Spring Has Hatched

Did you want an update on our little bird family?  First, we were happy to see Mrs. Sparrow seamlessly adjust to her new location, and continue to tend her eggs.

The nest is now too high for me to look into easily, so I sort of stopped checking on it, figuring we would hear "cheep, cheeps" if the eggs hatched.  Because I know basically nothing about birds except what I've read in board books.  Ed has been peeking in occasionally, and the eggs have remained.  We're not even sure what kind of bird it is, much less when the eggs were laid, and definitely no idea about gestation/incubation periods, just that babies are born in the spring (board book.)  Last Sunday Ed peered in, and wondered if maybe they wouldn't hatch, since we send Mother bird flying away too often.  That saddened me.

Then yesterday my sister and nephew were visiting and they asked about the nest.  I told them what Ed had said, so Thompson wanted to take a peek.  He raised his 6' frame up on tippies, and said, "Uh, they've hatched."  What?!  Flurry, flurry, what do I do?  "Yeah, there's a bunch of fuzzy babies in there."  Omygosh, where's my step stool?  Where's my camera?

Uh...

 Uh...

 There they are!  I couldn't believe it.  Even though that's how nature works.  But I'm not used to being this close.  And I love it. 

When Ed came home I was so excited to tell him, and he said, "Oh, yeah, I saw the mother feeding them the other day."  Thanks.  Because we communicate like that. 

Anyway, this morning we saw them feeding, so I interrupted just for a few more pictures, then closed the door and left them to it. 

Mr. Sparrow seems to be back on the scene, and both parents were working hard to get the hatchlings fed, only flying only to the nearest branch when I came out; I could feel the heat of their glare.

We have a field guide, but based on descriptions of several small eastern birds, we're still not sure exactly what we have.  Poppy likes birds, so my parents gave her this bird feeder for Christmas.  It sits outside our dining window, so she can see it from her high chair.  Word travels fast when it's filled up, and we have quite the aviary mob descend, to the point that Ginger gets scared by the storm of flapping when we leave the house.  So when it runs out, we let it stay empty for awhile.  But, inspired by our new little family, I filled it up today; maybe the Mr. & Mrs. can get a little something for themselves.  Call it date night.

Snowed In

They're calling it the Blizzard of 2009, breaking all kinds of records. I'm calling it a wonderful weekend. Even though we are sorely under-geared for snow (Hazel had to go out in double pants and rain boots and we had to borrow my sister's snow shovel), we had a fabulous snowed-in weekend around here.

We stayed home, played in the snow, watched movies, baked like crazy, took naps, and had totally uninterrupted family time. Not a single errand was run in two days by anyone - now THAT is a new record!

Back and front snowfall by about mid-day Saturday - check out the drifting on the back of Ed's car (green Honda across the street)

Hazel venturing out in the fresh powder

The girls lounging in snow chairs

Buried in snow

Ed digging a path to our shed Saturday night

Back porch snowfall by 7pm Saturday - we measured about 21 inches

Our van Sunday morning before digging out

Our street Sunday morning - church was cancelled - what a weekend!

Bed Time

After 6 years on a slightly-broken hand-me-down metal frame, a year on a built-in platform in a rented house, and 4 months of a mattress on the floor in our new house, Ed and I have gotten a bed, a real bed.Wouldn't it be nice if our room actually looked like that?

We picked it up yesterday and assembled it this morning. It was quite the cause for excitement around our house. The girls could be distracted by neither treat nor TV; they wanted to HELP. So Ed found an empty box (yes, we are still unpacking) and told them if they were going to be in our room, they had to stay in the box. The instructions came in both French and English so we gave them the French instructions and told them to supervise.When we'd gotten a little further along and were working on the corner feet and brackets, we let them out of the box. They brought in their plastic tools and worked on the styrofoam the bed had been packed in.
The assembly was quick and basically painless. It helped that the bed wasn't from IKEA. It's not quite the finished product yet - we still plan to get the headboard and nightstands, just on a different paycheck - but it feels like a new room. And I'm pretty sure tomorrow, when I only have to get up from a sitting position rather than a squat, I will feel like a new woman. Yes, we're getting there, bit by bit.

DM's Gift Guide: Housewarming

Having just gone through this, and receiving some lovely and thoughtful gifts, and wishing for even more, I have a word or two to say about housewarming. If you know the person well, and what they need or want, go there. A drill or tool kit, new dishes, a big can of primer. Personally I would like a new slow cooker, an electric griddle and a set of nonstick brioche molds. (You can always check my Amazon wishlist.) But you don't always know exactly what a person needs, so here are some safe and always welcome housewarming gifts:

1. Yankee or other scented candle, $5-25 - They just smell so good. And there are so many great scents. Choose something seasonal, like Sun & Sand, Orchard Pear, Eucalyptus, or Clean Cotton.

2. Pretty dish towels and/or oven mitts - If a household doesn't have these, they need them. If they do have them, they are stained and old and need new ones. People rarely buy these for themselves, yet it feels so good to have clean towels in your kitchen! Need inspiration? Try Quelobjet, Funktion, or Etsy.

3. Bamboo cutting board, $10-20 - Bamboo is hard, lightweight, and a self-replenishing renewable resource. Plus it's pretty and everyone could use a new cutting board.

