How Much Wood Would a Woodchuck Chuck?

My main goal for today was to finish the side covers for Lila's crib.**



No more teeth marks!  And no little mouth filled with wood shavings for that matter.

For some reason, this project took a lot of time and energy.  This is what Lila's room has become while I was distracted by the teething cover.  Yes that is newspaper all over her floor.  She likes to look at it and try to eat it.

Tomorrow I am focusing on my living room and dining room mainly because I'm hosting book club here tomorrow night.  Cleaning projects will include dusting the baseboards and crown molding, cleaning the windows (My mom already cleaned the ones in the dining room...I am not above farming out the 31 Days of Cleaning.), cleaning the desk trashcan, and my daily weekly every once in awhile dusting and vacuuming.

**If you're interested in how I made the covers, here's a brief non-photo tutorial.
1. I measured the front of the crib as 51 inches and the sides as 28 inches.
2. I cut two pieces of fabric for the front and each side that measured the length by five inches for the skinnier front and six inches for the thicker sides and then sandwiched some batting between those two pieces to essentially make long skinny quilts.  (For the front, I sewed five inch by five inch squares together to make the top piece because I was using scraps for this project and didn't have anything long enough.)
3. You could quilt it here if you wanted to, but I didn't want to.
4. I cut and sewed together some binding from more scraps.  I think I cut the original strips at 2.5 inches.
5. Sew on the binding.
6. Before hand finishing the binding, I cut pieces of ribbon and sewed them every 12 inches or so to the back of the covers.  I sewed them so that the binding would cover the spot where I attached the ribbon. (That sounds confusing...just do something that makes sense.  If I did this again, I would use big grosgrain ribbon so that there would be cute big bows all over the crib.)
7. Hand finish the binding.  I went around each piece twice since I wanted this to hold up well in the washer.
8. Yell, "Sweet Victory!" and tie them onto the crib.  Then make your daughter stand in the crib and encourage her to chew on the new covers by pretending to chew on them yourself in order to get a good picture.
The End.

Back to the Grindstone

Johnny and I are back from our 24 hour vacation.  It was nice to remember that we actually enjoy each other's company and enjoy doing things together other than the dishes and cleaning the oven...which is coincidentally what we did tonight.



I also cleaned the microwave, and Johnny cleaned Lila's fan.  I laughed at breakfast this morning when he asked what my cleaning plans were for Monday.  I said, "Oh my dear, we do not take weekends off in the 31 Days of Cleaning Extravaganza."



I was very eager to get back with Lila after spending time away from her, and then I got her back and remembered that she requires a lot of work and attention.  Who knew?  So Johnny was a huge help with her today while I finished the front part of her teething cover and almost finished the sides.

 

We really value Sunday as a day of rest in the Hutson house, so I am planning to not do much more than finishing the side parts of the teething cover and replace some light bulbs...and maybe shower.  I don't do that enough.

Lila's First Sleepover!

Lila is having her very first sleepover tonight at Grandmommy and Granddaddy's house.



She is almost as excited as Mommy is.

I was able to FINALLY get started on the teething cover for Lila's crib.  I was originally planning to quilt it, but since it's so small, I think I'll just sandwich it, bind it, and put some buttons to hold it together between the crib slats.

For tomorrow, I'm planning to dust Lila's fan, work more on the teething cover, clean the microwave, and organize the pantry.  Exciting.

Day Three

Today is marked by mediocrity.  I was supposed to organize the linen closet, dust Lila's crib, clean the oven, and make a teething cover for the crib.  I was able to do the first two, but spent the majority of my day making Johnny a robe for an anniversary present.  It took much longer than planned, so the last two tasks are getting pushed to another day.

The linen closet wasn't super horrible to start with.



Lila helped me organize everything, and I realized that I have two sets of queen sheets with no fitted sheets and one fitted twin sheet.  I also have six extra pillow cases.  Anyone want to come stay at our house?

It didn't take too long to get everything folded, organized, and stacked.  Notice some of my gleanings from yesterday's Costco trip.

Tomorrow, Johnny and I are having an overnight at the Hotel Philips sans Lila.  We're making a small weekend of it, so I'll only be around for a little bit tomorrow.  My one task for tomorrow is to get started on Lila's teething cover for her crib.  I originally thought that I just needed to cover the front, but I realized today that she has chewed all the way around the crib.  Fabulous.

Ding Dong The Bells Are Gonna Chime

I can't believe I'm saying it, but today is Johnny and my fourth wedding anniversary.

It doesn't feel like yesterday, but it certainly doesn't feel like four years ago.

Johnny was such a good groom that he even took dancing lessons with me for our first dance.

The weather was absolutely perfect.  The day started at about 70 and then dropped down to the 20s that night.

When I was a freshman at Wheaton, one of my professors told our class to be sure that the person you marry makes you want to be a better person.  Johnny absolutely does that for me.

Here's to another year, husband.

Day Two

The first task for today was to baby proof the fireplace.  Instead of buying a fireplace guard for $24.99, we decided to go to Home Depot and get some pipe insulation for $0.97 a piece and some duct tape.  Lila liked playing with her giant noodles.


Now that the fireplace is baby proofed, Lila can't stay away from it.  She is either chewing on it, trying to pull off the guard, or crawling on top of it.

 

The second task was to clear out any clothes that we weren't wearing anymore.  Since I was already in our closets, I decided to organize them as well...except for my own because that was too daunting.

Our hallway closet didn't have much extras, but I was able to get all of Johnny's army gear into one location.

Johnny's closet had a few outdated ties.  I left the Hawaiian shirt...you never know when you're going to be invited to a luau. 

 

 

I didn't get rid of anything in Lila's closet... 

...but I was able to get all of her too small clothes organized into bins along with all of my maternity clothes.



All in all, we have a nice little bag of clothes to donate.



My third task was to get recent pictures developed.  I spent $6 developing photos at Costco and $150 on toilet paper and paper towels.

For tomorrow: organize the linen closet, clean the oven, wipe down Lila's crib, and make a teething cover for Lila's crib 

31 Days

Since Lila was born, our house has gotten a lot less organized than I want it to be.  Now that we hopefully have another baby coming at the end of the month, I decided that we need to hunker down and get our act together.  I have put together a 31 Days of Organizing for the month of January that includes things like getting rid of old clothes, organizing photos on the computer, and meal planning.  My hope is to put up what I'm doing each day to hold me a little bit accountable...but let's be real, we all remember the diet.

Day One: Buy shelves for the basement, organize craft area, declutter back of the basement, and organize Johnny's tools and paint.

Whew!  We had a lot to do today, but Johnny was home and willing to work, so we got our little rears in gear and cleaned the basement.  Here's what the basement looked like this morning.

 

 

And here's what it looked like after a few hours of cleaning and decluttering.

 

 

Notice that there is no smiling Lila in the last pictures because she wasn't smiling after hours of being ferried between two parents covered in dust and grime.

For tomorrow: Baby proof the fireplace, print out photos, get rid of clothes that we don't wear