My Summer/Christmas Bucket List

Summer is coming to New Zealand and I feel so excited thinking about it. It's in the air.
Last Summer I was pregnant and I definitely didn't feel this way. But now I am unpregnant - I feel alive!

Since being pregnant I am constantly aware that I may or may not end up spending the better part of the next decade being deathly ill, marginally ill, or totally sleep-deprived-with-toddler-and-newborns. Suddenly this "I'm so tired because I have a baby" stage seems laughable because some people.... 2 babies! 3 babies! I'm perma-grateful for the now. For not being nauseous at this particular point in time. For only having 2 sleeping schedules to juggle... And it makes me want to run around and do ALL THE THINGS while I can.

So, here's a look at some of my Summer bucket list.

1. Finish making playfood for my daughter. I think I have a problem because she is 4 months old and not interested in anything she can't cut her gums on... BUT what if when she is turning 2 years old I am pregnant and bedridden and can't get her anything for her birthday? Uhhh? And she needs something made with love, high quality yet inexpensive and not limited by the small imaginations of mass-producers of children's toys? What then?????? Bet you didn't think about that. #stockpiling

This photo isn't mine but I've been making donuts so I did a google search for felt donuts and voila, you get the idea:

[from here]

In my donutty google travels I also came across this donut ring (like actual jewellery ring) which you should get for the baker in your life, and mini-donut playfood for doll houses. Now THAT is something I would have been into as a kid. I mean I may have been scared of dolls but at least I knew how to craft a jillion varieties of fimo pastries for their kitchen.

2. Cooking real food. 
I recently became obsessed with Chelsea Winter and her perfect-every-time recipes. I cooked pork belly and lamb shanks all in one week! For the new-mum on cooking hiatus that was a big deal. Calum even asked me what was happening. Anyway, next on my list are the ribs. They almost make me want to watch rugby they look so good and... rugged.

[Photo from chelseawinter.co.nz]

The other thing I crave on summer nights is this raw fish salad with coconut, chilli, lime, coriander that we had in Nantucket from the fanciest chef on the earth. Actually his were served in mini taco shells and it put the icecream bar to shame! Never thought I would say it but... I have to make raw fish this summer.


3. Build the shelves in our living room

Here's an amazing quality photo of our living room right now:

Gorgeous or what.
Those green strips of painter's tape will eventually become shelves and a tv unit. The plan was to make it all ourselves but after calculating all the prices for the wood (we want it to be proper timber, not MDF) I don't know if we'd be saving anything by DIYing - a tradie might be able to get better prices!

This should probably be in a blog post of its own but the idea is that everything will have a place - at last! Piles of DVDs, baskets of baby toys, spare cushions, etc will all have a proper home so they won't need to be heaped on the floor in every spare corner. With Ella starting to move around sometime soon it's pretty important to get that sussed out.

I have some fun colour ideas for it too. And to give you an idea of where this room is going, here's an adjacent wall...

 

Slowly but surely!

4. Sew Christmas decorations + make a wreath for our front door

{Image from here}

Oh I feel so jolly just looking at it! I don't know where you get those felt balls from tho. They're nicer than the pompoms you can buy. The only problem is I will crave gumballs every time I see it.

Also, I want to make Christmas decorations out of felt. I don't know how and I don't know what, but I want to.

5. Yarn-bomb some twigs and put in a vase.

{pic from here}

SO basically a smaller,  simpler version of this, in a vase masquerading as flowers that can't die.
I just like colours.

6. Finish up the guest room - paint and all
I upholstered this headboard the other day. Again, I should be writing a blog post on this topic alone but... I'm not so here it is!

I'm not totally convinced, to be honest. I'm not normally a fan of dark blue furniture in our house but I thought going with something more 'standard' like this (it's a bit darker in real life) would be the sensible, stain resistant choice.
Lesson learned - just do what you like! I now feel pretty ho-hum about the whole thing and may end up putting a different fabric on. Which isn't hard, just annoying and I don't want to waste fabric. It's hard to get the padding smooth as you have to pull it ridiculously tight, but I think I did an alright job at it.

Oh and in case it's not obvious - repaint the walls and tidy up the rest of the room are on the list too. Also, the previous owners thought having about 5 different styles of odd light fixtures around the room would be eclectic and cute. You can see the alien-cone-head one here and then on the other side is an ornate frilly haunted-house-style one. Aah, homeowners.


7. And last but not least - design all our house renovations for the next 10 years.
Like I said, when you have an urge and you are not presently pregnant... you have to do all the things. Here are my plans for our kitchen:

The inspiration struck so I'm rolling with it. You know you have struck gold when your not-caring-about-details husband looks at you with fire in his eyes and says "I love it!"

In case you were unaware, our present kitchen is untouched 70's glamour. And by glamour I mean dark-brown-everything and archways. Lots of archways. If you are unlucky, you may get a peek of it here.

8. Win the competition to win a room makeover from Freedom Furniture.
I entered and heck, there's no harm in hoping. Reach for the skies I say! I think I would choose our bedroom for sure. Let's just say it's full to the brim of baby gear and our 4-month-old sleeps in the same room so I never go in there except to make mess and/or sneak around Her Sleeping Highness in the dark. It could use some attention, is all I'm saying.