Little fishes new bed.

It was decided that littlest fish needed a big girl bed. She was just growing too big for her toddler size bed and as handy as it was given her room is rather small, it was time to go. So off to the bed shops we went! And then we came home.... All the beds that we saw were made from "timber veneer" or "laminated stuff" or other rather blaghhh materials. All we wanted was a wooden bed painted white. But they don't seem to exist in our town. So then we decided to search the op shops to see if we could find an old bed to fix up and, lo and behold we found one! At the second place we went to there was an old timber bed that looked to be pretty sturdy and apart from being old and a bit grotty it was just what we were looking for. And it cost all of ten dollars! Not $399 or even $250 just ten. dollars. Sold!

We brought it home and gave it a clean then sanded it and after an undercoat it was looking better already. Both the fishes had to help with the painting and after three coats of white semi gloss paint it was ready for action. Mr fish took the metal springs off the base and replaced them with timber slats for a firmer base and we gave the frame a coat of silver spray paint to brighten it up.

So now little fish has a lovely new bed that can be re-painted or touched up should anything get scratched or 'decorated'.

And after we took out the change table that was hogging the space in one corner there was quite a bit of room, a lot more than we thought. I'm not sure why it didn't get the boot earlier, I'll put it down to slackness.

She insisted on wearing her singlet on the outside of her pj's, she's just that kind of gal!

Some new prints and some b-b-bunting!

As well as a new bedspread oldest fishes room has had some other new additions. (That's little fish on the bed, she HAD to be in the photo). This is her birthday bunting that I made for her out of assorted pink and green prints with some rainbow ricrac to hang it off. I cut two triangles out of each print and sewed them together (wrong sides facing) and pinking sheared the edges then stitched them onto the ricrac. Quick and easy and pretty.

The other new addition is a group of various prints in some white frames. I have been accumulating white frames for a while as there was a plan in place to make a display wall out of them but since deciding on a different idea for the wall they have been sitting in a box waiting for inspiration to strike.

I got a bunch of them out and played around with positioning them (using pieces of paper the same size and some blu-tac) until they looked okay and then filled them up. Having the bits of paper on the wall made it easy to position the nails/hooks/sticky things that would hold the frames up. When she came home from school and found it she was very impressed. I got bonus points for putting some mermaids in the mix.

Have you made any little decorative changes lately?

Whoops!

Oldest Fish has now had a turn at being in hospital. The sore arm that we thought was sprained was actually broken :(

She fell off the trampoline while it was being moved last weekend and apart from saying it was sore when she put pressure on it there was not a lot of complaining about it. She went back to school after the holidays and was okay except for falling over at lunch time and hurting it. I had to go pick her up from school the next day when they rang to say she had fallen over in PE and landed on it. So a trip to the doctor followed. Then we had a trip to the x-ray place. Then another trip to the doctor to get the results. Then a trip to the hospital to get it fixed. We should have just gone straight to the hospital and saved ourselves 4 or 5 hours of running around, will remember that for the future.

The doctors and nurses were AMAZING and I can't thank them enough. The break was just bad enough for them to discuss straightening the bones, it was borderline but they decided in the end to do it as she is only young and it was going to be pretty easy.

It all happened pretty fast once we talked to the doctor, it was all systems go!

The only traumatic thing was that she wouldn't let the doctor put the drip in to give her a sedative so they had to knock her out very quickly with an injection. That was the worst bit. Once she was knocked out they got to work and that was where I should have exited the room.

The clever nurse knew what would happen so she got me a chair and a drink of water. Then she got me a bed.

I don't think I'm a squeamish person but when it's your little fish and its all happening so fast, it's probably best not to look.

Anyways I got back up after about 10 minutes (she was in a bed about 3 meters away so the nurse was keeping me updated) and got to sit next to her while she was waking up. It's really weird watching your little one wake up from being knocked out. She was quite funny a few times and said some strange things that lightened the mood a bit.

We had to stay til she was completely okay and could get up so we were there until dinner time.

I asked the nurse who was admitting us if it was strange that she didn't really complain about being in pain considering the break she had, but apparently kids react in strange ways to pain and don't always associate the pain with the area that is affected. So I guess the lesson learned was to get anything checked out that could be serious even if the reaction is not as big as you might think it should be. Once she had a big sleep that night she was really happy the next morning and didn't remember anything from the hospital. We have to go back next week to get the temporary cast off and a new fibreglass one on. (it's going to be pink)

Highs and Lows

This week has been a rather eventful one. One of the highs has been this lovely torch ginger finally deciding to flower after about 4 years of living here. There are 3 torches on it at the moment and hopefully we'll get a few more. It has moved spots a couple of times before we found the best place for it and more seems to be happy and thriving.

One of the more lowish sort of things to happen was that we got this new teddy. Well the teddy itself isn't bad (thank you Red Cross) it's the reason we needed one in the first place.

