Lazing on a Sunny Afternoon

After the power cut on Thursday, our servers at work were fried on Friday. Some of us could do virtually nothing for the day. So I lost a day and my deadline didn't move out and then I got a new piece of work to do by the end of May, and my other project needs more of my time until the end of May, soooo ...

I figure I'll be looking at these things quite a bit for the next few weeks:

My telecommunications centre ....

My view ...

The stationery cupboard - more like a walk-in wardrobe ...

The only colourful thing in here ...

The patch of afternoon sun where my feet go ...

*sigh*

In other news, I made it through today without a piece of chocolate caramel slice from Mr Bun. And you won't believe how good the fence is looking. Dad and Joe have been plugging away at it this week, and it's nearly there. Photographic evidence will be provided at the weekend.

And congrats, Sweeney's-cousin-Victoria, on your first game of netball going kind of entirely to plan. Rules are for amateurs!! Throw that ball wherever you feel like!!

And also congrats, Sweeney's-cousin-Katie, on emerging from the tyranny of 13 months of braces!! Nuggety!!

Flashlight

Sweeney's got a torch. He reads stories with it after I've read stories with it and tucked him in and left him to get snoozing. I realised I hadn't seen or heard him for what felt like ages tonight while I was making dinner. He was up at the front of the house, shining his torch on cars in the dark. After some stories I showed him how to make an alsatian shadow with your hand. He was kind of a little bit slightly impressed.

Just hangin'. With his torch.

And here he is, yesterday. This is how he rocked up for breakfast.

Dapper. Love that safety gear ...

You Belong to Me

Here's how my special little guys spent a chunk of time today ...More work on the fence today - a few trips to get appropriate hardware, including the safety gear for the young 'uns, then Joe and Dad put the posts in. I did some pruning about the place, building up the pile for mulching next weekend. Fitted in a burst of scooter riding down the road, a round of cheese on toast for lunch, the ongoing quest for the perfect red smoothie - read, containing boysenberries - and even got the washing out.

I'm exhausted, going to watch Miss Marple on the telly. Hurrah!!

Express Yourself

Today has a surprise guest behind the post - my nephew, Harper. You've heard of him already on this blog, and he provides a lot of the content in this other blog nowadays. I adore that kid more than I thought I could ever adore a kid with white fluffyduck hair, who says "don't touch me!!" and can use the same chip as a Sauce Delivery Mechanism for an entire fish and chip dinner ...

That said, he's two now and growing fast, feels the need to express himself in all manner of ways. Talking, singing, dancing, shouting, drawing. Drawing. On. Things.

Like the chair that, along with its companion other chair and couch, has been dragged around with me since 1990. We found them in an op shop that no longer exists, and hatched plans to repair and re-upholster them.

And 15 years later, Martin found a crazy little outfit that did it for us. Stripped everything off, resprung and restuffed them, repaired the frames, covered them in a strong-tea-coloured cowhide. Neither of us could believe how well they turned out. And don't get me started on comfy ...

They're a zone where food, drinks, shoes and writing implements never enter. It appears Harper was unaware of this, and he's drawn some lovely things on the arms and seat of one of the chairs. I wasn't here when it happened, and I understand Sweeney nearly exploded with glee at telling the adults about it. I expect he's kind of envious ...

Lucky he's adorable ...

Top Fab Fave Five

Top five for this week:

1. Top escape attempt. I can't even see where his tiny little fingers could go to haul himself up this wall, but he found a way. Then shimmied down on his bottom. And repeat. Honestly, the photo makes the wall look shorter and less freaky than it really is ...
2. Top hosiery. I rather fancy myself in these, don't you know ... You can't see the purple houndstooth action properly. I think you can see that my shoes need polishing, though. Just look away ...

3. Top meaty goodness. This week's stewy fiesta from Hugh F-W involves a lot of rubbishy chops, fried off for a little, then simmered in stock, lemon juice and thyme. I used commercial stock and I think that's really what informs the resulting flavour more than anything. Next time I'll use much more juice and thyme, and fry off some onions with the chops at the start. But it's still flipping delish!!

4. Top outing with Sweeney. Girded my loins - is that the term?? - and took Sweeney for a jaunt on his scooter to the Sunday market at Waitangi Park. He was so great about traffic, other people on the foothpath, stopping when he was supposed to. So chuffed. And then he was mostly co-operative about following instructions when we got there. Okay, we wouldn't have fruit this week if Kimberley hadn't arrived and taken over wrangling him for a bit, but details, shmetails ...

