Happiness is ...

Happiness is a pretty rainbow of threads making a bright spot in your day.

I took this photo in the midst of the renovation horrors of last year. I was sitting on my bed in the middle of the kitchen, sewing little birds and resolutely ignoring the chaos all around.

It looks so pretty and serene, doesn’t it? – almost like something out of a magazine. But just out of shot the debris of our lives was piled up in huge, depressing, tottering stacks. I can still see it when I look at this photo.

Sometimes sewing is a real sanity-saver.

The cat crept into the crypt ...

… crapped, and crept out.

Possibly my dad’s favourite tongue-twister, judging by the number of times it got mentioned through my childhood – though for a long time I didn’t know what the cat did when it crept into the crypt, because my mum always shot Dad That Look, and he would just laugh instead of finishing the sentence.

It’s so annoying when you’re a kid and all the grown-ups are laughing at a joke they refuse to explain! Almost as annoying as opening your front door and finding the next door neighbour’s cat really has crapped on your doormat. Or thrown up on it, as our neighbour’s cat occasionally does.

Cats and their unsavoury habits came up over Christmas. I went to a social evening at the local church with a friend to make gingerbread houses. I was very pleased with my effort when I brought it home.

They provided a generous supply of lollies, so I went to town. Like my row of spearmint trees? And the cute little icicles?

I was quite proud of my candy-striped front door too, complete with door handle made with the top of a chocolate bullet. Only next morning I discovered my little brown door handle had fallen off and was lying forlorn on the doorstep. See it there? A suspicious brown lump, looking just like the next-door neighbour’s gingerbread cat had crept in during the night and crapped on the doormat.

Stupid gingerbread cat.

Happiness is ...

Happiness is a sister to cuddle up to when you’re having trouble falling asleep.

It’s nice to remember the little things that make us happy. I’ve been thinking for a while of doing a photo series to remind myself to appreciate the everyday. A good excuse to practise my photography skills too!

They look so peaceful in this photo, don’t they? Ironic really, when you consider the hundreds of thousands of dollars we’ve just spent and the months and months of angst, living through the renovation from hell. All so that these two didn’t have to share a bedroom any more, because they fought so much.

And now they have their own bedrooms, where do I find them? Squished into a single bed together, naturally. That’s kids for you.

On the subject of the renovation, it occurs to me that I never posted a photo of the completed project. Because it is – finally! – complete, landscaping and all.

We started with this:

progressed through this:

and this:

(oh, the horror!). Till at last we arrived at this:

Renovations are a bit like childbirth. Once you have the finished product, the pain of getting there recedes into memory. It’s certainly a wonderful house now, set up to suit us perfectly. But unlike childbirth, I don’t think I'd ever line up to go through it more than once. We learned a lot of valuable lessons about dealing with builders, but the main one was: don’t.

Next time, just move.