Happy Birthday, Princess!

Today, my little princess turns 9. (She was 4 in this picture).

I remember being 9. I remember arguing with my friend, Audra, that my hair was blonde and not brown (I was in denial about the gradual colour change). I remember making papier mache easter eggs and maracas. It was a papier mache intensive year. I remember writing a book report on Picasso, learning to play the Ukelele, and my Dukes of Hazzard poster. I remember writing page after page of short stories under the back table in my classroom, and studying Mexican culture. I remember moving to our new house and hating the wall-to-wall barbie pink bedroom I had to live in.

I wonder what she'll remember about being 9.

Happy Birthday to my sweet little princess. You're growing up so fast! I love you! ♥

Finishing touches in the loo...

I have some finishing touches in the loo to show you!

Not actually IN the loo. That'd be icky and something I'd rather not touch, let alone finish touching.

BUT, I have added some krippitycrap™ to finish the room off a bit.

First, a bit of artwork you might recall from Wayyyyyyy back when I first bought them - the seashell prints.

And, I had a shelf that Dad built for me many years ago that was intended to house my collection of Matrioshka dolls, but now there are too many to fit. I painted it grey to match the bench/vanity doors, and it fits perfectly on the wall behind the toilet.

I kinda like it!

Doesn't it all look nice?

Rain

This post embodies my mood right now. I can't believe my hard drive just up and died on me. *sob*
We're still working to see if we can recover the images, but so far, no dice. I've been able to pull about 800 pictures off my memory cards (sounds like a lot, but it really isn't). I wish I hadn't wiped the one card clean last week, or I'd have a lot more. *sigh*

I've also lost 6 months of digital scrapbook pages. That hurts quite a bit, too.

We had our first really rainy day at the cottage a week ago. It. Rained. All. Day.

 Rain. Rain. Rain. Rain.

We were cooped up in the cottage with very little to do. The kids played Catan with Papa and the Captain.

Then, when they started to go really stir-crazy, I set them up in their room with my secret weapon: the portable DVD player. Two movies and a constant supply of popcorn kept them entertained for HOURS. (thank you Star Wars Episode 6 and Finding Nemo!)

It's bricked

It's official. My hard drive is a brick. I should be able to download some photos from the memory card in my camera, but I've lost everything else since Oct 2010. Unless I previously uploaded it here, or on my Facebook page, it's gone.

Next steps: investigate data recovery services.

$$chaching, chaching, chaching$$

I'm disconsolate.

ACK!!

Hello readers!
I have a few blog posts I was planning to write for the next couple of days, but I'm unable to access the external hard-drive that contains ALL OF MY PHOTOS [breathes deep into a paper bag].

I haven't time today to troubleshoot the problem so we'll be without a post for a few until I get to the bottom of this.

[another deep breath]

Vanity!

Handy Dad is awesome.

If I haven't mentioned it before, let me unequivocally state for the record: He. Is. Awesome.

He recently built some fabulous cabinet doors for the custom vanity we built in the bathroom.


They arrived at the Lodge unpainted, so Mum took a roller and brush to them first. Please note: you cannot see her "painting" shorts. I was threatened with great harm if I showed a photo of her painting shorts.

After the paint dried, Dad took them back to the bathroom to dry fit them in place, to get an idea which style of hinges he ought to use, etc.


Uh Oh. Glitch! The doors fit the space perfectly. Per. Fect. Ly. So well, in fact, that there's no room for hinges. Dangit.

The doors had a date with the skilsaw to trim 1/4" off the sides of two of the doors, which Dad then sanded and filed to make them match the routered edges elsewhere on the doors.

Then, the unfinished edges got a coat of paint. It was pouring rain out so I couldn't use the usual paint station on the porch. I had to improvise a little to prop up the wet edges with whatever was handy. That turned out to be a couple of limes from the fruit bowl beside me. What can I say!? I'm lazy and didn't want to look harder.

The limes didn't seem to mind.

Trimmed and painted, the doors returned to the bathroom to be installed. Dad fiddled and fiddled and fiddled to get them JUST RIGHT. Making cabinet doors appear to be installed straight when the cabinet itself is woopsy is no mean feat.

 

But in the end, it's perfect.

 

Bathroom ceiling!

We finally installed the ceiling tiles in the bathroom! Calloo! Callay! No more staring up at roof trusses, pink insulation, and the odd (very odd) wasps nest.

In retrospect, staples were totally the way to go. I was initially deterred after I saw how badly the staples worked on the ceiling in the Slanty bunky (which was caving in). But I suspect they used an over-powered air stapler, rather than a less forceful manual. The forceful ones blow the staples clear through the brittle tiles.

Anywho. Since we had already installed the furring strips, mapped out our grid, and determined cut measurements the previous weekend (when we realized installing the tiles with adhesive was simply not going to work), it was a quick start to the installation.

Kachunk

Kachunk

Kachunk

Kachunk.

Up the tiles went.

There were some weird cuts that needed to be made to accommodate the sundry corners in the room, but on the whole I'm very pleased with the simplicity and cleanliness of the finished product.

Hooray!