Crafting and Organizing

Since having kids, I haven't had too much time for crafting.  Honestly, most of the crafting I've done is while nesting during pregnancy.  But, I've recently gone through a little crafting kick.

Earlier this fall, I made Matilda an Angelina Ballerina costume (the ears and tail) for her school's book parade.

 Then I sewed a new Christmas table runner and pillowcases.

And I sewed Matilda a twirly Nutcracker skirt.

And I've made decent progress organizing Matilda's ridiculous amount of accessories and costumes.  All of her jewelry used to be in one large drawer, which made it impossible to find anything.  I used a cup rack to help organize it.

Her costumes were hung on a bar across her windows, with the wings and such in a box next to it.  We got her a toybox for her wings and other costumes accessories (along with her stuffed animals) and a wardrobe for her dresses and leotards.

Snow Day

Matilda had been asking about snow for the past few weeks, and I had explained to her several times that it doesn't really snow here.  It was in the 80s earlier this week, and then this happened.  Nature was just letting Matilda win another argument... like always.

Hurricane Harvey

Hurricane Harvey has come and gone.  Needless to say, it was a terrible experience for most of Houston and the South Texas Gulf Coast.  We made it through with no flooding in the house and minimal storm damage, but many Houstonians weren't as lucky and will spend months, if not years, recovering. 

It only drizzled Friday and Saturday during the daytime.  Matilda and Jason made paper boats to race down our gently flowing ravine.

Matilda had a dance party and then we went for a walk down to the bayou.

Saturday night was when it got scary.  I went to bed around 9 pm because the storm was pretty loud and I was worried about the girls waking throughout the night.  At 10 pm, I left the bedroom to check on Jason, and he had jumped up to come find me.  Within 15 minutes of hard rain, our ravine had completely filled.

We spent the rest of the night watching the ravine in case we had to leave the house. 

The meteorologists were still calling for substantial rain Sunday and Sunday night, so we went ahead and lifted as much furniture we could.  Our plan was to head down the street to our friends' house on Sunday night so we could get some sleep.

But, the rain somewhat subsided on Sunday, and we were fairly confident the ravine would be able to sustain the projected rainfall Sunday night.  By this time, we were stir crazy.  We had to shelter in the hallway several times because of tornado warnings.

On Monday, Matilda and I went to a playdate in the neighborhood because we were itching to get out of the house.  She and Jason also collected donations from the neighborhood and took them to the big shelter at George R. Brown convention center.

Tuesday was spent lounging around the house waiting for roads to clear.  I think we got 37 inches of rain during the storm.  Much more than anyone had predicted.

On Wednesday, the sun was finally shining and we cleaned up the yard.

While my office was working from home the entire week after the storm, I went into the office on Thursday and Friday to get some actual work done.

I'm very grateful we made it through alright, but my heart is with those who did not.  I truly hope this was a 800+ year storm.

Summerday

Matilda has dubbed any day over 80 degrees "Summerday".  She has loved playing in the backyard, and has asked us to fill the kiddie pool several times already.  Lots of fun!

New House Exterior Tour

The other day I snapped a few quick exterior pics of our new house.  Here's the front. 

We have some pretty big exterior plans, including darker accent paint on the trim, a new curved garden bed out front, replacing the siding glass doors, and building a deck overlooking the ravine.

Here's the side of the house.  The small concrete patio is where we'd like to eventually build a deck.

Here's a few shots of the ravine.  This was before 2 nights of freezes, so now the elephant ears are looking pretty pathetic.

Around the back of the house is a decent sized backyard.  We may eventually fence off the side next to the ravine with some wire fencing that won't block the view.

And here's our small patio outside of the kitchen between the back of the house and the garage.

New House Interior Tour

Did I mention we moved in August?  Just a street over.  We are habitual house hunters, but we had gotten increasingly more serious during 2016.  We were thinking about having another kid, and while we could have definitely made our 2/2 work (the bedrooms were huge), ideally, we wanted to be in a 3 bedroom prior to having another baby.  And by we, I mostly meant I did.  I really didn't want the stress of moving while being pregnant or having two little ones.

Our house hunting had been pretty depressing.  Real estate has been sky high, so we were having a hard time finding a house that met all of our major criteria.  We were looking for a 3/2, 1500+ sq foot house with two living areas and a double driveway.  We didn't want my commute to be more than 30 minutes, so that limited us to just a few neighborhoods that would be within our budget.  We would have loved for it to be zoned to a good elementary, but we also would have loved to stay in our existing neighborhood which means we'd be applying for magnet school programs when the time comes.

