Summer Fun

It's been a fun, but busy summer. Here's a pictorial review of what we've been up to over the past few months:

Enjoyed a visit from Nana - May

And from Grampa and GG - June

Went to the beach - June

Went to the Butterfly Conservatory - July

Planted a garden and built a fence around it - May



Feasted on cucumbers from that well-protected garden - July

And undoubtedly the best of all was our August road trip to meet Uncle Joel:

 

Work of Our Hands

Although we weren't able to put in a garden this year, we have gotten the chance to do some canning. I didn't get to make pickles or barbecue sauce this year, but we picked fruit several times and made lots of jam: blueberry, black raspberry, and sour cherry. Surprisingly, to us, the sour cherry is our favorite. Neither of us had ever tasted a sour cherry, but we thought we'd make some jam anyhow. . .and we are SO glad we did! Oh, yum!

Freshly picked and washed blueberries. I love how they look
against my favorite gold colander!

Black raspberry jam - yum!

Blueberry jam - so good!

Michele and I ending our afternoon of picking with a
sour cherry pitting session. It was her idea to pit cherries
on the futon. Thank goodness that cover is washable!!

Freshly pitted cour cherrie - so pretty!

Sour cherry jam and canned sour cherries. The canned cherries
are amazing warm and over homemade vanilla ice cream - oh yum!!

Operation: Making Room for Baby: Progress Report

Beautiful windows that
open and stay open
without the need
of props!
So wonderful!!

And much progress there is!! The transformation of our workout room/den into our baby's room has been really fun to watch. I'd like to say that I've been watching patiently, but it's been really hard for me since I haven't gotten to be involved in anything in that room up to this point, except a little pre-transition cleaning. But it's still all really exciting!!


Lovely windows
that tilt in for easy
cleaning! What a joy!



Today, Michele and her wonderful friend and coworker, Julio, installed beautiful new, energy-efficient windows. It was such a treat to come home to these gorgeous new, functional windows! Oh, so exciting!!


This week, Michele will be putting the final coats of paint on the room and the closet and then I get to get my hands in on it! I'll be laying the floor this weekend and installing shoe molding. And then I'll be hanging the window treatments and outfitting the closet with a closet organizational system, similar to what I installed throughout my studio. I imagine I'll finish the floor and molding this week and I'll start the closet system next week, but soon, very soon, the major work of our baby's room will be finished!! 

Our old, retired windows!
Thank you for your service!



AND we get our new living room furniture this week too!! It's a fun, fun week at the Wescott house!

Transition from Parlor to Living Room: A Pictorial Review

As I think I mentioned before, part of our "make room for baby" plans involved creating a living room (a relaxed space to visit with friends, hang out as a family, watch Star Trek (and other things, I guess), read, and just veg. Since the baby's room is what was the workout room/den, we needed to get this room started so that we could get that room cleaned out. So, we began the transition from what we called our parlor (a place to sit and contemplate the cosmos with friends over copious amounts of tea) into a comfy, cozy, colorful living room. Here's how we're doing so far:

This is the room before. Yes, I forgot to take actual before pictures.
This is from Christmas, but ignore the pretty lady and take note of the
less than comfy yellow couch and ivory silk wallpaper.

Wallpaper gone!
Prepping and priming and priming and prepping!

And finally color! I've been waiting for the entire six years we've lived here
to have some color on these walls. Oh how I love this color.
Butterscotch - Low VOC Martha Stewart paints

And painting is complete! It's really hard to get accurate color
in these pictures, but Michele keeps saying "Oh, I want to eat
the walls. It looks just like butterscotch pudding!"

And a new rug! We love this rug so much - it coordinates SO
well with the colors of the room!

And the original sheers have been washed and returned to their place of glory.
I still need to make the accent drapery panels - it's on my incredibly long to-do list!

And then there was light! One lamp from the previous parlor and one claimed
from the dining room. The room is really coming together now!

And, of course, a room is never fully dressed without a cat!
Pollux had to be the first to check out the new room and new rug!

Now, we just patiently await the delivery of our comfy new couch and accent chair and ottoman. Just wait til you see what color those are! We put a big ole check mark beside "colorful" in the qualifications for our new living room!

Exciting Changes

Everything is so exciting right now. So much is up in the air, or rather, so much is to come that right now could be an impatient time of waiting, waiting, waiting for me, but it's not. Our friend Sue was over for dinner last night and the three of us discussed how impatient I normally am and I was thinking about that this morning. I really am VERY impatient, but with this whole journey to our baby's arrival, I just feel super excited. I think it's because every day is full of something fun and new, some exciting change. And since I'm finally feeling most excellent, I get to enjoy them all.

Here are a few things I've enjoyed over the past few weeks:

Me - I'm really enjoying the changes with my body as our baby grows. I had a hard time with this in the beginning, I think because I was SO sick, but now, it's just thrilling to experience how my body is creating everything our little miracle needs.

16 Weeks - Heading off to my first
prenatal yoga class. Oh how I LOVE yoga!!

17 weeks wearing what has turned out to be my FAVORITE
pregnancy outfit to date!
Comfy, comfy, comfy, all my favorite colors, and a citrus-fruit
covered skirt! Who could ask for more!?

