The Fourth First Birthday

I can hardly believe that a whole year has gone by since this little guy joined us. Such a year! Matthew got a special treat for his first birthday - snow!  We are spending TG week here at my folks' house and we woke up on Sunday to a quite respectable snowfall! This is the first snow any of my kids have seen, or remembered, since Amy was three and William only a baby during our last real winter. They were all so excited! It made the day extra-special. 

Of course we traveled without any snow gear, so everyone got chilly pretty quick, but Matthew was suitably impressed with the whole experience. 

I made a carrot cake, which he loved. My brother added the Little Person on top. 

First birthdays have always felt for me, the parent, as a "phew, we made it!" sort of milestone. The hard work of parenting has really only just begun, but I can say we survived our first year with four. Matthew may be quite a little fellow, but he's been walking for months and is well on his way to keeping up with everyone. He is such a lovey, cuddly, sweet, goofy, busy boy. The big kids dote on him and are enchanted with his every accomplishment. We are so blessed to have him in our family. Happy Birthday, my boy! 

Amy's Bedroom Makeover

Ah, was hoping to get to this earlier in the week but alas! the election! Such excitement. Feeling thankful this week, and wishing I could make everyone feel as positive and hopeful as I do. Buuuut that's not my department, so instead I'll show before and afters of Amy's room. A few weeks ago she went on her first real sleepover with friends and with her birthday coming up, too, it seemed like the perfect occasion to empty her room for a weekend and start fresh. Like most of the house, there was nothing too wrong with the paint color, but her room had clearly suffered the most wear in terms of scuffs and nail holes. Also, we've been carting around the antique Jenny Lind bed frame that belonged to my great-grandparents for years now, and it seemed fitting that it get put to use in my eldest's room. So, here's where we started: 

My usual helpers were on hand at the start of the painting. 

I started off with Benjamin Moore's "Gray Owl", which is number 52 below. It looked great, but as I started the second cost I realized that I wasn't going to have enough, so I got the crazy idea to do two walls in a darker color. I chose "Timber Wolf" and ran out for another gallon. At first I was afraid I had gone too dark, but after the colors cured up a bit it looks perfect. They are both a bit cooler than this photo below represents. I think I'll use Gray Owl again in Caroline's room; it really is a lovely gray. 

For the new full bed I ordered a mattress and boxspring off amazon. Awesome! The mattress came in a very small box but unrolled and poofed up just as advertised. 

Amy knew about the paint of course but I was able to surprise her with the bed and some other new art and accessories by doing one furious transformation day while she was at school. She was so pleased! 

The white trim makes all the difference, I think, tedious as it is to do. I'm so pleased with how it all turned out! Caroline's room is next, though I'm not sure I have it in me to pull that off before Christmas. I want to continue the trim painting downstairs as well and redo the powder room. Lots of projects in the homeowner's queue! 

Nine, Horsing Around

It must be around this age, fourth grade or so, where a Mom stops aging - my own nine seems so very recent, and I can't quite make it seem (in my own head) like I'm old enough to have a nine-year-old myself. And yet, here she is:

She's smart and confident and polite and all those good things. She has a few kinks to work out, too. She's an awesome big sister, a fantastic optimist, and endlessly adaptable. She'll be a great leader some day. She and I are very different and yet each day I see some part of myself in her. She's the trail blazer, and during this past year that I've spent with my fourth baby I've realized just how much I didn't know in Amy's early years. God bless her for putting up with me. 

This was a very busy weekend for us all, as we had a good old fashioned girls-from-class birthday party here at the house for her on Saturday. Craft, cake, and then they all went outside to play in the leaf pile. Fairly painless, and Amy was delighted. 

In an amazing coincidence Amy shares her birthday with new BFF and neighbor, and today was her friend's party. So we spent the afternoon at the barn for Amy's first true horse experience. Matthew came too and also fell deeply in love with the horses. Don took W and C to the aquarium and we all met back later for presents and dinner at home. It was a very memorable day! 

(PS no Matthew did not get his fingers bitten and yes he has a horrible-looking scrape on his nose. It wasn't really that bad; just a poor decision on the concrete stoop. However, I could pay for preschool if I charged for the number of times I've told that story in the last three days.) 

Stay tuned, I want to share about Amy's "present" - her room makeover. This week I promise! 

