Julianna's Bridge

I am sorry for so many word-y and picture-less posts but I can't help it again today. You guys know I love the fabric designer Anna Maria Horner and daily read her blog. She has 6 children ages 1 to 18. She just dropped off her 18-year-old daughter at college this week. The blog entry she posted today just makes me sob sitting here with my three little boys as they watch Sid the Science Kid and I intermittently have contractions (like I have been for 5 days now) keeping my little yet-unknown daughter continually present in my emotions and thoughts. If you have time and inclination the entry is worth a read. Here it is.

Adventures in the Human Soul

My mom suggested that Brad & I listen to Andrew Peterson's new album Counting Stars. The lyrics are very beautiful and his voice is very much like Aaron Espe. We are enjoying his poetry & music this week.

WORLD TRAVELER
I grew up in a little town
A southern mix of lost and found
Where most folks seem to stick around
But I could hear the highway song
I'd sit out on the dock till dawn
And dream about the great beyond

(I dreamed that I was)
A world traveler
Set me loose to find my way
Just get me out on the road someday
With my sails unfurled
So many mysteries
I wanted to unravel
If I could travel the world

Soon enough I had my way
I saw the world the Lord has made
Mostly from the interstate
But I had hardly seen a thing
Until I gave a golden ring
To the one who gave her heart to me

(And I became)
A world traveler
That's the day I hit the road
'Cause I walked the hills of the human soul
Of a tender girl
I'm a world traveler
She opened the gate and took my hand
And led me into the mystic land
Where her galaxies swirl
So many mysteries
I never will unravel
I want to travel the world

Take a left at the end of my street
Just a few doors down
Up the hill and into the trees
There's a hole in the ground
Where we traveled the caverns so deep
We wandered the wonders so wide
It was right beneath our feet
All this time, all this time

Tonight I saw the children in their rooms
Little flowers all in bloom
Burning suns and silver moon
And somehow in that starry sky
The image of the Maker lies
Right here beneath my roof tonight

(So hold on tight, I'm a)
World traveler
Pack yours bags and dig down deep
Let's ride the storms and sail the seas
To the distant pole
I'm a world traveler
Into these uncharted lands
To blaze a trail in the vast expanse
Of the heart and soul
In the grace of the God of peace
Let's wade into the battle
Come on, come on with me
And get up in that saddle
There's a million mysteries
I never will unravel
Come on, let's travel the world

"Spirited Rider"

A few days ago on the Femina (the Wilson women) Blog I read this excellent and helpful post on helping little girls take control of their emotions. I printed it off for the folder I have been making for our little girl -- stories, letters/emails about praying for her before she is even born and articles, lyrics, etc. that I want to remember as I learn about her and try to help her grow.

My Three Sons

Another Project

Another project has been turning the finished basement room into a guest room. Eventually we'll get a laminate floor down but for now I just painted the concrete with epoxy floor paint and put down a rug borrowed from some friends. I repainted the walls and trim. Moved in furniture that had been in storage while my sister lived with us; Installed my first toilet seat and vent covers on my own; and put up a curtain into the old, unfinished part of the basement. I still need to do a lot of work on the stairway (dry-wall fixing & painting) down to the room but at least the stairs themselves are very clean and the re-cycling is stacked neatly at the top.

Thank you!

Thank you Liz & Eric for coming late last night to put our kids to bed so we could go to the hospital when we thought we were in labor. Thank you for not hating us when it turned out to be "false" labor. We love you for many reasons -- one of them being that you and our kids love each other.

Oh So Beautiful...

I found this post recently on Apartment Therapy -- a Welsh family who built this home into a hillside. They are not trained as architects or designers. They are just regular (albeit odd) people and were able to build it in a few months!

"Some of the eco features include:

• a skylight toilet in natural light
• solar panels to fuel lights and electronics like a cd player and computer
• a refrigerator cooled by air coming underground through the foundation
• water supplied by gravity from a nearby spring
• collection of roof water for use in the garden
• a compost toilet"

"See more photos and read more about the house and the building process at Simon Dale's website. What's next for this family? They're participants in the Lammas project - along with eight other families, they'll be swinging their hammers again to create Wales' first self-built eco-village."

Al Fresco Celebration

Celebrating our 5th Anniversary with our kids al fresco with vegetables all from our garden or CSA farm share and a nicely grilled steak!

