Confession

Jennifer's comment has prompted me to confess the real reason I like a longer drop on my duvet. We always had queen size duvets on our double bed (we each have our own duvet), and while our old mattress had a 'plush' top, thick by 10 year old standards, it wasn't all that thick so the queen duvet would hang nicely over the side. Why do I need it to hang low? I don't like my sheets tucked in! Partly because I like to roll up all cozy, and partly because I'm just plain lazy. I'm the only one who uses the sheet, why tuck it in when I'm just going to pull it out? I'm not a big bed making freak, but if I did center the duvet, you'd see the sheets, even if I did tuck them in. And you'd see the sheet covering the box spring. I think it just looks nicer having the duvet come down to the boxspring. And it's easier and to me, that's the important thing, LOL. Lazy lazy lazy. I know. But hey, acknowledging it is the first step to recovery, eh?

Back to Bed....

....room makeover!

The duvet cover and shams came in early, but of course, I'm still majorly late in posting the 'finished' results!

When I went shopping for sheets, back in early April, I took the curtain valance with me. I found some sheets on sale, that I thought matched really well--the valance seemed a lot more taupe (greyish) than the beige (pinkish) I was expecting. It also made it hard to find a lightshade because the ivory ones looked bad next to the valance.

Well, I opened the duvet cover, and the sheets are totally wrong. I don't' know how. The duvet is sateen on the top, and the cotton underside matches the sheets pretty well, but the valance is the sateen too. This pictures really doesn't show the two sides of the duvet cover very well, but they are different tones.

If I can steam a hat while it's on my head, I have no issues with ironing a dressed bed! Before:

And after?:Or is that another before shot? How about this, is it nicer?:

Ever wonder why decorators throw afghans artistically over a bed?It's to hide the poor workmanship of foreign child labour (now, to be honest, I have NO CLUE if Sear's uses child labour! but crap, that is sewn badly, even by my standards).

I'm a little disappointed at the size of the duvet cover. The option was a Double/Queen. Even if our mattress wasn't so thick, it still wouldn't come down very far, maybe far enough to just cover the mattress. With the way the room is set up, I pull it over almost all the way to the side you see when you walk in.

We need about 10 more pillows (there's 4 right now), but I don't have enough pillowcases to make them look nice, and there was only a decorator pillow available in this set---not even sheets were available. Maybe I could buy the drapery panels and cut them down to fit the window and use the leftover to make pillows? I think the sale might be over now!

This little fella is the cutest thing! His name is Spoka (two dots over the o) and he's from IKEA. He also comes in red and green, but different shapes. We got one of each colour, then the kids started fighting over who got which one, then Huey read that kids under 3 can't have it and he freaked that Meg would get hurt....so we took the blue one :) However, he has gone back to the girls' room :( They come with a cord and plug and you can use it plugged in, or unplug it to move it around or put closer to the bed, and it lasts pretty much the whole night before gradually dimming. They'll also be great for camping, and even in the truck. They are made of a soft plastic, like those charity/believe rubber bracelets.

They give off a really nice glow (the red one doesn't give off much actual light, but the blue and green ones do). The green one went missing after a recent evening thunderstorm--the kids had the great idea to bring them downstairs in case the power went off! But the worse thing....shortly after we got them, about 5 weeks after doing the bedroom, we were going to meet Nina (the developmental social worker that sees Meg) to go to see the occupational therapist. I suggested we take the blue one to show Nina, because it was brought up in a workshop that blue light is the best for kids that have sleep problems and want a light on. Meg was excited to go get Spoka off the top shelf on Rob's lamp/shelf thing. When she did, she knocked the votive in a glass holder off....which hit the bottom shelf and broke it :( I'm going to replace it; we went to the stain glass shop to see what they could do and they said about $28, and I still have to check the glass/mirror store but I'm just not keen on taking 3 kids to a glass store!!!!

