Pansy Lane

Project Life: March/April Favorites

noreply@blogger.com (Pansy Lane) — Wed, 08 May 2013 14:25:00 +0000

Scrapbook nerd, don't even care.

Oliver's giant baby book continues! I just started the THIRD album, what on earth. Here are a few of my favorite layouts from the last couple of months. AS YOU CAN SEE I'm kind of bad about using lots of pictures and not a ton of materials, but it's because I have so many pictures and of course I can't make up my mind about which ones to use.

Also, I've gone overboard about making sure to take pictures with Oliver so now I have more with him than Jeremy does. An eternal struggle.

(Not much journaling in these, but I blurred out the one card that had some.)

(The photos on the right are from the part in pat-a-cake where I make him pat my hair and he goes nuts.)

Refinishing the Floors Part 1: The Eternal Sanding

noreply@blogger.com (Pansy Lane) — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 14:12:00 +0000

I hate that these pictures have different lighting/angles, but stick with me!

Living room and master bedroom
Entryway
Hallway
Second and third bedrooms

I forgot to make Jeremy take a picture of me sanding, but BELIEVE ME, I was there.

So, the story of the floors. Our new house is a 1954 ranch with lots of charm that we're terribly excited about, but the floors are in awful shape. The kitchen is yucky old sheet vinyl and the hardwoods have been hidden for years under carpeting that the previous owner ripped up before putting the house on the market. (He decided to leave the refinishing to the new owners-- lucky us!)

We just finished all the sanding Saturday night. It took us three days total, one for prep and two for sanding. (Although it was spread over a week because we had to work out schedules and babysitters.) It wasn't difficult, exactly, but it's a lot of work and feels like it takes forever. If you're just doing one room you can probably have the sanding and staining done in a day, but we sanded four rooms, the hallway, and the entryway, so ARGHHHHH. (I haven't calculated the square footage yet but I'll put that in part two.) I also didn't bother to get a quote for a professional job, but I figure with cost of labor it would have been kind of insane.

Neither of us have done anything even remotely this big before, but we read a lot about it and watched youtube videos and it seemed doable. And what's the point of owning a house if you aren't going to jump in and DO STUFF, right? You have to rent a big drum sander and smaller edger from Home Depot and buy sandpaper for it (36, 60, and 100 grit). First, you strip off the old finish with the 36 grit. This leaves the floor pretty rough but removes all the old grossness. That stupid edger was the worst thing! I used it a few times but it was crazy and I had to wrestle it to keep it from zooming away. It wouldn't even get close enough to the edge! What's its purpose in life, then? Why does it exist? I read a tutorial that suggested not renting it-- that tutorial is correct. I had to go around the edge and in corners/around doors with my little palm sander. Also, whoever put down carpet repainted the baseboards first and thoughtfully left a smear of paint along the edge. THANKS!

See those dark spots in the first collage photo? That's all the water damage in the living room. Thankfully we were able to fix it up with oxalic acid (wood bleach) and lots and lots of sanding. There were some pretty clear traffic patterns that we wanted to make sure to lighten-- it didn't have to be perfect (and it isn't) but it would look pretty crappy if we left it uneven. I would say we've spent about twenty-ish hours on this so far-- fifteen for sanding, four or five for prep (bleaching and pulling up staples, nails, and old shoe molding). It's incredibly satisfying to see what we've done so far!

So! Here's what you need for sanding hardwood floors:

Drum sander and edger from Home Depot
36, 60, 100 grit sandpaper
respirator masks and goggles
oxalic acid for any dark spots (plus a bowl, brush, and rags)
plastic sheeting to tape off rooms and vents. This is important. The sanders have bags, and the first day there was almost zero mess. The second day the edger bag had a hole in it (DAMN YOU, EDGER!) and we didn't realize until about halfway through the living room. So.. yeah. We have a mess to clean up.
Putty knife, needle nose pliers, and a hammer for pulling up nails/staples/random leftover things
Broom and vacuum

Part two will be all about putting on the new finish!

Oliver: Six Months

noreply@blogger.com (Pansy Lane) — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 13:24:00 +0000

Six months!! That's such a thing. Of course it doesn't feel like it's been that long at all. Oliver's getting to be so much fun. He's really ticklish, so making him laugh is still my favorite thing. His laugh is my favorite sound. That sounds kind of cliche, but it's true-- I never knew it was my favorite sound until I heard it. Yesterday we were taking more chalkboard photos (it usually takes me a few days to get them right..) and he started blowing raspberries at us! So that's his new thing, blowing raspberries. We do it at him and he does it back. We sat him up in front of the chalkboard yesterday morning and that's all he would do.

