curtains and sweater balls

it's tuesday and derby week.  which, if you don't know, means not a lot gets accomplished at the office.  i take that back - i'm actually getting a lot done in preparation for month end - but there's fun activities scheduled all week at work (run for the rose, a "boat" race, "balloon" race and so on) so it's more laid back around here.

i've actually felt very on top of things outside of work as well - i called and ordered my breast pump, all of my new mom classes are scheduled, i am registered at the hospital, and bill and i got around to hanging the nursery room curtains last night!

in real life i've gone on and on about these curtains.  they are from pottery barn kids - fully lined, blackout curtains.  i stroked them many a time in store.  the price tag ON SALE was about $60 a panel.  the window in the nursery is extra wide (two window panels are hidden by the curtains in this picture) which means i needed 4 panels to get a nice full look.  so $240 for curtains? 

no.  i'm cheap.

i was at a kids' consignment sale in e-town a few months ago and found 4 (!!!!) panels - for $50 total.  they look brand new - no wear, tears, stains, or smells - were probably in a kid's room for a short period of time.

i thought the green was fun - i probably wouldn't have originally picked it for the nursery, but at that price for that quality i said i could make them work.  which is the primary reason i went with navy walls - i love green and navy.

the room is slowly coming together - bill has called the cable company to activate the internet in the other bedroom so we can move his desk out of the nursery (we tried 2 weekends ago and realized the cable wasn't activated in that room)

so once he's out of there we can lay the quarter round and move the furniture in place.  above is the room looking in from the living room.  eventually we will have the same floors carry over into the living space...patience i tell myself.

i keep saying i just have the fun stuff to shop for now - a lamp, artwork, a cushy chair - OH! and also because i'm a cheapskate i thought i could get away with 2 packages of ring clips on the curtain rod. womp womp.  i clearly need one more package (check out the extra wide, droopy pleats on those curtains) - and weather permitting, i will head out at lunch to grab them (rod, clips, finials, and mounts all from home depot martha stewart collection).

my other "task" i gave myself as of last week was to visit the diaper fairy on bardstown road.  i HIGHLY recommend checking out emily's shop if you are interested, curious, or even doubtful of cloth diapering.  first and foremost, emily offers a laundering service and provides diapers - she is the only service that i know of in the kentuckiana area to offer the diaper service.  most recently she opened an actual store - or "cottage" that sells basically everything you could want - from all the well known cloth diapering brands and styles, to natural laundry detergent, baby wraps, environmentally safe baby toys, AND expert advice.

bill and i stopped in on saturday and once we were asked if we needed any help i basically said i was overwhelmed and didn't know what i wanted.  the sales lady was so nice and offered her help but also suggested the intro to cloth diapering class that was being held on sunday.  we signed up without hesitation and came back again the next day.

i learned so much and i think it helped bill to see and hear the process. i won't lie - he's still pretty weary of the washing process, which with our immediate budget to buy cloth diapers, we will be doing diaper laundry every 2-3 days (which is actually pretty typical - if you can afford it, you can definitely buy a huge stash and wash closer to once a week - but doing huge loads of dirty diapers sounds just as bad as doing smaller loads every 2-3 days in my opinion OR you could use the diapering service, but that kind of negates the money saving).

i'm planning a return trip in a couple of weeks to get a beginner stash going.  i think if i buy a few at a time it will make me feel better than dropping $200 at once on diapers.  that's my plan anyways.  and i hope to fill you in on what my stash will be made up of and get into the details of cloth diapering then.

as for now, one of the tips given at the class was to use wool/felt dryer balls (natural with zero dyes and chemicals - chemicals which could ruin or affect the absorbancy of cloth diapers) - which they sell, and i've seen sold online.  but seriously, for anyone who has ever knitted or crocheted or even accidentally washed an all wool sweater - paying someone else to make WOOL BALLS for you, is just ridiculous.

i came home last night and dug out some thrift store sweaters i once upon a time bought for felting.

if you don't have old sweaters or a yarn stash - head to your local goodwill or michaels craft store and look for 100% natural fibers.

(seriously, when was the last time you think old navy sold 100% natural anything...)

sweaters and yarn will tell you what percentage of fibers it is made from - we don't want anything that isn't natural

wool, lambs wool, merino, etc - all good - stay away from anything that says acrylic.  if there's a small percentage of acrylic (less that 30%) you might have some luck with felting - it just may take longer to achieve.

anyways, you can try and unravel the sweater in one continuous thread OR

employee someone else to cut strips of fabric while they watch the nba playoffs.  thanks bill.

i wound the strips tightly into softball sized balls.  i tried to keep the balls tight, and tuck in loose ends when i could.

i then cut up an old pair of panty hose and made a caterpillar with my sweater balls - tying knots between each.

dropped it in the wash with a couple of towels on warm.  washing with towels or a load of jeans really helps agitate the fibers.  and just a public service announcement - if you were ever curious as to why you ruined a sweater in the wash and not the dryer - it is because the actual washing NOT the drying causes natural fibers to felt. which is why wool sweaters and scarves say to hand wash - less agitation!

i then threw them in the dryer for 30ish minutes and cut them loose.

most of mine came out looking solid

but two had some loose ends that didn't quite felt all the way (i think i had got lazy and used too big of strips)

i'm planning to rewash those to get better felting.

so now - for cloth diaper drying - and all other drying - i can throw a couple in the dryer (or 3-4 for large loads) for chemical free, static free, all natural dryer sheets.  these will also help cut drying times (same concept if you've ever heard of throwing a tennis ball in the dryer).  if you really like your dryer sheets to be scented, you can add a few drops of essential oils to your sweater balls.

happy felting!

