Kitchen Refresh

One of the problems with buying a house from owners that were DIY enthusiasts is that every now and again you have to deal with a project that wasn't built to last. Our kitchen was one such project, though we didn't know it when we first moved in of course. Over the last couple of years the cupboards next to the stove have slowly listed clockwise, to the point that our microwave door would actually close itself due to the angle. There's also the cupboard doors that no longer lined up straight and drawers that refused to close properly. We put up with this for quite a while, until mum suggested that the cupboards were in danger of collapsing soon if we didn't do something about it. Reason enough to pull our finger out and call an expert.



The kitchen company that we got in to quote pretty much agreed with mum's assessment (why wouldn't he?) so we booked in a date to fix this up. Our initial fear that the entire cabinet would have to be replaced was quickly put to rest. Apparently all it needed was to be propped up properly and adjusted which would just take about half a day. Even so this meant that we would have to clear out everything in the pantry and drawers. Amazing how much stuff you can hide away and forget about.



We even had to dump things in the second bed room.



The kitchen had always been one renovation project that we were going to leave to the next owner to deal with (along with the bathroom), but since we were already doing some work on it we couldn't pass up the chance to give the appliances a little refresh. Especially when they were already going to be calling in a sparky to remove the oven, why not put a new one back in afterwards? In fact a new stove top wouldn't go amiss either.



It's surprising what a big difference this makes to the room. Even the new metallic kick boards seem to make the space seem larger. Very happy with the results I must say. Hrmm, now how about that bathroom?

Fingers are Fascinating

Eleanor is growing up so quickly. The pile of clothes that she can't fit into any more is getting bigger which means lots of sorting into stuff to keep for the "next one" or to pass on to other expecting parents. On the plus side, this also means that the choice of clothes available for daily wear is changing over time. We've now entered a size window with a few garments we love, including this gorgeous rainbow hoodie that was given to us by Nelly's aunty Dora. We dress her in this every chance we get.



Speaking of aunty Dora, we got some pretty exciting news this week from the family in Singapore. On Tuesday afternoon on the 19th of July 2011, we were blessed with a nephew (and Eleanor a cousin) when James and Dora welcomed Thomas Liley into the world. Mum and bub are healthy and are now home and being looked after. One set of grandparents already flew over with another pair to join them by the end of next week, but thanks to the wonders of technology we have all been enjoying photos and video calls with the new family. Young Thomas is a beautiful baby and we're sure that he and Eleanor will soon become the best of friends.

Nelly has also hit a few development milestones in the past few weeks. One of which is a growing fixation on her digits. It's become commonplace for her hands to be covered in slobber as she tries to decide if the left or right one has superior flavour. It makes her happy and it makes for some cute photos so we permit it for now.



It can however be a little annoying when you're trying to take some nicer photos of her that don't all involve shovelling fists into her face. Even when they are out of her mouth the hands aren't very far away. My other theory of this seemingly defensive posture is that she's attempting to prevent us from applying moisturiser to her face. The doctors gave us a few things to deal with her eczema so we are now following a strict regiment of QV cream through the day and judicial use of cortisone in affected areas. This was a prescription that Eleanor was less than pleased with and she reminds us of that at each opportunity. Can't argue with results however, her skin is starting to look a lot healthier.



We spent some time this afternoon going through another photo shoot, which you can check out here. Bit of an alternative chick look this time to celebrate our girl hitting 14 weeks. It's actually hard for me to believe that she'll get bigger than this. Wish we could keep her like this forever.

Photos at 2 Months

Been busy working with photos over the last month. Guess it's pretty obvious that the main subject would be little Eleanor for most of these, though in truth I'm surprised and a little embarrassed that I haven't taken more photos. She's 9 weeks old today and growing up so quickly. Thankfully she's developed a routine and is starting to sleep through the night and isn't as bothered by the small things like changing clothes and diapers.

Capturing the little bub on camera was a challenge until a week ago when she started to develop something resembling posture to allow assisted posing. It's difficult to think too much about composition when you're trying to photograph a baby with the rigidity of a blob of jelly (incidentally one of her nick names).



First photo project we had to put together was for our thank you cards that we sent out. I smashed something together in iPhoto and got them printed out on card which worked out rather well. The selected photos are titled "Zsa Zsa darling", "Downward Facing Dog" and "The Fonz" in clockwise order from the left.



Another photo project that I've been working on in iPhoto for a few months now (in secret) was to put together our wedding album. Alison has been on my case for years since the wedding for not allowing the photographer to put an album together for us (as I thought I could do a better job naturally). It took a while but I got my act together and compiled what I think is a pretty nice book for us to keep and sent it off to Apple to print. Aside from the great quality of the book, it was also nice to see Alison's confusion and concern when she saw the Apple logo on the box.



The book includes photos all the way from the start of the proposal in Sydney to the end of the honeymoon. Compiling this took over three months of subterfuge and secrecy so it was nice to finally give this to Alison.



As for Nelly, we were heading out to meet some friends for lunch today and decided to dress the little one up. She looked so cute in her outfit that we just couldn't resist grabbing the camera for an impromptu photo shoot. Alison worked hard to distract the baby while I took as many shots as I could. We even tried to be creative with some props. Here's Nelly having a great time with her friends (who were very compliant I must say)



Not all the photos turned out as well as I'd hoped, sometimes because of the angles and some unflattering cradle cap that I had to crop out. Played with cropping up close with this shot and desaturated for what I think is a haunting yet surprisingly arresting effect. If I weren't so lazy I'd try and photoshop my reflection from her eyes.



My favourite photo amongst what I believed to be the keepers was this one. She didn't really smile but I love that she's staring right at the camera and looks so adorable. Daddy bias may affect my objectivity of course.



You can view the rest of the photos from the shoot on Facebook here