We're going to try food for the first time this weekend! I'm weirdly nervous about it, but it also seems really fun. I think avocado will be first.

But oh. Let me tell you about the big "welcome to six months!" drama. I didn't really talk about it online because I was pretty traumatized-- last week Oliver fell off the changing table! Jeremy turned around for a second and he scooted right off the end. It was horrifying. Thankfully since Jeremy's a nurse he was clear-headed enough to notice that his pupils were okay, he started crying right away, all good signs. But he was screaming and bleeding and I was panicking all over the place. He was back to normal-- babbling away and playing-- on the way to the ER, but it was still the scariest thing in the world! NO THANK YOU. He had to have a stitch (which he didn't care for at ALL) and then fell asleep before we left. Obviously we now use the buckle on the changing pad. ALWAYS USE THE BUCKLE.

I would like that to never happen again, thanks. But of course everyone in the ER had a million stories about how they accidentally hurt their children. It was oddly comforting. We haven't had any disapproving comments, (thanks, everyone!) just "OH IT HAPPENS!" "OH THAT'S NOTHING!!" Ahaha.

It looks much better now. The stitch was taken out on Monday and now he's good as new!

Happy 28

noreply@blogger.com (Pansy Lane) — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 17:11:00 +0000

Saturday was my birthday and it was pretty great (mostly because this little guy exists!). All I really wanted was to take some good pictures with him, because I've noticed the downside of always being behind the camera is that I have a ton of pictures of Oliver and Jeremy (which I love, of course) but it means that I have to make an actual effort to take pictures of us together. So we spread out a blanket and took some pictures in the front yard. Then my parents came over that afternoon and watched him while Jeremy and I went to dinner and the beach. (Sidenote: still very chilly at the beach. But pretty!)

We closed on the house today, so that's the BEST POSSIBLE birthday present! Yay! Ahhhh! House!!

Our New 1955 GE Refrigerator!

noreply@blogger.com (Pansy Lane) — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 01:05:00 +0000

Egg shelf!

(Obviously it needs some work.)

I found this on craigslist yesterday for $130. And it works! It seems to be in good shape-- it's missing a drawer and needs to be painted/polished, and it has some rust and cracking around the inside of the frame, but I think I can handle all that. It runs, that's the important part. The GE logo on the inside lights up when you open the door and it's BLUE. Come on awesome refrigerator! I had no idea I wanted you in my life.

The serial number is LM-95-KC, and according to the GE website that means it was made in June of 1954. I found pictures of similar models online but not this exact one, so I'm just going to assume that I read the serial number right and that it's from '54.

It isn't the same model but this commercial kills me. We have a butter conditioner! Of course it's called a butter conditioner.

I've never paid any attention to vintage refrigerators because I thought they were terrible with energy and too small to make any sense. I loved the look of them (of course) but thought I would just have to save up for a reproduction. False! I've been reading up on them and they're actually pretty energy efficient (as long as the seal is good) because they kick off and on instead of constantly running. This one doesn't have the auto-defrost feature, which also saves on energy-- of course it means we'll have to manually defrost every now and then, so that'll be interesting. We'll also have to buy a deep freezer for extra space, but we were going to get one of those anyway. The size seems like it'll actually work fine for us, although we'll probably have to get creative around the holidays.

I'm going to make this thing so pretty.

So this makes the third vintage appliance we have for the new house. Woo! Plus I just bought a '50s/'60s fan the other day, because honestly. Our old bedroom fan just died and the stupid thing was only five years old. This one is at least fifty and it's way more powerful anyway. Vintage appliances/electronics are the way to go! Nothing is made to last these days.

New fan and toys and clock.

House News & Recent Photos

noreply@blogger.com (Pansy Lane) — Sat, 06 Apr 2013 22:51:00 +0000

Sooo.

We're very close to closing on the house, which is awesome. But I'm having all these FEELINGS. I'm excited (obviously!) but this house is the first place that we're actually going to be sad to leave, and it's weird. Our college apartments were just small, boring, college apartments, and we were excited to move on after graduating. The New Bern apartment was gorgeous but definitely had its problems and we couldn't wait to get out of that town. St. Louis and Albuquerque were always going to be temporary. But this one is different! It's our first house, even though we're just renting. We have a yard and privacy and space. It's full of happy memories because it was our first place back in Wilmington, I was pregnant here, and since I had a home birth Oliver was born here, so leaving is kind of sad.

