A Saturday Project

I bought a Moses basket for Blueberry at a yard sale last month. It looks pretty much exactly like this:


Three people who saw me carrying it around voluntarily commented on it. One lady said, "You're going to love that!" SOLD! The woman running the sale said she used it for her son 10 years ago. Her son was there; he looked about 10 years old, and none the worse for wear. SOLD AGAIN! The woman's husband later appeared and said that they used to bring it (with their son in it, I presume) out on the back patio and sip coffee. SOLD AGAIN!

It came with a waterproof bottom cushion and two washable cushion covers, but without a liner. So today, I made one for it:


I am quite thrilled with how it turned out. I made it out of fleece because Blueberry will be using it in the winter to start with (inside, of course), and because fleece is one of the few fabrics that does not require hemming. I didn't even need to sew anything; I just cut 1/2" holes to thread the strips through to attach it to the basket. It's on there pretty good but is easily removable for washing. If you click to enlarge the photo, you can see the fringe I put around the edge. This step is what took the longest but it helps it look more finished.

Since I didn't do much measuring (I much prefer eyeballing when possible), the striped fabric with lots of colors turned out to be very useful to make sure I was keeping it even everywhere. Stanley says it reminds him of Joseph's Coat of Many Colors, so being that it is on a "Moses" basket, it's a virtual testament to the Old Testament. I think I will fill it with stuffed animals, two of each kind, and then banish it from the garden.

I'm ready for Halloween. The candy is next to the door, the porch light is on, and Stanley is at the grocery store, buying, among other things, more candy for the trick-or-treaters. We have enough candy for 34 kids, and it seems like we got more kids than that last year.

In addition to handing out treats tonight, I'll be working on curtains, pillows, and lamp shade decorations for the nursery. When Stanley gets back, he's going to start painting the nursery. It is my utmost hope and, dare I say it, expectation, that in one or two weeks from now I'll be able to post photos of a completed nursery. I'm excited!

Tea for Fifteen

I got on here to post an entry and saw that my friend Amacrine (blackbirdnight) just posted on her blog, so it's going to look like I'm copying her. But I can't let that stop me. First things first. The belly:

Blueb is good, kicking up a storm on occasion, and getting hiccups every few days, which is cute. She's this big (the coin is a quarter):


And she can blink her eyes.

I had a wonderful shower this past Sunday. It was a tea party. Stanley's mom came up from Texas for the occasion. I got to use my wedding china and silver, try out some great teas, and gnosh on fabulous finger food. Plus I hung out with some lovely ladies, who gave me terrific, thoughtful gifts. Here are some photos from the event.

Approximately two-thirds of the guests. My friend Tori*, who hosted the shower, is second from the left:


Tea...


Gnosh...



Each guest decorated a onesie for me with fabric paint.


The finished products:


Stanley and our friend Bob* admiring the artwork after the shower.

Everyone gave me a favorite children's book, and described why they liked it. Here's me explaining why Robert Louis Stevenson's A Child's Garden of Verses is my favorite. I can't explain my facial expression.


I felt so blessed and grateful to have had such a wonderful baby shower. I'm in the middle of thank you notes now.

Also on the to-do list, just because I like to list my to-do list:

• Take video of my cat Sappho playing dead, and put it on Youtube
• Xerox Stanley's genealogy, which his mom brought with her on her visit. It's a rich source of baby names.
• Work more on baby names
  
• Start filling in Blueberry's baby book
• Buy birth announcements
• Wash new diapers 5 times to get them fluffy and absorbent
• Give myself a haircut
• Continue working on the nursery (it's prepped for painting, Stanley is going to paint this weekend, and I've got a bunch of fabric for curtains, pillows, etc. Can't wait to show you photos.)
• Put out the trash
• Fix all the clocks in the house. They are all off by a little bit one way or the other.

Oh hey, the World Series is on. That kind of crept up on me this year. Yankees/Phillies, huh? Interesting.

*Names changed.

Accidental Blogger

Hi. I logged on to the blog to change the widget thingy on the right that shows a little fetus cartoon and the progress of the pregnancy. I wanted it to reflect the original due date, rather than the date suggested by the 20-week ultrasound, which was only five days different, and ranges in accuracy by a couple of weeks. I like having the due date a little later because I don't look forward to the due date coming and going with no baby; I'll be uncomfortable, waiting, possibly getting lots of questions as to whether the baby is here yet, etc. So the later the due date, the better.

Anyway, since I logged in, I thought I might as well update you on things. I don't have a good plan for what I'll write, and I really should be heading for bed soon. So this post will be a little incomplete by my own abstract standards. But here's my belly last Sunday:


I'm actually trying to suck it in. It doesn't suck in anymore.

The nursery preparations are under way and I'm pretty excited about it, and glad that it's moving along because I really, really would like it to be done and prepped and ready for an infant when Blueberry arrives. I've written before about this room, which is a dark, slope-ceilinged, long, narrow attic room which we had been using as our dressing room, when I attempted artistic adjustments to it to make it a more inviting dressing room and 2nd guest room. Stanley's parents came to visit a couple of weeks ago and helped us insulate the attic and crawl space around the room, which makes it more cozy, if only psychologically. They also helped us replace the ugly, old, low-hanging single light fixture in the center of the room with a row of three recessed lights going down the length of the room. AMAZING difference in the ambiance. It's incredible what improving the lighting will do for a room. I would post a picture but a) I'm lazy and b) I'll be posting pictures when it's completed. Stanley bought the paint today: Sawdust for the walls and Soft Cream for the ceiling. LITERALLY. Hee hee. The sawdust is kind of a buttery yellow. We also bought enough Soft Cream to paint the landing, stairway, main floor hallway, and mudroom (a.k.a. main floor bedroom that is being used as an entryway/litter box room).

I joined the hand bell choir at church. The director asked if I had played bells before and I said that I had in a past life and that I hoped it would ring a bell. Fellow bell choir members rolled on the floor laughing at my clever pun. Not really. The first two practices didn't go well for me; I felt lost most of the time and rarely rang the right bell at the right time. It was frustrating and mildly embarrassing. But the third time was the chime. Groan. I had a breakthrough; some synapses in my brain must have fired in some kind of synchrony because I finally got it. I got through a whole song with no mistakes. In full disclosure, this particular song only required me to ring the bell in my left hand once and the bell in my right hand three times, but I was able to follow the music and keep my wits about me like never before. It was awesome. The other song we practiced didn't go badly either. We've got our first performance Nov. 1st. I need to practice more than I do, but every time I get the sheet music out and start practicing, one of the cats walks across the music and sits on it and licks him/herself.

That reminds me that my method of ignoring Dale when he meows in the kitchen and giving him extra attention elsewhere seems to be working. Now he meows once or twice and then stops. It's such a relief.

But it's 11:43 and I've got some work to do in the morning, so I have to go to bed. TTFN