High Tea

I went for High Tea today with some of my girlfriends. It was so darn nice! It was my first time – I was a high tea virgin. They took me out as a thank you for taking the pictures of their kids which was a lovely thought – I didn’t need a thankyou. Lending me their children was more then enough of a thankyou for me. Today was just a bonus.

I’ll be honest, I’m not a ‘tea’ drinker but I love the idea behind it – girlfriends, cakes and lots of chatting. Really, what’s not to love about that?!

There were four of us and it was perfect. We chatted, sipped tea (or in my case hot chocolate – strike me down now!) and ate all the scrumptious little pastries, cakes and sandwiches well into the afternoon. Speaking of scrumptiousness…aren’t petits fours the most delectable, cutest things ever – trust me to get all excited over food.

It was such a welcome relief to my somewhat stressful life at the moment. It was delightful to chat husbands (mainly bashing he he he) and babies and all things in between. I was eagerly waiting the weekend just so I could go to high tea; just to spend some much needed time with some good friends.

After High Tea I had the pleasure of welcoming my first visitors into my new home…ok not really…just showing my girlfriends around the place. It was nice to see, when I dropped in today, that we had a range hood. Woohoo! Although, I wasn’t too happy with the chimney type thing sticking out of my roof but I guess that goes with the territory. If you hadn’t noticed I’m becoming such a perfectionist of late. I hate things out of place.

In addition to the range hood I saw that the rain head in the ensuite had been installed. I can’t wait to give it a whirl.

12 days to go!!!

Store-wee Time

You might recall a little while ago my disdain at reading to Lily. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to; it was more that it was just so frustrating. She wouldn’t sit still. She would close the books after one page. Basically she just didn’t like to read or more to the point…be read to.

WOW how things have changed. It’s ‘store-wee’ this and ‘store-wee’ that at the moment. Currently, Lily just loves books. You can sit on her rocking chair and literally read her book after book (and repeat them over and over) and she will sit for as long as you will read.

She interacts on a whole new level now. Her vocabulary is expanding at a rate of knots which I think is the reason for her increased fascination for reading - she just wants to suck it all up. I’ve discovered that she has some favourite books…the books to which she is drawn (I suspect it is because they are the ones we read her often). These include…

“Where is the Green Sheep”
“The Hungry Caterpillar”
“Oh Dear”
“Night Night Baby”
“The Going To Bed Book”
“Peepo”

I couldn’t pass up of the opportunity to capture ‘store-wee’ time. They are nothing spectacular but none the less they are special to me…

I'm glad Trevor managed to capture some with me too...

Clown Boy

I swear every time Byron comes home from kindy he looks like a kid that has swiped his mum’s lipstick and despite trying really hard to apply it correctly completely misses the mark.

Seriously, the kid looks like a clown!

(Excuse the dodgy photo - just a quick snapshot for evidentiary purposes)

Ever since he was a toddler Byron has tended to lick his lips in the cooler/winter months. It used to be a case of him licking when he had a runny nose (gross I know) but now it seems to be more to do with wind burn then a snotty nose although that is sometimes how it begins. It’s got to the point where we are constantly telling him every five minutes to get his tongue back into his mouth. The more he licks with his acidic spit, the worse it becomes. So, by the time he has gotten home from kindy, after a million repeat licks of his lips, he literally looks like a clown.

Vaseline just doesn’t do the job – too thin and way too water soluble. If I try to put a blistex type ointment on he screams – he doesn’t like the cooling sensation. The only thing that seems to really curb a lot of the wind burn is Lansinoh (yes the nipple cream). I used that a lot last winter season. The thickness works wonders. It creates a nice barrier between his lips and his bloody tongue!

My breastfeeding days are long over so I think I might have to head to the chemist and get myself some more Lansinoh. Anything to prevent him from looking like a clown.

Lights and mirrors ahoy

The electricity was properly connected today. We have lights, ceiling fans and power points – lots of power points! Finally, we'll be able to attend the house at night - we can see where we're walking! Looks like they were busy today- they had also installed the shower screens, bathroom mirrors and cupboard/built-in doors.