I know that it's time to move on, and I know we're going to have a lot of fun at the new place because it'll actually be ours. But still. I've had a hard time getting motivated enough to pack things. In nine days we're going to own a house and it's going to be Oliver's childhood home and we get to do anything we want to it. It's a lot to wrap my head around.

So this week we're getting serious-- boxes will be packed and walls will be repainted. We'll probably spend the rest of April fixing things up and then officially move sometime next month. The house isn't technically a fixer-upper (it's in good shape) but we're so excited to make it how we want it. First we're refinishing the floors, and then painting, and this summer we're redoing the kitchen.

If I have any readers left after my crazy end-of-pregnancy/post-baby disappearance, I'm about to start posting again in earnest because DIY house blogs are my new favorite thing and we have soooooo many projects coming up. Outfit posts will happen again soon too because I'm starting to feel more like myself again, body-wise. But for now here are a few recent pics of my little sweetface:

The first rule of posing with a baby-- you'll never look at the camera at the same time.

Oliver: Five Months

noreply@blogger.com (Pansy Lane) — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 21:58:00 +0000

This is pretty indicative of his personality.

I feel like every time I turn around I'm doing monthly chalkboard photos. Too fast! Stop it, kid!

So many changes have happened this month, I don't even know what's going on. He laughs really hard at certain things-- usually just tickling, but he also loves when we play pat-a-cake and say "paaaaaaat it!" while patting his hands on our head. I don't know why he loves that but it cracks him up so we do it a lot. He doesn't laugh at funny faces and yet but he smiles all day every day. He was introduced to his jumperoo and immediately started having the best time ever, bouncing bouncing bouncing. Forever bouncing, this little boy. I bounced on the exercise ball while pregnant with him, bouncing was the only thing that calmed him down the first couple of months, and now he has to bounce in his jumper. Bounce bounce.

He and George are becoming really good friends. I can see this being both adorable and headachey when he becomes mobile! Weetzie is still kind of unsure about him. She isn't aggressive but she's pretty indifferent, and it's weird because when he was born she was all about him and George was really nervous. If we pet her while Oliver touches her she's fine with it, so that's what we do. I'm sure she'll come around eventually but of course it bums me out that she isn't as obsessed with him as George.

He's just the happiest, most delightful little thing. He loves going on jogs with Jeremy and babbles to himself before falling into a deep sleep. Oh and teething is happening in a serious way over here, oh my god! He's been chewing and drooling all over the place for a while now but it's starting to pick up. He finally discovered the magic of Sophie the Giraffe and noms on her all the time (George thinks Sophie is a dog toy and always tries to grab her and trot away). The teething isn't too bad right now, but I'm bracing for drama. We can see two white bumps that look promising, but then again it's not like we've done this before so who knows.

Oliver's favorite book has become this random Farm Peekaboo book given to us by my mom. He's so into it! He also likes Peek-a-Who (interactive books are a Big Deal right now) and the big animal book, but when I pick up Farm Peekaboo he's like, "YES GOD FINALLY THANK YOU."

Favorite pics from this month:

with poor Sophie!

Project Life

noreply@blogger.com (Pansy Lane) — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 01:29:00 +0000

One of the reasons I haven't been posting about knitting or sewing lately is because I'm totally preoccupied with this whole Project Life thing. I've kept "scrapbooks" (really just photo albums with extra stuff like ticket stubs and birthday cards thrown in) since Jeremy and I were in high school, but I've never been a scrapbook-scrapbook kind of person. Even though I usually love any excuse to be creative, actual scrapbooking always seemed way too overwhelming to me (and has a reputation for being pretty lame). So when I found out about Project Life I was intrigued because it simplifies the process big time. Basically you pick a binder, a core kit (with journaling and filler cards), and photo pages with different layouts, and then you just put everything together! And it's really easy and ridiculously fun for nerds like me. I love to browse Pinterest for inspiration because everyone has a different style. It's seriously my favorite thing right now.