Halloween

This might have been my favorite Halloween yet, because I didn't have to do a thing for anyone's costume besides rescue and re-tape a cardboard box from the recycling bin. That would be for William's "Enderman" outfit, a figure from Minecraft, which the older kids have had a fleeting obsession with. The only flaw was low visibility from the box, so he did most of his trick-or-treating headless. Amy was very secretive about her costume, making her decision several weeks ago but giving no clues besides finding everything wearable that was blue. She was a Navidian (Dividian?) from Star Trek... She doesn't watch Star Trek, but somehow in her passing exposure to the show she picked out this race of creature as something worth dressing as. Caroline was delighted to wear her "cat costume" consisting of the black ears and tail she has been wearing just about every day for a month now anyway. She was so in to the whole trick-or-treating concept this year, racing along with the big kids and all their friends and declaring to me in joy and disbelief after every house, "I got another piece of candy!!"  Matthew started off in a nap, but woke up happily dressed in the cozy warm raccoon jacket costume I picked up at Goodwill years ago for just a couple of dollars, I think. It has been in the closet for ages. He was a great sport. They all were, and I wish I had more and better pictures of each of them in the costumes of their own creation. 

(I gave myself extra points for the fact that there were also raccoons on his blanket.) 

And, as a side note, how fortunate we all feel to be living in a neighborhood so ideal for trick-or-treating. Feeling so blessed in so many ways these days.  

Yarn Season

To pick up where I left off several weeks ago, let's talk about some more projects. Right around the first of October something pinged in my head and I knew it was time to wake up the knitting needles. I have no shortage of projects started, but I haven't touched any of them in quite awhile. Plus, after finally getting my sewing and craft stuff organized I've been forced to confront this rather large bin of leftover or unused yarn. I've been sifting through it over the last several weeks, considering projects different from what I might have intended to use skeins for originally, or ways to combine the leftovers into something pretty or useful. 

So far this season, I'm on a bit of a roll. 

First I wanted to make another helix knit hat. I followed the same general pattern I'd made successfully twice before, this time with leftover purple and pink Red Heart acrylic and presto! A hat for Caroline. 

You can see in the first picture my very not-done to-do list that I was ignoring in favor of some knitting time. In the second picture is the yellow and black helix hat I made for William a few years ago that he still actually wears and likes. Currently I'm whipping through another hat with a different yarn, also from the stash, this time for Amy:3

Might have enough to make a cowl, too. Small projects like this are so fast and satisfying! 

On the opposite side of the speed spectrum is this doozy: 

The beginnings of a attempt to use up all my cheap acrylic afghan yarn once and for all. Working on this project in just a simple giant granny is fun and mindless but gives me some déjà vu because of all the hours I've logged with these colors over the years, in several large-scale projects, most of which were sent off as gifts. Fortunately most of the colors I have on hand work together and go with my living room, so a mix-y, casual blanket to snuggle with should be just right. 

Speaking of the living room, I finally sprung for a rug and end tables and proper lamps, which all together have improved that room tremendously. Here's a quick before and after: 

With these new additions I feel like I finally have a grown up living room. What do you think, should we paint the mantle white?

That's about all I've got for the moment though I hope to keep up the good knitting and crochet momentum; I do love it so and like to report on my projects. I'll sign off with my attempts at catching the autumn beauty going on all around us right now. It's just amazing, especially after being away from New England for so long.  

Hope you all have had many beautiful moments in your week, too! Back soon! 

Small Projects

Slowly but surely little (and big) projects are being completed around here. Caroline is my super-helper, and she had quite a hand in the painting and staining of the pieces in this post. 

Over the summer I picked up a 1960s ugly but functional dresser from a trendy little thrift store. Somewhere I have a Before picture but I can't put my finger on it. You can imagine I'm sure. I tried Rustoleum's "chalked" paint on this, since the whole chalk paint idea is good for low-prep and high coverage. The color was off the shelf "serenity" and I used their recommended matte varnish over top. The paint was a little drippy, but covered well, and the varnish was a little bubbly, but in the end I love how it turned out and I think it will be quite serviceable. 

For now this dresser is hanging out in my sewing space, holding fabric and other supplies. Since taking this picture Don and I removed the kitchen cabinet from the wall. Not as useful as it might seem. This corner of our finished basement is the last stronghold of chaos in the house - it's been the home for everything that hasn't otherwise found a home. This week Caroline and I have been spending our mornings trying to organize it all into something much less cluttered. It's looking better now; I hope I can show you a more finished area soon. 

Next up my lovely assistant models the completed bench in the completed front entry! I am SO proud of this project because it took our entry from a scuffed up wall and a lot of shoes (again, I need the before picture!) into a really lovely first impression when you come in the front door. 

Don and I built the black shelf on the wall, installed the beadboard and chair rail (I had already painted) and made the bench. We are feeling pretty pumped about out combined carpentry skills! It all warrants more detail. I'm going to try to get pictures better organized onto my computer soon and then will be back to fill in the details on this all and other adventures in homeownership! 

A Bench

Just popping in real quick to show you what we did with our Saturday. 

Ta-da!

We will be sanding and staining tomorrow. Will show you it in place when it's all done!