Just Nicky

The Game May 31, 2008

The Game by Nicky P

1. I’m Gonna Get YOU!, 2. Sweet Juicy Peaches, 3. Stars of the Sea, 4. Purple Rose, 5. Deborah Conway, 6. vintage tea set with cupcake, 7. Relax, 8. Raspberry - Swirl Cheesecake, 9. The Gardeners, 10. Leila and me are being artisters 1, 11. Optimistic Pencil, 12. Share me your Thoughts

Created with fd’s Flickr Toys.

Found via Pea Soup.

The concept:

a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker).

The Questions:

1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One Word to describe you.
12. Your flickr name

I think I’ve found my dream home … May 30, 2008

Carl Larsson’s Home by ilovecake

… and it’s in Sweden.

I’d never heard of Carl Larsson until I read Loobylu’s blog entry this morning. Now I’ve fallen in love with his work, but it is nothing to the way I feel about his wife’s work - their house.

The pictures quite literally take my breath away. For the first time I know exactly how I want our house to be. The lightness and airiness combined with the sense of comfort the house exudes is what I want. I want to transplant everything from their home to mine.

My pocket money for next month will be going on books about the Larssons. I can hardly wait.

This morning

Leila and me are being artisters 3 by Nicky P

Finn is home from kinder due to an explosive bottom. He’s fine, it’s just that his bum is being unpredictable.

He and Leila have been being ‘artisters’ and now there’s an horrendous mess to clean up.

School May 29, 2008

Finn has been enrolled in school for next year. It’s a small school contained in ramshackle old buildings and portables strung together by covered walkways. Finn won’t qualify for an aide but his likely teacher has a hearing impaired kid in her class this year and he will spend time with the visiting teacher of the deaf. I have confidence he’ll do well there.

I liked that the school is a Finn-sized environment, that they didn’t parade kids in front of me, that they were up front about their shortcomings and there was no sales pitch.

A quote and a book I think I might look for May 28, 2008

First the quote:

If nothing ever changed, there’d be no butterflies. — Anonymous

Now the book:

I’ve begun to think of my depression as being as much a lack of a quality/skill, as the presence of an illness. This is (I think) a constructive thing as skills can be developed. In this case the skill is resiliency … or should that be resilience. Either way, I mean the ability to work through difficulty and to come back from set backs reasonably quickly.

This post on The Happiness Project is an interview with a woman who has written a book about this very thing. I think I might go looking for her book on Amazon. If nothing else, the bouncy red cover will brighten things up.

Knitted Stuff May 20, 2008

Haiku Jacket by Nicky P

It’s been a while since I’ve posted about knitting. I finished a couple of things recently, though, and thought it was time.

The first is this cardigan for Leila. It’s the Haiku pattern from Knitty, knitted in Anchor Magicline cotton which has been discontinued. It’s a bit big for now, but I’m hoping we’ll get some wear out of it for the next twelve months. When it’s outgrown I may pull it out and reuse the yarn like I did with this. It became this jumper. The yarn is Anchor Magicline as well.

I also finished this jumper for Finn from a Debbie Bliss pattern. The yarn is a discontinued alpaca/acrylic mix by Patons. Finn likes it but finds it a big scratchy so it’ll only get worn over long-sleeved tops. It’s also rather big so it should do for a couple of years at least. I think my days of knitting for Finn might be numbered as he gets bigger. This jumper took a while to do because it’s all in moss stitch and it got quite heavy on the needles. I like little stuff better.

Sunday May 18, 2008

Finn came in between 6 and 6.30 am for a cuddle.
Got up with Finn and Mark at about 7am.
Stayed in my pjs and put on my new robe.
Got Leila out of bed, changed her nappy and dressed her.
Read the paper, ate toast and drank tea made by Mark while giving Leila her breakfast.
Clipped articles out of the paper for Mark.
Got Finn dressed.
Prepared some of the articles to be laminated.
Got dressed.
Went out with the rest of the family on a trip to Officeworks and to the aquarium shop to buy more fish. Yes, MORE fish…
Came home and prepared the last few articles to be laminated.
Put Leila down for a sleep.
Made a fish feeding chart.
Fed the fish.
Leila woke after an hour. Picked her up and changed her nappy and clothes.
Gave Leila some lunch.
Got Finn to help me choose some buttons for his jumper and sewed them on.
Tried to show Finn how to knit and ended up agreeing to make a yellow scarf for him.
Sat and played on the computers with Finn.
Re-read some of the paper.
Played on the computer a bit more.
Read a some stories to Finn while Mark made dinner.
Kept reading while Finn ate his dinner.
Ate my dinner.
Fed cats.
Fed dogs.
Put the chook to bed.
Played on the computer while Mark bathed the kids.
Dried Leila off and put her in pjs and sleeping bag.
Gave Leila her bottle and had a cuddle in front of the telly.
Put her to bed.
Put a load of nappies on to wash.
Played scrabulous and scramble on the computer for a while.
Watched some telly while working on the yellow scarf.
Finished the scarf and started on a pair of socks for Mark.
Dropped a stitch in the socks and couldn’t pick it up so pulled them out.
Went to bed.

