Celebrate good times

I had such plans of posting every single day this week and here it is, Thursday.  So much for that little goal.  It's all good though because now that Nicole Bitchy (me.  I hate being sick and I really hate winter) has left the building, it's time to talk about the good things that are going on in this little life of mine.  Namely,

Our flowers survived!

The day after it snowed, it was sunny and warm and the snow was gone - completely gone and the little flowers made it!  I took Sofia and Maya out for a walk, and flowers were poking their heads out all over the neighborhood.  Maybe Spring heard me and decided to get her shit together, because you know, Spring listens to me.

Also, check it out!

The kitchen is finally done!

When we raised the cabinets, we added a strip of cherry to the top and pine crown molding.

That crown molding turned out to the bane of my existence.

You know me, I'm good friends with my paintbrush and I had zero problems getting up on a ladder and staining the cherry and the crown molding.  We had the stain matched to the cabinets, I sanded everything and got to staining.  Except the crown didn't take the stain - at all. I put one coat on and there was absolutely no change.  I knew something wasn't right, so we called in a painter and it took him nearly a week to get the stain right.  He had to take it back to the store, make it darker, leave it on for extra time, wipe it off just right, and do all kinds of other things that I definitely did not have time to do. 

But it's finally done!  For real this time, and it looks so good!

You can't even tell it's different wood.  

Never mind the mess on the counter - one of these days I'll get to properly arranging things.

I pride myself on doing house stuff by myself, but this one was definitely a job for the pros.

I'm just glad it's done, just in time for Sofia's birthday.

Oh yeah.  It's happening.

Last year, I was a total nutjob planning her birthday.  This year?  Not so much.  I'm not stressing about a thing - not even the fact that it's in two weeks and I have nothing.  Nada.  I mean, the decorations are on the way and I have ideas about what I want, but no other purchases have been made.  The second birthday is definitely not going to be the production that the first birthday was.  It's still going to be cool and I'm still going to go all out, but I'm nowhere near as stressed this time around.  I'm not even stressed about her cake!  Because you know, I'm a cake-making pro this time.

Okay fine.  Semi-pro?

I just checked UPS tracking and the decorations are due to arrive tomorrow, which means I need to get my butt in gear with this party-planning business.  I need food and drinks for about 20 people, that doesn't have dairy, artificial food coloring and is mostly, if not all, organic.  I have three mom friends here and two of them have children with major food sensitivities.  I want to be mindful of that and do the best that I can to keep their kids from feeling left out.  We'll see what happens!

This is not my kid.  Duh.

However, this picture is a representation of something major.  Something ground-breaking.  Something I was certain was never ever going to happen to me.

Sofia is sleeping through the night.  Consistently.  Aaaaahhhhh! (that's the angels singing.)

She's been teething and has been stuffed up, but still she sleeps!  It's a downright miracle y'all.  And it just happened.  One night, out of nowhere, she went to bed at 8 and didn't wake up until 6 in the morning.  I've been lulled into that false sense of security before and I knew better than to get my hopes up, but then she did it again.  And I was like yeah sure right, two nights in a row means she's going to be a demon child and not sleep at all for the third night.  But then she did.  She slept a fourth and fifth night, until Two. Flippin. Weeks went by with her sleeping through the night the entire time.  

It's beautiful.  It's amazing.  I'm rested and I love it.  Which means I need to hurry up and get pregnant again before I get too used to sleeping so much.

I saved the best one for last.

Also, this is the picture I printed for my binder when I was in 

yoga teacher training all those years ago.  It's kinda special to me.

Most of you already know I'm insanely passionate about yoga.  It's my peace, my therapy, my church.  I am happiest when I'm on my mat and I feel incredibly fulfilled when I get the privilege of teaching class.  I had to kiss a few frogs and go to some really out-there yoga classes when I first arrived here, but I finally found an amazing instructor and we were in talks about me getting back to teaching.  She wanted me to get CPR certified, so I did that.  She wanted me to teach her a class to get a feel for my ability and style, so I did that too.  I was super nervous and more than a little rusty, as I haven't taught for nearly two years.  But it's in my soul and I pulled it off and she was impressed.  But the biggest obstacle were the students.  I had to win them over and it was going to be a tough sell.  

