LOST A SOCK

The one that didn't get away

I think I've written twelve, or possibly fifty posts about Marin in my head recently, attempting to stay atop her babyhood since, let's face it, there'll be no baby book as it flies by.  Unfortunately, for much the same reason there's yet to be a baby book (which is: Because I Can Barely Keep Up With The Baby) it has been difficult to grab a moment or three to blog about this girl.

Except for now, because It Must Happen. 

So let us speak about Babies and Kitchens, for a moment, shall we?

Wait.

Let us speak honestly about babies and kitchens...

Aah, now that's better. 

No, no, please, don't bother picking anything up.  She will just pull it all right back out and then you'll weep.  Might as well just step over it.  Or, kick it!  Like the boys do! 

...And ask me to wash it before you eat off of it. 

...And unpile the trash and recycle can pile if you really need to throw something away. 

...Or whine, if you're the dog and cannot reach your food and water dishes wayyy up there on the counter from three hours ago.

And please for the love of all things holy, keep the dishwasher closed and the handle at the halfway point between open and closed or she'll either turn it on or open the door and climb right in, heading first for the very sharpest object available. 

Who, me?

I love this baby.

Initially I fought the power, trying cabinet locks that didn't hold, and using the old fashioned "No!" as she yanked the blender, chopper and serving dishes galore from down under.  

Then I grew a brain and filled the end cabinet with all things plastic, and made her happy.

What the hell is this metal baking sheet doing in here?  Clearly my mother cannot sort.

Be gone from my sight!

Hey look!  A brother!

A Duplo-yielding brother, at that!

Behold my angelic baby innocence, and keep it in the forefront of thou mind.

You know what these Duplos are good for? 

Only one thing...

 
Breaking! 

Then throw 'em down on the floor, right at his feet.

Once you're a safe distance away, tease him like crazy.  

Tell him you're going to throw a giant plastic useless cake thing at him, and that for sure will distract him enough. 

He will start to chase you, and that will give you the perfect chance to dart over and...

...take down the next tower. 

Heh heh heh.

Smash!

This four minutes of household destruction brought to you by...my stripey chip and dip plate.  May it make it through the storms, someday to see more than just toddler feet again.  

Mmmmmm

I have a confession to make... 

There is something I've been doing a whole lot of lately.

Like it's my job.

I've invited it to live in my house,

and I've been bathing my children in it.

Sunday drives, Saturday walks, Tuesday afternoon playground beneath the trees.  No matter.

Ohhh the colors.  The Oaks, Maples, Sassafras, Tree of Heaven, you name it. 

The sunlight and the shadows are just different in the fall.  The sky is another shade of blue that is more lovely than usual, and the breeze has this sound and it carries those smells.

Even the water is prettier at this time of year, if that be possible.

These are not the leaves of last year, or the year before.  Each one lived its whole life this past summer and we will not see these particular ones ever again after the yellow, orange and red, and after they fall.  They did not worry if it was too short or long or hot or cool of a summer, or if for sure they would know the way to their new hues when the time arrived.  Or how they would let go of the branches.  And they've turned out absolutely gorgeous, and perfect.  

There are lessons in fall.

Last year we attempted a fall outing or two, being it my favorite time of year, and it was rough.  We had a brand new baby who was neither fond of the car nor bunting nor the cool air.

And just one year later she's joining the rest of the crew, climbing playground equipment as much as I'll allow. 

How did that happen so fast?

I've photographed all of this so many times over the last several years, but I still can't get enough.  If the sun is shining, we are back out, somewhere.

...Sometimes in southern Michigan, evading local law enforcement for photographing a house that neither belongs to myself and my husband, nor, say, anyone else on the planet we know.

(It isn't my fault they've created the perfect autumn porch, right?)

(No, ma'am, I wasn't trying to photograph you.  Just your mums...)

Okay fine, and this secluded beauty too.  But only because I could imagine myself someday living in it.  After buying it, in the most legal ways possible.

(No one was home.  Geez, look at the empty driveway!)

I love you, pumpkin.

Intoxicating, isn't it?

If you need me, you know where to find me.

Only as far from your property line as my zoom lens will reach, if you've got nice foliage.