Littlest fish had a bit of an accident on Wednesday and ended up in the hospital emergency dept. for half the day. It seems that diving on your sister who is perched on the side of the lounge and knocking yourself and her over the edge is not a good idea.

Especially when you both fall over the side and one of you lands on the corner of a step - with your face. After a trip to the local doctor who told us to go to the hospital as they could fix the gaping hole in the side of her temple in a kinder and less painful way than the GP could do, we set out for the emergency dept.

Some numbing drops and 2 local anesthetic needles later and the stitches were in.

Littlest fish was very good and managed to keep still mostly and I managed to not faint as I held her head steady and had to watch everything the doctor was doing. She had to have a couple of stitches to put her back together and some steristrips and a big band aid type patch to cover it all up but is now on the mend. In fact the next day she was up and playing and I had to explain to 21 mums at Kindy why she had a huge patch on her head when we dropped her sister off.

The stitches come out on Tuesday and she should only have a tiny scar that should fade to nothing so that is good.

Her face is a bit bruised down that side which looks a bit yucky but it's getting better each day.

The steps have now got plastic corner things on them and the furniture has been moved a bit so there is a side table between the step and the lounge. All lounge diving has also been banned, lounges are for sitting on only.

Her sister was not hurt at all and was very helpful when I was shouting at her to get me a washer and the phone.

To leave you on a more pleasant topic, here is a little sneak peek at something in the works at the moment - I finally undid my Neptune jelly roll! (I was a bit nervous as it looked so pretty)

(In case you aren't familiar with them the teddy is called a trauma teddy. The hospital gives them to kids that are in need of something to cuddle while they are being fixed up. The nice volunteers at the Red Cross make them and donate them to the hospital, yet another wonderful service they provide).

The helpers and the next room getting prettied up.

Don't you just love helpers? They were very keen and didn't cost much. We paid them in strawberries.

The other half of the kitchen is getting the star treatment at the moment. The buffet/hutch thing is going into our new dining room (new for us, the rooms always been there we just like to move around a lot).

It is getting painted at the moment and will look a bit different when it is all finished, and yes you can have a look when it is done.

This is oldest fish "helping " to drill the screws into the new cabinets that are going in the kitchen.

This is what her sister did the whole time I was trying to take a picture, she just stands in front of me and does that. As if to say 'I'm ready for my close up'. So I had to take one of her as well.

This is the kitchen minus the buffet/hutch thing (I never know what to call it so apologies if it's got a real name).

It is getting a new benchtop to match the other one and the drawers will be painted the same once the wood putty sets properly. It would more than likely help if someone stopped poking the holes and ruining my putty applying skills. The poker has little fingers so I've narrowed down the suspects.

Very observant people might have realised that the wall has been painted and is now natural white instead of pacifica. This has brightened up the room a huge amount and there is now no need to put a skylight in ;)

And I even painted the cupboard doors as well. I'm thinking I'll leave the alcove where the fridge is the Pacifica colour as it looks okay.

So there you go, more work is being done and now oldest fish comes up to me (usually standing on a chair) and says "are you painting again?" in a sighing sort of voice. I promise I'll be finished soon....

random stuff

I got these 2 books a short while before Easter and just love them. Warm Fuzzies was an awsome score off ebay (this NEVER happens to me) that was only $10, pretty good when it's selling for 3 times that! And more softies was from the bookshop but I couldn't resist as I have bought the first softies for my lovely s-i-l and loved that too.

Just wanted to share some great books. I have also been scouring fishpond for their craft books and have made up a pretty impressive wishlist.

This is my cute little fishie number 2 who can sort of sit up now. She is not so good with the not falling sideways yet but we are working on it. For a kid that spent the first 3 months of her life in a pavlik harness (to correct her hip dysplasia) she is doing pretty well with reaching all her milestones. She may walk a little bit later than average but that's okay, more time to put everything out of reach.

These fabulous t-shirts were made by my clever s-i-l Claire who did them up for the girls at easter time. Zali got the bunny one as she can't eat choccy yet (we'll soon sort that out)

and Stace got the other 2 for her birthday. Isn't she clever! gush, gush, okay that's enough.

I joined Brown Owls a little while ago and it promted me to ask mum where all my old brownie stuff was (I knew she would have it somewhere). sure enough, it was hiding in a cupboard and i got it all out and had a look through my old handbook and all the other stuff. What memories it brought back. I'm trying to hunt down any other members that live in Mackay so we can form our own chapter and have meetings and stuff. The Melbourne girls look like they have lots of fun at their gatherings.

And Finally, this cute little pic is of a stitchery that i got from Claire's old craft book (i think it's from the 70's) that she would have found in an op shop somewhere. There is a matching boy one as well that is equally cute.