Starting to feel "normal" again.

I spent some time this week to finish reading a book I've been wanting to finish for a couple of years now. Feels good to have spent some time on something other than house stuff. Very soon (hopefully in the next week), I'll get to break out my sewing machine and get started on some drapes. That'll be fun. We're picking out fabrics now. Looks like I'll be dyeing some rayon/linen for the den. After that, new cushions for our chairs at the kitchen table, a few throw pillows and then I'll turn to indoor gardening for a while. Chris is hoping to get back to homebrewing soon enough to get a pumpkin ale brewed in time for Thanksgiving and a Christmas ale to follow. I think it would be neat to make a mead, or some special brew, for when the baby is born and drink a bottle every year on his birthday (assuming it turns out well). I do have a case of lovely cobalt blue swing top bottles that aren't serving a purpose yet. A mead would hold up for more years, I think.

I went to Huntsville on Monday for the first time since we closed on the house. It was so nice to just have a social visit. Every other time I've been down there since we moved to Nashville I've had a bunch of things I needed to do in addition to trying to see people while I was there.

Chris' parents are coming up this Sunday. They haven't seen the house since the weekend after we closed. They helped us get a start on all the painting and some cleaning that weekend. I think they're really excited to see what all we've done so far. Just another couple of months left before our lives are consumed by parenthood (or so we're expecting).

My dad is going to get started on building us a crib. That'll be really special and I'm excited about it!

So far our favorite name is Jonah. Jonah or Jonas Tristan got a good response last night, so that might be the one (thanks Brandy for the suggestion). Or we may see him after he's born and decide on something completely different. Chris' dad sent us a bunch of family names yesterday in an email. The Lehmanns were French Jews so there are several French (e.g. Jacques) and Hebrew (e.g. Judah) names in there, especially the farther back he went.

And the fun begins. . . again.

Got a bunch of swatches in on Monday for home decor projects. I'm doing drapes and valances for the den, drapes, sheers and valances for the master bedroom/bathroom and just valances for the kitchen (though those are going to be Mexican blankets so no swatches there).

For the den, I found a taupe dupioni that looks fabulous with the swatch of brown microsuede that we're having a loveseat and armchair custom made in (we have a sofa in a brown/black pebbly sort of print and needed to match it with any new furniture). Unfortunately, I do have a budget to consider and $17/yd isn't within it. So, I've opted to get a bolt of some beautiful linen/rayon blend fabric from Dharma and dye it a similar color. It'll cost me less than half as much (the linen/rayon fabric is $6 something a yard if you buy a 17 yard bolt and it doesn't need to be lined like the dupioni does). And since I'll have plenty of extra fabric, I can make some throw pillows and just have a stash of undyed linen/rayon laying around for a rainy day.

For the master bedroom, I am going to splurge on a dupioni, but not the original one I wanted (which was another of the $17/yd ones). Instead I found an $11/yd color that is similar (a chocolate brown, though it's called chutney brown, "you can really taste the chutney"). Looking at it, I don't think I'll miss the turquoise cross weave in the more expensive one at all. I've cut way back on the yardage I'll need on it because I've decided not to use it for the valance, just the drapes. Instead, for the valance, I'm thinking of doing a scarf sort of thing with a sari. I'm watching a few lovely ones on ebay right now. If that doesn't work, there's a lovely brown and blue Indian looking print cotton fabric on fabric.com that would match perfectly and is only $7/yd. I also found a lovely poly crinkle chiffon in turquoise for sheers that's only $3/yd at Denver Fabrics. Since I ordered $6 worth of swatches there, I can put that toward my purchase and basically consider two yards already paid for. I'll definitely have to get lining fabric for those drapes and dye for the lining as well. But we have nice dark blinds in the bedroom now, so there's no hurry on all that. I can do it gradually. The den, however, we decided to go with bamboo blinds to play up the tropical feel of the room. Unfortunately, they only offer moderate privacy at night, so that room is a priority.

I'm also doing new cushions for the four chairs at our kitchen table (bright yellow vinyl isn't going to cut it anymore). For those, I got a bunch of brightly colored dupioni swatches and have decided on a lime, a bright orange/red cross dye, a turquoise and a purple/fuchsia cross dye. Three of the four are the expensive dupioni from fabric.com and the other is their cheaper, "promotionally priced" dupioni. Since I need so little of each color though, I can get away with paying $17/yd for 3 cushions and $11/yd for one. Then the Mexican blankets, along with a set of four matching placemats will run me about $50.

Chris thinks this all sounds expensive, so I have to keep reminding him of the cost of store bought drapes. He was thinking like $100 for two rooms (a total of two 70"x72" windows and four 35"x72" windows). It's going to cost roughly $100 just for the den.

I'm just excited to get back to something resembling one of my hobbies.