This weekend, we scooped out what used to be our bedroom, and painted little clouds and a tree on the walls for the nursery. Seriously, it is so dreamy, you will have a baby just looking at it.
Click for the set:
Above is the tree without leaves. As you will read in my flickr note, I was very tempted to leave the tree like this, because I completely depend on Plain, Drab Colors. However, there was no need for that, and also, the tree looked kind of spooky and dead. So, I left the house while Erik added leaves (read: blobs). We used Blickrylics acrylic paints in a nice mix of burnt sienna and raw umber, then pure green oxide for the leaves. And, of course, pure white for the clouds. We used little circle sponges for the clouds and the leaves - the same one. We had bought yellow with the intention of having different shades of green, and even yellow accents in the clouds, but holy god. That would have a) taken too long, and b) probably looked nothing like we'd planned, and c) would unsimplify the look too much. Erik also wanted to shade the tree trunk with lighter and darker lines depending on how the light hits it from the windows. It didn't happen yet, and I already put away the paints due to my Frantic Nesting yesterday.
I'm 33 weeks now (the belly, it is gigantic), and things are going as swimmingly as possible for a third trimester. After next week's appointment with the midwives, we'll start going in for weekly appointments. I've never felt so important! This also means that we shouldn't show up for said weekly appointments without a) a pediatrician lined up, and b) a carseat which we do not own yet installed into the car.
Which leads me to the Frantic Nesting phase that I mentioned earlier. The reality that we're having a BABY is kicking in, strangely. I'm starting to panic about having the nursery set up. I just tried to set up some of the cabinets we bought for the baby's room, and ended up just laughing at all the parts, and lining them up in a nicely arranged manner on the floor for someone else to deal with. Yesterday, after the painting was finished, I cleaned every square inch of baseboard and trim, and then washed the wood floors, something we hardly ever do. Mostly out of laziness, but rationalizingly out of the fact that we really don't need to clean them that often. Also, today I made a spreadsheet of Environmentally Friendly Things To Buy Before The Baby Comes That You Really Can't Put On A Baby Registry. I'm panicking about where the baby will sleep, and the great lengths we've gone to to make sure that the baby's crib/nursery is free of anything scary and chemical (i.e., organic bedding, using wool pads instead of waterproof/plastic things, untreated pure wool rugs in the nursery, etc) (sorry, sheep), but then realizing that half+ of the time, the baby will probably be in our bed, which is currently clothed in all sorts of pesticides. Making one decision about organic home products is like a huge, expensive slippery slope. Also, at one point I considered myself a Vegan Who Avoided Wool But Not Militantly. Yeah, not so much anymore. Wool is pretty much the only things remotely "waterproof" without the prefix "poly-" infront of it. So wool it is.
Monday, February 19, 2007
