This Week's Update: January 9

I feel inspired.

Or perhaps the gauntlet has been thrown.  Either way, for at least a bit of time I'm hoping to blog more regularly and I'm starting with a simple system to do so thanks to PicMonkey and simple explanations.

1. Holiday events are over and it's really cold around here, so it's time to start working on Nick's quilt again.  After a marathon weekend quilting session, the hand quilting is done and the machine quilting is going to work really well with simple straight lines following the sashing.
2. The Epiphany Pageant is back at church.  This time though there are no rehearsals, no intimidating costumes, an insanely simple program, and everyone is involved.  It also helped that someone was motivated to handle all the details of this event from start to finish.  Jen, I could have saved the Star someone made for your Star Dance year, but it was huge and I wanted to clean the cabinet and I did not want to bring it home so ... let's just say that we'll have to rely on memories.
3. I've had a perfectly lovely time buying this and that for Baby Gerardi who's due in only 36 days.  36!  I don't know how I'm going to wait until mid-March to meet the little darling.
4. I'm reading the Secret Diary of Elisabeth Leseur for my Well-Read-Mom book club.  The book is interesting enough, but it was impossible to find a copy for loan or for sale so I ended up buying a Kindle version.  I'm glad it was an option, but I'm not much of a fan of the method.
5. Happy news of the day on Wednesday: the Archdiocesan Vocations Office likes Family Formation!
6. I was talking with someone at church about the general topic of nativity sets and ended up with her giving me a fairly extensive set with figures about 10 inches high.  It's set up in the bay window (a space big enough for all the livestock, the well, the feeding troth, etc.) with the Wise Guys peeking down from the corner of the bookshelf.
7. In Holly's "goals" post she mentioned her competitive tendencies being the motivation behind friending me in the FitBit app.  I'm glad to try to kick her butt in steps, but in all fairness I should probably tell her that my exercise plan involves drinking lots of water at my desk and taking the longer route to the bathroom.  Let's just say that there's not going to be a trophy for beating me.
8. A good, but mostly unremarkable Enchilada Soup recipe, except for one feature: one of the ingredients is chicken, but instead of cutting up raw chicken when I really wanted to get out the door, the whole breast is just dumped in the crock pot with the rest of the ingredients.  Before it's served, simply scoop out the whole thing, cut it cross grain in a few places, and it falls apart into a perfect soup meat.  It was a great method!

Chipping away at the garage

In the interest of actually being able to use some small portion of the garage for a project every now and then, I've decided to make a stab at claiming a bit of the little garage.  Some stuff is in the trash, some is in the jeep awaiting a Goodwill stop and the rest ended up on the new shelf.. Yes, a NEW SHELF!  (You're probably not as excited about that as I am.)  We went to Menards with the intention of buying lumber and brackets to match the shelf that all the outdoor toys are on, but came home with something entirely different.

This metal shelf system only cost a little more than the original plan and literally snapped together in about half an hour.  It holds a lot more weight than we're ever going to stack on it (see that generator on the top right shelf?) and should pretty much last forever.  No clean up, done the same day - about as painless as garage cleaning can get!

On the opposite wall, we installed the pegboard that used to be in the sewing room.  The stated intention is that it will be a good place to store woodworking tools.  The secret intention is that I might be able to find a hammer, screwdriver, pliers, and tape measure.  Seriously, we own a dozen tape measures, but I can never find one in the other garage!  [end rant]  The table is a great workbench and there is storage space on the side for a router, sanders, etc.

Office remake

I wish I'd taken a before picture; unfortunately, the office was so dark and gloomy it may have sucked all the light out of the photo.

With gloomy, gloomy winter coming up, I knew I had to do something to make it into a place I could work.  Fortunately, the building maintenance guy is merciful and made time to paint the room a nice, sunny yellow.

3/8 inch plywood, cheap batting, cotton fabric, staple gun

Adorable boys on the desktop background

From there, I added a wall of flowery message boards, got rid of two huge, window-blocking file cabinets, scrounged the building for a more user friendly storage system, and added a cute rug.

Rugs USA - highly recommended!
This is a small rug, but 100% wool and free shipping for $17.
Amazing prices and the two I've bought there are both great quality.

The primary goal is to not hate every minute I spend in that room (guessing that would affect productivity), and for people to actually come in, sit down and chat. (Thanks for the great example, Trudy!)  I still need to get some stuff on the walls, but it's pretty terrific so far!

