A Bookish Life

6 weeks

We spend a lot of time hunting and stalking the rare, elusive baby smile.
It only popped up within the last couple days- after our trip to Austin and Granbury last week and once we were back in the quiet of our routine again. I was hopeful, but unaware how greatly and beautifully she would give in to the smile once she finally got the hang of it. And now it's showing up more and more.

In sewing news, I'm working on an Amy Butler skirt (for me), a laundry bag (for Cate/me), and two more baby shower gifts. There is no rest for the seriously weary.

I am also making great progress on my super fantastic new vegetable garden and getting into somewhat of a cooking, cleaning, entertaining, leaving-the-house routine. There's a lot of things to juggle.

And sometimes we take a minute in all the busyness and bustle just to cuddle.

Nesting

I have never been accused of being a neat freak. In fact, I think my family is mildly surprised everytime they come to my house and find it relatively put together. As a child I had a deep and true messy streak that has only just begun to fade as I make my way further into adulthood.

However, it occurred to me today as I attacked the inside of the refrigerator with a scrub brush and a bottle of cleanser, that perhaps this is what people mean when they refer to the "nesting phase" at the end of pregnancy.

Perhaps the sparkling interior of my refrigerator, my newly organized closet, and the commitment I've made to keep our bedroom floor clear of clothing castoff is a sign that I'm maturing, but I prefer to think maybe it just means that here, in the middle of the 37th week, I am getting ready to have a baby.

Speaking of baby Cate, I made her this little birdhouse and bird at the end of January and never got around to finishing it or sewing the bird closed. Originally the idea came from here, and I wanted to experiment with making a small bird village for the wall. The bird and elephant patterns, though somewhat modified, came from this book, which I have really enjoyed.

I have plans to make a bird mobile from an Ikea chandelier, so you may see more little birds yet.

And now, if you'll excuse me, there's an obscure little pile of dirt that I just noticed for the first time, and I must vigilantly attack it or die.

Days 12 and 13

In all these days of creation, there is still one thing I can't decide: Is it better to feel like there is too much creative magic and not enough time or that there are fields of empty minutes waiting to be picked, but no inspiration (or skill)? This weekend was certainly an issue of the former, but I managed to make a few significant forays into the world of inspiration.

I ended the week with a garden plan. From consulting my seed catalogs, my existing garden bed, and a few local nurseries, I decided on just the right assortment of fruits and vegetables to nurture this year. Brandywine tomatoes, blueberries, red onions, and more will find their place in my yard and in our bellies. I'm so excited to get started, but faced with the everpresent problem- the garden is just not big enough for all that I want it to hold. Even when it spills into the side garden, I have to make the inevitable decision to cut some things out. It's excruciating, but I think I ended with a pleasing and condensed list.

Now, I just need to meet with my raised bed architect, order the seeds from Baker Creek, and buy the items that will go in the ground now- blueberry bushes, roses, and an apple tree for Cate. This is one of those projects earmarked with *finish before the baby comes, so I'm hoping to get seedlings ready to plant by March 24th.

This weekend I also started another little baby dress:
It's a soft gray with a cute little pocket on the front. I just need to add snaps and buttons to finish the project. I haven't yet decided if I'll need to keep this one, or if I'll be able to give it up. The jumper is so plain and simple that I love it. Why do baby clothing shops so constantly feel the need to overcome a baby's natural softness and warmth with garish pastel patterns and prints? It's my own little soapbox, and I'm afraid I get on it too frequently.

Anyway, little Cate will want for nothing in the clothing department as she received two huge shipments of hand-me-overs (as Brian likes to call them), and can expect even more from her cousin Addyson who is due to arrive sometime tomorrow!!

Finally, as I wear you down comlpetely with weekend creating, I tried a new french toast recipe on Sunday morning. My mom was a master at french toast growing up, and try as I might, I haven't been able to replicate her recipe the way I remember it. Because it calls for a frying pan, it's always been a little too hands-on for breakfast company (my favorite sort of entertaining). So this weekend I tried a baked french toast with homemade bread from an old issue of Everyday Food and it was as close to my mom's recipe as I've ever gotton-- and the oven does all the work, leaving me to emerge from my sleepy coma slowly, with delicious smells swirling about the house.

I would be remiss not to share it, with my corrections alterations.

Baked French Toast
Combine 4 eggs, 3/4C half and half, 3/4C milk, 1/3C sugar, and a teaspoon sized dash of vanilla. Whisk.
Pour mixture into 9x13" pan and lay several thick slices of homemade bread in the goo- I could fit 6. Soak for 15 minutes. Turn and soak for 30 minutes (or up to overnight).
Transfer to buttered pan and cook at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes.

* most people would lather with maple syrup and enjoy at this point, but having always been a maple-syrup-hater, I covered mine with a thin film of fruit jam and fresh blueberries. Delicious!

