SBFL 30.09.13

SONG:

My song of the week has to be:

"Photograph" by Nickleback

Look at this photograph
Every time I do it makes me laugh
How did our eyes get so red?
And what the hell is on Joey's head?

And this is where I grew up
I think the present owner fixed it up
I never knew we'd ever went without
The second floor is hard for sneaking out

And this is where I went to school
Most of the time had better things to do
Criminal record says I broke in twice
I must have done it half a dozen times

I wonder if it's too late
Should I go back and try to graduate?
Life's better now than it was back then
If I was them I wouldn't let me in

Oh, oh, oh
Oh, god, I

Every memory of looking out the back door
I had the photo album spread out on my bedroom floor
It's hard to say it, time to say it
Goodbye, goodbye.
Every memory of walking out the front door
I found the photo of the friend that I was looking for
It's hard to say it, time to say it
Goodbye, goodbye.

Remember the old arcade
Blew every dollar that we ever made
The cops hated us hangin' out
They say somebody went and burned it down

We used to listen to the radio
And sing along with every song we know
We said someday we'd find out how it feels
To sing to more than just the steering wheel

Kim's the first girl I kissed
I was so nervous that I nearly missed
She's had a couple of kids since then
I haven't seen her since god knows when

Oh, oh, oh
Oh, god, I

Every memory of looking out the back door
I had the photo album spread out on my bedroom floor
It's hard to say it, time to say it
Goodbye, goodbye.
Every memory of walking out the front door
I found the photo of the friend that I was looking for
It's hard to say it, time to say it
Goodbye, goodbye.

I miss that town
I miss the faces
You can't erase
You can't replace it
I miss it now
I can't believe it
So hard to stay
Too hard to leave it

If I could I relive those days
I know the one thing that would never change

Every memory of looking out the back door
I had the photo album spread out on my bedroom floor
It's hard to say it, time to say it
Goodbye, goodbye.
Every memory of walking out the front door
I found the photo of the friend that I was looking for
It's hard to say it, time to say it
Goodbye, goodbye.

Look at this photograph
Every time I do it makes me laugh
Every time I do it makes me...

BOOK:

I love this book "Remembrance by Danielle Steele" This was my first adult book, and it holds a little bit of sentimental memories for me.  My Mom started reading this book, when she was in hospital and in labour with me.  She never finished the book.  To this day.  30 (and a bit) years later. When I was 16 and did not have anything to read and was hounding her to take me to the library one day, (she was busy and could not take me) she rummaged in her cupboard, and hauled out this treasure..... I finished this book in about 3 days, and loved it.  I am not one to re-read books, but I think maybe its time that I read this one again.  16 (or so) years down the line :)

FILM:

Klaus and I have always enjoyed TV series' and I love cooking shows.  This one combines the two for us, we both love us some GORDON RAMSEY and  this show grips us every time.  We have been a bit behind, and we are currently catching up on the last completed season. 

LOVE:

Currently I am loving that its getting warmer.  I don't have to drive to work in the dark anymore. I am so looking forward to summer. 

I am also so happy that our doors got painted.  We are replacing all our inside doors, and they were painted on Friday by Phumlani. Now to hang them. 

Weekend Recap

We had a quiet weekend this time round.

I came home on Friday afternoon to find this amazing stunning, velvety red rose in our garden!
Say what, a rose in my garden?

Kai has had a bit of a snotty nose so we tried to spend more time indoors than out. Also it was cold, and Saturday was a bit rainy too.

We did have to get out the house on Saturday though, as we needed to go sort out our blue paint master bedroom disaster. We initially wanted a grey colour with a bit of a blue undertone, but it ended up being a horrible baby blue colour. Not a good colour for a master bedroom at all, fine for a baby boys room.  We took the left over paint to our local paint shop and they added a bit of this and that and we got the colour we wanted initially.  It will only take one coat of paint to cover the baby blue so we have more than enough paint. Yah! Now to find the time to paint the room AGAIN. Also we can not ever get this colour again :) since it was a try and try again to get what we had in mind.

We did a test strip behind the door.  The bottom blue section is the old paint and the grey sky colour is the new colour.  What you think?

We spent the rest of the day at home, playing around with Kai and having some inside fun.

Kai must have been no more than 6 months old when we had this chair made for him.  He has never really sat in it, but it has always been in the lounge. On Saturday he wanted to sit in his chair, and so it began.  He loved it and made himself super comfortable while watching the "murfs" (smurfs) ...  (Check out his comfy look, slippers and chilling)!

Kai loves bath time.  He did as a little tiny week old baby and still does.  It is honestly one of his favourite times of day, and we have a huge fight almost every night getting him out of the bath! He has so many bath toys and he still plays with all of them ... the octopus family which you can see in the middle back is his favourite, he sprays us sopping wet with them on a regular basis.  One of my best toy buys ever. And I got it before I even knew he was a boy, so it was pretty early on in my pregnancy! :)

 He is still in his winter thermals, but I hope this will soon be a thing of the past. Here he looks like a prisoner, and we had to get a pic of the blue stripe ones before we end the cold weather. When ever I put blue socks on him, (and only when I put blue socks on) he insists on a pair on his hands too.  Strange kid. Like father like sons I say!

On Sunday it was a bit better outside so we went to Stodels so Kai can feed the animals and enjoy some outside time.  There was still a bite in the air, but we all enjoyed the time.  Klaus's mom joined us too for some time with her grand son.

My Mom also popped around after work on Sunday and spent a little time with Kai.

Pretty dull, but also maybe just what we needed to re-coup from the week, and get ready for this week.

Come Dine with me Part 2 and a cancelled baby shower!

Just got the invite to our second come dine with me dinner.
This time it is CC's turn.  Look at her adorable invite.

You might remember but CC is the really creative designer amoungst us, as a matter of fact, its her day job too.

This is so cute and so bright and happy! I love it.

Cant wait for Saturday.

Speaking of Saturday, our baby shower breakfast for my cousin was suppose to be on , but the mom to be "forgot" she had already planned a family photo shoot with her family??? Mmmm excuse me.  Why would you plan a family photo shoot 1 week before your baby is due?  And if you are really doing this, then why not just ask us to move the time to a little later or so. But nope.  Anyway, all the pretty things we did will still make it to the blog.  But clearly wont be used for the baby shower.  I am really annoyed that we spent so much money on this.

I also can not cancel the cake jars I ordered from Euforia, Well I can, but I don't feel its her fault.  What ever, I will just take some over to the girls on Saturday night, and drop some off with the neighbours as a happy spring pressie, specially since now the weather seems to have turned for the better. Today is actually warm! Yes warm.  And I checked the forecast for the next 14 days and not one day of rain is forecast!

WIN!!!

I can not wait to feel warm.


Have a good week

Work - Away Days - A little photo update

I wrote a while ago about our work away days and the strategy work days I had to plan, and that I did have fun, despite missing my family tons.

Well I have been meaning to post a picture for ages now ... We had a murder mystery even, it was fun.... These pictures are definitely the more appropriate ones ...  ;) We worked in 3 teams to find the murderer.  Below some pictures.

Motherhood: What Being a mom looks like - 52 weeks of blogging with a purpose

Currently it looks a tired mess.

Shame our human had a very stuffy and runny nose last night.  (The stuffy nose is normal at the moment, he has allergies (I think, as spring has sprung and the flowers and other pollens are rife right now), but it is sorted fairly easily with some Telfast at night),.  Like me (I am very claustrophobic, so when I can not breath through my nose, I feel very uncomfortable, and like I can not get enough air, and then there is panic ... ) Kai hates a blocked nose, and when his nose is blocked or runny, he wakes up and cries every 30 minutes or so in his sleep.

I hope he does not have a bout of flu coming on.  He has held up so well this winter it has been amazing.  He had a chest infection in May, and in July he had a bladder infection.  He had two slightly runny nose days in between, but no colds and flu for us this season. We have been so fortunate.  I honestly hope this is not going to break our winning streak!

