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!

Garden Volunteers

My friend, Anne, commented a few posts ago that I haven't mentioned my garden this season. She's very right and the reason is that I didn't put one in this year. I prepped my 4 square-foot boxes and had them ready and waiting and then six straight weeks of incredible morning sickness (lasting from the time I woke up til 4 pm, at least!) kept me from every planting anything. I was blessed by the garden fairy, however, with garden volunteers: tomato plants that just decided to plant and sow themselves from fruit that fell last year! We've had a wonderful crop of unexpected orange and red cherry tomatoes that we've enjoyed so much! I LOVE garden surprises like this!

A garden full of volunteer tomato plants! What could be better?!

Finding beautiful unexpected fruit is such a blessing!

Red and orange and simply delicious!

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?

Fun Food and Drink

Michele and I - okay, mostly me, but Michele's a great sport - have always had fun trying out new recipes. It's especially been fun trying out new things during this pregnancy. We're of course trying the eat really healthy - even healthier than normal! - but we have to be pretty creative because I get tired of things a lot quicker than usual. I thought I'd share a few of my favorite recipes so far.

Oh so yummy: Lemon Arugula Soup
I actually found this recipe in Whole Living magazine, but you can also find it on this blog. The blogger made some of the same adjustments that I did - substituting vegetable stock for the chicken stock. I also added some cayenne pepper - because I add cayenne to pretty much everything. The only further adjustment I'd make is to add the arugula to each bowl - that way if you don't eat it all in the first sitting, you can reheat the soup and then add arugula to that bowl too. I added the arugula to the pot as the recipe suggested and arugula in the leftover soup was pretty gross on reheating. The soup - after picking out the limp arugula - was super yummy, though!

My favorite Refried Bean Salad
Michele and I have loved this salad since we each first tasted it. It used to be served at a restaurant in Columbus and I think we went there and had this salad on one of our first dates. At the time we were really broke college students and together with drinks, the whole meal for both of us cost only $7 (for BOTH of us, not EACH, BOTH!!)! So we ate this salad A LOT!!

Here's how I make it now:
Refried beans: I use canned black beans - 2 cans. I heat a little olive oil in a pan and mash and fry one can, then add the other can - unmashed. I then add a couple tablespoons of sour cream, a dash of Mrs. Dash, some salt, and a liberal pinch or two of cayenne - of course. That's it for the cooking for this meal.
Lettuce: We used organic romaine and a spinach and mixed greens blend.
Cherry/grape tomatoes: garden fresh is best. Cut them into quarters.
Sliced red onions
Salsa, sour cream, and cheese on top.
Just about the best thing I've eaten, well since the last awesome thing I ate - I have really been enjoying eating lately!!

Pink Frosties
I found the recipe for these on the Ocean Spray website. I must give credit where credit is due, but also must admit that I didn't use Ocean Spray in my version (don't tell Ocean Spray!) Wegman's has a version of the sparkling juice that OS used in the recipe and since I have loads of that at home, I used that - the Pomegranate Cranberry sparkling juice. I paired that with Pomegranate Passion Fruit sorbet - also from Wegman's (hey, Michele works there, I've got to support them!). Oh, these drinks were amazing!! And SO easy and quick to make. Just the two ingredients, plus a straw, because that makes it fun!

Fifteen Weeks and Feelin' Fine!

15 weeks in my
Dr. Suessian tank

I've been feeling very good the past couple of weeks. I think I mentioned that my first trimester was a nightmare of sickness and fatigue, but I am finally over that - yay!! I'm getting my energy back and, as my friend Sono promised, my wierd dreams have settled down. Over the past few weeks, I've only had a few and all have centered around type of tiny human we may be having. So far I've dreamt that I've birthed:

• Twins - a perfectly normal boy and girl
• Identical twin girls + a boy
• A baby boy and the puppy he brought along from heaven - the baby could speak at birth and I asked him about the puppy. He said, "Well, I knew I'd want a puppy eventually, so I decided to save time." I said, "You couldn't have brought along a baby sister instead?" He said, "Yuck, girls are gross!"
• A litter of kittens.
• Twins - a boy with the plastic, muscled body of an action figure, who was really hard to diaper, and a perfect baby girl who was only 3 inches big, but was a really good nurser.
• A solo baby (not sure if boy or girl) who Michele and I kept putting in a crib on the curb and forgetting that we are parents. We'd remember and rush out and then put the baby back in the crib and go inside.

I really hope none of my dreams come true - except maybe number 1 - that one I could handle, but the others, oy vey! I'd lovingly take the baby part of the last one too, but I'll depend on all of you to remind me that it's not a great plan to put the crib outside on the curb, just in case by then my brain is even more adled.

