long weekend

Without having to take a picture of my new resin birds, this is the closest I could find to them. We have a "Kirkland's Home" in the new Target plaza, and while they don't offer many shabby or cottage gift items, they do have some garden decor thats very cottagey. I had been looking for some shabby chic style birds to go with my flower arrangements, and they had a set of three garden resin ones with coupon for 9.99. The shapes are similar to the birds above, but, they are more distressed and look almost like they are mossy. They are lovely! Two of them are sitting on my cocktail table in the living room, and the other is in our nearly finished guest bath. This was my one treat for myself this weekend as we are on a budget.

I am exhausted. I refilled my EMLA numbing cream for my tarpal tunnel syndrome (like carpal tunnels, but in the feet) with a generic, and it spreads very thin and doesn't absorb as well. I wasn't able to get to sleep until 3:30 Friday evening (or rather early Saturday morning!) and while Duane attempted to let me sleep that a.m. and feed the twins himself, Tilly is so happy in the mornings and squeals very loudly and I found myself excited to see them even on only 4 hours of sleep. We were supposed to have company so I had planned on a nap- that didn't work out either. Instead I groomed two of our dogs- the shihtzu and the schnauzer, and bathed one other. Duane bathed his schnauzer that I groomed as he is difficult. Our company then called Sunday and asked if we still wanted them to visit if their two year old had vomited three times the night before. I am such a germaphobe- NO WAY! So, Wayne came over and helped Duane decide what we needed to replace on our central air unit, and he ended up having the nice dinner with us that I had hoped to share with his wife and adorable adopted son. I felt silly having such a fancy dinner for Wayne only, but he said he enjoyed it and complimented all the right things!

Here was the menu:

Caribbean grilled pork tenderloin
Roasted corn with cumin and ground red pepper
Red potato and dill potato salad
Mandarin Cake with Pineapple frosting
Sangria (I have my ob's permission to have one glass a week of pure wine, but we make it into a punch to further weaken it just to be extra safe)

Mandarin Orange Cake

INGREDIENTS

* 1 (18.25 ounce) package butter recipe cake mix
* 4 eggs
* 1 cup vegetable oil
* 2 (11 ounce) can mandarin orange segments
* 1 (8 ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed
* 1 (20 ounce) can crushed pineapple with juice
* 1 (3.5 ounce) package instant vanilla pudding mix

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a bundt pan.
2. In a large bowl, combine cake mix, eggs, oil and can of mandarin oranges with juice, drain second can of mandarin oranges and add half of that (reserve second half for topping). Beat until smooth. Pour batter into prepared pan.
3. Bake in the preheated oven for 35 to 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Allow to cool.
4. To make the topping: In a large bowl, beat together pineapple with juice, reserved half can of mandarin oranges and dry pudding mix until blended. Stir in whipped topping. Spread on cake. Serve fully chilled.

(There will be topping left for other cakes or fruit desserts)

This cake is perfect for summer. I posted the recipe as I made it- the original calls for less mandarin oranges and a yellow cake mix made in a 9 by 13 pan. The extra oranges give it a much better flavor, and although omitted from the original frosting, make it taste so much more summery! And why anyone would make such a pretty cake in a 9 by 13 pan is beyond me- it looked gorgeous as a bundt with the topping piled up high on the top and sides. Duane and Wayne each had two large slices after dinner.

After Wayne left the twins went down for a nap, and then that evening we went to our friend Sam and Tonyas home and swam in their pool. That was the best part of the entire weekend. The twins love swimming, and being in the water gave me a nice "anti-gravity" feeling as far as my expanding abdomen. I am carrying about 4 pounds of babies now at 26 weeks 4 days, and approaching the third trimester. In the evenings I feel so awful after dinner from the lack of room for my stomach and uterus in my abdomen to co-exisit, and my pelvis feels like its going to drop right to the floor! Duane has been helping me into bed in the evening, but the mornings aren't hard. Laying on my left side all night takes all the pressure off my cervix and pelvis and then I am back to being able to carry the big twins around during the day. In the evenings now Duane is carrying them for me. We may buy booster seats for their play pin so I can start feeding them in their playpin during the day instead of lifting them in and out. They sure are good little babies... thats why its so important when Duane is home to do lots of extra activities with them, as I am becoming more and more restricted by my abdomen in what I can safely do during the day.

Well, its time for the twinkies to have breakfast, then we are ALL laying down for an a.m. nap!

My twinkies are growing up!

"Events in our lives happen in a sequence in time, but in their significance to ourselves they find their own order the continuous thread of revelation."
~Eudora Welty

It is hard to believe that Lucas and Matilda are now ten months old. They are developing their own personalities, and their own appearances. Lucas is very introspective and likes to see how things work, considering every toy you hand him carefully. Matilda is very affectionate and wants reassurance. She loves to dance and she likes to be the center of attention.



This picture really captures Lucas. He is such a thoughtful little boy!



