Living in a Modernist House

I recently caught up with a great two-episode series on the ABC called Streets of Your Town, about suburban architecture in Australia. It's worth a look - you can catch it here until 30 November.

Watching this, I suddenly recognised the first home I remember living in. It was a brick box with sloping roof, exposed beams and bricks, floor to ceiling windows, a split level ground floor and an open staircase, all nestled in a native garden and surrounded with a ti-tree fence. Tick tick tick - all of these are features beloved of the modernist architects of the time.

We have always remembered this house as an oddity - weirdly designed, a menace to small children, plagued with hunstman spiders thanks to being nestled in that native garden. But now I realise it was actually a modernist masterpiece!

Halloween Party 2016

I don't blog much these days. But you didn't think I could ignore Halloween did you? A quick search on the word 'Halloween' on my blog turns up 22 posts (?!), including this one (2015), my first one (2012) and my Halloween poem - so it's no secret I love Halloween.

Tupperware

Today I went to a Tupperware party, the second one I have been to in my life. The first one was about 15 years ago when, if I remember correctly, I came to my cousin's house, drank some wine and admired some plastic stuff, and didn't buy a thing.

Still here

I'm still here.

I will post something again, but life is busy and changing, my kids are getting older and I can't really blog about them anymore, and work is getting exciting, and so things are a bit different. All in a good way. Life is good.

In lieu of a proper post, here is a quick list of how I've been spending my time. Ciao for now!

CLEANING

DECLUTTERING

RE-ARRANGING FURNITURE

COMMUTING

WORKING

COOKING

GODDAMN LAUNDRY

KIDS AND THEIR FRIENDS

SWIMMING (a little bit)

DOG

LATE NIGHT STUDYING

NECESSARY PRODUCTIVITY BREAKS / FURTHER BRAIN TRAINING

NETFLIX

Dollhouse shoeboxes

I recently saw this very cute craft at Be A Fun Mum: shoebox dollhouse. This is very easy and pretty fast to do, and the end result is freaking adorable!

Some people are very clever at coming up with great stuff that is also very simple.  I am not one of those people, but I know a good idea when I see it, and I had four shoeboxes on hand from back-to-school purchases and a printer full of ink, so I gave this a go.

Here are the finished boxes: each kid got a bedroom and a Paris street scene (totally copied from Be A Fun Mum - go here to see how to make them).

You can save on printer ink by using coloured paper and wrapping paper for carpet and bedclothes and wallpaper, but I didn't do that this time round. I printed pictures of cobblestones and 'wallpaper' designs for wallpaper, and I printed out pictures of blankets to use as blankets for the little beds. TOTES CUTE but very expensive on the printer ink, as you can imagine. I was feeling rich and reckless I guess.

I have to say, without irony, that the kids' reactions when I gave them these boxes were totally worth every penny. They LOVED them, and they have played with them a lot.

A couple of weeks later and armed with fresh shoeboxes from a couple of long overdue shoe purchases for myself, I was itching to make some more rooms.  I rescued another box from the garage and one from my mother, and rifled through my wrapping paper and craft paper stores for 'wallpaper' and 'carpet'.  I cut out pictures from magazines for furniture and French doors.  That part actually took the longest. It's quite hard to get enough good pictures, and windows are especially hard to find. Sometimes they're on a foreshortened angle, or they cross a double-page spread, or they're overlaid with text. But you only want a couple of things in the room anyway, so the kids can add their own dollhouse furniture and the rooms are flexible (bedroom / loungeroom / one-room apartment).

I also made each kid a double-garage, using narrower shoe-boxes, as these were too small for rooms.

To make these, I turned the boxes upside down so they made a box with no 'floor', then I covered the top (bottom of the upside down box) and front with white paper, and drew garage doors with black ink. The last step was to cut the sides of the two doors so they open upwards like an old-fashioned garage door.

