Out of Town

We just got back from North Carolina to visit the in-laws.  I don't know how I always end up having to go back to the south in the summer.  It does not agree with me and I always swear I won't do it again, and yet that's when we always have to go.

This time I spent the first 36 hours there with a killer migraine and nothing would touch it.  Finally, I found a acupuncturist who was open on a Saturday and took pity on me.  He was wonderful and even did some points on my hand in the waiting room while we waited for a room to open up.  At the end of the hour I felt almost totally better.

It was a fine trip and Addy loved seeing her Maia and Pop-pop and cousin and aunts and uncles.  One thing's for sure, though, we will not be moving to Raleigh any time soon.  It's suburban sprawl at its worst.

Tonight I'll try to get back to regularly scheduled programming, but in the mean time I have a house to get back in order and an almost two year old who is way into potty training.  :)

Busy Day

Sorry I missed my post yesterday, I had a bunch of little things going on all day.

I had a substitute midwife coming over with my usual midwife's apprentice in the morning for a prenatal checkup.  This was the first appointment where Addy was present and she was very interested in the ladies checking on Ollie.  She kept signing and saying "nurse" when they checked my pulse, which is the ASL sign for "nurse" and "doctor".  She was also very interested in the fetoscope.  Everything is good with Ollie; heartbeat is just right, lots of squirming when she probed my uterus, and I'm measuring exactly right. Yay!  

Before the midwives got here, I got all the daily cleaning done.  Addy also helped with that, particularly dusting with the feather duster and sweeping with her broom, which usually entails spreading the pile I just made, but she loves to help.

After lunch, I drove down to our old neighborhood to go grocery shopping at our old market, Golden Natural Foods.  I have really missed it and it was so nice to walk in and have the owner, Sally, look genuinely happy to see me and start talking.  We lived next door to their little store, Golden Produce, for five years and were in there at least once a day for the full five years, so we know each other pretty well at this point. She and her mother and other family members saw know our mothers and saw Addy grow up for her first year and a half.  It felt like going home doing my shopping there again.  Plus, the quality is very good and the prices are very competitive.  I'll be driving down there a lot more, I think.  It was kind of weird walking down the street with my bags toward our old apartment; it felt like I had never left.  I love our new place, but it made me kind of sad because it felt so comfortable and I kind of miss the old neighborhood.

Then I took Addy to the park across the street from our new place, and she had fun.

I'll do a post on my dinners made from that shopping trip a little later, once I upload the pictures.  They were excellent.  

Maternity Clothes

In real life, I get most of my "maternity" clothes from places like H&M and Target because I really don't want to spend a lot of money on clothes I'm just going to wear for a few months.  The nice thing about H&M is that they have a lot of very long, drapey tops and sweaters that fit over the belly but work afterwards as well since they aren't actually maternity.  They also tend to be more fashion forward.  

I did splurge this time around on a pair of Maternal America skinny jeans.  The last time I was pregnant (just two years ago) you couldn't find a pair of non-bootcut or flare maternity jeans and I ended up with a pair of trouser cut with a full panel that cut into my belly at a weird point.  I didn't like them (even though I am wearing them occasionally again, but I roll down the waist band).  Anyway, the MAs are much nicer with the low panel.  

The thing I've really been looking for these days is some outer wear since it has been abnormally cold all summer and my trusty hoodie no longer zips up over my belly.  I've been tempted by She-bible, especially since their little store is right around the corner from my house.  These two are tempting, but kind of pricey.  I wonder if I could really work it, though.  Even though I've lived here for eight and a half years, I've yet to really master the Northern California relaxed sporty-stylish look.  I always feel sloppy and frumpy when I try.  

                           

On the other hand, these do look very cozy and would fit over my belly.  I'm so glad I don't get that big and can wear regular clothes for the whole nine months.  And I do need to work on developing a real coat/jacket wardrobe.  I'm always frustrated with my outer wear choices, but find it difficult to spend the money on good stuff that I would be happy with for more than one season.  Hmmm.

Bedroom, Before

Well, it's not totally "before", since I really cleaned it up and got all of the boxes that had been there since April out just last week.  That disaster would have been the true "before", but this is close enough. 

The piece of wood in front of the window is the soon-to-be headboard.  I have all of the supplies, I just need to assemble.  It's going to be your basic DIY padded headboard covered with grey Ikea fabric.  And yes, that is a dry erase board acting as a headboard right now, but it will go down to the garage when I make the new one.  

I'm hoping that grey curtains will dress up the long wall, as well as block the morning sun and the very bright street light across the street.  We have pull down accordian shades, but the transom above still lets in light.

The little stack by the dresser are the new sconces to go over the bed as well as more supplies for the headboard.  I feel like there needs to be some art over this dresser, but in the short term, the new baby's changing table with a shelf will be going here, probably, so I don't want to hang anything yet.  

Finally, here's my dresser and my little attempt at a vignette.  I don't like clutter (thus the fairly spare bedroom).  I have two jewelry boxes (and very little jewelry that I actually like and wear, it's all gifts and not to my taste, hmm) and my two favorite photos: one from my wedding day where Tuck and I are both laughing and city hall is behind us across the street and the other of me nursing Addy around her first Christmas when she was 3 1/2 months old.  Then there's the baby monitor and a small fan for when it's warm (which has been all of two times this summer.)  I'm probably going to move the table lamp that is currently next to my side of the bed over to this dresser when the sconces get mounted.  The poster is an Anselm Kiefer, an artist that Tuck and I really liked when we saw a lot of his stuff in Bilbao on our honeymoon.  This one is from SFMoMA, though, they didn't have a post of our favorite painting at the Guggenheim Bilbao.

Here's my weird mock-up from Polyvore, I'm working on getting it to show up in the blog, but I'm not there yet.

So, non-existent readers, any advice?

The First

How many times have I started a blog?  At least three or four, and yet here I am starting another one.  We'll see if it takes off.  I do have several projects in the works and it would be nice to document them, at least for myself, but also for anyone else who may be interested.

Project #1:  new baby due at the end of November.  It's amazing how much less planning and research the second one takes, and thus it is not dominating all of my waking thoughts like Addy did, but I think that may change as the third trimester approaches.

Project #2:  longer term, I'm working on getting our flat decorated so that I'm happy with it and it looks cohesive and finished.  I'm tired of hodge-podge, random decor.  The first room I'm actively working on is our bedroom, so I'll post pictures of that soon.

Project #3:  I'm trying to take a class this fall on furniture making at City College.  It's something I wanted to do years ago, going so far as to major in Furniture Design at art school for all of two semesters. We never got around to actually working on furniture, it was all foundational coursework, but I'm hoping to pick it up again, especially now that I have space in a garage to set up a workshop.

Project #4:  Addy's 2nd Birthday party.  The theme is dots; she's obsessed.

Then we have the fall holidays (my favorites), regular cooking and baking, and other ideas that cross my mind.

Oh, and we're starting the preschool process.  We have one open house scheduled, but I need to start contacting the others.  I guess this is practice for the Elementary School process.  SF is not always easy, but it's totally worth it.

Talk to you soon!