Getting there

At almost 33 weeks along, I'm getting to the point in my pregnancy where I want to schedule my doctors appointments for first thing in the morning, wear my lightest clothing, and make sure to shave my legs. All of this in preparation, of course, for stepping on that scary metal scale.  While the nurse keeps moving the balance further and further to the right, my eyes get bigger and bigger.

I've never considered myself an incredibly vain person, but the bi-weekly weigh-ins have made it fairly clear that I'm a little more prideful than I thought.  

I'll tell myself that it's just Maybe's gigantic head (thanks Blake...) but it's probably my diet of grapefruit, cheese, triscuts, and cookies. 

Anyway...

I'm also at the point in my pregnancy where I've apparently decided that it's a good idea to take on big home projects.  Right now there's a crew jack hammering the bejeebers out of our upstairs bathroom while I wear a surgical mask and earplugs and hide out in the family room.  Did you know that in 1951 bathroom tile is securely fastened in about three inches of pure concrete (both the walls, the shower and the floor)?  That's a whole lot of concrete...a whole lots of dust...and a whole lot of extra weight that our trusty floors won't have to hold up anymore.  

Blake and I have spent the past two weeks stewing over finishes and seeing the dollar signs fly as we've ordered all of the supplies.  The UPS guy and I have become quite close (he has generously carried things into the house for me since I can't lift them from the porch and Blake is still recovering from a back injury).  Our living room looks like a Home Depot exploded and there is a tub filling up the majority of our study.  Like Blake says, it's like we are camping in our own home.  It's awesome...and awesomely hilarious.

We have been dreaming of this bathroom renovation for years and finally felt like we should pull the trigger before Maybe gets here.  It's madness to be sure, but at least it's fun madness and it comes with an end date.  

I can't wait to post the before and after photos.  No more five by five bathroom!  No more knees touching the tub when you're on the toilet.  Such luxury! 

Field of Dreams

Sorry for the radio silence lately.  You'll be glad to know, however, that it's been a very productive silence.

We received bad news about our last IVF cycle last Friday.  I had a nice ugly-cry for a while, then turned to the interwebs to read all about my new protocol for this coming cycle.  Let me tell you, the internet is a great and calming place to a gal doing IVF.  There are so many chat rooms, message boards, blog posts, and articles that I can browse to my heart's content.

About twenty minutes after I got off the phone with the doctor, my parents arrived at our house direct from their flight from Italy (they'd been there for the 10 previous days for work).  So we all had another good cry.  It was a soggy day.

But the best part of their coming to town was that we got a mini vacation.  It took me a couple days to start feeling normal again as the meds left my system, but then we had a grand time together.

We tagged along with the BYU Law group to see West Side Story at the National Theater.  I'd forgotten all of the fun music in that show.  That said, this particular interpretation of the show was pretty darn dark and depressing.  Also, it's hard to buy guys as tough gang members when they're so obviously teeny dude ballerinas.  The Sharks and Jets have never looked less intimidating.

We also ate out at all our favorite places with my parents.  Pacci's Trattoria (it says something that even though my parents had been in Italy for 10 days, they still wanted to eat here right away), District Taco, Parkway Deli, and Seasons 52.  It was a busy, and full, week.

My Dad left the day after the conference ended, but my mom stayed an extra couple days to hang out.  It was the first week in a long time that I haven't been abundantly medicated.  I can't tell you how wonderful it's been to start feeling more normal.  Even though I'd be happy to start right up again, I'm sort of glad that this new protocol has a built-in time off period.  No daily shots for a bit! Hallelujah!

My mom and I spent a lot of our time working on the someday nursery.  I think I'm going to start calling it Maybe - the Maybe Baby, just for ease of description.

Over the past few years my philosophy has been "don't count your chickens before they hatch."  I haven't really let myself buy or do anything baby-related because I didn't want it to bring more cosmic bad luck on me.  But, at this point, it's not like our luck could really get worse, so my philosophy has changed to one of "if you build it, they will come."

Now, as a self-admitted non sports enthusiast, it's funny that I'm governing my life with a quote from a baseball movie, but I've got to say that it's helping my outlook immensely.  So, with that in mind, Maybe's room got a preliminary gender-neutral make-over.

