Kitchen Project Underway

Seb came with my mom and me to a nearby quarry to look at kitchen counter marble samples.

What started as Pai unclogging the sink has snowballed into a project that feels like a complete remodel.

Noise Is A Good Thing, Right?

I hear banging, and sawing, and shouting, and more banging all day long. Actually, during lunch, I only hear shouting and loud booming conversations, but for the rest of the day it sounds busy.

This is why it is a little frustrating that I don't have the finished pictures of the house to share.

I have these:
That looks like a fresh new roof, I know.

 Those are all new tiles and the main part of the rook looks done, but you will also notice the wood with the peeling paint. That all still has to be taken off and replaced with new wood, primed, and then painted.

 I took this picture a few days ago and that overhanging bit has since been finished.

 Freddy has made some pretty elaborate obstacle courses out of stones and pallets. Sebby has so much fun going through this "tunnel," and then down the ramp/boogy board. It must also be said that Sebby has never been happier. Big trucks in and out is all he could ever want.

 It's impossible to see beyond the scaffolding and green netting, but there is some intricate, brand new wood work up around the tipy top of the house now. It looks great, for sure. So at least they are doing a good job. It's not even that they are unreliable. They show up every day and work all day long. It's more that this is an old house, and fixing anything in an old house is never straight forward.

 I ran into my neighbor who stopped me to say "you must be going crazy by now! How can any light get in your house?" Crazy is not the exact right word, but I am a little disheartened that Christmas is, like, in two minutes and the house still looks like this.

 Dear beautifully handcrafted wooden gutters, please turn white so we can wrap up this project. Yours sincerely, the entire household.

I am 100% aware of the entitled whiney nature of these updates, but GRACIOUS I am impatient.

The House

 

Today marks four weeks since this project started. We're getting a new roof, and replacing gutters and other wood work around the outside of the house.

 It's a pretty entertaining for Sebby, but the house is a little on the dark side. It's a touch noisy too.

 All the debris flies down the yellow shute and Sebby can't get enough. He says "crash!" every time something goes out the shute.


It's not all bad, but I'm ready to show after pictures, and I really really hope I can do that before Christmas.

Baby Clothes Quilt

I now have two large Tupperware full of clothes that don't fit Sebby, and what to do with it all is a pressing concern; I'm out of space and this guy is growing! I love this quilt idea, but I want something more masculine than hearts. Ideas?

Circles?
Stars?

My quilt conceptualization skills feel rusty.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cathygaubert/5617239072/

Stuffed Animal Cull

Seb is my resident organizational consultant.

Christmas Status

The only sign of Christmas in the House on Happy Street is this hastily made banner that Freddy put up in the kitchen.

 My personal red ribbon cutting ceremony for the holiday season is putting on Frank Sinatra's version of Jingle Bells. It's divinely festive. I can't find the CD, so thank goodness for YouTube. 

As much as I love the kitchen banner, I'm dying to make a Christmas photo garland going up our stairs like this one I saw on Pinterest. I already have the pine garland, I just need to make the photo part. Easy with a new baby and 3 other kids with packed schedules, right?

,

This might be just the sort of project that could occupy a whole day for Zita.

Zita has also been asking when we're going to start our marathon bark making sessions, but I like the idea of making cookie trees

She said she wanted to start a new tradition this year, and these cookie trees could be just the ticket.

Our weekend Christmas to do list includes:

Decorate

Find and purchase tree

Set up Train

Bake (cookie trees?)

Hang, and possibly embellish stair garland

Get out Christmas books

Come up with teacher/coach gifts

Buy gifts and groceries for the various charities that the kids' schools have partnered with 

Funny how our "free" weekends are never all that free.

Happy weekend to all.

Nesting Hits the Kitchen, and Other Updates

I've been deep in house projects since the weekend. We took almost everything off of the kitchen shelves and out of the cabinets, and did a major clean out. It was so therapeutic! All of these things are headed for the door. This shot doesn't include the 4 big bags of stuff we got rid of.


Pai moved the refrigerator to every possible spot because it never felt like it was in the right place. We've settled on a new place, but that will entail removing a whole set of deep shelving and getting new cabinets for the refrigerator's old spot. I don't have any pictures since it's not so easy to just dash up the stairs for the camera without feeling like I'll drop the baby right on the landing. This whole kitchen project started when we realized that 5 people hardly fit around our kitchen table and 6 would be impossible.

