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Where Oh Where Has She Been?

by Chavah Kinloch on July 15, 2011

I probably shouldn’t be writing at 12:40am, I should be resting my eyes like the rest of the normal world would be but for some reason tonight I’m feeling ranty so lets get to it.

I thought I might take a moment to enlighten everyone on what I’m doing right now. For 2011 I’ve done nothing to bring in any income. Yep, nothing. On purpose. Even the projects I’ve worked on art-wise have been purely to satisfy my creative urges.

Did you know that for six years straight I set goal after goal and worked day and night to reach them? Yep I did. If you’re one of my regular readers you’d definitely know this. If not well..now you know.

And then I got tired.

So, I’ve been doing nothing.

I’ve still been having ideas. Crap loads of them. That’s not something I can just shut off. You should see all the plans I have in different folders. There’s one for something called Charli Valentina, another for a place called Toasted, there’s a travel plan, a 5 year financial plan, blog re-design/growth plans, plans for exhibitions and three more ideas that I don’t really even know how to put into words without giving too much away to cyberspace.

The bad thing is they all make so much sense. It seems I’m actually very detail oriented. Ask anyone close to me and they’ll tell you that if you need something done, ask me to do it because I won’t stop until I see a project all the way through from beginning to end and every single detail in between. For some reason people always seem shocked to learn this. Really? Am I that laid back in person? Most likely; I’m not intrusive like most type A personality types would be.

The worse thing is I really don’t give a stuff about doing any of it right now because I’m too happy just being Mum.

Do you remember at the beginning of last year when I went through that turmoil of whether or not to go study or stay at home and continue being a full time SAHM? Sooo much of me wanted to go study to get a move on with the next stage of life but I had some amazing words of wisdom sent through to me from Mothers that have been there, done that  (you know who you are, thank you) and the overwhelming response I got pointed out that these years would pass very quickly. Oh how right they were. It’s not that I haven’t experienced these years before a child starts school before, but at the time, I had forgotten just how much I love these years. My time at home with my littlest guy (and then the big ones when they arrive home) is just the best. Yes I could be doing more but right now I’m satisfied that investing all my time playing with playdough, doing endless loads of laundry and vacuuming the house multiples times a day is exactly what I need to be doing with my life at this very moment. The pay is rubbish but the kisses make up for it.

Taking this time off has really helped me learn how to relax again. I’m actually a really fun person, I’d forgotten that. I’ve relearned how to get time out for myself which is probably the best thing to come out from this break. I’m really happy about this. My one new years resolution was to have more fun and I have been!

My schedule of nothing is about to expire shortly but just for a moment and it’s something I’m quite excited about. I have one painting in the works that is due to head up to Auckland next month, I’ll have more on that for you at a later date.

For now though, I’m spending weekends at rugby games and weekdays picking up bits of food from the floor… and I find it wonderful.

Look at those smiling faces. Being their Mum is definitely the best job in the world.

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Weekend Antics

by Chavah Kinloch on June 6, 2011

Usually my weekends are relatively quiet and boring, just the way I like them but during the months of June and July it’s like all of a sudden I have a crazy busy life. Not that things aren’t usually busy around here, someone always has something going on. The schedule just changes quite a bit, from some late night down time to no down time; that’s probably how I should describe it.

It does keep things interesting though because something out of the norm is happening. We have four birthdays during this time, two children and both of us parents. The kids get so excited about their day and I just there sit in disbelief that I’m old enough to have one child let alone four. It’s like I blinked and I aged 10 years. Life is much better than I could have imagined it would be 10 years ago though.

Friday evening I had some girl time. Every woman needs time out with other women! I got to get out of my trackies and dress up. I do enjoy my trackies, it means I can get dust and paint everywhere then add in a workout but I enjoy slipping on a pair of high heels just as much. Before I went out Andrew told me he really liked my hair. So did I, so I figured I’d do a mini vlog on it. You can see it here: My hair & the kids.

