Bonfires and Babies

Hello!  It's another snowy, blustery day here in Bridgetown.  I was thinking about it a couple of days ago, and realized that I haven't seen the grass since Christmas Day.  As always, it's really nice, as long as you don't have to go out in it.  The white ground sure bounces a lot of light into the house. 

 Our prenatal class was cancelled tonight, because of the weather, so we will go tomorrow instead.  Last week's class was good, and had six other couples from the Annapolis area who will have babies in the next couple of months.  We didn't know anyone, so that was kind of neat.  Speaking of babies...there's a new Smith in town!  Sarah and Derick had the baby this last Friday (the 20th.)  It's a little boy that they've named  Jonah Douglas Smith.  So, updated Bridgetown population: 973.

We made pretty good progress on our room this week.  Most of the painting is done, and now it's just some of the trim that still needs paint.  I will be so glad when this is finished, as it feels like every spare second is going into the renovations, and I haven't done any of the things that I want to be doing.  

Although... I did set up an on-line baby registry.  We've had people asking us what we want/need, and it was time to actually sit down and think about the answer to that question.  We have received a lot of second-hand items from friends and family, so we are pretty covered for a lot of the larger items, and we've got a TON of clothes - garbage-bags full.  Anyway, I found this site on-line called myregistry.com, where you can add items from any shop, so I've been working on that.  I really like it, because there's lots of things that I just don't want the Sears version of.  If people are going to go out and spend money on us for this baby, I'd like to end up with something that maybe supports our values, or at least will be nice enough to pass on to someone else when we're finished with it.  So I've been able to add stuff from some of the smaller internet stores, including Etsy, and to source out some more handmade toys and things.  Not that we're total purists or anything - I did visit the Ikea website as well :)  

So, if you would like to get us something that we want/need, hop on over to www.myregistry.com and type in Lauren Soloy, and the list will come up.  Add to that anything that is handmade (by the giver, or not) and the list will be complete.  Mostly, though, what we really want and need is Well Wishes, and Happy Thoughts! :)  

These shots are from the Bridgetown Winterfest Bonfire, which Jai braved the elements to photograph.  He even struggled through the snow to bring me back a warm hot chocolate :)

Hello Again!  Happy (Belated) Valentine's Day!  

Jai managed to find me some very nice flowers here in Bridgetown - no easy feat for around here!  And I found the little Pooh book at a recent Frenchy's trip.  It is the sweetest thing - full of little quotes about love and friendship from the stories.  

  

We had another full weekend of working on our room, trying to get it done so we can finally start living in it.  Jai worked on mudding and sanding all the new drywall, and I got the window seat built and the molding done.  

We are finally at the point where everything is primed and ready to be painted.  That should be the fun part, and I think we are both really looking forward to actually getting some paint on the walls this weekend.  I couldn't wait, and we did a little patch of the new colour, just to see.

Soon we really will have a room.  It's been weird now that Jai is working all day every day, and I am trying to get as many hours in as possible before I just can't work any more.  It seems like we never have any time to get anything done!  Everything's just a little bit harder in the winter, too.  You can't open the windows to clear the fumes, and it gets dark so early that there's no point in starting to paint at five o'clock.   Oh well, I guess that's part of what winter is for - getting us to slow down a little, and stop being in such a hurry.  Last night after we had finished doing the primer, we only had about an hour of daylight left, so we quit for the day, picked up a pizza, and played some Scrabble.  It was lovely, and easy to excuse, knowing that it was back to work on Monday morning.    

We'll probably have some long days this week, but not tonight.  Tonight is our first ever prenatal class!  Unfortunately we missed the first session (regular births) and are starting with the second session (problem births.)  Apparently there's a DVD we can borrow, in order to catch up.  So once again, we are woefully unprepared.  I figure this baby just better get used to it!  Hopefully they won't scare us too, too much - but I guess it's too late to back out now, anyway :)

And finally, a little taste of spring.  I bought this container of bulbs when Sarah and Erin and I went to Den Haan's Garden Centre for a winter pick-me-up, and they are finally starting to bloom!  It's so nice to see daffodils, and even nicer to smell them.  I talked to my Grandma out in Victoria last night, and the tulips are already starting to poke out of the ground there, so it's almost like a little taste of home :)

photos, photos, photos

Hello!  Hooray for photos!  We got our Mac back finally, although not our Hard Drive.  Luckily, we had purchased the extended warranty, because all the repairs were free, and we still have until the end of March on our warranty.  We also bought an external hard drive, so if it ever happens again, we won't lose all our stuff.  Losing all your stuff...not so fun.

Anyway, I thought I would post some pics of what we've been up to, including walking through snow...

following the paths of others who have gone before us :)

We've been working hard on our little room.  I took a couple of early shots, after most of the room was cleared out, but before we began to build the shelves and repair the holes in the wall.

Also, some shot of the shelves being built and moved into place.

Next is the priming, which has begun, but still has a ways to go.  Hopefully tomorrow we can finish priming the shelves and preparing the walls.

And I have found time for a little knitting, including finishing my first ever baby sweater, from the book, One Skein.  It turned out really cute, although bigger than I was expecting.  That's ok, I decided, it will just fit for longer.  

More soon...

Hello All! Hope you are all well, and enjoying whatever weather is happening outside your window as you read this. We are in the middle of yet another big winter storm, dumping 15-30 cm. of snow and freezing rain. Jai and I both ended up having a snow day today, and we both managed to make it a fairly productive event. It wasn't as cold as it has been, so I was able to get the shop to a decent temperature, and finally get some much-needed shop time in. I still can't post any pics, although I did manage to finally get the Mac into the repair shop, but I finally finished a couple of commissions that have been hanging around, waiting very patiently, for an unforgiveably long time. Only a couple more to go... I'll post pics when I can, as I am very happy with one of them in particular.
In baby news this week, I am getting kicked all the time now. I think this might be one strong baby, with very long legs! It's definitely an odd feeling, but kind of comforting at the same time.

Jai got a little more work done on our room this week, and it's starting to really come together. Next up is a whole lot of mudding, and then the priming and painting. All the builiding is finished, so that was my main contribution. Next, for us, I have to finish building the couch I started ages ago, so that we will have somewhere to sit. I was looking at the Ikea web-site (always a risky thing to do) and found some really cool rugs that are meant to be for kids rooms, but that might just be perfect for our main living space.

I spent this weekend up in Halifax, getting a short visit in with family, and then photographing a wedding. It was super fun! I like getting to see people on their happy day, and I especially like getting a free gourmet meal :) I'm looking forward to seeing how the photos turned out, it was quite an extravagant wedding, by my standards, at least :)

Other than that, it has been life as usual for us this week. Jai has made us some of his amazing potato-leek soup for dinner, and my belly is grumbling! Talk to you soon - have an excellent week!