Or, in the slammer. 

If I'm unlucky.

Blog, Interrupted

What better way to start the year with ... a few? ... projects that pulled me away from the internet for a while. 

Now, I won't lie.  It has been a bit hectic keeping up with my three little chickens and taking on a large magnitude of projects, but this has been so much fun to do.

And with fun, you know it must have something to do with paint in my house.

We took down our Christmas decorations a few weeks ago, which somehow spurred a serious cleaning and organizing jag.  Something with feeling my post-pardum-post-pregnancy-post-let's-get-this-show-on-the-road energy return completely to normal in the most wicked-compelling way, but this month has been dedicated to the running start. I cleaned closets and cabinets far and wide, and then decided it was high time that the bunkbedding begin, and Marin have her own bedroom (nevermind the fact she's still sleeping beside me.)  Then I added in a few decorative projects I'd been meaning to take on over the long pregnant year past, and painted my lower level family room.  And in addition to all that?  Marin learned to roll from belly to back, and I conquered the impossible by potty training Jack.  Hallelujah, there will be no jumbo packs of Luvs mailed with his Notre Dame University care packages.

No in-process pictures this time, save you from reading this for exactly as long as I was missing in action.  Just finished projects:

 

The Roommates!  They have been stacked!

With each discussion we had about the boys sharing a bedroom, they requested I use their favorite colors - Crimson Red and Hunter Green.  I had to figure out a way to satisfy all members of the house (read: myself) by steering clear of The Deep Dark Christmas Bedroom, and so I incorporated their favorites with a shade of tan.

And all the world (and the solar system, as well) was satisfied.

 

Likely, this picture documents the last time this room shall be categorized as Clean.  It now houses, in addition to two thrilled little boys, forty-two Geotrax trains, tracks, station and brother airport, seventeen Bionicle men, twelve thousand Legos, four hundred blankets and stuffed animals, two loaded dressers, one bursting bookcase and approximately twelve square feet of play-available floor space.

 

And combining that?  Made room for this! 

And not just a corner of her brother's room, anymore!

 

A full-fledged Neopolitan Ice Cream-Inspired baby girl nursery.

 

With board books to be read and new toys still in boxes, not to be played with or otherwise dismantled until she is ready for them.  

 

...Leaving us the luxury of an un-baby stuff stuffed bedroom of our own, if you can imagine.

 

...Inspiring me to paint and utilize an old basement storm window from our friends' turn of the century home as a picture frame above our bed.

 

And this one in our upstairs hallway, as well, using a doctored form of the Fingerprints poem.   

 

I also gave some badly needed attention to our living room couch pillows by making some new covers for them.  Less than seven dollars of fabric from the discount table and call it a day.

 

All of these projects brought to you by two weeks of on-again off-again snow and thirteen degrees below zero temperatures in the Midwest.

I never did manage to photograph the family room, but take my word for the fact that it was well past midnight, I was still in my paint clothes and highly delirious from fumes when I decided to cover over the lower-half blue walls I never really cared for.  That which was meant to mimic slate actually screamed 1982 COUNTRY GOOSE COOKIE JAR GETS A BLUE RIBBON ROUND HER NECK.  Now it says, "Relax. Dark Green was a better alternative, and free.  See bedroom above."

We finally ended all of the home decor madness with a different kind of madness, by hosting our Wisconsin Twins X Two pals for the weekend (do the quick math: we spent Friday through Sunday as a clan of four adults and seven children.  Seven children ages four months to six years.  Three of whom are barely finishing adventures with potty training, one who does not sleep through the night.)  Remind me to share with you sometime what it was like to take those seven children to the local TGI Fridays during dinner rush.  In my mind these outings are always so much simpler than when actually executed.  Go figure.

Three cheers for a productive January. 

Random by Number

I really have no excuse for not posting.  It's the same no excuse that I have for wet clothes sitting in my washer for three days, for allowing every floor and every room of my house to look like the aftermath of a Toys R Us twister, and again the same excuse I have for putting my toddler down for his afternoon nap still in his pajamas.  Other than?  I'm so tired, incubating baby hath zapped last of mah energies.  You remember I was once a completely anal-retentive house cleaning painting obsessing perfectionist mostly, yes?  Ugh.   