Of course we’ve been working on Miss V’s bedroom pretty much nonstop the past week. Tidying up edges, picking up the creative mess that comes with renovations, getting it ready for her sleepover. While I was out for dessert with the girls I mentioned how much effort it would take to get the room up to scratch by the next day and a friend suggested I just leave it and put some mattresses in. Never a wiser word had been spoken, neither Andrew or I were up to putting in much effort (can you say drained?) at the time so instead we moved all the gear to the garage so that the house was presentable again and pumped up some air mattresses for the girls to sleep on. It all worked out great. Just don’t go in my garage.

By the way, nine year old girls = NOISE. Music  to my ears though, sleepovers with my friends growing up were some of the best times I ever had. I’m glad my daughter is getting the same experience.

Of course it was the one weekend that Boston decided to wake up 4:00am. What.The.Heck. He usually sleeps through until 8! By the sound of his cry he’d had a nightmare and just didn’t want to be alone again. The next morning he was up early again but this time 6:30am. Still doesn’t give you much sleep when you’ve had visitors until 2:30am. *Yawn* He’ll get back to 8:00am in the next day or so hopefully. We’ll do our best.

Other than the crazy early morning and the odd toddler tantrum, Boston is so much fun to have around. If you don’t have a toddler, have one :P (or just borrow one). They are amazing. Boston is basically our shadow, everything we do, he wants to do too. Here’s some picture proof from the weekend:

This is what happens when a nearly 2 year old gets into his Daddy’s hair wax. Believe it or not, these photos were taken after his hair had been washed multiple times. When he puts product in, he doesn’t do it by halves! All he wanted to do was put it in his hair like he sees his Dad do every morning before work. I know, I know, he needs a haircut. I just can’t bring myself to do it yet. He’s my baby :( It represents the end of an era and I’m not quite ready to say goodbye to his baby look just yet.

This next photo may shock and distrub some viewers:

I bet you’re going huh? Why?

Well my dear friends, that ‘lipstick’ right there is in fact a tampon. He cracks me up so hard. I snapped this with my phone as I was getting ready to go out for my girls night. His favourite place to be is in my bathroom where all of my interesting bits of jewellery and make up are. It’s his forbidden fruit.

This is why people have kids. There’s never a dull moment and we love it.

How was your weekend? Did you have any “what the heck” moments like we did?

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DIY Lampshade for the Bedroom Makeover

by Chavah Kinloch on May 26, 2011

So in 2008, yes 2008… I bought this:

I only know I bought it in 2008 because of this blog haha. I posted here the weekend I got it.

Anyway, Miss V’s room needs a new lighting fixture. All it has is a light bulb because the boys one day threw something in the air and managed to smash their bedroom light shade. Can you see me shaking my head? I am. I have a million stories like this lol.

What I want for her bedroom is this:

I saw one for $99 last year and knew I should have scooped it up. It’s pretty affordable anyway but right now my budget is close to non existent so for now I have to make it work with what I got. Challenge accepted.

The lampshade I bought in 2008, I originally intended to spray paint orange. Never quite got there though because I fell pregnant that month with Boston and the exhaustion from the pregnancy kicked my butt.

So here we are years later and a few months back I found this. Pretty sure it’s from one of my favourite blogs because I recognise the room it’s in. It just happens to be one of my favourite kids rooms ever. EVER. Eh-Verrr.

Don’t you love that huge bulb? I die. I’m going to find one. As for the lampshade I figured, I can do that! I had a lampshade just sitting there waiting and I knew I could find the fabric to cover it so off I went and pulled my gear out of the studio to get to work.

Big thanks to Karley Feaver who sent me some fabric last year. I finally got to use some of it! I’ve been wanting an excuse to use that fabric.

I rummaged through my fabrics and pulled out four samples. Here’s what I was inspired to do:

Steps one and two.

Steps three and four.

Hopefully I can get my hands on one of those large bulbs and I can get Miss V’s room looking half as good as the one above. I’m still considering maybe adding some flowers or beads to the shade. If I do I’ll update you.