We finally harvested the wild quince growing near our gate. I was lead astray with a recipe that called for water and it turned out too runny. It solidified a bit with a second boil and sitting over night, but I think I will call these preserves instead of jam. I can't wait to try a dollop over plain yogurt with a sprinkle of granola, or drizzled over pancakes. yum!


  Isn't the color just gorgeous? They are white like apples in raw form, but darken as they cook.

Freddy and I also made our annual quince apple pie with crumble nut topping. Again, no photos.

Fall colors are almost non-existent in Portugal, but the tennis courts where I spend half of my life happen to have vibrant red leaves. What a treat.

Zita and Freddy went on their first field trip of the year to the Pavilhão de Conhecimentos in Lisbon where they were all filmed for a news segment. Here they are just before. Sorry about the sun Freddy!

I've been incorporating a lot of squash, pumpkin, and carrot into dinners, as one does at this time of year, and these squash fries added great color and something new to our table. The kids never turn down anything labeled "fries."

Life Books and Scanning Mania

 

 Work in progress

My baby nesting is all over the place, and seems to be leaning more towards things that have nothing to do with the arrival of a baby.
 I decided to scan all of the children's school pictures and make life books for each of them. I'm planning to have around 2 pages per year, including their individual photo, class photo, a photo of the family, and a brief description of what was going on that year.

I thought I had all school pictures neatly organized in a tupperware, but this project has revealed gaping holes such as first and second grade photos for Tomas, and a few for Zita as well. Freddy hasn't been in school long enough for me to slack.

Here's Moojie's first ever school photo, taken at the St. Andrews Univeristy Nursery where he went two mornings a week.

He's 13 months in this picture and to this day, he gets little wings above his ears when it's time for a haircut.

After an entire morning of working on this, I have all school photos scanned for Moojie, half done for Zita, and nothing done for Freddy. I don't plan to complete these until they are 18, but now is as good a time as any to start.  

Not Just An Artist

She's also a woodworker! On Saturday night after we had tucked Zita and Freddy into bed, I remarked to Pai that what we really need is a little key cabinet. We have more keys that we can keep track of and we recently did a house-wide key round up. I didn't give the matter a second thought, until Sunday after our pancake breakfast when Zita disappeared outside in her nightgown. I heard banging and clattering, but went about my normal kitchen clean-up routine.

Zita appeared in the kitchen holding up this board, proud as could be, and remarked " you told Pai you needed somewhere to hang keys, so I made this."

She was keen on a collaborative phase two of getting it painted and labelled, but I had to get Freddy off to tennis.

Love this Zita- there's not telling what she'll come up with next.

Ikea- Can't Live With It, Can't Live Without It

I just finished putting together the rolley drawers under Zita's new desk. By new, I mean the desk I found in the basement. The drawers are new and freshly assembled after two days of dealing with poorly illustrated instructions.

I'm pretty sure that if I walk back into Zita's room in 1 hour, she'll have it looking neat and organized with a purpose for every drawer. Let's hope it holds up.

Things I Want to Remember

Zita, Freddy,  and I have finished the Baby Sitters Club and either the modern  version has been edited to death, or I'm reading books with a mother's lense now. Either way, I was pretty disappointed and it was nothing like the book I remember loving as a young girl. It's back to the classics we go! Freddy has been subjected to just about every girly classic so to give him a break, we're starting Swiss Family Robinson next.


I've shown a bit of Downton Abbey to the kids and we are getting a kick out of their ability to put on a Yorkshire accent. Zita and Freddy are in stitches saying "yes Mr. Bates" to Moojie who doesn't think it's very funny at all.

I made another big batch of marmalade last week. I had to boil it twice over since missing 300 grams of sugar turned out to mean the difference between marmalade that sets and marmalade that is pure liquid.

We finally have a new smaller sink for the guest bathroom downstairs to replace the broken sink.  It works, the bathroom door closes with no tricks, and the light turns off and on,  so this might be the one and only room in the house without quirks or a necessary insutrctional brief before anyone can enter.

Excitement over Carnival has started. My hope of all hopes is that it never occurs to Zita to ask to have a Carnival party. She is however begging me to make a Lady Liberty costume. This is probably one of the few costumes I have no chance of finding in a store here. Why didn't I think to order one months ago?