I also made a little door at the back, so they would look a bit like our garage at home.

So last week I made these second rooms and the garages, and gave them to the kids. They loved them!

So Be a Fun Mum, thank you - this was an excellent, easy, enjoyable craft that even I had success with, and that doesn't happen very often!

A Good Idea and a Happy New Year

The last few years I've done a "Fairwell current year, here's what I did, here's what was good/bad" post on New Year'e Eve (where's the party, right). But this year of course Facebook has done that for us so no need! (joke)

Kate Takes 5 has done a nice 'fresh start' post at her blog, where she makes one simple resolution: identify what makes you happy, and resolve to do a little bit more of it.

Excellent idea, thought I.

The things that make me happy, but which I already do a lot of, are:

• reading
• hanging out with my kids, just talking, watching a movie together, etc
• driving alone

I already do plenty of those, so that will continue.

The other things that make me happy, and which feed me, but which I don't do enough of, are:

• writing
• drawing
• enjoying art
• walking
• being outside

old Life Magazine photo from Barnorama

So those are the things I will strive to do a little bit more in 2015.  To make room for those things, I will have to:

• do better at sharing the mental and emotional work of parenting with the husband
• share the organisational and responsible aspects of domesticity with the husband, because that crap is exhausting and will deplete all your joy

I did enjoy my 12 Resolutions challenge last year, and who knows, that may pop up again - but I like this simple, new resolution a lot.

In the meantime, Happy New Year to you, and may your last evening of 2014 be lovely.

Happy New Year!

Inky

We have a new cat! This is Inky.

We adopted her right before Christmas from the Lost Dogs Home, at North Melbourne. Their cat adoption page is here.  I was surprised how many cats there were, and how many of them are absolutely lovely. No scroungy, mean scratchy cats these - almost all are cuddly and affectionate, which just goes to show you how misunderstood cats tend to be (or how good our timing was maybe).

What's a little sad is how many stray cats there are.  The day we went to get ours, there were three other families there taking home a cat, and more on their way. And yet, a week later the Cat Adoption page is still at 7 pages, filled with half the same and another crop of 'new' homeless kitties. :(

So if you're in Melbourne and you've been looking for a cat, look no further. Here's why you should adopt one from a shelter. And if you're looking for a shelter, the Lost Dogs Home is a good one. The staff there are great with the animals, which get walked/played with and are given plenty of attention, and they educate and assist new owners without lecturing or over-the-top requirements to adopt.


Inky is one year old, female, and very cute. She's curious, confident and playful, and has settled into life in our house quite comfortably. She follows us around, does a very cute jump-rub move against our legs, and sleeps on the kids' beds, seemingly taking turns, though perhaps slightly more often with M. For this I am very thankful. Poor M's heartache over Tia was just gut-wrenching, and had not really abated after three months. A few days before Christmas once the kids were on holiday and I had a week off work, I put aside our plan to adopt in January and we went to the shelter to get our new cat.



Inky was not the prettiest of the bunch. She is extremely thin, and has an odd-shaped head, an uneven coat and weirdly splayed legs. But she's young and friendly and playful and sweet, which is exactly what you want.

Also, as she sleeps with the kids, it's them she wakes up at 6am, and M has been getting up each morning to feed her.  Perfect!

 Harry is not so thrilled. The first day we had Inky was interesting. Both of them lunged at each other on either side of a glass door, each intent on killing the other. When we finally introduced them in the same room there was a brief but terrifying scuffle, growls, howls and spits and then a yelp and a whine and that was the end of the mutual lunging. Within three days they had reached an uneasy truce and now skirt each other warily, mostly keeping out of each other's way.  Friendship is still a good way off, I think.

12 Resolutions: December (and November recap)

This year I'm playing along with #12Resolutions on Twitter and Facebook. The idea is to set yourself short-term, achievable goals, one each month. 

For November my goal was to tidy and clean the house, in preparation for the kids' ninth birthday party.  