 

transformation tuesday

wait...what?

i'm back after taking a 2 month-ish hiatus.  whoops!  it wasn't planned, but it felt needed.  obviously, i've posted all over instagram, but there's only so much i can share through pictures alone.

i've been incredibly lucky to have such an easy pregnancy thus far, but unfortunately i've also been pretty boring.  i got tired of forcing a narrative that simply wasn't there.  i've also struggled with how much and what i wanted to share on a public blog.  for the most part, at least since becoming pregnant, this has been a way for friends and family who are interested to follow along with my journey; i can also spare those casual FB acquaintances the incessant reminder of my growing uterus. 

so now that the "big wait" has turned into "hurry up and get stuff done" my personal narrative, at least comparatively, is becoming more interesting.

so transformation tuesday - shall we?

my last update i had just found out little baby gummy bear was going to be a girl!  i was right around 19-20 weeks, and i still hadn't felt Lucy kick.  i was also under the impression my belly was ginormous.  and it looks like my bras were still fitting pretty well.

jump ahead to NOW (picture at 26 weeks)

i feel and look like i strapped a beach ball to my front.  and i'm terrified that the real growth is now about to start.

bill and i went to a baseball game last friday night - the louisville bats are a triple A team for the cincinnati reds, and so i wanted to wear my reds t shirt.  it looked obscenely tight when i put it on.  bill kindly offered for me to wear his t shirt. 

which...turned out to be barely long enough itself.  whoops.

so now, in my last week of my 2nd trimester...!!! i am feeling lots of kicks and punches.  i sometimes just sit at my desk and watch my belly move.  i've tried really hard to capture it on camera to show bill since she seems to be most active around lunch, but i think lucy knows i'm filming and promptly stops.

other than my growing belly

there's been a few other transformations happening around the house

bill and his brother worked on putting the crib together

and it has sat in the living room while we get the nursery (bill's former office) together

gong-gong (lucy's grandpa) made sure she had a mattress and i couldn't resist picking up some sheets to see the crib mostly put together (still plan on adding a skirt)

the other side of the living room houses our matching cradle that lucy's great granny got for her - which will soon be moved into our bedroom.

the nursery itself has been a work in progress.

after thinking for weeks i would go with something light and neutral.  i decided i hated all of these colors.

and i just wanted what i liked - a beautiful dark navy. 

it's been a bit hard to photograph because of the time of day i get home, but i think it looks beautiful and relaxing.  i'm a sucker for blues.  ALSO.  the room has since been mostly cleared of all the clutter seen above - and so far, thanks to my aunt, i've made over $200 in selling our excess.

in a mad state of "let's get shit done!" we ripped up the carpet as well.  we knew at some point we would get new floors so there's nothing like impulsively doing so to get things moving.  i hope to share a semi finished room next week - the plan is to put the floors down saturday, however, we are still awaiting a phone call to to come pick up said floors. 

so while waiting on the floors this past weekend, we took on a whole other beast.

she looks harmless enough, doesn't she?  the dresser came from bill's grandmother's estate - which makes me happy to have a little something from her house - she had just found out we were pregnant a month or so before she passed.  i didn't know her very well, but she kept this dresser in her basement to store fabric and sewing projects - a very talented seamstress - she made her own curtains, placemats, could whip up a blazer, and in her younger years could reupholster a sturdy piece of furniture.  so i'm sure she got a big kick out of watching us tackle this dresser, and i hope would be pleased to see that this basement storage piece is going to be used as storage and a changing table in the nursery!

we spent several hours saturday sanding, deglossing, sanding again

chipping off lots of wood veneer and filling in holes with wood putty (also to note - random furniture in the background - my SIL is also pregnant and we've been DIY divas for months now)

we called it a day, and waited until sunday to paint (thanks to my brother and sister in law for letting us use their garage and outdoor space)

i picked up chalk paint - the paint that requires no sanding or priming - only to discover that the veneer was bleeding through in spots (see the drawer with the bleed through?)

after painting everything with 2 coats and still having bleed through - my brother in law came to the rescue with a can of killz primer which THANKFULLY took care of the red ruining my project.

unfortunately that meant i needed to paint ANOTHER coat of chalk paint over this whole dresser again.

pain in my rear.

not to mention, my original plan was to stain the top of the dresser to achieve a butcher block look.  thanks to that tricky veneer - there was zero wood grain and my dreams were out the window.

kind of.

i had picked up dark wax to go over the paint - hoping it would give me my desired look.

 and i'm pretty pleased with the outcome!

the areas we had trouble sanding/puttying which were such an eyesore - ended up being a blessing

the wax took hold in those nooks and crannies - and because chalk paint has a less than smooth texture when painted on with a brush - we were able to get that wood block look 

a project that i was ready to chuck 3 hours into - i'm now quite pleased with.

still not done though- i'm planning on removing the contact paper from the drawers and re-lining with some fun fabric.  

sorry for ramble blog, but i feel like we're caught up now.  i'm crossing my fingers we get a phone call from the flooring place and i can share an almost finished nursery next week!