A rare moment of quiet for Tilly. She was interested in the shrubbery outside the nursery window. Or perhaps shes wondering when we will finish painting the trim!

The rocker they are posing in was my aunts, my mothers, and my sister and I also used it. I had it recovered a few years back in anticipation of my own children using it as well. Three generations of children in my family. I hope the rocker will be used by a fourth generation as well.

hand sachet with lavender

During Lucas and Tilly's second nap today, I became bored and rooted through my minimal craft supplies at this house and decided to make a sachet out of a notecard and some lace and lavender. I think this would be really pretty with some vintage wallpaper, and I have made them out of wallpaper in the past. The only downside is if you want to stitch on some effects, the paper does better if mounted first to cardstock.

I used a french collage notecard, some tea dyed lace I made awhile back, lavender buds, a few voile ribbon roses and some ribbon. I also made the felt pansy a few days ago and my intent had been to use it on the card sachet, but it didn't work out so it awaits another project!

If anyone elaborates on this with vintagey paper and shabby details, can you post me a link to your blog entry? I want to get some more craft items for here, but its hard to replace things I know that are stored in a barn in WV (aren't you tired of hearing that!). I especially miss my rubber stamps. *sniff*

Gardenias and an antique rocker

We haven't stopped working on the bathroom- I hope to have it finished by this coming weekend. Right now we are redoing the vanity. Anyhow, I haven't updated on this project because all thats left are "after" pictures.

We redid the nursery and moved the antique gooseneck rocker from the nursery into a corner of our bedroom. I am not sure how long it will reside in this spot, but thought it would be a nice time to share a picture of it.



I think all of us in the south are currently basking outdoors- and in- the lovely aroma of the gardenia blossom. I prefer mine floating in crystal bowls and have little such floral displays all over our home right now, including the bedroom.




I had my appointment at the new ob's office yesterday. I am now 25 weeks 5 days with twins. Both babies looked good on the u/s and my weight and blood pressure are good so far. I have an appointment with the high risk peri in two weeks to do a growth scan and to monitor my blood thinners. I then will see the ob again and discuss when to schedule the c-section. One twin is head down, the other is very much transverse. I am not even wanting to try vbac with twins!

My MIL babysat yesterday which went pretty well except they didn't eat! They normally take 6 ounces of bottle for lunch, and then two jars of food. I really work with these guys, I know they get distracted and just toss their bottles. She didn't. They didn't eat even an ounce of their formula, and didn't eat their jar food either! They woke up from their naps half starved and very irritable. Oh well. At least she watched them, eh?

more from the victorian home

Answers to a few questions...

Yes! The spring summer bedding is from the "Simply Shabby Chic" line at Target. The guestroom bedding shams and pillows in blues and white were purchased in Chicago at a Shabby Chic boutique, but the shabby chic duvets I have came from Target. I like the simply shabby chic line, it made her bedding much more accessible for me since I do like to change it around.

I didn't make the pillow on the bed- but, I could have... I made the moire hat box beside it, and it has the same details. The pillow came from a vendor who participates in the "yellow daisy" festival at Stone Mountain.

We didn't want to sale the Victorian home- we actually sold the house in Georgia and moved to WV. My husband was commuting back and forth to Atlanta (because engineers in a small WV rural town do not garner the wages they do here in Atlanta) while he tried to find a comparable job in WV. When I reached 19 weeks 5 days with the big twins, I went into preterm labor. My ob at the time was a high school friend and he asked me to quit working ASAP, start terbutaline, and go on bedrest. He saved our pregnancy! The loss of wages was tough, and worse was that I was on bedrest with a husband who was out of town two weeks a month in a very large house that was super creaky at night! Not to mention the nearest hospital didn't have a NICU for preemies... So, we rented a home again in GA to keep our family together, and struggled with the paying rent and a mortgage both on one income- add the twins into the picture and we were living basically hand to mouth... in the end selling the home was a good idea, and we used the equity to put toward our current home when it was sold.

We originally bought the house to have some place to spend the holidays and summers. I did miss how lovely the home decorated at Christmas this past year!

Here are a few pictures- I don't have many of that house on the laptop, most are on my desktop which we haven't set up here yet- keep in mind these pictures were taken our first winter in the house, before it was decorated. Here are two of the fireplaces in the house at Christmas, and a picture of the foyer showing the pretty woodwork. The foyer empire mantel was really breathtaking.

A tale of two bedrooms

A little kingdom I possess, where thoughts and feelings dwell; And very hard the task I find of governing it well.
Louisa May Alcott

I wish I had more home pictures to share, but we are living in half a house- the rest of our home is in a barn West Virgina, being stored after we sold our home there in January.

Here is the home we sold.



