September 2009 Archives

September memories:

• Visiting my family for Labor Day weekend, and puking my guts out Friday night. (Isn't it sad that that's the most memorable part of the weekend?)
• A whirlwind trip to San Francisco for work (where I sadly barely got to leave the hotel/conference center and didn't snap a single picture), but I did get to see San Francisco from the hotel's beautiful rooftop garden, and the weather was beautiful, sunny, and cool the whole time I was there.
• Construction started on our kitchen remodel, bringing both excitement and frustration.
• Dinners with kind friends who took pity on us and our lack of a kitchen. Still working on the art of microwave cooking. (Reheating leftover - great; creating new meals - not so great)
• Announcing my pregnancy to friends and at work - and now to my friends on the internet!
• Starting feeling better after several weeks of morning sickness (which was mostly in the evening, not in the morning)
• Dark and chilly morning run/walks
• Leading a small group at church and starting the long-term Christian Believer study, pushing me to develop better spiritual habits.

I can't wait to see what October holds!

(This post was inspired by Africankelli. If you don't read her blog, you should!)

Again at the request of my dear sister... a photographic tour of our current living situation. Apparently it's difficult to picture from a description over the phone!

Bathroom/Kitchen
Originally uploaded by kerner

Bedroom/Living Room/Dining Room/Office
Originally uploaded by kerner

Office/Pantry
Originally uploaded by kerner

We are basically living in 3 rooms: (1) our bedroom (mostly unchanged, except for the addition of coffee table and 2 side tables from the living room), (2) spare bedroom-turned-living room and dining room (TV and folding table with the bed for our couch), and (3) guest bathroom-turned-kitchen (well, it has a microwave and a sink, at least!) with a couple of book cases set up across the hall to hold pantry items.

Just a little "before" and "during" to help you visualize the scope of this project. The smaller window on the edge of the photo on the right is our kitchen window that you can see in the first picture. The wall with the cabinets & dishwasher is now gone, opening up the room into what used to be the dining room. Our kitchen will move down into that space, and the dining room will flip over to where the kitchen/eat-in dining area used to be.

Nifty, eh?

My sister says I need to update my blog, so here you go!

I made this tote bag as a birthday present for a friend of mine that lives way too far away from me. I used some IKEA canvas-y fabric for the bag and heavy white canvas for the handles. (Special thanks to Miss Africankelli for the fabric! Can you believe I've never even been to an IKEA?)

My original design came out super small, so I kinda erred on the large side for my second attempt. I just made this up as I went along, which I'm sure is not the easiest way to do things, but I have a bit of a mental block when it comes to following sewing patterns. (Strangely, I can follow knitting patterns with no problem - does anyone else have that issue?)

*Quick topic switcheroo*

I need to take new pictures of the remodel, but it's been really overcast here and we don't have any lights in a good portion of the remodeled area. Construction started about a week ago and things are moving forward quickly. The yucky subfloor damage has been replaced and electricians are installing lights, smoke detectors, and new outlets.

So far the guest bathroom-turned-kitchen has not been too bad. Our friends have very generously accepted our offer to be their personal chef, and we steal all the leftovers to heat up in our microwave the next couple of nights. It actually works out pretty well.