Tulle-ing Around…Again

I’ve been playing with tulle again, purple and yellow tulle this time though in contrast to the ivory of the past.  In the spirit of all things girlie, I constructed a little tutu to adorn the cute belly of a friend’s newborn.  Here are the supplies I used:     A onesie, tulle to match (as few or as many colors as you’d like – I used a half yard each of yellow and purple), a pair of scissors, a piece of elastic (I went with a thin, 1/4 inch strand), and (not shown) permanent fabric glue and a needle and thread to secure the knot you’ll make in the elastic.

Speaking Writing of the elastic, I wanted to make sure that once tied to fit around baby’s belly, it wouldn’t come undone so I after I tied a double knot, I ran a strand of thread through the center of the knot and double tied it.Then, overachieving or not, I dabbed the entire knot with some permanent fabric glue (making sure to let it dry before attaching the tulle).  Let’s put it this way, baby Colleen can move and twist to her hearts content and her skirt will never fail her.  :)

On to the next, most tedious step in this fun project – attaching the tulle.  I didn’t do the greatest job of photo documenting so I hope my explanations do the trick.  First, I laid out the entire piece of tulle, folded it in half, and then folded it in half the same direction again to create a quadruple layering of tulle.  Then I cut 6 inch strips, giving me three long strips out of which I cut strips two inches wide.  So, in the end I had around 200 or so 2 x 6 inch strips of tulle.  To make things a little less tedious, you can cut wider strips (4 x 6 or even 6 x 6) but I wouldn’t go much longer unless you’re going for a dress look over a tutu.

Next, I tied each individual piece of tulle to the elastic band while watching tv.  It took me a good hour or two to get all of them on.  I only tied one knot and made sure each piece was super-close to the next one which usually required me tying the knot loosely, sliding it over until it touched the previous knot, then tightening.

Unfortunately, the only babies I could easily use to model the finished product won’t make their debut for another month or so so once again, you’ll have to rev up that imagination to see how adorbs this would be on any baby girl.

I can’t wait to make more for the twins!  I got planz yo…planz for head bandz, belly bandz, and mo… 

Twins: 31 Weeks

Farrah saw ‘our’ 30 week picture last week and sent me this picture of her at 30 something weeks with Claire noting that “we carry the same”!  So, even though my bulge is at least two or three inches further from my person in the comparative pic, I thought I’d copy her self-portrait exactly, unknowingly (to her) post her as a guest, and pass on the sisterly resemblance.  :)

As far as being 31 weeks pregnant, it’s much the same as 30, 29, 28…acid always invading my throat, creaking bones, especially the hips, and the regular poke of knees, elbows, feet, hands, bellies, and butts as the twins favorite hobby has become doing the Hokey Pokey at all hours of the day…and night.  All in good fun, all in good fun.  :)

Week In Review

I was hope, hope, hoping to have a project post for y’all this lovely Saturday but the few projects I have started are unfinished (imagine that) and they’re the kind of projects where reading about the before and during is pointless without seeing an after.  So, with that said, I’m blaming this lack on my present state of pregnancy and am going to move on with blogging today and give you a review of my very exciting, fantastically thrilling, super-packed week.

Monday:

Lounged.  Did a couple of loads of laundry.  Checked Craigslist for a dresser for the twins room – unsuccessful.

Tuesday:

Lounged.  Checked Craigslist again – unsuccessful.

Wednesday:

Had a Starbucks caramel frapp (with extra caramel) with a good friend.  Yummmm…  Checked Craigslist again – unsuccessful.  However, I did sell a couple of things on Craigslist this week to bring in 105 bucks.  :)

Thursday:

Witnessed an incredible person receive her First Communion, the Sacrament of Confirmation, and the Sacrament of Marriage all in one day.  THEN, went home, lounged, and checked Craigslist again – unsuccessful.

Friday:

Decided to add to the usual Craigslist stalk by moseying out to a local Goodwill to hunt down a dresser. 

Didn’t find a dresser but did find this BCBG silk shirt:

Which, I might add, just fits over the burgeoning belly and probably will for the next two days, at which point it’ll become too short and be put away into the post-baby pile/nursing-friendly-because-it-zips pile.  :) 

And last but not least, here’s what we’re UP to today:

Electrical in:  Check.

Shelf up:  Check

“Microwave up:  Check.” is the next step besides paint touch-ups but I’m obviously no help with that part as it requires lifting more than I’m supposed to right now (let it be known that if I weren’t carrying lives, I am tough enough) so a recruitment of strong arms will take place before we can call this part of our kitchen make-over done.  :)

Exciting week, huh?  I’m sure the closer we come to the twins entrance, the more exciting my weeks will get…riiight.

Stop by for this weeks belly pic.  I’ll have a featured guest of sorts ‘popping’ by…   

Twins: 30 Weeks

 

The more time that passes, the bigger I get…duh.  But, my reason for pointing this out is really because the more time that passes, the less I want to continue taking these weekly pictures because I feel like they make me look bigger than I feel.  Weird and sort of rambling, I know.  I honestly still feel pretty darn good and, even though the twins are getting heavy, the only time I really feel the onslaught of their weight is at night when I’m rolling over.  Laying on my back, my old favorite sleeping position, now feels like a mac truck has settled on my belly, intent on crushing my back.  Anyway, back to the weekly picture conundrum.  It’s not that I’m self-conscious about getting larger, in fact, I welcome it and know that it means I’ve got two healthy, growing girls inside, but I just wince looking at them because I look sooo uncomfortable, like I’m holding this 100 pound watermelon under my shirt and masking my grief with a fake smile.  So I guess my second point is to make sure I make it known that I really feel pretty darn good for 1) having this huge belly at 30 weeks and 2) having at least a couple of 3.5 pounders plus all the other good stuff under my skin.  With all that said, I’m off to stuff my face at 9:24 pm.  :)

Have a great rest of the week!