We painted the walls a soft grey and made black-out curtains for the big window that gets sun all day long.  These sheets from West Elm were marked down 50% and then an extra 15% off at the register. It's hard to tell from the photo below, but they're a white background with small navy blue arrows that almost look like polka dots from far away.  I bought the king set and used the flat sheet to make two panels.  We lined them with a heavy white black-out fabric (also 50% off at JoAnn's - it was my lucky day!) and they now hang beautifully.

After using the flat sheet for the drapes, I've still got two king-sized pillow cases and a huge fitted sheet.  I'm going to make a few crib sheets and a quilt with all the extras.  So, for $70, I'll be getting two lined curtains, three crib sheets, two pillowcases (for someday big kid beds) and a quilt.  That's not too shabby!

More espace

Blake's been surviving with a tiny night stand for the past several years while we searched for something better.  

On my side of the bed is a small dresser with feminine lines and hardware.  I wanted to find something with straighter, more masculine lines and hardware for Blake's side.  But also something that would coordinate well with the other furniture in the room.  After much deliberation, we both decided that the best option would be a desk so that Blake could have ample storage and a larger tabletop.  

We were helping Blake's parents clean out one of their storage rooms a few months ago and came across this desk.  They hadn't used it in 15 years and were going to get rid of it, so we took it off their hands.  I really liked the straight lines, the size, the leather top, and the leather and iron hardware.  The only thing I didn't love was the color.  It was that terrible dark, speckled 70's brown.  Yuck.

We brought it home and started sanding it down thinking we'd want the whole thing in a natural wood color.  An hour or so in we decided we'd like it better with the frame painted white and the drawers sanded down to the natural wood.  

I painted (this sucker took five coats.  Ugh!) and Blake sanded.  As he kept sanding we were surprised to see that each of the four drawers was a different color.  I was annoyed at first, but then (due to Blake's recommendation that we arrange them in "ombre" order) ended up liking them the way they are.  Plus, if I get tired of the variation I can always stain them all one color.  

One good thing about the variation is that it actually coordinates quite well with the reclaimed wood stool we found at HomeGoods.  I love happy accidents in home improvement projects.

When in doubt, paint it white

I had a ton of great luck over the summer.  I found all sorts of furniture on the side of the road.  Most of it needed some work, but some were really easy updates.  

I found this mid-century-ish side table on the curb.  It looked like the previous owners had started to redo it, but never made it quite there.  Parts were sanded down and they'd added some trim around the top edge.  The wood was also extremely dry and cracked.  

I started out thinking I'd paint the whole thing white just to give it a cleaner look.  But, once I'd painted the drawer front and added the new knobs, I decided I really liked the contrast of the wood and white.  So, I just painted the upper trim white to balance it out, oiled the wood, and left it otherwise untouched.  I think the whole process took about 30 minutes (plus the drying time between coats of paint).  

The knobs on this little guy have quite the story.  I got them from Anthropologie when I was in a middle school and had them on my closet doors in my parents' house all growing up.  They moved with me to DC, where they previously resided on our hall closet.  They're slightly pokey because they're made of bits of sea glass, so they weren't great to have on something we were constantly opening and closing.  I switched them out for some recycled class knobs (which are completely round and easier to grab without stabbing risk) and moved them here where we're less likely to impale ourselves.  [Sometimes beauty really is pain.]

The cast iron fans are also trash rescues.  I think they're architecturally interesting, but the best part is that they still work!  

Now the only thing holding me back is my terrible iPhone photos.  I need to get my act together and actually photograph my projects when I'm finished.  But maybe that's just asking too much of myself...

Better After

The weather today is gorgeous, so after a long walk and lunch with Adrienne, I finished the touch ups on the chair.  Now it's dry and ready to be sat upon.  I'm loving the crisp, clean white (emphasis on clean).  I decided to add a blue plus sign on the back for fun, but I'm not sure if I'll keep it or if I like it better all white.  My spray painting finger is sore today, so for now it'll live to see another morning.  Who knows, maybe when I wake up tomorrow I'll be smitten with it.

