She’s Two

My first baby is two. 

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Ask her what she wants for breakfast, and she’ll tell you what she feels like. Sometimes it’s banana bread, or pancakes, or “Daddy’s Kind” (Reese’s Puffs), or yogurt and honey. Or fruit leather. She has a mind of her own in a good way.

She sometimes randomly comes up to you and says “big kiss” before kissing you, then nonchalantly goes back to playing.

She and her baby doll are good friends. Her imagination is vivid, and she takes such good care of Baby. Today she kept telling Baby that she was “too heavy” before putting her down.

She loves her sister, and wants Brynley to do things with her. Today they sat in the kitchen cupboards together. They both enjoyed it.

She loves being around other kids. A couple of weeks ago, we had Anna come play for a few hours. She’s still talking about Anna. And when we go on our walks in the morning, she requests that we “find kids.”

Five-and-six-word sentences are pretty normal for her, but she doesn’t say a word when she’s around other people. I think she’s an observer like her mama.

If you say something she agrees with, she’ll say, “That’s true.”

She has the best surprised face in the whole world. Her little mouth makes the cutest “O,” her eyes shine, and the delight is so apparent that you feel it too.

I’m a Little Teapot is dang cute when she sings it. And her dancing is joyful.

Happy birthday to my beautiful little girl!

 

 

Linen Pants/Shorts

Back to sewing. I made a pair of linen pants (a refashion) for Brynley and a pair of shorts for Saige.I’ve come to realize that I’m about the world’s slowest seamstress. I just don’t work fast or I make mistakes. But I usually like what comes out of it.

I also seem to take more time drafting patterns than should be allowed. But I guess that for every pair of pants/shorts I make for Saige here on out will need a new pattern since I don’t have one in the new size yet.

And while I’m on the subject, why is it that there are no good commercial patterns for kids pants? I mean, there are plenty for a basic elastic waisted pull-on pair, but I can’t find anything for a REAL pair of 5-pocket pants with a zipper and details. Have I just missed it? If you know of a good one, please share in the comments!

Kitchen Next Steps

So what’s next? We have to order doors and drawers so Chad can stain/paint them once they’re made. Since the cupboards are custom made, the doors and drawers will be as well so they fit perfectly. The uppers will be white, and the lowers a dark, rich brown stained alder. I would have loved to have it all the alder, but I was really afraid of making the space look smaller with too much dark. And I do love the look of white uppers but I didn’t really want it to be too trendy, so it was a tough decision. The balance of light and dark won out though. And I’m positive I’m going to love it.

Also coming up is granite counter tops. I went and looked at slabs to choose what I liked, but didn’t see any prices, so I’m sure I’m in for a big surprise. Of course, Chad knows someone who can help us with good prices (I think he knows someone for just about every trade there is out there…he’s a networker and trade master!) but it’s still going to be painful. I’ll be sure to oogle at the counters every day for as long as they’re ours though.

Then there’s little things like finishing the electrical, a backsplash, buying and installing lazy Susans and the trash drawer, and getting everything organized. There’s a ton of work left to do, but it gets closer every day.

Kitchen Update, Part 3

Then the stove, microwave, and fridge. Oh, how I missed having my food in the kitchen. I actually went to the living room to put things in the fridge a couple of times after it was back in place.

We were all so excited to have things back that I had to make bread in the midst of the chaos. Ta Da!

The sink/disposal/faucet was next, and took some plumbing and electrical work to get things going. It’s crazy how “simple” things can become complicated when you have to move pipes and the like. After nearly two weeks of doing minimal cooking (so there weren’t so many dishes to wash in the bathroom sink), having water and a sink was monumental.

Oh the dishwasher. I bought one online, and immediately upon sliding it into the space, we knew it had to go back. It just was cheaply made, and wasn’t going to work like we needed it to. It also looked out of place in the kitchen (old dishwasher in photo…). So for part of our date night, we took the dishwasher back and found a replacement. It looks SO much better, is better quality, and we got it for the same price as the cheaper one because it was a floor model. And it works like a dream. Once we got it hooked up and did a trial run, Chad asked, “Does this mean we can eat on real plates now?” Yes. It does.

See Parts 1 and 2.

Four Months

Oh Brynley! How I wish I could freeze her in time right now. She’s absolutely perfect. She coos, she laughs, she plays alone and interacts with people. She’s deliciously chubby and kissable. She loves to cuddle still. And I’m her favorite for the moment.

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In the words of her pediatrician, “I can’t find anything to complain about.”

