transition

for weeks i'd been promising thehobbit i would take his kitchen set, & the teeny kid items out of his playroom. his kitchen set is big enough for him to still play with, but since he began learning to cook in the actual kitchen, he hasn't touched the toy version. i cannot tell you how bittersweet i find that.

home for the second day with a mild pestilence, i figured today was as good a day to stop procrastinating as any. we began by filling a large bag with toys he no longer plays with, & another, smaller bag with garbage, & broken items. to make the occasion less a chore, we listened to a book as we went along.

soon we had a clear path, so started dragging the kitchen set, & miscellaneous things to the dining room. the shopping cart & doll buggy had been housing stuffies & puppets, so never were removed as he grew (many years ago) too big to push them about.

as with the kitchen set, those are going to be wrapped in moving plastic, & stored in the garage - until our new boy is big enough for them. wow these are those little transitions that most people don't think twice about, but send me into an emotional puddle of goo. still - it helps knowing that i'll get to watch another child of mine play with these beloved items.

part of the kitchen set manlyman & i did not build. this little hutch was instead built about 60 years ago by manlyman's stepfather's father, for his own children. it was given to thehobbit when he was a toddler, & as you can tell by the chipping paint, he loved it well.

here it is in its new home, our bedroom. we're going to use it to house the bebe's things - all we need are a few baskets to keep things from getting cluttered.

when i came up with this idea i was worried thehobbit wouldn't want his hutch used for bebe stuff. he is a generous child, but when it comes to things he dearly loves, he is unwilling to let them go. happily i was wrong! he is so excited by this, & has even asked if he can help get the hutch ready.

of course once it was moved to the bedroom, he was disappointed to learn we weren't going to begin filling the shelves & drawers. it's just going to sit there, empty? until he is born!? not content with my positive reply, he put the stack of receiving blankets (thank you grammie) on the bottom shelf.

& since then thehobbit has been listening to music, & writing letters in code in his newly enlarged playroom. i've been recovering in a cozy chair, & watching martha stewart. so far it's been a pretty good day :-)

what did you do today?
~peace.

last-minute day trip.

yesterday was spent in the high desert, visiting my mother-in-law. we had a lovely time, & for once the weather there was mild.



after a lunch of veggie burgers & endless fries (endless fries!), mil took us to her favorite shop in town. there we discovered row after row of bulk bins - which drove my menfolk over the edge! the lights dimmed, & a choir of angels sang as manlyman & thehobbit gleefully filled zillions of bags with trail mixes, & dried fruits.

i; dainty flower that i am; behaved in a more reserved manner. i quietly walked through the rows, seeing what was to be had. in the end i came away with 2 small bags of dried fruit: strawberries & cranberries. i chose the ones coated in a thick, protective layer of dark chocolate though - i like my dried fruit to be safe.

these photos are of the weeds along mil's drive - i wish my weeds were this delicate. aren't they lovely? i nearly had a photo of a gorgeous raven, but he flew away before i could get a good shot of him.

it had been nice to get away, but it was nice to get back home. too bad the belfry isn't nearly as clean as mil's.

~peace.

just another serene saturday

neither thehobbit nor i felt like doing much of anything today. i did try to be the responsible adult, but it was half-hearted, resulting in only getting the watering done. ah well - at least the veggies shan't die of thirst.

instead, we played in the yard for a bit, then i came inside to just 'be'. thehobbit stayed out of course, as he must play in his tent every. waking. moment.

i really should take a photo of his set-up, because it's just too cute. he's got a little 2-man tent pitched, with a beach gazebo set up next door. creating a circle he's dragged over a small picnic table, & some chairs. one must be fancy even when in the wilderness, so there are potted plants on his table.

a blanket & pillow are the only things in the gazebo; but within the tent (which he calls the swamp) he's got: a chair, a small table, his radio (playing opera when i left him earlier), & a tote filled with books & drawing accoutrement.

***

other than watering the farm, craving a vegetarian taco salad, & playing with thehobbit, i've pretty much stuck with my decision to do nothing all day. i've been listening to music, puttering, & poking around the internet. it's been lovely.

one of today's putterings has been to figure out how to no longer have to see manlyman's chin-up bar. it hangs in the doorway that leads from the dining room, to the east wing of the belfry. hahahaha wing!!! the east wing is basically the rooms to one side of the big room. we haven't even any hallways here, so you can see why i'm cracking myself up at this absurdity.

sorry, i got off track for a moment there. here is the ugly chin-up bar:

& here is my solution:

it's a freakylong table cloth. yes i know it's wrinkly, but the iron & i don't get along; she belongs to manlyman, & she is a jealous thing. it's just tucked up there (as you can see from the previous photo), so manlyman can easily access the bar for his weekly pull-ups. maybe he'll even iron it for me, before rehanging it!? yeah, i doubt it too.

hanging the cloth there not only hides the ugliness beneath it, it keeps the warmth in the big room, & makes for an excellent back drop. voila!

oh my one & only reader, i'm sorry for yet another belly picture. you see, my best friend spryte lives far, far away, & has taken to threats if i don't show more of the bebe. usually a gentle soul, i think being so far from me what she has decided is her bebe has driven her mad. or perhaps it is her 4 hellion hobbits? either way - another belly photo.

this was also an excuse to show my newest thrift shop purchase. the blouse is not meant to be maternity, but it works perfectly. the fabric is amazingly soft, sort of like a very thin sweater. the best part; in addition to being so cute; is that it only cost $4. how i do love thrifting.

i hope you're having a lovely, serene saturday. i'm off to make some tea :-)

~peace.

creating despite the weather

one would think i've done naught but complain about the atrocious heat of late; but ah - one would be wrong! though i did complain constantly often, i also managed to pack quite a bit into our days.

something i'm very happy to say i managed to do, is create! it had been ages since i last sat at sewlie, & i was missing her dearly. i could have sewn the aprons i need to take to a local shop, or the blanket i began cutting out for the bebe; but in typical kat form i did neither of those things. first i whipped up a new needle book, then this:


the little purse is perfect for when i'm out on my own. it's big enough for just the essentials: no asthma kit, no snacks, no other peoples' anythings. i still have to stitch on the closure, but that's easy peasy.


my maman sent the fabric to me last year, & the lining is wool felt from soap. the colors are not those i typically wear, but it's fun to have a few items that are out of the norm.

this was yesterday's creation. i was craving a blendie, but hadn't any ice to make my own. just before i'd convinced myself it was necessary to the health of my pregnancy to go buy one; i realized i could make a blendie in my ice cream machine! it took a bit of watching; to make sure it didn't go past the 'blendie' stage; but oh my one & only reader! it was ever so good. all that was missing was an equal amount of whipped cream on top.

& that brings me to my on-going creation:

the ever-expanding kat! please excuse the wretched photo - i'm not coordinated enough to take a decent photo of myself. can you believe how huge that belly is?! a very sweet woman was chatting with me on monday, & asked how many weeks i had left. hahahahaha - months! i told her. everyone assures me my body will keep making room as the bebe grows, but i don't know that i believe them. mostly because it just doesn't seem physically possible, but also because i only keep company with liars. liars, pick-pockets, & loose women.

so what did you create this week? have any favorite blendie recipes you'd like to share?

~peace.