way back wednesday

@ 4 months

@ 21 months.

time is definitely flying by! as you can see, he's a little less prone to letting mommy have her way. i'm sure it's a sign of what's yet to come.

welcome to the champagne room

at least it's where we'll be at 2 a.m. come december. finally getting around to posting pics of the finished paint job.

{before}
{after}
so we have one thing crossed off our list in preparation for baby westphal's arrival. well, we do have a wardrobe somewhat started. no, we haven't gone on a spending spree. most of the stuff we've accumulated over the years. you know, parents hinting around for a grandbaby with an outfit or two. most, if not all the rest has been bought on sale or on consignment. we've come to the conclusion, there's no reason to pay top dollar for baby clothes. of course i say that now, but i'm sure i'm gonna see something absolute adorable that i have to have. so i'll say, generally, there's no reason to pay top dollar for baby clothes. which brings me to our next project: reorganizing the closet.

i've been meaning to post these for a while but i've been having terrible eye allergies. at least that's what we think they are. i went in to the doc and he could see the lipids were inflamed under my eyelids. at first he thought i had make-up caked up under there but after trying to remove them he found it was something more permanent. one eye was worst than the other and oh so painful. i couldn't open my eyes without them instantly watering. i've been taking a topical antibiotic for the eyes and allergy meds to help soothe them. they are finally getting back to normal. apparently being preggers may have caused the flare-up. with my immune system compromised if i get sick it'll be twice as bad. so it looks like i'll be getting the flu shot this year.

this week i've been feeling baby westphal kick more often than not. it's weird to describe the feeling, sorta like someone's just pushing on you. not painful at all, at least not yet. it is a weird sensation and when it started happening i started to bug out a little. (the scene from alien comes to mind). now i find myself giving a little push or shove to get him moving some more. aaron's felt him a few times. he probably gets more excited then me! ;)

we have decided on a first name. and although it is tempting to tell, we're gonna keep it under wraps. still debating on the middle name but i think we've gotten it narrowed down to a few. so i've got a secret! ;)

nice girls swallow

to help me get back into the swing of crafting i decided to participate in an altoid tin swap. it was small and easy, so a good way to get my feet wet again. my partner received today so i can post some pics of the tin i made. i went with her swallow theme if you couldn't tell. angela, you might recognize some of the stickers i used. they came in real handy with this project. thanks!

{back}


{interior}

{close up of embroidery}

right now i'm in the process of altering about 15 pairs of scrub bottoms from an XL to a medium. i've decided it would be a hell-of-a-lot easier to make them from scratch. i also started painting the nursery sky blue. the more rooms i paint, the more i hate the color that is originally in the rooms. it's so blah! i'll post some progress shots this weekend. hopefully i can get it all done by sunday.

weekend work

the house is slowly getting painted. this past weekend i decided to do a small project and painted the foyer area. i needed a color that would somewhat compliment the green so we went with this blue. i can't believe how much the molding and wood are popping with the addition of color. we got our chairs last week and are waiting on the couch. the next room to conquer will be the living room. i have absolutely no clue what i'm going to do in there.

took the leap

yesterday i finished the dining room/kitchen accent wall paint job. i always seem to make things harder on myself than they have to be. case in point. after doing all the remodeling work on the basement, i thought for sure we'd have a 12" roller handy. we, in fact, had three. three caked with drylock gunk, that were pretty much useless for anything. instead of heading out to buy a new one, i decided to use the 6" roller i had instead. (sorta reminded me of the time i used a 12" level to make striped lines on the walls with vaulted ceilings) so what i probably could have done in half the time is finally done. i am proud that i stretched the paint and only used a gallon for everything!

i am extremely happy with the end result. i can't believe how much cleaner the walls look and how bland they looked beforehand. all the walls in our house are currently painted with flat paint. after a couple of years of living here, there seems to be more smudges, scratches, marks than there is clean wall. this is the first "big" room i've done in the house.

next on the list. tile backsplash in the kitchen and paint the kitchen/den. below are the before pics. what an improvement.

dining room possibilities

i'm about 90% positive this will be the future color of our dining room. both picture and color chips have been sitting on our wall the past few weeks. the dilemma: one wall continues into the kitchen and i'm not sure i want a green wall in there because we were thinking of a blue and stone backsplash. but the more i look at it the more i like it. hmmmmmm. i'll have to keep pondering or perhaps reconsider the color of the backsplash.

givin a hoot

my partner received today so i can post all the "owlie" goodness i made. i tend to go on a rampage when i have a specific goal in mind. what i made: a reversible tote with a wood grain pocket. i'm pretty proud that i managed to do it on my machine. matching owl stuffie to hang out in said pocket. an owl pin. also matches the fabric i used on the tote. a hand-painted tee. found a nearly new tee at goodwill and went to town. i planned on doing a more elaborate design but decided simple was better. i used a stencil i found here. a hand-painted i.d. wallet/coin purse. another thrift store find revamped. first time i've painted leather or pseudo leather. hopefully it lasts. i sprayed some clearcoat on it, but i'm not sure if that's gonna help. i'll have to research that one a bit more.

a fabric-covered journal. i had a real hard time parting with this one. i was soooooooo happy with how it turned out. i'm not a big writer, at least not with paper and pen, but i almost changed my mind when i completed this one. i attempted a scrabble tile pendant but learned i needed to decoupage/seal the top of the image before i pour resin over it. the resin leaked under the white making it look almost transparent. so instead i used it as a button on the journal. it's not a functioning button but it does give it that extra kick. i'm gonna have to wait til it gets warmer to work with resin again. it's more of an outdoor activity. it definitely needs plenty of ventilation. someone's gonna get the other projects i made when i worked on this one, but i'm not naming names.

a polymer owl pendant. still working with the stuff. this is one of the first non-food subjects i've made. not sure if i'm ready to branch out yet. it's just another thing to add to my never-ending list of projects to do. and finally the last items: stamped polymer clay thumbtacks. it's the first time i've tried stamping in clay. i used an owl button i have and made impressions in the clay. pretty easy. the only thing i didn't like: i used a circular cutter to punch them out and they lost their shape when i pushed them through. i had to mold them back into little circles. i might have to cool them in the fridge before trying to push them out of the cutter. another learning experience.

all in all, i was quite satisfied with everything i made. and my partner was happy with everything and that's all that really matters. to see more photos check out my flickr set. and all of these photos were taken before my lighting setup. so they have the yellow tinge to them.

i did finish my t-shirt dress. but i'll save that for tomorrow.

garage sale freak

friday and saturday we bucked up and participated in our neigborhood garage sale. got rid of a lot of unecessary things we didn't want to haul to boone. all told we made about $400 between four fams. the stealeys made out like bandits almost taking in half. anyways, when you're manning one of these sales you get to see some wiry characters. people who just laugh uncontrollably at nothing, people who want to divulge their life stories in 2 minutes, and the classic cubs jerk.

this guy comes up wearing a wrigley field shirt and immediately says to aaron, "i hate your hat." then proceeds to browse through some cds. we all look at each other. wtf?? aaron being the nice guy he is says, "i'm not a cubs fan but i like wrigley field." to which jerk replies, "i fucking hate cardinal fans." and walks away. whoa...seriously...wtf? sorry the cubs haven't won since 1908 but is it really something to get your panties in a wad about!

i really wished i had been wearing my new tee. this is my latest project. i wanted an old school looking cardinals tee. i'm still reconstructing the front, but this is what i have on the back. i'm probably gonna make one for aaron too with a thrift store find. it's all stretched out so i'm going to have to do some sewing on it to make it a little more form fitting.