Zita has garden fever and has been busily getting seedlings started. The only problem is that my bathroom has been her staging area and potting soil is getting everywhere.

I've been waking up Zita and Freddy every morning with this clip of Good Day Sunshine by the Beatles from YouTube. It's pretty hard to be grumpy about socks when this song is blasting away.


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I would love to be able to scientifically measure the number of calories that Moojie consumes and burns in one day. I send him off to school every day with what looks like 1 week of survival supplies and he always comes home starving. I think all that food is going to his feet!

Meal Planning- Another Gargantuan Post

The biggest problem I had with menu planning was inspiration. Whenever I asked what I should make for dinner, I always got "I don't know- anything!" Arrrgggghhh. I hate that. 

 We've been using this new system for all of this school year and it has made life so easy.  I only have to think about what to make for dinner once a week (Wednesday), and groceries are also geared toward our menu and thus a lot less expensive.

The basic system is this: everyone has one night of the week to choose what we all eat for dinner, and the dinner has to be something we all like to eat.

Monday: Moojie

Tuesday: Zita

Wednesday: Freddy

Thursday: Me

Friday: Pizza

Saturday: Pai

Sunday:  Misc- this rotates between rotisserie chickens from a nearby restaurant, left-overs, something insprired by a cook book, random rquests,  no dinner at all due to heavy and long tea times at the grandmother's house, or it can be a make-up night for anyone who for whatever reason missed his or her night.

Here's the new board that Freddy, Zita and I completed last night. It replaces a generic list that I had up on the kitchen wall.

The envelope on the left hand side has meals not yet chosen. Under each day, the person resonsibe for that day needs to hang up his or her choice for dinner. When the week is over, everything we ate that week gets put in the 'X' envelope. I have a sneaking suspicion that Moojie will be getting steak out of the 'X' envelope more than he should since he always asks for a good steak.

The success of the system depends on having all of your familiy's dinner options written up. I have about 50+ dinners that all five of us will eat. Not just will eat, but like to eat. If one single person doesn't like something, it's not in the rotation. I'm lucky that my kids eat just about anything, but even picky eaters can get a decent list going.

It's hard to think of everything all at once, so write up the list over a few weeks, and get out visual cookbooks to look at with your children. What you put in rotation should be practical. Fancy and difficult stuff is not on the board.

I have a deadline of the morning school run for putting orders in. After that- too bad! They can make it up on Sunday or lose the day. Freddy in particular takes this all very seriously and loves to pick on his night. He wakes up elated every week on "his day."

This is sounding way more complicated than it is, but the bottom line is, responsiblity for planning the weekly menu falls on everyone, no one can blame mom for a lack of decent meals, and every single night we eat something that all 5 of us enjoy.

De-Cluttering: My Big Bag Method

I consider clutter to be those things that accumulate on surfaces and are neither useful and meant to be there, or beautiful. We used to have a table in our entrance just to the left of the front door. It was the biggest clutter magnet of all time, and there was nothing I could do to fight it. Nothing that is, except for removing the table. I moved it around the corner to the next room and  it worked  like a charm. 

Up until last week, we had a sofa at the foot of our bed. Another clutter disaster zone. All it took was one shirt, one blanket, or a book here and there, to make me feel like the whole room was messy. Moojie helped me move that out of the room last week, and the cats now happily sleep on it in the basement.  

Since I can't remove all furniture from the house, things still do wind up where they don't belong. We are particularly adept at creating piles on the stairs to be taken up later. The problem is, the stairs become like an extended bedroom for the children and this system is hazardous. I'm sure we're all familiar with clutter so I won't go on any more about how it happens. I will, however, share my method for getting rid of it. This includes the car, by the way.

Step one: Get big bags as seen above, and just walk around putting every single out-of-place thing in the bags, until you're satisfied that all surfaces have only what is aesthetically pleasing or absolutely necessary. This morning,  I wournd up with what you see above- a lot of stuff! The more often this is carried out, the easier and less daunting it become.

Step Two: I settle the bags on our upstairs sala floor where I sit and sort everything into piles until the bags are empty. Remove the bags from sight or it will be very tempting to just  create a "toy bag," or re-bag things.  Force yourself to put everything away.

Everyone's piles will be different, but mine worked out nicely into books (top left), toys (bottom left), bathroom items (bottom right), trash (plastic bags), art supplies (zip-loc in the middle), and things that belong in the kitchen/ stragler Christmas decorations (white bag).

