Another project?

Even though I’ve just barely started on Noah’s play kitchen (right now it is primed), I’ve decided to start my first big upholstery project while I’m 23 weeks pregnant. Maybe being pregnant will give me the motivation to finish this project or maybe it will make me fall apart when something goes wrong … we’ll see.

I bought this chair for $20; it is falling apart and desperately needs new fabric. It’s a well worn La-Z-Boy recliner (new model found here).

The reclining part of the recliner is in the worst shape (but probably the easiest part of the upholstery job) I’ll need to replace the foam here as well.

While Googling how to do this project on my own, the best part of any post seemed to be what they found in the recliner … and I feel like my find is pretty amazing!! Cingular hasn’t been around since 2007!

 

My plan:

• Remove the back from the chair (need Jake’s help since it’s mechanically attached)
• Take apart the entire chair following this tutorial – I estimate that I need between 4 and 5 yards of fabric so I’m going to go with 6 just to be on the safe side
• Recover with fabric — Joann’s is having a sale this week. I’m thinking a solid textured fabric to go with our striped rug and the other color things in our living room
• Possibly sand and stain the wood a mahogany color

Playing in the window on a rainy day

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ZIPPERS!

Something that I inherited for my mom is a love of bags — any bag — all bags. Neither of us can have enough purses, reusable grocery bags, drawstring bags, tote bags, corporate bags (the kind you get at conferences), and zippered pouches. My preferences tend to run on the pricier side of things like this Tory Burch tote but I also like making my own small accessories. I can only assume that an additional baby is going to add at least twice as much to my diaper bag and I need some bags in the bag to help me stay organized.

I ordered a 50 pack of zippers off of Amazon (think of all the bags!!!!!!). They accidentally sent me the multicolor pack so they are sending me the correct pack and letting me keep the others (100 zippers!!! I’ll be drowning in pouches).

This afternoon I started on my pouch making adventure – and I feel like I should go out and buy Katie No-Pocket to read to Noah. Anyone remember this book? It’s probably where my addiction started.

 

I’ve decided to do various sizes of pouches for my purse: diapers, change of cloths, snack, toys, and toiletries. The most exciting (and terrifying) moment when you are making a lined zipper pouch is when you turn it right side out. There’s a moment of panic where I think I didn’t something wrong and then all of a sudden it’s perfect! Here’s the one I made today:

The whale fabric is a remnant from Joann’s and the darker blue fabric is actually from my mom’s boss (she gave me a TON of quilting fabric that belonged to her mother). It’s the perfect fit for two diapers — one for Noah and one for baby brother. I’m going to have two “diaper changing” bags in my purse so I don’t have to open two different bags when I change their diapers. If I had been super smart I would have made these wet bags so that the dirty diapers can replace the clean ones.

 

Noah’s first gummies

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Our chatty boy

I feel like Noah went from just a couple words (momma, dadda, and no) to a bunch!! When he said “book” out of the blue this morning I realized that I should be keeping track of words that he has said.

First words:

• momma
• dadda
• no
• ball

More recent words:

• stop
• hot
• mall
• boat
• book
• cat
• woof (meaning dog)
• boom
• truck
• milk
• this
• uh-oh
• yeah / yes
• please
• more
• walk
• car
• up
• brush
• eyes (while poking you in the eye)
• bowl
• go
• woah (any time he sees a really big truck)
• fries

More difficult “words” (2 or more syllables):

• water
• airplane
• watermelon
• blueberry
• “all done” & “all gone”
• baby
• happy

Let’s go to the mall!

I had a couple returns to make at the mall so Noah and I went to Burlington in the morning and ended up eating lunch at Chick Fil A.

Recently Noah has been chewing food and then spitting it back out … watermelon, meatballs, blueberries, cheese … gross. I hoped that chicken nuggets with some ketchup would solve this problem but no, he just used the nuggets to eat the ketchup. And the fries, he wouldn’t touch them; I don’t think that he believed me when I told him they were fries!

Right now Anthropologie is taking an extra 20% off their clearance — I found a very cute Euro sham for my downstairs square pillow! (Jake uses it to rest his feet on the coffee table when we are watching TV.) $4!!!!! I don’t even think I could find a deal that good at a thrift store.

 

Belly update: Reached the half-way point. I’m about 5-7 lbs up from my pre-pregnancy weight (I was at about 10-15 lbs up at this same point with Noah). Lots of little kicks and jabs but they happen randomly throughout the day. My next appointment isn’t for another week or two.

 

 

Noah is getting a …

… baby brother!!

 

While I was looking forward to the possibility of buying pink/purple things … we are so excited to have another boy. Noah is going to love playing with his little brother and we already have everything we need (this baby is already thrifty!). Jake and I haven’t decided on a name yet — we have a list of about 10 going right now.

The End of Days

…. Noah can climb out of his crib on his own.

Repairing a repair in a pair of Jeans

I have owned lots of nice pairs of jeans over the years: Lucky, Joe’s, Seven, COH, AG…and none of them were purchased new. For some reason I always manage to find nice jeans at the thrift store for only a few bucks. The downside is that these jeans are always in best shape but I’m willing to deal with it to save $100 or more. My most recent jean purchase was a pair of Seven maternity jeans (yes, they make those) and they are by far the most comfortable pants I have ever worn. Last fall I found a pair of COH jeans during a bag sale so they probably cost about $.67 with all of the other goodies I tossed in the bag. These jeans have seen a lot; the hem had been modified to make it shorter and a large tear in the back had been professionally repaired. Back at Christmas I wore the jeans and while bending over ripped the same spot again and the jeans have been sitting in my sewing project pile ever since. I haven’t been able to do too many large sewing projects so I figured I could make this a 5-minute project after Noah went to bed. I only reopened a small part of the original hole but I wanted to reinforce the entire thing so that it wouldn’t happen again! Yes, I keep scrap denim….I think these are from an old pair of Jake’s work pants. Next up I cut and sergered my patch of denim. It’s not important that it’s a different wash since so little of the fabric would peak through but I wouldn’t want to use a brightly colored fabric. It’s kind of difficult to see in this shot but instead of using my sewing machine to attach this patch (I don’t want any additional thread showing on the outside) I used stitch witchery instead.   Pressed the two pieces together and jeans are done!!   Really….5 minutes. Why didn’t I do this 6 months ago? (The other motivation for fixing these jeans is that they are one of my looser fitting jeans so my pregnant hips/butt/thighs will appreciate the breathing room.)

Maryland and Delaware Vacation

Jake’s brother graduated from USNA this year so we made the trip down to Annapolis to spend a few days there and then joined his family afterward for a few days at the beach. Noah was basically a wreck the entire week until we discovered that he had cut 3 molars while we were there! (I think he cut all 4 but he won’t let us look in his mouth.)

Here are a few pictures from our week “down south”.

Uncle Greg graduating!

13/14 weeks at the Color Parade

Super hot/sunny at the Color Parade

Walking in from the beach

Very excited about the beach

Getting ready for bed!