Dreams of Paris

The view from my living room window
Courtesy of World City Photos

Last night I had another odd dream. I actually have odd dreams nightly, but some stand out for their oddity. This dream wasn't about the baby, but I was pregnant in it. I dreamt that Michele - who is driving for Wegman's, our local grocery store, which has stores throughout NY and in PA, VA, MA, and some other places I can't recall - well, Wegman's decided to open operations in France, headquartered in Paris. Michele was asked to transfer there temporarily and we decided to go for it.

Now, I spent my junior high and high school years in Europe and have been to Paris and didn't really like it, so I don't know why it was the focus of my dream, but in the dream I LOVED it there! We had this gorgeous apartment right next to the Eiffel Tower - I mean REALLY close! I could reach my arm out the window and touch the Tower - that close.

Anyhow, the main part of the dream was that we made the decision to transfer and moved but forgot to tell my parents. We'd been in Paris for two weeks and still hadn't let them know, so I finally called my dad. Not surprisingly, he was pretty mad! Steamed is more like it! Then I woke up.

One other interesting thing is that when we left, we filled up the cats' food and water bowls, but didn't ask anyone to come and refill them. That's fine for a weekend, but we were going to be away for six months at least! My hope is that I'm a better mother to this baby in real life than I am to my cats in my dreams!

Pregnancy Dreams

My dreams have been so wild lately! Over the weekend I dreamed that my work team went on a field trip and while on the bus in the middle of nowhere, one of my coworkers (who had a baby several weeks ago) went into labor. Since I'd been reading up on childbirth, I graciously offered to deliver her baby for her. And I did a bang up job of it, if I do say so myself!

Last night, I dreamt that my allegies were acting up and I let out a huge sneeze and the baby flew out of my mouth! I freaked and caught her/him in my hands and panicked because I couldn't think of a way to put the baby back where babies belong! I woke up in a panic and calmed myself down with the realization that:
1. My baby is safely in my uterus.
2. My uterus is not connected to my stomach or lungs.
3. Since there is no tube running between my uterus and stomach or lungs, it would be impossible to sneeze out the baby.

I seriously had to do the science on it before I could rest. Oh how I hope for peaceful sleep tonight!

Hosting a Tiny Human

It's been so long and life has been speeding by! Life for the most part is par for the course here in Michelleville - well except that I've taken on a passenger (or two) recently. I'm hosting a tiny human for the next few months - tee hee. I'm 12 weeks pregnant and so excited about this journey to mommyhood! I went through a rough patch with six weeks of sickness, but am now on the other side and feel like life is grand. Michele's been such a support and comfort during the weeks of sickness, she's just going to be the very best mom!!

Our little tiny human decided last night that s/he would like a blog, too, so if you'd like to follow our journey from the baby's point of view, definitely check it out: http://zordansworld.blogspot.com/

Here's to the joys of parenthood!! Yippee!!

Color Test

I took a very cool color personality test and I think the answers are pretty spot on. It's fascinating to think that the colors I like say something about me (well, something more than "Hey, she's a bright, cheerful lady!)

My color choices say:
I am 63 % extrovert and 37 % introvert.

Independently of any order of importance :

• I am dynamic, my actions are only directed by my own will and I know how to lead people.
• I am also a leader, I know how to organize the groups of persons and give them my energy.
• I am attentive and cautious, I take into account the needs of others before setting up the defined goals.
• I am dynamic and active, I am determined in my actions, I know how to communicate my ideals and your energy, and thus, I know how to boost people.

Contemplating the Dawn

Sometimes the dawn sky just seems so thoughtful. I snapped this picture last week and just found it again when I downloaded the images off my camera. The snow is gone now, but this sky is just amazing so I thought I would share it.

Happy Socks

Sometimes there's just one article of clothing that makes me happy just to look at it. A few days ago it was a pair of absolutely awesome socks. I fell in love with these in the store and love just having them in my drawer! When I get to wear them, I feel happy all day. They are definitely happy socks. I hope to one day have a week's worth of them!

Heartbroken for Japan

I've been thinking so much about the devastation in Japan. We talked about it today in my local Etsy team meeting and are planning to do something to raise money as a team. Right now, I'm just sending thoughts and prayers to all affected. I always feel so helpless at times like this - I want to do more, but am often at a loss. Any suggestions? What are all you crafty people doing to support relief efforts? Any creative ideas?

My Continuing Carrot Collection

I love this time of year: carrots galore in every store as the Easter decorations come out!!

I, of course, am adding to my carrot collection whenever I can and Michele and friends are lovingly enabling me.

These carrot chocolates are from Michele - they are
actually hazelnut and chocolate and are carrot umbrellas, which really
adds to their coolness. I have to say that they will not last long enough to
be added to the collection, but I LOVE them!

In addition to the carrot chocolates, Michele has recently given me other consumables, like carrot hair conditioner, bath wash, body butter, and carrot lip balm. I'm carrots head to toe, inside and out.

My friend Carole, an art teacher, found a stack of carrot-themed creations
from a long gone student as they were cleaning out cabinets at her school.
She gifted me these beauties! I hope that Nate is somewhere and I hope he's famous!

This makes me think of Attack of the Killer Tomatoes. Attack of the Killer Carrots!!
I should be scared, but am not at all.

Could this be more perfect for me?

I would love to ride a carrot train . . .

. . . to this carrot hotel.

And to cap off this phase of my collection, a gift from the lovely and talented painter and sculpter Randy Duncan, husband of the awesome and talented crochet artist Karen Duncan:

An Original Randy Duncan work of art! How I love this! There are no words!

My collection is growing by leaps and bounds and I feel so loved when friends remember this quirky obsession of mine and gift me carrot-y lovelies like these. I'm truly living the dream! :)

Mug Rug Swap

I participated in a fun swap for mug rugs hosted by Michele Foster at the Quilting Gallery. I'd never heard of a mug rug, but the concept is pretty simple: it's like a coaster on steroids or, alternatively, like a miniature placemat. It's big enough for a large mug of coffee (tea) and a treat. Right up my alley! I LOVE LOVE LOVE these!! Whoever originally thought of the idea is brilliant!

I made a coffee-themed rug for my swappie. I fussy-cut sections from
Debbie Mum's Coffee Break and set those pieces into the coffee bean
on blue. I really like how it came out. It looks simple, but the piecing
required quite a bit of math. I like that difficult piecing looks simple in the end.



My swap partner really likes selvages, so I wanted to incorporate
them into one of the rugs. I really love this fabric line: Rainy Days
and Mondays by Riley Blake. It has really pretty selvages which
I never noticed until I started looking through my fabric to find one
to work with. I don't know if I will use selvages in the future, but it
was really fun to incorporate them in this and I like how it turned out!

I got this beauty in the mail from Eindhoven - in the Netherlands.
Oh, it's gorgeous isn't it!! Maya, from Maya's Scrap Basket did
an amazing job! I love the fabric - reminds me of apple picking. I
plan to keep this one on my sewing table for the cup of tea that
rarely leaves my side. My little tea pot fits right beside it! Nice!

This is rug #2 from Maya. So fun! I really love this one, too!
Watermelon is a real favorite of mine and I love that I have a fall
and a summer rug - though I'll use both all year round! This one
is heading to work with me to grace my desk and allow my
little work teapot to rest upon it. Now this is living! Thanks Maya!!

It's Been Forever!!

Kitty Leeloo - a collaboration with my
clay artist friend, Sabra. Just a little something
I worked on over the last few weeks.

I just realized that's it's been forever since my last post - over a month!! Things have been great but so busy after the holidays. I can't believe it's March already. Dirty secret: we still have our Christmas tree up!! It's driving Michele crazy, but I get a little happy every time I see it! There are boxes underneath - we opened the gifts and left the boxes under the tree and just haven't gotten rid of them yet. It really makes me feel like Christmas is on the way!

Well, I have certainly been keeping busy and out of trouble. I'm working hard on the shop and to that end have started another blog. I really need to use blogging to promote my shop, but wanted my friends to have a choice about whether to know more about my shop or to know more about my quirky life, or both! So, hop on over to A Blog's Eye View into the Studio of The Quilted House if you'd like to know what I'm doing in the studio and shop, and stay here if you'd like to know what I'm doing in my life - though the two will often overlap! I promise to do a better job of keeping this blog up-to-date!

Creating for a Contest - Mug Shots

I've been having a great deal of fun creating two entries for a competition at the gallery that is part of my favorite coffee shop, Equal Grounds. Each participant can enter up to three 5x7 images of their travel mug in the location of their choosing. The fun part is that the "images" can be in any medium. That immediately caught my attention and I decided to make two 5x7 quilts of my travel mug in, where else?, my studio! And boy did I have fun!

I started by taking an actual picture of the mug in the two places I wanted to immortalize in fabric: my cutting table in front of a stack of fabric from my stash and my sewing table in front of my favorite sewing machine (I actually took the image in front of my 2nd favorite machine because #1 was in the shop, but since they look identical, I didn't think it would matter (just don't tell the machines!)).

After I had two pictures that I liked, I sized them in the computer to 5x7 and printed them out. These would become my patterns for color, placement, and size. I wanted the mug and a feature item in each shot to be 3D, so I needed to choose the feature items. For the sewing table quilt, I, of course, chose the machine, and for the cutting table shot, the only thing I could choose was the fabric, so that was pretty easy. Since the fabric stack is so colorful, I chose white for the background for that piece, and, conversely, since my machine is so white, I chose a pieced rainbow background for the sewing table piece. That pieced background was inspired by the crazy-pieced curtains I made for the window behind my machine, so that worked well.