People usually start a new binder at the beginning of the year and update it weekly (I'm definitely doing that next year). When Oliver was born I knew I wanted to do something awesome for his baby book, so I got the Baby Edition for Christmas and started working on it in January. I'm aiming to update every two weeks or so. I want it to be more than just a baby book-- I want to create a record of our first year together as a family. I've been writing little notes to him and including memorable things that we do so that he can look back on it one day.

Anyway, enough about that, here are a few of my favorite pages so far (I blurred some of my journaling).

Note: I'm not affiliated with Project Life at all. I just really like it.

PS: I cut my hair again. Hi!

Recent Thrift Luck

noreply@blogger.com (Pansy Lane) — Sat, 02 Mar 2013 14:45:00 +0000

Last week we found a (new to us) thrift store and left with all kinds of wonderfulness. Not pictured is a big stack of children's books-- probably the best book-haul I've had since Savers in Albuquerque. I miss that place! It had a whole section of (organized!) books and they were all in great condition. And it seems like every picture book we found was a winner. Sigh.

The Toastmaster is from a local antique shop, but it was only $25 and works perfectly. Vintage toasters are so much prettier than modern ones! It seems that you can find a reasonably priced, working vintage one for half the price of a modern reproduction. I've been on the lookout for one of these for a while, but it's one of those things I wanted to find in person instead of ordering online. It's more satisfying.

We already have a similar set of wooden bowls (they're great for salads) but it's nice to have more because they're so pretty. The fabric is actually vintage valences-- I'm not sure yet if I'm going to use them or turn them into pillows.

Melmac dishes and a ceramic bowl. I don't know much about the bowl except that it says "Porto Alegre Made in Portugal"

Adelaide was a thrifting find from my mom. I'd never heard of it before but now I love it-- I've already read it to Oliver several times.

The stove!

It's obviously really tempting to buy lots of stuff for the new house, but we're trying to keep a lid on it. We allowed ourselves to splurge on the pink stove, but that's all! It was actually a really good deal for $350. I know you've already seen it if you follow me on Instagram but oh man, that stove. We started stalking craigslist looking for a vintage stove but I had no idea an actual pink one would pop up. Pink! And it's in awesome condition.. we need to clean it and fix the light, but that's all. And this is why I love Jeremy: when I sent him the link to the post I expected him to balk at the pinkness of it all but he said, "Email them right now we have to have this." Yes!

Oliver: Four Months

noreply@blogger.com (Pansy Lane) — Sun, 24 Feb 2013 17:53:00 +0000

I don't know how it's possible that I take pictures of him every day and I'm still always late taking/posting these monthly ones. Something about doing "formal" shots freaks me out! Anyway, here they are five days late.

My little gentleman turned four months last week! Things are getting so fun over here, it's pretty fantastic. He's been so smiley and happy, and we finally got some laughs out of him (just from tickling though, funny faces only make him smile). He loves his grandparents and seems pretty cool with the friends we see regularly, although he hasn't been around a ton of new people yet. Now that he's more interested in things I want to start taking him out a little more-- we might try library story time soon, and we have some dates with other baby-friends coming up.

He can roll over from tummy to back, and can almost go from back to tummy but gets stuck on his arm and hangs out on his side all confused for a while. The Ergo is still the best way to get him to settle down and sleep if we're out of the house, but if we're home he tends to prefer napping next to me on the couch like so:

We're very fortunate over here because the kid still sleeps soundly all night. I'm always saying that all things considered, he's like an Intro to Babies baby. Luck luck luck. He has a pretty predictable nap schedule too-- up at seven, awake for about an hour at the most, back to sleep until 11-12ish. The evenings are the challenging bits, because he gets really tired around five and usually fights sleep until we can finally help him settle down. I don't know why babies fight sleep! He kicks and groans and whines and it's like, come on dude. You're not missing anything, we promise!

He discovered the dogs pretty recently and George is all about him. He lets him grab blindly at his face and everything-- as long as he's touching him, George is a happy dog. Although the other day he grabbed George's ear too roughly and he started yelping, which scared Oliver who started crying, and it was this whole cycle of AHHH I'M SCARED AHHH IT HURTS WHAT'S GOING ONNNN AHHH HELP US. Of course Oliver didn't realize what he did so I had to pry George's ear out of his hand and reassure both of them that everything was okay. Awww.

So yes, this month is shaping up to be a fun one. We got our little checklist thing at the doctor for his six month appointment and it was all, "Does your baby lean on his hands when sitting?" "Does he make sounds like 'ba, ma, da?'" "Does he get up on all fours and try to crawl?" and we thought oh my god, these things are going to happen soon! What! This whole baby thing is way too exciting.

