oh man

It has been forever since i posted, whuups :/   Amelia is 9 months old tomorrow! I will have known her outside as long as she was inside, with the exception that time now passes in a blurry sleep deprived confusing sameness of days. lol.  I love being a mom, but I am starting to really miss sleeping more than three hours in a row (that's my average, she occasionally sleeps for 5-6 hours but that only reminds me what I am missing!).  I can't really expect her to be a great sleeper since I myself never have been, but the combination of two poor sleepers well- you can imagine.
I suppose her current, and it seems perpetual, teething is not helping the situation.  Can you believe that she still has no teeth! Amazing.  I keep saying she will pop them all out at once like the Hulk or something!

We had a pretty great Halloween

We dressed as clouds and Amelia was a cherub.  This is a small window in her life where we and the general public can lovingly enjoy all of her little rolls and chubby goodness.  So lame as our costumes may be, I got to watch this little cherub all night!

baby needs a ball

I decided to 'wing it'.  I knew that to make a ball I would need some tapered rectangles. 

Six panels seemed like a good number, so I cut them out.  

I then basted them together to see what happened.  Not so round!  It looked like if I added a couple more wedges that it would work, so I cut two more and basted them on.  Now it looked reasonably round.   I raided my trimmings box for bits to make tabs and handles and bumpy edges for baby to grab.  Then I set about sewing pairs together with tabs and handles in the seams.  Once I had the four pairs together, I sewed them to each other with piping and rick-rack in between.  The resulting hole at the top and bottom was big enough for me to turn it right side out.  

 I packed it full of fiberfill and threw some bells in for good measure.  (all things I had lying around, you know)  Using some blue jersey circles for end-caps, I hand-sewed them over the holes on each end.

 All done!

new painting

I was patrolling our unruly yard for weeds, when I spied these little guys...

I'd finally found something that made me feel like painting. This big white prepped board had been sitting on my mantel for weeks, waiting for the 'perfect' thing to tie together the living room color scheme. And so I began....
We'll have to see where it goes...

peas at last

Hahaha- I couldn't resist! oh well-
   I have been obsessing over road-side produce stand signs for some time now.  Every strawberry season brings on fresh produce lust.  Big white signs with one simple berry- I thought about just stealing one, but someone made those signs and I would feel bad.  Naturally you would think I could just make my own, but there is something about the earnest naivete of those signs that I, being overly analytical, didn't think I could replicate.  So the project ended up in the 'one-day' pile.
   Yesterday as I passed replica produce signs in hobby lobby, the 'I can make that bug' bit again, and I began to analyze the project.
   Today I felt victorious after putting up some chalkboard contact paper on my fridge,

and decided to try to make a sign before the baby woke up.  I quickly found the most suitable surface I had and picked a vegetable that fit.  As I was hurriedly painting 'peas' on a strip of masonite that I had lying around, it occurred to me that perhaps I was, after all, painting in the spirit of those roadside stand owners, just making a quick sign not thinking too much about what i was doing.
     Well I managed to make about 4 signs before she woke up.  My thought was to plaster the wall full of different signs, but upon testing it out I realized that this made for quite a busy room.  Originally I had only wanted one sign, no words. AAAAAAAHHHHHH how did I get here again!!!   Struggling between making something simple and profound or crazy and vibrating with color. *sigh*   In search of some middle ground, I decided to put up two signs and live with that for a while.
  

 We will see if it stays this way.

I still want my big strawberry sign.  This was a success in that I actually took action instead of just dreaming about it and a failure in that I still want my damn strawberry sign!


to be continued...

bonnets!

Her Grannie brought her back a bonnet from Niagra Falls; it was comically small!Still cute, of course. I set out to make her one that actually fits:
my busy little model
I almost have the pattern perfect, these will be great for the beach this summer!

P.S. you will also notice my little girl is sitting up BY HERSELF. AAhh! Where did my baby go?

just a little detour?

I made my first baby dress the other day:

Instant gratification! It was so easy- I'm hooked (as if I wasn't already addicted to textiles)! I started with my favorite white button down that had served its time (originally $10 from old navy, I wore it out). I simply cut out the neck area to use as the top of the dress then gathered the bottom half of the shirt to form the skirt. A bit of ribbon, some lace, a couple french knots and Done!

