"A sense of humour... is needed armour. Joy in one's heart and some laughter on one's lips is a sign that the person down deep has a pretty good grasp of life."
- Hugh Sidey
31 July 2009
Sunny side up
"A sense of humour... is needed armour. Joy in one's heart and some laughter on one's lips is a sign that the person down deep has a pretty good grasp of life."
30 July 2009
Crab apples and lily in the hallway
If you've been decorating or renovating I'm sure you're familiar with the longing to have a room be "done". It's the goal, right?
Well, I've come to realise, now that all of the rooms in my house are "done", that it sucks. It's frustrating to be out shopping at a flea market or on eBay and spot wonderful pieces of furniture, frames or ornaments and have nowhere to put them.
On Tuesday I popped down the road to the charity shop and saw two beautiful, dark wood frames. I stared at them for a while, wanting them. I wouldn't even have to paint and distress them, they were perfect in their rich darkness.
Then I knew where I could put them - a spot that I've been thinking of improving for a while. I was happy to snap them up ...
... especially at at that price! £2 each.
I came home and measured them. The size of the glass is 11x14 inches. They had no mounts / mats, but I knew I could buy or make some somehow. I went ahead and chose two images and ordered them as 8x10 inch prints. I chose these two, taken on my trip down to Somerset - the crab apples were in my aunt's garden and the lily was at Dunster Castle.
I chose these two images because they picked up the tones in the hallway bench. I'd decided to hang the frames above the bench in the space beneath the shelf as we only used the hooks for keys.
Today the prints arrived and I went down the road to an art shop to see if I could buy mats there. They only had champagne coloured mats in the size I needed but I knew I could either paint them or use the back of them - I decided to use the back. Sure, they don't have the neat bevel around the aperture, but I don't mind. Here's the difference between the front and the back, although this picture doesn't really show the true colour - the fronts are much yellower in real life.
But when I put the prints behind them, I realised that the apertures aren't 8x10 inches. They are slightly narrower and taller. Them being narrower doesn't matter, but the fact that the holes are taller than the prints became an issue when the print didn't fill the space. Aargh!
I decided to trim the width of the photos and stick them to a piece of coloured paper for a double-matted look. I experimented with different shades ...
... and then decided on the coral colour beneath the crab apple picture in the shot above because it tones with the little runner I have on the cabinet in the hallway.
And now for the final reveal. Here is what the hallway looked like before when standing in the studio doorway (in fact this was taken before I made the cover for the bench cushion):
And after:
Before and after from the front door:
Before and after from the living room doorway (you can see the little silk runner on the shoe cabinet):
The framed prints - excuse the glare:
The double-matted effect (now, that's what you call a happy accident!):
Cost breakdown:
frames = £4
prints = £3.87
mats = £6.80
paper = free (I bought it ages ago, it was in my scrapbooking stash)
Total cost for the project:
£14.67 (that's around $24)
Well, I've come to realise, now that all of the rooms in my house are "done", that it sucks. It's frustrating to be out shopping at a flea market or on eBay and spot wonderful pieces of furniture, frames or ornaments and have nowhere to put them.
On Tuesday I popped down the road to the charity shop and saw two beautiful, dark wood frames. I stared at them for a while, wanting them. I wouldn't even have to paint and distress them, they were perfect in their rich darkness.
Then I knew where I could put them - a spot that I've been thinking of improving for a while. I was happy to snap them up ...
... especially at at that price! £2 each.
I came home and measured them. The size of the glass is 11x14 inches. They had no mounts / mats, but I knew I could buy or make some somehow. I went ahead and chose two images and ordered them as 8x10 inch prints. I chose these two, taken on my trip down to Somerset - the crab apples were in my aunt's garden and the lily was at Dunster Castle.
I chose these two images because they picked up the tones in the hallway bench. I'd decided to hang the frames above the bench in the space beneath the shelf as we only used the hooks for keys.