Total cost = Free (maybe $1 for everything)

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A Growing Girls Bedroom Makeover

by Chavah Kinloch on May 24, 2011

It’s no secret that I have four children, one girl and three boys. It’s great! It really is but there are some huge differences between my sons and my daughter and they’re made very apparent through the state of their bedrooms. It only takes one glance in the door to see how different they are.

So first of all I’ll give you the rundown on how things work in our household.

We live in a 4 bedroom home, two boys in 1 room, 1 girl in one room, another boy in one room and then of course mine and Andrew’s bedroom. When we first moved in we just had 3 kids, the bedrooms were slightly dated but in great condition. I set each child up with plenty of storage and new linen. I especially loved my boys’ matching duvet sets.

Now we move on a couple of years and this is what we get:

This isn’t from lack of trying to keep it respectable. It’s just my boys. Love them to bits but like every family, we definitely have our moments.  Lectures, time out, removal of toys and other consequences just couldn’t keep this from happening. As soon as you take your eyes off them this was inevitable…. For example, see those doors in the photo? That’s the double wardrobe. The doors are tied up because Davis used to silently wake in the middle of the night, turn the light on and destroy the room by pulling out every single toy and book we owned; so they’re hidden away in there.

I’m praying they’ve outgrown this stage seeing as it’s been over a year and a half since we’ve had any major incidents. The wallpaper ripping is definitely an age thing with my kids. I only have one little person left to go through the ropes. I’m crossing my fingers that with just one at that young age now, it’ll be easier to handle. I won’t have to have my eyes and ears on three people at once. Or I could just get lucky like I did first time around and have another child that chooses not to destroy anything. I live in hope.

Now about this post. Yes, the title of this post does read A Growing Girls Bedroom Makeover even though it’s clear this is my boys’ room. The reason behind this is the room my daughter is in currently, is bigger than my two big boys room. It only makes sense that because my number of son’s outnumber my number of daughters – they switch rooms to make the living situation more comfortable. They’re growing so fast, those boys need somewhere to tumble around!

When I talked to my daughter about switching rooms she was ok with it. She’s a happy-go- lucky kind of girl. All she asked is that it stopped smelling like the boys lol. I’m with her on that!

My daughter has been promised a sleepover with friends for her birthday. She needs a bedroom for that. That gave us a time frame of 3 weekends to get the majority of the room done. Two weekends have passed & we’re on track. One weekend left! I’m going to have to haul butt this week to get furniture pieces finished so it looks half decent. I’m still working on the basis that I will reuse furniture we already have in the home and bargain hunt for the rest while throwing in a couple of higher (and by higher I mean more than $30 lol) priced feature pieces.

We won’t get it all sorted by the weekend; once again we’ll be lacking curtains that match the new style of the room and my idea for the wardrobes won’t be done, plus of course some accessories will be missing but I’m so excited to be done with stripping walls and seeing another room getting made over. What I’m most excited about though is getting into that closet and getting rid of all the excess junk that’s made it’s way into the house over the years. Nothing feels as good as purging things you no longer need and simplifying!

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The Next 21 Days – Day 8

by Chavah Kinloch on March 17, 2011

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day everyone!

What I Learn from my Children

I’m one proud mama at the moment. Yesterday I wrote about how inspiring you all are, today I’m writing about my children and the way they motivate me.

My daughter had a school athletics day yesterday, a day late because of the weather. I promised I’d go along with my littlest guy later in the day, to watch my daughter run. So off we went at lunch time and found my newly five year old and his friends to hang out with. The other two popped up every now and again too.

After lunch as I was sitting by the playground watching Boston think he was invincible, my eldest son’s teacher walked past and said “You’ll be a proud Mum today” and handed me a piece of paper. I thought “Oh yay, my daughter made it through to zones”  which when I think about it now is a bit weird for me to think seeing as it was my sons teacher but oh well, I have my moments lol. It took a few minutes before I realised that the piece of paper was actually for my son and not my daughter. He was the one off to compete in the zones for athletics. I hear his besties also made it through so they’ll all probably get up to mischief.

