so, we're trying to have a baby...

... and it's not exactly what I expected.

Honestly, I didn't know what to expect.  Everett was a surprise -- a chick hatched on my computer screen one day and our lives were changed forever.  Despite being rather shocked and somewhat panicked for 2 weeks (I'm a recovering control freak), it was rather blissful to circumvent the whole "trying" experience.  I'm referring to the counting days, peeing on countless ovulation strips, tracking symptoms, trying as romantically as possible to tell Matt its go time, waiting, waiting some more, and texting friends about "did you ever feel (insert symptom) -- what do you think that means?"  Bless my sweet friends.  They know more about my cycle than they ever would have expected.  God love 'em.

I had Mirena put in after Everett was born.  I was in no shape or form for another baby right away and the pill makes be crazy.  So, there you go.  I loved it, had no issues whatsoever, and had no reason to be concerned about getting pregnant....until I started googling a couple weeks ago.  Stupid, I know.  It tossed me in the angry throes of uneducated, strictly anecdotal chatter of message boards galore.  Again, what was I thinking?  It led to a bit of anxiety over the past month.  (Caution:  You're entering the TMI zone.)

Would my body return to my normal 28-30 day cycle?  Would my uterine lining be sufficient?  Would I still ovulate?  Do I need to take red raspberry leaf tea?  What about extra B vitamins?  Can I exercise as much as I do now? 

Since I didn't ever have a period with Mirena (awesome, I know), I had no idea where I was in my cycle, so I thought it completely necessary to order some ovulation strips.  They proved to be effective, but seriously detrimental to my daily walk in freedom of thought (bondage to nothing) and reliance on God's power, control and timing.  At first, I was pretty cool with whatever was going to happen this past month.  I was keenly aware that getting pregnant is a miracle and it often takes a while even when nothing is technically wrong.  Then I started having symptoms that made me sure - without much of any doubt - that I was pregnant.  I was going to be one of those success stories shared on the message boards about getting pregnant 1 cycle off Mirena.  I just knew it.  All the way until it absolutely was clear that I wasn't and had only been experiencing PMS from the devil.  I'm talking uterine spasms, sore boobs, peeing in the middle of the night, dizziness, etc.

Before I took the final pregnancy test, I just kept saying in my mind "Yes, Lord, yes, Lord, yes, yes, Lord."  I wanted that to be my anthem regardless of the outcome.  My emotions once I saw the single pink line were slight disappointment mixed with conviction.  Conviction knowing that -- hello, it's only our first month trying -- and so many of my friends struggle(d) for months if not years to get those two pink lines.  Perspective, Erin.  A few days later, I actually felt relief.  Relief knowing that my body seems to be working fine...pretty much like clockwork again.  28 days.  Thank you, Lord.

I'll spare you the rest of the TMI details, as this post is really intended to be a confession of my control-freak-ness.  My bargaining with God.  Worrying instead of praying with open hands.  Assuming a level of control (or thinking that I am) that isn't healthy for my soul.

I've always heard the first month trying is the worst.  So much anticipation, those first feelings of "what if this is it?", and "what does this mean?"  I'm already feeling better about this second month.  I won't lie and say I haven't counted out the days and made plans with the hubs to ensure we get our groove on at the proper time, but I've taken a lot more deep breaths this week.  I'm not going to take 10 pregnancy tests like I did last month.  And I'm going to make every effort to not share every positive step in my cycle with my friends or even strong acquaintances (ha, ha!)  I want to rest.  Rest in the knowledge that He already knows this baby's name, the gender, and his or her future.  He knows the moment that baby will be conceived.  He knows the story that will be written on our hearts forever.  I want to rest in that and be thankful.  Every day, positive test or not.

