Gold Herringbone & Polka Dot Lampshades

So, my room is lit by these rather blah-looking lamps - wooden bases and cream colored shades. Oops! I forgot to take a picture before I dissected the lamps for this project. I decided they needed something different. I love gold - and patterns. I had something like this in mind.

First things first - I spray painted the bases white. It's so hard to get the spray paint even! Hold the can a good distance from the object you are spraying and layer the paint on in thin coats. DON'T sand first - I thought this would help the paint stick better, but it just scratched it. Maybe it would work better if I had done a more thorough job!

This website had the nifty idea to tape a plastic bag inside the lampshade while spray painting. It did take a lot of coats of paint, but the shade looked at least a little bit whiter when I'd finished.

Shade #1 was getting a herringbone pattern. This website has a lot of good tips on how to trace the pattern, although I didn't follow it exactly. I just measured to make sure the vertical marks/lines were even, and eyeballed the slanted lines. I was going for a slightly irregular hand-painted look.

I used gold fabric paint - I had a hard time choosing between that and another gold paint. I wasn't extremely happy with either option - I wanted something really sparkly and glossy. I am going to look for something different while I am home in the States and repaint the shades when I go back to South Africa.

It was a time-consuming process!

Lampshade #2 got gold polka dots. I followed the tutorial on this website, only using a sponge to make the dots didn't work for me (probably because I tried to cut a kitchen sponge into a circle in the absence of an actual sponge stamper). I traced something circular and carefully filled in the dots with a paintbrush.

This is the end result! I didn't remember to get a good picture before I left, but you can see the general idea.

Comings and goings

So the last month or two have seen a lot of arrivals and departures here around the baby home!

Little T is off to his forever family!

Baby M went home with his mommy! We still get to see him around occasionally, which is fun.

Little T (the other one - I can't remember their code names!) is still with us and getting super chubby. He's often happy and likes to flap his hands and shriek wildly.

Little B is, unexpectedly, still here, and he is getting so big. 

Please send up some special prayers for him, as well as for R, who is also still with us.

We welcomed baby Z! He is about four months old and has a big smile.

Things are busy around here these days, but hope to talk to you all soon!

B is for Bak Bak

Happy (or little B as we call him) looooooves his "bak baks" SO much! He'd spend all day out there if I let him (with regular breaks for FUDE! FUDE!)

He tries to feed them bits of greenery through the fence.

The chickens themselves are doing quite fine. They are giving me 5-6 eggs a day now. I got an automatic feeder and waterer this week to avoid food waste (probably like 1/3 wasted due to scratching it out on the ground and not eating it) and to help keep the water clean. Of course, it's also nice to not have to get up and feed them and water them before work! Haha!

B was SO excited when we went to buy the waterer today! He's seen the feeder in the chicken coop, and when we got to that section of the store, he started screaming excitedly, "BAK BAK! BAK BAK!" I told him that it was for the bak baks' water and his excitement knew no bounds. He didn't stop hollering about BAK BAKS WAWA BAK BAKS WAWA alllll the way though the store, the checkout lane, out to the car...he's such a nerd! Haha!

"B, say bak bak!"

Little B also loves his "TEA! TEA!" with about as much enthusiasm. Rooibos is a caffeine free tea that is very popular here. 

Sihle's Iced Tea

8 rooibos tea bags

2 liters water

1 cup raw sugar (called brown sugar here)

Several generous squirts of lemon

Couple of peaches

Boil the tea bags, water, and sugar. Add lemon and sliced peaches and allow to steep. I find I like to water it down just a tiny bit. It's also good with passionfruit! This is B's absolute favorite and mine too. I don't need to buy peach iced tea when I am out anymore because this is just as good!

B also loves the sandbox. I just recently was able to dry it out enough for him to use. It buys me a good half hour or so! He usually needs a bath as he manages to get it EVERYWHERE! It's part of the reason I buzzed his hair again...

