Fannie called...

Fannie called from the pay phone... our crib is finished! Now we'll just need to arrange to pick it up! And then get a mattress and some bedding for it. And a baby.

Went to the doctor today. No sign of having a baby this week. Guess that means I keep going to work. Ugh. Is it the weekend yet?

John rented a good movie last night, Peaceful Warrior. It's thoughtful, powerful, moving, inspirational. One of the best movies we've seen in a while. We watched some of the dvd features about how the movie was made, too. It gave us perspective on what went into making the movie. We kind of understood better how we could be so touched by what we saw.

Tonight I'm in feet-propped-up mode. I read a little more of my book: Lucia, Lucia. It's very light reading. I'm glad I am making time for reading, I really do like reading. The cool thing about this book is that it takes place in the 1950s. Lucia works as a seamstress in the custom department at a major NYC department store. So much of the atmosphere is about the fashion of that time - which I love. I have quite the collection of vintage costume jewelry, much of it from the 1950s. So it's cool to read a story related to that period.

I watched Sunrise Earth from Monday, sunrise over the Penobscot River in Maine. I got chills thinking about putting in on a whitewater river early in the morning. I'm pretty sure I'm going to need to raise my kids to love river rafting... or kayaking. We haven't been rafting in 2 years. I miss it.

Now I'm catching up on some episodes of Breakfast with the Arts. I know, I have very strange television interests.

room with a view

We finished the basement and my husband immediately set to work on getting the new tv. I wasn't thrilled... it didn't really seem like a necessity.

But since we have it... I am WAY into Sunrise Earth on Discovery HD. He's going to have a hard time getting me to delete them from the saved shows on our DVR box. This weekend I recorded the episode filmed on a ranch in Wyoming: horses, sunshine, birds twittering, a river, mountains, rising fog, green grass, etc. It's like having a big picture window in our basement where we can watch the sun rise whenever we want from wherever we want.

I've seen the sun rise a few times. Mainly, I can only make it happen on vacation. I got up for it last summer at Huntington Beach (proof: photo). And the year before I was awake crazy early in Punta Islita, Costa Rica one morning reading a book overlooking the Pacific Ocean while the sun came up. (No proof for that one, besides some bug bites that have since faded.)

The break of day is a beautiful thing... so full of hope. I'm glad someone thought enough to record it and broadcast it in HD. :-)

our baby has a room

Brace yourselves. You'll never guess what we finally did today.

We finally made some progress on the baby's room! We got all of our stuff moved out of his room. We have a ton of junk. We got the basement finished and have been spending quite a bit of time there. Well now all the crap we moved out of the baby's room is overtaking our zen-like basement space. Doh! John is assembling a new storage shelf right now to alleviate some of the clutter. (I'm sitting with my feet propped up... I'm so helpful.)


There really isn't much to photograph at this point. But at least everything in the room is the baby's stuff. We are still waiting on the Amish folks to call and let us know the crib is ready. Kind of frustrating to not have a crib yet... even though we won't need it right away. The crib would really make the room.


But we do have lots and lots of baby clothes in which to imagine our little bundle of joy. The clothes are so tiny and cute all folded up or hanging on hangers. I'm pretty sure we have plenty of receiving and other blankets, too. I filled 3 dresser drawers with blankets today!

Then there are the books... OH THE BOOKS! We have gotten some terrific books as gifts and I have found so many at yard sales for practically nothing. Let's hope he likes stories... because he is going to hear a lot of them.

day off

I took today off from work. I call it a psychological day. Sometimes you just need to be away from work. A weekend just isn't the same thing - you're supposed to be off on the weekends. So taking a weekday to just do what I want is good for my mental health.

So here's how I spent the day...

1. Got up at the usual time and showered.
2. Went to Starbucks for a decaf java chip frappuccino.
3. Met my boss for some yard sales. (Yes, my BOSS joined me on this day off!)
4. Spent the whole morning buying nutty stuff at yard sales. I had some serious fun. I got some picture frames that I will re-craft for JT's room. Also got another shelf that I can paint for his room. AND, of course... a whole pile of books for him. Some of these books crack me up. My lovely boss handed me a book about a boy who's mommy is a working mom. In the book, mommy's a witch. lol.
5. After the yard sales I came home for a PB&J sandwich.
6. In the afternoon I went to the tire place to get new tires put on my car. Can't be driving baby around on bald tires, now can I?
   
