Spooky

Getting out of bed all bleary-eyed this morning I noticed this on the slate in the kitchen. I couldn't take a photo with the flash because all I got was reflection, so I opened the curtains and here it is (in the middle of the pic) ... can you see it?


If you can't see it, scroll down for a big clue:














If you still can't see it (*sigh*) scroll again ...









... I can see a skull. It isn't a mark and won't wash off; it seems to be discolouration in either the slate or the sealant, which happened to make an interesting pattern. Or it's a haunting, whatever you like to think. :o)

Bay to Birdwood

Uncle Martin invited the boys and me to join him in the Bay to Birdwood today, in his 1957 Chevy. The range for cars in this year's tour was 1956-1977 so it would have been one of the oldest there. It was a very nice and fuel-economical ride (for a V8), all very original and still left-hand drive, and it's for sale if you want it!

Here are EJ with an icecream that has his name on it, and Liam with a car that has his initials on it:



And some self-explanatory pics:






Panoramas usually come out small on here so you can click that last one (and any of the others) to enlarge it if you like.

Woo hoo!

The boys' yearly allergy tests were this afternoon. Liam had 17 pin pricks in his back and EJ had 19, for which they earned 10c per prick and a treat afterwards.

A quick run down on the last four years: EJ had a reaction to peanut butter when he was 1 but could not be desensitised at that stage. A year later I had Liam tested as well and he was also allergic to peanuts and many other things. Liam had more allergies but EJ's were more severe.

After that, for a whole year they had daily peanut desensitisation. This dropped Liam's levels but didn't work for EJ; in fact, he seemed to be heading towards anaphylactic levels. They then had an increasingly higher dose but only three times a week for over a year. Liam also had sesame desensitisation at this time, and EJ had to avoid other things such as egg, which can't be desensitised by exposure.

Today's results:
Liam is allergic to pollens, dust and moulds - ie: hayfever! His peanut and sesame allergies are gone!!
EJ's egg allergy is gone!! He has the above hayfever allergies and a mild almond allergy. His peanut score reduced from 18 to 12, and the allergist was surprised as he wouldn't usually try to desensitise a score of 18. We had to try it (and the first try last year was in a hospital just in case), because we had to see that EJ could tolerate being in the same house as Liam when Liam was being desensitised.
And the allergist said they no longer need yearly tests! That, and today's good results, have made the last four years of careful diets and environments, and the last two years of desensitisation, all worth it.

EJ's peanut desensitisation will now be a larger dose but only once a week, and Lucky Liam only has to do it once a month. Liam's sesame desensitising will continue as we buy bread with sesame seeds on top. EJ also needs to try tiny amounts of almond.

EJ was so excited - "I'm not allergic to egg? Can I eat a egg? A real one? Can I eat an actual egg by itself?". So we went and got a big breakfast including eggs (at 4pm) to share as our celebratory treat. Liam mostly had icecream instead but did have to have some bacon.

It's nice to have our large collective efforts pay off so well.

Sunday, Monday, Tuesday ... cos I can't think of a better title...

On Sunday, the Adelaide Zoo was celebrating Peace Day (which was on Friday). We downloaded their dove pictures to colour in because then we would get 5% off entry fees, which seems peaceful to me! I found info about peace bracelets which we also made. Red, black, white and yellow represent the four directions and different coloured people, and wood (we also added leaf and stone beads) represent sustainability. The boys gave their bracelets to their teachers. A photographer from The Advertiser took photos of them for Monday's paper but they weren't used. There wasn't even an article for them to go with!

~*~

I have been working on Waif N. She's a bit special because she's Canadian - no offence intended, the Canadian dolls are just a bit less common! They have two side tags - one in French; no heart sticker, and can have the pale or the peach skin. She is the only doll I have with the full fringe which goes all around her head. She looks to be in pretty good condition apart from a wobbly head; she needed more washing than I thought and I need to replace the stitch behind one knee. I want to give her a French name starting with N, but there don't seem to be many! Probably Nicolette or Ninette, unless you have a better idea...

~*~

I haven't blogged my room yet but here's the view from the window. :o)

Warnings!