Have you random thoughts, in no particular order, numbered for semi-organizational happiness:

1. Renters: still there!  Haven't called!  Futon frame still on the front porch!  Who cares!?

2. Drove a solid hour into another state yesterday afternoon for organic whole milk fresh mozzarella cheese and tomatoes and $95 worth of other crap and would consider doing it again today, if it weren't for my pesky doctor appointment.

3. When worlds collide: Pineapple addiction coupled with baby inhabiting esophagus is causing massive heartburn and newfound Tums addiction.  Cannot stop eating pineapple, oww pain burn.

4. I snickered quietly as Jack described our new backyard pool to a woman in Target.  As he explained splashing cold water, pool toys, and even the slide that he uses to go down into it, I am fairly sure she had illusions of our back yard grandeur.  But really, he was telling her all about this:

Aside: Not a word about the length of our grass, which seems to be naturally reseeding itself (because we TOTALLY need more grass to cut.)  We cut the front religiously, but the back?  It's our little secret what things look like inside the six foot privacy fence, mkay?  When I begin losing children in there, I'll add it to the list of seven thousand other things I need Kevin to do.

5. Most of the day (read: the twelve minutes we do not spend in our back yard) young child still in dinosaur pajamas stands at the back door asking to play in the back yard:

And if the answer in return is any form of No, including the one where I say Yes, In Five Minutes, this crying screaming attaching himself to my pajamas clothes is the result:

Damn that 2000 gallon 12 gallon in-ground blue plastic pool with slide.

6. Am having a Tastefully Simple party at my house on Sunday (because I'm crazy) (because I'm hungry) (okay, both).  If you, too, are pregnant, or not at all but feel the urge to eat an entire loaf of beer bread and bowl of spinach dip with me in spirit from across the miles?  You can join my party by emailing me.  It ships to your house.  (I've told you before that I sold this stuff for the two years after KJ was born, right?  The first year I did one party after the next.  And then the second year?  I did just enough parties to maintain my discount, mmmmmmmm need more bread.)

7. I do hope the nurse decides in a fit of miracles and rainbows rained down from heaven to not weigh me this afternoon.  Wouldn't that be swell?  (Ha! Swell! Like my feet and ankles! Ahem.)

8. On very rare occasions where a spot or two of energy hits me, I take on small projects around the house.  Most recently we replaced our green shutters with black (the green coupled with the terra cotta brick was not doing it for me):

painted the formerly green front door with gold fixtures and locks, black with silver fixtures and locks:

and replaced the awful brass light fixtures

with new ones:

New fixtures that I really liked the style and price of, but hated the (rust) color of, so I painted them.  Squee! 

9. All that for under $100, happy happy joy joy, thank you Lowe's coupon. 

10. With Tuesday being KJ's last day of preschool and his (rained out) field day, I volunteered as one of the game moms.  Oddly enough, the other mothers (who clearly had given birth to children before, I assume?) were quite worried for me "in my condition" chasing after runaway beanbags and hoola hoops, and put me on the mystery box game, which involved three hours of overseeing sweaty children digging in a cardboard box for a rubber band and a butterfly magnet.  And while the break they gave me, so as not to go into labor at school, I was told, gave me the opportunity to snap pictures of my son shooting baskets and winning a third place ribbon, it was still a bit odd that everyone was suddenly so panicked about a late second/early third trimester pregnancy?  In a school full of recently born children?

And with that, I'm off.  For it might be nice if I show up to my 24 week doctor appointment showered, and not in pajamas, an hour from now.  Eek!

(Non) Hired Help

Several months ago, upon finishing up an afternoon of paying bills, I brought my giant pile of financial information-bearing papers to the kitchen for shredding.  And as I got to work KJ asked what I was doing, and if he could give it a whirl.  I checked to be sure fingers could not reach the blades, and away he went. 

He's now used the shredder quite a few times, and has the method down pat.  Though, usually, this is something that is reserved for Jackson's napping hours. 

Except for today. 