I'm still going to chart and listen to my body, but work on not letting myself ruminate on those things all day long.  If you are trying, let me recommend www.early-pregnancy-tests.com and the free charting program online at www.tcoyf.com.  Credible resources, inexpensive tests, and I figured I should use the same program I used with Everett so I can share the joy of another chick hatching at some point! :)  But stay away from those message boards.  They are a train wreck of epically hormonal proportions!

big boy got a "tall" bed!

it's really exciting to see Everett's room coming together.  In February, I started with this storyboard:

from there, I painted his room, found and painted a dresser, created an art wall, and embellished a wrought iron wall hanging, made his Serena and Lily inspired quilt, pillows, made his cornice, received his PBK anywhere chair as his early birthday present from Gigi, and now (big time drum roll...) have his bed built and in the room!  We plan to stain it a dark brown (Jacobean, to be exact) in the next couple of weeks, but I couldn't help but post an in-progress pic.  It feels like such a huge milestone in this project!

I am so proud of my husband.  Beyond proud.  Pretty amazed, actually.  He is sweet and defers most of the praise to our stellar and super selfless friend, Kevin Kuklis, for lending his carpentry tools, expertise, and an entire weekend -- but I give Matt a ton of credit, too.  He designed Everett's bed, visited a bunch of furniture stores to confirm ideas, challenge his design, take measurements, and created what I think should be a loft bed sold in every furniture store. 

For starters, it's the absolute perfect height.  Neither we or Ev come to close to hitting our heads when up top.  It's not so high that Everett feels insecure, like he did on some other loft/bunk beds we tried out.  And the "fort" portion underneath doesn't pose a major concussion risk, either.  It is great for our current use as a catch-all for Ev's toys, a reading nook, and whatever else, but will easily accommodate another twin bed and kid down the road!

Secondly, it's super sturdy.  Matt and I love getting up there with Everett to read, sing, and just chill.  Momma made sure it was super braced up on the underneath, and the screws Matt used look like an epidural needle -- huuuuuuge!

Third, the ladder is perfect for a 3 year old without being as bulky as a staircase (our original thought).  This was the trickiest part, I think, to design.  The angle had to be deep enough, the steps had to be wide enough and not too far apart, and we didn't want it spanning all the way to the opposing wall.  Also, you can step onto the mattress easily from the ladder without having to fit through a small opening or bust up your shins climbing over additional railing.

Plus, the entire project (with staining) will end up costly around $200.  Most dinky bunk beds in stores with vertical ladders are $450-650.  Sturdier ones run you around $850.  Ones with a staircase are over $1,000.  Need I say more?

Lastly, Everett loves it!  He showed a little hesitation when it was first being put together, but once his bed was made and we showed him how to get up and down ("feet first on your tummy","both hands", "hold/step/hold/step"), he was a pro.  I love it too - reminds me of camp when I'm up there (in a great way!)  It's a fun place to chill and read books, as you can see here:

So, what's left for the room?

Not much until we, God-willing, receive another baby into our family.  I'm toying with buying one of these clear shelves for books we read at bedtime to be up top instead of carrying them all back and forth from the bottom cubby.  Also, I'm going to get some knit fabric and make a stuffed animal hammock to hang in the back corner over his chair under the bed.  I'm determined to get everything off of the floor! Oh, and the ceiling fan has to go, clearly.  Even a mini ceiling fan would have blades long enough to be unsafe.  Luckily, Ev's room is the coldest in the condo, so it's not really necessary.  Hope to replace it with a drum shade in a few weeks.

Eventually, we'll move his art wall to the blank wall across from his bed, put a crib on the left wall when you walk in, and create a new art wall for that child with prints and words specific to them.  I know, I know -- I'm getting ahead of myself.  For now, Ev has a much for spacious room to play in!

my very own cornice

I've wanted to redo the window "treatment" in Everett's room for a few years - no lie.  His valance was the first thing I ever sewed, and well, it was obvious.  I gave it all I had, but it was dinky, too thin, and flat out boring.  I love the clean look of a fabric-covered cornice.  Since Everett's window has a blackout shade installed, I didn't need heavy drapes (that also collect a bunch of dust which I've learned from those in my bedroom).  I found two great tutorials that spelled out the instructions exactly.  One at Sew Dang Cute Crafts and the other (that she linked to) at All Things Thrifty.  You can see many great examples online.

