It's funny how sometimes the more you plan the less your plans come true.
This week I was going to be super productive. I was going to sew and cook and bake and make and write and clean and return emails and calls. After my teary weekend, this week was going to make me feel in control, on top of things. Organised.
But then at the very start of the week Miss Pepper turned grey, got some knives in her tummy and started vomiting and is still in bed today. Miss Jazzy jumped up to reach a helium balloon and fell forwards onto Pepper's pile of chairs and hurt her knee and hasn't been able to walk very well. 
And Miss Indi...is 11...yep.
Added to that, a few days ago I was walking up the hill from school to get my mail and I saw my friend Noel's painting van. All of a sudden it occurred to me that I needed my house painted ASAP! I couldn't put up with that dirty cream colour for one more second. I needed white walls and I needed to start making them white right then.
So I walked up the hill, found Noel drinking his morning coffee in a cafe and booked him then and there. It was just ridiculous, plain luck that he had a couple of days free this week. Or it was meant to be.
So this week our house is back to being a construction zone. Completely topsy-turvey. The front half is empty of all furniture and filled with drop sheets and the back is full of stuff. We are going to be eating all our meals picnic style on the floor in front of the fire for a while, but Antique White USA here we come.
We've been cooking up lots of feasts on the Esse. We've been learning that she heats up quite pretty quickly for cooking on the hob, but oven baking and roasting needs much more planning and time.
We think we might name her Mona for she is a temperamental girl and is partial to a bit of a moan and groan.
I've been walking Jo-Jo morning noon and night. It's freeeeezing but it's nice to rug up and get out.
Last night close to midnight we went walking and met Farmer Bren in the back paddock closing in some chooks for moving. The night was inky black, the grass was crunchy with frost and the kangaroos thumping around the forest sounded like dinosaurs. It was quite an adventure.
And a Mixy Matchy dress for my shop.
Yep! I have decided that my girlies have more dresses than they need and I have more floral fabric than I need and so I am reopening Everything But The Thread. It'll be slow going at first but I'm thinking dresses, fat quarter bundles and some other bits and pieces. Oh and I'm thinking it needs a bit of a make-over too.
I've been knitting stripes to cozy our Esse pipes. Using up lots of scraps and odds and ends. I'm enjoying the mindless knitting but itching to get onto something a bit more interesting.
So that's me. In a rambley roundabout kinda way.
Now off I go to play nurse mama to this little.
How about you?
What have you been up to so far this week?
Do tell.
x
Oh bugger to the vomits! Swept through here last week...not pretty!!! What a brilliant night time adventure you had. Sounds awesome. And yay for your shop opening. I will certainly put my little hand up for some of those fat quarter bundles! Not alot happening here...baking, knitting, mending...snuggling my babes. Wishing you a lovely rest of your week :) x
ReplyDelete"The night was inky black, the grass was crunchy with frost and the kangaroos thumping around the forest sounded like dinosaurs."
ReplyDeleteI LOVE that sentence. You made me crave fresh air and the kind of darkness one can't find in the city.
I hope everyone feels better next week, yourself included, when you wake to a fresh white house.
Oh my goodness I'm terrified of the vomits...I hear it's been going around our small town and I wanna keep my children home from school to avoid it.... :-(... My house is painted in antique white and I'd do it again in a heartbeat... It's fresh and clean and I love that feeling :-)... I'm hibernating at the minute...just waiting for the sun to start shinning...and my hands to defrost....Im not a fan of breathing in heated artificial air.....xxx
ReplyDeletePlans Schmans! I reckon if I get through the week without become a mental wreck at the moment, that's an achievement!
ReplyDeleteHope Pepper feels better, and enjoy your "new house" with the lick of paint!
Poor little darling looks sick as. Hugs heading her way.
ReplyDeleteI really feel sick when my little ones are really sick. Absolutely a feeling of hopelessness.
tidying, moving branches, getting the old house ready for sale, knitting... not too much xxxx
ReplyDeleteOh goodness, what a week ... not sure whether it's better that these things all happen at once or spread out a bit. Pretty sure it's a good thing that your weepy week and Ms Indi being "... 11 ... yep" occurred at different times though :)
ReplyDeleteSo very excited about your shop re-opening! My cousin loves the dress I got for her baby and between family and friends there are now more on the way so I know where I'll be heading. Also, I've started playing with the sewing machine myself so I'll be sure to snap up some fat quarters if they become available too. Will definitely be watching that space!
Nothing like a fresh coat of paint in the house!
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to see the dressed pipes, what a good plan.
Moving plants about the yard, painting the hallway and closet door with the loveliest sea foam green that just pleases me no end. I have Crystal Water blue for the ceilings so it feels like we are outside all the time. I celebrate 55 today and so my week is a happy one regardless of all else happening. Both the husband and wife of my faovrite couple across the country called to wish me a happy and that sent me over the moon with joy. "A Double Lonsdale Birthday" has enlivened and invigorated me.
ReplyDeleteI hope your Antique White makes your synapses hum and that the vomits find their way right back out of your home. Picnics are fun, aren't they ?~!
Wow... it always amazes me how things really really dump at the same time.
ReplyDeleteThe worst is when the kids are sick though. I hope Pepper and Jazzy are feeling better soon.