Kitchen Update, Part 2

With the tile laid, Chad was able to put in toe kicks and boxes that he built at night after work. Have I mentioned how lucky I am? He works during the day then is working on this HUGE project at night.  This may have been one of the most important steps to me.

All my food and kitchen “stuff” was occupying the ENTIRE living room, so putting things on shelves was an amazing step forward. 

I could finally get to my living room, open the window, and sit on the couch again. It’s the little things, right? Oh, and having most of the stuff in the kitchen again was nice and functional as well.

Saige has also enjoyed having the cabinet boxes in. They’re great for hiding and playing in (especially when I want to dress her).

Saige and Chad in the pantry.

I love how it was the first visual of the new layout. Once they were in, I kept stopping to just look at how different everything looked. I kept commenting how ironic it was that adding more cabinets and counters made the space look bigger. And more functional. I could immediately tell how much better everything was going to work for cooking and get a feel for how I was going to use the space. Bliss.

Kitchen Update, Part 1

It’s been a crazy couple of weeks here. The kitchen tear out happened while I took the girls to Idaho for a few days, so we missed a lot of the action, but Chad sent me progress photos as he went.

The floor went in first, and I’m a lucky girl to get heat mats under a beautiful tile. And a cool tile layout. It really looks nice. While Chad grouted under the appliances early on, we just finished the rest of the grout a couple of nights ago. What a difference a nice floor makes! I hated our floor before. It always looked dirty and was just unpleasant. Much happier with this option.

Then there was the electrical. It took a long night (with a couple of fabulous helpers) getting the wire pulled and a few outlets ready for appliances. There are still more outlets to put in, but one thing at a time, and they aren’t the highest priority.

More updates coming this week…

Bias Tape

My mom recently bought one of those bias tape makers, and let me borrow it for a bit. I’ve been on a bit of a kick making yards of bias tape in fun fabrics. I’m not sure why I like making it so much.

The machine doesn’t save any of the work cutting, sewing, and trimming your bias strips and you still have to wind the strips into the machine, but it does save time at the ironing board, which is the worst part in my opinion. It also doesn’t make double fold tape, so I’ve been folding it while it’s still hot and winding it on the cards so hopefully when I unwind it it will have a nice crease.

So it’s been nice to borrow, and I’m excited to make some projects with fun bias tape accents (or these fun bias tape bows, which take about two minutes to whip up). Until then, I’ll just enjoy looking at it on the cards…

Brynley’s Blessing Dress

I can’t believe I haven’t gotten this post done before now. It’s been written and the pictures taken since the week of Brynley’s blessing, but something always seems to come up. So before any other interruptions occur, here’s Brynley’s blessing dress.

I can’t think of many things sweeter than a perfect baby dressed all in white. They look so angelic (because they are) and peaceful. And it reminds me what a special gift babies are.

I was going to have Brynley blessed in my blessing dress (from when I was a baby), but when I tried it on her on the Thursday before, it just didn’t thrill me. So I thought about what I wanted her dress to look like that night, and Friday I got some serious sewing done during a longer-than-usual naptime (what a blessing). I love the results.

I’m not a big fan of the long blessing dresses that seem to drown the baby. I’d rather have a shorter dress that showcases the baby goodness. I had this brocade that my mom bought to make a jacket for my wedding, but ended up not using. It was light enough for the dress style, and feminine without being over the top. The perfect blend of innocence and grace–just like my baby girl.

Oh, This Kitchen

When we moved into this house, I liked how open the kitchen was. I thought it was great. I liked it until I tried to cook something, and then realized how many things I’d change about it. For instance:

What is this strange wall next to the fridge? It’s not load bearing, it’s just in the way.

Where is all the counter space? Really. I usually end up using the stove top as a counter when I’m not actually using the burners because there’s no place to put anything. The little countertop there is is chopped into mostly useless chunks.

Oh this corner… Lots of wasted space, and it ends up as a dumping place because it’s mostly out of view and I can’t use it for anything useful.

There’s a whole blank wall, and the builders/architect decided to leave it L-shaped. A girl needs space to work!

The microwave cart and island were actually left by the last owners, and we were glad to use them, but the cart makes everything look messy and the island is only partially functional (there’s a fold-out piece that can’t handle much weight, so it’s not really useful for anything other than holding the cook book).

Electrical outlets… I need more or at least better placed outlets.

Lucky me, I married a VERY talented man, and this past weekend he started building me a new kitchen. So in a couple of days, this non-functional kitchen will go away. And I won’t miss it.

Pictures and updates will follow.