Nesting begins.....

This weekend was a balance of a lot of work and a lot of rest. Saturday I rested a lot, did a little housework, and watched Brad continue to work on a two-tiered retaining wall/planter. Today on the other hand, I got a bee in my bonnet about sprucing up the house! Brad returned to Lowe's for more bricks and finished the lovely planter. I had him take a can of paint (that we bought off the reject shelf last year for $6) back to Lowe's to have it shaken and set about painting the powder room on the first floor! It is sort of a grey-ish periwinkle color. I realized I needed to have taken a before shot after I had already started the trim but you get the idea. It looks great! (And for any of you Nervous Nellies out there it was non-toxic, low odor paint, I had all the windows on the first floor open, the exhaust fan going in the bathroom and a giant fan pulling air/fumes out of the bathroom). The first set of pictures shows my handy work.

The next pic is of the laundry room which I decided needed to be painted too (again in a lovely shade of reject....this time chocolate). I have only completed about a third of the laundry room because I need to take down the shelving and Brad needs to move the washer and dryer out for me. So I will save some fun for tomorrow! Apparently, I am also advertising Tide.

The last pic is of the finished retaining wall/planter that Brad built! I am so proud of him and it looks awesome!!! I can't wait to get an ornamental tree to plant there this fall! That unruly holly bush is going to go though we don't know what will replace it. Weeding around it is a pain (literally). I would love to go for some hydrangea bushes but I don't know how they will fare in our mostly sunny west facing front yard. New construction=no mature trees=no shade. We are going to also plant some 'real trees', as Brad likes to say, this fall in the front and back yard.

So all this activity means nesting has begun. Since we are finding out the sex of the baby next Saturday (if the little monkey is cooperative), I think we both want to try to get some projects out of the way before the nursery task is upon us. I think I will be limited to the next 2 and a half months for climbing in chairs to paint walls and hang curtains (and as previously mentioned I am a control freak and need to have my hands in everything!). My mom is coming up next weekend to witness the unveiling of the genitals (LOL) and to teach me how to use my sewing machine. I have had it 2 years and it has only been out of the box once! I don't think I even remember how to load the bobbin or make the simple pillows that were my first and only project! My goal is bibs and a quilt. My mom is going to show me the ropes and then help me machine piece a quilt for the baby that I will later hand quilt (my mom is a very talented quilter!). In the mean time, I have to finish painting the laundry room and put my wreck of a house back in human-inhabitable form! But not tonight.....yawn!

A ship under sail and a big-bellied woman,
Are the handsomest two things that can be seen common.
~Benjamin Franklin