Too Much

Have we all done too much?
Have we all blown the budget? On time that is not money!

Several of the blogs that I follow, who all also took part in the A to Z Challenge during April, seem to be on mind overload at present and are not blogging!

And yes we have had a busted computer and I mean real busted. I just lost all my contact details for my life. Everything else was backed up, pictures, clip art, meeting minutes etc but not the emails and contacts! Also lost all Microsoft Office programmes so have had to repurchase and reload.
So I have not had the ability to download the camera let alone add a picture to a blog, but I just don't seem to be able to get into the mood to write a post or even add the picture now that I have the ability to use.
However I have lots to blog about, Alex playing soccer, our trip to Auckland a few weeks ago, my recent mail Art package that arrived and also my first ever giveaway.

So with so much to blog about I am hoping that by maybe writing this post about so many of us being away with a mental mind block then maybe I will feel like I have broken the tie and will now get back into blogging, although I do have an essay due next week for my degree and I have a little bit of rewriting to achieve before next Wednesday.
However once this essay is handed in I will only have 1 paper, yes that reads 1 paper left to complete and I will be an official degree holder and you can bet your bottom dollar I will be at the graduate ceremony next Feb 15 with bells on.

So please, who ever is listening to my little pray, please put my blogging mind back together, please let me have the inspiration to get back into writing something on this computer, I would really appreciate it as I have deadlines to achieve and a mental mind block really doesn't help those at all!

Trouble Again

Once again I have several posts to show you but once again they will only work with pictures.
BUT once again I am unable to load pictures onto the post.

Have I mentioned before at all that I hate this new picture loading device that blogger have changed to?
I just don't seem to get the pictures to load.
Today I can get them to load to the sub screen but not actually load onto the post!

What is the point?

Computer

I am still here, but unfortunately we have internet issues!
We are currently running at about 450 kbps (kilobites per second) and it should be somewhere between 1000 - 3000 kbps!

I can get online but am never sure what it will allow me to do or how long it will last.
They assure me the fault is being looked in to but I am not so sure, it is taking too long!

So I am checking your blogs when I can and I am updating here when it has enough power to let me post something.
Hopefully things will gp back to normal soon, cause I have lots of pictures of things we have been doing to share with you all.

Have a great weekend

Small Problem

We are very lucky in the fact that we really don't have any major problems with the boys. Nothing that a little bit of gentle parenting can't fix.

Ben however has decided that he will sit and suck his clothes.

He will sit and suck the sleeve on his pyjamas, the neck of his pyjamas even the neck of his school shirt!

We constantly have to tell him to stop sucking his shirt. He will sit and watch tv and suck his shirt. He will sit at school and do the same thing.

The picture below shows his shirt from when he came home from school one day. It was wet in a huge area around the neck and chest. I have actually drawn a line where the wet goes out to to show you just how much of the shirt was wet from him sucking it! (you can actually just see the colour change on the red strip down the right hand side)

So now we are working through this to try and get him to stop sucking his clothes.
It smells and it is actually making his skin sore where he is constantly wearing wet clothes against his skin!

Any solutions anyone?

Curtains

We needed new curtains in the house. The ones that were up were not fitting the window correctly, nor were they suitable for maintaining the heat in the house.

So we organised for new ones and they arrived today.

We got 3 windows done and also wooden blinds in the kitchen.

The blinds look really good in the kitchen. I was very wary because I thought it would make it too dark in there, but now they are up, yes it is darker, but it gives it a totally different feel and I like it.

Kitchen before.

Kitchen after.

In the family area of our new living room, we have a very very big window. About 3m x 3m. So the curtains here were always going to be huge in drop. I think they fit the window so well and look great.

Family Room before.

Family Room after.

Now unfortunately I am not happy with the ones in the living room or dining room. No, that is wrong, I am happy with the curtains, I like the pattern and the colours, but I don't like the way they are positioned and that is a problem.

Apparently when you hang a curtain, you place the rail/track above the window edge. I have no problem with this, as I understand that if you place it on the wall then it stops a lot of heat from falling behind the curtain and getting cooled by the window.

What I have a problem with is how high above the window surround you place the rail?

To me it looks like we have brought curtains that are a certain length, and not correct for the window we are placing them at, and we have had to place the rail up high to fit the length of the curtain!

In the following picture, which is not the greatest, you can see that they have placed the rail 100mm above the window surround, and to me it looks silly.

Living Room

I think it should be just above the window surround, like this:

Living Room

Dining Room

Now in the Family Room, because the window is so high it is placed just above the surround, and this to me looks really neat and tidy.

Family Room Area

So I called the company and explained my dilemma. I got given all the usual explainations. This is the standard and best practice, policy etc.

I told them that that was fine but I didn't like how it looked at MY windows.

I also explained that I am not a curtain expert, I am a nurse and mother, so someone waffling to me about position and size doesn't mean much, if I visually see it, then I can understand, I am a visual thinking person by the way.

So the owner of the company has made a time for the lady that does the measuring and quotes to come out and see me on Monday at 11am, I think to try and convince me that what she had set them at was the style and correct place.

Something also to do with eye appeal, linear lines and flow through the house, well '#$*!*' to the linear lines and flow through the house, it doesn't look right, or nice to me and I am the one that has to live with it.

So the man that installed the curtains has left all the rails just where I want them, because for some strange reason he can see exactly what I am talking about and says that it is my house so they should be how I want them. He gets the point that all that needs to happen now is for them to take the curtains away and shorten them, oh yes, at their expense.

The lady did talk to me about where to position the rails, but I got the impression that they would sit just above the surround, not 100mm above. She just did her job and measured the windows for the curtains to sit where they routinely place the curtains, and unfortunately I don't like that.

So am I in the wrong for not saying more about where I wanted the curtains to be positioned? Or are they expected to sort the problem out because I don't like how the curtains look now they are hanging in my house? Dispite them just doing their job?

Sorry about all the different colours on the pictures. I am still getting use to the new camera and seem to be having a lot of trouble with it. It doesn't seem to be as easy as our last one.

I just seem to have trouble getting the pictures to be bright and clear.

Oh well over time hopefully things will get better, think you can see that in the differences in all the above pictures, but hey you get the point I am making, so who cares.