Pinocchio's Chair

A few months ago I happened upon an estate sale after a run at the beach.  It was a serendipitous stop because I found this adorable chair for about $7.  I knew I wanted to repaint it, but haven't until now.

I have so many little furniture pieces, frames, paintings, and projects just waiting to be brought to life, but sometimes it takes a while.  I keep meaning to repaint a vintage folding chairs and table set, and even have the outdoor fabric to reupholster the seats.  Maybe before summer's end...

Jon was out the other night and I just got the bug to finish this chair.  It had been staring defiantly at me from the corner of our room for some time and I finally got the hutzpah to give it what for.

If you could snap your fingers right now, what project would you love to have finished?

Stripey Handmade Nursery Stage 3

Done for now...

After finishing the touch up on the walls, we hung the art and some floating shelves.  A friend bought us a lovely antique dresser when we were trying to pass our licensing, as this was an item we needed.

I've filled the room with several handmade items like embroidered blankets and toys and I can't wait to share those with you.  I'll have to clean out the cat hair if I want to take photos... it seems Milo believes the crib to be a wonderful spot to snooze.

That reminds me, what does one do if the cat won't stay out of the crib?  My little sister was viciously pounced upon by our cat once, and I'm not so keen on a repeat.  Milo darts when we catch him, but is there any way to prevent this?  Once we have a child, we won't be able to keep the door closed all the time.

The swing came from a former student (strange that our students are having babies now), and the rocker is from Jon's mom.  The crib came from another friend who adopted and received it as a gift.  And there are just too many handmade and vintage treasures to spill the beans about just yet!

Stay tuned, I will tell all.  And one day, there will be one very special addition to the room that is unlike any other...

Stripey Handmade Nursery Stage 2

On the striped wall, after the primer, white stripes and backfilling the tape, we then had to do 2 or 3 coats of color, with a heat lamp on them to dry between coats, removed the tape carefully, and there is always touch up.  I've learned that.  If I expect it, I'm not so frustrated.

The other walls look very blue in the evening, and quite green during the day.
 I love how lighting changes things!

No pastels, no ducks, and no mint green or chicken-fuzz yellow.

In choosing so much color, I also didn't want to simply go with a "rainbow" color scheme.  If you notice, there is no green in the stripes.  Turquoise, yes, but not simply primary/secondary true-hues.  I used red and tinted red (red+white=pink) and the charcoal grey has a blue hue to it, which allowed me to not use violet in the stripes.  The pale green on the other two walls isn't really pastel, or maybe an updated pastel, but that's how I got away with not using green either.

I can't wait until the whole room is put together!  This is turning out so nicely... a good pay-off for all that work.  Phew!

Stripey Handmade Nursery Stage 1

Hi!  Look what I've been doing...

One of the things we have had to do for our adoption license is provide a space for a child, and while it would be sufficient to just provide a crib and a dresser, who wouldn't go the whole nine yards?! (good movie, btw).

Here are the beginning stages.  I used these as inspiration, and derived the colors from there.  I looked at a lot of inspiration from Ohdeedoh and knew that since we wouldn't know the gender of our little-one-to-be, creating a gender-neutral nursery would have both its challenges and its delights.  I'll talk about that later, but for now I'll try to summarize the process.

BEFORE:
I painted samples on paper of the colors I wanted for stripes,
then played with the arrangement, taping them on the wall.

Using a dark grey primer, we covered the grey wall first.  Then I added a white to make a light grey to go under the colored stripes.

Next, I measured out where I wanted the stripes, and knew I wanted a white line between each color.  I painted 2 coats of white where they would be, then taped off the areas I wanted to keep white with 1" painter's tape.

The overhanging white (the white that peeked out from under the 1" tape) was then covered with grey primer again.  And here's the real kicker:

           BACKFILL- You know how paint seeps under the tape no matter what you do?  Well, this is how you stop that.  You backfill.  What is the color under your tape?  Mine was white.  So I painted the edges of the tape with white so that it would fill the little holes and seep under, instead of the stripe color.  Voila!  Straight lines every time; no color seeping under the tape.

You Are

Do I address the fact that it's been more than a month since my last post, or do I ignore it and jump right in?

I'm going to go with the latter.

The fact that my typing skills have deteriorated is a testament to the fact that I am more of an information consumer these days (with the help of iPhone/iPad dependency). Do you feel the same, especially if you have a smart phone?

Anyway.

As an act of truce and coronation, I'm gifting you with a complimentary trio of truths; I want you to know that you are:

Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him.
Your roots will grow down into God's love and keep you strong.
~Ephesians 3:17

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,  I know that full well.
~Psalm 139:14

As far as the east is from the west, so far has He
removed our transgressions from us.
~Psalm 103:12

I love you and I've missed you.  I'll try to never be gone so long again.  Thanks for being there for me

One Foot In Front of the Other

Girl has been busy.