We bought the lumber and hardware at Home Depot.  I can't remember exactly what kind of wood we bought, but it wasn't MDF (which only comes in huge sheets you have to buy and then cut down) and it wasn't the cheapest stuff as it wouldn't hold screws very well.  I think it was the second or third cheapest option - perhaps some kind of pine?  Anywho - I wanted the cornice to be 15" tall, so we had to buy a 12" piece as well as a 3" (see below).  A nice man who worked there cut them for us -- no worries if you don't have those kinds of tools!

For the sides, I wanted them to come out 5". 

We connected the two pieces with the hardward below - no glue needed!

We used L brackets to attach the sides to the front piece, and that nifty triangular piece at the bottom of the next picture is what we used to attach the entire sucker to the wall.  It's called a corner bracket.  But we didn't attach that until I wrapped the wood with cotton batting, stapled it on, and then did the same thing with the fabric.

Ahh, the fabric.  I just love it.  It only took me 7 weeks to get my hands on it (and sold out again in 48 hours right after I ordered it!), but it was worth the wait.

I kind of wrapped the side piece ends like I was wrapping a gift box.  The staplegun and I were good friends by the end.

Matt was a pro at installing it.  I held it up while he drilled, at least. :)  We predrilled the hardware onto the cornice so we could bring it to the wall and mark the circles where it would be drilled into the wall.  Then, like the All Things Thrifty tutorial suggested, we removed the hardward from the cornice, drilled it into the wall, and then attached the cornice to it.

It is my favorite element in the room thus far - it just seems to bring it all together.

one day soon, there will be a bed here.  A fabulous loft bed with stairs and storage made by my stellar hubs.  one day when he isn't sick with a sinus infection.  one day before Everett turns 3 on May 19.  pray with me to that end, mmmkay? :)

Then, all the rest of this stuff will have a place to be, under the bed, on the built-in shelves, and out of the way for (hopefully) a crib soon! :)  appreciate your prayers on that issue, too! :)

finishing the twin quilt: twimming, binding, washing, hoping :)

Once the quilt sandwich was stitched, it was time to trim the edges to be square, make the binding, sew it on, wash it and hope it wouldn't shrink too much!

Red Pepper Quilts has a fabulous tutorial for making your own binding ON the grain (so much easier than bias binding) and machine stitching it on as opposed to hand stitching (again, so much easier!).  I highly recommend this technique.  You just have to be careful when stitching in the ditch (see tutorial) to make sure the binding underneath stays in place and yields an even "flap" throughout.  I love her suggestion of using a stitch length of 3.5, too.

Then, I washed on cold, dried on low heat, and waited with bated breath :)  It fits just fine and will be the perfect length for a bunk bed!

I'm not usually a person who cares too much about what's on trend -- if I like it, I like it no matter what.  It's a neat bonus if it happens to be the popular thing of the moment.  But I will say that it gives me a thrill to see this navy/white, nautical-type bedspread idea lots of places.  Apparently I'm not the only person in love with this look! 

summer lovin'

i'm in such joyful anticipation of summer right now.  despite the insanely hot temperatures that will soon be upon us, this Houstonian will relish the constant sandal-wearing, daily trips to the pool, slightly darkened skin tone (ain't much, but i'll take it!), and grilled yummyness!  a few of my favorite products to use during the summer, especially, make up this just-for-fun post :)  they include:

1.  Origins "Sunny Disposition" Bronzer (or blush) stick

summer is great for my skin - i tend to break out a lot less!  my all-time favorite face product is this bronzing stick.  i use it as a blush and it's perfect.  stays all day, looks dewy, and is a great golden peachy color.

2.  Aussie 3-minute Miracle

given all the chlorine the summer puts my hair through, it needs some TLC.  this conditioner is amazing and only $3.  Yes, $3.  I couldn't believe how well it worked for the cost.  a definite best buy.