I’m not sure if I mentioned it but we have a key – WOOHOO – so we can visit and browse whenever we want. We had to pay a $20 deposit for the privilege in exchange for a ‘builder’s key’, but we get that back when we hand the key in at handover. We’ve had the key for about two weeks now and it’s been fantastic. It’s great to be able to browse around inside whenever we want. It means we can keep a closer eye on the finer details and advise the builder if anything isn’t to our liking/specification earlier then we otherwise would ensuring there will be no nasty surprises come handover.

Speaking of nasty surprises…how shocked was I when I spotted the linen cupboard’s brand spanking new sliding doors…they were cream. Cream you say – what’s wrong with that? Well, we have white walls that’s whats wrong with it. It just looked so wrong. I have consciously made an effort to ensure everything has matched. There is no way I would have let a cream linen cupboard door slip through in my colour selection.

I rang the builder late this afternoon and explained their little mistake. He said he would have to take a look at his tender colour selection document to see what colour it was supposed to be. Do you think I could find my copy at home? Nope. I did find the original draft which had ‘birch cream’ as the colour but as expected I had picked that up and changed it to white. I rang the actual building company to find out what we had on the contract and it was indeed 'artic white' which was such a relief. That means some one has stuffed up and they better fix it!

Aside from the little mishap everything looks good. I loved the entrance light the best. It was worth the money and looks perfect. Just perfect. Trevor and I have vowed to make sure nothing gets moved in through the front door – God forbid something should happen to our precious crystal light!

(Isn't it gorgeous?)

(Main ensuite vanity mirror)

(Bathroom vanity mirror - can you believe it's bigger then the ensuite? What's with that!)

(Playroom fan)

(Alfresco downlights and fan)

(Bathroom showerscreen)

(Bedroom built-in doors)

(The lovely 'birch cream' linen cupbaord door - don't you think it goes perfectly with the white walls?!)

Some where to park the car...

It really is starting to look more like a proper house!

We have a driveway and a path to the front door. We also have concrete portico and alfresco areas. Eventually these will be tiled. Apparently we have to wait a 'few months' before we can do so, so as to ensure the concrete has fully set (i.e to avoid slight movement and cracking in the tiles). I don't think we'll be waiting months...perhaps weeks, but not months!

Introducing...

Miss Eliza Pearl...

(and let me assure you - she's as beautiful as the name would suggest)

Isn't she just a 'pearl' (and yes mum looks gorgeous too)?!

This newborn gig is not the easiest thing to do. In fact, it’s probably the hardest out of all shoots - maternity, baby and kids (ok, toddlers are probably hard but not as time consuming). Little newborns take so long to settle and resettle. Anyone would think they were easy because they don’t move but when they're awake they squirm and wiggle so it makes things hard. It's a matter of feeding, cuddling and waiting. All up it took us 3 hours to complete this session and Little Miss Eliza was such a good little poppet - imagine how long it would take with very unsettled bubs or nervous parents (it is then another 6 plus hours to process and sort all the images).

Eliza definitely spent more time awake then asleep but she wasn’t wiggly at all - there were lots of little feeds and the dummy came in mighty handy at some points - it just took her over to the sleepy/settled side much quicker...I'll be recommending those to parents (if not for my sanity he he he). Miss Eliza Pearl was a grand ol’ 5 days. That’s the thing with newborns…the earlier you get them the easier and ‘more sleepy’ they are so it’s much better. Anything past two weeks is too long.

They are so tiny and soft and smell delicious which makes up for all the hard yards.

Sigh…I want one!

So the countdown begins...

It has been confirmed. The builder has advised that handover is coming...

Three weeks today!

Only three weeks until hand over. It could have been 2 weeks and 6 days but alas I will be so busy on the 21st at work that I can’t possibly attend any ‘hand over’ so we moved it to the 22nd.

So, it looks like the 22nd and the 23rd, my 30th birthday, will be spent moving. Oh the joys.

I can’t complain though – moving into a brand new house on your birthday is a pretty good present even if you (*cough cough* the bank) are paying for it and doing the moving yourself.