Garden Update: Spiders!!!

     With Baby coming a little earlier than I had planned, my garden updates have been a little lacking. While Steven and I enjoy sitting on our little bench in the garden for a couple minutes every day, since I got poison ivy a couple weeks before he was born, I haven't done my share of the weeding so at this point, the garden looks like a giant section of weeds interspersed with bright orange pumpkin flowers and tall pea vines. As soon as I can bend over comfortably again, I'll grab my gloves and the wheelbarrow and the stroller to take care of that beast of a garden.
     This picture, while slightly difficult to see because I was too scared to get too close, is of a giant spider nest made between some of my pea vines. The half dollar sized momma spider stayed close to the nest until the little spiderlings were big enough to be on their own, which took two weeks or so. There had to be around 300 tiny little spiders in the nest, which caused a disagreement between James and I. He wanted to "take care of them," they were too close to the house and he was worried about them getting in and biting one of us. I disagreed, figuring that in all reality, only a couple would make it to adulthood and the momma probably dies after her job is done. We had thought that they were wolf spiders, but when I looked it up, wolf spiders (who tend to be aggressive and bite-happy) carry their eggs with them. Nursery web spiders (a very appropriate name) look very similar but carry their eggs until they are ready to hatch and then make their beautiful web nursery. So this protective momma, won the argument and now they are out of the garden and out in the big scary world, hopefully growing up beautifully and not biting lots of people.
     In other garden news, my peas flowered in tiny, delicate white flowers. I wasn't sure what the flowers were going to look like, so I was happy when they looked so pretty. At this point, we have eaten almost all of the peas right off of the vine with none to save for actual cooking or canning. Note for next year: plant three times as many pea plants to prevent us devouring all of them. There are a couple that we missed eating while we were in the hospital and are now too dry to eat, so I will pick them soon to dry out for either pea soup (although I doubt there are enough for that) or to plant next year since these did so well. Thank you Burpee for giving us a wonderful crop of great tasting, off-the-vine peas. While Burpee may not have been to blame, our carrots did so poorly, if we have one plant I would be surprised. We had a late frost that did many of our more delicate plants in. The pumpkins have taken over most of the garden and a fair chunk of the sidewalk. The tomatoes are about a foot tall and doing well, we are still unsure how the potatoes are doing and surprisingly, my moonflowers have started to grow while I was away. I was convinced that the shock of transplanting and the frost had finished them off, but two vines are growing on the trellis so we will see if they bloom.
     In other news, baby Steven is above his birth weight, filling out his newborn sized clothing and spending a lot more time awake, mostly between nine pm and three am.
But he is doing well, this Momma is counting down the days until she can start some serious work on the extra 20-30 pounds that are still left over and until I can go swimming again. Eating lots of fruits and vegetables, high protein, vitamins and trying to stay hydrated to help the process along. This weekend, Baby and I are down in Altoona, PA visiting family, celebrating my grandmother's 60th birthday and my grandparent's 25th wedding anniversary. Unfortunately, Hubby could not get off work during the busy summer season so we are also spending our first chunk of time away from Dada. All things considered, I think I might be the most affected by that event. James has to work all weekend so he is a little preoccupied and Baby does not notice much quite yet. Two nights of this lonely momma pacing the hallway to calm Baby will be quite enough for awhile. While I love being with grandparents, I can not wait to be home with James and back in my own bed!

End of Countdown: Baby Arrival

   

<- One Month into pregnancy                           ^Day before delivery

    Baby Rogers is Finally Here!!!

     While this post is titled end of countdown, I guess we can now countdown to kindergarten or college now! As of July 11th, our latest addition Steven J Rogers came into the world at exactly midnight. Perfectly healthy, all ten toes and fingers, a full head of brown hair and blue eyes! 

     We did not know whether or not we were having a boy or girl but both Hubby and I through from the day that we got pregnant that we were having a boy, so we were definitely prepared. Luckily, because we hadn't settled on a girl's name whatsoever. Steven was a name that we had decided on before we had even thought about getting pregnant and had stuck with us through the whole nine months while we flip-flopped over a girl's name. For most of the people that asked, Steven was just a name that we both liked (it is also one of Hubby's plethora of middle names) but for those of you who read a few comics or have seen any popular movies recently, Steven Rogers is also the by-day name of Captain America. Hubby and I might be a little bit of geeks ourselves, considering he used to own a comic book store and we started dating after finding that we shared a likeness for comic books and gaming. So of course we named our first child together after a comic book character it just so happens that it is a relatively normal name that he will be able to walk through like with little mishap..hopefully. Baby's two middle names are after his father and his godfather, although two middle names sound like so much for such a small human. Hubby had twice as many middle names so really two isn't that many.
     Big Sister and Big Brother are thrilled that the newest addition is here, which is good because two weeks beforehand, E had told me that she was so impatient to see the baby that she wanted to cut me open so that the baby could be here faster. A little odd but very cute how much she wanted to see her new baby brother. So after my water breaking at 2am, we spent half an hour looking up on the internet what happens when your water breaks because I wasn't sure that is what was actually going on. I wanted to wait to go to the hospital because I was not convinced that I was actutally going into labor, I had no pains and I had no real movement in my stomach that I had imagined would happen when the baby was ready to come.