I started the projects by making the most complicated items first: the mugs. These were actually less complicated to make than the sewing machine, but since there are two of them and they are different sizes and perspectives, they became a bit more complex. I immediately fell in love with the completed little mini travel mugs - they came out so adorably well!

I then moved on to the sewing machine and the stack of fabric. At this point, I decided to make the sewing machine match the actual machine as realistically as possible, but to create the fabric stack more abstractly. I thought it would be fun to work on both a realistic piece and an abstract piece for the same project. And at the end of the creation, that's exactly what I created: a very realistic quilted sewing machine and a very abstract stack of fabric - I can't decide which I like best! (I actually think I will make a series of small abstract fabric stack wallhangings at some point in the future - I really like the look of them!)

The final part of the creation was the main quilt. This part was so simple. The finished piece needed to be 5x7, so for the fabric stack quilt that had a simple white background, I just cut two 5x7 pieces of white fabric, made the quilt sandwich, quilted, and bound it and was done. The sewing machine main quilt needed to represent the curtains and the wood table, so some piecing was involved, but it was still very simple in comparison to the more complicated 3Dish quilted pieces that would be attached.

This one is "Sapphire and Cider" named after

my #1 machine, Sapphire, and the beverage

of choice in my mug: caramel apple cider

Once I had all the pieces assembled, I used the pictures I'd printed out to guide me in placing each quilted piece on the background quilt and attached them using my machine. Placing and attaching them was a piece of cake (not counting the many many errors I kept getting from my machine because the presser foot was too high - these are VERY thick little quilts!).

This one is "Abstraction and Apple Cider"

I can't believe how very well they came out! I really love them both and can't wait to see them hanging in the gallery. The staff of the coffee shop and the gallery will vote on the best "mug shot" and the customers will get to vote as well, so I hope one of these two little beauties wins - but, honestly, I already feel like they're winners - they are simply gorgeous and I had THE BEST time making them!

Life Modeling

First sitting

I recently had the opportunity to do some life modeling for a friend's oil painting group. When I first heard that I would need to hold a pose for four hours, I was very nervous. I new I would get frequent breaks, but it was the length of time of inactivity that had me worried. I am not often inactive. In fact, I'm known for my constant activity. Michele and I are exact opposites in that regard - she loves taking breaks and resting and just sitting. I need to constantly be doing and going and accomplishing something. I sat for two four-hour sessions for the group and was amazed at how wonderful it was! Since I rarely rest, it was such a treat to just sit and not have any choice or opportunity to do! I just sat and thought and planned and had a great time (I guess technically thinking and planning are doing, but you know what I mean.) This sitting happened in the midst of the holidays so it was great having a nice restful break.

Same model + different points of view = four different paintings

I thought the whole process was amazing. Seeing myself on canvas in oil paint was so cool! The painters are very talented and each painted a very different painting. They were all positioned with a different point of view, too. At first it was odd having a group of folks staring at me and commenting on this feature or that, but soon it became so interesting to hear what they noticed about features that I just kind of take for granted. None of the painters finished their paintings by the end of the second session, but all plan to finish at home. I work with one of the artists and hope she'll bring the painting to work or take a picture of it completed for me. For now, I've been enjoying my pictures of their works in progress. Thankfully, I'm good at sitting and staring and the group would like to have me back. I can't wait to see what my next costume will be! This sitting I ended up as a kind of African queen, so we'll see what/who I am next time. And I'm excited about the rest and relaxation!



End of second sitting

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 New Year

Ahh, I adore the freshness of a new year. I hope it's starting out great for all of you. I feel so hopeful that I'll:

1. Be more organized
2. Be nicer
3. Complete more
4. Have a better memory
5. Find more time 
6. And so on and so forth

I never really change year to year, but I always feel hopeful that it's possible - at least through January. By February, I've realized that I'm pretty much the same, but that's still pretty great.

I did actually complete quite a few things in December, so maybe I was most of those things already? Anyhow, I finished that baby quilt I mentioned last month. Oh, so pleased with it! But how could anyone do a bad job with such a fun feature fabric and such a great pattern. Star sashing is one of my favorite piecing patterns and it's just perfect when you want to feature a fun juvenile print like this monkey one. Plus, I was lucky enough to find the exact same print in a flannel for the backing. So cozy! I feel pretty confident that mama and baby are loving it right now!



I loved the pairing of the monkey and the polka dot fabrics.
Inspired, if I do say so myself!



A finished project is always a treat. One this cute is especially wonderful.

There's nothing cozier than a flannel-backed quilt! Ahhhh!