I'm a crafty lady

I've mentioned before that, due to the sudden and unexpected passing of our kitty cat, Mugsy, this summer, The Boy got his own room. When The Cat was alive, he had his own room. There were lots of reasons for this, but suffice it to say that I certainly did not want either of my children sharing a room with him. So, the plan was that J wouldn't need a room until he was ready to sleep in his crib (as opposed to sleeping in the bassinet right next to my side of the bed, as he does now). And when he was ready for the crib, we'd put it up in Sofia's room and they would share. And then one day (a Wednesday in late June, I believe), Mugs got sick, and by the following Tuesday, he was gone. It was awful. Todd gave me Mugsy as a kitten shortly after we got engaged, 11 years ago. He was our first child and we loved him lots (although I do admit I had become more than a little impatient with him). I hope to post a picture or two of him someday...it's been on my to-do list forever, but I gotta scan in some photos. He was a kitten before digital cameras were around (now that makes me feel old!).

ANYWAY...back to me bein' crafty. So after the kitty was gone, there was a free room for The Boy. Except that Mugsy did share his room with me and my sewing stuff. And since a little boy doesn't need all that much room (right?), I decided to combine his room and my sewing room. Oh my gosh, I'm really rambling here. Okay, when I started sewing, my dad brought me this:


It's my Nana's sewing table. She passed away several years ago, but my Papa apparently had this still hanging around, and I'm SO glad he did! I have been happily sewing away on this table for the last year and a half or so. But when I was combining the sewing room with J's room, I realized that the table needed a little sprucing up. My dad says he remembers this table from when he was little, so it's probably 30 or 40 years old. About time for a makeover, wouldn't you say? So after a little online research, I found some inspiration here and here. I got me some gift wrap from Hallmark, a tub of Mod Podge, orange ribbon and some spray paint and here's what I ended up with:




I'm really happy with the way this turned out. It's super cute (just don't look too closely or you'll see lots of wrinkles in the paper...I need to get one of those rolly wrinkle remover tools - but FYI, the pic above was taken before the last coat of MP had been applied and it definitely gets less wrinkley after it's dry, I was just being impatient and didn't want to wait), but it's not quite done. I need to put on another coat of glossy Mod Podge and I need to try to find some little rubber feet for the metal legs. I also need to get a chair (I've been using a big black fake leather desk chair that is not working at all). But it looks a lot better in J's room. Next project up: a table skirt for my craft/cutting table. Fun times, people, fun times.

I'm baaaaaaaaaaaack

As you might have noticed over the past few days, after what was basically a 9-month hiatus, I'm ready to return to the blogging world. And after lots of thought, I've decided that I'm going back to my roots. When I first started this blog, I wrote as if I was writing in a journal because I knew no one was reading it. I didn't have to worry about hurting feelings or offending anyone. I didn't think twice about being completely honest. And then I decided to start telling people about my little blog. I think my main reason for making this decision was that I thought if people could see the *real* me, they might understand me better. You see, I have this problem with my face. I don't smile enough. I also have this problem with my attitude. I'm an introvert. So when you add those two things together, you have a girl who gives the impression of not being very nice. But I am nice! I'm not sticky-sweet nice. I don't gush over people and I don't fall in love with every single person I meet. But I am nice. Most of the time. So yeah, I started telling people about my blog so that they might understand me better. And also cuz I like to share stuff. Like this and this and this.

After I started to tell people about my little bloggy, they actually started reading it. And I started to get nervous. What if it was *too* honest? Or opinionated? And then one day, a family member told me that another family member's feelings were hurt by something I posted. And that's when I stopped writing what I like to call "the real stuff" and started writing "fluff". It has never been my intent to hurt anyone with what I write. I believe that honesty is important (and rare). I would rather have someone be honest and tell me my shirt makes me look fat than have someone lie and tell me I look great. As long as it's *honesty* and not *malice*, I'm happy (well, happy might be a stretch if you're telling me I look fat, but I promise, I'll get over it).

So now I'm ready to accept that sometimes someone might be hurt, but because it is not ever my intention to cause pain, I am going to return to my original style of blogging. And if you're reading this, then in the future you will know that if I write something that hurts you, or bothers you, or you disagree with, it is not my intention. And if (when) it does happen, just tell me! If I've hurt you or offended you, I want to know and I want to apologize. So please give me that opportunity. And if you disagree with me, let's chat. I *LOVE* a good discussion and I really truly believe that when open-minded people engage in honest, respectful discussion, good things happen. So let's get on with it then, shall we? More of the real stuff coming soon, with some lovely fluff mixed in for good measure.

