Our Kitchen

Looked like this when we first moved in:

After ripping up the lino and getting the floors polished, it began to look much better. However, the cupboards didn't go all the way to the wall, there was no continuous bench and no pantry. I guess I lived it with for a remarkably long time before I got really fed up with it.

Now, a year after we have moved in, our kitchen looks like this:


Yesterday we pulled all the cupboards out, ripped of the rangehood and cleaned down the walls. I've painted the parts of the walls that will show when the new kitchen is installed, but meh about everything else (it still looks gross, but we have cleaned those walls a number of times now. There is no saving them.)





Meanwhile, the contents of the kitchen are boxed up and occupying precious dining room space. The fridge almost looks like it belongs next to the piano there.

Photos, Updates and Jeans Quilt

The moment has finally arrived! After leaving the camera at school during the holidays, i've been unable to share with the wonderful world wide web the exciting things i've been doing recently... until now!


Firstly, this is my Jeans Quilt. I cut up 2 pairs of old work pants (black and camel), 2 pairs of Jeans (Steve's and mine), the suit pants that Steve wore at our wedding (the zip broke) and a pair of cargo shorts (Steve's). Then, I sewed them all together. :D


The back is a big peice of fuzzy warm blue fleece material that I bought with my Spotlight christmas voucher (thank you Maria!). All in all, it fits a king single bed beautifully and is an excellent quilt for the couch in winter. The pockets are all still usable and are super fun!


This is my tuba! It is the tuba that I am borrowing for the Brisbane Arts Theatre 75th anniversary Gala Concert. It is a Eb, which has been challenging to learn and my breath control is not what it once was, but is very fun to play. :)



And finally....


Curtains! During the holidays I was constructive and sewed the fun material that we got at IKEA into some super fun curtains. Our room has the blue stripes (pretty basic, so we don't detract from the awesome purple wall).



The spare room has the same stripes but multi colours! (sorry for the bad photo :P)



And we were going to do the other room (currently where Sammie lives) the same, but they ran out of material, so we got ....



Spots! I was really practical and even used the cordless drill to put holes in the window frames and screwed the hooks in for the ties. The bedrooms all got their own special ties, but I was a bit over sewing by the end of the curtains and I didn't want to cut more material, so the curtains in the dining room got some recycled David Jones ribbon. :D Also, I did some fancy stuff in the kitchen. Fun curtains!



After I had finished all that, I still had some material left so I made some covers for the boxes that go under our bed for extra storage. I really like the boxes under the bed now. They look so funky! I've put all my kimono stuff in there. :D




And that is all.

The wall is finished!


This is just the overview for you all - It's kind of the thing that you have to look at for a long time and some of it you are never going to get anyway. I have to say that I was very influenced by Jimmy Needham's amazing lyrics while I did this. Also, sorry about the spelling mistake (if you can find it). It's very Paula to have it there though. Colour choice was simply because that's the paint we had lying around. I think it's funky and cool. :D Glad it's done.

Here are some close ups -


My tribute to the long hours spent playing Plants Vs Zombies this holidays. :) Good times. Great Zen Garden.


Oddly enough, this is a Viking ship with a Zerg emblem on the sail....


Rapunzel's Tower... Tangled... Do I need to say more?


Doctor Who... If only the TARDIS would park in our living room....

In the last 4 weeks, our bathroom has gone from this:

to this:

Still waiting on putting in the shower screen and the toilet, but everything works and it's all very shiny. Renovating a bathroom however, is a very complicated task. Part of me still can't believe that this is the result of our labour. That we have done it. Then I remember the things we botched slightly and I know it was us.

The thing is, the bathroom is not square, straight or plumb at all. Walls are not at 90 Degrees to the floor, the floor is not perfectly horizontal, etc. So when you try to measure things, put things in, put things on, things don't work out exactly as they should. What you end up with is something that looks ok on the surface but actually wouldn't pass a quality inspection.

God says a few times in the bible that he is going to measure us with a plumb line. A line that is perfectly straight and set. A line that we don't measure up to. We are not a straight people. Often I feel like I am like our bathroom, not straight or plumb, but close enough that on the surface you will see something that is ok.

But it's not ok. God looks closer, at my heart and he measures me with a plumb line and knows I don't measure up.

Amos 7:7-9

I dug a trench today. :D

At the back of the house there is a garden bed that backs on to the house and is too high up. When it rains, the water runs off the garden bed straight under the house. Given that Steve and I have decided that I shall look after the garden's while he does the lawn, the digging of the trench for water redirection fell to my area of outdoors.

