Room Prep

We've been working on transforming our spare bedroom/my study into a nursery for the past couple of weeks, and the prep work is almost done.

I decided to leave the walls the same color that they've been- a soothing hyacinth blue. The trim was a light brown color, and I decided to use Fresh Aire (no VOCs) paint and make the trim a darker brown. This paint is great because I can use it without worrying about the health impact, but here's a warning for anyone thinking about buying it: the color on the swatch is at least 2-3 shades darker than the paint itself.

An exciting discovery I made is that the hardwood floors in the bedroom were in great shape underneath some dingy old carpeting:



We pulled up the carpeting and I'm now working on pulling up all of the little staples from the floor. Fun times, but at least Meowzle and Mochi are helping me (see below):




Many thanks to Sarah and Ryan for their help with painting the stuff I can't do, and for taking all the carpeting out to the trash!

It's A...

We had an ultrasound on Monday, May 5 (Cinco de Mayo, appropriately) and found out that we're expecting a baby boy. No, he won't be named Suck Butter, for those of you who read the comment thread on my last post!

Why My Crafting Productivity Has Dropped

Yep, that's right-- I've been a quiet, inactive crafter/blogger as of late for what I deem a very good reason-- the first trimester of pregnancy! I suppose I could consider this the greatest crafting collaboration of my life and blog about it regularly, but I'm not sure it'd be as much fun to read about my fatigue and headaches as is is to read about monkey blankets and art smocks!

I hear from lots of people that the exhaustion and sickness is going to end any day now, so maybe I'll turn into a super-crafter soon. If I start blogging with great speed and show amazing craft productivity, you'll know that that's happened. :)

Inordinately Proud

I am inordinately proud of my husband's recent excursions into the world of crafting, especially since I have been experiencing a crafting dry-spell myself (more on that in a few days' time). John has been making pieces for various games he plays, including Heroscape. The picture above is of some columns he crafted from cake-decorating materials purchased from Michael's. Although I was away in NYC during most of this crafting experience, John did call me to tell me that the cats were very involved in the process. Meowzle, our older cat, apparently enjoyed licking the modeling clay that John put inside each of these columns for stability.

The pieces in the photo below were each painted and then covered with a layer of flocking. The green flocking looks remarkably like catnip, causing Meowzle to sample some yesterday. Aside from the cat-related difficulties, John thoroughly enjoyed his foray into the world of crafting, and I, for one, hope he continues with such projects. :)

Uncle Tom: Holiday Crafts, Part Deux

My Uncle Tom got crafty this Easter (not unlike Christmas). Here is a picture of the canning jars he repurposed to make lovely candy gifts for all of us. Note that this one has a cat sucker on it-- not surprising, given my love for my kitties.

Becky's Babies

A long time ago I blogged about skirts that I made for my friend Becky's adorable twins, Isobel and Ophelia. Little peanuts that they are, the skirts still fit them! I love that they're wearing bandannas in this photo. Oh, and the fact that Ophelia is doing a number on Isobel's ear.

Hopping Back from NYC Just in Time for Easter

After a trip to NYC last week, I was very happy to arrive home on Saturday. I know this is probably abnormal, but I really don't enjoy visiting NYC at all. I imagine it's quite different if you actually live there, but I find trips there stressful and expensive. I guess it might be different if I enjoyed shopping (but I hate it) or if I had the money to eat really well (but I don't). Nonetheless, it was great to see my friend Sarah, who founded an amazing arts organization, to hang out with my long-lost buddy Tomoka, and to attend the CIES conference, but all in all, I'm just so glad to be back.

On the Easter front, I wrote an article about Polish Catholic Easter baskets (swieconka) for Buffalo Rising. Check it out.