As yet unnamed!

Awwwww and Chelsea wins the FA Cup :)

I think this is my latest favorite shot of Noemie and Kirk. I love that she is holding onto his arm and they are leaning into each other. So sweet. She missed her Daddy today as he went to Wembley to watch the FA Cup final.

Here is the uncropped version of the same photo... more funny than awww. 

 

Here you can see Charlie intently waving the winner's flag that Kirk brought home from the match. Charlie is the perfect football fan in training... pot belly and drunken look on his face while cheering with his mouth wide open. 

Nothing else exciting to report... tomorrow we will do some gardening I think as the weather is going to be gorgeous again!

Princess Bubble and kitchen progress

I was out almost all day but when I got home, Noemie was in her tutu in the garden and decided she wanted to blow some bubbles. I love that she is using the star shaped thingie as it's like a princess wand! Apparently when the nanny went to put some clothes away in Noemie's drawer, Noemie grabbed the tutu, put it on and then ran into our bedroom to pose in front of the mirror. It's covered in bubble suds now but luckily it's machine washable and tumble dryerable (is that a word?) so she can wear it again tomorrow if I get my act together in the morning. She is generally being super cute. Her latest words are "where are you" but she says it "whey ah oo?" She'll walk into the house, say "hellloooooo?" and then if you don't answer she'll say "Mummy, whey ah oo?" She also has a fascination with bumblebees and flies, both of which regularly get stuck in the conservatory. She'll point at them and say "bubblebee, ow, ow (out out)" then the fly gets the "fly, fly, bye bye, bye bye" treatment. She's a lot of fun. 

    

Here is the shelf area in our kitchen. I decluttered a bit and am putting some books back upstairs in our bookshelf (the non recipe cook books) and also got rid of several bottles of alcohol that we never drink. Still have a bit more to do in terms of tidying up.

    

I finally finished painting the airing cupboard corner. I think it's my new favorite part of the kitchen. Tomorrow I am going to Homebase to run my errands as we have our nanny working the weekend. I'm going to try and get as much stuff done as possible. I won't even comment on the number of craft projects I want to get going on... it's all too overwhelming to think about at this point!!!

Peek-a-Boo

  

I remember playing peek-a-boo with Noemie when she was around the same age that Charlie is now. He loves it and if he's crying, it's a sure way to get him to stop and giggle. 

  

Noemie's hair is growing in very curly these days. This was taken this afternoon after her nap where her room was a bit warm I think so her hair got super curly. She was intently playing the drums on some metal tins I gave her, using some bamboo from our garden as her sticks. She heard the camera shutter and turned around with quite the look on her face. She is clearly going to be a super duper musician one day with the interest she takes in the drums and piano. She was singing to herself before she fell asleep tonight as well. 

I had a busy day of painting more of the kitchen. Will take update photos tomorrow morning once it's all dry and the masking tape has been removed. I just have one little area left to do and then the walls are done. I've realized the tile paint I bought says not to be used on the kitchen worktop so I need to figure out if there is another type that can be used. I'll be going to Homebase sometime this weekend to return some surplus paint I purchased and look for new tile paint. I also baked some banana muffins as I had really ripe bananas and then I did some sewing as well. 

Tomorrow morning I am off to a friend's to sew once my Ocado delivery has arrived. Been cooped up at home all week as there wasn't much going on after the bank holiday so I am looking forward to getting out of the house and getting some sewing done. Hopefully I will finish block 4 of Kitten Tales as block 5 arrived this morning. Luckily block 5 is a super easy one so I can get it done fast and focus on other projects in June.

Lots to share

First of all, a very happy birthday to my Mom today. Hope she is having a nice day. 

Photo of Charlie taken this afternoon while he was practicing his standing. He really looks like a little boy now rather than a baby. Hard to believe he is nearly 8 months old!

   

Some kitchen progress photos. The "before" image is a bit dark but you get the idea. The after shows the main wall which I finished painting last night. The airing cupboard is also totally done. Will move onto another wall this evening and at this rate the walls should be done by the weekend which leaves me the tiles to do and then I need to go buy new knobs for the cupboards. I saw some that matches the new ones I got for the airing cupboard so I'll figure out how many I need and how much it will cost me.

 

I finished block 3 of Kitten Tales this morning. Block 4 just needs stitchery and applique so my aim is to get that done by the end of this month which leaves me 3 days. The next block is shipping very soon I believe, so with any luck I will be done with block 4 and can start on block 5 right away. Speaking of Block of the months... do I dare admit I signed up to not one, but TWO more? Yeah, I need to join a support group for BOM addicts. The two I signed up for are "Tail Feathers" by Natalie Lymer which is being run by the lovely ladies over at Buttonberry. They have sold out already but are trying to get more fabrics so more can join in. The other one I signed up to is called "It's a dollies life" by Rosalie Quinlan, run by QuiltFabricDelights. Now I just need to find a store that sells more hours in a day or sells more years to add on to whatever my life span is going to be!