Take good care! Kx
p.s. are they pancakes on your stove? They look fabulous! Think I might duck out to the kitchen now and whip up some! ;)
We're all sick here too. And every night I plan my to-do list which becomes my didn't-do list and carries over to the next day. Actually, that's been happening for a few months now LOL. I love antique white usa too. I am sure that will brighten up things. xx
ReplyDeleteAntique White USA is something to look forward to! Your cooking looks and sounds wonderful especially the pikelets (or pancakes?) I hope health returns to your house soon. At this end we are home schooling, guarding our vegetables from the frost and cooking; baked custard and beef shanks tonight!
ReplyDeleteOh I do hope Pepper and Jazzy feel much better soon. I cant believe Indi is 11 already. Isabelle will be 11 in August and keeps telling me how many days she has left until her birthday! Mona sounds like she bakes delicious things. I hope your keeping nice and toasty warm eating your meals by the fire. Hope the newly painted walls makes you very happy, it is always nicer with a fresh coat of paint isnt it. Have a wonderful week with no tears!
ReplyDeleteI think you're doing really well to be sewing amongst the painting and sick and injured people. It is annoying when things don't go as planned. Getting the painting done is a huge job though so I think your week is very productive already. I will be doing a post on my activities in the next couple of days. Hope everyone is better soon. xxoo
ReplyDeleteI hope Pepper is on the mend soon and a big hooray for the shop reopening.
ReplyDeleteYay for white walls too ;-) xx
To me it sounds as though you are getting HEAPS done. It might not be things on the list but they need doing & you are doing them :)
ReplyDeleteMy plan to have a great week have included doing little of anything but snuggling with my wee one. It's been freezing here so we've been rugged up with books galore, it's been wonderful and just what my soul needs.
ReplyDeleteHope both your girls are feeling better soon.
White walls rock, they are an awesome back ground for treasures.
Hooray to your shop reopening :)
x
Sounds like a brim-full week that couldn't possibly be added-to!
ReplyDeleteHugs to your poor little sick girl...
I hope the girls are both on the mend (11 cannot be mended, I'm afraid). Does that mean that there has been a birthday? Balloony birthday?
ReplyDeleteAntique USA is my colour of choice too. So exciting that you have someone in to paint just like that! It was definitely meant to be.
Keep enjoying those dinosaurs, Kate. x
My eldest is 11 too, it's a beautiful age, all that cleverness ad ability with the simple joy of still being a kid. Love your shop creations. Hope the lane is filled with newly painted cheer and good health soon, positively foxy.
ReplyDeleteHooray for Antique white USA - and temperamental cookers!
ReplyDeleteI hope your girls get better soon, and that Indi is so beautiful!
xx
Crikey, I'm exhausted just reading it all. 11 hmmm, less said the better (at least with my 11 year old daughter...where oh where did I go wrong?). I'm dying to repaint antique white, I suspect it will be a big job in our little old farmhouse as we have lots of rotting bricks as well. Enjoy!
ReplyDeleteYour poor little Pepper..x You won't believe how amazingly different and refreshing a paint job is Kate, SO excited for you! And excited you're starting up your shop again too, perfect! My week..whirlpool of 'big', I can't gather my thoughts clearly enough to blog about it, but we're all good..x
ReplyDeleteHope pepper feels better soon. And consider making some dresses/tops for small adults (big kids). I would SO wear those dresses!
ReplyDeleteHope your girls are on the mend soon. I have my big one home today with a nasty cold. Happy birthday to Indi - we hit double numbers in our house for the first time this week. Scary.
ReplyDeleteAntique White USA is a brilliant colour! Timeless, and classy. And had it better be - it covers the insides of my house too and I'm not painting it all again any time soon!
ReplyDeleteAmazing when you're in a great head space how you can handle all that life throws at you - a sick child or sudden need to do something different with the house. The cold, i love it, dress for it & embrace the change of seasons. Our baby chicks & ducklings are proving themselves to be very robust in Canberra's blustery days, always blue skies, but freezing cold, love Posie
ReplyDeleteWe too are fostering our deep love for all that matters and cleaning our space for change.... Winter must do this to us. Hibernation and growth and change. It's all good. xx
ReplyDeleteyou have two good children. I hope that they get better soon.
ReplyDeleteour house in entirely painted in Antiuque white USA except for one room which will be doing soon. I love it. I hope Pepper is better soon, poor love. x
ReplyDeleteHope your week has ended better than it started and you are enjoying fresh clean walls. Not much cooking here this week and my fingers have been itching to crochet but have tired children and one more week of school. Hope we make it!
ReplyDeleteMidnight walks with your honey....mmmm sounds fun. Hope there is wellness returning to your home very soon. Happy weekend to you. x
ReplyDeleteWe are having awful weather here in the UK but we should be having SUMMER! Never mind. I have my boy and his family staying from New Zealand - it is chaotic, crowded, noisy and exhausting - but I am content. I just wish we had some sunshine for them.
ReplyDeleteLove your Esse, we have a Rayburn and I wouldn't swap it. You soon get used to cooking a different way, with a bit of forward thinking and planning. Your winter casseroles are going to be so succulent! Enjoy!
"and the kangaroos thumping around the forest sounded like dinosaurs". How fabulous to be able to write that sentence about your real life! Good luck with your re-opening
ReplyDelete