday Patricia helped me move our furniture around, and I ran around trying desperately to find all the little bits and pieces I wanted to complete the room (while Patricia stayed home with the -slightly crazy- children – Thanks Trish!!!!!). Turns out Ellia had some kind of bug, was crying about a headache all day, and finally threw up around 4pm then was fine…. then Malachi threw up everywhere around 6 – fun stuff!!
I finished the cushions *just* before dinner, sewing on the buttons while sitting outside chatting with the kids and our next-door neighbour, put the kids in bed and made a new hammock for Ezra, sewing the last seam about 5 minutes before Mary arrived to stay with the kids while I went to get jer….
It was all worth it!!!!!
The final result: (The photo’s not great as I took it on my new phone and I haven’t really set it up properly yet)
Total cost:
Quilt $75
Sheets $40
Lamps $22 (including bulbs)
Fabric for cover, hammock and cushions $15
Buttons for cushions $20 (they were worth it!!!)
Cushion inserts $12
Total: $184 – I saw quilt covers for that much while I was looking around!!!!!!
Edited to add: Jeremy LOVED it!!!
March Highlights
Apr 8th
March was an incredibly busy month at our place (I realise some may think that it’s always busy here… but the last month has been even more so!). As well as all the ‘normal’ things we do from week to week, in March
* Brianna turned 5 (I don’t feel old enough to have a 5 year old!)
* and started playing hockey,
* we had our church missions conference,
* took two day trips to the sunshine coast to visit friends,
* Ellia broke her leg and was in a cast for a week (after two late night visits to the childrens emergency department with Daddy) then a brace for another three weeks,
* Heidi (a friend of mine) and I started a new program at our church for littlies (2-4 year olds) on wednesday nights,
* Daddy went to Kingaroy for two days,
* the rest of us went to see the QLD orchestra play Peter and the Wolf (Mrs John came too)
* Brianna and Malachi spent two days at Granny’s house,
* we had a busy easter with a trip to the redcliffe festival of sails and to rocks riverside park for a bbq with friends,
* did lots of sewing as we prepared for Adrian and Julia’s wedding (also in march, 4 of us were in the bridal party – Malachi wore his first suit!),
* Daddy turned 28 and started playing basketball again and
* Ezra started rolling over!
Now for the photos 
The Smith Crew and the Caitens Clan @ the Sunshine Coast unit the Caitens were staying in.
We all went and played putt putt together. It was slightly crazy, but enjoyed by most!
The two little men particularly enjoyed the helicopter inside…
and the motorbikes!
Miss Grumpy-pants with her leg in a cast (she wasn’t actually grumpy, she just didn’t particularly want her photo taken)
On a ride at the redcliffe festival of sails
Enjoying sno-cones
With the Caitens and McClures @ Rocks Riverside
The first hockey game!
Uncle Adrian and Mr Malachi in his suit (it’s serious business!)
Ezra pulling faces earlier in the month… he’ll be 5 months old on Thursday… time has disappeared!!
Apron??
Feb 24th
I thought I would do a post with *my* interpretation of apron/non-apron tying of mei-tais.
So to start, when referring to an apron…. it’s not this:
but in fact this (the ones grandma has ) :
So to tie a MT “apron style” would look like this:
(The body of the carrier is coming from the bottom of the waistband and will come around baby’s bottom and back up)
Non- apron style is the opposite:
The body of the carrier is coming from the top of the waistband.
For a front carry, the main difference then is just the height of the carrier. For Ezra (now 3mths) in this particular MT, apron style means that he can see out:
Non-apron is more helpful for sleeping – the back of the carrier comes up higher on him. (scuse the goofy look on my face, i hate taking photos of myself!!!)
I don’t have any MT’s with angled bottom straps, but I would imagine that it would be virtually impossible to tie it non-apron style. However, with a straight strap on the bottom or a padded/wide waist, either work!
This video is how i currently put Ezra on my back up high, toss and then tie apron style (when i bring the bottom strap under his bottom i flick it under – i thought i was more obvious when i was doing it but apparently not!) oh and the delay once he’s there that you can’t see is because i was struggling to move his arm into the carrier to bring the strap over my far shoulder.
I can’t get the silly thing to embed here…. so here’s the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rgxvs9yxqmQ
Oh and in the 10 minutes since sitting down to write this post…
(I think he likes it!! )
Holiday!!
Aug 23rd
We managed to take a holiday this week! Despite the super rainy weather it was great
On monday we took a “holiday at home” day. We went to the breathing space cafe at indooroopilly for breakfast then caught a train into south bank where we visited the science centre. From there, we had lunch at southbank and went for a play on the park before catching the train home again.
Malachi @ the science centre
Binna and Mummy @ the science centre
Malachi playing @ southbank
On tuesday morning we packed all our gear and decided to head up the cost (it was sunny then )
Trying on the new swimming gear from daddy.
First stop: underwater world!
Next stop: the shearwater resort @ kings beach…. only by now it’s raining!! (these photos were taken from our balcony early wednesday morning)
but all was not lost – the kids enjoyed watching playschool
and we went on a bit of a shopping spree!…
…which resulted mainly in lots of great bargains (new clothes) for daddy – but some super cute nighties and socks for the girls too (amongst other things)
lots of fun!
we’re back home now and slowly getting ready for the weekend! Jer and I are heading away for our church couples retreat overnight tomorrow night. My dad will be having the kids for a little bit in the evening, then Adrian will be looking after the girls here and Julia is taking the brave step of looking after malachi for the night
