Moving into the Basement... some more

I have most of my things in the basement space now.... and most of the spouse's things too..



but we have a lot of sorting and organizing to do yet...



I moved my desk down yesterday and got everything set up for my computer and assorted gadgets.



We still need to get shelves up and some type of storage cabinet for all my fabric. I really like these from IKEA, but I think they are too tall for the ceiling height. IKEA is supposed to open this summer here in Portland. I can hardly wait! Then I can just measure everything and see what fits.

Big E, Little e

It was not my intention to have two kids whose names start with the same letter, in this case, the letter "E". I'm not fond of theme naming one's offspring. We just happened to pick two names that we liked and they both, oddly enough, start with the same letter.



Elsie has been called Big E ever since she was a tiny thing... and the nickname has stuck. So she gets a big E for her door...



If the big sister is the Big E, then it's only fitting that the little brother is Little E...



.... so Ewan gets a little e for his door.



Their rooms are not finished yet and not ready for a grand unveiling, but hopefully this week I can finish them up. The pictures give you a sneak peak as to the colors, but both rooms still need pictures hung and drapes made... all the fun stuff. We are still trying to come up with a letter or letters for our bedroom. The spouse suggested "Mgmt.". It just doesn't have quite the same whimsy. Any suggestions?

Coming out of the fog...

I think I'm finally getting over this bug. I've had it for over a week! And it would figure... last night Mister Ewan decided to sleep through and I kept waking up with nightmares and stuffy nose problems. Tonight, I'm hoping for more rest.
I did run a few errands. One of which was a stop at Michael's to return some Christmas leftovers. They looked at me like I was insane returning stuff this late. But their return policy guarantees a merchandise credit with a receipt. So I took my merchandise credit and bought a few Easter goodies. I was so inspired by Mo's Easter chicks, that I picked up some myself. Although I couldn't find the white fluffy ones. I'm always behind on anything with white feathers (I missed the white feather trees at Christmas too).

I picked up these little pink chenille birds....



... and the last two plastic boxes of the glass eggs. They are so tiny and so dainty.



I had to hunt all around the yard for suitable branches. I did some yard cleaning last week and cleaned everything up. After several false starts, I decided on some weeping maple branches. They seem to be sturdy enough.



I need to get out some more of my Easter decorations, but I'm worn out for today. Maybe tomorrow.

Spring cold...

I'm terribly sick, so the blog will continue to be quiet until I'm over this. I have all sorts of things to report on, but no energy to take the pictures.... AND the sun is shining, so I feel even worse that I can't be outside taking advantage of things... I don't even have the energy to figure out the ripple blanket crochet stitch... I really, really hate being sick.

First Day of Spring!

Well... I waited a day too long to take pictures of the flowers outside. We had a pounding rain yesterday (sounded like hail on the roof) which pulverized most of the delicate flowers and knocked blossoms off the trees. So I just have a few pictures of some of the more hardy flowers...



I have finally found the macro button on my camera...



... that only took five years...


... but I'm having fun with it.



These hyacinth smell wonderful! I cut a couple for the house and they scented the entire first floor for three days.



I am taking a break from basement finishing to work away on the kids' rooms upstairs. Elsie is all moved into her new room and the little man (Mister Ewan) should be in his tonight. Yay! That means I will finally have my bedroom back after 6 months. Most of the painting is done. There is just some trim left to do... my least favorite part. I can't wait to post some pictures!

Back from Hawaii

We enjoyed a lovely ten days in Hawaii with the kids and my parents. It was so nice to warm up and see some sun. We were at the beach everyday and did lots of snorkeling and swimming and sand castle building.



This was my parent's first trip to Hawaii, so we did some of the sights (Dole pineapple plantation, the USS Arizona) but balanced it with plenty of relaxation.



Both houses had beautiful lanais from which we could watch the birds... one of my mom's favorite things.



I put some of my better photos on flickr





Now we are back in Portland and apparently spring has arrived during our absence. I will take some pictures tomorrow of all the flowering beauty. The nice weather is not supposed to last... rain is in the forecast for next week.... ALL week.