Saturday May 17, 2008

Got up and stayed in my pjs.
Got Leila out of bed and changed her nappy.
Made her breakfast and fed her.
Made my breakfast and ate it while reading the paper.
Read the paper for a bit longer.
Went to check the time of Leila’s appointment on the computer and came across a kinder-related email that needed attention.
Sent an email to the whole kinder committee about the fort.
Gave Leila a bottle and put her down for a short sleep before her doctor’s appointment.
Had a long shower and got dressed.
Looked at the paper a bit more and chose some articles to clip for Mark.
Got Leila out of bed, changed her nappy and put a jacket on her.
Took her to the doctor.
Went to the chemist to get her prescription made up.
Came home.
Warmed up Leila’s lunch.
Clipped some newspaper articles while waiting for Leila’s lunch to cool.
Fed Leila.
Said goodbye to Mark, Finn and Leila as they went off to Scienceworks.
Wondered what to do with myself.
Sat down at the computer while I thought about it.
Did some uncluttering in the area known as ‘my study’. There’s still far too much crap in there, but it’s a bit neater.
Ate some lunch while playing scrabulous and scramble.
Tossed a bit more stuff into a bag for the op shop.
Took some food scraps out to our very wet hen.
Mark and the kids came home.
Changed Leila’s nappy and gave her a biscuit and drink of water.
Filled in some forms that have been hanging around for a while.
Attempted upgrade my online access to Centrelink and failed because I couldn’t name my great grandmother’s aunt’s pet dog.
Dinner. Fed Leila.
Played with Leila a little and took some photos.
Put Leila in her pjs and sleeping bag.
Gave her a bottle and had a cuddle in front of the telly.
Put her to bed.
Watched telly while finishing off a jumper for Finn.
Went to bed.

It’s one of those days

Neither of us seems to be able to say or do the right thing today.

This too shall pass (I hope).

Friday May 16, 2008

Got up and dressed.
Said goodbye to Mark.
Got Leila out of bed and changed her nappy.
Made breakfast for the kids with Finn’s help.
Fed Leila.
Dressed Leila and changed a pooey nappy.
Helped Finn get dressed.
Prepared Finn’s kinder snacks.
Took Finn to kinder.
Came home and put Leila in her room to play (the door is open).
Made breakfast and sat at the computer to read and blog.
Gave Leila some morning tea.
Put a load of washing in.
Made an attempt at cleaning up the toys on the loungeroom floor. Didn’t really work with the baby ‘helping’.
Picked Finn up from kinder.
Gave Leila a bottle and put her to bed.
Hung the clean washing out and put some more in.
Helped Finn play with Cosmo.
Made lunch for Finn and I.
Helped Finn eat the contents of the lolly bag that came home from kinder.
Hung out the next load of washing and put some more in.
Found a shepherd’s pie recipe I could mangle for dinner.
Sat at the computer looking for more useful recipes.
Got Leila out of bed and gave her lunch.
Did some more washing.
Cleaned up the toys in the loungeroom with Finn’s help and put some different ones out.
Prepared the shepherd’s pie and put it in the fridge.
Brought in some dry washing and put it away.
Preheat the oven and put the pie in.
Gave the kids’ some yoghurt to keep them going until dinner was ready.
Served up dinner and fed Leila.
Brought in the rest of the washing off the line before it rained.
Fed dogs and cats and put the chook to bed.
Put Leila into pjs and sleeping bag.
Gave her a bottle, had a cuddle in front of the telly and put her to bed.
Finished putting Leila’s cardi together.
Talked to Rhonda and The Mavis on the phone while choosing buttons for the cardi.
Watched the second half of the second Austen Powers movie while sewing the buttons on.
Went to bed.