I paid bills this morning, and without thinking brought up the pile of papers and called KJ to the kitchen.  This being one of his more exciting chores, he raced in and got started.  Of course, Jack quickly followed to figure out what fun was to be had. 

I explained with a little snicker that KJ was playing Enron, and immediately Jack was all about "pwaying Enwon" as well.

At first he excitedly grabbed a handful and tried stuffing them in all at once.

But KJ was quick to show him how to properly unfold each sheet and insert them one in at a time (to make the job last as long as possible, of course,) and though Jack never really got the hang of it, he was quite happy to function as The Unfolder.

And then when the job was finished, the real fun began.  Because what KJ never thought to do was ask if those great shreds?  Could be dumped out, and played with.

They started out with less than half of what had been shredded.  It functioned as grass, and snow, and rain.  They made a mountain, and a pathway, and then the Earth.  And while I declined requests for a big bottle of glue, pleeeease, I was happy to let them play away as long as the mess was contained to the kitchen.

The pile grew larger and larger and larger,

until finally the Fisher Price school bus was called in to haul some of it away.

And folks, you'd be amazed at how much a school bus can really hold.  A whole tower, says he.

Of course, what help would the school bus be without the accompaniment of a bulldozer, dump truck (and lime green squirt gun?) to contribute to the fun.  It was all out paper mayhem, with vehicles,

and bodies, included.

After a good long while, the disaster was wide spread and the paper fun began to grow old, as most things do when you're five and two (and twenty-nine.)  And I looked around my kitchen, which now appeared to be the hosting room from last night's frat party, and wondered what exactly I had started by calling for help in the first place.

Just yesterday Kevin's eighty-two year old Granny shared with me that those days spent with her young children were the best days of her life, and in spite of the somtimes crazy and frequent messes, I can definitely see how.

Zero to Sixty

Up until week twelve of this pregnancy, I had just enough energy to feed myself and my children, and run the dishwasher on a daily basis.  On the days KJ did not have school, we found ourselves in pajamas until 4pm.  On days he did?  I returned to pajamas as soon as we arrived home from Preschool pick-up.  Occasionally I would find the energy for activities that did not involve dozing off on the couch while my children enjoyed tv marathons, but those days were not very common.  I was so terribly exhausted all the time.

Cue Monday.

As I started laundry on Monday morning, I decided to run upstairs and take a peek at what we had in Spring clothing stored in Jack's closet - either clothes I had saved from KJ, or stuff I'd picked up over the winter for him.  Once I finished sorting through the containers in Jack's closet, I couldn't resist going through KJ's as well.  I really do love cleaning out closets and dressers.  It's a sickness.

By this time I'd already doubled the piles of laundry waiting for attention in the laundry room, so I figured it couldn't hurt to sort through some of the Rubbermaid containers bursting with clothing out in the garage.  Which turned out to be fourteen of them.

I ended up going through all of my seasonal decorations, four sizes of kid clothes and two sizes of adult clothes, and I even located the container of bake ware I had been searching for since we moved. 

I washed something like sixteen loads of clothes, and found homes for all of it - be those homes dresser drawers or the multitude of bags packed for donating.  I figured I would just keep working until I got tired again, because it was amazing to have energy again.

But then yesterday?  The tired did not come, and I decided to work on a few more projects. 

First I ran out for paint, and painted the inside of my front door blue.  I knew from the moment I painted that room, that I wanted the door blue, and there was no better time than the present. 

I sorted through my newly discovered bake ware and decided what I really needed to keep, and what I didn't.  (I've told you how much I love my dishwasher, yes?)

It's amazing, after not seeing it for six months, what I found I really didn't need cluttering up the cabinets after all.

The boys were doing such a good job of entertaining themselves with vials of glitter, markers,

and paper body parts, that I moved on to yet another project.

For months now, I've been hating the way I originally set up the furniture and toy shelves in the family room, with an area for sitting and an area for toys.  It made sense at the time, but how it ended up was being an area we never sat in, and a constant toy disaster that was much less preferred to what was supposed to be the upstairs toy-free living room.  Both the upstairs and the downstairs were a constant mess, and what I had was not working. 