The collection process took me 20 minutes and the empty-everything-into-piles process took another 10. Being ruthless about throwing stuff away makes the whole process go much faster.

Today's clear out was particularly fruitful in that I found 4 pairs of swimming goggles and much needed face sunblock sticks.

That's it. It's so easy to de-clutter this way when half of the time spent cleaning, one is actually sitting on the floor with the Mezzo chanel on.

Question : Aren't you in the middle of the photo project of the decade, and isn't this just more procrastination?
Answer: Yes I am, and yes it is. I'm struggling, but forging forward, accomplishing at least one page per day. I'm up to end-of-September 1999.

Baby Collage

Since I started using a digital camera in 2005-2006 I stopped ordering prints, and most of the frames we have are pre-2006. I was particularly bothered by the lack of baby photos around the house, but I don't like wall clutter and we are running out of space for more frames. I feel strongly that things on the wall should be framed and something we all love to look at, so I love the idea of a collage where many photos can be displayed in one tidy spot.

 I created the below collage for $3.49 and the frame is IKEA so the whole thing was less than $10/EUR10.

 Pretty much every photo sharing site has the collage feature, but I used Kodak Gallery since that's where Freddy's baby photos are kept.

(now that I've posted this, I can see that the lower frame is not straight. It's now fixed)

In Freddy's collage, I included all the things I love about newborns- their little bums, those chubby dough-like fingers, tiny toes, and that tummy down fetal pose. I never took closeups like this for Moojie and Zita and I regret it so much.

The frame below is Freddy's birth announcement and the photo that went with it. If you didn't send a birth announcement, use one of the collage boxes to put basic stats like name, weight, length, and birthdate.

Since every act of mothering on Happy Street is measured and compared closely by two children in particular, as soon as Freddy's collage and birth announcement went up on the wall, I was immediately questioned about the timeline of delivery on the other two collages.

When my backlog of prints-into-albums project is over,  I´ll make a collage for Zita and one for Moojie too by scanning in prints.  Although, by this point I'm not too sure Moojie will love that on his bedroom wall.

Cakes and Crafts

Growing up we had the same birthday banner that got hung up year after year, and I've always wanted to
recreate that tradition. I've seen some beautiful fabric and felt versions online, but I never took the plunge and ordered one. There's nothing like Zita's penchant for browsing party websites to get me going, and get going I did.

Here is the final version of her happy birthday banner. Considering the laborious hours it took to make this thing, it will now be the official family birthday banner. Now to find somewhere to hang it.

Here's a closer look

As I already mentioned, Monday night was the practice cake making session. This is her ideal cake, only swapping out "tracy" with her own name. We've all seen my cakes and know that the below is not within my capabilities.


We settled on a black cat face, with kitten faced cupcakes surrounding it. Since Blackie went missing, and with Zita proclaiming that a birthday without Blackie will be the worst ever, I'm pretty sure that a black cat cake is not the reminder she needs at what is supposed to be a jubilant moment.

Here's Zita separating the eggs during Monday's practice cake session.  These are the last shots we have of Blackie :(

 As Freddy folded in the egg whites, he took on his cooking show persona and told me "this is a very tricky step, and it's the most gentle part of baking. DON´T. SQUISH. THE. BUBBLES." that pretty much sums up folding in egg whites.

You Know the Sink?

Nothing good can come after a question like that. Zita's story went something like this:

"So Freddy and I were washing our hands, and you know the very heavy soap dispenser?"

"Yes.Where is this going, guys?"

" and well, you know how everything in our house is very old and very fragile? So the soap dispenser slipped and just flew through the air. Just like this- (makes flying motion with her arms, and Freddy mirrors it nodding all the while) and when it hit the sink- our sink that was very old already- it just broke."


This is not only our only downstairs bathroom, but our guest bathroom as well. Bigger problems have existed in this world, so I won't sweat it, but it's ill timed and annoying to have lost an irreplaceable sink. You know, those very old and very fragile kinds.

Boxes and Brownies

The first stage of box painting is underway thanks to another beautiful sunny day.

Before we painted, we made these....

Quick and easy toasted almond mocha brownie recipe coming soon.

Nesting

There are two kinds of nesting; There is the pregnancy kind, and the oh Jimminy Christmas people are coming to the house kind. I fall into the latter category. Christmas time also motivates me to take a look at what toys we have, and what can be given away.

