Oy to the VEY

It's been a week, let me tell you. Last Sunday - baby massage excellence, much sleepiness.

Monday - 6 week growth spurt kicks in - right on schedule. (YAY) This includes cluster feeding, restless sleep, general crankiness. Mama settles in to watch 30 Rock, marathon-style, on Netflix Streaming.

Tuesday - more growth spurt. More 30 Rock.

Wednesday - see above. 30 second to post blog while feeding child. Mama feels like rock star.

Sometime Wednesday night - Mama starts to feel achy...and her boobs hurt (although from hour-long nursing sessions that starts as soon as they've ended, there could be a reason) and then...FEVER. HIGH FEVER. And hard, red lumps on the right boobie. More achiness. As Bridget Jones said so eloquently: "fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck." Mastitis. Again. Insert mass amounts of ibuprofen.

Thursday- combine Monday, plus Tuesday, plus Wednesday night. Jealous yet?

Friday - even more of the same, but I'm out of 30 Rock. So I watch a trailer by Chris Rock called Good Hair* and the second disc of the first season of Mad Men.

Yesterday - more of the same, but with husband home there is someone to hold the Rabid Bunny while Mama runs some errands. But around that there was more sitting on the couch boobing my son and watching Mondovino**.

And today - as I am feeling better (but Rabid Bunny is STILL crankypants and overly tired), we had infant massage. An invention so awesomesauce it gets its own blog. Don't let me forget.

Sad realization, folks. That picture from Wednesday? It was taken last Sunday at baby massage. With my Phd. Let me refresh your memory so we can do a side by side comparison:

 

Yeah. So that was the old Olympus Stylus that has been so good to me.

And this is with my phone today. Same spot on the floor. More sun outside, but the same interior lighting. (no flash on either shot)

The picture quality is the same, if not better, on my freaking phone. I've been increasingly dissatisfied with the quality of my PhD. It's a 7.1megapixel Olypmus Stylus 770sw.

Don't get me wrong, I pink puffy heart this camera. It's been to 2 countries and on many, many other trips with me. It shoots 30 minutes of video, it goes in the pool, on the jet skis. I can drop it. I can give it to toddlers.

But it's had its day in the sun and mama is jonesing for a new toy. What's more, I've been saving my allowance (yes, we get allowances so we can by things we need but don't really need) so I can afford the new one.

 

(source)

It does all of the above, but the bonus: HD video and 14 megapixels. It's in my amazon cart for pre-order.

It will do much more than I want or need it to do, but what it will do for me is be a diaper-bag camera of awesomeness that will take pictures I don't immediately need to photoshop into not sucking, and therefore keep all of the grandparents in a near-constant supply of pictures.

And maybe when things calm down around here I can get in some quality time with the Nikon film, because we miss each other.

Here's hoping everyone's Monday feels like the last day of school 30 seconds after the bell rings.




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Oh yeah, right there...

Florals...for Spring. How Original.

So I thought I killed my PhD this morning. There's a theory going around that the house is haunted with a ghost who likes to take out our electronics. I wish I were kidding.

Fortunately(?) it was user error and I managed to salvage a couple of snaps of what's blooming.

Behold:

 

Something random and darling in that back awkward spot by the compost. There are a lot of these and I don't know what they are. That spot is just full of surprises! (And none of them are the pumpkins Husband planted last spring. Hm.)

 

Peach blossoms. We need to spray this tree this weekend (assuming it doesn't rain like it has been) to prevent the curl and then maybe we'll have a not-disgusting crop of peaches with which to make peach ice cream*.

We did no gardening this weekend because of the aforementioned rain. Husband did buy fertilizer for our (winter) grass and spray for the apple moths. And a sprinkler. We have mineral-rich water (which is a nice way of saying it's super hard and clogs every faucet/sprayer we use) and our previous sprinkler was no match.

There's a decent crop of oranges, though. Anyone have a good sherbet recipe?

*aka: manna from heaven

Movement Mat pt. II

So if you recall, we turned our "dining room" into the "playroom" way back in August.

And yesterday's before image is of what I did to the corner.

Here is the after image:

 

It's on film, and shot at full automatic. Sigh. But let me tell you something: it's a total PITA to keep track of which image is what settings (aperture, shutter speed...the ISO is the film speed, so that was easy: 400) AND catch an expression on your infant's face where his eyes are open and he's not about to scream with boredom. 

In PSE8 I simply boosted the exposure, contrast, and saturation. Then I used my favorite "rounded corners" action and added my watermark.

I'm not thrilled with the font, but I do like the clean bar - sans little floofy icon on the right. And since making a watermark is so very easy...I can make many, many, many incarnations until I get one I like.

Tutorial at my favorite new "how-to" site: coffeeshop.

Oh, and font by dafont.

And here's a shot of the whole corner:

 

 (shutter: 1/30, f3.5, ISO 200 - this is straight out of my phd*)

That's the madrock crash pad under there.  Good for many things including (but not limited to) tummy time, on-the-back flailing about, watching the light reflect on the ceiling, admiring ourselves in the mirror, running and falling onto while giggling like a maniac (my 2 year old nephew last week), falling onto off of a wall, couching up and reading together, couching up and spraying climbing stories that may or may not be bogus while enjoying a couple of cheap cold ones between climbs. When he gets a little older I'm going to hook up a bar for him to pull up on so he'll have somewhere sturdy and safe to practice standing. 