Generally though, being a mom to me means I am loved and needed more than I ever ever thought possible.

My life has been turned upside down. I am a neat freak, and my two year old does not care so much for neat freaky mommy issues.

I love and respect my Klaus more than I ever ever thought possible.  I saw this quote once, and it really hit home "I never knew how much I loved your Dad until I saw how much he loved you" Seeing Klaus with Kai melts me.  It has changed him. In a good way, as it has me.

I sway when I stand on one spot talking to someone.  Like I am rocking a child to sleep. Always.  I get laughed at.

It means I have spent a lot of money on someone other than myself. A L O T

I have become a softer person.  I have always been a softy, but I hid it a lot better before.  I use to have much less patience and much less tolerance to "things".  Now I sweat the small stuff a lot less. I concentrate on the things that really make a difference. I have really looked at myself more critically and analyzed who am I and who I want to me.

Kai has opened my eyes up to explore things again like a kid does. And I love it. I have spent a lot of time working on activities to do with Kai, and family and in turn have discovered new things and place in and around Cape Town.  A great web site to find awesome things to do.

I realized how fun it is to bath!  :0)

I have quickly seen how time flies by, in a blink of an eye. This was Kai, feels like yesterday but he was so small here. It was 1.5 years go.

I have a renewed respect for my family, and realized how important they are.  There was a chunk of time in my 20's, where I did not worry to much about family.  I saw them when ever, but never really made time to be with my mom and sisters.  Now it is vital to me. Kai must know his family and I realize how lucky I am to have such an insane and happy bunch of people who share my DNA.

I take pictures.  Like never before.  I always thought people strange who always had a camera glued to them.  And never knew why taking pics of a kid eating a burger at the local burger place was so important! Until now.  Now I to want to document every little moment.  Every little memory. I realize everyday how quickly things happen and how I have already forgotten so much.  Then I just view some pics, and look at some videos.... warm and fuzzy

Birthdays are amazing.  I always thought so, but when you share it with a little human.  Hell man, who can beat that?

I find I am so excited to hear when someone is pregnant! I just get so warm and fuzzy in side.  I mean naturally you are happy for people, but now, now that I know what they are in for.... oh man, I even get a little stab of jealousy, just having that little body resting you chest.  The feeding ... Ai man.

My couz is preggo, her fist scan photo:

It means sleeping is a luxury.  Specially when your human is like Kai who really really hates sleep. 

Once in a while, when this happens, I honestly can still just stare at him for an hour, looking at all the features of his little face, his hands, his feet.  I am so scared I am going to forget how his lashes are so long, his fingers are so sweet and puffy ... 

It means bi-polar emotions.  One moment you want to kill them and a little smile of a unexpected kiss MELTS your heart and all you want to do is hug them.  

I also realized, one of my favourite things, being pampered at the hair dresser, is not half as nice when I am trying to hold down a little human who hates it. 

There are so many hard things that you have to face as a parent, but honestly, I would not change being a mom for anything in this entire big ass world! 

Kai, you rock my world, you crack us up.  You completed our family.  You are more loved than anything else ever. 

Home: Show us your favorite room, if you could design the dream home what would it look like

Home:

I have a piece of current "art" in my dining room that says:  "I am so happy we ended up here".  For me "here" represents anywhere my two boys are.  That being said of course I love my house, and I love spending time working on it, and making it work for us! If you have been around here for a little while you will know we moved into our "new" house (built 1960-ish) in February this year.  There is a ton of work to be done it (See Master list here I am still working on adding those pictures, they are in the drafts folder at the moment :))  We are slowly, (painstakingly so) working on the projects (some big some small). We do as much as we can with the time we have, while also working full time jobs and being full time parents to our little human Kai. 

We have been slowly making progress, and there are little bits all over the blog of what we have done. 

My favourite room though?  Easy! Just posted about this on Monday.  Without a single doubt in my mind, has to be my study.  Hells bells I totally adore the space. I can not wipe the grin off my face every time I walk in there. 

Read and See Pics here

The colour the organised space ... Oi I get such a super happy feeling in my tummy. 