And just cause I still had one spot left on the import pictures page, here's the view of my back yard (pre-pool). This was one or two years ago, I'm not sure (I think it must be two years old because the birdhouse is still there). We have a disagreance on this garden. The tree on the right is a crabapple. Rob is still upset that the new people took out 'his' crapapple at our OLD house. In the middle is a columnar cedar, in front is two box shaped cedars, and towards the back left is a peashrub thingy that I finally hacked down this weekend.

My issue is that the sandbox is directly behind this garden. Can you see it? No, neither can I. And, the garden, and directly around it, is the only flat area. And now, the tall cedar is growing into the crabapple. I love the crabapple. I thought Rob did too. Since we moved in (May 2006) I have been after him to take down the tall cedar and the stupid hedge cedar to open up the view (they don't do much to give privacy when in the hot tub). He keeps refusing and even suggested we take down the crabapple instead because it makes a mess! Argh. I'm the one who spends a lot of time out there, I want to make improvements so we enjoy the yarn more, instead of crouching to walk around and slipping down the slopes. I also want to take out the crooked pine you can see. It's SO crooked, and now is getting in the way of the Maple behind it. And now we have a little pool right there and we'd like a bigger one next year but there is NO more room. Anywhere. It took 5 attempts to get a flat area. Rob says I want to cut down ALL the trees. Not so, at all! I want to remove the poor specimens, improve sight lines, and make better use of the prime 'realty'. I half wish we still had no trees at all, LOL. But I do miss having a cut flower garden!

More Interventions

THere's a great post to read about a new labour 'device' being marketed....it clips right onto the cervix and screws into the baby's head! I have had a scalp monitor put in before, and it was NOT fun. I can't imagine having something clipped right to my cervix.
Isn't there something for men the medical business industry could focus on? Erection meters? Continual prostate monitoring?

THis is a portion of the Mother's Day 'card' Lucy made for me (I'm still getting used to the scanner--it looked like the whole picture had scanned). It's me, wearing Megan! What you can't see is my transparent yellow skirt, LOL. Lucy's drawings really remind me of the "Rugrats" or other current cartoons. Mmmm....perhaps there's a reason, LOL.

What They Doo....

Ever wonder what the stuffed animals and toys do when you're not home? I swear, this photo was NOT set up; it's exactly as I found them when we came home from strawberry picking!

Life With Meg!

About two months ago Meg radically changed her sleep habits. No more (regular, predictable) naps. Later nights as well! How is it that the most active child is also the one who sleeps the least?

Lets look at today. The girls played Play Dough. It's one of the FEW things Meg will play with for more than five minutes. But, it's messy, although not an issue. Later, they wanted to paint. So, I said, let me vacuum up the Play Dough, then you can paint. While I'm vacuuming, I hear the kids screaming. I stop. Meg is on top of the microwave, trying to get the paint out of the top cupboards. I get her down, the keep vacuuming. I go to move the plug, and see that she spilled the box that holds all the little playing pieces for games. I ignore that as I hear another ruckus in the kitchen. Meg is back on the chair, heading for the microwave, but has peed her pants. I clean that up, then vacuum again. I turn around, and she is pouring herself water from the fridge dispenser. Caught that potential disaster in time and sent her off. Get the table scrubbed and go to get the paints. Huey yells that Meg has my MP3 player that has been plugged into the computer. I rescue that, get the paints out. She paints for less time than I have been typing (and I am a touch typist), all the while Lucy is screeching at her because she's not doing it right. I got the TV on Huey's channel after kicking him off here, and now he's saying Meg won't let him watch TV and I'm not letting him do anything fun. All this in under 20 minutes.

Sigh. Fun, like, behead and slice the two baskets of strawberries in the fridge that he and Lucy insisted we pick? Fun, like, clean up from lunch? Fun, like, fold all the laundry I couldn't fold while I had to sit out front watching the girls play and scream at each other? Fun Fun Fun!!! Only 8 1/2 more weeks to go! Please pardon me if I'm not posting too often or I sound a little frazzled or worn out, LOL. While it's nice to not have to go to the school three times a day, there are trade offs! But, I am determined that this will be a FUN summer, and I will NOT let three kids and the house defeat me!
But please, check in on me occasionally if I've been a little quiet. LOL.