Birthday countdown!

Posted on April 26, 2010 by BeSquirrely

Happy Monday to you, lovelies. A bit scattered and restless (yet sleep-deprived) in our nest today. How ’bout with you? Did you have a good weekend?

’tis less than a month until our sweet little birdie turns one, woot woot! And I’ve been thinking a lot about her birthday, her party, this past year… whew. Chris and I keep mentioning how it’s so strange that the time with a baby is oh-so-ultra-vivid and amazing to us and yet she won’t remember a minute of it. Humans, you are so strange and perplexing. Oh! Here’s something silly about little humans that I wanted to share with you too. I better write it down now before I forget… It’s funny how so many little kids have said that Wren is still zero until she’s a year old. I want to get inside their heads. These are the same kids who say they are four and three quarters, thank you very much. Or five and one half. Since when did children become so exact? Love those little people and their big ideas, don’t you?

I’m thrilled to report that I was able to check one thing off my birthday party list. I finished the birthday banner! I had been pondering it for a while and finally got around to doing something about it. Actually, I owe it to my friend, Linda, because she suggested that we have a birthday banner day and work on them together. Brilliant! If it hadn’t been for that kind of deadline, I’d probably still be sewing the damn thing heirlooom a few hours before the little birdie’s party. And, you know what? I’m really happy with how it turned out. There are some things I would do differently next time around, but overall (don’t look too closely…), I think it’s lovely and I’m proud to hang it up in our nest.

Next? Invitations. Against my inner procrastinator’s wishes, I’m loosely following Martha’s party-planning timeline. And I’m already a tiny bit behind, but hey, I’m no Martha. I have a love/hate relationship with Martha, but I’ll save that drivel for a future post… I digress.

Speaking (err, writing) of invitations. I HATE e-vites. Yes, they’re eco-friendly, cheap, easy and everyone uses e-mail, blah blah. But I love getting a real invitation via snail mail, don’t you? I want to feel it and post it up and look at its loveliness every time I pass by it. And RSVP the host and the whole tradition of it all. You? So anyway, that’s next on my list. I’ll work on the design sometime this week and hope to pop them in the mail the first week of May (or so.) That’s optimistic, Pollyanna me talking. I’ll let you know how that goes… If it’s anything like my own wedding invitations, which I designed and hand-letterpress printed (a former life of mine), they didn’t make it in the mail until a couple weeks before the event. Oops!

Is it too early to worry about the weather for Wren’s party? Sigh. Would you like to be on the weather committee and take care of that for me? Let me know. Thanks.

Have a great day, dear readers. I’m off to clean up one of the many (many) disaster zones in our nest thanks to the 19 pound teething cyclone…

Best!

Eye candy

Posted on April 17, 2010 by BeSquirrely

Something was needed on the blank wall above the changing table in Wren’s Nest. It was just boring ole ‘Northern Pear Tree’ and begged to have some more eye candy. Plus it’s getting (A LOT) more difficult to change the squirrely babe’s diaper so the more interesting distractions, the better, this Mamma says.

It’s funny from where or what or whom one draws inspiration, isn’t it? If I ever pursue a PhD, my dissertation might just be on the elusive idea of inspiration. But I digress. I found some silver frames at a local consignment shop for about a buck each and they’d been staring at me every time I went down to the basement for at least a few months. Soooo… today I got inspired and I designed and printed some fun Wren pictures. What do you think?

It’s a bit hard to see the details in the picture. Maybe this is better? I put all the designs together for your Saturday afternoon eye candy. I’m really happy with how they came out, if I do say (write) so myself! Enjoy and happy weekend to you, dear readers.

Snippets

Posted on April 16, 2010 by BeSquirrely

Whew, it’s been quite a week in our nest. The little birdie has discovered the joys of mobility and it’s been thrilling and exhausting. She doesn’t “crawl,” but she certainly gets herself around in an efficient way. Chris said yesterday that Wren reminds him of an ant because of her strength to size ratio. (Remember, folks, he’s an engineer.) I have a hard time wrapping my head around the idea of Wren as an ant, but it’s fun to try. Try it!

I was telling a friend yesterday that having a newly mobile baby is like having an entirely new person in the house. She’s lovely and amazing, but I have to rethink my whole *system* because she’s into everything. “Didn’t you know this was coming, Ash?” Yeah, but I really had NO IDEA. Again, I mean well, but what do I know?! Needless to say with these kind of shenanigans, I haven’t been spending much time in Cyberspace this week… but I wanted to give you a little visual snippet of what’s been going on around here. I promise that these snippets will lead to future posts so here’s a snack to whet your appetite. Happy Friday!