I moved the couch and chair to allow all of the toy shelves, baskets and miscellaneous stuff to fit together, creating a giant, usable area.  This way the kids can play or watch tv as they choose, and visitors who drop by are not met with Toys R Us the minute they walk through the door.  I removed every last toy from the upstairs living room, again, and made it all fit downstairs.

On the other side of the room, there remains a train table and ten thousand Thomas engines in my workspace, but I'm taking what I can get, and this new set-up really seems to be working.

Today I think I really will kick back and enjoy what I've accomplished, and it possibly wouldn't hurt being as how I've got a doctor appointment this afternoon.  Taking it easy this pregnancy?  Absolutely!

Friday Photos: Second Blogiversary

Two years ago today, with a three week old baby in my arms and a three year old boy yanking at my sleeve, I began blogging.  I wanted to find an outlet for myself where I could plug some adult brain power into, having been a stay at home mom for three years.  Of course, I can't guarantee that you've seen that happen with every entry (ha!) but just the same I've learned so much and come so far in the last two years.  I did not know back then that what I'd really be doing is documenting the young lives of my children as well as the personal transformation I've gone through over the last couple years.  Also, who knew we'd have so much damn fun along the way?

Enjoy a sampling of pictures I've posted over the last two years. 

This was the first picture I ever posted, from my very first entry.

Aah, the infamous Baptism Picture Before The Diet.  Love. It.

Thankfully, there are During the Diet pictures,

And Somewhere Near the End of the Diet pictures.  I imagine you'll be waiting a good year for the end of this thing to roll around, ha!  (Chicken and sour cream, Chicken and sour cream!)

There have been fun pics

of the kids,

as well as fun entries with the kids.

There's been paint (oh my God has there been paint)

and may we never forget the time we built our cat into the wall.

Our poor old house has been Sold and Not Sold more than any other house in the neighborhood,

and thankfully we finally came to our senses and got the heck out of there with my last bits of sanity straggling behind.  (Still not sold thankyouverymuch.)

Which brings us to more paint,

and more home decor.

And finally, a little rest and relaxation with our toys in our jammies,

just as we gear up for our next adventure.

We interrupt this regularly scheduled blog entry...

Possibly you have wondered what happened to me, and why you have been left refreshing the same blog entry for five days now. 

Well.  I've been waiting to hear something, anything, on the closing for our old house that was originally scheduled for this week, but as it is our buyer and her agent have been MIA since early last week.  I'd be lying to you if I told you that I am remaining completely calm and just letting things happen.  What I am doing is trying to remain calm, and the results of my efforts shall not be discussed.

Also, I tried to write this entry earlier this afternoon, but was interrupted by my five year old's grand announcement that not only was Jack awake two hours early from his nap, but also he is wearing no diaper and jumping in his crib.  And poop is everywhere.

So now that you've been briefed on all that, let's talk about what's been going on while not obsessing over real estate or scrubbing toddler poop out of stuffed animals, eh?

This weekend we hit the open highway and traveled down to Indianapolis for Kara's Christening.  Since the service was scheduled for early Sunday morning, we decided to go ahead and make a weekend of it and stayed in a hotel, swimming to our hearts' content (which for me might have been only three minutes because indoor pool or not, damn that water was cold) and meeting up with our wonderful college friends.

Of course, I couldn't be in the city for more than twelve seconds before I called Bree for an impromptu baby love fest. 

(Jack loved Baby Kara, too - offering her his blanket, then stealing it back, offering his blanket, then stealing it back, and then finally locating almost every toy and blanket the poor baby owns and piling them on top of her.  Also, you may notice that on the occasion of this photo, Jack decided to test Kara's lung capabilities by leaning all of his toddler weight onto her little chest while his mother smiled euphorically at the camera.  Thank you Breain, for not dying on the spot.)

(Kara: Holy crap! Get him off!)

Jack and I would know nothing about the actual Baptism on Sunday morning as we spent the entire time out in the vestibule doing this,

and this.

I've also spent every! minute! of my spare time pouring over my latest read, Eat, Pray, Love.  I received this book as a Christmas gift from my mom (and also gave it as a Christmas gift to my mom...and six of my girlfriends because I was so! excited! about it.)  I've barely been able to put it down, and am not sure if I want to give it up to the handful of people who've asked to borrow it, or if I'd like to hide in the corner of my bedroom for the next week and read it over again, in better attempts at memorization.

