Monday 28 October 2013

Item complete - Make Geekling a big brother (#29)

He's here!  Well, actually he's been here for 3 weeks now.  I just hadn't gotten around to blogging about it (or anything else for a while).

Introducing 'Newbie'.



He looked just like his big brother at birth but a day or two later he started to look a lot like me as a baby, whereas Geekling looked just like his daddy.

Geekling is so very sweet with him, and so excited to be a big brother.  He loves to help burp his little brother, wet cloth wipes with the squirt bottle for nappy changes, read and sing to Newbie, kiss cuddle and hold him.  We haven't yet seen any jealousy or negative emotion towards his new sibling at all.



Hubby and I are a lot more relaxed as second-time parents, and I think that's helped relax Newbie a bit too.  I'm getting a reasonable amount of sleep, my boobs are doing fine and I am generally feeling much brighter and happier than I was after Geekling's arrival.

Friday 28 June 2013

6 months left!

Less than 6 months left til I turn 30, which means I should have completed 20/30 items by now to be on track.  And I've completed only 7.  Though I've made a start on another 8 or so.

Saturday 22 June 2013

My Pinterest Board (#26)

I've compiled a Pinterest board of things to make, try, buy or do before I turn 30.   There are over 30 pins, but I might cull some or just might aim for 30.

Some are free, or dead easy.  Some involve making, spending etc.  Most are pretty frugal.  A good mix of recipes, kids stuff, home organisation and gardening.

Monday 10 June 2013

Progress on the junk room - making way for baby

One of my first posts was about the state of our study/craft room/junk room.  I'm sad to say it only got worse while we renovated our bathroom.  Here's some more "before" pics:




Yep, pretty out of control.

With the news that Geekling is going to be a big brother, we have had to clear it out to become the baby's room.  We've given away some of the furniture, donated a lot of useful items to the Salvation Army, thrown out a lot of junk and finally the only things that are left in the room are those things that will be staying there for the baby:


When we get new drawers for Geekling, we'll move the old white drawers and wardrobe into bub's room and can start packing away the clothes that fill the two pink nappy boxes and the large cardboard box that is between the change table and the basinette.


I plan to make a cover for the glider as the fake leather has flaked terribly.  We also need to put up a curtain rail and curtains.  The cot will go where that box is, with the box providing some storage for unseasonable or larger clothes.


Will tidy the bookshelf when I work out where exactly it will go in the room.

There is still some ways to go and lots of little craft projects I've got planned.  Here's my Pinterest Nursery Board, if you're interested to see some of my planned prjects and inspirations

Saturday 6 April 2013

Geekling is going to be a big brother! (#29)

#29 on the list was originally listed as a wildcard.  We always planned for it to be having baby #2, but if we'd published that initially, we'd be having everyone asking how it was going which would mean dodging some uncomfortable questions in that initial trimester before we broke the news.

But the news is out!  Baby #2 is due in early October, and so far Geekling is very excited.  He kisses and pats my stomach, and talks about all the things he'll help with and things he'll teach the baby.  He excitedly took our recent scan photo to daycare for show and tell and then begged to take it again the next day!  He actually came to the recent scan with us and tells everyone he saw his baby on the TV in the dark room.  Its all very sweet.

Item complete - Renovate bathroom (#19)

Our bathroom was so gross I took pictures some time back with the intention of sending them to Better Homes & Gardens begging for help with a renovation.  The previous owners had done a fast and nasty renovation prior to selling and to us newbies it looked fine.  For a while.

The rusty enameled metal bath had been painted with regular house paint.  Not only did it start flaking and peeling off really fast, but as there was some texture to the paint due to the brush strokes, it was impossible to keep clean - dead skin and soap scum got trapped in the ridges too easily.  The more we scrubbed, the more paint came off!  The cracked ceramic sink got the same house paint treatment, but the paint flaked off pretty fast leaving an unpainted (but still cracked) sink.  The walls began to grow massive mold stains, and most the grout was blackened or pink with mold.

I couldn't find proper before photos but here are some early demolition ones:





And the finished product (minus a shower curtain and rail):





All work was done by my husband and myself and our wonderful father in law.  We had no idea what a massive job it was and were so lucky to have someone who has done his share of renovating before to guide us and do a lot of the early work.

Monday 21 January 2013

Item complete - Learn to cut Geekling's & Hubby's hair (#20)

A $20 pair of hairdressing scissors and some common sense was all it took to cut hubby's hair.




Geekling has been getting his hair shaved to a #3 with clippers his last couple of hairdresser visits, so I figured I'd do the same.  I thought we had clippers.  We didn't.  So I used the beard trimmer.  



It took too long and he got upset.  Nothing a lollipop and a cuddle won't fix.  I'm going to invest in some clippers.