Yoga students, while open and accepting, can be fiercely loyal to their teacher to the detriment of the new guy, which would be me.  I've taken several classes with Linda, the main instructor, and I saw how devoted her students were, and with good reason - she's amazing, full out.  I took just one class and I was hooked.  Her technique is strong, her adjustments are totally on point and I felt happy and spent at the end of class - just the way I like it.  I wanted to be on her team.

Last week, I got my chance.  I got the email - Linda wanted me to sub for her on Friday morning.  My heart started pounding with excitement - this was it!  This is my chance!  If I did a good job, I'd be in and I'd get to start teaching again!  There was only one problem - I was deathly ill.  I was too stuffed up to breathe, I was coughing non-stop and my body hurt so bad - I was in bad shape, but there was no way I could say no.  You don't get a second chance to make a first impression and I was worried that if I said no to this chance, there wouldn't be another one.  That was last Wednesday.

Thursday night I was standing in the kitchen, bawling over the sink.  My frickin' hair hurt, my body ached and I felt so terrible.  I hadn't had any time to prepare and I knew I was going to blow it.  They were going to hate me and they were going to tell Linda to never let me teach ever again.  I was beside myself and it was too late to back out and just tell her I was too sick to teach.

I was a ball of nerves Friday morning.  I had no sequence prepared and I was just going to have go off of my gut and try and teach these hard-core yoga people without coughing up a lung.  I wanted nothing more than to curl up and die, but I had to make it through.  I was fiddling with the stereo when the students started arriving.  I could feel the disappointment that I wasn't their beloved instructor, but I was determined to win them over, deathbed or not.  9:15 came, and it was time to start class.

Good morning everyone, I'm Desiree!  Thank you so much for coming and if you would please, find a seated cross-legged position on your mats...

My music didn't work, I forgot a couple of poses, but I found my groove and before I knew it, class had ended.  And they clapped for me, you guys!  Yoga people aren't rude and won't generally tell you to your face that you suck; they'll just politely gather their things and never come back.  If you're lucky, maybe one or two people will thank you for class.  If you're really lucky, you get a little round of applause at the end of class, and I got a round of applause!  I was walking on air when I left the gym that day!  

And then I went home to crawl in bed and pray to die.

I taught again this morning and I feel the yoga mojo coming back and it feels good!  I'm hoping to get a few regular classes soon and I'll be a bona fide yoga teacher again!

Things are good in my world right now, and it's really important that I celebrate them and enjoy them because when they're not, it's helps to remember these good times.  And now, to leave you with my new favorite picture:

We went to my friend's house for another photoshoot, this time for Easter and with live bunnies who were beyond adorable.  It was so much fun to take pictures of all the kids and I'm totally looking forward to what other ideas we can come up with for our baby models.

This was her Easter picture last year that we took at the mall, that cost me a million dollars.

Our homemade one was just as good and much more fun.

Also, when the F did my kid turn into a kid?

I was not consulted about this and I do not approve.

Back to normal

Hey you know what?

where I found it

I had all these plans of posting all last week and then I got struck down by the plague.  Not the plague plague.  The other plague - the winter cold.  Yeah, because it makes perfect sense to get a winter cold in the spring.  Well, it does when you live in the stupid Northeast that doesn't know if it's winter or spring from one day to the next.

I ventured outside yesterday, for the first time all week, and these little beauties were poking their precious heads up out of the ground.

Only to be destroyed, decimated, obliterated by the 

stupid, stupid, stupidfuckingsnow.

I hate winter.

Four seasons are dumb.  All you really need are three, tops.  Winter doesn't need to be its own season.  A week or two of snow is plenty to allow for everything to die, so it can be reborn, blah blah blah F You, NATURE.

Because winter is also when people get sick, and I was sick all last week and you know what happens to the house when the mom is sick?  I'll tell you what happens - the entire world ends.  Everything goes to crap and it stays that way until the mom is better and then she gets to pick up the pieces.