Lately

noreply@blogger.com (Pansy Lane) — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 16:26:00 +0000

I've been so lazy about posting these days but I swear I have Reasons. We bought a house!! Well, we don't close until the end of March, but still. The contract is signed and things are underway. A house! It's in our favorite neighborhood and was built in 1950, a little brick ranch. It has everything we wanted. Right now we're set to move in June after our lease ends, and obviously I'm going to have tons to post about then, because we can DO WHATEVER WE WANT. Change the appliances! Plant things! Paint without having to get approval! And the best one: no more carpet ever again! The dogs will have an actual yard to run in circles until they pass out from happy. We're already planning so many projects. We want to make a big farmhouse table and built-in bookshelves. So many things!

In the meantime though, here are my current favorite Oliver pictures (that was not a very good segue, but there you go). At the beginning of the year I decided to take one photo of him a day for the entire year-- it sounds dramatic but isn't that much of a stretch, since I take lots of photos every day anyway. I have so many to choose from that my favorites are constantly changing. It's going to be so hard to pick out which ones to frame!

Olive & Coral

noreply@blogger.com (Pansy Lane) — Sun, 03 Feb 2013 14:03:00 +0000

I picked up this skirt and sweater on my last thrfiting trip. One of the best things about going thrifting is when you accidentally find a whole outfit (this one was about $5!). I love all these colors together-- olive green, pale blue, coral-- and putting together the sweater and skirt inspired me to drag out these tights that I haven't worn in ages and start wearing this coat a little more. And my piggy mittens! Hello, piggy mittens. You are adorable forever.

thrifted sweater, skirt, & vintage coat

mystery tights of unknown origin

piggy mittens & Oliver's hat made by me

Make Your Own Toys by Sue Havens

noreply@blogger.com (Pansy Lane) — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 21:50:00 +0000

I got this book for Christmas and haven't tried it out yet, but it looks pretty adorable! It's all sewing patterns, which is good because I'm not great at sewing and it'll be nice to have something cute to inspire me to practice. A few of them require you to make patchwork fabric (like the kitty, which I think I want to make first) so I went thrifting for some clothes with different patterns and colors that I can cut up and put together. I think this is a pretty good start, but I'll probably end up knitting a few multi-colored squares to use here and there to make everything more colorful. That's what I like about this book, though-- it encourages you to go thrifting or use your old clothes to make stuff, which just makes sense.

The patterns seem pretty easy, so wish me luck!

A few favorites:

MR. BIG HEAD. I am obviously making him asap.

Oliver: Three Months

noreply@blogger.com (Pansy Lane) — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 16:13:00 +0000

This little boy!

He is my favorite little boy. This month he started doing wonderful things like sleeping through the night (!) (probably short-lived, but pssh who cares) and giving us big gummy grins and doing super push-ups on his play mat. He's been batting at toys and loves looking in the mirror. He doesn't laugh yet but he makes plenty of little happy noises, including this weird croak-y sound (I call it a pre-laugh). Mornings are his happiest time, and they're still the best part of my day because I love when he wakes up and smiles at me like, "Hey! It's YOU!! You're still here!" I'm here, sweetface, and I'm not going anywhere ever ever ever.

Taking his monthly photos is fun but interesting because of the whole can't-sit-up thing, so we have about twenty seconds before he slumps over and we have to stop the whole operation and prop him up again (which you can tell from the chalkboard smudges-- when we were done the back of his head and onesie were covered in chalk). But the cuteness! The cuteness is worth it.

I'm looking forward to so many things, like making him laugh. I can't wait to make him laugh! We went on our first stroller walk over the weekend and it was a big hit, with him babbling to himself the whole time like he was trying to talk about everything he saw. We've taken him on walks in the Ergo before but he would just fall asleep, so it's nice to be able to show him things. A couple months ago we were so nervous about how you're supposed to just leave the house and do things with a baby coming along too, but it's much less scary now. You just leave the house and do things, but the baby is there too! Who knew.

Adventures in vegan pie-making: Razzleberry

noreply@blogger.com (Pansy Lane) — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 14:11:00 +0000

I made my first apple pie on Thanksgiving (it was a big success!) and now I'm hooked. I wouldn't stop talking to everyone about how much fun it was and how I wanted to buy pretty pie plates and make lots of pies from now on. I don't know why I love it so much, I suppose because they're deceptively easy but so satisfying to look at after you're all done.