I have been organizing like a mad woman this week and although I'm still in the phase of things looking messier than when I started, great progress has been made. I singled out all of the toys that Freddy actually plays with on a daily basis and narrowed it down to what you see below. Note that all small legos are in our main sala and are not pictured.

Whenever I re-organize their toys, there is always a renewed interest in everything and an every-waking-moment play-a-thon follows. Instead of buying new toys, sometimes all it takes is displaying current toys in a diffent way. This shelf unit is Freddy's old changing table (sniff sniff, sigh) and the bins for hand knit booties, bibs, and onsies have been replaced by dinos, cars, and blocks. Double sigh.

Of course when there is organization going on, there is going to be labeling. This helps to keep things where they belong. Freddy is very good about that and even chastised me for putting a car in the figurine bin.

This wasn't an easy road and I had to take a hard line on kids leaving toys out. One of two things will happen: it's given to the needy if it's a stuffed animal, a toy I dislike, something that makes annoying noises, or if it's a puzzle book (my hatred for puzzle books will have to be a post all its own). If it's a prized possession, or an expensive toy that they actually play with a lot, it's put in a Tupperware in the basement for months. I stick to this and it works.

Before anyone feels bad for my children, bear in mind that they can keep ONE thing out if it's a work in progress or they are still playing with it. Freddy currently has a large and intricate Play Mobil castle scene sprawled out on his floor, and Caroline almost always has something arts or crafts related on her floor. Hopefully I'll have so more "after" pictures to post, but right now I have a tree to get in the house.

Upholstery Project

We've had this ottoman for quite a few years now and the fabric was looking not only very dirty, but tattered. Last week I browsed some fabric shops in the Campo d'Ourique neighborhood in Lisbon and found this durable and neutral fabric for a mere 15 euros per meter. I bought two meters in case something went awry, but only half that was necessary.

It doesn't look professionally done, but it certainly looks better than it did before and I'm just so pleased with how it turned out.

I try to do anything I can to avoid sewing, which usually means bringing out the staple and/or glue gun. In this case, a hammer and very small nails did the trick.

Photobooks and the Excitement of Getting Mail Abroad

Living abroad has made me as excited about getting mail as the average 5 year old. I always have a package to track or an order to make and the holiday season kicks that into high gear. The mail is full of delightful goodies like food products, clothes, shoes, cupcake sprinkles, good magazines etc. Bills come too of course, but those are put aside so I can focus on more important business like using new cookie cutters or trying out a newly arrived Penzy's spice.  Zita went to New York in Summer 2010 and I just got around to making the photobook now.

I love this full picture cover and the fact that Snapfish let me put a title on the binding.  This is the first time I experiemented with scanning in ticket stubs and journal entries and I'm so pleased with how it turned out.

Zita in particular savors every photobook and pours over her childhood books so often that my efforts never feel wasted. The books don't just contain photos, but every blog post I have ever written is pasted in, and a summary of the season is too if I get around to it.

Over the past couple of months, I did a major catch-up, bringing all photobooks current to Summer 2011.  Here's our Spring book that also just arrived. That's a huge pile of cork behind the kids in case you are wondering.

Our photobook library is getting so big that I'm starting to feel like a Royal archivist. (see why I like the title on the binding option? otherwise it's really hard to find the book I want) One day I'll either be loved or hated for making so many of these things. (around 75% are pictured, the rest are kept in the livingroom)

Tips:
-Always have a photobook pending and add to it as you upload photos.
-Make it a habit and it becomes easy to just make a page here and there. Having to start a book from scratch is much more daunting.
-Put in funny phrases the kids say- that is the part we enjoy the most when looking back at old books.
- When you're all finished, keep the book in your "cart" and wait for good deals before you order. I always get deep discounts on extra pages, extra books, and up to 40% off.
- archive photos on your computer by date. This makes it so much easier when putting pages together.
-when all else fails, try out books that Kodak makes for you, using your online albums. I did this for my Summer photos since I had thousands. The post book editing only took a few hours as opposed to the weeks it would have taken me to sort through so many photos. It's now in my cart, ready to go.

My projects for the coming year will include making a photo family recipe book, and scanning in old photo prints to make unitl-now life books for Zita and Moojie who do not have such fancy pants books of their babyhood and early years.