blogalicious: collections, book idea, room

I have so, so many vacation photos to deal with, for it is the end of the summer (aka photo op season). This summer was spent entirely in the US, for the first time in five years. Having a kid will do that to you, I guess. I ended the summer with a life accomplishment (driving the 900 miles from Port Townsend WA to San Jose CA with a baby and a dog by myself. It took three days and I did not talk on the phone at all—it was truly a road trip decompression). I began the summer not at all interested in working. At some point during the summer, when I could not remember basic words, I felt my brain atrophy a little. I decided that perhaps I needed to go back to work, or risk a natural lobotomy. School prep (mandatory work) started this week and I am totally fine until about noon, at which point the tug of my home/child becomes very strong and continuing to be away from them becomes difficult. I guess this will get easier, as all things do. For now though, I enjoy changing diapers and reading books while I still can. We need to recalibrate our relationship with work in this country. I have a relatively generous job with good work/life balance and it feels a little out of whack.

But I digress, there are many exciting things to mention/see in this blog post:

Inspired by this article on salon, I have begun collecting whimsical target gift cards. So far I have a tote bag, 3D book/glasses, puzzle, blow-out bday candles, a space maze and the hexapillar (thanks, mom!). This new hobby makes me very happy. I now have a mission every time I enter the best big box store in the US!
I added some awesome new sand to my sands of the world collection (my OTHER collection that gives me joy and is proudly displayed in our dining room): the Dungeness spit, the eponymous source of delicious crab. The sand is rocky and dark there, providing a good contrast to the sands of Tulum.
I came up with a book idea whilst on maternity leave. It’s called, “Nap Crafts” and it’s a collection of crafting ideas that new moms can accomplish in an hour or so and require minimal skill. I’ve noticed that it’s expensive and time-consuming to be a renaissance woman of craft. If you want to do a little felting, then you have to buy an entire book (or do a lot of internet research) for felting inspiration. If you feel like doing some baby printing, then that, too, requires a new research journey. Say you’d like to knit a little something—new books and research. My idea is to combine crafting ideas, techniques and resources into one comprehensive book. A potpourri of craft projects for the new baby! I think also, like the Klutz books, it would have a few materials that come with it to get the crafting engines revved up. 2012-2013 project!

By far, the biggest project I undertook during maternity leave was the creation of a room for Theo. I know that I previous believed that I did not need a room for him, but that opinion quickly changed once he started to outgrow his Moses basket. In reality that opinion changed because I found what was billed as the MOST INCREDIBLE mobile ever created that makes babies happy/geniuses/love you more. I bought this storied mobile, only to discover that it did not fit on a pack and play. This realization literally drove me to tears and created an insatiable baby-room hunger. I think our house is very nice, with tall ceilings and crown molding, but it is one half of a Victorian, which means the space is a little weird.

There are ways to make it into a two bedroom place, but they mainly involve turning our dining room into a living room/dining room and getting rid of our living room. I’m just not ready to do that yet, so we turned our back room, which was previously used as a storage room/computer room into a small bedroom. This, of course, required a complete re-organizational effort for the rest of the house to get everything out and stored elsewhere (Victorians notoriously have very little storage. Our place has 1.5 closets TOTAL, which means that most things have to be stored out, rather than behind doors. IKEA is great for this reality).

This project also involved a ton of painting and cleaning. We painted his room orange and yellow, which turned out really well (bold colors! This is a hallmark of the aesthetic of the Victorian era.). His room is behind a breakfast counter and has three doors (outside, bathroom, kitchen). It’s definitely a non-traditional space, which led me to a lot of interneting to see what other people did with babies in small/non-traditional spaces. I found the best blog ever: A couple who live in a 680 sqft apartment in SF and documented their solutions to space challenges. The created a hallway nursery! I love the attitude and philosophy behind the blog, which is that creativity is all that’s necessary to create an awesome dwelling (they have since moved to a more affordable part of the country, but no matter! Their mantra is still true).