That's all for tonight! Talk to you hopefully next week!

Our babies & what's been happening

It has been a while since I've been on here! Lots has happened since...when was it...October?? I'm sure you would all like to see and hear about all of the babies we have right now.

I will warn you up front that I have the most pictures of Happy! I shouldn't play favorites but I rationalize that it's ok because every baby is someone's favorite! He is almost 18 months old now.

He loves to help me with gardening - especially when it involves a free ride.

Little guy makes my life busy but is so much fun.

"Mama, why are all the other kids teasing me about my chitenga? I think it's cool!"

We took a trip to the local petting zoo to see his beloved "bak baks" (chickens) and all the "AMMALS!" but he was kind of scared. I guess I would be too if I was surrounded by turkeys as high as my head. He enjoyed it more when he was riding on my shoulders.

"Look, it's a leaf."

All dressed up in his Sunday best.

Generally up for a ride on my "Ba! Ba!" (back)

"Happy, say cheese!"

Out for some yummy ice cream

 Little Pooh has started smiling and laughing (his laughs are crazy and sound kind of like pterodactyl shrieks!) He is five months old. He cut his second tooth right before his five-month birthday.

Here he is doing some tummy time with Anakin Skywalker!

He had a mohawk for a little while. Punk baby!

Little Piglet is also five months old (this is an older picture). He is wiggly and squirmy and likes to roll. He quickly wins everyone's hearts with his smile!

Eeyore ties with Pooh for heavyweight champion at MBH. Even though he's only three months old, he matches five month old Pooh, weighing in at 8 kgs. He likes to be held and wants to eat ALL the time!

Time for church in his polo shirt and Nikes!

Roo is four months old and also likes to wiggle and roll. He is a bit of a charmer and his sad face usually makes Auntie Sarah or Mama Linda pick him up.

Princess is a two month old girl with a big fat belly and chubby cheeks! She mostly likes to sleep and eat (a lot) but has recently started smiling and cooing too.

That is all for today! I am going to try to start blogging weekly and I think if I try to catch up on everything at once I will be overwhelmed and stop again. Better to start small!

Love you all and miss you!

Auntie Abbie

August/September update

Hey all! Life has been happening over here, but not a whole lot of blogging. =) I'll try to get you up to speed!

Our little Umbututu went home with his mommy a few weeks ago! We are so thrilled for him! Although, Mama Linda said, "He must buy us cooldrink (pop, soda) when he leaves, for putting us through so much trouble!" (He cries a lot!)

Our friend Akila brought her dog to visit the babies! Mama Patricia was just through the roof with happiness. Every day for months she has read a book about dogs to the boys - one of those books with the fur - and she often takes them out to the gate, hoping that the neighbor dogs will bark so she can show them to Happy and Snuffy.

The babies all seemed to enjoy Nala, our doggy visitor, but she was a bit shy!

The girls are working very hard on holding their own bottles. Well, Auntie Abbie is sooooo ready for it and is working very hard on developing this skill in them. ;) Chipmunk almost has it. Chickadee lazily throws her hands out to the side after a minute or two...

Meanwhile, these kiddos were sipping on some yummy green smoothies this morning, full of lots of raw nutritious stuff like spinach, banana, cucumber, pineapple, and homemade yogurt. We need to find the sippy cups! Auntie Abbie is working hard at kicking stereotypical "orphanage diet" in the rear...sometimes they like my concoctions and sometimes it takes a looooot of tries! 

I've really enjoyed my role as Chief (aka only, lol) Baby Food maker here at MBH, even if it is a LOT of work. We have four babies eating solids and they eat a TON!

The kitchen usually looks messier than this when I'm making baby food! It's a full-scale production.

