Sewing Room/Closet

I just painted the downstairs bedroom a lovely light blue-green. I used Martha Stewart's "Spring Melt" in eggshell. It reminds me of that vintage blue green, robin's egg type color you see on antique windows and doors.

All my project to still finish are in the giant black trunk, my fabric and other supplies (bookbinding, etc.) are in the tall, black closet, and all the trim, buttons, ribbon, etc. are in the grey dresser. It is so nice to have a place for all this crap...now I can actually see what I have so I can try to use it up - or get rid of it. Also very nice to have a place to leave unfinished projects instead of on the dining room table.

Still need to fix up this corner:

Current photos

Some of our latest photos:

Kitchen helper-

Bow ties for Elliott-

Heart waffles with blueberry syrup I apparently made when Elliott was 2 weeks old (date on lid says August 11th). Hahaha, what was I thinking canning blueberries 2 weeks post partum?! I guess it's little projects like that that keep me sane through the most difficult times...

Trying on wool suspender shorts-

Adam's new D&D dungeon tiles - he made a map of a tavern near a dock.

treasure

Upon moving in to this house, I have unpacked many treasures I had squirreled away in storage awaiting the day I'd have more space or more time to enjoy them. Those days have come!

One exciting box I recently unpacked contained all the antique plates I received from my bridal shower. Wasn't that a cute gift idea?: all the guests were asked to bring an antique plate they thought I would like; combined together, I now have a large, eclectic collection!

I enjoyed unpacking each plate and remembering who gave it. Some people had put their name tags from the shower on their plate so I would know who it was from. As I was going through the box, I saw one plate I didn't remember (it has been 3 years!) and then I saw the name tag:

Thanks Briana, I love you and I love your plate. You always had great taste. I miss you and cherish your gift and memory every day.

Easter Weekend

Easter weekend was incredibly warm and sunny. So hot, in fact, we peeled the plastic off one of our upstairs windows to ventilate - surely a sign of warm days ahead!

We feasted at Adam's sister's and enjoyed the evening with her family.

Elliott is wearing the overalls Adam picked out before Elliott was born - before we knew if it would be a boy or girl!

Good thing we had some warm weather, or he might have outgrown these before he could wear them :)

The kids dyed eggs and they turned out wonderful:

On Saturday, Adam transported 16,000 pounds of wood!

...a lot of these logs are so large/heavy I can barely lift them.

Videos of Elliott Playing

I hid behind a door to get these cute videos of Elliott playing with his favorite toys.

He is growing up so fast!

Parents' Room

Photos of the parents' room (Adam and I are parents now!)

Close up of my temporary nightstand:

We also have a giant TV on the wall opposite our bed which Adam and my Dad expertly hung so that no cords can be seen! We like to watch shows (Portlandia, Top Shot, Doomsday Preppers), movies, and live music videos.

Grey Whales

We went on a Grey Whale (Eschrichtius robustus)Tour on Saturday! We toured with Island Adventures out of Everett Harbor. Spring is the best time for grey whale sightings around here because they are migrating North to eat for the summer and many of the males stop in Puget Sound to eat Ghost Shrimp.

We saw 3 whales, but watched them for about 30 minutes each. One, Number 723, was easy to identify by its two large, white scars on its back. When the whales surface for air between bites of food, you can see their formidable dorsal ridge and a stream of air and water as they blow through their spout. Grey whales are not the breaching(jumping)/singing type - those are humpback whales and their migration can be seen in the Fall. We definitely want to go on that tour.

We went with 3 other families from our previous ward.

After the grey whale dorsal ridge lost our attention, we watched this frog.

Cowboy Photo Shoot

While in Salt Lake visiting Candice, my friend recommended I take Elliott to Fotofly for professional photos. Elliott had just cut a tooth, but you could barely see it, so I thought it would be a good opportunity to capture his big, toothless grin for the last time. I love how the photos turned out.

Which one do you like best? Hard to decide...

Vintage Baby Clothes

While unpacking from our move, I found:

...the suitcase filled with cute baby clothes I thrifted during college!

Some of the clothes are already too small for Elliott, but there are shoes and wool suspender shorts he can still wear.

The real prize, however, is this darling vintage child's smock:

I love the colors this seamstress chose to make a simple, blue checked cotton look feminine with the dainty ric-rac embellishment and red bias tape tie at the back.

The construction of this smock dress is also compelling. It is made from a 15.5" strip of fabric 36" wide (back then, cotton yardage was all 36" wide as opposed to our modern 45" or 60" wide yardage). Since the back edges were on the selvedge, they aren't hemmed. The top has a small channel for the bias tape tie, and the bottom has a tiny rolled hem with ric-rac on top.

The sleeves are U-shaped cuts with tiny rolled hems with ric-rac.

When the smock is gathered and tied, the U-shaped cuts stick out like little angel sleeves -adorable.

I want to make a collection of these all in different colors and trimmings.

If Elliott were a girl, you can guess what he would be wearing! He loves his lentil frog.

Elliott's Room

Elliott's room is not 'finished' but at least it's organized.

I still want to:

paint the baseboards and window frame

hang some curtains

hang some art

get a rocking chair

get a table and lamp near the guest bed.

Here's Elliott, chilling in his room wearing cute shorts