And I can just hear my husband's righteous indignation all the way from his office, because he did stuff while I laid in bed on Saturday and prayed for the sweet sweet release of death.  And yeah sure, he did stuff.  But there's a pile of laundry (yeahsurefine, it's clean) that has my name all over it.  That sink full of dirty dishes from the dinner he so graciously prepared?  All me, buddy.  Of course, poor Sofia is sick too and her poor little nose has been replaced with a snot faucet, but that doesn't stop her from wanting to nurse.  Actually, it's probably the only thing that gave her relief so she climbed into bed with me and nursed my coughing, hacking, snot-faced corpse.  How's that for some imagery!  

Because that's what happened.  Everywhere I was, there she was.  Nursing.  Never in my life have I wished for her to be weaned more than in that moment.  I wanted nothing more than to take an industrial-sized dose of Nyquil, sleep until I didn't hurt anymore, and wake up all better.  But when you have a kid?  HA frickin HA to that noise.  Drew's meager attempts to distract her so I could rest were nothing compared to the allure that my deflated pancake tits have for my kid.

Sorry about that last image - I guess I'm keeping it extra real today.  I'll button it back up and be sweet and nice for the next post, but I'm kinda cranky right now because I haven't stopped coughing for four days and I'm fucking sick of coughing and good effing god, how much snot can one nose make?!

Today, my hair no longer hurts, I can go a full minute without coughing, but now it's 'pick up the pieces' time.  Time to get back to the routine.  Re-entry into this atmosphere is hella bumpy and I'm pissed that this stupid winter cold got me off course.  I run this house and this kid and when I'm not at the helm, well, we just start spinning into outer space until I come back.  I don't like it - I wish things could be seamless, that Drew could just step into my shoes and things stay smooth.  I wish I could hand over the reins and lay in bed and pray to die while he handles everything until I come back from the dead.  But unfortunately, it's not like that.  Sick or not, I'm the primary caregiver and as great as Daddy is, he's just the substitute until Mommy and her Boobies come back and they better be back soon.    

But I'm better and I guess that's all that matters.  I have the energy to fold the laundry, the sink is empty and the dishwasher is going.  Pretty Ricky and I spent some time together and Sofia's napping.  The ship has reset its course and we're back on track.

I'm thinking the people with the masks might not be so out there after all.

Although, the site where I got this said there's no point in

any preventive measures because you're going to get sick anyway.

We're doomed.  Doomed!

PS, I watched a crap-ton of Big Bang while I was sick, hence the Star Trek spaceship metaphors.  Plus, I love Big Bang.

Okay, but now that I'm better, I have like ten posts in draft that I'm hoping to write this week.  It's time to get back to it people!

Enough about me, how are you?  I hope you haven't been sick.  Please tell me you've been doing more interesting things than trying to cough up a lung and wipe a never-ending snot trail from your/your kid's nose.  

Tell me something magical!

The baby train

Me, just now.

I haven't written in a while, and I do have stuff to write about (playroom stuff!), but there's been this.

This, being the paperwork from the fertility doctors.  This - gathering my medical records from Texas, getting them sent to the doctors here, because we're on the baby train.  When I miscarried in November, we had a serious talk about whether or not we wanted to get back on the baby train, whether or not we were okay with just one child.  We're not.  We want at least one more child; I want Sofia to have a sibling.

I dug out my ovulation predictor sticks, synchronized the app on my phone and got to it.  My cycles have been shorter, but I was still ovulating so I figured things were still working in there.  However, after doing all the things right  - I'm talking strategic activity, people - we were coming up with nothing.  That's not our MO - I've never had problems getting pregnant.  It was the staying pregnant that gave me trouble.  Specifically, the clotting.  If you don't want to click the link to get the backstory, that's cool.  The gist is, I have a clotting disorder that gets stronger with each pregnancy, to the point that it could kick in so fast after conception that I actually stop getting positive pregnancy tests.

I know I'm ovulating - the physical signs are unmistakable.  I get the smiley face on the stick.  We do what we're supposed to be doing - strategically.  But I'm not getting pregnant.

