Getting my money's worth

Preschool is pretty much Sir O's favorite thing ever.  As in, he has massive meltdowns on the mornings he doesn't get to go.  (It's only a twice weekly class).

He's been reciting "Brown Bear" for a week now, but I was still surprised when yesterday he brought home his own handmade edition.  I think he has never been more proud than he is when he can "read" this book by himself.

Rock on, preschool.

Every Little Moment

(My apologies for the redundancy to my facebook friends)

A mere 10 days ago, I was lucky enough to have a whirlwind maternity session with Samantha and Aubrey of Every Little Moment Photography.  They were nice enough to squeeze me into a very full day, probably because  Samantha is my cousin and it's hard to tell a massively pregnant lady no.  My friend Leith spoiled me with a professional make-up session (a.k.a. miraculously erasing both my pregnancy acne and the perma-circles under my eyes) and we trekked out to a quasi-spooky abandoned farm in Pleasant Grove.

I have to admit that I look at these and think "Whoa, I am huge."  This is why I've not been posting many photos of myself lately.  I'm not that secure.  Luckily, despite my hugeness, these are pretty.  I lurve the talented people that made them so, because gobs of talent were involved, and required, to get this result.

take it and run with it

Mr Renn and I decided we'd better get into the habit of laying out the boys' clothes for the next day, just in case anything exciting happens in the middle of the night.... like labor.
Last night I layed out an outfit for Sir O on the floor by his closet - shorts, shirt, underoos - and told him he was welcome to get himself dressed when he woke up. (He's perfectly capable, but often unwilling).

He did not opt to get himself dressed as soon as he woke up, but I did find piles of "outfits" in every corner of the room.  I'm not sure if he's asserting his independence about picking his own clothes, or just finding things to do instead of going to sleep at night:

Reports

Mr Renn and Sir O are safely home, and the baby is still not here.
Relieved?  Yes.

It sounds like they had a lovely time.  Mr Renn got oodles of wood cut and stacked.



Sir O caught his first fish.






And our new/old table and chairs made it here safely. They are at least 102 years old.  I think they are lovely, even if they need some love.  We're good at loving furniture. (Or we will be, once we can take them back out of our storage unit in 10 months or so and start working on them).



I got to attend the General Relief Society Meeting tonight with my Mother-in-Law.  It was awesome.  I have been explicitly called to repentance in at least 4 ways and I don't even mind. I can't remember the last time President Monson made me laugh so much.  Make sure to watch/read/listen to it online if you missed it.  I personally vouch for it being a very worthwhile hour.

camped out

Greetings friends.

The weekend finds the Captain and I keeping the homefire burning, with the explicit assignment of not going into labor until everyone returns.  That would be funny, except Thursday found me not quite 38 weeks along but very dialated and very effaced.  My doctor said she'll be surprised if I make it to my next appointment.  That doesn't necessarily mean anything.... except kind of it does.  At least Mr Renn and Sir O will be back from Flaming Gorge sometime tomorrow.  I'm pretty sure I can make it until then.  And there will be lots to share.  I'm told Sir O caught his first fish today, and that heaps of firewood were cut, split, and stacked. (And that our new/very old dining table and chairs are loaded and ready to go.  All of this makes me happy.

Watching the Captain without his usual antagonist around has been pretty enlightening.  If every child was as easy as the Captain (minus his inability to sleep like a normal human being), then parenting would be a breeze.   He doesn't have Sir O's defiant streak, he gets his excitement in life from compliance.  Everybody who spends time with him is beside themselves with his cuteness and amiability.  He is almost too easy to love. (in the time I've been typing this, he dumped out the bucket of chalk, and then neatly placed each piece back in the bucket).

And yet maybe because I have to make a more conscious effort to love Sir O with all his energy and spunk and spite, and overwhelmedness I feel I have a more complex and unconditional love for him sometimes.  It makes me encouraged to think that God's ability to love us is not at all contingent upon our obedience.  (His ability to bless us may be, but not to love us.)  It's always insightful to examine the dichotomies of my mother-son relationships.  So hey(!), let's throw another one into the mix.  Soon apparently. Maybe.  Gah.

Invictus

I sincerely hope you're already familiar with this poem by William Ernest Henley.
I've had reason to recite it to myself a few times of late.
(Since it was brought to mind with a mention on Music and the Spoken Word a few weeks ago)
Sometimes language is truly a blessing, it's amazing what it can do.
But if you want to be inspired, read about the author here.

INVICTUS

Out of the night that covers me,

Black as the Pit from pole to pole,

I thank whatever gods may be

For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance

I have not winced nor cried aloud.

Under the bludgeonings of chance

My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears

Looms but the Horror of the shade,

And yet the menace of the years

Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,

How charged with punishments the scroll.

I am the master of my fate:

I am the captain of my soul. 

bounty

Last night we trekked over to Mr Renn's parents' to help pick tomatoes and grapes.  Well, mostly grapes.