A few seconds after that I heard my daughters name get called out for some races about to happen so we moved across to the field to watch them. She did great, she tells me she had a stitch by that point.

When all the races were done, a teacher stood up and called out the names of the children that had made it through to the zones for different categories. I wasn’t sure if my daughter had made it through at this stage, I knew she wanted to (she wrote it on her blog lol) but I didn’t know how it’d turn out.

Then I heard it, I heard her name and I couldn’t help but feel incredibly happy for her. She’d done what she’d set to do. In the past she has made it through to the zones every year but it had never really meant anything to her. This year it was something she really desired.

What shocked me though was not only did I hear her name name once but three times. By this stage I was wishing my husband could be there with me so I could squeeze his hand to show my happiness. It really sucks to be happy and have no one to share it with. Turns out I missed hearing her name called out one other time because out of 6 categories, she  had made it through on 4. Long jump, high jump, 60m & 100m sprints. She didn’t make discus or shotput but if you’ve ever seen my daughter, it’s hardly surprising, she’s only tiny.

If that wasn’t enough to make me burst at the seams with pride they also had their one after school activity to get through. Wednesdays are long days, my children play touch rugby during summer. My daughter only started playing a few weeks ago for the first time and has been lacking in confidence because it’s all so new to her. She signed herself up for it though and we’re all about following through on your commitments so she’s currently learning that lesson. I did feel quite bad for Vahnija though, she’d already been on her feet all day. They love their touch games though and after loading them up with afternoon tea and making them rest until the games started they were good to go.

My daughter was a beast during her game! I don’t know what clicked but she was chasing down these boys on the field like a lion would it’s prey. It was awesome. She was awarded player of the day for her efforts which I’m really proud of because she’s come so far in a few short weeks. Next was my sons game. I can’t go into it all but lately there have been big issues with his team and he’s felt like crap after all his games this term. It’s been heartbreaking and frustrating to see him upset because of the actions of adults. They should know better. I admit I let the protective mama-bear instinct in me out one week because of what was going on. Each week we’d have to talk to him about what was right, to ignore the things being done to him and how to carry on next time. I’m so happy to say that yesterday he was back to his old self. He had obviously taken on all the advice given to him and was being who he knew he could be. I was proud of him for believing in himself. It must have been noted because come the end of the match, he was also awarded player of the day.

I know my kids aren’t perfect and I know that I’m not a perfect parent but I am so proud and motivated by these little accomplishments that these tiny wee people are achieving. They have challenges of their own, they have dreams, they set their own goals, they’re living through highs and lows and people who want to put them down but they’re taking it all in their stride and showing me that the negatives won’t stop them. They’re so strong and I love that I’ve had a part to play in that.

I’m going through a stage with my journey where it’s all feeling very real. Getting back into life when you’ve been out of it for years because you’ve been focusing on other things is a difficult task. So much has changed and I have to get used to new people all over again. I’m about ready for a breakdown and it would be so easy to just quit because it’s scary to delve into my own issues but how can I quit when I see my own children facing their fears. I like to believe they’re not the way they are by pure chance. So I won’t be reduced by my fears. I’ll tackle them head on. I’ve achieved great results in the past and I can do it again. These kids are teaching me a lot. Life is changing.

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Thanks For Making Me Feel Bad, David Dallas

I’m going to let you in on one of my bad habits. Each day when I sit to write a new post on my blog, I go to my ‘draft posts’ page and look through the list then close it. I have plenty of inspirational posts just sitting there…waiting for the right time for me [...]

Time to Turn it On

We’re not getting much done on the room this weekend. NZ has had a storm and the type of storm we got where I live,  was a snow storm. It’s actually been a lot of fun but it’s so cold there’s just no way we could paint the room. Up until the snow arrived it’d [...]

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