My dream house ... I don't think it would be much different from this one really. 

A few changes would include:

* Direct access from the garage to the house (possible, but will be very hard, and very very pricey, probably     wont happen)

* The pool in a different place of our yard (Not going to happen)

* A built in braai (bbq) section (There is a lot of potential to do this here, but it is costly ... so on the                  dream list)

*  A linen closet in the passage (I have been thinking I might have a way to solve this little problem) 

I really love that both Klaus and I have a study that we have 3 good size bedrooms, that we have a good size dining room that is open plan to the kitchen area.  I envision Kai doing home work at our dining room table or even in my study while I cook in the kitchen. 

I can see Klaus and I growing old in this house, sending Kai off to school and having many many teenage parties for him and his friends.  

Our Garage would be a great spot to convert into a entertainment room as well .... lots of work to be done, but totally possible, to make it stunning, and move the cars out over a weekend for a real bash!  It is far away from the bedrooms as well and at the bottom of the house, so Kai and his friends can have a good old party down there, with minimum interruptions to his old fogie parents upstairs! 

I truly am where I want to be in terms of our house and the area we are in... and also with all the projects we have we will have work to do for years to come, which is great, because Klaus and I both love working on our DIY dreams. We also aim for Kai to realize the importance of hard work, and by doing these things ourselves and by getting him to help, (for age appropriate tasks) I think it will help toward achieving this parental goal. Also I want to raise a man who can handle a drill and do a little bit of DYI, nothing worse to me than a man, who does not own a drill and has no idea what to do with a screwdriver! Really?  Man up! 

And that as they say is that for today. 

xoxo

SBFL 25.09.13 and a catch up on yesterdays holiday ...

I am so late with my SBFL this week.  Monday was a mad crazy day, and yesterday was Heritage and National Braai day in SOUTH AFRICA, so we had a day off work. (Yah!!)

Without further ado, here is my SBFL for the week:

SONG:

"Love Somebody"

I know your insides are feeling so hollow
And it's a hard pill for you to swallow, yeah
But if I fall for you, I'll never recover
If I fall for you, I'll never be the same

I really wanna love somebody
I really wanna dance the night away
I know we're only half way there
But you can take me all the way, you can take me all the way
I really wanna touch somebody
I think about you every single day
I know we're only half way there
But you can take me all the way, you can take me all the way

You're such a hard act for me to follow
Love me today, don't leave me tomorrow, yeah
But if I fall for you, I'll never recover
If I fall for you, I'll never be the same

I really wanna love somebody
I really wanna dance the night away
I know we're only half way there
But you can take me all the way, you can take me all the way
I really wanna touch somebody
I think about you every single day
I know we're only half way there
But you can take me all the way, you can take me all the way
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh

I don't know where to start, I'm just a little lost
I wanna feel like we never gonna ever stop
I don't know what to do, I'm right in front of you
Asking you to stay, you should stay, stay with me tonight, yeah

I really wanna love somebody
I really wanna dance the night away
I know we're only half way there
But you can take me all the way, you can take me all the way
I really wanna touch somebody
I think about you every single day
I know we're only half way there
But you can take me all the way, you can take me all the way
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh

You can take me all the way, you can take me all the way, yeah.

BOOK:

Bloom by Kelly Hampton: 

This awesome lady has a fantastic blog, and then wrote this book. It honestly blew me away, and made me realize how "big" love is.  And now we should be less judgemental!! 

You can purchase the book here from Amazon  You will not be sorry you bought it and will not be able to put it down. 

FILM:

I am NOT  a bike person.  My Dad use to own bikes, and as a little girl I loved going for rides with him.  But I have absolutely no desire what so ever to own a bike.  Have a husband in a biker gang or in general get all gooye eyed when I see a bike. So when Klaus brought this series called Sons of Anarchy home a couple of years ago, and told me it was about a biker gang, I was like "huh, NO".  I said ok, you watch the first episode while I sit here and work a bit, and I did not work a single stitch that night, I was hooked from episode one.... 