They're being taken up to Flaming Gorge this weekend so that Mr Renn's grandma can juice them.  She has both the know-how and the time.  (I have neither right now - plus can you imagine the mess my boys might make in the kitchen?!).  I helped Mr Renn pick the concords, and they smelled divine.  Musty and subtle, but very much screaming through scent to be picked.



 We chatted across the grapevines about several of our "somedays".  We have a lot of gardening "somedays" between us, and today Mr Renn added grapevines to them.  I'm dreaming up a trellis/pergola for grapes like one we saw in the idea garden at Longwood last year.



 It feels so good to spend time gardening at dusk with the whole family, even if I can only actively participate in short bursts right now.  If you have a garden I suggest you spend every evening in it until the weather turns.  It feels like the right place to be.

Morale boosters

Little things I'm doing to keep my spirits up as my body swells and aches lately:

Making a front door wreath out of roadside weeds.  (Those thistles were vicious!)



Laying claim to the last of the garden roses for my bedroom. (Not very nice of me, but I'm enjoying them!)



Stocking up on vanilla beans at Smith's.  Some organic brand is being clearanced out and I got them for 70% off.

Making buckwheat pancakes.

Eating buckwheat pancakes with nutella.

Anticipating my grandpa's white peaches about to be in season.

Eating the last of the regular peaches in season.

Eating just about all of the cherry tomatoes out of our garden all by myself.

Eating just about everything I lay my eyes on.

Trying not to think about how much weight I'm gaining, or how hard it will be to shed later.

Pondering whether I can fit one more sewing project in before the baby arrives.  I have all the supplies for his blessing outfit.  I just need to get started.

Avoiding housecleaning, especially floors.

Looking forward to a few days in the hospital with a call-nurse button and a nursery.  A little calm before the storm.

Meal planning all the way up to my due date.

Making a ridiculous amount of lists.

Not fitting into any of my clothes.

Trying to decide which short, low-maintenance haircut I want to get, and whether to get it right before or right after the baby is born.

Getting the family geared up for General Conference.   (And rather hoping the baby doesn't decide to interrupt it).

Being excited for my Dad's half-sister's wedding (that I also hope I make it too... but it'll be close).

Trying to have conversations about boy-names with Mr Renn (they never get anywhere).

Feeling my hips spread, and remembering how much I don't like that part.

Letting Mr Renn and the boys feel and talk to my belly.

Falling asleep in strange positions at random times.

Feeling a kind of glowing excitement for the upcoming Holidays as a family of 5.  (Minus the first 3 weeks of November.... Renn will be 6 hours away on an Indian Reservation and I might just lose my marbles).

Drinking Hot Chocolate every morning.

Cuddling with Mr Renn across the sea of pillows required for me to sleep at night.

Getting my pre-labor pedicure from my sweet cousin Camile!





(Color: Opi's Tasmanian Devil Made Me Do It.  Lame name, cool color)

Nursery Projects Part 3 - Loose Ends

During my excursion to Savers, I found two down-filled throw pillows in dated lavender covers for $2 each.  Covering them with zippered covers was one of my last sewing projects, so this pillow had to be pieced together and have a seam down one side.  I decided to embrace the seam and put a ribbon ruffle down it.  It is after all a unisex nursery.

For the crib bedding, I started with this crib skirt from the Target from the Dwell Studio line a few years ago.  I added the mini-pom-pon trim to tie in the turquoise.

With the rest of the trim, I embellished this $9 walmart lampshade.

I was excited to finally try building Jenny's Pelmet Boxes.  Trying to stretch this fabric and keep the pattern straight just about drove me batty, but I love the structure they add to the room.  The windows look so polished now, and this is such a ridiculously easy, affordable project!

I made the crib bumpers with some pre-cut foam pieces from the fabric store.  Other than a copious amount of whip-stitching this was a super-easy sewing project.  Lots of straight lines.  I don't really like the look of ties on crib bumpers, so I tried to come up with something more streamlined.  I know that you're not supposed to use buttons because of the choking hazard, but I'm pretty sure that the crib bumpers always get removed from the crib before my babies are capable of pulling them off or putting them in their mouths.

A few finishing touches - a succulent from ikea (sadly replacing my dead prayer plant I'd bought at Longwood Gardens that used to live in that pot) and a handmade engine I forgot to give Sir O for his birthday.

And a little deer that called to me from the kitsch shelf of Savers.

The windows in the room have built-in window seats, but had never had any seating made.  I bought a large piece of foam intended for a large bench cushion, split the thickness of it in half to create 2 cushions, and cut them to size.  Then I sewed slipcovers for them from the Joel Dewberry fabric.  I love how they turned out.

I'm clearly crazy for taking on so many projects in just over a month, but I love sitting in this little room and soaking up the feeling of it.  That's got to be worth something, possibly even worth all the work I've put into it!

Nursery Projects Part 2 - Art

My parents have never decorated the upstairs bedrooms in this house.  I found that I was going to have to come up with wall-hangings all on my own (No stash to search through, and no borrowing from other rooms) and do it as cheaply as possible.  This is problematic since I vastly prefer original art to reproductions - so I had to use my noggin a little.