I don't know if there's even anyone out there who still visits me here!  But I have good reason.  Really, who hasn't been a little too busy now and then.  I determined to not feel guilty about my lack of blogging, however, because there have been more than one occasion since I've started this journey that my life was actually too busy slow down and document it.  I've been busy LIVING.

One thing I've been spending a lot of my extra time doing is running.  I don't do it well, or fast, but since Jon and I learned that we'd be in the business of developing a family and that it wouldn't happen quickly, I wanted to learn about endurance, and I thought running would be a good way to do that.

Oceanside Strand: one of my favorite short runs

It's not a fast race, I'm interested in finishing, I'm interested in efficiency, and one day I'll be interested in speed.  But right now I'm interested in running more than 3 miles and learning how to shut off the part of my brain that says, "this is hard/I'm bored/that hurts" and just keep running.

On Memorial Day I am running my first half marathon and I'm not interested in running any faster than 11 minute miles, as we do the run/walk method from Jeff Galloway.  But I'm putting in the hours to be able to do it, and I'm going to do it.  And then I'm going to keep doing it and I'm going to eventually learn all those other things.  I'll get better one day, but right now, slow but steady wins the race.

Defensive Lineman Seeks Weightlifting Class

As the weather has been warming up, it's been so wonderful to be outside more and more.  One of our favorite things to do is put our little 9 pound shih tzu, Lilly, in my bike basket and take her on rides around the neighborhood.

Unfortunately, the warmer days means that if I'm going to go out for a long run (I'm slow, so it takes a while), then I have to start earlier in the morning.  I'm not much of an athlete, so running suits me fine.  The only other sports I've done was sit idly in right field on a few softball teams, a brief stint in kickball in Portland last summer, and play intramural football in college at Biola University.

I found these photos (which were from the pre-digital era) and I thought I'd share some of those powderpuff football days.  They were anything but powderpuff, or atleast that's what we'd like to think.  There were quite often broken bones and countless bruises.  It was NOT just fun and games.

 

Our team (which, by the way, I will not tell you our name...no one but us knew what NPA stood for) did pretty well the two years I played, and one year, for playoffs, one of the dads donated pads and cleats.  We were pretty stoked.  Until after the first game, the refs brought out the intramural playbook and told us that while we didn't have to forfeit our first win, we couldn't wear the gear anymore.  That was a real bummer for the dad who bought them, since now everything was used and he couldn't return it.

I like to brag that my dad was a football player in college, my older brother did in high school, and I can proudly say that I too joined the ranks of familial ballers.  Don't I look tough, by the way?  Apparently I believed that if I just bent my elbow I would grow a muscle.  I think I'll stick to running...slowly.

Plan: Soak It All In

It's Easter Break starts this weekend!  Oh, there have been so many mornings lately when I wished I was sleeping in instead of getting up before the sun.  So this week I fully intend on taking advantage of the fact that I live at a fantastic Spring Break location of my very own.

I plan on:

1. House-sitting for the In-Laws (on the lake)
2. Swimming in said lake
3. Sunbathing next to that lake, in the back yard, and at the beach
4. Catching up on grading (ugh)
5. Finishing reading Water for Elephants (at the lake or the beach)
6. Working on my crocheted afghan
7. Painting the NURSERY!

Necklace from Louloudo

What are you going to do this Easter?  Any egg hunts?  Egg dyeing (What's your favorite, by the way)? Cadbury Cream Egg eating?  Happy Friday.

Liquid Rainbows

It's watercolor refill at school today.  My fingers hurt from squeezing out the tubes.  Good stuff must be about to happen with this much watercolor.

God Likes Laundry Day

 A few years ago I read Serve God Save the Planet by Matthew Sleeth.  While I already had a bit of a green bent, this book completely changed my persepctive.  It discussed the WHY of going green; it isn't just about preserving the earth for future generations so that they can live and preserve it for generations beyond themselves.  This is a perpetuation without real reason.

Many Christians seem to act as though sustainability is a four letter word used only by 'liberals.'  But this book discusses how preserving what we've been given (Creation) as though we were stewards of it, taking good care of what God gave us, for the purpose of respect and worship, as well as for our own good.

The summer I read this book, we stopped using our ice maker, didn't use lights for a week (that was fun, and only candles in the evening meant we had to manage our time better, doing the things that required light during the day...I totally recommend trying this little experiment yourself this summer), and we also stopped using our dryer.

I love line drying clothes.  Well, now I do.  When I was little, we did it because we had to; we couldn't always afford using a dryer.  But there are many things I now do for nostalgia and stewardship that I resented as a kid.

Last fall, our clothes line broke.  We didn't fix the problem during winter, but now that the weather is much more laundry friendly I put up a new line.  I just can't tell you how happy this makes me!  And with the prospect of cloth diapers around the corner, I am all the more appreciative of the San Diego sun and the healing qualities, not to mention the earth-friendliness.

The short of it: I worship God with my clothes line!