  Luckily, Hubby was not as convinced so we headed off to the hospital where we were admitted immediately and set off to walking and stretching out trying to get the baby moving. My contractions didn't really start until ten in the morning. Then we walked some more and I took a shower to relieve some of the back pain, unfortunately, I had a lot of back labor which made it uncomfortable. On the negative side, while I had dilated completely, Baby did not want to progress down so after 22 hours of labor, Steven had to come into the world through a C-section which was completely unplanned so it was stressful. But everything turned out well and after three days of recovery time (I could have used a full week) in the hospital we came home the following Sunday and Hubby spent the next week on a little vacation helping me recover and figuring out all about Baby! It was a terrifying and stressful experience but the tiny little body that sleeps in my arms every night makes it completely worth it, not to mention how much more I love Hubby and love seeing the look in his eyes when we have our whole family together.                                                                   

Countdown: Due Date and Harry Potter Nursery Update!

     While we have had absolutely no signs that Baby Rogers is ready to head out into the big, bright world, according to the doctors, he or she is due today! So in the spirit of a new baby, I'll share a couple pictures of the things that I made to decorate the nursery (aka the part of our bedroom that is roped off for baby's use). While I was going to try for an overbearing Harry Potter theme, time and space (and Hubby's complete lack of enthusiasm for Harry Potter, he had voted for superheroes) did not allow anything too over the top. It is nothing too elaborate like this gorgeous one here, which I had found on Pinterest and may have slightly inspired the idea from the start as you can see in my Harry Potter Pinterest board. But there are some cute, if tiny bits of Harry now in my bedroom to entertain me and keep me company until Baby arrives.

Hogwarts Crest Painting:

      I started with a couple paintings, easy enough to do in an afternoon while taking multiple bathroom breaks and naps. I have a couple canvases that I had picked up from Michael's for .01 from their clearance section so this seemed as good a reason to use them as any. I researched a bunch of different Hogwarts's crests to use, found a few that I liked and freehand drew a conglomeration of the ones I had found through Google. After taking way too long to perfect all of my lines (looking back, I should have just printed out a picture and traced it onto the canvas, it would have been less stressful to my inner perfectionist). Then I traced all of the pencil lines with black acrylic paint and filled in the parts that would become the all black silhouettes of the school mascots. In this aspect as well, I should have done the color first since I did all of the black and then went back to redo the lines so that they were more clean and distinct. The process after the freehand drawing was simple, color inside the lines! So I filled in the school colors, painted the background my favorite neutral grey, used puffy paint to outline the lines of the crest and stapled a slightly Gryffindor-esque fabric around the painting to frame it. While I was entirely too pleased with the outcome, DH needed me to explain what it even was, I know, horrible, right? But it was cute, easy and actually made it seem like I had a theme!

Whomping Willow Painting:
      This one, I was not as pleased with. I wanted to go with the darker colors that are more prevalent in the Harry Potter movies, but by the time all my paint dried, they all kind of seemed the same color, blending the sky with the branches too much. Again here, I just searched for Whomping

 Willow silhouettes, and found a few that seemed relatively easy. Initially, I wanted to do the entire tree in buttons, similar to the projects found on this lovely blog, which, staring at the painting now, I still might do. After spending almost an hour sorting through hundreds of my buttons, I didn't think that I could pull off the look that I was aiming for, it just didn't seem to be clicking for me. So to the trusty acrylics I went. Unfortunately, the results were not as inspiring as I had wished, so this project may be redone shortly, depending on how many burp cloths I can sew up before Baby gets here.