I got this little original number from etsy.



And I bought two large original paintings from ebay.  One, an impasto came already framed.  To make it pop a bit more I taped off the innermost portion of the frame (so it could act as a matte) and painted the frame with my Martha Stewart Cornbread sample.







I bought an ACEO photography print from etsy, and mounted it on cardstock and placed it in a frame that I also painted yellow.  I bought the mother/baby etching already framed on ebay.  (And OH how I love it - I might have to take that one with me when we move...)



The other painting I bought on ebay came as a stretched canvas, but unframed.  I followed Jenny Komenda's tutorial to make a custom frame for it.





With still plenty of wall space left, I let Sir O contribute with some original art on a blank canvas I painted with leftover paint from the dresser/changing table.



And on another blank canvas (covered in the MS Cornbread) We started a collection of grandchildren's handprints.  (You can see where we attempted to add the Captain, but having paint all over his hand proved to be more than his OCD self could handle.  Maybe in a year we can bribe him to hold still).





Above the crib I created a collection of baby photos of my parents and their children.  We photoshopped them all to be similarly sized and colored, then I printed them and hung them in mocha colored Ikea Ribba Frames.  It's one of our favorite parts of the room!

Nursery Projects Part 1 - furniture

The biggest project in this nursery was the changing table.  I got it from craigslist for $40.  Once I sanded it down and saw how patched-together it really was I think I paid too much, but the lady I bought it from had a personality at least 6 times the size of mine and I doubt I could have talked her down.  The dresser portion was pretty old, and it looks like someone added the top significantly later.  There were lots of broken parts along the bottom of the drawers, requiring even more repair and lots of sanding to try to get them to fit and slide smoothly.  (Which they still struggle with.)  Lots of sanding, and a large bottle of stainable wood filler, and it was finally ready to prime.

I used Zinsser oil-base primer (and found out due to EPA regulations that by the end of the year you will no longer be able to buy oil-based primer OR paint.... at least not at hardware stores) and let the primer dry over a weekend.

Then we tackled painting.  This job took 3 coats of Martha Stewart's "Duck's Egg" mixed in one of the last cans of oil-based paint they had in the store.  While working on the dresser, I also primed and painted the plaster base of the side table.  (I think it was originally intended to be garden furniture.  It has a plaster base and a faux-marble cement top)

I covered the dresser with 2 coats of Jenny Komenda's favorite "wipe on poly", and then coated the bottom of the drawers with bar-soap and candle wax in an attempt to get them to glide smoothly.

I bought new handles for the changing table.  Jadeite milk-glass.  I am thrilled with them, and Mr Renn hates them.  This is how my relationship with pressed glass tends to mesh with my marriage, every.single.time.

The changing table had come with a changing pad, but it wasn't a standard size, so I had to sew my own changing pad covers.  I used some more Joel Dewberry fabric that coordinated.  (I found that cool ice-bucket on etsy.  It holds lotion and diaper-rash cream and milicon and such)



Here you can see how the side-table turned out, and can also see the Large chair and footstool (more on those below)



The children's Louis XIV chair I was thrilled to spot at Saver's for under $5.  The upholstery was filthy, and some kid had attacked the arms with an orange highlighter.

Someday I want to reupholster and paint it, but that was SO not in the budget for now.  Instead I had it (and the other chairs) cleaned when my parents were having their carpets cleaned, and decided to try dying the existing fabric.

This fabric spray paint was about $6 at Michaels.  I ended up needing to use 2 bottles, but only because we had the brilliant idea to rinse it with a power-washer the first time.  The coverage is still not perfect, and by no stretch of the imagination looks professional, but it works for now (until I am in a position to reupholster the chair).

The most time consuming part was taping off all of the wood (which proved to be unnecessary, since the dye that still managed to get on the wood wiped or flaked right off).

The large green chair is the perfect color for this room, but it's not staying in this room.  After we move I'm taking it with us, and my mom's wood rocking chair will take it's place.  This chair will also most likely be reupholstered someday, but in the meantime it had some threadbare spots.  For a quick and very short-term fix I tackled those with a matching sharpie.  Oh yes, I am a high roller.(But it worked, it looks a lot better)

Before:

After:

I spent weeks trying to find a footstool to use with this chair (because nursing is always easier with elevated feet) but couldn't find anything in my price range.  Then while I was sewing in the basement I stumbled upon a box containing the pieces of an old vanity bench.  One of the legs had split down the center and been declared un-repairable (even if they glued it, it could never bear weight).  But my mom had had a hard time parting with it, so in the basement it sat (for years!) waiting for me.  I ordered 4 pine sofa legs off of ebay.  (I actually ordered them before finding the bench - serendipitous story) and had Mr Renn construct a new base substituting the 6 inch sofa legs for the 24 inch vanity bench legs.

Then we sanded, primed, painted, polyeurethaned, and reupholstered the top.  I used a $3 tester of Martha Stewart's "Cornbread" for this and all other yellow painted-nurseryness.  Voila - one footstool!