I've made a few basic pies before-- just simple ones with no-bake pie shells-- but never anything that required me to make my own dough, so the apple pie was a pretty big deal. I must have been going on about it an awful lot because I got six pie plates for Christmas! Ahaha. Three deep-dish and three regular. The three regular ones are vintage pyrex that belonged to Jeremy's great aunt, but his mom gave them to me along with a vintage enamel cookware set that I'll have to show you once I get them cleaned up. Orange seventies goodness!

I also got Vegan Pie In The Sky and I'm excited to cook my way through it. Pies! Pies for every holiday! Pies for no reason! It's your birthday? HAVE A PIE. Tuesday? PIE TIME. I'll try to post about the successful ones if I can manage to get good photos of them. Food photography is ridiculously hard.

This one is Razzleberry courtesy of Rebecca's mom from Girl's Gone Child, although I keep accidentally calling it Snazzleberry out loud. Jeremy called it Snozzberry. I picked it because it looked delish and I already had frozen blueberries and raspberries on hand, and it was easy-peasy to veganize by switching the butter to Earth Balance.

It turned out delicious, and quite pretty too! I don't expect it to last very long around here.

I'm a deer.

noreply@blogger.com (Pansy Lane) — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 21:46:00 +0000

I blend in, right?

I made a deer hat! I never knit hats for myself but this winter I'm determined to change that. I have plans for a mouse hat and a polar bear and maybe a plain one with a pom pom, and then I'll at least be prepared next winter and won't have to scramble around and wish I had been on top of things (like I always do).

I also need a decent pair of mittens, because that's another thing I always make for other people and never have time to make for myself. I only have my piggy mittens. There are so many patterns I want to try and not nearly enough cold weather months to justify them, but shhh. They're fun.

f21 cardigan
thrifted skirt & boots
chinese laundry tights
thrifted/vintage children's coat

Books That Make You A Better Person: Most Good, Least Harm by Zoe Weil

noreply@blogger.com (Pansy Lane) — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 18:44:00 +0000

If one of your goals in the new year is to become more conscious about the things you consume (whether it’s food or material goods) and find ways to be more involved in your community, Most Good, Least Harm should definitely be on your reading list. The book is set up as a little guide for improving your life-- Part 1 (“Looking Inward”) focuses on ways you can better yourself by making conscious choices to live how you want others to remember you (known as “Live Your Epitaph”), and Part 2 is all about “Choosing Outward,” and achieving happiness by helping others. Simply put, the “MOGO” (most good) philosophy is all about living the best life possible by choosing to seek out ways to make the world a better place.

Books like this can easily come across as idealistic, because sure it all sounds great and it’s common sense that we should try to help others and make the world better and blah blah. The thing is, it’s easy enough to go through life without really trying to do anything. Being excited about the idea of volunteering with an animal rescue group is one thing, but the trick to improving yourself (and for doing anything, really) is to keep that inspiration going. That’s why this book is awesome—instead of just leaving it up to you to figure out, it lists tons of ideas you can use and questions you can ask yourself to keep up with a MOGO lifestyle. Here's part of a little quiz that appears in the "Activism" section:

1. What issues or problems most concern you? Are you particularly drawn to solve problems such as poverty, inadequate education, child abuse, food insecurity, genetic engineering, animal cruelty, global climate change, sweatshop labor, escalating worldwide slavery, peak oil, media monopolies, HIV/AIDS, nuclear weapons, genocide, resource depletion, pollution? Is there a community issue that you feel passionately about? Beyond your family and friends, who and what do you care most about?

2. What skills and talents do you have that could be combined with your concerns above to enable you to make a difference? (p.133)

Regarding consumerism, everything about a product—from the material to the production and distribution—has an effect on our environment. (This is another common sense thing that we all know, but whether or not you choose to make it something that's important to you is just that, a choice.) The same is true for food. Whether you're looking to eliminate/decrease your meat consumption or just want to start buying produce locally, it's so important to be a conscious eater. What you choose to consume is a direct reflection of your beliefs, values, and how willing you are to do your own research about things.

The book also has practical information about how to involve yourself locally, which is what I’ll be working on this year. It really is a helpful little guidebook if you want to start making small changes here and there but don't quite know where to start, and in the back there’s a pretty extensive recommendation list for relevant books/films/organizations. I find myself flipping through it often when I’m looking for a new read or a recommendation for a friend.