A Room For Two

Just a warning before I begin:  This post might be a little of an over-indulgence into what’s actually going through my head as regards nursery plans.  Why?  Well, the time I have on my hands to sit and type has increased as the weight of our two beanettes does…that’s approximately one hour of laziness relaxing per ounce they put on.  So, if you’re not particularly interested in exactly where our cribs are going to be placed or the color of our cloth diaper covers, skip on over to one of the many delicious blogs listed in my sidebar.  They’re sure to be much more engaging.  :)

So, a couple of weeks ago I mentioned that we were tackling the oh-so-fun task of merging our guest bedroom and office to make way for the twin’s nursery.  Well, after a couple of missed personal deadlines, the rooms are now one.

We have yet to do some little things like hanging pictures and such, but it’s immaculately clean and fully-functional.

So onward we move to:The nursery.  However, before I show you the somewhat embarrassing mess that lies behind this door, I’d like to point out the cutest diaper wreath ever made by the marvelous Brittany at ‘Gifts From Above’.  If you’d like to indulge in the cuteness, you can contact her at giftsfromabove.diaperwreaths@gmail.com.  A warning though, they’re so darn cute you won’t want to actually use the diapers or other goodies on the wreath.  :)

Sooo…in we go.  Watch your step. I’d like to think of it as ‘organized madness’.  Each scattered gift bag contains the remains of my organizing – one has newborn clothes, one has three month clothes, one has towels, etc…

This is where I might be a little too over-sharing so read on if you dare.  First, the layout.  A couple of months ago I scratched out a few different options on how we could configure the room.  It’s not the biggest room in the world (especially when you’re squeezing in two cribs), measuring around 12 ft. by 12 ft., but it’s perfect for what we need it for.  Here were the three options: The winner?  Option numero uno…a.k.a. the one at the top.  Anthony didn’t like the idea of putting the rocking chair in front of the window which narrowed down our options pretty quickly.  I’ll give my ten cents, wall-by-wall, in a minute.  The next thing in the planning process was to pull out this shirt from high school:Random, I know.  It’s one of my faves because of the colors and I always thought it’d make such a great inspiration piece when designing a little girl’s room…and lo and behold, years have passed and God has blessed us with not one, but two little chicas to introduce this shirt to.  :)  Oh happy day!

So that brings the color scheme to light pink, lighter pink, peach, lighter peach, taupe, and white.  I want their room to grow with them and I feel like with this scheme, we can replace the cribs with beds one day and it’ll still work.

So back to the detailed plans.  When you walk in the door, the wall to the right will one day reflect this:

I’ve been scouring Craigslist for an old wood dresser I can reinvent (and found one, only it’s an hour away and I’m not that desperate…yet) on which dirty bottoms will be cleaned and in which clothes will be stored.  On the wall, a frame collage maybe?  Some sort of homemade architecture?  Hanging tissue paper puffs?  A stencil underneath some or all of these things?  Oh the options…

Also housed here will be our ultra-cute, cloth diapers:   These are the covers, the inserts (prefolds) have yet to be purchased.  I’m sure a post dedicated solely to our cloth diapering adventure will be in order after the twins are here.  For now, read about Farrah’s adventure.

Moving on…the wall across from the door will be transformed in this way: The desk currently in the rocking chair’s place is waiting to be purchased by a loving new owner on Craigslist and the frames above it will come down.  The lamps (one dismantled) on it were found at Goodwill many moons ago and have put my electric wiring skills to the test…one day I’ll have a whole post on those.  The blob of peach and pink are the tissue paper puffs mentioned above that were creatively constructed by my friend Jenn for the twins shower.  I’ll make new curtains and eventually a cushion for the window seat – curtains before the beans are born, the cushion as I’m nursing one and wielding my mad sewing skills (a joke for sure) at the same time.  Yes, I have standards that high…call me crazy cause I’m sure one day in the not-so-distant future I’ll be echoing your sentiments.  :)

Aaannndd to the left we have the cribs:

Only instead of Photoshop cribs (perfectly safe if you call the Disney Channel home), we will have two of these:  Oh, aren’t they just precious?  Graciously purchased for us by an angel, we can’t WAIT until they come in (ordered from Babies R Us)!  We were planning on using my old crib and my dad’s old crib (both of which I had big plans to paint) but my dad’s crib was deemed unsafe – shocker there – and both are 1000 miles away at the moment.  So, these came as a great blessing to us.

Hanging from the ceiling above them, I really want to construct some simple canopies but with the intent of moving closer to Anthony’s place of work in the next year and popcorn ceilings (hard to patch), that may or may not happen.

But anyway, on to the left and last wall. Obviously, the microwave is out of place and it’s home is being prepped for landing at the moment so unfortunately, our kids won’t have the option of making smores in their bedroom.  However, the mirror behind it will be tacked to that little expanse of wall after I get my crafty fingers all over it.  Curtains will be made to match the window curtains and the closet will be organized and filled with tiny things in pink, purple, and other girly hues.

Other ‘hopefuls’ on the plan list include DIYing a large round rug to lay smack dab in the middle of the room and constructing a faux capize chandelier or other fixture along those lines to dress up the ceiling fan light.

And that’s that.  The twins will actually sleep in a co-sleeper in our room until they’re six months or so, so I’ll have time after they arrive to work on baby-fying this room while they lounge in swings and such before they officially move in.  I might also mention that my budget for this room is low, very low, so I’m excited to get some brain-power back after they’re born cause I’m gonna need it.  Progress will be slow and documenting it will be like watching a fishing show, so in the meantime I’ll be sure to post some quick updates but I’ll have some other project happenings to tell.

Happy weekend!