Mini Swap

Our Mini Swap package has arrived from Norway! Strikkelise and her children sent the most amazing things! Thank you so much!



Elsie spent a great deal of time learning where Norway is and looking at pictures on Strikkelise's blog.



She was thrilled to open the box and discover everything wrapped in pink!... the most perfect color in the world!



The Hello Kitty barrettes are a big hit. She immediately put them in her hair. She took them out to sleep, but has them back in again this morning.



All the goodies....


.... and some magazines for Mommy! Which I absolutely love... and may have to figure out how to purchase an international subscription. The pictures are so beautiful.

There are also these really, really cool metallic pencils. They are kind of fat, but have a triangular cross section so they don't roll off the table. Genius! When you go to the manufacturer's website, there are all kinds of triangular pencils!

Thank you, thank you!!!!

Sewing

The basement is now usable although still not organized. We are leaving for vacation to Hawaii on Monday.... Yay! It is cold and raining here in Portland with occasional sun breaks and snow.... which means it is cold and wet in general. Hawaii is warm and pleasant, so it should be a wonderful change of pace.
In preparation for the trip, I've been sewing up a few things. I made Elsie and couple of pairs of shorts and this great little top...




I need to make her one more in pink, of course. It is from the book on the left....



This is the first project I've made out of one of these books. All of the instructions are in Japanese, but the pictures have numbers that indicate the order you do things. I had to read it a few times to get everything right. The elastic length for the back was a complete guess, but it seems to work.... AND it sews up in about 20 minutes with no interruptions... about 45 minutes with a pretzel run, a glass of milk, and multiple diaper changes.

Painting, painting

In an effort to finish one project in this household, we are focusing all efforts on Miss Elsie's new room. My hands ache from holding a brush and roller. We put the final coats of paint on and did all the touching up yesterday. Today, the floor received two coats of paint.



The walls are, of course, pink with a brown floor. I will give the trim another coat of white paint tomorrow... and if it all dries in time, she will move in Tuesday night. The little lady is so excited! The room has an official cubby hole/guest quarters, large closet, and a little princess alcove. Once everything is together, I will post pictures.

I'm so anxious to get the kids' rooms squared away. Ewan will not fit in his bassinette much longer. I think we have 3 inches of space lengthwise. As soon as Elsie is installed, we can set up the crib and he can take over the nursery.... and the spouse and I can have our room back!

Prose to the Toes

Oh you little toes



You elude me



I squawk and growl at you



You wiggle back temptingly




Maybe someday I will catch you

First Bouquet of 2007

Spring is officially on its way!!!!
Here is the first bouquet of the year....



The daphne opens a little more each day and smells wonderful. I would love to buy a perfume that smells like it.



Apparently while I was gone last week, my hellebores came up and started to bloom, so I whacked off a couple of blossoms to enjoy inside.

Trip to the farm

The kids and I just returned from a week at the farm. It was so nice to get away.



It was feeling very spring-like there. Is was fairly warm and had rained for several days before we arrived making for some amazing puddles.



My sister and I were experts at puddle depth and mud consistency. However, we would occasionally leave a boot behind in the mud and return home with one boot and one very muddy sock.




The last day was very sunny, but windy. Elsie and I walked all over the place taking pictures and inspecting puddles. It was just warm enough and just enough sun to really feel like spring.... of course making me want to get home and do spring cleaning. Airing out the house, washing drapes and blankets, and putting away the flannel sheets is one of my favorite things. It's a signal that gardening season is coming and that the outdoor rooms will be back in use soon. I posted the rest of the photos on Flickr.




We were at the farm during Valentine's Day, so did not get to celebrate with the spouse who had to work, but was able to have a week's worth of nights of uninterrupted sleep. That clever man surprised me with these chocolate bars:



... and he made the chocolate bars to boot! These are not rewrapped store bought bars. He went to the local candy shop and bought the ingredients, took trial bars to work for people to sample, and then made three perfect chocolate bars with yummy ingredients. Of course, being a graphic designer, he made the fantabulous wrappers.
Thank you, honey! I love them.