Our home - I've always been a collector of things, so I thought the drive the purge would really freak me out ("Oh no! Where is all my stuff!"), but it's been really great! I love seeing my house more organized and weeding out the un-needed that has just been taking up space. I also LOVE having a reason to re-paint or paint rooms! Decorating my home has always been one of my favorite things, so taking this perfect opportunity to redo a few rooms has been a joy!

Michele prepping and priming our new living room for paint.
She is helpfully assisted by the lovely BethAnn who does not
like her picture taken, but was a huge help in getting this room ready!

Friends - We've always been surrounded by loving people, but with the baby coming, love has just been overflowing! We're so grateful to all our wonderful friends for the calls, Facebook messages, visits, dinners, and especially for the painting and reorganizing assistance! It's really all been such a wonderful blessing!

The meal we're about to serve our dear friend Sue (who also hates her picture taken)
after she spent the morning putting the first coat of paint on our baby's room.
Mexican Stuffed Baked Potatoes (recipe in a post to follow)

Gifts of Our Hands

Just the prettiest carrot wall pocket ever!!

Michele and I both gave one another a very special Christmas gift made from our hearts and our hands. Michele's gift to me was extra, extra special because she's never actually made me anything before. She worked with our very sweet friend and brilliant potter, Sabra, to make me a ceramic carrot - that's right, I said "ceramic carrot!!" It's so very gorgeous and wonderful and beautiful and perfect!! Plus, it adds to my collection - I didn't have a ceramic carrot yet! This gift touched my heart like none other could! It's actually a wall pocket, which could hold flowers, but I think that would detract from the carrot. I think I may make little beaded carrots to live in the pocket, but we'll see. I still need to find the very perfect place to hang it.

I cannot wait to have this on the wall, but I MUST find the
perfectest most perfect place!

Now, I make Michele gifts quite often - in fact, it's rare that I give her a gift that isn't handmade. But I am particularly proud of this one. It's a simple design - nine patch squares - but I designed the kitty myself. I call it Kitty on My Quilt since it's a good bet one of our three cats will be cuddling with Michele on this quilt at any given moment. And I accidentally made it a bit too big - in my head I thought lap quilt, but it's actually twin-sized, so it's "accidentally" big enough for two! 

Isn't that an adorable kitty?

Definitely big enough to share!



A Belated Merry Christmas to You!

A hilariously well aimed fall!
What are the odds?

Oh how I hope you all have had a very merry Christmas! Michele and I had a wonderful time together and with wonderful friends! We started the holiday week putting up our tree - a little later than usual, but time has been getting away from us lately! We went through about 4 CDs of Christmas music getting the lights on the tree. We wanted to finally get all the lights blinking - we usually has only one string of blinking lights around the middle of the tree with all the other lights steady as an oak tree! We couldn't get them all blinking so we went blink-free. Our special ornament this year is actually two: I found initial ornaments at Michael's and got an M and a W made out of little bells. Michele was thrilled and so am I!

We spent Christmas Eve at church as always. It's my very favorite service of the year. Half in candlelight, which is just so charming. Plus, I get to sing my favorite carol: O Holy Night. Michele shot a video of it which I'll post one of these days if I can figure out how!

Merry Christmas from us!

Another Christmas Eve tradition is to have anyone who will come over for snacks after service. We had four lovely friends nosh on tapenade, cheeses, roasted tomato slices, homemade pickles, apple and pear slices, and mini muffins. I'd made the muffins from a recipe that came into my head a few mornings before: a regular banana bread recipe (actually this recipe was my favorite recipe which is vegan and was given to me by our beloved friends Cindy and Jeremiah) to which I added two handfuls each of chocolate chips, dried blueberries, craisins, and diced dried apricots. Boy were these yummy! Our friends and we just sat around eating and chatting until nearly midnight - a wonderful night before Christmas treat!

So delicious!

Christmas morning means homemade donuts and phone calls with family in the Wescott house. Oh, what lovely treats! The donuts were especially good this year, though combining donut making and phone calling meant that I forgot to let the donuts rise the first time - went directly from kneading to donut forming and rising instead of kneading, rising, punching down, donut making, and second rising. Next year I'll get them right! Regardless, they were WONDERFUL!!

I need to do a special post about the extra special gift Michele made for me and the special one I made for her, so I'll save any discussion of gifts. After chatting with all our loved ones, we spent most of the day eating donuts, drinking soynog, watching Roseanne (we're working through the series from beginning to end as it was both of our favorites when we were younger (I'm totally neglecting Star Trek, but that's OK.)), and eating more donuts. We rounded out the day with a dinner party with more wonderful friends - which was a good thing because we'd eaten nothing but donuts all day! Our holiday was full of blessings of wonderful friendship and love and I hope yours was as well!

Our special MW ornaments for 2010. They jingle so sweetly!

Gallery Opening Debrief

The display in the studio - this was the
view when you first walk in.