Happy Easter! And a bribe.

Posted on April 3, 2010 by BeSquirrely

Happy Easter to you!

I was inspired by this lovely photo and rushed to dye some eggs in a crunchy way before the Easter bunny arrived. Aren’t these colors divine?

So I followed these directions…

How To Make Vegetable-Dyed Eggs

Keep in mind the effect of the dyes varies depending on how concentrated the dye is, what color egg you use, and how long the eggs are immersed in the dye. I used half a purple cabbage, shredded, to dye four eggs. Err on the side of more rather than less when creating your dye.

Hard boiled eggs at room temperature, or white and brown eggs, preferably not super-fresh
Purple cabbage (makes blue on white eggs, green on brown eggs)
Red onion skins (makes lavender or red)
Yellow onion skins (makes orange on white eggs, rusty red on brown eggs)
Ground turmeric (makes yellow)
Red Zinger tea bags (makes lavender)
Beets (makes pink on white eggs, maroon on brown eggs)
Oil (canola or olive)
White vinegar

Clean the eggs so there are no particles sticking to their shells.

To prepare a colored dye, first chop the cabbage, chip or peel away the dry skins from the onions, or shred the beets. In a stainless steel saucepan, boil enough water to generously cover the number of eggs you’ll be dyeing. Add the dye matter and bring to a boil, turn heat down to low and simmer, covered, for 15-30 minutes. Dye is ready when it reaches a hue a few shades darker than you want for your egg. Examine a sample in a white dish. Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature (I put the pot on my fire escape and it cooled off in about 20 minutes).

Pour mixture through a fine-mesh strainer into another stainless saucepan, or into a bowl then back into the original pan if that’s all you have. Stir in the vinegar. For the dyeing, it’s best to use a pan with a flat bottom, like a Dutch oven. Arrange the room-temperature eggs in the pan in one layer and carefully pour the cooled dye over them.

Place in refrigerator until desired color is reached. Massage in a little oil to each, then polish with a paper towel. Keep in refrigerator until time to eat (or hide.)

And of course I tweaked these directions and used what natural things I had around – some green tea, some other fruity herbal tea, a bit of raspberry juice and some turmeric. Looks pretty good so far, right?

Well, here they are. I’m a bit disappointed because they don’t quite look like the inspirational photo, but they’re growing on me. It’s just that I’m not really a pastel kind of a girl. Sigh. There’s always Photoshop!

So for a bit of fun after a bit of disappointment, I decided to start a new Easter tradition. I had the ingredients already, but I just hadn’t quite gotten around to making them. But I needed a good chuckle and I guess I needed a few chemicals too after the crunchy egg dyeing experiment sooooo..

Voila! An orange squirrel on a stick! How’s that for a new Easter tradition?

So here’s the bribe you’ve been waiting for, dear readers. Nothing like a bribe on Easter, eh? The first six people to comment on this post AND let me know what topics you’d like me to explore in future blog posts… that’s right, you guessed it! I’ll send you an orange squirrel on a stick. Note: you WILL be chastised if you ask me what the ingredients are. This is an orange squirrel on a stick; this is not a health food.

Have a wonderful Easter or fun pagan ritual, whatever you choose. Enjoy!

Great reason to write a letter.

Posted on March 31, 2010 by BeSquirrely

I love snail mail, don’t you? Especially when a note is accompanied by a cool stamp. These new Abstract Expressionist stamps had me panting in the post office yesterday. I bought two sets and now I’m wishing I had gotten more. If a visit to your local post office makes you break out in hives, order them online through the USPS site.

psst.

Posted on March 24, 2010 by BeSquirrely

Are you a fan of Lotta Jansdotter? I am a huge fan! I love her work. So I wanted to pass along the news that she’s having a huge sale on her site right now. Check it out here.

I love these linen kid things. Aren’t they great for Easter? AND they’re on sale for $10 right now! Snatch ’em up, folks.

Enjoy!

crunchy eggs.

Posted on March 21, 2010 by BeSquirrely

Bunny on the brain around here. How ’bout in your nest? I’ve been day-dreaming about coloring eggs. Just had to share this lovely photo. If this doesn’t inspire you to grab a dozen and begin your own egg adventure, I’m not sure what will.

This year, I’m going to go crunchy and attempt to dye eggs naturally. Click here to watch a video on how to do it. Or follow these simple instructions for more loveliness in green egg form.

With Bunny on the brain, I checked out Martha’s site on Egg Dyeing 101. As soon as she mentioned finding some quail eggs, I clicked away. The terms ‘101’ and ‘quail eggs’ DO NOT go together, right? Sometimes her ideas really are easy and fabulous, but usually when the header reads “Easter Projects Anyone Can Do!” I cringe. Come on, Martha! Not everyone has a ready supply of quail eggs… or do they?