Tick! It took a lot of work, but for a short, sweet time (two weeks) I had a thoroughly clean, tidy, decluttered and sweet-smelling house. 



Even a tidy front and back yard.



It's still not bad, but it is on its way back to normal, unfortunately. I don't have the effort or will to maintain the way it was forever. I tell myself I hold other things in higher importance to a tidy house. I tell myself kids and pets are messy and life is messy. But really, I just hate cleaning, and I am lazy. 

But the kids' party was a success, and I only gritted my teeth a couple of times (for a couple of kids - one not even invited - who push my buttons every time as they never say please or thank you, and their parents never get out of their car while dropping them off and picking them up).


We had a fairly traditional, low-key party, with cheap, homemade games (jelly bean blindfolded taste testing, dance statues, and the bloody mandatory Pass the Parcel). My prizes for the games were the cheapest $1 crap I could source, the lolly bags were filled with cheap toxic sweets and a couple of useless trinkets, and I only offered two drinks to all the kids: cheap fruit cocktail cordial poured from jugs, and water.  

For the grown-up guests I had a cheese-cracker-and-dip platter and some homemade spinach and cheese pies (fancy!), packets of homebrand potato chips, two bottles of soft drink, one $5 bottle of cleanskin wine and 6 bottles of light beer. I usually over-cater, but this year being on a tight budget forced me not to - and sure enough, there was still plenty of everything to go around. 

More surprisingly, I heard from both grown-ups and kids that it was a great party - not that it seemed so to me, but you can't really tell when you're in the thick of it, running round hosting, and are also a hybernating introvert not well-practiced in hosting anything.  

  

So anyway, on to December.

We're almost at the end, but my resolution for December was to have a well-organised, stress-free and on-budget Christmas.  This year for the first time my kids are not expecting Santa, so they have automatically lowered their gift haul expectations, which is advantageous (if a little sad!)  They are still going to do alright, but we are scaling down. 

Christmas this year is going to be pretty easy for us. My sister and her husband are hosting Christmas lunch, and for the evening we are going to my cousin's place. Hence, as I don't have to do anything more than bring a couple of platters and salads and some drinks, there is no reason for me to feel stressed at all.

Except you do, of course. It's a busy time of year with lots going on, and the expenses keep climbing as the day draws near. Chocolates for work, candy canes or tiny gifts for school friends (I hate that one), teacher gifts (suddenly there are a lot of teachers.... I went with boxes of chocolates this year for everyone), endless trips to Kmart and the supermarket as you remember something else... and meanwhile life's ongoing obligations and expenses continue.

So yes, it is stressful, and I am SO thankful I am not hosting Christmas in any way, and I am VERY grateful to my sister and cousin who are.

But the good news is, I am almost ready. Almost.

How are you managing the last days before Christmas?

#12Resolutions:

January: walk 5 times a week (achieved - I now walk daily)
February: write 2 short stories (failed - wrote none)
March: write 1 short story, and start Project Management course (done)
April: visit GP and complete or schedule the follow-ups (done)
May: complete one module of Project Management course (failed)
June: working day money savers: public transport and packed lunch (done)
July: pay attention to needs, moods and emotions to manage reactions (done, and ongoing)

August: limit time-wasting activities on my phone (done - and still going pretty well)

September: 15 mins floor exercises daily (nope)

October: get more sleep (yes)

November: tidy and clean house for December entertaining (done)

December: an organised, on-budget and stress-free Christmas!

12 Resolutions: November (and October recap)

Hello again.

It's that time of year. Things are busy. But I haven't forgotten my November resolution (thanks Pandora for the nudge).


This year I'm playing along with #12Resolutions on Twitter and Facebook. The idea is to set yourself short-term, achievable goals, one each month. 

For October my goal was to get more sleep. 

