Sunday, June 13, 2010

The Queen Has a Birthday and the Kitchen Madness Continues.

One of the Uber-Cool things about being part of a former British Penal Colony is that we get to celebrate the Queen's Birthday. And she gives us the day off work, so we can do it properly. Thank you Queen. We  like our public holidays in Australia. In fact we like them so much we spread them out through the year, ever so smartly missing most of winter,  so even though the Queen actually has her birthday in April, we celebrate it in June. (I think someone looked at our Public Holiday Calendar and said "righto then - no time off in June we'll celebrate it then- we already have Easter and Anzac Day in April so it's pretty full")

So Happy Birthday Queen -  I am so glad you were born that I might enjoy a four day weekend.

There has been a lot of creative vision going on in the Pyjamas household lately with regard to our  kitchen renovation. It's at the point where we're having to make actual choices for things like  appliances. I'm pretty much paralysed by fear and indecision  at this point.

In the last couple of weeks the cedar pelmets have come down, the cedar wall has been removed and the new wall has gone up, we now have a huge hole where our serving hatch used to be,  half my cornices are missing, I can feel the wind blowing in to my house and when I stand at the sink I can see daylight from what used to be part of the ceiling.   I've started sanding down the chairs and we've researched, decided on and ordered the new appliances. (Ouch! paying for them hurt - A LOT ) I've also packed up stuff we won't need for the duration. Goodbye nice things , see you in about 8 weeks. And the kitchen looks like a demolition site. Constantly. I've just learned to get used to it. Little P is having a whale of a time eating 30 year old glue from under the floor tiles, some of which have been removed so we could get the skirting boards off. it's probably not that harmful for his insides right? I mean it's green glue so it practically counts as a vegetable.

On a different  note I bought this shutter to put somewhere ..I don't know where - my creative vision didn't extend that far. I just liked it.


And I bought lots of presents for the new kitchen including my personal fave , this  gorgeous cake display stand. Now I just have to learn to bake. Or find a good bakery so I can have cakey goodness on display all the time. Just Like Nigella.

I've had moments of "What are we thinking" and moments of "I'm sure the vision in my head is all wrong and it's not going to come together the way I see it in my head " (which I also did with the master bedroom, guest room and lounge room renovations and they all turned out fine)

I've booked in a session for stressing out about how to antique white all the furniture. The ceiling will be coming out shortly. I will be going to my mothers for the weekend.

I'm off to sand something. Again. 

I have a feeling I'm going to despise sanding by the time this is all over....

16 comments:

Marg said...

Firstly, the rest of Australia might have public holidays scattered through the year, but in this lovely part of Aus. we have seven public holidays between Jan 1st and Jun 30th, then we have 2 between July 1st and Dec 31st. The two in the second half of the year would be Xmas and Boxing Day. So no holidays whatsoever between next weekend and Xmas!!!!!
It's a bit cold to be seeing daylight through your ceiling isn't it? But it must be so exciting when you are so close to having a new kitchen.
Maybe you can have a regular blog post of your cake baking skills each week.....no pressure!!!!!!!

Deb said...

Liking the shutter, you definitely have to use it somewhere in the new kitchen. Maybe add a few hooks and hang utensils from it, just hang it on the wall it would look great. I am sure that no matter what you do with it , it will look fab.
hugs Deb

Anonymous said...

Geez, Mrs. P, watch out for the Huntsman Spiders and giant trantulas, not to mention those sneaky snakes. I forget. Do you have land sharks, too? Anyway, just wanted to say that I've always felt we were sisters under the skin but when I saw you were excited about a glass cake stand, I knew it for sure. In the US we get a day off in Sept just for working so hard the rest of the year. (Labor Day) I think it is a throwback to bringing in the harvest, which only about 2% of us do anymore, but now it has sort of become at "back to school" holiday. It's like saying, yeah, you kids all have to go back to school now so how about we take a day off to come to terms with it because 10 weeks of summer just. wasn't. enough. Not that I'm complaining. I don't get 10 weeks off. I earn my labor days. Sort of.

Sarcastic Quilter said...

Hehe, I scanned and saw you bought the cake stand before I read your post and laughed to myself. I had to winder when your new baking adventures would start!

Michelle said...

Sounds like the reno is going quite well--all the usual chaos. :-)

Lovely cake stand! I bet you could put pies in there too.

Hope Little P doesn't find anything else interesting to eat. I doubt the glue has any fiber so it's probably just a refined carb pretending to be a veggie.

As for the Queen's birthday, have a wonderful holiday! We don't celebrate her birthday here, since we had to kick the British out and all. Although after 200+ years, there doesn't seem to be any hard feelings.

Alisa said...

Happy Birthday to the Queen! Good luck on the kitchen. It was the longest period of my life when we did that.
Cake makes a good slack tea thursday.
Haven't you heard?

Kirsten's Cooking said...

I can't wait to see pictures of your kitchen! Would it be rude to say that is seems like it is going by quickly (over here on the other side of the world)? :)
I do hope you have a power sander?
Love the shutter! It's very shabby chic.
Love the cake stand! You definitely have to use it for displays in a prominent location.
Enjoy your long weekend!
At first I thought the queen's birthday referenced yours.
K

AnnieO said...

Is your sister there yet? Maybe she can smack you around a little and knock off some of the kitchen stress.

Our kitchen remodel went fairly smoothly after we paid $7000 for maple cabinets. The hardest part was waiting 6 weeks for the Silestone (quartz composite) countertops to be made and installed. Note to self: next time use a local company not one from 3 hours away!

vawriter said...

That cake stand looks like it could be a bowl, too, just by inverting the top. If I don't have a cakey goodness on hand, I pile mine high with fruit, fake, ceramic fruit or the real stuff. Every kitchen needs one!

The shutter is adorable. Can you hang it on the wall and attach hooks for mugs?

Brenda said...

I love the cake stand, when we got our new kitchen, one of my favorite parts was buying myself little presents to use in it! It sounds like you're right in the thick of it with the remodel, hang in there!

Paulette said...

How about a Translation Tuesday for the national holidays? Anzac Day? Sounds like a pharmaceutical company-sponsored holiday wherein everyone barbecues, takes Anzac and becomes very, very mellow.

If so, I want in on it.

GaAm said...

I love the cake stand. It would sit in my house and gather dust, but I love it anyway. I've thought about getting one and leaving some crumbs in it so when people come over I can say, "sorry, I didn't know you were coming or I'd have saved you some cake." They'd think I bake all the time.

I'm with P. An Anzac holiday sounds good.

Shevvy said...

How does that work then???? I'm one of her loyal subjects, it even says so on my passport and birth certificate and we don't get her birthday off, not the real one or the offical one! Something not right there.....grumble grumble.....
Enjoy the kitchen experience, its nearly 3 years since I did mine and trust me. Once it is finished all the mess and expense and general upset fade away into the mist!

Simply UnFlabulous said...

I consider myself Queen of the house so I think that should also warrant a national holiday. I'm just sayin'.

And as much as I love, love, LOVE the cake dish, would it be as much fun filled with low fat, sugar free cake that tastes like an obscene mixture of cardboard and sweaty socks?

Baa-Me Kniits said...

Ooooh renos sound like fun :-)

I'm with Marg...no more holidays for us till xmas. You should see how cranky the kids get in fourth term!!

Will slack tea thursday involve left over cake soon?? ;-)

Anonymous said...

Ohhhhhh..QIMP sibling..I have the same, exact cake stand too but I actually put cakey goodness in mine and when I'm feeling like I need to impress I put those healthy things called fruit in it too.

PS: How many sleeps til I get there now?