So when this last period started, I did a Google search and called the doctors in the area.  I talked to one of my mom friends (I have three mom friends now!) who went through IVF, and she confirmed that there are really only two 'games in town.'  She went to the super aggressive, Octomom-type doctor.  You know, the one who will do whatever you want as long as you pay for it.  I'm not there yet, so I'm going to the other doctors who I understand to be a little more conservative.

I called the office and gave them my spiel.
"Hi there.  I'm having some trouble conceiving our second child and I'd like to meet with one of your doctors.  I've had issues in the past and I just want to make sure nothing new has cropped up."  Kind, polite, chatty.
"Ok sure.  So, let me get your info. (blah blah blah medical stuff) And how long have you been trying?"
"Since about.....this past October I'd say?"  I don't remember what I had for breakfast two days ago.
Suddenly, she gets all dismissive and condescending.  "Weeeelllllll, we really like you to try for at least a year before you-"
Umm, no bitch.  I cut her ass off.  "I'm 37 years old and I've had three miscarriages already.  I don't have that luxury and I'd really just like to get an appointment."  Lady, do yourself a favor and don't stand in the way of me having another baby.

My appointment is in two weeks.  That's more like it.

My mountain of paperwork arrived yesterday and as I was filling it out, I got a little wistful.  I wonder what it's like for the women who just have sex and get pregnant - that must be cool.  And now that I'm determined to get pregnant again and I've set myself on this mountain, if I end up not being able to have another baby, that's going to be a long-ass fall to the bottom.

And so the research into secondary infertility has begun.  Obviously, I don't have an official diagnosis yet but I'm not waiting for someone to tell me something if I can figure it out for myself.  

I can't lie though, I was hoping that having Sofia would have cured whatever was wrong to begin with, that my body realized that babies are awesome and I do indeed know how to have them.

*sigh*

..........
I've been carrying this around for the past two weeks - you know, the two week wait.  I just knew that this past Friday I was going to see that magic word on the stick.  Instead, I was reaching for the tampons.  Ugh.

But it's all good though - I got a trip to Ikea as my consolation prize and wait till you see what we got!

Because we have to end on a happy note, 

so how about a yogurt-covered toddler

sitting at her new table? 

We're all going to the art show

The playroom doors are done, y'all!  We're one step closer to a big reveal and this one only took a couple of hours!

But first, a video.

If you didn't watch the whole thing, I don't blame you.  If you did, thank you for joining me in my torture.  Sofia is obsessed with Yo Gabba Gabba and I find myself singing the songs and doing the voices even when she's not around.  There is no escape from Gabba.

Now, I didn't ask you to watch the video for no reason - it's the backstory to the latest update on the playroom.  One of the things on the to-do list was to make a display space for Sofia's arts and crafts.  I mean yeah, they're not really her crafts but once the playroom is fully stocked, there will be plenty of Originals by Sofia.

These double doors are the perfect spot.

At first, I thought about getting a bunch of clipboards and 

attaching them to the doors, but that would limit how many 

pieces you could display at one time.

Plus, I'm on a budget and didn't want to spend the money to buy them.

image source - also a great post on ideas to display kid art.

A wire and clips appealed to me because you're not as limited in number

but again, I'd have to buy the wire and hooks from Ikea.

image source

But you know what I did have?  A hammer and nails.  And raffia.  Seriously, why do I have this huge roll of raffia?  I don't remember buying it, I don't remember ever saying I needed raffia, yet I have it.  

At any rate, raffia will do just fine as a hanging wire for artwork.  I marched on down to Michael's and picked up a $2 bag of clothespins - and I used a 40% off coupon too.  PS, do not EVER go to Michael's or JoAnn's without coupons.  They have them every single week and you can download the Michael's app on your phone while you're in line and get your discount.  It's dumb to pay full price when you don't have to.

I roughly measured, hammered my nails and strung my raffia across the doors.  It took no time and Sofia was occupied at her chalkboard door while I was hammering away.

I prepped the door by rubbing chalk all over it before she started drawing.

This keeps your writing from being permanent; I learned this the hard way.