5. Top 3.5 hours I had all to myself to do whatever I wanted to, while Sweeney was at Harper's and I wasn't at work. Sunday afternoon. I did some washing, cooked a few meals for the week, tidied the deck, knitted a little and watched a bit of afternoon telly with no-one campaigning for the 10 millionth playing of Cars instead. Blissful. Thanks, KimberleyJoe Harper!!

More people's five top things over here ...

Be My Friend

Here's a gratuitous picture of Harper, holding onto as many Easter eggs as he can, in the midst of the first Easter Egg hunt I've ever set up.

I researched hard, planned on laying out a trail of red ribbon or wool for the boys to follow, setting it all up so that the boys would be enticed to the next egg.

In the event, I put the eggs out in pretty obvious places and lurked near the boys as they careered aimlessly around the garden, shouting "hot!" or "warm!" or "get out of the vege garden!"

Smoooooooth ...

In other news, Sweeney got a gorgeous postcard from his friend Blessing today. Blessing and Sweeney are joined at the hip, Monday to Friday. Outside of that time, they make many of their decisions based on what they figure the other would do. They have long, complicated games that they play over days, involving dogs, cars, firemen, trains, tents, tigers. I love how race and difference really is just a fact to them, nothing more or less - not something to be judged or feared or disliked.

Although I found it weird that Sweeney insisted that the box of lemonade popsicles are for him, and the box of cola ones are for Blessing.

Anyhoo, he's amassed a little stack of nice things people have given him to say how much they like him being in their lives, and I realise I'm terribly offhand about it all. I'm terrible at sending thank you cards, slack about calling people, irregular at answering emails.

Sorry about that, people. You know who you are, and you mean lots.

My Creative Space

I'm calling it creative, but don't be fooled - I didn't think the patterns up myself, and it's mostly mechanical. But I'm a little light on interesting blog post ideas at the minute, so why not show you what I've been doing at night lately??
The entire universe knows I'm trying to get rid of stuff out of the house. This is how I'm getting rid of the stockpile of wool I've accrued over the years. One tiny garment at a time. It's kind of painstaking.

These are for Zac, who lives across the road and is just the right size for these things. He's six weeks old. His mum says he has very big feet, so I've made the boots a little bigger than normal newish-baby size.

In other news, Harper stayed over with us last night while his parents gallivanted elsewhere. He snuggled down into the inflatable Spongebob bed like he was born to it, and wasn't heard from again until an appropriate get-up time this morning. The bedroom was so toasty when I checked on them on my way to bed, what with two little bodies radiating all the heat that they do. And the cat was in there, too, to suck it all up, I guess.

Then he made my heart swell by eating about a kilo of yoghurt and banana in minutes flat, as opposed to Sweeney, who makes it his life's mission to drive me mad by dawdling over his tiny amount of breakfast every morning of my life.

Anyhoo, more creative Creative Spaces over here ...

Fab Five

Fave Five for this weeks are ...

1. Best parcel - Nana's parcel for her Precious Boys, crammed with chocolate treats, and best of all, a torch each!! Sweeney fell asleep last night with his torch still on, snuggled under his armpit. There was a sweet little glow when I went in to check on him before I turned in. Thanks, Nana!! ;

2. Best Dinner - from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's newish book, a chicken casserole. The recipe calls for cider, but I used fizzy wine and it turned out ... awesome. I'm totally in love with this book. Hugh is now the new Nigella in my life. Sorry, Nigella ... ;

3. Best Dinner Guests - Sweeney's Grandad O'Neill and Uncle Ben came over for dinner. We had chicken casserole - see above. Sweeney ate an outrageous amount of broccoli. That's how much he wanted to get to the chocolate payoff at the end of dinner, I guess. I so love Easter;

4. Best Park - Karori Park, at the end of Karori Road, in Karori. You want me to go into my theory of Parks and how they're pitched at different types and ages of kids and whatnot?? You do?? Really?? Well, that's a whole other post. Whatever age your child or dog is, or you are, you should check out Karori Park, at the end of Karori Road, in Karori;

5. Best Fence Removal - Joe, Dad, Denis, Geoff and apparently strangers passing in the street pitched in and removed the rotting fence that divides our property from Geoff's. Brushes with tetanus, spider attack and hernia explosion were narrowly avoided. Sweeney and Harper supervised.

More Top Fives here ...