Halloweeeeeeeeeeen!

We were told when we moved here that this community did Halloween big, so we were excited about tonight. Unfortunately we've been a bit short on time in the lead up, so we were tragic and recycled last year's costume plan. I made new prosthetics, but we didn't take pics until the end of the evening, so these faces have been few a few hours walking and eating and were about to be pulled to pieces, so it's not the best representation. Still, the merit of a costume lies in its appearance at the end of the evening rather than the beginning eh?

L11 was a werewolf victim. 

 I was still the half-munted eye scary fairy, but this time I added a button as the actual eye:

 And P8 was a ventriliquist's puppet, only her top teeth suffered with the lolly-fest, so you'll have to squint and imagine how cool she was three hours previously:

Cool enough to win us first prize in over eights as a family affair - squeeeee! 

Sewing Girl

P8 is still heavily into sewing gear. The other day with no help at all she made herself a pencil roll (it's got an elastic loop fastening that I realize I've cut off the pic):

and a pillow with a secret compartment on the back:

She made two lovely bags too, but I'm not organized enough to have pics of those yet.

Weapons

What kind of gender bias am I creating here? P8 helped her brother by sewing a scabbard for the wooden sword he made.

 She added a carabiner and it looked pretty flash.

But like most things, it degenerated into a 'let's chuck stuff at each' other game.

Working On The New Chook House

Oh Go On Bunce!!

You know you want to. . .

1812 cannon firing

L11 is amazing at it - fluffed only three notes on his first go. I'm going to have to get that boy some drums.

Ooooo

Gave blood today and they couldn't easily get my rapidly declining veins, so went for a side one. Looks way worse now than when L11 took this, but I tried for the sympathy vote anyway.

This is what we were doing when he took gross bruisy pics - having iced chocolate together in the afternoon sunshine. Mmmm..

(Apparently it's losing something to agree to a haircut, so long and in his eyes it stays. His choice!)

Unusual

This morning pretty much the whole school met down the road and cycled or walked to school. The local constable held up the traffic while we all trudged across the highway. 

 Later in the day I was driving the same highway when I hit a swarm of bees. Weirdness. I thought it was rain until I saw them splatted all over the windscreen. Woah. I was a mass bee-murderer.

Gaining Confidence

That's our three week old chicks and L11. He's teaching them to trust humans by getting them eating from his hand. At first they aren't sure.

 But pretty soon they come to check it out.

 They are growing so fast and all of them have feathery wings now.

 The big black one - Peeper McDumpling - is positively huge. With suspiciously rooster-like large feet.

 At last they all dig in

 making one eleven-year-old boy very happy.

Uh Oh

Here come neighbours. . . 

Looks like they are saving the stand of trees though - yay!

Cuzzie Visit

The cuzzies have come for a sleepover. Annoyingly, it's been raining, which seems to encourage more girlie play which doesn't really involve L11. I snuck in and took this picture, then had to run with the camera and hide the memory card while they all shrieked "Delete it! delete it!" and raced after me. Not quite sure why, probably because running and shrieking is noisy and fun. So here is the one pic I took, that I risked my skin to save.

Mutti Says

"Now how does that lovely green go with the wall in your dining area? Show us more please."

Ha! It doesn't. So I had to change that too. And I hung my measuring cups on two hooks instead of one so I could see the right colours with the new wall. Imagine living in the world in my head!? Or worse, imagine living with me, living in the world in my head? It will be pathologized soon enough I'm sure. Colourmorphia. I think you'll probably get a government allowance for paint if you have it. And your house will look like this pic that I saw years ago on the internet and cannot forget, although I enjoy the insides of books too much to purchase and arrange them for spine colour. 

So clearly I'm not a severe case like that person. 

But my house does work with a series of jewel colours now. I'm so relieved because suddenly my chairs work again. I though I was going to have to ditch them and buy a bunch of mis-matches ones and paint them with gloss white, but now I'm satisfied again. If admittedly insanely shallow.

 This is my favourite little bit (although one day I'll change the light):

 The floors aren't quite finished - we need to add another sealer as they are not coping with grease marks, but that's another story. Still so much better than tiles.

 I finally painted up the wine storage bit that was an annoying murky blue colour. It was shiny laminate, so quite a risk, but pffft. . . I even used primer. If it chips incessantly, I'll just paint the sucker incessantly.

Took this one in the middle of cooking to show the green with the blackboard bit I put in as soon as we moved it. I think it works like a charm with the pink too.

And the gumboots.

Bad Old Me

Oooo there might have been a wee smidge of painting going on. . . 

Will take better pic when it's all back together.

Goodies

Happy birthday to my Invisible Friend! I actually took a piccie, but it looks so nothing like her, I'd say she's still invisible. Annoyingly I had the app on black and white which doesn't really do the lovely lunch setting much justice. 

My teabag. It's an actual fabricy bag. How fancy is that?

This afternoon P8 did a great job washing the windows for me. 

 And also a great job writing me a gorgeous love note.

Sweet, sweet girl.

The Worst Cat

L&P&GH&I think this is the funniest thing in the whole world. You have to read the whole page.

The Worst Cat

Three Lovely Things About Today

I started painting my downstairs doors chalky black. This one needs another coat as you can see, but I'm loving the contrast of the black/white/wood/concrete.

 The liquidambar tree is getting its spring leaves.

 We caught up with a friend of L11's who went on a school trip to China, and the lovely boy (only 11!) had brought home presents for each of us - a kite for L11, a fan for P8, and little pumpkin-shaped wooden box that opens up for Geeky Husband, and a silk scarf for me. How insanely thoughtful is that?

New Floor!

Done, but not quite cured enough to put the heavy things in place, so yes, that is my fridge in the middle of the entrance space. Will take more pics when I can actually properly put it together. 

I like it. Geeky Husband is not so sure. It's not as shiny as we planned - I think because we wanted un-stinky sealer so got the water-based one - but I love the rugged, mottled look and oh, it's so much better than these. . .

which just weren't doing it for me. Pale tiles in the kitchen = way more cleaning than a girl needs.

Movie Making

L11 had a plan to make a stop motion lego movie again these holidays. He's old enough now that I just click the camera and the rest was all him, so I was a bit surprised when he added me into the credits he made after he'd done the whole soundtrack too.

Ornithology

What do you do if you are mad keen on all things feathery, and you are presented with 4 week-old, cute as pie chicks?

 You try to teach them to roost of course.

Playdough With Friends

still works even when you are as big as P8. 

Weekend Work

Tomorrow someone is coming to do our floors. We're getting rid of this

and this

so it all had to be ripped up. Unfortunately it was glued to the concrete slab. Well glued.

Fortunately I have hard working children.

 When we got to the the next piece it was so tough that P8 and I had to pull out (I'm not being lazy - my back has been out for a week, so the tugging was impossible) but L11 battled on.

 When he'd had enough he went to the shed to help Geeky Husband making the chick brooder.

 I persuaded GH not to measure everything - so much easier to cut windows that look like clouds.

 Comfy!

 Yes, it's the most awesome brooder ever, and we can probably turn this into a business. Also yes, that is a bunch of small chicks living in the middle of my house.

 Happy peepers. Actually it was so big they lost the heating pad at first and we had to point them in the right direction.

 There's a roost in there for them to practice on as they get bigger.

 I had a last minute panic about the cat-proofing with the side windows, so added some netting to set my heart at ease.

Geeky Husband has never made anything wooden for us before, so huuuuge ups to him. It's fantastic!