Once it was all erased, she got down to the serious business of writing on 

her new chalkboard.

I finished hammering and put her down for her nap.

While she slept, I strung the rest of the raffia and pinned her art to the door.

I may upgrade to the Ikea hooks and wires, but for now, we like free things and did

I mention I had a giant roll of raffia?

Besides, once the doors get filled with art you won't even notice the raffia.

And now I can't stop saying raffia.  Raffia.  Raaaaaaffia.

Since Sofia can't reach the top of the door, 

I figured she wouldn't mind if I put a little something of my own up there.

When Sofia woke up from her nap, I took her back downstairs to see what I'd done.  As soon as she caught sight of the doors, she was like "Art show!!"  Then, she saw the chalkboard door and was like "Mommy make a heart!"

You guys, I about melted into a puddle of mush on the floor.  She acknowledged what I was doing.  My not quite 2-year-old daughter validated my work.  There are grown people who don't do that, even when you tell them that's what you need.  I scooped her up, twirled her around and said "Yes baby!  Art show!  And I did make a heart, just for you!"

And then she went right back to her chalkboard and picked up where she left off.

I also put a little mat down because she sat down to draw 

and that concrete floor can be chilly.

Drew hung the mirror on the other door, but it looks so sad and lonely so I have to come up with something to jazz it up.  Plus the hollow door didn't play nicely with the screws that came with the mirror so it's not perfectly straight.  I'm going to have to get some screws specifically for hollow doors and I'm thinking about putting some sort of saying above the mirror.  It'll be something cool and profound so every time she looks in the mirror she'll stand taller and be empowered and confident and beautiful and strong.  What's a saying that embodies all of that? And yes I know she's barely two, but it's never too early to teach my daughter to be awesome.

Hanging the mirror and making the art display:  That's two things crossed off the to-do list!  This past weekend was packed with stuff we had to do but this weekend is free and clear.  Her birthday party is coming up and I'm really hoping to have everything done by then.  Cross your fingers for me!

I've embraced it and it's happening.

We're having a Gabba birthday party and it's so worth it,

because Sofia literally couldn't stop jumping up and down when I showed her

her birthday invitation.

Just tonight she was like "I love Gabba!"

And I love her, so Gabba it is.

The beige basment has been banished, ombre.

How about some alliteration and an oh-so-clever play on words for you this evening?  I don't normally post on the weekends, but I just painted the last stroke on the basement and it's not two in the morning!  That my friends, is cause for celebration.  And a blog post.

Slowly but surely, we're checking off the done boxes on the way to a finished playroom.  The first box to be marked 'completed' is my awesome awwww-ning.

Let's have another look, shall we?

However, the biggest project by far was the painting.  The entire basement was one giant beige box and I had to get rid of every single bit, naptime by naptime, late night by late night.  It was exhausting and I desperately wanted a paint fairy to just come and finish it for me.  But since there was no fairy in sight, it was all up to me.

First, I painted the main walls in Krypton by Sherwin Williams.

Then I painted the accent wall in Georgian Bay by Sherwin Williams.

Then came the trim and doors.  They're a high gloss white that matches the trim

and doors in the rest of the house to keep it cohesive.

Also Sherwin Williams.

I wasn't going to paint the fireplace because I was getting tired of painting and one of my genius readers suggested using Scrubbing Bubbles on the brick to clean it.  I told Drew what I was going to do and his response was "You're not going to paint the fireplace?  Oh.............Huh."  Then I was like "What?"  "Nothing.  I just think it should be painted."  I know that tone.  It's the same one when someone is like "You're going to wear that?  Oh...........Ok then."  And you know exactly what the hell that means, but you really don't want to have to change but yeah right, like you're going to wear that outfit now.  

That's how I felt when Drew said that the fireplace should be painted.

But I did it.  I painted the fireplace.  It was the least I could do; 

the man built me an awning.

And he's going to build me a water table.

 The door to the other side of the basement got some chalkboard paint.

I wanted to do a magnetic primer or paint of some sort, but all the reviews

said it was super fumey and with virtually no ventilation down here, I had to pass.

Sofia plays down here almost every day and I couldn't have a fume issue.