I generally have less than $15 to feed these four babies per month, so I have to get VERY creative. Everything is made from scratch - thankfully fruits and veggies are generally pretty cheap here! However, some things I can only buy a little of per month (apples, pears, etc.) and we must rely on cheaper veggies to make up the bulk of their diet - like pumpkin or carrots. I can buy 5 kg (about 11 lb) of carrots for $1.30, or a pumpkin for about $2. Spinach is about 35 cents per large bunch. Pears are about $1.20 a bag - not sure how big the bag is (2 kg maybe?) but is definitely much smaller than the carrots! Yogurt is about $1.50 a container, but I recently found I can make it for about half the price (although it's really runny - working on that).

Meat is a luxury we can't often afford! Sometimes I buy a whole chicken and debone it, and this month, I found some very old, forgotten chicken breasts in the freezer that I used! I also make broth from chicken carcasses and use it to blend the babies' purees.

I use Pinterest for inspiration, as well as www.babyfoode.com. There are a lot of creative ways to use herbs and spices to liven up the babies' foods! Some of the recipes, of course, are not practical to my budget, or contain hard-to-find produce in this part of the world - but some are cheap and great, or able to be tweaked.

Here are some of the foods and combinations I've fed our babies:

Applesauce (with and without cinnamon)

Apples and turnips with cinnamon

Turnips (after a few introductions, a favorite!)

Pears

Spinach/pear/banana with fresh grated ginger

Carrots

Butternut (sometimes with cinnamon or thyme)

Pumpkin

Beets (no one really likes them, unfortunately)

Spinach/sweet potato

Sweet potatoes

Persimmons with cinnamon and vanilla

Bananas - always a favorite!

Zucchini with potato

Broccoli with potato and garlic (not enjoyed greatly)

Avocado

Avocado and plain yogurt (very popular with the boys)

Yogurt, plain or sweetened with fruit

Canteloupe/banana/yogurt

Avocado/banana/yogurt

Black beans/avocado/chicken/cumin

Chicken with various veggies

Roasted apples and bananas with cinnamon

Watermelon smoothies

Green smoothies (lots of fruits and veggies with yogurt)

Oatmeal porridge with/without fruit

Rice porridge (cook rice until soft,then puree in the blender)

They no longer turn up their noses at this turnip applsauce. ;)

Happy is getting older (he turns one tomorrow!) and I'm on a quest to find some cheap freezer meals I can make for them. He's refusing anything with much texture, so we'll see how these go.

Homemade "Spaghetti-O's" - pasta is cheap and so is tomato paste. I cooked the pasta, then cut it small (it was macaroni). I made a sauce from tomato paste, beef broth, oregano, garlic, and basil, then cooked it all until it was basically dead (trying to make it as soft as possible).

I then helped it along a bit more with a potato masher.

Pumpkin with rice and spices

I also found a recipe for pasta with a carrot sauce, and I made a yummy (mild) potato/spinach curry - a very popular dish here - and mashed it. Everything is frozen in little cubes in the freezer, so we will see how things go - introducing stage 2 and 3 type foods has proven to be a challenge!

Chipmunk and her angry beet face 

Guess what, guys! I'm getting chickens! It's old news on Facebook, but those of you who read my blog for updates might not know. This is the area where I will build the coop. It looks a lot better now! A guy from our church comes and works in the yard once a week, and he does a great job - I've never seen anyone get work done quite so fast.

This is the area where I have my veggie garden. Almost everything is up and growing now, including a volunteer, "bondwe" as my Zambian auntie calls it. It's a green leafy plant that grows taller than my head and appears to be known by a different name in every African country. They eat the leaves like spinach and apparently it's very good for the heart, or the blood, or something, I forget. Not being a particular connoisseur of spinach, I'll leave it for my friends at the baby home! 

 And lastly - here's a bit of Happy for you. He recently learned how to take off his pants. Ok, so I was the one who put them on his head, but...you see why, don't you? It's just too cute. ;)

Sorry, this wasn't an overwhelmingly comprehensive post, but I hope to be updating more regularly from now on.