3.  MAC Crosswires Creamsheen Lipstick

i'm a little obsessed with MAC makeup.  it lasts forever, stays on, includes awesome colors, and is much less expensive than other brands at the mall.  this is my newest acquisition thanks to some birthday money and a strong desire for a coral/peachy-pink summer lip.  i was really close to picking a full-on peach/orange, but my mom and sister dissuaded me.  MAC's creamsheen lipsticks stay without drying your lips and are only a few dollars more than drug store brands.  done and done.

4.  OPI "Cajun Shrimp" Polish

my coral fixation continues on my nails.  not red, not bright orange.  a perfect mix of both.

5.  Neutrogena Cleansing Towelettes

after the sun and my toddler have zapped my energy, i love how this product takes all of my make-up off with such little effort.

6.  Oil of Olay Cleansing Brush System

so thankful to my Mom for getting this for my birthday despite how "boring" of a gift she thought it was.  i love it - it's like a massage for your face.  plus, it ranks just as high as the super expensive ones.  which is typical for this company.

I'm still on the lookout for a great swim cover-up.  There was one at Victoria's Secret that was linked onto Pinterest -- that soon led to it completely selling out.  If y'all see any online, let me know!

making a twin quilt: layering, pinning, stitching

Once my quilt top was ready, it was time to create my quilt sandwich and get on with it! :)  I used a cotton quilt batting cut specifically for a twin quilt (72x90").  Half off at Joann's made it around $8, I think.



Since I was working within pretty tight size parameters, I didn't have the desirable overhang you'd typically want.  Elizabeth Hartman, the quilting goddess, in her book, "The Practical Guide to Patchwork", suggests you have your batting extend 2" around the perimeter of your quilt top and then have the quilt bottom extend 2" around the perimeter of your batting.  This is to ensure your final product, after any shifting during stitching, is the correct size.  However, since I'm doing a very simple, linear quilting style (as opposed to her signature free-motion swirlies), I knew I wouldn't encounter much movement.  This would be ensured, as well, by lots of pinning.

Getting all of the layers to fit was tougher than I thought.  I had to shift the top around two or three times to make the edges fit and not hang over too much, while also keeping the lines straight.  Not gonna lie, I broke a sweat here.

Once I got it all pinned, it was midnight and time to roll it up for the day!  Rolling helps everything to stay in place better with less pulls.  

The next day, I got started with my quilting!  These are the times I envy a Janome Horizon machine - made for quilting with a longer arm.  My machine is rather short on this, so it takes a lot of tight rolling and pushing to move this behemoth mass of fabric through the needle.  Now if I could ever start saving for one...

Anyways, I'm quilting this very simply to match the quilt top's overall feel.  White thread on the navy stripe and navy on the white.  I may add a line in the center of each stripe, but I'm not sure yet.  The more stitching lines, the more shrinkage. 

I'm using a walking foot, of course, and rotate the quilt with each line.  Meaning, I start from one end and stitch down the left of the seam, then turn the quilt 90 degrees and then stitch down the right side.  Picked up that tip on a blog and it seems to make sense for reducing any puckering in one direction that could occur - especially if stitching fast or curvy lines.  Switching out the thread every other line adds to the time factor, but it's worth it for a simple detail.

Hoping to have it ready for binding after the weekend!  I'm thinking a lime green for the binding -- which is totally copying Serena and Lily's Ronan duvet, but oh well!  That was the point of this, right?  Getting the look for less?  :)

Making a twin quilt - planning, measuring & cutting

I'm so excited to start working on Everett's twin quilt for his big boy bed. Currently, he sleeps with his blue minky and satin baby blanket that barely covers him even with legs bent. He's not into sheets, either, so I realize this quilt might not really be used or appreciated for a few years. But the decorator in me can't handle an incomplete bed, so I'm forging ahead with this project. My inspiration was this Ronan duvet from Serena and Lily and a less expensive, but still pricey, duvet from West Elm,

Not only were these out of my budget, I knew a duvet would be way too hot.  A light-weight, low-loft quilt seemed the way to go.  I looked around for thin comforters and quilts in stores, but didn't see anything I loved.  So, DIY to the rescue!