Besides all of the Eating and Praying (which, to tell the truth, there's been not much eating going on around here since we're in the thick of Serious Dieting Season, but more on that later this week) I've gotten back into listing ebay, (secretly, that neatly folded pile of shirts does way more for my obsessive organizational happiness than I should ever admit to)

and sewing.

Sewing!

While in process of making our bed for Jack's birthday party last week (which shall be known as The Milestone First Making of Bed In New House) I realized when the blankets are smoothed and the pillows set neatly, our bed looks exactly like every other bed...owned by a fourteen year old boy.  Meaning to say, we are the proud owners of two blankets and four flattened pillows and not much else, and the thought occurred to me that I should pretend we are adults, and have decorative pillows.  (Which I still don't believe Kevin is very much on board with, even after I confessed dropping nearly one hundred dollars at the fabric store this morning to help resolve the newly discovered void in our life.)

Yes, there will be pillows for our bed, pillows for the new family room furniture, and a few new additions to the living room.  We will be the fluffiest, coziest, most comfortable damn house in the subdivision.

I'm even planning some pillows for the children's rooms.  And God help me, no one better poop on them.

House I Can Handle, with a few Friday Photos in the mix

Today I know little more than I did two days ago about the Old House Inspection Disaster.  We agreed to fix everything within our capabilities, promised to pony up a heap of cash at closing for the roof, and declined the buyer's request for her uncle tear apart the attic walls over the Not Sure Whether It's Asbestos Insulation.  She asked us to allow him, instead of some pricey environmental company, to tear out that insulation a week before the scheduled closing.  However, if you've been with our real estate saga for long enough, you'll agree that it is not a far jump to foresee the helpful uncle's foot going through my living room ceiling while gutting the attic that we just finished and then declaring the work too arduous, the asbestos too poisonous, and the deal very dead, goodbye forever, good luck with your walls.

Our real estate agent, who was given to me as a gift from God himself, responded to the uncle offer with a very PC statement about our worries for possible liabilities should the uncle get injured on our property.  Brilliant, she is.  Let's see if it works.

We did offer to move up the closing date, also, if she was hoping to have that job done before she moved in.  She can have the place tomorrow, as well as my dishes, camcorder and iPod if she is just willing to autograph the little dotted line.

Going back to it for a moment, if there is one thing we've relied on through this New Messy Deal, it is the brilliance of our (new) agent.  Not only is the girl a believer in the power of positive thinking, which we have discussed at length, (note: except for in the last few days) (pokes self in eyeball with screwdriver) but she also has a way of talking heart to heart with other agents over the pros and cons of electrical outlets existing in present-day bathrooms, and can persuade these people like nothing we've ever seen.  She's a spectacular listener and incredibly intuitive, and in the midst of sending an eight page fax to Kevin detailing the insane amount of insane repairs to be made to the insane house, she writes on the cover sheet, "Everything will be great in 08!" 

This, of course, could go one of two ways.  If I were not a wounded puppy in this moment, requiring the most tender reassurance and affection a real estate agent can offer (??) I might want to jab her in the eyeball with a screwdriver.  But as it is, Everything will be great in 08! is saving the last drops of my sanity, and I couldn't ask for anything more.

Now.  I think I was going to do something with pictures.  Something with the new house. 

Oh yes, right.  Something positive.  Something that worked out.  Something I like in my life.  HaHA!

Remember the project I told you about a while back?  With the fabric and whatnot?  I pulled it all together earlier this week, and I am overjoyed with the finished product.

These are the curtains I made.  They are definitely my biggest sewing project to date.  I lined them so they would be protected from the sun.  I hand-stitched the black silky ropey part on (look out Martha, here I come...with all of my big words).  I found exactly the drapery clips I'd envisioned, and am quite happy with my new finials.

(Your mom's got new finials!)

For the nearby wall of black and whites, I found a centerpiece that conveys exactly what I feel when I look at this wall -- intense gratitude.  It reads, "Begin each day with a grateful heart."

