small hands

Behold my new rug

A little bit of order restored makes a huge difference. Last night we were able to eat dinner at the dining room table and it was wonderful. My son yelled "This chicken is so delicious." I was able to fold the kids' clothes and put them in the chest of drawers in their rooms.

The guys are putting the baseboards in today and touching up all the paint that got nicked when they were putting the floors in. The floors are red oak.

I am hating this Bay Area weather--in the mid-50s and overcast and blowing. I should be used to this version of summer weather after all these years, but it's pissing me off.

For Heather:



Nothing to worry about.

Shiny is better:



V. agrees with me.

This is a block called Broken Dishes. I was able to assemble about ten or so this weekend. Though I'm a sucker for a blue quilt, as I've said (and demonstrated) before, my bedroom has taken a brownish/caffe latte turn with the renovations going on in my house, like this bedroom from Elle Decor.



So it and my other blue quilts may clash.

The house is slooooooowly coming along. I had to tell V. that I wanted a high gloss finish on the floors. He thought satin would be better and didn't check with me first, so I had to put my foot down a bit. But looking at a picture like this makes me want shiny floors.

I showed my mom and stepdad the chaos/work yesterday. They were encouraging about the progress, reminding me that their bathroom took four months to complete. My mom and I laughed at the article in the Sunday Chronicle where the writer stated his opinion that old houses are rubbish. I can only shrug my shoulders and say that it's a crazy love that I have for my 100+ year old house; it's not logical. My mom wanted to get rid of even more stuff, which made me laugh.

I didn't realize, until Sunday night, that my neighbors were relying on me to have window coverings to maintain their privacy. I've got to get my window covering back on pronto.

I cleaned out a storage area next to my study. It's a bit roomy, with a hall, a closet sized area, and space under the back stairs. The kids responded to the change with great enthusiasm by making it into a quiet area/club house. I was surprised by their reaction, but pleased. I couldn't believe the stuff that I had stored there (lots of picnic supplies) and was relieved that I was clearing it out and not someone else. I would have been embarrassed to have anyone else have to deal with the detritus.

It's very interesting to be moving everything in my house around. I had a moment last week, after being stressed out by the chaos, when I walked across my patio to the recycling bin, when my home made sense to me. As if I could see to the time when the chaos is resolved and everything is in order and there is a lot less of it.

I recognize that I'm a product of the plethora of messages to consume that Americans are bombarded with. [For example, celebrate Memorial Day by buying stuff on sale.] And because I live in a house with a lot of storage capacity, it's incredibly easy to accumulate a lot of stuff. I don't want to live like that any more.

Works in Progress:



I really needed to take the day off, because I've been working really hard, the chaos in my house is taking its toll on my psyche, and it feels like I'm getting strep throat.

So I did, though I am hard wired not to take the day off. I got it from my mom.

I'm sewing, watching ER and Gideon's Daughter*, folding fabric, and being completely inspired by an 8 year old issue of Martha Stewart Living (September 1999).

I think this room is genius. I would do it a bit lot less cluttered and I'm a disaster with houseplants, but the red and the celadon make me very happy.






*Watching a movie where a child dies is just hard for me.

I wish I had some really cool photo of my completed house to post, but I don't. I know where my digital camera is, which is something, but the house is in complete disarray.

When someone comes to visit me (which I do not encourage), I take them to the back yard because it is the least chaotic place in my house.

This is a picture of the rug that will go in my bedroom if it's ever finished.

The weekend was good. Saturday I had to get up early to get to my son's 8:30AM soccer game. After the game, the children and I went grocery shopping and to Cole Coffee, home to unload the groceries, then to H & M and Old Navy for summer clothes.

Sunday, my girl had a swim meet at Mills College that started at 7:30AM and went until 3:00PM. She takes my breath away that girl. I saw little under-8 year olds racing in 13 feet deep water and thought I could never have allowed my girl to do that. I can barely bring myself to let her do it at 11 years old, but it's a good lesson not to let my fears limit her life.