Flying Key and Owl Cage Mobile:

      Do you remember the flying keys used to get through the Chamber of Secrets? Exactly right! That's what these keys were inspired by (and a picture on Pinterest with a defunct link or else I would send you there) and I think they came out very cute. It had taken me while to collect the right kind of keys in the correct size, I had the large silver one from Michael's just sitting around, I had probably bought it almost two years ago at this point. I found one of the smaller rust colored ones in a manufactured shadowbox from the dollar store but I couldn't find anymore that fit what I was looking for, until I walked into Michael's recently to purchase some of my favorite Martha Stewart acrylics and my niece pointed them out. We bought one of each of the styles (costing around $6), although I wish I had bought a couple extra because it seemed thin when I was done. I also found the white birdcage (candle holder) there in their value section for around $2, which was good because the tiny silver one that I had purchased for the project would have been much too small for the size of the keys that I used. So far the mobile cost me $10. After cutting out white felt wings, using hot glue to adhere them to the keys and sewing thread to tie them to the birdcage, it was 90% finished. I am trying to figure out what kind of owl I want inside the cage. I had a wooden cutout of an owl that I started painting but looking at it now, I feel unconvinced that it will look right and I think a felt one might look cheesy, so that part of it is in slight limbo as of right now.

Bassinet Refinish:

      My dad had given this bassinet to us for the baby, but I am not a fan of white or pastel nursery items so I had to do something to it to spruce it up and make it special for our baby. My youngest brother slept in it when he was born, so I definitely wanted to keep it relatively the same, just a tiny update. I also did not want to go out and have to purchase a lot of stuff to redo it, but I already had yellow spray paint on hand, Hufflepuff represent!

     The top picture is the before (kind of, I forgot to take one and figure a partial was better than nothing) picture, the one the the right is the after. While Hufflepuff's colors are yellow and black, so are the Steeler's, so while I set out to pay homage to my favorite book series, I also ended up celebrating the football team that the majority of my family is deeply devoted to, a slight miscalculation that turned out okay. They silver and black ribbon I had purchased on clearance from Joann's for $1 a piece so in total, the bassinet remodel cost me around $8.

Chest of Drawers:
     This project actually took the most time and the least planning, thus the most time. I had an old set of drawers that was used for the kids clothing but was getting too small for all their things so I planned on repainting it and using it for the baby. I knew that it was difficult to paint laminate furniture but I had read all over the internet that it was possible and not nearly as daunting as previously indicated. So I took the drawers out and lightly sanded the entire thing, which was my first mistake, I should have heavily sanded the entire things repetitively. I had bought lovely Martha Stewart indoor paint from Home Depot for $20 for both colors, but they were perfect. Then I went to town painting it, the drawers took almost three coats by the time I was done, just to get an even red throughout the grey only took two coats (see little E in the third picture, helping me out!). After it was all painted, I swapped out the boring wooden knobs for white ceramic ones with skeleton keys on them, also from Michael's. After it all dried, i ran my hand over it a bit and took my nail to it and the paint came right off. So after staring at it angrily for a couple minutes, thinking that I would have to sand the whole thing over again to repaint it (or burn it, which did cross my mind) I figured that I would try a clear sealant. So back to Michael's I went. I sprayed the whole thing with sealant and had great results, no peeling or scratching anywhere. When I went to put it into our room though, the humidity made it so that the paint sticks to everything. My plan would have worked perfectly outside of that. So for $25, as far as this project is concerned, I would have done better to just go purchase a new dresser, or left it as is. But it does match my theme!

 

Gryffindor Felt Number Block:
     While Hubby and I were watching Doctor Who while in bed, I cut out and sewed together this precious morsel. I had sewn a few other felt cubes for a friend's baby shower, a giraffe and an elephant, so I wanted to make a couple for our baby, too. This was the first one that I made, I later made a hippo, zebra, and pig but those might go to the same home as the first two eventually. I used a simple square pattern that I had for quilting, cut out the felt from Gryffindor colored sheets that I had bought at Hobby Lobby for .25 a sheet and sewed it together with embroidery floss. Other than a slight miscalculation where I cut out a 7 and was thoroughly confused why it wouldn't go anywhere, it came out adorably. I will probably make three more to match the houses but with letters on them instead. I even put a little bell on the inside so the baby can make some noise and I stuffed it with poly-fil left over from cleaning out my mother's storage unit last year. So for around $3 I made a cute Harry Potter felt block for soon to be here Baby Rogers.
       So far those are the most exciting projects that I have made. I have twenty or so burp cloths on the docket, another painting and my little owl for the mobile. I also want to made a cover for our stroller but I am not sure that will get done before baby gets here, we are supposed to have a huge thunderstorm in the next couple days and there is hearsay that many women go into labor during storms!

DIY: Framed Jewellry Holders

     With only 8 days left before my due date, I figured I can sit down in my nice cool basement and write up another post before I head our grocery shopping!