   

One last thing to share is 2 kits I bought to make pillows for our sofa. They are both cross stitch so will take ages to do but were so cute and cool that I had to have them. I bought some home decorating magazine today and the first page I opened showed the "Kiss" pillow and the designer's website so of course I had to go take a look. I bought the smaller pillow kits so I have a chance of finishing them in this lifetime. The designer is Emily Peacock. 

I think if I just stopped web surfing for about 30 years, I'd stand a chance of catching up and completing all my various projects without getting tempted by new things. What are the chances of that happening?

Not enough hours in a day!

First, photos from yesterday of Noemie playing with her favorite toy of the moment. Beans. I read a long time ago about kids playing (supervised of course lest a bean ends up in their nose or something) with beans and containers. They make noise, they are fun to pick up and put back in the container, etc. I got one action shot of her shaking the container and the beans in mid air. The other photo is just my latest fav of Noemie... 

Had a full day today and got a lot done. Our nanny worked today so we all went to the corner pub for lunch. Noemie was a good little girl and sat in the chair and ate with us. Charlie was great as well. Luckily no one misbehaved. Nothing worse than kids screaming and running around in a restaurant (our pub is more of a gastro pub). 

Afterwards the kids took a nap and I did the first coat of paint on the main kitchen wall. Did another coat after the kids went to bed tonight. Will work on another wall tomorrow. I also fixed all the lights in my dollhouse and put in the new ones I got at Kensington. I've then started dusting the rooms and all the contents and am going to get everything properly set up and displayed. That way I know if I need anything more for the house or if it's just a case of making curtains and stuff to finish it off. I've fallen in love with it all over again. 

Tomorrow I will paint the other side of the airing cupboard door so I can be done with it. I have to do it at night though to allow for it to dry without little fingers getting in the way! Ranette, you asked what an airing cupboard is. It's usually a cupboard that houses your hot water tank and then has a bunch of shelves so you can put your laundry folded up inside (not totally bone dry) and it will dry it off and keep it a little bit warm. I use ours for our towels and sheets (and our cleaner has her stash of cleaning supplies and vacuum cleaner in there as well). For us it's more storage than the true purpose.

Turnip?

Charlie was sporting quite the hairdo today. Kirk called him all sorts of names but I think turnip and onion are the two that I remember the most clearly and it is kinda a fair description! Look at the lift off on the top of his head!  Poor Charlie. Hopefully tomorrow is a better hair day!

Photos from today

   

It was a lovely day today so we ventured out to the park this afternoon. While Kirk and Noemie played in the over crowded playground, Charlie and I sat on the grass and he practiced sitting up. Next up will be crawling. The other photo is Noemie and I when heading back home for dinner. I think I need to keep going with the weight loss as I still look fat. I've not been counting points lately but have maintained my weight loss with the occasional day when I am 1lb up which is nothing. Maybe I need to lose another 5-10lbs. Might go back to counting again this week. Not sure yet as I was getting bored with counting points!

   

I still need to paint the left hand door on the airing cupboard but as you can't really tell in this photo, I thought I'd share my progress so far. The first photo was taken a few days after we bought the house three years ago. In the new progress photo you can see a small sample of the color the wall will be once I start painting this week. I need to repaint the wood cupboard that is behind the door (looks like a wall mounted box in the original photo). 

Charlie Giggles

I guess this did upload to my photobucket the other night. I had no idea as it kept freezing at 8% or something. Kirk took a video of Noemie last night so I'll try that one later today and hope it works! Anyway, Charlie has the most contagious giggle. Once he starts, usually everyone in the room has to join in!

Quick one

Got my dollhouse table painted and the house moved into place. I think it looks a lot more elegant than the old base I had for it (an Ikea TV table that was too wide and not deep enough!). I need to fix a few lights in the dollhouse and then dust it before I put the contents back in properly.

 

Charlie this evening. He looks less babyish to me in this photo for some reason. Sweet and cuddly as always thuough. Haven't managed any photos of Noemie lately but will try this weekend. She stepped on the scale this week though and has gained 4lbs in the past few months which is pretty cool! 

Need to go to bed. Had a really busy day. Went to Homebase to get paints as I decided I'm going to repaint our kitchen. I hate the kitchen as it's so ugly thanks to the previous owner of the house but as the kitchen works, we can't justify getting a new one yet. This one is only 4 years or so old. So, I figured some fresh paint and then some paint on the tiles (they are a horrible beige speckled deal with brown borders) might make the kitchen look lighter and brighter. I've already started painting the brown wood doors to the airing cupboard and it looks so much nicer already. Will share photos when I have made more progress.

Ack and quilt blocks

    

I have this cute video of Charlie laughing that I wanted to share but the file is too large and I need to figure out how to compress it or something. Hopefully tomorrow. In the meantime, I'll share the latest quilt blocks I've done in the past week or two. The first 5 blocks of A Christmas Wish free BOM from Gail Pan's blog and then block 2 of Kitten Tales (finally). I've been busy painting my new display table for my Vic house and then spending the rest of my time blowing my nose. My cold is still with me and not going away anytime soon. Noemie is still congested and keeps waking up as well so it's going to be a long night. Poor little thing. I just rubbed some infant vapor rub on her back and chest so hopefully that will help her breath a bit better.