7. They had to get the tires from another store, so I went to Target for a few things. Like a shower curtain liner. Man, is ours gross. And I had to get a children's book and flip flops to send to send out for chain letters I've gotten recently. (Watch out if I have your address... you could be getting one of these!) Actually, as long as those things don't come too often, I think they're fun.
8. So then I went back to the tire place and dropped my car off. Conveniently, the nail salon is in the same plaza. So I spent my waiting time getting my toes all prettied up with some bubble-gum pink paint.
   
9. I spent my time at the nail salon reading the book I started a few weeks ago, Lucia, Lucia. So far, it's a light and fun book. Lots about the 1950s, fashion, and NYC.
10. This evening John went out with his softball buddies and I had time to watch some tv that I like and make some cards in my scrappin' area.
    

Pretty much a perfect day, huh? (Well, it'd be better if I didn't have to buy tires... but I think I took most of the sting out of that.)

calendar contest time

Time to submit photos for my company's annual photo contest! I've compiled a set on flickr of the ones I think are my best. We're allowed to submit two. Buzz on over to flickr and let me know which ones you like.

Friday yet?

This has been an oddly and unexpectedly good day. But tiring. I think I'm going to have to start planning for shorter days the next few weeks. I am pooped!

JT and I did some tai chi this morning. I think he was mocking me as I did the moves. He was all over the place while I was working out. Oh, and you've never seen anyone breath so hard just moving around slowly! Darn all that extra blood weighing me down. I am going to feel so light and energetic after he is born...

And on a random note, have you seen flickrvision yet? It's pretty cool... check it out!

maternity photos

My photographer friend Bryan was nice enough to take some amazing maternity photos for us today. He completely converted his house into a studio to take these pics for us. I LOVE these photos! I figured we should capture this pregnancy because future pregnancies might not be as glamorous as this one. (haha!) Plus, it gives me something to scrap over the next 4 weeks while we await JT's arrival.

There are several more, but I'll just post one good belly (and cankles) shot and one of me and John for now.

arts fest

Today was a BEAUTIFUL day. Aunt Joan, Uncle Wayne, and Jessica visited us this afternoon. It was so nice outside, we set up a little sitting area and had fruit, lemonade, and iced tea under a tree in the back yard. (We don't have a patio, so we have to wing it, you know?) That was so fun... I wish they didn't have to drive so far to visit for an afternoon.

This evening we picked Sarah up and went to the arts festival for some food, music, art, and people-watching. What a great evening to be out browsing around. I've been on the go all day long and my ankles weren't swollen. We took a couple breaks along the way and by 10pm as the festival was closing up, we'd seen every booth and had made our purchase.

We had in mind to buy something for the baby's room.
Our anniversary is coming up, but really buying anything for ourselves right now seems unjustified. The piece we bought is a photgraph of a carnival ride by Craig Brabson. It's very colorful with a bright blue background. It should look very cool in the baby's room. Oh someday that room will be finished enough to take some photographs... someday... maybe even before the baby is born.

Oh yeah, and John and Sarah thought it would be funny to stick the "Art Fan" sticker on my belly. So I spent half the time at the festival like this. Craig, the photography artist, thought it was so funny, he also snapped a photo with his camera phone. I'm sure his photo turned out better than ours, we'll see when he sends it to me. :-)

she's baaack!

Who's back?! Where did she go?

Vera is back.

The one and only Vera Neumann of the 60s and 70s. The artist/designer who was always ahead of her time and no one even came close to her league. She designed bold, inspiring prints for fashion and home accessories. Now someone has resurrected The Vera Company and is licensing Vera products.

Back in the 90s when flea markets were my weekends, Vera scarves, napkins, and other linens ruled my life. I have SUITCASE full of beautiful vintage scarves. The Veras were always my favorites, especially if I could find a silk one. But even the polyester scarves had bright colors and vibrant patterns. They have never lost favor with me. I can't believe I've had most of them for more than 10 years and they are still as beautiful to me as the day I found each of them.

So I am very excited that Vera is being licensed again. You know what would really take the cake?? If there were Vera scrapbooking papers! I mean, I can't cut up my precious scarves... but if there was paper that I could buy in multiples... one to hoard and several to scrap! Yum. I could just eat up those prints. That woman was ahead of her time.