In the meantime, we had been making some improvements (including fresh interior and exterior paint) to our existing house.  We figured it'd help with resale value, and if we didn't find anything worth buying, we'd just enjoy it for the time being. 

In June, a house a street over from us went on the market.  We got a viewing the first day and quickly made an offer.  While it didn't meet all of our criteria (it only has one bathroom and it has a single driveway), it had the added bonus of being on a double lot with a ravine running through it.  The back den has an oversized sliding glass door that looks out over the ravine.  That's really what sold us on this house.  So far, the single driveway hasn't been too much of a pain, and eventually we'll reconfigure our one bathroom into two by combining it with two adjacent closets (one of two hall closets and one of two master bedroom closets).

Our existing house was market ready within a week or two, and it sold the first weekend being on the market.  Once both houses were under contract, we found out we were pregnant.  Timing was truly a blessing. 

We're finally mostly settled into the new house.  Jason pretty much handled all of the packing, moving, and unpacking himself because of how exhausted and useless I was my first trimester.  This house didn't really require much upon move-in; we resurfaced the bathtub and bought a new couch for the den, but otherwise we've made all of our existing furniture and décor work. 

So, here's a tour of the interior... I'll get some exterior shots eventually.  Right now our lawn is covered in leaves.  Also, I haven't taken any pictures of the utility room or garage.  I guess I'll do those when I get the exterior shots.

Living Room

Here's looking towards the front door.

And here's looking from the front door into the living room and further to the den.

Here's the living room view to your left which opens to the dining room.  The door beside the built-in bookshelves leads to the bathroom and bedrooms.  It's been nice having more separation between the main living areas and the bedrooms.  Less volume control issues once Matilda heads to bed.

We love the huge windows which overlook the ravine.  Matilda has her camping chair and binoculars set up for bird/squirrel/cat watching.

Dining Room

Nothing too fancy here other than Jason's record collection and turntable setup.

The door to the right leads to the kitchen.

Den

Back over to the den... this is where we probably spend a majority of our time.  Matilda loves the carpet.  Who knew that carpet could make a kid so happy?

So a few things going on here.  Yes, that is some sort of wood burning grill in our living room.  Yes, that's a lot of wood paneling.  Yes, we have a massive beer stein collection handed down to us by Jason's grandma.  And finally, yes we have a random door which makes no sense to us since you can walk 15 feet into the kitchen to use that door to get to the back patio.  That's why we blocked it off with the couch. 

But, here's what's great about this room... the massive sliding glass door overlooking the ravine. 

Breakfast Area

Heading out of the den towards the kitchen, we have Matilda's play area and the breakfast area.

Hi Matilda. 

Here's the view from the kitchen, through the breakfast area, and towards the den.

Kitchen

Here's a close-up of the kitchen.  Kinda reminds me of our redone kitchen in our prior house.  The gas stove is a bit fancy.  It's a gas oven as well which is pretty rare.

Here's the view of the sink area and the nice window above the sink.  There's a covered walkway to the utility room connected to the garage.

Hallway

So stepping out of the kitchen, through the dining room, leads you to the hallway to the bathroom and bedrooms.

Bathroom

The first door to the right is the bathroom.  Not much to see here other than a bunch of white tile.  The bathroom is original to the house, so it's starting to show its 70+ year age.

Master Bedroom

It's not the biggest master bedroom in the world, but it does fit a king size bed with no issues.  For now, Jason and I have separate closets, but that will change once we add the second bathroom.

Nursery

I just finished decorating baby sister's room.  I'm still waiting on one more picture to come in from Etsy (ignore the bottom frame above the changing table for now) and I need to organize the closet, but otherwise it's done.  We went with a navy/teal/pink camping/woodlands theme.

It was pretty difficult trying to figure out a layout that accommodated the twin bed, crib, and glider, but I think I got it to work.  We'll likely change the nursery into a Montessori style room once she's between 6-12 months old, so this is just temporary anyways. 

Just as with Matilda's nursery, I crafted a few of the decorations.  I made the banner above the crib, her name, and pillow cases out of matching fabric.  They were fun little projects.

Matilda's Room

Matilda's room is pretty much the same as the other house except we recently moved her into a twin bed so we could use the crib for the baby.  I re-covered a headboard that we had previously made for our old queen bed.

So, that's it.  I'll eventually get some exterior pics as well.  We're enjoying the new house.  :)