Today the prints arrived and I went down the road to an art shop to see if I could buy mats there. They only had champagne coloured mats in the size I needed but I knew I could either paint them or use the back of them - I decided to use the back. Sure, they don't have the neat bevel around the aperture, but I don't mind. Here's the difference between the front and the back, although this picture doesn't really show the true colour - the fronts are much yellower in real life.
But when I put the prints behind them, I realised that the apertures aren't 8x10 inches. They are slightly narrower and taller. Them being narrower doesn't matter, but the fact that the holes are taller than the prints became an issue when the print didn't fill the space. Aargh!
I decided to trim the width of the photos and stick them to a piece of coloured paper for a double-matted look. I experimented with different shades ...
... and then decided on the coral colour beneath the crab apple picture in the shot above because it tones with the little runner I have on the cabinet in the hallway.
And now for the final reveal. Here is what the hallway looked like before when standing in the studio doorway (in fact this was taken before I made the cover for the bench cushion):
And after:
Before and after from the front door:
Before and after from the living room doorway (you can see the little silk runner on the shoe cabinet):
The framed prints - excuse the glare:
The double-matted effect (now, that's what you call a happy accident!):
Cost breakdown:
frames = £4
prints = £3.87
mats = £6.80
paper = free (I bought it ages ago, it was in my scrapbooking stash)
Total cost for the project:
£14.67 (that's around $24)
Wisdom
My friend Kirsty emailed this to me and I loved it:
[Edited: it apparently wasn't Bill Gates who said this, but it's still wisdom and I still like it.]
Bill Gates recently gave a speech at a High School about 11 things they did not and will not learn in school. He talks about how feel-good, politically correct teachings created a generation of kids with no concept of reality and how this concept set them up for failure in the real world.
Rule 1: Life is not fair - get used to it!
Rule 2: The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something before you feel good about yourself.
Rule 3: You will not make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.
Rule 4: If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.
Rule 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity.
Rule 6: If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.
Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.
Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life has not. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as many times as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to anything in real life.
Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you find yourself. Do that on your own time.
Rule 10: Television is not real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.
Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.
[Edited: it apparently wasn't Bill Gates who said this, but it's still wisdom and I still like it.]
Bill Gates recently gave a speech at a High School about 11 things they did not and will not learn in school. He talks about how feel-good, politically correct teachings created a generation of kids with no concept of reality and how this concept set them up for failure in the real world.
Rule 1: Life is not fair - get used to it!
Rule 2: The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something before you feel good about yourself.
Rule 3: You will not make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.
Rule 4: If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.
Rule 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity.
Rule 6: If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.
Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.
Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life has not. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as many times as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to anything in real life.
Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you find yourself. Do that on your own time.
Rule 10: Television is not real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.
Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.
29 July 2009
Blue
"Love is the condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own."
- Robert Heinlein
Lean and mean
I wanted to record this situation because I might forget it in future.
My boys both have skinny body types. Daniel was born weighing 8lb 8oz after I was induced 2 weeks early (can you imagine if I'd gone 2 weeks overdue?) But by the time he was a year old he was in the 0.6 percentile for weight - that means that 99.4% of babies his age weighed more than him. As you've seen from photos, he is still very lean. I think he's average for height, or just above.
Noah was 7lb10oz at birth, after I was induced 2 weeks early again. Although he became quite chubby as a baby, by the time he was a toddler he also became thin like Daniel. He is around 9th percentile for height (shorty!) and was following his own little growth curve of around 9-15th percentile for weight. At 4 years and 4 moths he currently weighs 15kg (33lb).
Unlike Daniel, Noah has asthma. This means that he has his height and weight regularly checked to be sure he's growing appropriately. Although his weight is well below average, he was following the appropriate curve nicely.
A little while ago his weight had dropped off his own curve (he wasn't gaining). The next time he was checked he'd been ill and hadn't been eating well and again he hadn't gained weight. The nurse practitioner became concerned and said I had to bring him for a check in 4-5 weeks again and if he hadn't gained weight appropriately then he'd have to have testing done.
I kind of shrugged off the concern thinking that he'd had a cold and was usually fine. Then I had a proper look at his health record book and realised that he weighed the same as he had a year previously! That kind of freaked me out a bit and I started to worry. I was trying to feed him up and weighing him at home to see if he would start gaining.
