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!

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)

Work, Work

This will be a busy week! We have a lovely friend coming over on Sunday to paint our baby's room. For some that may mean just cleaning out the room and prepping it for paint, but not for me. For me, that means, clearing out our current parlor and prepping it for paint, painting, and transitioning the items from the current workout room/den into the parlor, which is becoming a living room. And then prepping the former workout room for paint as it becomes the baby's room. And we're doing it all this week. We actually got a really great start last night: Michele and I transitioned the currrent parlor rug into the foyer and sorted all the parlor furniture into keep for living room, transition to another room, or sell at yard sale. Then our lovely friend, Beth Ann, came over and helped Michele remove all the wallpaper in the parlor - thankfully it was the original silk wallpaper, so it came down in wonderful big sheets. Michele's next step for that room is to sand and prime the walls so they are ready for painting on Saturday. My next step in that room is to decide on a paint color. For the six years we've lived here, that room has been a kinda formal tea parlor with off-white silk wallpaper, an antique gold brocade sofa and armchair, and fancy gold, scarlet, and seafoam brocade drapes. Now that it will be a living room, I want something fun and lively. And I'm finding it hard to decide. . .

We are well on our way to being ready for painting on Sunday and baby in a few months, which is VERY exciting! The only thing that Michele and I just realized last night is there is no longer anywhere to sit and relax in our house. The couch we picked out for the living room won't be delivered for about 3 weeks and we've disassembled the futon from the workout room/den to clear out that room. Well, there's always the sunporch and cool glasses of iced tea to celebrate an evening of hard work - or ice cream, like the yummy raspberry truffle the wonderful Bridget brought over to cap off our work day! Ahh, ice cream with friends after a hard day of work, what could be better?

Back from the Wild Blue Yonder

Thank you all so much for the lovely comments on my anniversary post! Very kind words both here and on Facebook. Michele and I had a wonderful weekend together. We went to "The Grand Canyon of the East" (aka Letchworth Park). It was so beautiful and the weather was perfect: very sunny, but still cool enough that hiking was manageable. We've actually wanted to go since before we moved to the area, but it's taken five or so years for us to actually make it. It was well worth the wait!

After our whirlwind anniversary weekend, both Michele and I needed to head out of town for work: she to Wisconsin and I to North Carolina. I spent Monday through Wednesday visiting a co-development partner with several others from my company. We worked long and hard and were very productive! The coolest thing was that we stayed at the Proximity Hotel, which is "The Greenest Hotel in North America!" The space was amazing:

• 60% of the water for the hotel and restaurant is heated by the sun (see the solar panels!)
• The elevators GENERATE electricity going down that is used going up - too cool!
• The wood for the bars was salvaged from trees downed during storms

And if I didn't watch a video and read several articles (and thoroughly explore their website), I wouldn't have noticed any of the cool "green" things about the hotel. It looks and feels just like a fancy, upscale hotel - it's just made übercool because of how lightly it "walks" on the earth!

Ctrl + Z

I spend a lot of time on the computer. I am on the computer for my entire workday and then I come home and work on my store or write my blog or any number of other things that seem to need to be done on this wonderful machine. I love the convenience and access to people all over the world that the computer and internet have given me, but I also adore that feeling of the world receding and life slowing down when I sit at my sewing table. That being said, this evening, when I needed to cut 10 strips to 7.5" and I accidentally cut them to 6.5" my first thought was "Oh how I wish I could just press Ctrl + Z and undo that!"

On a completely unrelated note, I have been giving a lot of thought to my future career as a roller derby girl. Each derby girl gets to choose a number and a cool name, which is usually a play on words, like Thea Pocalypse, Bomb Voyage, and Harriet Clubman. I've decided that, as I am no triskaidekaphobic, that I would like to have the number 13 (which actually is and always has been my favorite number, simply because 'M' is my favorite letter and 'M' is the 13th letter in the alphabet!) and I've thought of a very cool name: Sojourner Ruthless!! Ain't I a woman, indeed!

Sick, Not Dead

I'm sorry I neglected to blog yesterday. I am sure you were all quite concerned. I leave a cryptic note about an unknown stomach ailment and then disappear! My apologies. Tuesday night, I started feeling worse and worse and finally, after searching the house and calling our neighbor (at 11 o'clock at night!!) for crackers, Michele (the best partner ever!!) went out and bought me crackers and ginger ale, adjuvants to settle my stomach. After consuming a bit of both, I felt a little less like dying and was able to fall to sleep. I awoke feeling hungry and fine, so I am not really sure what was wrong the night before. Thank you, everyone, for your suggestions! They were all really helpful and all centered around drinking something gingery! Now that I think about it, instead of sending Michele to the store, I could have gnawed on that piece of ginger root I've had languishing in my pantry for a couple months now.

On a very slightly related note, I moved "offices" yesterday (the stress of which may very well have made me ill the day before!) Like many, I work in a world of cubicles. I traded one very grey cube for a very pretty new one. Its walls are a buttery tan, which I like very much and which coordinates a lot better with the quilts and other items I have as decor. I'll post some pics tomorrow.

New Beginnings

I started my new job today - sort of. I'm not sure if I've ever mentioned this, but, by day, I work as an instructional designer and up to this point I have developed instruction, mostly in the form of online courses, for custom clients. For over a year now, I have worked for the same client, a pharmaceutical company. Recently, I decided to change things up and applied for a new position within the company. I will still be developing courses, but instead of creating courses for custom clients, I will be creating courses to fill our catalog. These courses could be purchased by various clients and are not customized for just one. So, I still work for the same company, just in a different department. And because I work for the same company, my transition to the new job will be sinuous, but that is necessary so that I can leave my client in a good place. For a little while I may be straddling the fence between the two departments, but all is well. Since I officially became part of the new department today, they gave me this lovely bouquet and took me out to lunch. Such a nice gesture and a wonderful way to ease me onto their team and ease my leaving a department and client I will miss dearly. Oh, new beginnings wouldn't be so hard if endings weren't so sad!