*phd = Push Here, Dummy. Also known as a point-and-shoot, but much more fun to say :) I do love my little Olympus for the quick and dirty shots.

So there you have it. A movement mat and some

Movement Mat

 

 

Signs of Spring

also known as: A Big Tease.

Our dwarf plum is blossoming. As are the peach trees, the apple trees, the apricot and the plum cherry trees. Time to fertilize and pre-treat to prevent infection. (on the plus side: our gardener is no longer worthless. As soon as he realized that we give a damn what our property looks like and that our plants are healthy, he totally kicked into gear. It's awesome.)

Also - it's Garden Blog Bloom Day.

PS-  what do you think of my watermark? Be honest. I'm unsure about the font and the cat....but I can't do everything in helvetica, now can I?

Happy President's Day!

I reviewed Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell over at the Book Review Blog. Good, good stuff.

So...pictures and words

Word of the day*

Kerfuffle: A minor disturbance or disagreement. Smaller than a contretemps, larger than a snag, involving more people or things than a SNAFU or a stink.

Know it. Use it. Love it.


Pictures:

 

Bunny at one week

 

Bunny at two weeks

A note on shooting film with an infant in the house. It is very hard to shoot more than two or three pictures at a time...this means my child is growing faster than I get rolls processed.

Sigh.

Oh, one last word: mastitis.

Word.

Also - Gong Hei Fat Choy!

*definition from urbandictionary.com

Things that make you go ACK!

We've had some mishaps over the past few weeks. Not just mountains of laundry and an unbelievable amount of spit-up...no. In addition to the not-unusual "crap I broke this glass/bowl/teapot" occurrence, we also BLEW UP a pyrex and we reminded to always use sheet rock anchors.

 

That's right, folks. PYREX. In shards in my microwave. I'm minding my own business one night about two weeks ago (it really is a blur with a newborn in the house) and I hear Husband call from the Kitchen: "I didn't think it was possible. I blew up one of the pyrexes in the microwave." So I get up and shuffle in and I'm aware that he's apologizing, but I'm having two reactions: 1) complete awe that YES, it didn't just crack, it exploded and I'm sad I missed the actual event...and 2) this is hysterical, I must get a picture.

For the record, this piece came from THIS line. (Part of a set we picked up at Costco. I LOVE it.) I'm currently debating replacing it with a la carte pieces from pyrex so our lids continue to be interchangeable where size of container allows...or pick up some of THESE (potentially more useful for leftovers) from Sur La Table.

So there's that.

Next we have this:

 

 

That's the left side of a towel rack. It's been wiggly but last week it just came out. I'm repairing it this weekend. I'm doing it, rather than our landlord, because he's got some crazy aversion to anchors that I'm just not on board with. Also, it gives me an excuse to repaint the entire bathroom.

 

This is the sexy tile that's in there. Believe it or not, the floor matches, except it's cheap-ass linoleum with GOLD FLECKS in it. I wish I were kidding.

Anyway - there's bits of turquoise in the tile and I'm going to match the paint to that. Hopefully, it'll help with the mood of the room. I'd normally do a pink/peach because it makes the light so flattering, but it is the boy's bathroom so I decided not to do that to them. 

More sexiness:

The lighting over the mirror. Yes, it is that yellow. It's ok to be jealous. Are those supposed to be lotuses? And yes, like every other piece of decorative metal in this house...that's brass. I can feel your jealousy.

 

The diaper changing station with it's sexxxxxxy swag on the window. I'm tempted to just take it down and hide it in the summer kitchen and hope that it catches fire. (There's normally a cover on that pad, but I think it may have gotten dirty and landed in the wetbag. Otherwise, it's been stolen by the Changing Pad Gnomes.)

Ok-  last picture - this is my 4 week post partum belly (I'd wait 'til Friday, but my ambitious schedule is already so jacked...)

 

Why yes, my boobies are humongous. And yes I have bed head. And the skin of a fifteen year old boy. 

I'll post some "afters" of the bathroom. If we weren't renting, they'd probably include new tile. They'd DEFINITELY include a new light fixture...

Happy Tuesday!

At the Tech Museum

This blog makes me wish

I had more time/motivation/space/disposable income for projects.

Nothing but inspiration. (That particular post is calling my name, but seriously. Take your time. Look around. Be inspired.)

I'm also working on a new nursery plan. Bunny is in our room (and our bed) for the foreseeable future, which means I can take my time and make a nursery worthy of the design mags I'm addicted to. If Domino were still around, I would have submitted pictures of the awesomness. Instead, I'm just using it as my yardstick.

But check this out:

 

(source)

I'm in love with that corner bench, and I could hack this one (well, two) from IKEA:

 

I'm all inspired. It would even still works with that room as a guest room.  Now if only I were cleared to carry things heavier than my infant.



PS - I'm doing a weekly series with Bunny. Sticking him in the black chair every Monday and shooting him. I'll post those up here - I feel that's a nice balance between a million "look at how cute my kid is!" images and keeping him completely anonymous. It's taking longer than anticipated to get into a rhythm, most days I can't even eat on a regular schedule.