It is very hard to dig a trench next to a house, especially when the remains of the plant you have just killed are still in the garden bed. It took me a long time to even take a snip of the hibiscus plants that were in the garden bed. They were so alive and healthy and flowering. It was very sad to have to cut them all back. I was living in a dream where I thought I might be able to transplant them, and it may still be possible, but you really have to dig out a lot of the roots which takes a lot of time.

I contented myself with simply cutting off the pretty flowers that the plants had to offer and putting them in my water-gauge-vase that I usually use for watering my plants.

Last night I notice we have a lamp on and the main light on, so I say to Steve, "Turn off the main light."

Steve does this, replying, "Shall we just use the expansion light?"

It's really not surprisingly geeky of Steve to say such a thing. It was surprisingly geeky of me to understand what he meant. I feel I'm converted and there is no going back.

This is Steve's 25th Birthday Cake. It is a Spawning Pool from Starcraft 2.

The cake is a sponge that conveniently sunk in the middle to give me a wonderful place to put the wibbly wobbly jelly. I lined that with alfoil (thanks to Jenna) to give the cake protection and the jelly a glowing feature. The cake was awesome.

Moving In: The First Few Weeks

Well, three weeks after getting the keys, Steve and I have painted walls, had the floors done, moved in and had a house warming party. It is a crazy crazy world.

This is the kitchen after the floors were done, but before anything went back in.

Thanks to the awesome sauce help of Melissa, Ron, Wade, Jenn, Allie and Andy on moving day, everything got here and nothing broke. Allie came by around 9 to help me clean stuff while everyone else met Steve at Victor street to load up the ute. There was a lot of cleaning to do. The boys and Melissa got here around 11 with a truck load of stuff to be unpacked which happened fairly fast. They then went for the second load of stuff while Melissa, Allie and I unpacked the kitchen and the linen cupboard.

This is everyone in the kitchen once the boys had bought the fridge in!

When the boys returned with the second load of stuff around 1, Jenn had turned up with some awesome pasta for us for lunch. So good!! Andy turned up about half way through. The boys then set about unpacking the ute while Jenn did an awsome job of hanging up Steve's work clothes and my dresses, and Melissa when crazy with the Mr Sheene. :D So good.

Putting things away in the bookshelf.

At the end of the day, we were all exhausted. Everyone headed off about 4 ish and this is what the living room looked a bit like:

Steve was outrageously sunburnt from standing on the back of the ute and was asleep. I also had a sleep once everyone had gone. It was an exhausting day. The best thing about the double bed we have is it's lack of need for screws/screwdrivers to be put together. It all just clips in. So good. Our room with the bed set up and everything lying around on the floor:

On Sunday night, Steve decided it was time for internet. We pulled the phone off the wall and were met with this site:

Yep, under that strange "Main/alternate" switch was a bodgy wire-ing job. Adding to the dodgy cut wire that was taped back together along the bottom of the floor. There was even a wire there that ran from the phone to under the house that was completely disconnected - it was cut at both ends. It's a crazy world. Our internet is a bit slow (thanks to our wire-ing) but it works (hooray!)

We ended up taking Monday off work to rest (I had a pupil free day). I got up early anyway (our new house is very light and i'm not sure we had curtains up at that stage) and did some organising and putting away. Steve got up around 10 and we continued to do little things. We ended up going for an obscenely long drive to bunnings and a second hand furniture place to get a filing cabinet and a few other things, but overall it was a productive day. :)

Our Housewarming party was pretty fun. :D Mum and Dad bought some juice and bread rolls for us (mum also went crazy and bought spinich pie and a zuccini slice over :P) and My work friends did muffins (yay!) while Sarah and her Steve bought some banana bread. I did a huge platter of fruit and we had bacon and eggs as well. It was a hot sunny morning, so we had the tarps over the clothes line and strung up from the side of the house (the bars on the windows are good for something!) It was a really enjoyable day. i was running around like crazy, Mum had taken over the kitchen, but on the whole, really fun. :D

Aroha and Cooper came along later in the day (their car did not start). It was really good to see them. Cooper is doing well. Praying for Aroha as she spends the 2 weeks alone without John.

It's exciting to have a house, though it really snowballs. Not only does moving in take way more than a day (so many things to still unpack) but also, you are forever noticing things that need to be done. The trims need to be done, the window sills. What will you do about the bars? The lawn needs mowing, the weeds need.... weeding. It's a very long and time consuming process to own a house. I suppose that's what I have to remember - it's a process. We'll have everything looking shiny in 30 years or so. For now, it is what it is: Our Home.

This is one of the spare rooms. It has a purple tinge thanks to the strip of material acting as a curtain. Cheala and Daniel were generous in giving us their wedding table cloths which are acting as curtains in all the other rooms of the house. :) yay!

House Ownership

AHH!!! Steve and I own a house!! So grown up and scary!!

For those faithful many following the progress of our said house here is a bit of an update on what's going on. :)

When we got the keys on Monday, we went in and put some test paint up on the walls to decide what colour. The house had a different colour wall for almost every wall (green, pink, yellow, different type of green, white and undercoat) and we were going to change that! We started painting on Tuesday night with Melissa and Ron (such helpful painter-savy friends) and started transforming our house. Here are some fun before shots.

Living Room Before

Dining Room Before

After painting madly for 4 days (JonK and Wade giving us a massive hand on Wednesday (and being rewarded with some not so awesome Sausage Fried Rice)) we began to rip up the carpet squares and the lino underneath the carpet squares. Yucky yucky yucky-ness, but underneath - some beautiful wonderful floorboards!! :D yay!



Do you like our wonderful purple feature wall? Steve wants one in every room... I want a boredom drawing on the living room wall...

Our floor boards are amazing. The floor guys came by today and sanded and gave it two coats of polish. So pretty. :)



We haven't gone in yet really. The floors were dry, but with all of the rain, they were also a bit sticky in parts. The varnish smell was also quiet overwhelming. Hopefully it will stop raining soon enough to have the windows open to get some air happening. On the whole, house having is pretty scary and all, but also fun. :) new life experiences for us! yay!

P.S. My rose bush is thriving! It's grown up so big and has put out 2 flowers! yay! :D

Steve and I went to bunnings and got potting mix and pots for our 2 plants. :) I think the rose bush is really thriving for a plant that lived it's first 4 weeks in a jam jar. Even after repotting the cactus, we have heaps left over. If anyone wants some cactus, we have lots here. You don't need to look after it at all and it grows really well. :D

Sari, StarCraft 2, Cakes and Updates

I have been meaning to write for a while now, but time gets away from you... ahh age... anyway, I guess I'll start from most recent and go backwards :)

Last night was Alex's 21 and I got to wear my sari for the first time ever. :D Hooray! It was so pretty. They are surprisingly difficult to wear because of the pleats at the front, and the many different wraps around. Also, I'm super short, so it was hard to tuck in enough to make it the right length, and then even harder to get consistency with that all the way around. Oh well.



As it was Alex's birthday, I spoke to Alex last night. :) We were talking about what God is teaching us and I told him I was in a valley. I'm struggling with my quiet times, even when I do them I'm not focused. He then asked me "What are you doing to get out of the valley?" How refreshing is it to have someone ask. I feel like we, and even I, too often just console the valley walkers, we mummer that we understand and how hard it is, but we don't ask how are we planning on getting out.

God is so good to have given Alex the wisdom to speak in this way. I was so encouraged by it. I feel in some ways, I've lost that challenge question. I've grown too cautious with people and I don't ask the hard stuff. It was an awesome reminder that I need to, especially of myself. Yes, I can be in a valley. Yes, my times with God can be dry. But I need to remember that though I can't get myself out, I need to be making myself available to God for him to do that.

On Monday night, Steve and I will be going to the StarCraft 2 launch party. Hooray! It's really late at night, so I'm considering taking the next morning off work. All I'd miss would be maths, is that really so bad? I'll have to talk to Amy, the relife co-ordinator, but we'll see. In any case, I've been making a costume to wear (mine took all week, Steve's took about a half hour :P)



Here is a photo, just in case we forget on the might :P Hopefully we won't (btw, uploading these photos - I know we need a better digital camera :O). I'm an awesome looking Drone. I'm not super happy about how the arms turned out - my top spines seem to dissapear, but I could adjust that, if I have time. Steve is going as a Dark Templar and we just have to figure out how to put the glow sticks together to be his psiblade and it will all be wonderful. :D

Last week I made a humming bird cake - it's got pineapple and banana in it. So yummy!



Also last week, at SNL the sermon was on being the Salt and Light of the world. Matthew 5:13-16. It was a fantastic sermon. Something I've never noticed before jumped out at me (which is probably why it was fantastic). Jesus says "No one lights a lamp, and then puts it under a basket.Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house."

It really struck me that if I am the light, and the reason I'm a light is because Jesus has made me that way, then my purpose is to be that light for everyone else. Yes, God saves us because he loves us, but there is another purpose. It's so that we can then share the light with others.

It's really easy to forget that Jesus has saved us with a purpose, and that is to be the light. Sometimes I think I'm doing a terrible job, but then there are days like last Friday (I was on worship for staff devotions and I've no idea what I prayed, but one of the teachers came up and thanked me for it. God's words to her I guess.) where I remember God uses me despite me.

Ahh, I'm so unworthy of the amazing grace that God has given us, and yet I press on to reach the prize that is in Christ Jesus!