I had been skeptical of painting pleather, but after I saw a similar chair that Jenny Komenda did, I took the plunge and bought two cans of Rustoleum multi-surface spray paint.  $6.00 and an hour or two later and I'm already enjoying the finished product.

Not too shabby for a garbage chair.  I only wish I had two (my neighbors had a pair, but kept the other one).  How great would a pair of these look tucked into a long, butcher block-topped desk?

Good Garbage

One of my greatest pleasures in life is finding good garbage.  You know, the kind of garbage that's not really garbage?

My neighbors throw away the greatest furniture and I have been known to make Blake drive me around the neighborhood the night before trash day to check out the situation.  We go under the cover of night and I have Blake shine the car lights at people's piles.  It's all very cloak and dagger… mostly because it feels strange to be looking at other people's trash.

I love turning trash into treasure.  I've furnished a lot of my house that way and now you, lucky reader, get to see it all documented here for my viewing pleasure.

A couple years ago my next door neighbors put this beauty out on the curb for trash pick up.  It was a little worse for wear (grimy pleather- eww- hence the Goo Gone in the second photo), but otherwise in good shape. I loved the lines and the brass casters.  I was sold.

It's been hiding out in the basement all this time as my sewing chair and is now making a resurgence to the main floor.  I'm currently working on updating it, but am still putting on the finishing touches.  I'll share the "after" tomorrow, but for now enjoy the grimy "before."  Bear kindly acted as the model (read: he wouldn't leave the chair alone and insisted on being in as many photos as possible).

Secretly 75 years old

I am so behind at life.  Our friends had surprise twins back in February.  By "surprise twins," I  mean that they didn't tell a soul (not even their other children!) they were having twins until the twins were already born.  To say we were surprised was an understatement.  My jaw dropped when we saw the photo of double the baby we were expecting.

So here it is 8 months later and I finally have a gift ready to send off to them.  (Note: these didn't actually take me all 8 months to make, it's just that I was wayyyy behind on starting them.)  Winn and Ellie are getting matching baby blankets.  Grey for Winston and green for Eleanor.  They're not perfect, but they're soft and they're machine wash, and let's be honest, that's what counts most in a baby gift.

I'm slowly teaching myself the ins and outs of Blake's fancy camera.  As you can see below, I haven't really figured it out, but I'm working on the whole idea of white balance.  Here's hoping I can improve enough to not be so embarrassed when I post photos.

A two-year project

You know those home design blogs where the folks post progress of their various projects and they're careful to take the photo from the same angle in the same lighting each step of the way?  This is not one of those posts.

I've managed to take and include three photos - all of which are from different vantage points and all of which have rather terrible lighting.  Be excited.

I've been collecting mirrors and artwork for the last two years to use on a gallery wall going up our large, bland, cream-colored stairwell.  It's been a long process and Blake took to calling it "this mythical gallery wall of which you speak" because I was seemingly showing no progress except for the frame piles cluttering up our library. 

A few weeks ago I finally felt like I had enough to start with (it'll be a work in progress as I collect more artwork along the way).  I kept my frame color-scheme to natural wood, silver and gold (plus an unframed canvas Blake did).  I retrieved my seemingly endless roll of painters paper from the basement and carefully traced out templates.  (*Note: putting up templates before hammering nails into the wall has saved my life - and my lath and plaster walls!)

There were a few adjustments to the scheme after the below picture was taken, but you can get the gist.  I just marked on each template where the nail would go, hammered in the nails (ok, maybe Blake did that), pulled off the templates, put up the frames, and voila!

Or, maybe it was not actually that simple.  It actually takes quite a bit of time to get the measuring exactly right, so we did this in stages.

First, the templates sat up there for two weeks as a glaring reminder of my laziness:

 



Then, my guilt forced me into action.  But not marathonic action - just small action (three frames worth):

 

Then, last weekend, we finally got our project mojo going and finished it up.  I'm really happy with the results.  The mirrors bounce the light around and make the stairwell feel infinitely brighter.  We get to enjoy Blake's photography, some old family pictures, and a Venus engraving that I love.  We're also looking forward to adding a picture of Bear when we get him next month.