Happy new year, guys! Hopefully this inspires a few of you.

Oliver: Two Months

noreply@blogger.com (Pansy Lane) — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 20:19:00 +0000

(A week late, because Christmasfuntime got in the way..)

I tried to take a lying-down photo of him in front of the chalkboard but he's much happier when we try to sit him up for things.

This month has been so fun! Oliver has gotten pretty good at holding his head up (when we're holding him) so he feels like this little person that looks around at the world and it's awesome. He smiles like crazy now, but I still have the hardest time getting good pictures of it because he would much rather make lots of crazy faces at the camera. He's especially smiley in the morning, though. We usually wake up about 7:30 and go into the living room, and I put him in his vibrating seat and get him to smile at me for a while. He coos a lot and it's fun to have little conversations with him.

Christmas was fun, but it'll be much better next year when he can participate! It was hard not to go crazy and buy him all the toys but we resisted and just got him a couple of stuffed animals (the grandparents bought tons of toys, though). I'm really excited because I'm about to start his baby album-- I'm doing Project Life, and it's going to start at the beginning of my pregnancy and run all the way to his first birthday. I just have to order all of his pictures I've taken so far (so. many.) so I can catch up.

I promise there will be a return to outfit photos soon! And I want to post about all the hats I've made him, because I've gone a little nuts with them lately..

Christmas 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Pansy Lane) — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 14:50:00 +0000

Last week I made Oliver a Rudolph Hat and used it for our Christmas card photos-- it came out so ridiculously cute I can't even stand it oh my god. How is he a real person?

Outtakes! The self-timer on my camera was turned to a weird setting and the shutter kept going off randomly instead of ten times in a row. It cracked me up, I don't know. The one on the right is my favorite of us at the moment!

We had to kind of wedge him in the corner of the chair since he can't sit up yet.

(As you can see.)

Dollface.

HE'S JUST THE BEST THING. And he turns two months today. Photos/post to come!

Enchanted Airlie

noreply@blogger.com (Pansy Lane) — Sat, 15 Dec 2012 14:13:00 +0000

Last night we went to Enchanted Airlie at Airlie Gardens to see the Christmas lights. I put Oliver in the Ergo and he slept through the whole thing, which was funny because so far he's slept through every shopping trip and outing as long as he's cuddled against me in it. We were both super warm (I kept checking to make sure he was okay, but we seemed to be keeping each other toasty!) but poor Jeremy forgot to wear a warmer coat and got colder and colder as we went along. I can't fault him for it, though-- last winter we didn't get to wear coats at all so it takes a while to get used to it. I've already started planning outfits around my coats and I'm ridiculously excited about it! I love when we have a real winter.

The garden was super pretty-- I think my favorite part were the giant oaks covered in moss and lights, and since we went at five we got to see the sunset on the pier. There were tons of kids and I kept thinking about how nice it'll be to bring Oliver there when he's older.

Old Winter Favorites

noreply@blogger.com (Pansy Lane) — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 20:36:00 +0000

The good thing about having a winter baby is that I basically have a free pass to hibernate until the weather warms up-- by that time he'll be big enough to take on walks, and I'll (hopefully) have the hang of the whole taking-the-baby-out-of-the-house deal. The bad thing is that we actually have winter weather this year (!) and I'm missing it! So until I can get myself together enough to actually, you know, get dressed and take pictures, here are a few winter outfit posts that I love from the last few years. They're (almost) all from our stint in St. Louis because they had weather.

Looking at my old hair is a dangerous game because it's so hard not to cut it these days. No cutting! Long hair is the goal!

I'm taking the time.. (2009)

A New Romantic (2009)

"Just tell yourself, Duckie.." (2010)

Braving the cold.. (2010)

There's no home for you here.. (2010)

Dino Skeleton Island (2011)

Leaving St. Louis (2011)

Oliver: One Month

noreply@blogger.com (Pansy Lane) — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 18:46:00 +0000

(I couldn't make up my mind if I wanted to do photos in front of the chalkboard or on the rug, so. Both.)