I noticed these on a plastic bag just now, but I'm not sure what they mean.

~*~

• Do not scream in a plastic bag. You will be deafened next time you open it.
• Do not hold a drawing in front of your face. People will still know who you are. And they won't believe you were the model for The Scream.
• Do not flash a torch on your face while you make scary faces.
  

~*~

• No toast-head babies allowed.
• Do not cross-breed with toast. This is what happens.
• This bag is not a reflux protection device.

~*~

Any other interpretations?
I'm sure these warnings are important and we need to understand them.

The Old Place

This is it! The little 4-room 1860s cottage we live in. It now has a few extra rooms.

OK, that pic and the one below are the same photo, taken today and edited by me :oP . I didn't find any old pics - yet - but I am interested in finding out more local history.


More of the roses in the front yard.

Pics

A rose in our front yard,
which I photographed on the way out the door to go to
the park this afternoon.

More perfect colour scheming

This is the boys' room. I have photostitched three photos together to make a little panorama, which tends not to work very well at close range - you can see the joins and it all looks a bit warped.

Again, I would not have chosen yellow walls with blue curtains, but again, it matches our stuff! The boys have blue and yellow bedding, yellow (duck and tiger) toy hampers, EJ has a blue and yellow toy box (the one with the smiley face), and the beds have blue ends!

I didn't want to bunk the beds but it was the only way I had any chance of fitting two bedrooms and a playroom in here. Fortunately this is a large room and came with a wardrobe (as did my room and the laundry - nice huge custom-made wardrobes). The wardrobe was behind me to my left when I took this photo, and there's a desk behind me to the right. I like the way the room has ended up with two separate play areas divided by the blackboard in the middle.

You are missing a lot of the antique stuff in these posts - the windows, the thickness of the walls, the textured, sloping ceilings ... so come over for a house-warming and have a look! This pic doesn't look very big anyhoo so click it for a closer look.

Excuse me if I use the words "original(ly)" and "love" a lot!

"Originally" this was a four room cottage (and here's me, trying to fit stuff from a four bedroom house in it!) - lounge room, kitchen, and two bedrooms. It is 140 years old and had no plumbing to start with and, in fact, not until 12 years ago when the current owner renovated.

The room I'm showing you today was the original kitchen. Now it is a second lounge room, which has helped a lot in terms of fitting things in, as there is a newer kitchen on the back of the house.

This fireplace backs onto the one in the previous post and they share a chimney, but this one now has a gas log heater in it. Again, I'm pleasantly surprised that a paint colour (yellowish) I would not have chosen goes so well with my decor - for example, with the photos with the yellow mat in the centre of the mantle, and the warm coloured candles. The TV cabinet is a perfect fit for the space to the left of the fireplace, and the toy drawers fit perfectly on the right (there is a door next to the drawers).


The couches only just fit in this room, and there are toy boxes and a "storage" box stacked in the little space there. The grey things on the couch are Feet Seats which need refilling and moving to a more useful spot. I'm sure 140 years ago, this house didn't even consider holding as many toys as it does now! Behind me in this photo, there are a bookshelf and a cupboard (which I've tried to reduce my "study" into), so this room is an attempt at cramming in as much as possible as neatly as possible. It will never be perfect but it's coming along better than expected! I do love this house and it's history, but it's just not big enough for us.


I love the original windows and the frosted one is a constant reminder that this was once the back room. There used to be people sitting in here to eat, the cooking was done in here with no gas, electricity or plumbing, and this window would have had clear glass and a view of the land which was larger than it is now. The current kitchen is now the on the other side of that window. The walls are 45cm thick solid stone, so the windowsills are great little trinket shelves.


This lounge room doesn't have it's original floorboards - two rooms still do and two don't - the two that don't have floorboards now have carpet. We have four different floor coverings in this house: floorboards, carpet, slate in the kitchen/dining, and tiles in the bathroom and laundry. The ceiling in the back two rooms - or what used to be the back rooms - are sloping, and look like whitewashed floorboards. The front two rooms have the same ceiling but they are supposedly flat; I say supposedly, because nothing in this house is at the right angle! The old floorboards are "wavy" but well cared for and I love the character that adds. The door frames are not perfectly square either but in this house I like that too. I wouldn't be happy with it in a modern house though!