It also gave me the opportunity to do a fun coordinating fabric on the back of the quilt.  I wanted something Ev wouldn't outgrow (i.e. trains, dinosaurs, airplanes, etc.) and included a lot of colors to give me more freedom with decorating in the future.  I fell in love with this madras print by Michael Miller fabrics, and so did a bunch of people as it's out of stock for the second time in 3 months!

Since I'm on a budget, I needed my yardage to go as far as possible.  Here comes the math!  A typical twin quilt's finished dimensions, like one from Pottery Barn, are 68x86".  I wanted to prepare for shrinkage, so I added 5% to those dimensions, give or take, and planned to make around a 71.5x90" quilt.  Each yard is 36x44", so I ordered 4 yards of the madras, 2 white and 2 blue.  When I finally got the madras out this weekend to start working, I realized how lucky I was - 4 yards was JUST enough.  I have only two scraps left smaller than legal envelopes!  I had to do some piecing, but since the pattern is so random, it works.  Here's what I did:

1.  My fabric was 4 continuous yards, 44x144".  I ironed it and cut it in half to yield (2) 44x72" pieces.  Fabric.com always gives you a few extra inches, so I actually ended up with 44x75" pieces.

2.  Sewing these together in the middle gave me one large 87.5"x75" (.25" seam allowance times 2) rectangle which was more width than I needed, but not enough length. (*Remember, I wanted 71.5x90")

3.  87.5" - 71.5 = 16" available to add length.  To keep my middle seam in the center of the back panel, I took 8" off each side lengthwise (8x75"). 

4.  I brought one of these panels to the top and the other to the bottom, giving me a final quilt bottom measuring 71.5x90".  Yay!

here you can see the middle seam I stitched first to get the backing wide enough and the top and bottom seams I made to ensure the length was adequate.

see, you can't really tell where the seams are, except for maybe the center one, because of the print - perfect!

Planning out the striped quilt top proved a little trickier.  Since I only had 2 yards of each color and would lose more length inches secondary to more seams (one between each stripe as opposed to the two connecting seams on the madras), I knew achieving that 90" length was probably not going to happen.  I have extra white Kona cotton in my stash, but not the blue, so I planned to start and end my stripes with white (white, blue, white, blue....white).  Here's how I worked with what I had:

1.  My fabric was 2 continuous yards of each color, 44x72" of blue and 44x72" of white (plus more in my stash if I needed it).  The length of my fabric, 72", was perfect for achieving my desired quilt top length of 71.5" -- barely!  Dividing up the width of 44" took more brain power.  I wanted to get the most strips out of it, with the fewest seams (which would cost me 0.5" per white/blue connection), without the stripes being super tall.  From what I could tell on the Serena and Lily striped pillow that matches their duvet, the stripes were about 6.5" tall.  I started playing around with the possibilities:

option A:  7" tall stripes (which after seam allowance was taken would be 6.5" finished) would yield 6.28 of them

option B:  7.25" tall stripes (" " 6.75" finished) would yield 6.06 of them

option C:  6.25" tall stripes (" " 5.75" finished) would yield 7.04 of them

Option B gives me the most desirable finished height of stripe with the fewest seams and smallest amount of fabric waste (You can't do anything with .28 of a stripe, right?)

here are 12 of my 13 stripes (one white one is missing in this pic) layed out before stitching.  they are 7.25" tall, 72" wide.  After I stitch them together with a 0.25" seam allowance, they'll each be 6.75" tall (7.25-0.25-0.25)

2.  Therefore, I could get 6 stripes of blue and 6 of white plus 1 more from my stash of white fabric.  This yields the following stripe pattern:

white

blue

white

blue

white

blue

white

blue

white

blue

white

blue

white

13 total stripes with a finished height of 6.75" = 87.75" finished quilt length.  Only 2.25" shy of my desired length and still 1.75" longer than a typical twin quilts finished, post-shrinkage length.  Here's to hoping my dryer is kind to me, and I remember to dry this baby on medium or even low heat!  To achieve a longer length would have required me to buy 2 more yards of blue AND white fabric -- which would have been ~$30!

I think that's enough for today! :)  I'll keep you posted on the progress!