 

 So, if you'll put aside my lackluster photography, it's not half bad.

Cleaning out the closets

Blake has been out of town a lot lately for work.  In fact, he's been gone about two nights a week for the last 5 weeks: Chicago, Dallas, New York, Boston, Atlanta...the list goes one. 

While he's away, I try to keep myself extra busy.  It's usually the time when I finally get down to business with my housekeeping- vacuuming, scrubbing baseboards etc., but it's also when I do a lot of crafting.

Last night some friends came over and we watched the movie Brave while we knitted/sewed on our various projects. 

Knitting night may sound a bit sister-wives-ish, but let me tell you: it's simply grand!  It's the perfect time to watch silly movies, eat snacks, and attempt one of the pins languishing in the depths of the pinterest archives. 

Blake served part of his mission in Cape Verde (a group of islands off the west coast of Africa).  Some of his converts made him lace doilies by hand as a thank you gift.  They've been hiding out in the back of his closet in New Hampshire ever since, but this summer when I saw them I knew I wanted to drag them out and make something useful out of them.  I'd seen an idea on pinterest via Martha Stewart and mentally filed it away as a potential use for the doilies.

So yesterday it was finally down to business.  After much arranging and re-arranging, I came up with a satisfactory placement and roughly sewed the doilies together.  I may or may not have accidentally sewn a couple of them to the rug as I went (wasn't that a fun discovery at the end when I tried to pick the whole thing up? whoops).

After snipping my creation free of the rug, I added it to the table with a new poinsettia from the grocery store and some grey-green candles.  Nothing glamorous, but it makes me happy to have Christmas making an appearance at the house.

A shower for Destiny

There's nothing I love more than a chance to celebrate a friend - especially when there's a baby involved. 

Adrienne and I planned a shower to celebrate the much-anticipated arrival of Destiny's little one.  Destiny is being stalwart and is not finding out the gender of her baby until the birth, (I know for a fact that I'd never be able to wait that long...I'm way too impatient) so we kept the colors fairly gender-neutral and went for a "nesting" theme. 

I was happy to finally get a chance to use my bird chocolate molds to make little bird toppers for my double-chocolate-pumpkin cupcakes.  I had Blake take photos of everything with his nice camera, but I have yet to load those onto my computer, so these iphone photos will have to suffice.

We also decorated onesies for little baby Bachman and I was impressed by the talent all of the ladies possessed for turning a plain-old white onesie into an Etsy-worthy baby outfit. 

Decorating onesies ended up being so much fun that I made several of the peter pan collar onesies pictured below and am planning to send them to my friends that are currently expecting baby girls.  I never could resist a peter pan collar...and in newborn size?  Forget about it.  I'm smitten.

Trash to Treasure

My neighbors have the greatest trash. 

I should clarify: my neighborhood has a very active listserv.  People often post that they're getting rid of one thing or another and that it's available for pick-up on their curb. 

It turns out that this is just the sort of thing that appeals to my cheapskate, Mormon heart.  And I've really lucked out picking stuff up from my neighbors "trash piles" in this way. 

I've scored a chair, a 50's style rolling desk chair, a library lamp, a vintage steamer trunk, an x-box (complete with 5 controllers, a headset and 25 games), a console table and a few other things.

But, my favorite "rescue item" is probably the American Girl doll brass bedstead that I snagged while on a walk a couple weeks ago.  I saw it and knew my niece, Ella, would just love it to use with her American Girl doll. 

The bedstead was in perfect condition- just a little dusty, so I came home and quickly cleaned it up.  Then I used things I had around the house to make a mattress, a quilt and a couple pillows.  I love the mint green and pink with the brass.  So much, in fact, that I am almost tempted to keep this for myself.  Not that I have ever had a doll (I had Ninja Turtle action figures instead) or a kid with a doll, but it's just so cute! 

To recap:

Brass bedstead - free

Quilt, mattress and pillows - free

Time spent - about a half hour

Total: Free-ninety-nine

I can't wait to give this to little Ella.  She'll like it, don't you think?