Another room makeover

We recently had another bedroom makeover in our house. Kids grow, and needs change - just how it is.  Especially in a pretty small house, one has to think creatively.  You might remember the last room makeover for younger girls which is here.

Eldest girl decided to venture to a room downstairs, all by herself. The rest of us have bedrooms upstairs, and downstairs is a bit unrenovated, a bit dungeony, a bit dark (though not her new room - just the rest of downstairs), the ceilings are a little lower and look a little 'basementy' and it was a bit step to move downstairs far away from everyone.The walls down there are cement rendered in a 1960's, rough greek island grotto kind of style.

The room was used a a spare room, (VERY basic guest room). But we talked about the fact that it was a reasonably big room (MUCH bigger than her tiny upstairs room), there was a double bed which is fun for sleep overs, she would be able to sleep-in on the weekends because the noise of her younger sisters wouldn't wake her, and she has room to leave her saxophone out on it's stand, and leave her music stand up with music on it (neither of which she had room for before) and play til her hearts content without the rest of the family telling her to be quiet!

She considered all these advantages and we decided she should sleep down there for a month and make sure she liked it, and then I would make it a little prettier for her. Well once she got used to the new room size, she couldn't go back upstairs to her tiny room, so she officially moved down there. I painted the dark blue walls white, gave her my own white quilt cover, and bought her some new purple sheets and a cushion or two. It was darn hard to find purple sheets because apparently according to nice sales lady purple is not 'in' but I had a vision in my mind of orange and purple (much to nice sales lady's horror) and I went with it. I love the result, and so does the girl. She agreed to my ideas because it didn't feel young girly, and she doesn't like pink, yet it is still feminine, yet a bit more grown up.  Her Christmas present light cotton throw rug lives at the end of the bed, folded to expose the orange bit. There is a big white furry shag rug on the floor which we've had for years that is not in the photos. This kid can be with white. Middle child? Not so much.

A wall opposite the bed has a built in counter that we painted white and she uses as her desk, and behind this desk is a small wall that we painted purple, and there is another 1960's style nook, that we painted purple and white too. Photos all below.  There is a brick castle like archway into the room, which is actually very cute, and not 70's in style, so you will see that in the last picture which was taken before I painted the walls, and when I allowed her to have some candles in her new room for the first time - she felt very grown up. She sits in her new reading chair to read which we found in my sisters garage - when we mentioned to my sister we were going orange and purple she offered us this cute retro chair. The padded seat lifts up on hinges to reveal a secret storage box under those pleats. It is now used to house all her books. My sister also donated mosaic picture frame on the wall from her garage.

So yes, this was a makeover on a serious budget, requiring one can of white paint, a set purple sheets, and two cushions, one of which was $5. The bear on the bed has it's own story, and is on my list to be scrapbooked.

And the girl is happy. And sleeps in. And plays her sax. And has already had several sleepovers!

worst blogger award, with some pictures.

Yep, that's me, heading rapidly towards the winner at the world's worst blogging awards. Thank you for this award, I would like to thank my lack of motivation, my crappy attitude toward scrapping, my excellent laziness, and my lovely children who now go to bed later being a bit older and therefore, for take up so much of my blog time at night. Yes, thank you, for all your nominations, and I hope to be here again, same place at next year's worst blog awards. 

SO, how about I share some piccy's seen I have jack-diddly-all in the way of scrapping to show you. Lets start way back before Easter. On the last day of school there were wonderfully exciting Easter celebrations at the school. Instead of making us poor mum's come up with brilliant glue filled Easter hats and watch children parade around in circles for two hours, they decide to give the parents a break, (oh thank you) and make the Easter craft at school. The kids decorated a photocopied egg with bits of stuff, and then held it against them and paraded that around for 2 hours. I told you it was wonderfully exciting. And the primary kids had to make an egg 'diorama' - making a scene to do with eggs, preferably humourous and quirky, and stick it all in a box that's on it's side so all can see the cute scene. Amaris asked 'But why, Mum?' and I said 'I don't really know why honey, are you being marked on it?', she said no. Then she asked, 'what do we do with it at the end of the day?'  I said, "bring it home, and sit it on your desk til it gets in the way too much, then chuck it, I guess." Amaris said "Oh". But I'm sure it's a good thing, that diorama.

 Yes, just call me the Mum with the world's worst attitude. For an arty person, I'm really practical. Amaris has actually inherited this flaw from me to a degree. When I was a kid, I wasn't into 'playing' cause I couldn't see the point, or what the practical outcome would be. I was right into 'doing things' that produced something. Like paint-by,numbers, or drawing or a mosaic. Playing 'Mr Whippy' at a flagpole or 'capture the flag' (translation for the North Americans), always puzzled me cause I couldn't see the long term point. So parading around in circles with a weird hat or holding a decorated picture of an egg, or putting hours into an egg diorama that you couldn't really do anything with is, a little puzzling. Though I'm sure it's educational and they might have learned lots of good things - NOTE: we did do a diorama once!

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE teachers and I think they do the best and most important job in the world, and I support them all the way - but I just couldn't face it on that particular day of parading around in circles in the sun, and looking at egg scenes in boxes.  I begged children to let me take them to a beach instead for that last day of school and they eagerly agreed and we had a really lovely day. It was only us there at this little beach, and I sat in a low beach chair in the sun with a coffee reading this:

which is the sequel to Gone with the Wind and looking up to see kids happily playing and exploring by themselves. We took a picnic and it was seriously quite blissful. I took a few pic's cause I really haven't had my camera out for my family for quite a while. 