The creator and writer Kurt Sutter, is amazing, and an incredibly talented and clever man.  He keeps a million plot lines going.  You literally can not miss a minute of any episodes, there is so much going on and happening all at once.  A simple glance could mean someone is being taken out, or spared..... And the fact that this hottie is the main character does NOT HURT AT ALL (he is also the chosen one to play Christian Grey in the upcoming movie of the 50 shades of grey series)

LOVE:

Love that this is a short week for us South Africans.  As I said it was national Heritage day yesterday, but also national braai day.  Yep we are that cool.  We think being social is that important that we will actually commit a day to not only our heritage but to braai-ing.  A braai is like a BBQ, but just like a million times more awesome.  Many many houses here in SA actually have a room in the house (Called the Braai room) with a built in fire place specially for braaing! Yep.  Both our previous houses had it, we built one onto our first home, the second we spruched up.  Sadly this house does not have a braai room, but we are going to build a lapa close the pool one day, for just that purspose! 

We had a super cool day off yesterday!   

We took the little human to the Two Oceans Aquarium

Looking at the fish

Amazed by the seahorses ... I love them too

Saying hello to Pingu the Penguin

Looking at the "SHAAAAAARKS" in the big tank 

Some fun at the kiddie play station .... drawing with daddy

That is it for today! 

My study / office / studio

So happy about how my study turned out!
It was a lot of hard work, but the results yesterday afternoon were just amazing.  I still have some small touches and things to do, but for the most part I am ready to share a little look.

On Friday night I got to cleaning up this mess:

Just after we moved in, before it got too messy

This is the very messy pictures, after I knew we were ready to tackle my work room, I sort of let it go for a week or two before:

So initially as you walked into the door on the wall to your right was my book cases. Then the trestle table where I work on projects, then a blank wall, then directly opposite the door is my desk. 

I swopped things around a bit I put the bookshelf on the wall opposite the door, and the trestle table where the book shelves were (I did not want to put the trestle table opposite the door, because when you stand in the door you would like directly at my messy trestle table..  The trestle in front of the window seemed like a good idea when I initially set up the room because of the natural light, but unfortunately the window looks out on to the neighbors back yard (it is very close, we can pretty much talk to each other in normal voices from our respective houses) and so when I work there I kind of look right at them. And it is a bit weird.

So with no further ado, here we go, some pictures:

Gone is the ugly puce colour, which I totally could not stand! I now have a super pretty fresh minty green, called Cool Lagoon by Moda Paints.

As you walk into the room my desk is still in the same spot, I like to keep it here as I can actually see into the kitchen and around so I can keep an eye on Kai.

I spent a large amount of time on Saturday, sprucing up m bookshelves. I removed the backboard, from both, and stuck down some pretty pink wrapping paper I found.  After I stuck it over, I realized it will need some protection against the files etc, so I added a layer of clear contact paper. I love how it all turned out!

I love giving and wrapping gifts, and knew when I was planning this room I wanted a space to really see my gift wrapping papers and all my gift tags .... On the shelf above the table there are various baskets of labels, washi tape, twine and ribbon. 

I inserted little hooks in the wall and bought some dowl sticks thread my paper rolls through. I love how it turned out! 

I still need to label all the baskets, I also need to find a replacement top for the trestle table. This old door does not look nice in this space, but for the time being, until I can find what I am looking for it will have to do. 

 We had enough time to work on our master bedroom a little as well.  It was the same urgly as sin puce colour as my study, and though the blue is not the colour I expected I am not totally grossed out by it.

I initially hoped for a more grey undertone with a little blue shimmer, but it turned out to be more of a badbly blue colour in the light. Oh well I will have to wait and see if it grows on me.  Also I think with the right bedding this might actually look really nice.

This picture is big so you can see my awesome canvasses I ordered recently.  The one says "I got sunshine on a cloudy day" and the other "sweet dreams are made of this".  Song quotes.  It literally makes me sign ..... "I got sunshiiiiiiiieiiiiiiiine on a clouuuuuuudy day ..... when its gold outside .... " 

Love it!

So what do you guys think of the bed and study?