     While not a tutorial, this is more of a "hey I saw this on Pinterest and had the opportunity so I grabbed it" kind of thing. While down in Pennsylvania on my little mini vacation, I was helping my wonderful grandfather make new cabinet doors for a customer. The original doors were just wooden frame (see picture to the left) with stained glass inside, the customer wanted to save the stained glass but make new frames to match her custom cabinets that my grandfather had already made. So after taking them apart, he told me to take the old frames to the dumpster and on my way I got distracted by something shiny and the idea to make jewelry holders out of the old frames. You can find pictures and ideas all over Pinterest for hundreds of variations of these and full on tutorials that will explain it in much more detail, or just do a general search for "DIY jewelry holder." 

     After sanding all the sides of the frames and removing all the old hardware, I went in search of some paint. My grandfather does a lot of traditional style work so the colors that he had were not necessarily the bright cheery ones that I would have picked but they worked for this on-the-fly project. The sanding done and a few coats of paint on and the frames were ready the lace background used to hold earrings. We raided my grandmother's old curtains for ones that were past their prime and cut them to fit the frame. The picture to the left is of dear sweet hubby stapling the lace to the back of the frame. After that was done, we picked out some interesting and slightly matching cabinet pulls and cup hooks, drilled them into place, hung picture frame wire on the backs and called it a day. All in all, the projects cost around ten dollars for three complete jewelry holders. Although, Hubby did point out that if we took into consideration our labor costs and any sort of profit margin, we would have to sell them for $75 each, so maybe not the most profitable venture. It was fun and I enjoyed trying a new project and convincing DH to help out. Can't wait to try the next project!!!

     

Garden: End of June Update

     Only 9 more days until my due date and I might be going a little stir crazy. Hubby says that it is nesting and that the feeling is completely normal but I am wary of this advice. I do not feel the incessant desire to clean everything or to cook tons, just this overwhelming feeling that nothing satisfies me (how selfish, I know). Nothing does it, not cleaning, not cooking, not chocolate, movies, shopping, sleeping, walking, ice cream, sewing, stitching, nor laundry makes me feel like I have accomplished anything for the day. This close to my due date and I figure that a slight feeling of agitation is probably normal and not a step into a diagnosed   disease (fingers crossed).

     On the positive side, my tiny little half-hearted pregnancy garden is doing pretty well, all things considered. Hubby and I spent about five hours prepping and planting and I have spent maybe two hours since weeding and staring at it, so its success has much more to do with luck and benevolent garden spirits than my green thumb. 

 This garden is maybe ten feet long by four feet wide, so there is nothing really too special going on here, but since it is my first garden since I was a child, I am pretty impressed with the idea of seeds turning into plants then turning into food. The picture to the left show my amazing pea plants, which are by far doing the best, then in the wine barrel planter are my potatoes that I started from too-soft spuds left in the cupboard too long, and at the bottom is a daisy plant that Hubby had given to me for Mother's day. There are also pumpkin plants in between the peas and potatoes but are hard to see in that picture, when they start to flower I will post new pictures of them and in front is supposed to be a row of carrots, the really neat ones that come in purple, orange and yellow but I am unconvinced of their success at this point. The kids and I really love eating cut up carrots with our meals so I thought different coloured ones would really go over well but a late frost might have disagreed with me. The picture  above that shows more pumpkins, I planted some for carving and some tiny Jack-Be-Littles for decoration. In the top left of the picture you can almost see the tomato plants that I am attempting. I have not thinned out any of my plants, like I said, this is supposed to be a minimum input garden considering I can not bend over much at this point, so there are just mounds of plants growing and hopefully becoming fruitful in the near future.

      Here are my little pea flowers just starting to blossom, some of them have opened completely and I may, or may not, have tried to count them all to see how many peas that I will actually get. I do have a sneaking suspicion that my darling Husband will get to them before I do and eat them all raw straight from the plant and I will not get any.

     Not that I can take any credit for this, but we do have a mulberry tree that grows on our property which has tons of berries on it, all way to high for me to reach. I have been trying to convince Husband to spend some time on a ladder to aide in my conquest of the berries but it has rained so much in the past two weeks that we have not had much time to pick them anyways. I really wanted to get enough to can some, make some jam and to make a pie but the only one that has ventured to pick any has been E and she gets enough to satisfy her hunger and then moves on to something more interesting. 

     All in all I am pretty happy with my low maintenance garden, outside of getting poison ivy all over my hand and no carrot crop. The seeds that I bought from Home Depot have all done well and had almost 100% germination, which really impressed me. I am really hoping that this rain will stop for a couple days to let me clean and air out the house before Baby Rogers gets here although with single digit days until the due date, I am not sure that will happen!