Day 9

Yesterday was an amazingly productive day. On day nine the most significant thing I made was progress on the nursery.

You see, the beauty of photography was when I showed you the picture of my nursery progress before, I neglected to show the floor that you couldn't walk through, the desk piled high, or the mound of projects stacked precisely everywhere. Now, what the picture doesn't show is a vast expanse of clean cream colored wood floors, an empty desk, and one tiny, measly corner of mess that still needs to be gone through and put away.

Now I can breathe a little easier when people ask "Is the nursery ready?" as they look pointedly at my growing belly, instead of assuming the look of panic and bolting from the room. Of course, it's not exactly ready, but we do have a place for the baby to sleep, one pack of diapers, and an assortment of clothes.

But because making progress, however valuable, isn't exactly what I meant in the spirit of the Make Something Everyday Challenge, I also tried out a new white sandwich bread recipe that came with my stand mixer. It came together like a dream and made the house smell wonderfully bready while I worked, toiled, and sweated through mountains of fabric and layers of thread.

I have a few ideas of what to make today- day 10. The clean sewing area in the nursery room whispers that I should pull out every fabric I own and drape them together over the bare expanse. It is quite possible that I need to practice sewing without the creative trail to mark my every thought process and whim.

A sneaky way to shop.

I love the shop wishlist. It doesn't cost a dime, but it's a good way to remember what you love in a particular store and keep tabs on when it goes on sale.

For instance, my Anthropologie wishlist is ever growing, and completely satisfies my desire to place a claim on all the things I love, but can't actually afford yet. The line for little girls bodes well (ill?) for my future daughter. If I could clothe her in costumes and animal ears every day, I would.

This rug is my ideal complement to the nursery's colors and theme. I love the old world style glamour coupled with little girl colors. I think it would go perfectly with the fabric I've picked to make the crib bedding. I picked up a yard on a whim-- just in case the baby was a girl-- and have looked at it everyday since to decide if I really like it as much as I thought I did.

I love how this fabric isn't overwhelmingly young, and could potentially carry her through several stages of little girlness. I love how it matches the cream wood floors and yellow curtains that are already in the room. I love how with the nursery's gray walls, yellow, cream, and pink, it could possibly be a great foil for Rachel Solomon's art print "Another Time".

Can you tell I've been quietly stewing and planning for days now?

Saturday morning

I wish I could show you all the Christmas surprises I have stacked around. I am finishing more and more gifts and want to go ahead and give them so badly! Most years I try to be finished with Christmas shopping/making by Thanksgiving. It's going to be a stretch this year, but at least I'm almost finished gathering materials and actually deciding what to make.

Because I can't show you the gifts from me, I will at least show off this happy little surprise I received in the mail the other day. Pregnancy Tea! While I lament that I can't drink all the coffee my heart desires, I can at least partake of this special hot drink just for me.

So here's my Saturday morning. Drinking hot tea while lazily tidying the house and making a big pot of Tuscan bean soup for dinner tonight. Yum.

And the Two Shall Become One

We have a just-right sized house that would've accomodated a nursery just fine if the sewing room monster hadn't moved its sloppy self in first. Now I have a ton of work ahead of me- sorting, ironing, folding, organizing, and yet making sure I can still find everything in the future.

So, here's stage 1. Fabric gets color coded and folded on top of the shelf. Anything that doesn't fit gets used in the next few months or donated/tossed out.

This picture shows you nothing of the floor space, desk space, or empty crib space. Purposefully. Hopefully one of those will be stage 2.

This is the part that stinks...literally.

No, this isn't slowly morphing into a pet blog, but since I showed you my new puppy, I may as well update you on his progress.

It seems the poor pup was sold to us sick. Thus this weekend, when he rapidly slid downhill into lethargy and skinniness, we were completely at a loss. We rushed him to the animal hospital to find out that when we got him he already had a disease called Parvo. It's completely treatable and incredibly costly to fix.

So now we're in this condundrum that makes me sound like I have a heart of stone. Of course we want our new puppy to be well. We just can't spend that amount of money on a dog. It's a heart-breaking proposition that doesn't have an easy answer.

In the meantime, my sweet husband is diligently and tenderly cleaning up the foul, putrid byproducts of this sickness while we contact local bloodhound rescue chapters and the original owners who hopefully (!) didn't intentionally deceive us, to see if they want to share the burden with us.

All this is going on while I pack my bags, clean the house, finalize all those last minute details, and get ready to take off for France. For a week!

Keeping me busy

This is Amos, our new bloodhound puppy. He's a lot of work right now as we're trying to train him to be a good, good dog; but he's also oh-so-cute!

Don't you just love those sad eyes and droopy ears?

We were a little cautious about a new puppy and have actually been puppy shopping for a little while now. Amos was perfect- not too furry, large but kind, and prone to excessive napping-- just like us!

I'm in love.

Hooray for a new sewing machine!