Tick! I took that to heart. I've been trundling off to bed at a reasonable hour and feeling all the better for it, for the last few weeks. It has curtailed on online activity significantly, unfortunately. 
But there are only so many hours in the day and you can't do everything.

So anyway, on to November.

For November I'm taking a break from self-improvement and focusing on CLEANING, TIDYING and DE-CLUTTERING. The kids' ninth birthday is coming up and we're doing a party at home, and I need this home clutter free and crowd-friendly by mid-December.

So that will keep me busy.


I've already bagged up a lot of gear for donating and hard rubbish, and I have tidied our lounge-room which was a HUGE job. 

Our lounge room was very cluttered.

Put it this way: on Halloween night when the kids went trick or treating, I was able to just bend down and pick up their plastic pumpkin buckets from under my desk, where they had been dumped after last Halloween.



No longer - our lounge room is now spacious and clutter free. (Clutter free for us, that is. It'll never be minimalist).

So what's on your to-do list these days?

#12Resolutions:

January: walk 5 times a week (achieved - I now walk daily)
February: write 2 short stories (failed - wrote none)
March: write 1 short story, and start Project Management course (done)
April: visit GP and complete or schedule the follow-ups (done)
May: complete one module of Project Management course (failed)
June: working day money savers: public transport and packed lunch (done)
July: pay attention to needs, moods and emotions to manage reactions (done, and ongoing)

August: limit time-wasting activities on my phone (done - and still going pretty well)

September: 15 mins floor exercises daily (nope)

October: get more sleep (yes)

November: de-clutter, tidy and clean house for December entertaining

Flu

Flu, flu, I hate you

I'm all laid up, what can I do?

Very little, and I feel crap too

The house looks like an unkempt zoo

As for dinner, baked beans will do

And the kids will buy lunch tomorrow too.

Flu, flu, I hate you

And I used to scoff at flu shots too

Next winter I'll know what to do

I'll get the shot and love it too.

Next winter I'll be good as new

Without the burden of the flu.

Flu, flu, I hate you

I've missed loads of work and parenting too

I've passed through days without a clue

My legs are sore and my head pounds too

I'm living between the bed and the loo

Darn you to heck, you rotten flu.

Flu, flu, I hate you

The doctor says there's nothing to do

The dog is neglected and feeling blue

The cat doesn't care but that's nothing new

I can't read to the kids without coughing anew

So now they play Minecraft in bed, boo-hoo

Flu, flu, I hate you

My head is fuzzy and hurting too

Moving feels like walking through glue

I don't even know if you ARE the flu

'Flu-like virus' is probably true
'Ebola' feels apt but I can't overdo

Flu, flu, I hate you

The office is hit and school is too

So many sick or struggling through

Projects on hold, no one will sue.

My boss says stay home, don't spread it anew
As people are catching it a second time too.

Flu, flu, I hate you
I'm out of clean clothes and my sheets stink too
And do I really need my period too?
Thanks body, what did I do to you?
My nose is swollen and just bled too
My face is spotty, my memory is too *

At home there are some saving graces
My husband's tea, my kids' kind faces
But the best thing of all that I can see:

So far the only one sick is me.

* I am blaming my illness for the standard of rhyming in this passage.

Tia's Scary Adventure

We arrived home last Wednesday night to find this note on our door:

Being winter (or on Wednesday, a few days before winter), evenings are now very dark. Although only 6.00 pm when we arrived home, it was as dark as midnight. First task was to try and remember which neighbor has a maple tree. We went out the back yard and called Tia but there was no response, so I showed the kids via Google what maple leaves look like, we grabbed torches, and went walking up the street. We found the tree, next door, set back from our fence, and it is HUGE. Our lovely neighbors heard us and came out, confirmed Tia had been in the tree all day, and opened the gate to let us into the yard.

I could not believe how high she was. When we called her she stood up and tentatively took a couple of steps, then sat again and stared. She didn't make a sound. Y made to climb the tree, but got only a couple of feet up before finally agreeing with the rest of us that it was impossible.