Recovering from colds

We (Elsie and I) have had colds. She, like most kids, is recovering at a much more accelerated rate than I am. My rate of recovery has been greatly slowed by lack of sleep. The Little Man is now snacking twice at night instead of sleeping through which he had been doing three weeks ago. This morning, after another restless night, Elsie greeted me by the side of my bed with a hacking cough at 7:15am. "Hi, Mom. It's time to go downstairs." Then she walked over to Ewan and made sure he was awake too. I sent her downstairs and said I would be there soon and tried to doze off a bit. When I did manage to make it downstairs, I was confronted with this....



One entire roll of toilet paper transformed into a Ghost Fireplace. She was using her "IMAGINATION" (saying while making the shape of a rainbow with her hands). Thank you, SpongeBob. Oh well, it's better than getting into something sticky or messy that requires water and cleaning products to remove. It has remained up the entire day. We have just not used this doorway in order to preserve the fireplace.

The good news is that the stair construction crew were here today and the stairs are almost finished. YAY! Only one more day of sawdust generating mess, and it will be over. I sent them outside for the majority of their cutting, but I forgot about the sanding. At least they vaccuumed everything before they left tonight.

Moving in to the Basement!

The blog has been a little quiet lately. We've been gradually moving into the basement studio! Yay! We had to seriously clean out the guest room/Elsie's new room, because we were having house guests this weekend. Nothing like having company to make you clean... and boy, did this house need some cleaning. Anyway... Elsie's new room is fairly empty, so we are ready to commence with the floor painting. There is a LOT of stuff in the basement that needs sorting and organizing, so I'll post pictures in a bit. The stair guy is coming today to deliver the wood for the stairs. Maybe by the end of the week we will have official stairs and not these scary, temporary, open treads which, by the way, are becoming loose and wobbly.
My dearest and oldest friend, Ilena, came to visit this weekend with her family. We saw the Egypt exhibit at the Portland Art Museum, did some shopping (Anthropologie was amazing and inspiring), lots of eating, and a tour of some of the local skate parks. I completely forgot my camera, so have no pictures to post.
so I'll leave you with these images from the Anthropologie website:




I'm feeling the spring cleaning/spring redecorating urge... but I need to finish some other projects first.

Beautiful Foggy Morning

It is an absolutely gorgeous morning today. There is fog and the sun is starting to punch through making everything all hazy and glowing.



The sunlight is starting to fill the house. I love mornings like this. I have a good cup of coffee, beautiful sunlight, going to do a little knitting before taking a conference call at 10am. The joys of working from home.

The snow is still here!

It is still beautiful and white here this morning. The temperature is a little warmer than yesterday which makes it nicer outside.



Elsie was so excited and couldn't get outside fast enough, but had some wardrobe difficulties. What is it with 4 year-olds and getting dressed!?!? We had all of her clothes, socks, hat, gloves, scarf and coat located and in the kitchen. I told her to change into her clothes and we would go outside. "Yay!" she squealed. Next time I see her, she's running through the house in her pyjamas with her hat, scarf, and gloves. "No, you have to put on the clothes and the coat. The gloves go on last." Next time I see her, she's streaking through the house in just her underware. Which, to me, seems just the opposite of where this project should be heading.



Eventually we get the clothes on, but she insists on putting the gloves on BEFORE the coat, hat, boots, and scarf... which means she can no longer use her fingers to put on and zip which causes great distress to the Elsie not to mention the mother as well.



Finally after several arguements and undressing and re-dressing of parts, we are dressed, organized, have Ewan in his down bundle bag and loaded into the pack and off we go!
Elsie took this picture of Ewan and myself...

Yay! Snow!

It rarely snows in Portland... or snows long enough to make everything white... but it did last night.


... and it is still snowing! We could hardly get everyone bundled up fast enough to suit Elsie. I think she would have run out in her bare feet.

I was practicing with my digital camera over the weekend. I took this picture which I like except for the shadow across their eyes...


They sort of look like two masked super heroes. I'm getting better with adjusting my shutter speed, now I just need to be more aware of shadows and light.