I'll take some photos of the collection soon to share with you. For now, here is a scan of a Vera magazine ad from 1968, featuring Vera accessories at Kaufmann's of Pittsburgh. I bought this on eBay and framed it. It hangs in our guest room.


And then later... we'll talk about my obsession with costume jewelry. :-)

father's day spoiler

*WARNING* If you are my father and you're reading this... I am about to reveal your father's day gift. So that means you should probably look away or go to some other site or something... :-)

I can't wait until after Father's Day. It's finished now... way early, go me! I am thinking he's going to like it a lot. I think it's pretty cool.

It's another mini-album like the one from Craft TV Weekly. I really like the videos on that site. If they had a television channel on cable, I'd mark it as one of my favorites and DVR lots of episodes! And that Tricia... she is SO creative. Well, I've taken her idea and run with it. And I just keep on running with it.

Ok, I admit... I ordered a CASE of the cd literature envelopes, I liked it so much. Pretty much everyone is getting a mini book for a gift soon. Haha. My girlfriends are laughing at me. Everything now is "you sure you don't want a case of that?!" If we were talking white pens, I might say yes, though.

I like these mini books because they are quick, they have a lot of pockets, and you can add as much or as little as you need to get extra pages. You can also make up a book in advance of knowing what photos you are going to use and then just stick the photos in when you get them. If you do try one of these albums, note that 3.5 x 5 inch photos usually work best (or 4 x 6 photos that you can crop that much).

Ok, let's assume my father isn't looking now. Check out the photos of the book on Flickr. Here is a peak:

showers of love

I have a new article posted on Crafty Places entitled Storing and Displaying Greeting Cards. I owe a BIG shout out to my sis-in-law, Theresa for sparking the idea. Thank you! I LOVE this little book. What you see in the photos here isn't even the finished book. I have lots more to stuff into it. Obviously, a single baby book just won't get it for this kid.

There are more photos posted on Flickr also. I know it has looked on the blog like I never scrap anymore, but I really have been. This project took way more time than it should have, but I loved making it. It reminded me of the scrapping I used to do when I was younger. I cut the tags off JT's gifts and turned those into the journal cards I scattered throughout the book. The gift wrap and ribbons also became embellishments for the book.

Some of the tags were just so darn cute, I think they make the book. And it says something about the time in which he was born, you know? Like that everyone bought him little Carter's clothes and receiving blankets. And that his Pap got him a RealTree hat... the camouflage that is all the rage with hunters today. I mean a book from when I was born in the 70s would look a lot different, you know?!

Have a great weekend. We'll be doing some more preparations in the nursery this weekend and dreaming about our little bundle of joy to come...

35 weeks

We saw the doctor today. All is well. We'll see the doctor once a week from here on out.

Last thing I craved: Fruit. Really loving the fruit lately.
Weight gained so far: 29 lbs.
Baby's weight: 5.25 lbs.
Last time the baby moved: He has had a very active day. Stomped around the womb all evening.
Latest annoying pregnancy symptom: The giant cankles.
Progress on the nursery: 25%. Moved most of the big stuff out, now sorting through the small stuff in the closet. Awaiting the crib's arrival.
What we're reading: Oh Say Can You Say
What we're listening to: Dad's crazy talk. I'm trying to tell him he's driving the baby crazy!

good things tonight

Several good things tonight:

• Week 35 milestone reached... all is well. See the doctor tomorrow.
• A baby bunny in the backyard. Aww, we love babies.
• Ate a mango that I learned how to slice on the internet. Yummy and juicy!
• Still have the feel-goods from last Saturday's baby shower. And pics!
• Got John some summer shirts for work in bright colors. He might go for the orange one even!
• Going to see Knocked Up.

photo inspiration

Some photography inspiration from around Flickr. I am needing to take more photos. I took a few last Friday and Saturday and boy, did it feel good!


1. Spots, 2. round, 3. transformer irreplacable, 4. _MG_1464, 5. winding up, 6. LEARN TO LEAD!!! Kudos, 7. Pontile silente, 8. Melancholy, 9. LensBaby

batter up!

I haven't done much of anything this week and I'm exhausted!

Tonight I got a pedicure and took some photos at John and Allison's softball game. Catch all the action on Flickr. Now I am off to bed. There are yard sales in the 'hood first thing in the morning!