Fast forward to his checkup and he'd again picked up his own curve so the nurse practitioner said he didn't have to go for testing. We had a chat about what he eats and how much.
Now, I try to feed my family healthy food. I never fry anything, we don't use butter much, I cook Weight Watchers recipes and I try to get the boys and Grant to eat whole grains (although they're a little more reluctant than I am). I do bake a lot and Noah especially loves eating cookies but they don't eat much else in the way of junk food and I've been introducing more wholewheat flour into my baking. If I buy crisps (potato chips) then I buy the low fat ones. Going to McDonald's or out to eat is a very occasional treat. We generally drink water, never buy pop and seldom buy juice, although sometimes they have cordial (squash). I drink skim milk, the boys and Grant drink milk made up from powder - supposedly skim milk, but it looks much creamier than my fresh skim milk.
You know what the nurse practitioner told me? His diet is almost too healthy! How bizarre is that?! I told her I don't want to start feeding him more fat and sugar just to have the number on his chart look good. I didn't want him to gain weight at the expense of good health and learning healthy eating habits.
She said that I had the right way of thinking but what I need to do is reduce the whole grains I was giving him! For instance, he'd have 2 - 4 plain Weetabix for breakfast with milk and no sugar. She said he'd be better off with something like Frosted Flakes or Rice Krispies. I used to feel a little guilty giving him stuff like that as there didn't seem to be much substance to it, and she said that's exactly why he should have it. She said that all breakfast cereals are fortified with vitamins so he was getting good nutrition from it, but that it wouldn't keep him feeling full for ages like Weetabix would, and he'd eat more. She said no more than 2 Weetabix for breakfast (personally I don't know how he ever managed more than 2 at a time anyway!) She suggested I keep him on white bread, white rice, white pasta, potatoes - nothing wholewheat which would keep him full for longer. He needs more carbs which will give him calories and energy but would be processed through his system quicker and he'd get hungry quicker.
I just had to laugh. Sometimes even when you are trying your hardest and think you're doing well as a parent you find out you're still making a mistake!
My boys both have skinny body types. Daniel was born weighing 8lb 8oz after I was induced 2 weeks early (can you imagine if I'd gone 2 weeks overdue?) But by the time he was a year old he was in the 0.6 percentile for weight - that means that 99.4% of babies his age weighed more than him. As you've seen from photos, he is still very lean. I think he's average for height, or just above.
Noah was 7lb10oz at birth, after I was induced 2 weeks early again. Although he became quite chubby as a baby, by the time he was a toddler he also became thin like Daniel. He is around 9th percentile for height (shorty!) and was following his own little growth curve of around 9-15th percentile for weight. At 4 years and 4 moths he currently weighs 15kg (33lb).
Unlike Daniel, Noah has asthma. This means that he has his height and weight regularly checked to be sure he's growing appropriately. Although his weight is well below average, he was following the appropriate curve nicely.
A little while ago his weight had dropped off his own curve (he wasn't gaining). The next time he was checked he'd been ill and hadn't been eating well and again he hadn't gained weight. The nurse practitioner became concerned and said I had to bring him for a check in 4-5 weeks again and if he hadn't gained weight appropriately then he'd have to have testing done.
I kind of shrugged off the concern thinking that he'd had a cold and was usually fine. Then I had a proper look at his health record book and realised that he weighed the same as he had a year previously! That kind of freaked me out a bit and I started to worry. I was trying to feed him up and weighing him at home to see if he would start gaining.
Fast forward to his checkup and he'd again picked up his own curve so the nurse practitioner said he didn't have to go for testing. We had a chat about what he eats and how much.