I can't believe it's been a month already! I know everyone always says that, but it really has flown by ridiculously fast. I keep looking at pictures of him from his first week and I'm blown away by how different he looks. He's really chunked up lately and can suddenly fit snugly in the Ergo carrier, even though just last week he was way too small and sank too low. I've only tried it out a couple of times but he seems to like sleeping in it while I walk around doing things. He's also getting pretty good at lifting his head, and there's minimal floppage now! I'm still waiting on that first real smile. His hair is growing pretty well on the top and back of his head, but not so much in the front, so he looks kind of like an old man. (By the way, the heartburn thing was true for me-- he was born with hair!) So far I think my attitude has been that I just can't wait for things. I'm making sure to enjoy this time because I've already learned how quickly he changes, but I'm so looking forward to all the new things that will happen in the next few months.

I'm just now starting to return to my normal routine-- or well, my new normal routine. Jeremy used tons of vacation time and still has about another month or so at home with us, so that's been a lifesaver for me. We've had a lot of fun watching Breaking Bad and rewatching Firefly and just hanging out with Oliver, getting the hang of this whole parenting thing. I'm still not great at managing my free time and I haven't had more than three hours of sleep in a row for a month, but who cares. This is awesome.

A few favorite pictures from the last month:

Five days old.

One week old.

Eleven days old.

Three weeks.

A few days ago.

Introducing

noreply@blogger.com (Pansy Lane) — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 16:14:00 +0000

Oliver Gray Thompson

Born at home on October 19, 12:08 am

7lbs 6oz, 21" long

♥

Taking a blogging break while I get to know this little guy.

A DIY Halloween

noreply@blogger.com (Pansy Lane) — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 15:50:00 +0000

I've been busy making Halloween things.

(Not since my last post-- these are all things from earlier in the month!)

Apart from our homemade plywood decorations (which are already up again) we didn't do much else as far as decorating last year. I wanted to actually decorate the inside of the house this year, so Pinterest to the rescue! Jeremy got excited and helped me make the wreath (spraypainting and ghost-making), and he spraypainted the gourd ghosts.. he's been almost as crafty as me lately.

I almost scrapped this bunting idea because I thought it would be much more annoying to do than it actually was. It only took a few minutes! The most time-consuming part was making the stencils.

Gauze-ghost candle holders! These were easy because I tend to hoard glass jars..

I already had everything on hand to make the wreath, except for the wreath itself (which was only $2 or so). Paperclay ghosts, random tulle from my fabric drawer, white spraypaint. Ta-dah. It didn't take long for us to draw and cut out the ghosts, and then they took a few days to air dry. I'm excited about actually having a Halloween wreath now, instead of just an autumn one.

HOW CUTE. I think it looks like they're singing in a ghost-y choir. The idea is to carve the pumpkin with a scared face, as if he's freaked out by all these crazy gourd guys.

Pregnancy Style: Thirty-Nine Weeks! ALMOST THERE.

noreply@blogger.com (Pansy Lane) — Sun, 14 Oct 2012 15:26:00 +0000

Jeremy: "Hold your skeleton baby!"

Hello belly! Who's in there?

(Sorry for wearing the same skirt two posts in a row, it's the only one left I can trick into still fitting me!)

This week Jeremy and I decided to take some pictures together, since we never planned to book an actual maternity shoot. I love how they turned out, even though it seemed like everyone in the world showed up to our little secluded spot in the park after we started shooting. I've never been crazy about taking outfit photos around people, but maybe I'm just more sensitive to it since being pregnant, since I want to get them done as quickly as possible and can't concentrate very well with lots of people around. I love the kissing photo even though the lighting was weird and the filter exacerbated it-- there was no time to try again because we just wanted to hurry and move to another spot. We really need to buy some sort of professional equipment just to scare everyone away!

Also, how perfect is this top?! I know it'll only be relevant for another week or so, but it's adorable and perfect for October.

On the baby news front: obviously he's not here yet, and I don't have any real pre-labor signs except for my Braxton-Hicks picking up again. It's cool with my midwife to go to 42 weeks if necessary, and she always emphasizes to me that first-time moms tend to go "over", but I'm ready now! I know he'll come when he's ready, though. I'm not nervous about labor, but I'm nervous about the start of labor, since it's such a surprise. Mostly I just want to get this whole baby-having show on the road, already. I hate waiting on things! I'm going to have to keep insanely busy this week to stop myself from going nuts.

Target cardigan & tights
Motherhood tee, iron-on from Etsy
Modcloth skirt
Thrifted vintage boots

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Thirty-Eight
Thirty-Six
Thirty-Three
Thirty
Twenty-Five