Pink and Blue - the lounge room

As promised, here is the start of my house blogging. I have posted this pic of the lounge room before.


I must say, I would never have chosen that pink colour for any walls, especially in a 140-year-old cottage, and especially with blue curtains. However, I must also say that I'm glad the owners did choose it; I love the way it ties everything together!

The wall and curtain colourings have turned out to be perfect for my stuff. The curtains match my couches and futon and the new rug from mum. The walls look great next to the timber on the coffee table and the games cabinet (which is supposed to be a video cabinet). This is it with my photos on top (it's behind me in the first photo so you can't see it):


This is the coffee table in the corner. My collection of pink and blue stuff which I happened to have before moving here matches perfectly.



This is the wall above the blue couch (the one with the tray table in front of it). The hooks were already in the wall and I'm not allowed to add more, not that I'd be enthusiastic about drilling 45cm thick stone anyway. Erin gave me the pics quite a while ago, well before I moved here anyway, and I had the candles in my previous bedroom. Again - pink and blue! The canvases manage to tie the furniture, curtains and walls together.



This is the mantlepiece which is behind the futon on the left. Sorry it's a dark photo! Chris gave me the little wall sign up the top, and I have a collection of other pinkish things along the mantle (angel from Sean and Louise, and dragon in the centre from mum, among other things). Again, all matching nicely. I put the map on the mantle rather than hanging it as it's heavy and I don't want it to fall down! The fireplace is sealed and unusable, which is good - less draughty, and I can store a box in it, hidden behind the futon!! (I'm running out of places to put things!).


I accidentally uploaded small pics and they take a long time so I can't be bothered redoing them, but you can click to enlarge them as always.

Where were you?

Where were you?

I was in hospital with Liam. He was about 21 months old and had bacterial pneumonia. I was pregnant (very slightly) and had parvovirus, but that’s not why I was in hospital, I was just staying with Liam. The nurse came in to check Liam in the middle of the night and told me “They’ve bombed the World Trade Center and the Whitehouse and the Pentagon!” OK, a slight exaggeration in the panic. I was still asleep and said “They can’t do that!” and got up and watched the news with the nurses. I don’t know who we thought “they” were.

What's new, pussy cat?

OK, there are no cats in this post. Just things.

Last weekend we went to the Gawler Show, which was not very exciting from my point of view, but the boys liked the skate/bike demo and the CFS foam "demo". I thought "demos" were for looking at, but apparently they can also be got into. Silly me.





On Wednesday I went out to my birthday tea at the Louisiana Tavern with some friends from Uni and family. Meals were good (except they had roo and no grits, I think they might have gone a bit too far south!), company was good :o). It was nice to get out with friends; it doesn't happen very often!


Friday was a pupil free day, allowing kids to go to the Royal Adelaide Show. We had an early lunch to beat the crowds as soon as we got there, and watched the start of the Jack of All Trades event while we ate. Their task was to build a letterbox each but they had 30 minutes to do it, so we didn't hang around.



We all went on the ginormous Super Slide then the ferris wheel, at which point I decided this is the extent of my sense of adventure these days, and I'm glad the boys are too young to go on anything more scary! We got some good views, including a view of some of those scary rides, which you can click to enlarge.
(See the nice weather?)


Saturday is the coffee with Dad and lunch with Mum day, then the boys had a swim (not a lesson). Liam went all the way to the other side of the pool to get this ring for EJ, which they shared. Then Macca's for tea.



Sunday is swimming lesson day. Then we went to the Port Adelaide markets and a nice cafe down there for lunch. A few groceries on the way home. Dunno about the boys, but I was nearly asleep! We know how to cram some fun into a weekend :o) (I still managed to fit in several loads of washing, lots of tidying, and washing of floors, but I didn't photograph any of these exciting events).


Soon (now that we are nearly sorted and settled) I will start blogging about my house for all those who have asked.