Amanda Soule's Seaside Quilt

So I daily read Amanda Soule's blog. She lives on the cost of Maine and takes her four children regularly to the seaside. She recently made this montage of photos inspiring her.

Then she went to her sewing studio and pulled out these piles of fabric...

And pieced together these quilt squares...Isn't that wonderful?

Projects!

So I thought I'd show a few pictures of some of the projects that have been keeping me busy as I prepare for our baby girl. The biggest task has been moving rooms around. We changed this room upstairs from what had been our bedroom into a nursery for the baby. We moved our room down to the first floor guest room (pictures to come). And we made the basement bedroom/bathroom into a guest room suite. I needed to get a few pieces of furniture for these changes which I was able to find on craigslist. I'll show how the boys room is set up and the guest room in later posts.
I have one more thing to do for this room -- a rug, which I have picked out and am just waiting to save up for -- It is a 6' round shag rug that matches the dark brown (see picture below).

We already had a second crib (garage sale find) and a changing table (that I pulled out of storage) but I wanted them to look like they matched so I re-painted them to match the trim and bottom part of the nursery. The quilt is mostly made by my talented mother-in-law who pieced the top together -- I picked the fabric and pattern out from Anna Marie Horner's cotton voile Little Folks line. Then at the Lake Nancy showed me how to put the backing and binding on. Then I had the most fun hand-quilting with this great chunky vari-colored perla yarn/thread. I adore this quilt -- IT turned out exactly how I hoped it would and fits with who I truly feel this little girl will be (without of course knowing at all (-:). But it definitely what I want for her -- beauty, variety, color, joy, richness...texture...celebration of being a girl!

We have a great Dutalier glider rocker in the boys room but I decided I didn't want to take it out of there yet -- I still regularly use it for Lincoln -- and when I had more of a lap, even for the other two boys. I'm not ready to take that away from them yet. So I found this one for $25 on craigslist. I had fun re-upholstering the cushions with fun flowers and piping (Oh I love piping!).

The dresser is a family heirloom I have used as my dresser since I was a tiny girl. It has a full-size bed that matches it that is in storage right now. But it makes me so happy to have it be my daughter's. And a connection to our farm and my family history. I made a reversible dresser "scarf" and filled the basket with very girl-y receiving blankets and mega-swaddling blankets my mom sewed up for me (Thank you, Mom!).

The pink shiny crown is from the baby's brothers -- Atticus & Dietrich picked it out at the fabric store and said their little sister needed a princess crown. I totally agree. The little bowl is a piece of ruby depression glass I found at savers for $1.50 (-: I filled it with baby girl hair clips -- which I know is ridiculous since she probably won't have hair for awhile anyway, but they were so irresistible.

Other projects at the Lake were to try my hand at sewing baby dresses without a pattern -- a first for me. This one is made from a pillow case. It reminds me of old-school class-y baby style.

This one I wanted to do smocking or shirring but didn't figure out how to do that until I came home and looked it up properly. So I just put two casings in with regular elastic. But seriously it has gingham and rick-rack.

An experiment for Leah's little girl.

Similar one for our little girl...

I found a tutorial on how to make neckties. Atticus & Dietrich found this fabric and asked to have their ties made out it. Hmm. Anyway, making ties is very tedious and I know why they cost what they do. But I also felt cool that I can make a necktie. If the infrastructure of society collapses and no ties are available to buy, my boys and man will still be able to be dressed nicely, right? Weird Sarah -- These are the kind of thoughts I have.

Atticus also found this fabric for $2 on a remnant shelf. He wanted to make a tote bag. So he used the sewing machine and made his. Dietrich tried but mostly watched sitting in my "lap" -- that was interesting since using a sewing machine while with someone sitting in your not-pregnant lap is a challenge and this time, well, it was ridiculous but made my little boy feel involved in the creating process, so totally worth the awkwardness. (-:

I love babylegs leg warmers but they are usually so expensive. So I found a blogsite that showed how to make them from knee socks. These socks are $2 a pair at Target right now. So I made a few fun striped ones just because I could.

And I finally made a decision on a living room/study/playroom rug. My first grown-up wool "real" rug I have ever purchased. I love it. And it will be great for the kids playing this winter. We've already spent more time playing games, etc. on the floor.

More pictures of other projects to come...unless our baby show up before I can take and post photos. (-: