The Dreaded Paint and a Surprise.

Firstly I want to send huge enormous thank you's to Doris, Dan and Daisy for the lovely card that arrived in the mail today accompanied by 2 packets of Smarties that just delighted Lily to bits. Thank you so much it was really sweet of you.

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Now on to the baby's room and the dreaded paint job.

The paint job complete with some rather fetching blue painters tape.

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The painters came back on Thursday and finished the room and once it was completed I sort of like it but it still didn't do it for me. I then realised that the room was bottom heavy and needed some life in its upper portion. I grabbed a couple of colourful things and asked Jacob to hold them against the wall while I looked. It really helped. So being me and having to have everything done yesterday I set to work painting some shelves in the same colours as the stripes and hit Pottery Barn Kids for a rug and window treatments.

Chopsticks Rug.


Yesterday Lily had a play date at a friends and then the older of the 2 girls wanted to come home with us so she did. They decided they wanted to have a bash at painting so I let them put a coat of paint on the shelves.In the time that it took me to turn around and put the camera down Caro had managed to knock the paint can over and we had a huge mess. No biggie! If you let kids do big people jobs you have to expect big people messes. We cleaned it up and they carried on. It wasn't the best paint job ever, but nothing that a little sandpaper couldn't fix.

Right Before Disaster Struck.

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So now I have everything except the artwork and some knick-knackeria sorted out for the room but I refuse to put it all together as a room yet since it is going to be occupied by my cousin for a couple of weeks and it is just wrong to let someone else christen the room. Sorry Stephen but you know I am a fruitcake. I am starting to feel good about it now and can't wait to get it finished and put all the stuff in it's rightful place and go to town dressing it up. Once that is done I will take some decent photos of it.

I will post my packing list and gift list a little closer to the time unless someone needs them now in which case I will email them to you.

A New Perspective And YUCK

Yesterday in the mail we received our new 171-h visa approval. It took exactly 14 days from the day we mailed the application and the huge wad a cash required for this little ditty, (why the heck they cannot be renewed or extended beats me). Anyhoo we have decided to look at the wait differently now and if things go at the same snail like rate we have another 6-8 months ahead of us which was the original time line. So we are going to act as if this was our first visa and now we are starting the new and very short wait. This sounds great in theory but we will see if it sticks.

Onwards to the YUCK part of this post. The painter came yesterday and painted 90% of the baby's room and I HATE it. I don't just dislike it or feel kind of off about it I HATE it and I never use that word. When I told Jacob he looked panic stricken and told me to go back upstairs and tell Carlos. I did and Carlos suggested I pull out the bedding and leave it out in the room and see if it grows on me, if not they will start a new paint job on Thursday. So far it hasn't grown. I had such hopes for this room and it looks bloody awful. I will post pictures when it is finished be it like this or some new fandangled idea. Fortunately it is only paint. Lily and Jacob both love it. I'm off upstairs to see if anything has grown.

From That To This

I have not been in Chopsticks room today. I started to clean it up yesterday but Jacob asked me why since the sanding of the drywall makes an even bigger mess. The contractors doing this work know what a freak I am as they are the ones that gutted and rebuilt this house 18 months ago so they hoovered the room before they left!
So we will be going from that ugly mess to this ( look down for photos) in 2 more days time. I have picked everything out but am still undecided about the painting. I cannot decide whether to go with green and cream stripes under the chair rail or pink, cream and green stripes under the chair rail. The top half will be a creamy color. Decisions, decisions. But it is only paint so if I don't like it Carlos will just have to redo it.
I can't wait for it to be done and Jacob even said that maybe this will actually speed things up. My cousins will be in there in another week so I won't be doing anything other than the paint until after they leave.


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Under Construction

No, no, not the blog that would take some techy prowess. I keep telling myself it's going to happen ever since new blogger sucked me into it's vortex but apparently it's not. Our house is under construction. Well not the whole thing just one room but it's awful. ( my dad and his wife are rolling on the floor laughing at me grumbling about one room cos they have just gutted and rebuilt a 400 yr old house and this to them is a day off!)

We have finally got to the bottom of the hurricane damage from 2 years ago with the insurance company and we are now having the work done. Most of the stuff we had to do without them cos things like rooves are basically quite helpful. As this was cosmetic we left it since it is in a room we don't even use.

So today I had men with messy boots traipsing in and out, up and down, to and fro for hours and they are coming back to do it all again on Monday. Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy ?! In some aspects it is quite fun cos this will be Chopsticks room and I have all the paint picked out and the idea is ready to go but I am a self confessed clean freak and I am very obsessive about mess and things being in their rightful place and basically this is giving me a nervous twitch and an itchy brain. So right now I have to breathe deeply cos this mess is my life.


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Tonight was our Mandarin class and it was great. Lily is really picking it up fast and I love seeing all the children yipping away in Chinese. After the lesson the kids got to play and we were all taught how to make dumplings and then we all sat down and ate. It was so much fun and dumplings are one of Lily's all time favourites and now I know how to make them. I am not a great cook, I cook cos we need to eat but I do not enjoy it. But move over Yan cos I can cook too now!