The showroom space - This is where
the exhibit will be til the 19th

Oh boy, was this weekend an amazing time! The opening went great - we had hoards of people on Friday night and a nice flow of serious buyers on Saturday. I loved the crowds on Friday, but really enjoyed having the time and space to talk to people on Saturday. My step mom, Gloria, came to see the show and we put her to work helping Michele keep the food restocked - boy did the Friday visiters EAT! On Saturday, Michele had to work, but since most folks were more interested in shopping than eating, there wasn't much food restocking. Spending time with Jennifer and Sabra from Crocus Clay was such a treat - I really loved getting to know them better. After the show on Saturday, we set up the "exhibit" that will be up in the showroom until the 19th and off we went to dinner and a show to reward ourselves for our hard work. And work hard we certainly did! It was so worth it, though! What an amazing time!

The overflow shelf - pleasantly

decreased by the
end of the weekend!



A bowl of overflow ornaments - very popular

and very gone by the end of the show!

End of day one getting on the freight

elevator - Gloria's first time and it made

us all feel VERY urban!

La-Tea-Da

Nice, wet, flaky, white stuff. A delight at 4 am!

Since Michele has been home, I have been crazily busy with the shop and she has been wonderfully supportive and helpful (she's even been put to work in the studio!). My beautiful wonderful friend, Karen (of Duncan Creative - just THE most wonderful place for hats and other crocheted items!) gifted me a Groupon for afternoon tea at La-Tea-Da Tea Salon, so I took the opportunity to treat Michele to an afternoon of undivided attention. To get that afternoon, I trucked myself off to work before the crack of dawn and found this lovely surprise on my car!

After stuffing eight hours of work in before Noon, I picked Michele up and we headed off to tea delight! It was really wonderful! It's such an eclectic place, just a feast for the eyes! And afternoon tea was amazingly DELICIOUS!! We drank way too much tea, of course, and ate way too many delicious nibblies, including their signature scones with Devonshire creme and jam! Oh wow! It was a really great afternoon and it was really great to take a break and spend some time talking about everything except work!


The have hoards of hats to wear to make you feel elegant
or just downright silly. These fit both categories.



One lump or two? It's fun to have the opportunity to say that.

 

Pretty little teapot table decor! Our actual tea was served in a

good sturdy workhorse of a teapot complete with cozy. I really

need to make myself some cozies for my workhorses at home!



Can you imagine how delicious? Look up the definition of
YUM in the dictionary and this picture will be right beside it!



Priorities, Vacation, and Juggling

Hello! I just had a big show this past weekend and preparations for it made me neglect telling you about days seven and eight of our vacation. Day seven was particularly important because Michele interviewed for a local job and GOT IT!! We had a dual celebration of Michele's success and Mum's birthday at our favorite place: Red Robin! Fun was had by all!

Day eight was Mum's actual birthday, but it was also Mum's last day with us, so we made her a special breakfast: homemade shortbread with warm peaches, peach syrup, and whipped cream - we used peaches I'd canned over the summer and it was divine!

Michele's now been home for a week and a half and started her new job on Monday and this wonderful event has presented me with the following lovely challenges:

1. Since the "cat" is no longer away, what do I do about my blog title? Change it? Leave it as it is as a reminder?
2. I started my business to keep me occupied for the long weeks Michele was on the road and now it's really taking off. I've never been good at prioritizing and finding balance, but I really need to do both to keep it all together.
3. Michele HATES Star Trek, but the only time I have to sit and watch TV is time that I could be sitting and watching TV with her. How will I ever get through TOS by sneaking episodes here and there when she's out of the house?

OK, so maybe challenge number two is the only REAL challenge I need to deal with, but one and three are pretty fun to contemplate! It will also be fun to see what kind of trouble I get into right under Michele's nose now that she's home and will likely say things like "Don't rip up that floor, hon!" and "Michelle, I don't think you need to take the oven door apart in order to tighten the handle!"

Vacation: Day Six: the Scenic Route

I would like to say that on the sixth day of our vacation we rested from the hard work of apple picking and apple making, but we didn't. We got up early and made fried apples and biscuits, on which we ate apple butter. Actually, Michele sliced the apples and Mum fried them and Mum made the biscuits - I just took pictures and tasted as necessary.

Slicing apples for frying

After breakfast - which was YUMMY!!! - we decided to go to an outlet mall in Buffalo to do some shopping. My bright idea was that we take the scenic route to Buffalo and take a look at the lovely fall colors on the way. About halfway there Mum and I became like 3-year-olds with our whiny "are we there yet?" It seemed to take forever to get there! My two lovely travelling companions only reminded me ten or fifteen times that it was all my idea that we take the scenic route! It was a fun trip, regardless. And made even more fun by the 100 truffles we bought at the Lindt store in the outlet mall - heck, that alone made the "scenic" route worth it!

Are we there yet???

While at the mall, we entertained ourselves by convincing Michele to try on bright yellow high-heeled patent leather boots. Her face says it all.

The boots are cute. The jeans and flannel are cute.
The boots, jeans, and flannel are not - the face makes that completely clear.

On the way home, I entertained myself and my companions by taking pictures in the dark. I think this one was our favorite.

When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that's amore!