"She'll find her way down," I said. "Cats don't die in trees."

As it turns out though, I was wrong. Cats do indeed get stuck in trees and can die, either by getting exposure or dehydration and falling out, or by falling and killing themselves. I educated myself that evening on Exquisite Kitty. Did you know that cats can't climb down head-first? They have to climb backwards, which is why they are much better at climbing UP than climbing DOWN.
So if your cat is stuck in a tree for a whole day, you can't just leave it there; you have to organise an animal rescue.  Also, if your cat is not meowing, she may be weak and dehydrated.

We went out to our backyard and shone torches up to check on her throughout the evening, calling and coaxing her with no result. She changed branch a couple of times, stood and turned around and sat again; at one point she climbed higher up. At another point she was even swaying slightly, clearly nodding off.  At another point when I shone up my torch I got four shiny eyes, and then saw a possum sitting on the branch next to her, both of them watching me together.

Eventually I had to go to bed, even though I felt terrible.  I found Jim's Animal Rescue's contact details so we could call them in the morning; Y would be home that day.

The next morning I got up early and went outside with the torch, but there was no sign of Tia in the tree and no sound or sight of her when I called either. Just as I was thinking she had collapsed from exhaustion and fallen to her death during the night, I heard her bell, and she appeared from the bushes.

She ate an entire plate of food and a saucer of cat milk in one go, then came straight inside and stayed there for two days.

Sunday Selections #174

It's time for Sunday Selections!
Sunday Selections is a weekly meme hosted by River at Drifting Through Life. 

The rules are very simple:-

1. post photos of your choice, old or new, under the Sunday Selections title

2. link back to River somewhere in your post

3. leave a comment on River's post and visit some of the others who have posted and commented: for example:

    Elephant's Child

    Andrew at High Riser

    Gillie at The View From Here

    

Here is this week's collection of orphan photos:

Most evenings the kids spend half an hour or so in their rooms before bedtime, and then I come in and read a chapter of a book to them before they go to sleep.  During the reading, both pets come in to whatever room I'm in and settle themselves somewhere cosy. 

Harry

Tia

After many weeks' dedicated practice, M has mastered the Rainbow Loom, and has learned how to make the more complicated 'charms' via YouTube tutorials:

gymnast

ice-cream sodas

A prefers writing and drawing. After we all watched the Back to the Future movies together last weekend, she drew a picture of "the future".  As you can see, we will have flying cars and hoverboards, but kids will always play with dolls.

The Future

Sunday Selections #163

It's time for Sunday Selections!
Sunday Selections is a weekly meme hosted by River at Drifting Through Life. 

The rules are very simple:-

1. post photos of your choice, old or new, under the Sunday Selections title

2. link back to River somewhere in your post

3. leave a comment on River's post and visit some of the others who have posted and commented: for example:

    Elephant's Child

    Andrew at High Riser

    Gillie at Random Thoughts From Abroad

    

A hodge-podge of photos today, most of them old, the first one new.

This was part of a farm drawing by A. done last week. I really liked the shape of this cow.

This one is a "keep calm and carry on" kind of quote that was stuck to my sister-in-law's fridge in Greece, which I really like. It's a little rhyme and it means, basically, "Be strong, hold your head high - good days will come again."  So apt for Greece at this time.

Another one from Greece. Here we are at Y's good friend's taverna in Afissos in the Pelion region of the mainland.  Our girls are sitting at the table, and Y's friend, Y and his brother are standing looking at...something? in the water.

Another rooftop photo from the carpark on my work building's roof. I've taken a lot of photos up here - not that I'm anything but a terrible photographer - because the shapes and reflections are so interesting.

My daughter M's keyring. So pretty, I covet it myself.

Tia, asleep on a chair outside.

Our fridge door. Time for a clean-up, perhaps?!

How was your week?