For several years now, I've been holding the plans for this wall in my mind.  I've been wanting to frame black and whites of our family over my dining room table, where we gather as a family to share meals and stories and discussions and play-doh and coloring book pages.  The space was just never there at the old house.

But now I finally have it -- with the pictures I took, with the table I refinished, with the curtains I made, for the meals I serve, for the family I love.

I am beyond excited for this corner of my new house.  You just might find me snuggled beneath the table in my sleeping bag one morning, basking in my intense gratitude.

Right-Brain Reliable

Alternatively titled: Every Last Detail In My House Involves The Color Black, Because That's The Way, Uh-huh Uh-huh, I Like It.

I have to admit something to you...

By the end of NaBloPaintMo just about a month ago, I was considering it one of my least favorite ideas ever - to blog my way through thirty days of the not pretty, and to show the world wide web every nook and cranny of unfinished space in my new little house.  It was extremely tiring and incredibly taxing on my poor OCD-controlled brain, to post photographs of empty room after empty room on this site, fresh coats of paint be damned.  I realized from the get-go that I wouldn't be recreating the interior walls and architectural features of the Edinburgh Castle (though if you ever need some painting done fast, Dear Scots, I'm here for you,) but I jumped on that Long-Blogging Bandwagon during one of the busiest times in my life just the same, and dragged you with me.  Because it was late at night on the thirty-first of October, and I was still undecided.  And if there's anything I hate more than posting pictures of unfinished projects for all the world to see, it's indecision.

(And paragraphs loaded with run-on sentences and rebellious grammar.  Ahem.)

So now after giving you a break from all that painty fun, I've decided that the least I can do is show you some of the progress I've made since slathering the walls in smelly latex-based color.

Because this is the fun part, no?

The very first area I chose to work on was that above my computer desk in the family room.  It's tucked away in the corner, and had just the right amount of space for a few of the pictures that reside on my hard drive.  I decided that when it came to decorating this new place, that my pictures should be part of the fun.  I chose images of our favorite places, as well as my favorites of our little family.  My goal here has been to make our home most resemble who we are and where we are headed - someplace that is both comfortable and inspiring to us.

I also finally have curtains hanging in the family room - after a sad little run with some very wrong panels I'd spent a day making, I reverted to sets I'd once used in the old house.  Thankfully, they work well in this room.

Being as how the family room is sunken down a good four feet from the kitchen and gazes out onto the rear lawn, I was careful to give my wall decor height, as well as mount my curtain rods quite close to the ceiling.  This gave the illusion that the ceiling was actually a bit higher than it is.

For Jack's room, I made little animal wall plaques for the sake of the last ounces of baby cuteness left in him.

In no time, the adorable little animals and sweet baby colors and comfortable rocking chair will be replaced with B2 Bombers and Steam Locomotives, I'm sure.  Just see the boy who resides across the hall from this one, to know for sure.

It's already happening.  See the way he rocks, over the arm with no hands?  Was it not just yesterday that he preferred to rock safely in my clothing?

Being as how we, for the first time evah, have space to both hang things on our bedroom wall and walk on both sides of the bed (I'm getting carried away here) I decorated our bedroom to be a place for just Kevin and I.  It is about the only room in the house that is mostly free of Fisher Price and dirty little boy socks, so I might as well run with it. 

My favorite, favorite, faaavorite project for this house has to be the one above, that I am currently working on.  I've been holding it in my mind for years, literally, until I finally owned the right space for it, and the anticipation for the finish is killing me. 

This is the corresponding fabric that will hang near my precious project wall, over my kitchen slider doors.  It is my biggest (and most expensive) sewing project to date, incorporating twenty-four yards of fabric (gasssp).  The pressure is on for this one, which is why I sit here typing instead of cutting and pinning.  Heh.

You feel my fear? 

I knew you'd be with me.

Honorable mention goes to a lesser project that the kids and I worked on one blustery afternoon: The All-Important Paper Snowflake Decor.  They're so much fun to make whether you're three or thirty, especially if you make them while sipping on hot chocolate.

Happy Projecting, and also this entry totally covers this week's Friday Photos, no?

XO