4. Serving platter/pitcher/cake stand - A friend brought a long narrow platter to our housewarming party and filled it with strawberries and champagne grapes. I love it. A few years ago another friend gave me a Marimekko pitcher filled with lemons. Love that, too. And cake stands can be so cool and pretty, like this one and these.

5. Destination Dinners, $25-30+ - It takes awhile before new homeowners are cooking full meals in their new place, so here's a twist on bringing someone a frozen casserole. Each international food kit "beautifully displays the pre-measured hard to find spices, sauces and dried items as well as step-by-step instructions, a shopping list for fresh ingredients and fun facts and trivia about the destination you are 'traveling' to." And the gift sets include dishes and utensils, too. So cool! Please feel free to get me the Ayutthaya Green Curry or Jerk BBQ sets anytime.6. The Popcorn Factory - Live far away? Want to send something awesome and inexpensive? Our family has given and received many gifts from the Popcorn Factory and everything is excellent - and it's so fun to look through the options! Got a health nut friend? You can never go wrong with great fruit. 7. Home Depot gift card and/or Dare to Repair: A D0-it-Herself Guide to Fixing (Almost) Anything in the Home, $12 - These don't require much explanation. A new homeowner needs stuff and is usually clueless. I can speak from experience. These will be used faster than you can exclaim, "What broken pipe?!"

My Awesome House: Office

Excuse me, it's actually the office/sewing/art studio. Officially the "second master bedroom" because it has a walk-in closet (storage, laaaaah!) and private bathroom, we opted to NOT put the girls in here because it's directly above our bedroom. And with hardwood floors, you hear every little sound and we knew we'd regret it. So the girls are sharing a smaller bedroom and this corner of the house has become my haven.

First, we had to paint it. It was a light orange that I couldn't live with. Nothing a little Benjamin Moore "Patriotic White" couldn't fix. Now it's a lovely serene light blue.Next, the IKEA unit. I love these pieces from the EXPEDIT line. An afternoon of assembly, and several evenings in front of the TV putting the drawers together has given us this masterpiece:
It's a dream come true; after years of poring and drooling over organization spreads in Real Simple, I finally have all my office, sewing and arts & crafts supplies in ONE place! And sometimes I can even remember where I put everything.

Here is where the kids can play. Drawing, playdoh, and games are kept up here. Notice the area rug separates Mommy's area from the kids'. This is awesome because when I'm on the computer and the girls want to be near me they can do something this table instead of trying to climb on my lap. Not that they don't still, but there are other options to offer them now. And the window nook is the perfect size to stow the easel when it's not being used. Did you see the magnetic paint above the kids' table? It's magnetic primer. It smells foul, splatters like crazy, and it took about 5 coats to get a weak hold. Regular magnets still slid off so I got these mega strong magnets from Amazon to do the trick. It was a fun experiment but I'm not sure I'd do it again.
So now as you read, you can picture me blogging at my desk while the girls roll playdoh or play Memory in our sweet office suite in MY AWESOME HOUSE.

My Awesome House: Downstairs Paint Job

Huh. The summer seems to be getting away from me, on so many fronts. The house is just one of them. But it's a big one. And it's not just the all-consuming painting and unpacking anymore; now that we've been here about 6 weeks it's also trying to keep the monster clean, and trying to find things again once I've found a place for them. Takes all my time.

Painting the downstairs was down on the priority list, after painting several other rooms and getting some things fixed. But I spend most of my time downstairs in the kitchen/dining/living room, and the colors were getting to me. The dining room has a chair rail trim - above was crayon orange, below was tan with white frame trim. The living room was a peachy peach that was so-so in the daytime but really offensive at night with the lights on.

I had no idea what palette to choose. Warm? Cool? Blues? Golds? I'm not down with red, and I was tired of orange. My default is to lean towards earthy stuff - brown? Green? I'll spare you the tortuous play-by-play of the decision process, but after about seven or eight samples and still no progress, my sister Maren marched me over to Home Depot where she efficiently walked me through to a decision, and it was done. Here's what I did last week.

Dining Room
BEFORE (with samples)

Primed
Trim being painted

AFTER

AFTER (with furniture, with light on and off)

Big change, whaddaya think? On top is Desert Moss, bottom is Willow Herb, both Behr colors. (Two different people with good taste told me it's tacky to paint trim in a room like this a different color - the entire lower half should all be one color - so I did the frames the same as the Willow Herb wall. I left the baseboard and chair rail white because the big window frame is white; not sure if I'll leave them or paint them.) I like it; I have a thing currently for yellowy greens. But this exercise showed me how easy the dining room is to paint, so I expect I'll change it again whenever I want.

The kitchen is in the middle - didn't do anything there yet. The living room is in the back of the house, and I went with the same colors.

Living Room

BEFORE (with samples)

AFTER

Back wall behind couch is Desert Moss; other two walls are Willow Herb. The wall to the right in the above picture is a built-in bookshelf and all brick to the kitchen so there's nothing to paint there.

We're having about 100 people to a housewarming party this weekend so I wanted to get it painted before that. I think pictures on the walls, new curtains and for that matter new furniture would complete the look, but one thing at a time. For now I'm enjoying the paint.