My little guy was a paragon of patience, napping and eating and hanging out generally.

When we got home, my girl put on her pajamas and took a 2 hour nap while I cooked Sunday dinner (roast lemon chicken, mashed potatoes, asparagus) and did laundry.

I have a secret plan to reclaim my house by purging what I can from the insanity while the guys are working, so that when it's time for it to be put back in the appropriate rooms, there will be much less of it. I love the advice from Apartment Therapy to toss stuff and to enjoy one's home. The subtitle is The Eight Step Home Cure. I think the word cure is very important, because it doesn't feel healthy (for me) to live with disorder and clutter. Just being able to keep the recycling moving out of the house makes me feel psychologically better.

One example the author gave was to make coffee at home and spend time in the morning drinking it, rather than stopping by the mega chain. My mornings are my favorite part of the day and I don't mind that the absence of window coverings means that I wake up at dawn during the renovation.

I woke up at 5:45 this morning and started some laundry, washed dishes, made myself coffee and breakfast, then got the kids up. I didn't have as lovely a morning as Alicia, because I had to get to court by 8:30AM, but the judge was someone I was very happy to appear before and it made for a pleasant morning.

There was the smell of spilled milk in my car (you know the smell that makes you think Oh Jesus, what died), so on the way to the office, I stopped by the self-serve car wash to do a quick carpet shampoo and vacuum.

It's lunch time and I have a bag of clothes to donate and to go grocery shopping for dinner tonight.

Pretend that I'm whispering:

My house is more insanely chaotic than ever. I'm trying to keep my cool. Someday it will be over.

Work has been crazy, home is crazy.

This weekend should be a a little calmer.

Mother's Day was lovely.

Hope you all have a beautiful weekend.

Happy Friday.

The house is coming along, slowly, but my study is a cluttered sanctuary where I am working on a new quilt and reading magazines.

I haven't crystalized my thoughts on how the work on my house is changing how I live, but this morning I was in the downstairs shower, which was fixed this week. I haven't taken a shower downstairs since before my son was born. Seven years. It is lovely too. I love to look at the Apartment Therapy Smallest Coolest Contest and dig on the pared down, clutter-free aesthetic. It's just so hard to emulate.

I love this quilt:



It's from this month's Country Living Magazine.

This weekend I hope to slow down and catch my breath. What about you?

This weekend was good and hectic, as usual. My son had an 8:30AM soccer game, so there was no sleeping in. After the game, we looked at hardwood floors then returned home. When my girl came home from swim practice, we went out again and got them skateboards and safety gear. They love their skateboards and rode them the rest of the day.

Sunday we went grocery shopping then to see Spiderman 3. After the movie, I barbecued and tried to clean up the house. I also made a lemon pound cake from Cook's Illustrated magazine. I didn't have sour cream, but I used the baking substitutions link so generously provided by Alicia. The cake turned out well, though it's not the absolute best lemon pound cake I've ever had.

We ate dinner (barbecued chicken, salad, green beans, rustic Italian sour dough bread and penne pasta with cheese) in the back yard, sitting on this quilt and it was completely lovely.


My favorite combination is to try a new dessert recipe on the weekend and have leftovers on Monday. Last night I picked up some strawberries from Monterey Market and we had this for dessert.



I am learning a lot about living during this remodel. I am enjoying my whole house in a way I didn't before. And evaluating all the stuff in it more critically.

Colleen: the squares on the brown One Patch are 3-1/2 inches. My blue One Patch had 4-1/2 inch squares.

At the risk of being repetitive, I made this brown and burgundy One Patch out of fabric that had been languishing in my stash. This is my Spring Cleaning quilt. I felt the need for brown after making a pink quilt. Now I crave blues and greens.



My brother's fiancee abruptly called off the engagement (via e-mail) so I am not going to complete Any Way You Slice It quilt. There is no reason to do so and her behavior has left a bad taste in my mouth about the quilt.

There are no words, really, to describe the degree of insanity I feel at this moment because of the state of my house.

So I am sheltering in place in my study and trying not to get too freaked out.