Lurking under the house

Years and years ago, when the boys were tiny we had this old wooden three piece suite. They got a bit worn and sad and so we bought a couple of Ikea couches. We popped the old suite under the house, thinking we might do it up . . . one day.
Well, we've come to that day. With two living areas in the new house we need another lounge suite. After skimming through furniture catalogues, I remembered these beauties were lurking under the house and thought it might be an idea to get a quote to get them done.
I called a local furniture restoration man and his quote, although not small, seems to be a reasonable thing and we should end up with beautiful furniture that will appreciate in value, rather than new stuff that will not.
The wood will be stripped back and French polished. The wicker work bits in the backs and and arms will be replaced. The fabric will be removed and replaced and cushions for the seats and backs made.
The upholsterer came on Friday with his fabric samples. Unlike our Fiona, I can't visualise what something will look like from a 5x5cm square of fabric so I really struggled. I narrowed it down to the fabrics in just one book (good work) and persuaded the man to leave me the book to share with Ian.
By the time Ian came home I had little post-it notes sticking out on all four sides of the big fabric samples book. Between us we discarded each post-it note until we had one we both liked. Funnily I'd started off looking at cream, blue and green fabrics (the carpets in the new place are light blue) and we've ended up choosing a deep pink. That was a bit out of left field! It has a criss-cross pattern in gold, not unlike the fabric you see in the photos here.
Anyway we got Roey and Karen to look at our choice while they were here on Sunday and they both approved it so if it looks horrible we'll be able to shift the blame nicely.

Can't wait to see how it all turns out. Watch this space.

Another weekend gone

It was a bit less frantic on the sporting front this weekend.

Robbie's rugby league season is finished. All he had was a presentation in the morning.

Ishbel's soccer team had a bye so they just met up at Springwood High School for a knockabout. It didn't matter that we arrived late. Or that Elki and Lily didn't come so that Ishbel was the only girl.

After the soccer we came home and picked Jamie up for his Aussie Rules game. It was on just near the shopping centre with Aldi in it so Ishbel and I dropped him off and headed for the shops. In the car park we were tracked down by Ian and Robbie who were finished and said they'd bring Jamie home so Ish and I could finish the shopping and take it straight home. Ian was going to drop Rob off at his mate Harley's house.

On Sunday we had another birthday lunch for Ishbel. This time Roey and Al B came up (Pete was working and Jack was at a party) and Karen and Ben (Dan was doing a First Aid course). Spent all morning getting the lunch ready.

Except that is, for taking a look under the house to see what could be put away in to the storage place. Hardly found anything - most of the STUFF under the house is only fit for the tip. However, we need to borrow a trailer to get it there so that's next weekend's project.

After lunch we piled in to Roey's car to take her to see our new house - just from the outside. We were passing the end of Karen's street (sort of) so we swung past her house and let Roey see that too for the first time. Then all the way out to Winmalee. I think Roey liked both houses.

Here's a fun game, inspired by comedian Ross Noble who I heard on the radio the other day asking: If you were a shape, what colour would you be?

That launched Ishbel and I on several minutes of silliness.

• If you were a hot water bottle, where would you go on your holidays?
• If you were a tomato, would you wear a bikini or a one-piece?
• If you were a chocolate biscuit, what public transport would you use?

Can anyone think of any more? Or answers to these ones?

Birthday Girl

It's a day early but we had our birthday celebration cake today.


Ishbel decided to do the honours herself, taking care not to get burned by the matches.











Grinning and bearing it through the typical Cowan/Colquhoun tone-deaf rendition of "Happy Birthday". The things you have to put up with for a few presents . . .


















Big puff and it's out.


















At (almost) 8, Ishbel is now old enough to cut the cake herself.













And made sure the Mad-Aunt-in-the-cupboard (wearing her OTHER stripy shirt!) got her piece!

Whirlwind weekend

Another weekend spent at full tilt. We were up early on Saturday and trying to get the grocery shopping done and be back for the sporting events.
Ian took Ishbel to soccer while I did the shopping. I missed out on seeing her score her first goal. She surprised everyone, including herself and almost scored another one shortly after, so high was she on adrenalin.
Playing tag, Ian took the groceries home and got the boys ready for their sports. Meanwhile the soccer team were having a little party - it being Gala Day, some organised members had sausages cooked for sausage sandwiches and the Coach had brought a birthday cake for Ishbel. I was very touched by that kind gesture.
Ishbel and I were home long enough for her to have a quick shower then we had to go back down to Penrith to collect Jamie from his AFL match. After taking the scenic route, we arrived in time for the last quarter. Ish was very impressed - Jamie appeared to be playing the Sydney Swans. No wonder they lost badly!!
Rob and Ian had further afield to travel for Rob's game and were back in time to help with the last of the preparations for dinner. It is our friend Janet's birthday so we had her and her family and some other friends for dinner.

Up early again this morning for RFS training - we did off-road driving and recovery - winching the PC out of trouble - fun!.
Ian had the kids up relatively early too and down to Penrith to get some gear for Jamie who is off to the snow this week on a Leadership Camp with school.
Back home I shoved a cake in the oven and we are just now waiting for Auntie Karen, Dan and Ben to arrive to share it with us.

SOCCOR GAME

On Saturday I had my soccer match and I scored my first goal ever!
I was so excited I did a cartwheel.
I got a Gala Day ribbon.

My Award

On Friday I got an award I was serprised.

LOVE: ISHBEL !!!

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

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OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

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4 Red Crown Court

Karen very kindly took a picture of our new house.

Beijing Olympic fame

Our nephew, Al (16), is in Beijing with the Beijing 2008 Olympic Orchestra which is made up of kids from all over the world.

On August 3, the orchestra became the first foreign group to perform on Tiananmen Square. They have also played on the Great Wall of China.

How about that for cool?

Here is a picture of one of their practice sessions. That's Al in the front in the red t-shirt.

You can follow the progress of the band via their official website here. Make sure you check out the Multimedia & Press tab for video of the performances at Tiananmen Square and the Great Wall.

Wild and windy

Friday night/Saturday morning it blew a gale out there. It stopped around 3am - I know this because I was awake most of the night, worrying whether I was going to have to bush bash to Canberra to retrieve all the washing.

I also had visions of a big tree coming down on the house just when we thought we'd sold it. Luckily when the calm of daylight came, the only damage we'd sustained was a fallen branch which had flattened part of the dog fence round Bella's pen - easily fixed.

I went off to do some grocery shopping leaving the gang to tidy up a bit and get ready for sport. Robbie had a bye this weekend so we only had to worry about Jamie getting to Bargo (half way to Canberra after all!) for his AFL and Ishbel to Summerhayes Park for her soccer.

On the way back my RFS pager went off. They were looking for a crew to help with cleaning up after the storm. I rang the Captain to say I was unavailable then Steve, my friend and the Senior Deputy Captain rang asking if I could help out. I'd had a wee think by then and asked for a few minutes to get home and sort something out. At home we arranged for Ishbel to go to her soccer coach's before the game. She had arranged the night before to go for a sleepover to Elki's after their soccer match anyway so that was taken care of already.

That having been done, Rob and I were free to join the crew and met the truck near Springwood Public School. We had two jobs to do cutting up fallen trees. The second one was a close call. The top of a very large tree had come down, very narrowly missing the conservatory of the house next door. We cut it up, nearly getting monstered by the Newfoundland dog in the garden - Robbie wants one now. He'll have to get a job so he can afford to feed it first.