 

Back to that Scarlett book (and darn it, I really wasn't planning to talk much on this post, yet look at me already, blathering on and on and on. Must try to shut up, and just pop up some piccys as planned), so back to the book,  oh it was GREAT. And HUGE. Normally a book takes me mere hours to get through, because I have no self discipline and just read on, feeding no one, looking at no one, not sleeping til I finish it. But Scarlett was so huge, with such teeny print, that it took me two weeks to get through it - so exciting!! Loved curling up at night with my quilt, some chocolate and Scarlett. (Ahhh...no wonder I've been hopeless at blogging). I looked forward to it all day. I literally wept when I did finish it. I didn't want it over. Now I need another sequel! Thanks, my friend, Melanie, for lending it to me, I will give it back soon...maybe. Mel also lent me the Gone with the Wind movie, which was awesome and LONG - love it. I hadn't seen it since I was about 6, so I didn't remember the story line. Marc was away for a few nights, so I settled in with the quilt and the tissues and got into it. Mel forgot to tell me it was four hours long, so it was bit of a late night. But it set me up to read the sequel.  That was a great two weeks, I look back with fond memories... (it was only 3 weeks ago).

Around this time, little cousin, Olivia, popped over and and we set her down on Amaris' white bed and snapped some photos. She is the smiley-est baby EVER, and even when she is tired, she smiles through teary eyes! My girls are in heaven with her. She is a lot of fun for all of us, even Marc!

 

We stripped her off because my sister wanted a photo of her cute butt and this resulted in a little puddle on the white quilt cover, but it was so worth it, even though Amaris was slightly horrified!

A few days after the truancy situation, we headed south, as it was school holidays, to my sisters holiday house. The girls made up dances with the other little girl cousin (who has only a brother so was in complete heaven) and performed them all, several times, and Lucy discovered that wearing a beanie meant she could get away without doing her hair. So the purple beanie stayed on her head for the entire 5 days that we were away. My parents arrived in a newly acquired 'campervan' and set up camp on the front lawn, as the little house can only sleep so many, and my parents wanted to test out their new toy - that's my Dad cooking breakfast one morning in front it. The kids took turns sleeping out in the campervan with the grandparents. . While we were there, all the kids also learned the rules of 'draughts' and spent many an hour playing each other. I'm not a good 'game' person, as you can imagine, so it takes a time away with game loving Aunts and grandmothers to teach them such things.

The day after we got home it was Lucy's birthday. My baby turned SEVEN - what the heck is that all about. I just can't fathom it. Six, still sounds cute and little. Seven sounds BIG. I am a little distraught, she is SO my beloved baby. The other day, I was reading on my bed, and she crawled up beside me, and said, "do you ever have that feeling that you need something, but you don't really know what it is?". I said, "Yeah, sometimes. Sit with with me while I read, and you might know what it is you need soon." So she snuggled in, as only she can, moulding her little body into the side of mine and she lay there while I read. I think it was Scarlett! After a little while, she said "I know what it was I needed! It was just you!" Does that not just melt your heart? Really must scrap that. I memorised it instantly so I wouldn't forget. Anyway, that beloved squishy baby of mine is seven and I'm very sad that I can't make her stay little. I took this on her birthday day - notice she still is wearing a hat knowing that she can avoid having her hair done. Also notice, still missing front teeth, though they are starting to make an appearance, finally.

 

On her birthday I took Lucy and her little friends to the movies. It was school holidays so it worked out nicely except for the fact, that it was in fact school holidays and when we got there, me alone with a car load of girls, no parking and a long walk to the cinema, the movies were ALL sold out! All eight cinema's! ??? I had never seen that happen before. Not very fun. So I bought tickets then and there to the next session which was 3 hours later, and then had to do the long walk back to the car, and drive to some local gardens to kill the time. The cinemas is part of a huge westfield mall, but the idea of roaming the mall with seven girls sounded overwhelming and possibly expensive, so we went to the gardens down the road instead. Here were two of her little friends that day - her two besties.

 

I also snapped this one of her looking very eagle like. Or is it an owl?? She struck me as very like some kind of creature perched up there on the pole. Not sure what creature though, anyone? This is very her, Always balanced high up somewhere, often in her own little world. 

 

When we returned to the movies for the second time, Amaris screamed and ran to this poster and begged me to take a photo. She has really been hounding me to do a scrap page about her JB 'thing' that she's got going. Beiber fever definitely happening in a certain 11 yr old in this house. She was devastated when his concert sold out in 20 min. Anyway, I should probably use this photo soon and do the scrap page she so desperately wants. I'm a nice Mum, sometimes. 

SO then there was Easter. Phew, hey? Are you exhausted yet? What is up with me, no blogging for ever, then one that takes hours! So yes, then there was Easter, and there were Easter egg hunts with cousins, at their grandparents house. Lucy is shown below holding all her eggs in the skirt of her dress (still got that hat on!). There was also a mischievous and hilarious, slightly naughty, typically two year old boy cousin who always makes us giggle.

After the Egg hunt was the traditional game of cricket in the back lane.  That's my sister, Donna, helping Amelia with her form.

And one can always be a wicket keeper WHILST handstanding! If you look closely you'll notice she is still watching the game!

Next post, I will show you my big girl getting her new POINTE ballet shoes - so excited to finally be up on pointe. And if I scrap, I'll show you that too,
xxx