Will you be dyeing eggs this year? Do you blow them out for future use or do you simply like to put them in Easter baskets and eat them in egg sandwiches for the two weeks that follow Easter? Me? Make them pretty and then eat them. Duh.

Enjoy!

P.S. How ’bout that? Health care for the uninsured after all. Whew!

Wren’s Nest

Posted on March 20, 2010 by BeSquirrely

Happy Spring to you, dear readers! After two weeks of sunny afternoons, 50 and flip-flop sightings, we’re back to 32 and a bit too cloudy on the first official day of Spring. Aaah, Mother Nature, how you love to keep us on our toes. Or curled up in a ball on the couch.

How was your last week of winter? Time zoomed right by in our nest. When I wasn’t taking care of my little birdie, I was focused on ridding 605 of Cabbage Smell and happily finishing Wren’s nest upstairs. It’s been a year and we spend a lot of time in that room (at all hours of the day and night). Please tell me that the following scenario also happens in your nest? You mean to get around to doing something about that dresser (insert your item/nook here) and it nags at you for a while. Then time passes and you just get used to it being in the same old shape/place/state of disarray. You look at it every day and it doesn’t phase you after a while. Then one day it hits you. You just can’t take looking at it anymore! One more day cannot pass. Arrghhh. Impatience and aggravation set in. Must. Do. It. NOW. Oh, human nature, you’re just as odd and beguiling as Mother Nature.

I don’t know about you, but I often need a bit (or A LOT will do too) of external motivation to get me going on something from time to time. Deadlines imposed by someone else are really wonderful. It’s true, I am not an island. So when I heard about the Dwell Studio “How You Dwell” contest, it was just what this Mamma was looking for. Simply take a picture of their products in your home, e-mail them in and they’ll post them on their Facebook page. The photos with the most ‘likes’ by next Friday wins a $1000 shopping spree. Yahoo! Now that’s what I call a good kick in the ass. Insert shameless plug here. Dear readers, please ‘friend’ Dwell Studio on Facebook and vote for Wren’s Nest next week when the voting begins! Did I say “please?” And thank you in advance.

Soooo… here’s the photo tour of Wren’s Nest for you to peruse.

Demolition is fun.

Now doesn’t that look like a space you’d let your newborn sleep and play…? We decided to repaint everything and refinish the floors so things were looking up for our little birdie.

Then we acquired an old dresser from Grandpa Tom. I decided to have some fun with it so I painted the drawer fronts–you guessed it–orange and put in cute-as-a-button green drawer liner. In progress here…

And after a bit more sprucing up and “derranging” as we like to call it… the dresser is finished, things are finally hung and the nest is (mostly) complete. Just in time for Wren’s new phase of development: destruction!

Wren’s Nest Now!

Wren likes her nest so much that she wakes up every 2-3 hours all night long just to see it…

Thanks for touring Wren’s Nest today, dear readers. I hope you enjoyed it. Enjoy the rest of your weekend. Any big plans (fun pagan rituals?) to celebrate the arrival of Spring? Best!

P.S. Big thanks to Dwell Studio (glider, crib sheets, etc…) Don’t forget to ‘friend’ them and vote!

springtime nesting!

Posted on March 15, 2010 by BeSquirrely

Happy Ides of March!? Will you celebrate this festive day with a toga run like they do in the streets of Rome? I’m not so sure that celebrating Mars, the Roman god of war, is a great idea. Did you know that Mars used to be the Roman god of fertility and vegetation? What does that say about the state of humanity that fertility and vegetation got usurped by war when things turned more violent as the folks got greedier and the Roman Empire began to expand? Damn humans.

The Ides of March for me means the anniversary of beginning the nesting process at 605. It’s been a year, yahoo! And what a year it’s been. We are just beginning to feel that the house we live in is our home.

To celebrate, we spent the weekend improving our nest in a big way. As you well know, we’ve been meaning to get the croffice finished for a while now. It was the catch-all junk room/craft room for months (10?) and now it’s the office/craft room=croffice. Almost. We have some more work to do, but we’re thrilled with the progress we made this weekend. Because we moved the office stuff into the croffice, that meant that the sun room/play room could be just that. Thank you, domino effect!

Here are some pics of the progress I feel compelled to share.

Sun room BEFORE:

In progress:

We discovered that the faux wood paneling and two layers of wallpaper were covering real wood paneling. We had a good laugh about that. Funny how trends come full circle. They didn’t want the wood so they painted it then they wanted it again so they brought in the faux wood. What?!