Sewing Machine

In the 2 months or so before J was born, I was a sewing machine. Or rather, I used my sewing machine a lot. It was so nice not to have the distraction of the television. I am sad it is back and I would give it up permanently in a heartbeat. Anyhoo...back to me being a sewing machine. I could not find any boy crib bedding that I liked that wasn't hundreds of dollars, so I made my own. The crib sheet was super easy. I used the pattern from Amy Butler's Little Stitches for Little Ones book. I don't know if you can really call it a pattern...all you do is use the width of the fabric, cut out squares at each corner, sew them together, throw in some elastic around the short edges, and hem it all up. Here's how it turned out.

another photo from jan

I freakin' love this fabric. Love it. LOVE. IT. I can't remember the name, but it's from the Lizzy House Red Letter Day line and I can no longer find it anywhere. I wish I had bought like 25 yards of the stuff. It's so great.

I also made a crib skirt out of super cheap fabric I got from (gasp) Wal-Mart. I used another pattern from AB's Little Stitches book. It was also super easy and turned out nicely. I like this skirt cuz it has a nice tailored look. No ruffles or frills for The Boy.

click the pic to make it larger!

I also made the "wall art" from Lizzy House Red Letter Day fabric. Look at me bein' all crafty. And thanks, Jan, for taking some pics of The Boy's room!

I finally finished S's room and will post some pics of that soon. I really love her room and contemplate moving myself in there just about every day.

J + S

I was all set to do my first Not Me! Monday since J arrived on the scene, but with sweet baby Stellan in the hospital again (please pray for him!), NMM is off today (but feel free to read some oldies but goodies if you're bored and don't mind TMI!). So, I thought I'd share something else instead. For your viewing pleasure, here are some of the gorgeous photos my friend Jan took of S and J when J was a week old. Enjoy!

my sweet little girl...todd has started calling her "little did" (you know, cuz I'm katidid)

i love how you can see his little hand in this one



i think S is a little jealous of J sleeping in her crib



sweet baby boy



future photographer?


You may remember when my friend Heidi took photos of S a little over a year ago. I'm so lucky to have several friends who are professional photographers (in fact, here's another one...my friend and neighbor, Kami). They are all so uniquely talented...I love to see their different styles and methods as they photograph the people I love.

Dark & Light

Today as I was putting away laundry, I had a revelation that I just had to share (I am being sarcastic here, but how in the world do you get sarcasm to come across when blogging? clearly I am not the writer I thought I was...). Anyhoo...I put away one load of lights and one load of darks. And guess what I noticed? 99% of the lights were Todd's clothes. And 99% of the darks were mine. And as I was hanging up yet another black shirt on my side of the closet, I started to wonder if the choices we make in clothing can be that telling of our personalities? I would say that Todd is definitely the "light" and I am the "dark" in our relationship. He is a happy, positive, glass is half full kind of guy, you know, the sort of personality traits one might assign to "light". And I'm, well, quite the opposite. As I've mentioned before, I consider my perspective to be more of a realistic one (rather than referring to myself as negative). But still, it's interesting, no?

I wonder if I should do an experiment where I force myself to wear light colors for a week or a month and see if my disposition becomes sunnier. But, my argument is that I wear dark colors because they are slimming, not because I'm a grump. And if I wear light colors, I will be exposing all of my dirty little (body) secrets, which would make me even grumpier, right? (I can hear it now, "Gasp! Kati doesn't have a stomach-of-steel after all! She actually could stand in for the Pillsbury Dough Boy if he got H1N1 and couldn't make it to the filming of a Crescent Roll shoot!"...again, with the sarcasm...could you tell I was being sarcastic? Clearly no one has ever mistakenly thought I had abs of steel, except for in this one recurring dream I have, but that's a story for another day.)

Maybe after I lose the rest of my baby weight, I will try it. But for now, I will continue to haunt the town in my vampire-esque dark clothing, which I have embraced as much as I have my realistic attitude.

Ahem

Darlings, just because my recent labor was *only* 3 hours, and just because I pushed *only* 3 times DOES NOT MEAN IT WAS EASY.

That's all.

Love, Kati

The Boy is Here

Say hello to Julian Steven Max Sieger

He arrived on Friday, September 18 at 7:57am. It was a very fast (just over 3 hours), very intense labor. Having been through one long labor, I had said a few times that I was jealous of women whose labors were fast. Now that I've been there, I'm not so sure which I'd prefer (as if you get to choose!)...both are difficult in their own ways. In any case, Baby J is here. He was nameless until late Monday evening before we finally settled on the one first name that has been on our list since before we knew he was a boy. He weighed 7 pounds, 1 ounce, was 19.5 inches long and is just about as perfect as they come. We're all doing well and S absolutely adores him.