So Close Now

The other night Hubby and I stayed up very late cleaning the floors in our basement. We had to clear out rooms, give them a good vacuum, then wash them in anticipation of carpet going on. I couldn't help but think of the many late nights we spent with mops and a Shop Vac over seven years ago when we flooded.

We are FINALLY in the home stretch of a reno that started, unintentionally, with a flood in the summer of 2005. A month of rain + a house built on clay soil - any sort of waterproofing on a 50 year old house + a cracked foundation = lots of water in the basement. Lots.

It felt wrong to be celebrating colourful floors, finished baseboards and awesome wallpaper in the wake of Sandy and so much destruction for so many, but I had to remember that this was born of our own disaster. And we've worked very hard in the years since to get to this point.

It's kind of been like the Old Lady Who Swallowed A Fly.

  To finish the basement we had to waterproof.
  To waterproof we had to dig a trench around our house.
  To dig the trench we had to rip out the driveway and tear down the fence.
  To tear down the fence we had to build a new one.
  To build a new fence we had to grade and landscape our front and back yards.

And all that before we could think about walls, toilets, and colourful floors.

So soon, very soon, the Dining Room Empire will change slightly. I will get my own sewing room (that room on the right there) and the baby gets his own room. I can't wait.

Not Quilting

And this is why.

Baby, breast pumps, baking to spend time with The Evil Genius while The Monster spends all her day in school (oh, how she misses her big sister), and tea to keep me awake. What you don't see in the Dining Room Empire is the boxes of this year's canning escapades, a suitcase full of quilts for my trunk shows, the jolly jumper and dog bed, and the messy kitchen just beyond.

My only 'quilting' these days is buying fabric and sketching. But it is isn't the same. I'm desperate to sew, to make a mess with my fabric, to create.

"How do you get it done?" They ask.
"Get what done?" I answer.

Preparation

Call it nesting or call it freaking out. In between living life, nursing the worst cold ever, and so much more I am actually sort of getting ready for baby. Considering that I am 37 weeks now and both the girls were born between 37 and 38 weeks I best call my prep done.

The basement isn't finished, which means no nursery. That means this kid is another dining room baby. Yup, we're adding to the empire. Both the girls spent the first six months of their life sleeping in rotation - empty room - dining room table - empty room - dining room table. Considering that there isn't an empty space in this house 90% of the time that means the dining room table it is!

To make myself feel marginally better about this situation I did a few things around the house in preparation. The first was new cover for the little pad in the bassinet. I picked out a couple of flannels, Ann Kelle Izzy flannel to be specific, and whipped up these little covers. Honestly, I measured poorly, but they cover and I'm sure baby won't mind that they are a little short.

Remembering that literally half of the first 2 months or so are spent nursing, and knowing that my girls would happily spend that time parked in front of the TV if I let them, I've been gathering. Books, colouring books, puzzles, stickers - anything that will hopefully keep them engaged and not cranky about the being that will literally be sucking the life out of me.

We've got some classics for reading all together - Alice in Wonderland and Grimm's Fairy Tales. Some books that appeal to The Monster's sense of wicked curiosity and insatiable appetite for medical and natural knowledge. And puzzles for my Evil Genius who loves to spend her time plotting and purposefully putting things together just so.

The girls share the biggest room in our house. And the childless, middle aged couple that owned the house before us thought it would be a great idea to put French doors on that room. So pretty, but oh so impractical. Even though I redid their room last summer, I never got around to replacing the curtains on this windows. Knowing that I'd be up and about at all hours with the dragon in my belly I thought I better replace them ASAP. We'd had enough cheap lunch dates/free babysitting at IKEA this winter for all of us to fall in love with this fabric. An hour on a sunny morning and they had new curtains. Double layered and they actually block out a pretty good chunk of light.

Of course the prep does require some handmade. Not my handmade - I can't knit to save my life! But we did receive this gorgeous hand knit blanket from a friend. We worked together for years in my last job. Thanks to Twitter and FB we've stayed in touch. One day she came over for a visit and gave us this blanket. I can't wait to have cuddles with baby and this.

She's also a bit of a DJ, so she'll appreciate this bit of clothing we've also gathered.

2012

A new year. Blah, blah, blah about resolutions, reflections, and new beginnings. For me, the new year simply means a new calendar. One for the wall from Michelle Engel Bencsko and my favourite Moleskine. A good black pen and a sacred spot on the sideboard and I'm off the races. Well, in actuality I'm just closer to hopefully not forgetting something.

The last 10 days have been good for me. Both Hubby and I actually took a break. I was on the computer and sewing machine very little.We had loads of time to chat after we collapsed every night from the exhaustion of three little kids and Christmas (we had my nephew with us this year). We spent a lot of time talking about what we wanted to do with the time we will have in the coming months. So, yes, there was some reflection and resolutions.

I prefer to think of them as goals. Or maybe stretch targets. Or optimism slightly more realistic than fitting into my regular jeans by May.

...Balance promoting Sunday Morning Quilts with the pregnancy and birth of our third baby. All while staying sane.

...Find the sweet spot between motherhood and work on another major project.

...Finish a handwork project.

...At least two baby quilts, one for the dragon in my belly and one for my sister's peanut.

...Make bacon at home in order to keep up to the consumption of bacon and maple syrup of the girls.

...Survive our basement reno, hopefully without the ridiculously giant TV my husband wants.

And do it all with a smile, a laugh, a hug, and hopefully a little bit of style.