That brings us to this guy.  The bookcase.

My only rule was that it had to be fun and happy.

Initially, I was leaning towards the rainbow colors on the back.  However, I really didn't want to buy six different colors of paint, even if they were only going to be test pots.  I'm on a strict budget and every penny counts, which is why I leaned toward an ombre effect.  You know I love me a good ombre.

  One year later, and I'm still insanely proud of the cake I made for Sofia's birthday.

I bought some cool fabric from JoAnn's and found a good 

paint swatch from, you guessed it, Sherwin Williams.

I bought a test pot in the darkest color, a gorgeous cherry red called Poinsettia.

We played around with it:  Light to dark?  Dark to light?

Mix up the shades for an ombre-ish effect?

We settled on light to dark, reasoning that the lighter color on top 

would brighten the corner.

So far, so good.

Now here's where I tell you that I followed no specific plan and I had no method.  And no one is surprised by that, right?  I poured some of the red into the paint cup and then some white and I mixed it up, eyeballing the paint chip to get as close as possible.

The next shade was Coral Bells and while it wasn't an exact match,

it was good enough for me.

Although sometimes, I was pretty spot on.

One at a time, I painted each back section of the bookcase.  I had to do two coats before I could move on to the next section and doing that during evenings and naptimes took forever.  But I kept at it, eyeballing, adding more white paint and stirring until it looked about right.

Until finally, it was done!

I ran out of paint just as I was doing the final top section, which is why there isn't that much difference between it and the one just below it.  I'm going to go back to Sherwin Williams and have them make me some more white paint and I may go back and make the difference more noticeable, but I'm pretty darn pleased with how it came out.

It's such an improvement from where I started!

I am beyond thrilled that the painting is D-U-N.  From here forward, the rest of the projects I can anticipate should be able to be finished in a single naptime or just one late night.

• Make a hanging rack for her dress-up clothes.  It's already assembled; I just have to prime and paint, and add hooks.
• Hang a mirror on the door next to the bookcase so Sofia has a place to practice her princess wave.
• Drew is going to build the water table.
• Make an art display area on the doors next to the fireplace.
• Make some art to hang above the fireplace.
• Make a gallery wall to the right of the chalkboard door.
• Fill the Lack shelf and Expedit with toys and games.
• Fill the bookcase with arts and crafts supplies and other learning-type stuff.
• Dye the flowered rug in front of the sofas.
• Do something about the rust-colored trim on the other rugs.
• Sew new pillows.
• Sew a floor cushion or two.
• Finish her activity table.

With the painting done, I can feel my momentum returning.  Who knows, I may even get this done before Sofia goes to college!

Awwww-ning

Awwww yeah!  We've got an awwww-ning!

Bad puns aside, there is one element to the playroom that's finished and it's Sofia's awning!  This playroom makeover is taking a million years, partly because this part of the basement is like 700 square feet and that's a lot o' beige to banish.  Plus, my kid STILL isn't sleeping through the night, so every time I sit down to blog about the playroom progress, she wakes up.  It's been very slow going, because I'm only able to do stuff in fifteen-minute increments.

But!  BUT!  I'm gettin' it done and we now have an awning!  Join me on a photo journey, won't you?

My awning inspiration.

source

Rule number one about awnings is that they must be striped.  I don't actually know if that's a real rule, but my awning was going to be striped because I love stripes.  Fat ones.  I went to JoAnn's but they didn't have fat enough stripes for me, so I went online and found a great navy stripe at Hawthorne Threads.

Not that you don't know what stripes look like.

However, I was hesitant to pull the trigger because $13.95/yard was a little rich for my blood and my strict $300 budget.  But the awning was so important to me - surely it's worth the money for something you love, right?  Yet I still couldn't do it.  There were so many things I wanted for the playroom and I really wanted, no, needed to stick to my budget.  I pinned it and thought about what I could do without so I could have my navy striped awning.