How am I supposed to focus on home renovations (see nasty bathroom vanity below)

when this is the alternative:

ahhh saturday

me and amelia had THE BEST four hour nap!

because we woke up bright and early to hit some garage sales with hali:

*you know she is prepared because she has a fanny pack*

amelia is modeling hali's new fur hat

this is the rocking chair i found- pretty comfy! i can't wait to reupholster it....

hope you had a relaxing saturday,

kassi

the nursery

I've been trying to get A's room decorated lately. I scored a free papasan chair on the side of the road that I may turn in to a nest of sorts (not sure how literal I'm gonna go with that). I went fabric shopping and found the perfect curtain fabric! but at $20 a yard that is SO not happening. side note- miss A thoroughly enjoyed the fabric store, I guess I'll have to bring her back there, shucks! I've decided to paint something on a white sheet and possibly line it with blackout fabric. This is what I'm thinking....

I will post pics of her room soon!

new house

We are finally emerging from a long home renovation intensive! We closed on our house on the 15th of April and have been fixing it up since. Apparently the previous owners were not bothered by dust or dog hair- lets just say it was really gross. If you know me at all, you know this was my worst nightmare. We have mostly banished the 'heebeejeebees'; just a few more areas to sanitize like behind the dishwasher. Frankly, I am afraid to look.

We also, in a moment of naive ambition, decided to remove the popcorn ceilings. It was a crazy large undertaking that we only survived with help from our families. A whole lot of scraping, dust, and painting later we have much nicer and CLEANER ceilings. we also removed wallpaper from the kitchen, dining, utility, and bathrooms (some easier than others) and painted almost every room and the kitchen cabinets. huh, i'm tired just typing it all!

here are some before and after pics:

KITCHEN

before

after

Living

before

after

Dining

before

after

We still have a alot to do (like paint the cabinet doors), but all of the major messiness is finished!

phew!

I had not painted anything in a while, so it felt good to exercise my painting muscles. I finished my entry for Wild About Downtown thanks to some babysitting help from my mom!

It will be displayed all summer; be sure to visit downtown Opelousas and vote for your favorite piece :)

cloth

Well I might as well write about what I am up to my eyebrows in everyday- diapers.

I decided to go with cloth because I am trying to avoid getting caught up in a disposable lifestyle (and I'm a hopeless romantic, oh and a cheapskate). I made sure to do my homework before broaching the subject to my husband, who was skeptical yet supportive. It sure made for an interesting baby shower. My younger cousins struggled to grasp the concept while older relatives cautioned me with tales of washing. I believe my family could be described as quietly, dubiously waiting to see what happened.

Modern cloth diapering is far from the days of washboards and plastic pants; my daily routine only differs by 1 load of laundry. Granted, I have not extensively used disposables.

Really the biggest question, when it comes to cloth is "What to do with the poo?"

Some people use a disposable liner while others rinse/shake it into the toilet. Breastfed baby doo will just wash away in the washing machine. So far we have used a mix of rinsing and just putting it in the wash. I'm not quite sure how I feel about this yet. Ideally you want to get it in the toilet, but this is not always practical.

I wash each batch once on cold with no soap and then on hot with soap. Every once and a while I give them a long soak in baby oxyclean. I usually let them air dry unless I need them right away.

The only main drawback is that cloth diapers are bulky. Most baby pants are cut to fit over disposables which are slimmer, so you need pants that are a size bigger or homemade. My diaper bag also gets a little crowded; when we travel I usually pack a beach tote of clean diapers.

So far, I'm satisfied with my decision.

And I just realized my first post is mostly about poo. Probably not the best start, oh well.

here we go, again.

i will keep up with this blog i will keep up with this blog i will keep up with this blog.

I love the idea of having a blog, but blogging remains, as many of my ideas, unfulfilled. So here I go again. I want this blog so that I can share my projects, insights, and artistic process. I also need help keeping track of my own thoughts as I begin this journey as a mom, artist, and fixer-upper.

And as my only reader: I look forward to reading your next post, kassi