A lovely Victorian, but, we no longer had the time to invest in restoring it after the big twins arrived. BTW, the day we closed on the home- January 3rd, I told my husband at the attorneys office that I believed I was pregnant with twins again. He laughed and said not to be silly! I wasn't showing any signs, we weren't trying for a baby, wasn't "late", just picked up an article on Joan Lunden and it was about her having two sets of twins and I had a sense of euphoria and knew I was going to have twins again, too! It was fun to own this home- it was our playhouse and we stayed there over the Holidays and when we visited my family. Homes like this in WV are cheap, cheap, cheap.

But back to my home in Ga...

So, with half my things in a barn in WV, I haven't hung all our pictures, haven't placed all our furniture etc. The living room and dining room are basically complete, but none of the bedrooms or family room are finished. I do, however, have all my bedding with me.

If theres one thing I collect, it would be duvets, quilts, sheets and comforters. I love changing my bedding with the seasons, and love the look of bright colors in the spring, and warm neutrals in the autumn. I thought I would share our beds two looks.







This is actually the autumn look for our room, but, its a newer set and my husband loves it, so we have it on the bed for now. In the autumn I will add a few burgundy velvet pillows for Christmas and winter.





This is my spring and summer set, and I had to remake the bed to showcase it! I change out the yardlong over the bed, change the pillows out, and usually the lamos but one of the other lamps broke in the move so I am in the market for two more. These amber lamps were bought at a yard sale for five bucks each.

I think these two distinct looks also show how "Type a" my personality is. I loved the Victorian in WV because having that home there and the one here gave me seven bedrooms to decorate. Sometimes I daydream of owning a B&B just to decorate the bedrooms! My living room and dining room stay the same. I seldom make changes in the kitchen, but bedrooms in thise home are an evolving canvas!

Missing my bookbag

If anyone reading my blog has a simple pattern for a child's book bag please let me know.

My mother has never been crafty. She enjoys things others make immensely, and appreciates handmade treasures and cares for them in the same way as if she were a crafter herself. Has anyone ever noticed that? It seems that ladies who are talented in the way of handcrafts usually appreciate the work and creativity that goes into handmade items more than the casual shopper of craft items... but my mother really appreciates handmade items, and seeks them out. Perhaps this is connected to her baking, which is from scratch. I have always seen baking as an extension of crafting- an art form in itself.

But my mother has only once tried her own hand at creating aside from the culinary arts.

My second grade year my mother was roped into making book bags for the classroom because she was one of only a handful of stay at home moms at our school. My mother had never used a sewing machine, and certainly didn't while away her days knitting and crocheting my sister and I dresses and pretty bonnets. She spent time gardening, or visiting with her sisters and letting my sister and I enjoy a play group. Unable to admit she wasn't very much of a seamstress, she accepted.

She went out and bought a plethora of fabrics and trims. She borrowed my grandmothers sewing machine. And she spent the next couple weeks every evening making book bags.

There was a particularly pretty denim she had that I wanted for my book bag. A blue jean book bag would be very fashionable, and I liked the shade of blue. I had my eye on it the entire time she was working on the bags. But, as she finished up sewing one bag that she had spent twice the time on she had the others, she held up a blue calico and lace bag and announced proudly that it was for ME. That my bag would be the prettiest one in the classroom, and she had designed it especially for me.

Now I am stuborn. Always have been. I didn't even look at the bag she made. I pulled a blue jean one from the pile, put my hands on my hips and announced that THIS was my bag. My mom said "Just look at the one I made you- its prettier" I would not budge. I had my eye on that denim fabric since the moment it came into the house and thats what I wanted.

The next day we took the bags to school. They were put in the center of the room, except that the children whose mothers crafted bags were first allowed to choose their own. I chose my denim bag. Then, all the girls were allowed to choose a bag and the very first bag chosen from the remaining bags was the one my mother handmade especially for me. A little girl held it up in the air victoriously and announced it was the prettiest bag she had ever seen. All the girls sighed and exclaimed at its absence from the lot as none of the other bags were as stylish or pretty. And for the first time I looked at it. I saw it not from my little 7 year old stubborn eyes, but from the perspective of the girl whose mother hadn't made her anything so special, and who appreciated all the special details and rick rack added to this and only this bag. And my heart sank. It really was the nicest bag in the entire classroom and I could see all the work and particular details my mother had put into this bag ESPECIALLY FOR ME. I felt stupid and guilty and wished I could have that bag.

Had I known years and years later that I would still see that book bag in my mind so clearly, and that it would of been the only item my mother ever made from hand for me, I would of chose that bag. I wouldn't of taken it to school though- I would of saved it to carry to church. It was very worthy of a Sunday school ensemble.

I asked my mother today if I bought her some calico fabric, lace, rick rack and a denim pocket (my bag was the only one with a center pocket) if she would please make me a book bag. She laughed and said she had things from her childhood that she had said or done to her mother that she also still regretted. I told her it would mean something to me to have her make a bag, now, as an adult when I could truly appreciate it. The interesting part is my mother perfectly remembered my bag and described the details to me that I had forgotten.

No pictures for this post- I tried to find an example of my bag, and couldn't.