Meanwhile, Sofia and I made a field trip out to Ikea to pick up the Expedit and the Lack shelf that I knew for sure that I must have.  We went during the week and the entire place was practically empty!  The last time we were there, it was all three of us and it was on a Saturday.  It was so crowded, the lights were so bright and hot and Drew and I nearly got divorced that day.  Okay, not really but we were definitely snipping at each other because neither of us is that crazy about crowds.

This time it was like Sofia and I had the whole store to ourselves!  We moseyed around looking at stuff, having lunch, chatting about the big trucks that drove by, and it was wonderful!  

Now, if you've ever been to Ikea you know they have it strategically laid out so you have to go through nearly every department to get back out of the store.  We strolled through the teeny apartment mock-ups, all the bathroom fixtures, the beds and bedding, until we found ourselves at the textile department.  That's when the heavens opened up and the angels started singing.

They even spelled the name right!

And that price is music to my ears.

I snatched up two yards of the Sofia striped fabric because I had no idea how much I'd need for the awning, but two yards sounded like plenty.  I practically skipped out of the store.

I had every intention of building the awning myself.  I saw the picture and said to myself, Pssh.  I could totally do that.  Then I remembered my jewelry wall, and the nineteen holes, and I was like maaaayybe I should let Drew tackle this one.

So I begged and pleaded with my husband to make the awning.  I reasoned and cajoled and said that it would just be a couple of hours!  You're an engineer!  You can figure this out in like ten seconds!  Pleeeeeeeeease!  And finally, one Saturday afternoon, my awesome engineer hubby put on his engineer thinking cap and built his daughter (and wife) an awning for the playroom.

He went to Lowe's and got a couple of 1x3s and cut them down to size.

Then he built a box with some triangles in the corners for supports.

He moved a couple of ceiling tiles to find the studs 

and screwed the frame to the wall.

In this photo, I was like "Babe.  Look at it like you're making sure it's level."

I did *not* take a picture of the eye roll that followed.

I guarantee that if I'd done this it would have taken me three days

way more than nineteen holes to figure out how to make sure it was level.

My engineer husband got it on the first try.

Making sure it's level all around, which it totally is.

Then he measured the top piece that would be the top of the awning.

This is the easy part because it's just right angles so far.

Making the bar that slants downward to make the triangle part required 

math that I was not about to do.

I ironed my fabric and stapled it to the bar before he screwed the bar to the wall.  That way I could pull it tight so it would look like a proper awning.

I was afraid to cut the fabric until it was on the frame so Drew 

had to do some maneuvering.

But once it was up, I went after it with the scissors.

This is what the frame looks like.  

I totally could have done the box part and the bar on top part, 

but that slanty down part?  There would have been a giant pile

of scrap wood of all the mistakes I would have made.

After that, I pulled and stapled the fabric to the frame.

Then I trimmed the excess fabric.

It ended up looking like this.

When it came to the sides of the awning, I had no clue how to proceed.  So as usual, I winged it.  Winged? Wanged? Wung?  I eyeballed it - how 'bout that?

Yeah, that looks about right.

However, I cut a rectangle of fabric instead of a triangle because

I was paranoid about having too little fabric.

Then I hot-glued, stapled and fabric glued my side pieces to the frame.

Here you can see the extra fabric running horizontally.

I don't mind though - doubling up makes it look better to me.

That's what I'm telling myself.

That doesn't look terrible, right?

At least both sides match.

And seriously, isn't it the cutest thing ever?

I'm not done with it yet.  I'd like to add a banner of some sort to the front that says Cafe Sofia, I just have to figure out how to get the lettering on there.  But I tell you what, it is so nice to have one thing in this playroom D-U-N.  As I'm typing this, I'm waiting for the paint on the bookcases to dry.  It's the last part of the basement I have to paint and then I get to paint furniture and rugs!  

I'm so happy with my, I mean Sofia's awning.  But let's get real, this awning *was* for me.  She plays in her kitchen with or without it but I know I sure love seeing it.  I'm so grateful to my engineer hubby because without him, this would all still be just a pile of scrap wood and fabric, with me next to it, crying hot tears of frustration.

And since he did such a good job on the awning, I'm sure he'll have no problems building Sofia a water table.

source

Isn't that so cool?  I must have one.