Now all I need is a dress form ...

I'm always simultaneously attracted to and skeptical of Montessori methods. (It's so peaceful and orderly, but do real kids actually play that way without massive intervention from grown ups?  Also, all the Montessori-at-home blogs I've ever seen involve very small families - one, maybe two children tops.)  Anyway, it's indisputable that the materials are simply wonderful - beautiful, durable, practical - all so very attractive!

This is no exception and the directions are free online.  I can absolutely imagine Bean and Peanut and little Trailmix updating their little home altars with what Father will be wearing tomorrow. :)

Now all I need is a dress form that doesn't look like a Barbie doll.

Tuesday that feels like a Monday

I set my Monday alarm for 6:00 a.m.bright and early this morning, only to remember an hour later that it is Tuesday and perhaps it was time to get my butt out of bed.  Not exactly how I was planning to start my foray back into blessed routine after this weird, stressful summer.  Also, the office copier sounded like it was going to have a heart attack all day and even though I got holiday pay yesterday, it's so crazy-busy this month that I think I'd be better off using my limited hours solving actual work related problems.  Blerg.

Anyway, Nick was gracious enough to take a first day of school picture this evening and I'm posting them before they get lost in my not-yet-back-to-routine life.

Bedroom Remodel, Part 3: The first nail is pounded into the wall

I bought this piece on clearance at Hobby Lobby a couple years ago, knowing it would be perfect for something ... sometime in the future.

Well, the time is right and the place is perfect, and Nick was willing to do the painting.

I'm really happy with how everything is coming together.  Here's what's left:

Red

• This room must have some red in it!  By some serendipitous set of circumstances, I was able to find a rug I really like for 80% off.  UPS promises I'll see it tomorrow.  
• I'm trying to buy red ticking for some pillowcases but JoAnn currently has a particularly lame sale on utility fabrics.  ($1 off/yard).  Since this is a $15/yard product, I'll wait until the "sale" is over and use one of their ubiquitous coupons to buy it for 40-50% off.
• I'm also embroidering some redwork pillowcases.  I actually started one with a pattern I like pretty well but then a new inter-library loan came in with patterns I like really well.  It's a little crazy, but I think I'm going to scrap the first almost-done one and start over with the A-List patterns.
• Also, I'm pretty sure I want to make a red version of the quilt at the top of this section that WILL NOT cooperate and move down here.

Organizing

• Right now, toys and extra blankets are in the wardrobe (which also needs to be painted sometime) and H and J's long-term storage stuff is safely tucked under the bed, but there is still a bunch of stuff around the perimeter of the room waiting for J's move and a variety of thumb's up or down judgment calls.  Everyone will have been home by the end of August, so it should all be completed by then.
• What to do with that toy kitchen?  It fits along the wall, but sure doesn't match at all.  Linus likes to play with it, but will he play down in the bedroom?

More nails in the wall

• I want to build one of these for the east wall.  I like the idea of being able to change out the art without pounding more nails in the wall.

Bedroom Remodel Part 2: Headboard

I've been informally looking for a used headboard for the past year and really haven't found anything I like for a price I'm willing to pay and it was finally to the point where it was holding up the project.

So, inspired by this:

and fueled by nice weather, cheap lumber, and owing a couple decent tools that did all the real work, I made my own.  It also helped that the word "rustic" was part of the original pinterest title I saw.  ("That?  Oh, it's supposed to look that way.  It's rustic!")

We bought the lumber after the parish picnic on Sunday.

And I started putting it together the same evening.

By Monday I was able to prime it.

And today (Wednesday) we installed it!  The only reason it took that long was that I worked two of those days and needed to fit in coats of paint in the mornings and evenings.

Ta da!

This is the first actual piece of furniture I've ever made all by myself and I'm pretty pleased with the results.  Obviously, it's in the beginner range for such things and I can't overestimate the value of having a saw that makes perfectly square cuts all by itself.  Nonetheless, yay me!

Next up, I'm going to vacuum those little piles of sawdust from drilling the holes to attach it to the bed frame and then I'll prioritize what will be stored under the bed and start doing some actual decorating.

NOTES:

• I used carsiding instead of the 1x4's and 1x6's listed in the instructions.
• I made mine quite a bit shorter (maybe 10 inches or so).
• I was going to transfer something from the Graphics Fairy onto this blank canvas, but I tried it on a practice board and decided that I need a LOT more practice before attempting a big project.