Now, I try to feed my family healthy food. I never fry anything, we don't use butter much, I cook Weight Watchers recipes and I try to get the boys and Grant to eat whole grains (although they're a little more reluctant than I am). I do bake a lot and Noah especially loves eating cookies but they don't eat much else in the way of junk food and I've been introducing more wholewheat flour into my baking. If I buy crisps (potato chips) then I buy the low fat ones. Going to McDonald's or out to eat is a very occasional treat. We generally drink water, never buy pop and seldom buy juice, although sometimes they have cordial (squash). I drink skim milk, the boys and Grant drink milk made up from powder - supposedly skim milk, but it looks much creamier than my fresh skim milk.
You know what the nurse practitioner told me? His diet is almost too healthy! How bizarre is that?! I told her I don't want to start feeding him more fat and sugar just to have the number on his chart look good. I didn't want him to gain weight at the expense of good health and learning healthy eating habits.
She said that I had the right way of thinking but what I need to do is reduce the whole grains I was giving him! For instance, he'd have 2 - 4 plain Weetabix for breakfast with milk and no sugar. She said he'd be better off with something like Frosted Flakes or Rice Krispies. I used to feel a little guilty giving him stuff like that as there didn't seem to be much substance to it, and she said that's exactly why he should have it. She said that all breakfast cereals are fortified with vitamins so he was getting good nutrition from it, but that it wouldn't keep him feeling full for ages like Weetabix would, and he'd eat more. She said no more than 2 Weetabix for breakfast (personally I don't know how he ever managed more than 2 at a time anyway!) She suggested I keep him on white bread, white rice, white pasta, potatoes - nothing wholewheat which would keep him full for longer. He needs more carbs which will give him calories and energy but would be processed through his system quicker and he'd get hungry quicker.
I just had to laugh. Sometimes even when you are trying your hardest and think you're doing well as a parent you find out you're still making a mistake!
28 July 2009
Somerset trip, part 2
On Saturday morning the boys spent some time playing in the garden.
They adopted a snail and called him Steve.
When we were ready we headed out to Dunster Castle (click here and here for information).
We enjoyed a very interesting tour inside (no photos allowed, unfortunately) and then wandered around the gardens. (Again, pictures with a * on were taken by my aunt.)
The pet cemetery:
The stables:
After the castle we enjoyed a picnic lunch:
Now imagine the most charming, perfectly English, picturesque and content little village that you can.
That's where we went next. We had hoped to visit the West Somerset Rural Life Museum in Minehead but when we got there it was closed. So instead we just wandered the tiny little village. It was so cute and quaint!
This road is pretty much the entire village:
Traditional telephone booth keeping up with the times:
Can you imagine living in this lovely cottage right on the brook?
This little cottage was the post office:
This is the parking lot where we'd left the car. See that big tree above the dumpsters? It was loaded with tiny yellow plums (we ate some):
You can see here how tiny they were:
The hedge had some brambles and Daniel especially enjoyed eating the ripe blackberries:
We came home after visiting the village and the next morning the boys and I drove home. We had a wonderful time, huge thanks to Aunt Jane for making our trip so enjoyable and for doing all the driving on our days out!
They adopted a snail and called him Steve.
When we were ready we headed out to Dunster Castle (click here and here for information).
We enjoyed a very interesting tour inside (no photos allowed, unfortunately) and then wandered around the gardens. (Again, pictures with a * on were taken by my aunt.)
The pet cemetery:
The stables:
After the castle we enjoyed a picnic lunch:
Now imagine the most charming, perfectly English, picturesque and content little village that you can.
That's where we went next. We had hoped to visit the West Somerset Rural Life Museum in Minehead but when we got there it was closed. So instead we just wandered the tiny little village. It was so cute and quaint!
This road is pretty much the entire village:
Traditional telephone booth keeping up with the times:
Can you imagine living in this lovely cottage right on the brook?
This little cottage was the post office:
This is the parking lot where we'd left the car. See that big tree above the dumpsters? It was loaded with tiny yellow plums (we ate some):
You can see here how tiny they were:
The hedge had some brambles and Daniel especially enjoyed eating the ripe blackberries:
We came home after visiting the village and the next morning the boys and I drove home. We had a wonderful time, huge thanks to Aunt Jane for making our trip so enjoyable and for doing all the driving on our days out!
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