Good things make me happy

It is a new day, friends.  Sleep was had all around, Daddy came home, and there's no longer a red line on the battery charger.  I've got the smallest sliver of green and it's growing.  It's because of you.  Your comments and emails lifted my spirits and gave me just enough juice to keep going and I thank you so much for that.  We are in this fight together, mamas and we will prevail.  Sofia is back in her diapers, she's back to being happy and that's all I need in this world.

Drew came home from his trip last night and 

said those three little words I never get tired of hearing:

"Let's eat out."

We had a very nice dinner that I didn't have to cook, Sofia slept through the night, it's a gorgeous day today and I feel a little stronger because of all of it.  I might even make it through his next business trip in one piece - it's a short one this time and it's during the week.  Weekend trips are ten times harder than weekday ones, long trips are harder than short ones, but I'm going to make it through because that's what I have to do.  It's my job and just because I had a hard day at the office doesn't mean I'm going to quit.

That said, with this bit of energy I have I'd like to share some pretty pictures of good things that make me happy.

I did some switching and changing in Sofia's room and I got the okay to order The Rug, which my hot little fingers will be doing at the stroke of Payday tomorrow.  In the meantime, I did some other stuff.

I brought the king-size duvet down to the basement so I 

could split it in half and sew it up the middle.

I had to clean up my sewing area since I

use it oh so often.

Turns out, the twin size comforter is not half the size of a king; 

it's more like two thirds.  However, after deliberating for a minute and deciding

that I really wanted two duvets out of this little project, 

I split the king-size down the middle anyway.

I figured 'over-stuffing' the duvet would make it extra fluffy.

I measured a couple of times and I pinned nothing.  I gave myself a pep talk the whole way: "It's just fabric, you can sew a straight line, you can do this.  The bed's against the wall anyway, it's just fabric, just cut it up!"  And I sure did cut that thing up the middle and sewed it shut!  If I do say so myself, it doesn't look half bad.  I got a ruffled bedskirt from Target and her little bed, while not finished, is looking quite sweet and girly.

Then came the butterflies.  When I first made and hung them, they were around her canvas.  This time around, I wanted more of an accent wall.  I didn't have enough for a full wall, so I went to Michael's, where of course, they only had two sheets left of the white paper.  You know, just once in my life, I would like just one of my projects to go off without a hitch.  Since it would take two weeks for them to order more white paper for me and I don't have the time or patience for that, I improvised and bought paper in a couple of shades of pink and some orange for an ombre butterfly accent wall.

Then I got to cutting and cutting and cutting more butterflies.  I did not measure and stuck them on the wall in a grid-ish pattern.  One of these days I'll take more time and be more precise with things, but I was too busy telling Sofia that the lovely butterflies within her reach were in fact, not for touching.  It took her a minute to leave them alone but I'm happy to say that she doesn't pull them off the wall now.  However...

In theory, a butterfly accent wall sounds whimsical and magical.

In practice, it was way too busy and chaotic underneath

the window with the chair and the bookcases and the table and the butterflies.

The butterflies are what you see when you walk in the room and there's nowhere to rest your eyes.  I couldn't deal so I took down the ones under the window.

Removing the ones from the bottom meant I had more white butterflies to use, but I 

was precisely six short.  Not to worry, I put some orange and pink ones in 

to fill the spaces and I'm kinda liking it this way.  

Now there's not so much going on at that wall.

Once the rug comes and it's in place, I'll decide what color to paint the bookcases and I'll sew another pillow for the chair. I'm still on the fence about whether or not she needs a headboard or just some more throw pillows.  Throw pillows are against my religion, but you can't deny their merit.  Throw pillows on beds just irks me, but I feel like her bed needs a little something more - maybe those floral sheets, I'm not sure.

And here's a hideous picture of the canvases I moved. 

I tried to wait for a sunny day to take these pictures but it was gloomy and rainy for like three days straight and I finally gave up.  Even though Sofia is back in diapers, I'm moving the changing pad and supply basket to the nursery.  I'll change both kids in there so I'm going to put some random fun stuff on top of this dresser.

Incidentally, I read about design stuff with most of my free time, when I'm not reading about how to potty train your kid, that is.  I should probably just stick to reading about design stuff.  Anyway, I read that odd numbers of groupings is more pleasing to the eye than even numbers.  I don't usually listen to design rules and I just do what makes me happy, but in this case I found it to be totally true.  I love having the three canvases over the dresser, and having just one picture near the door versus two feels so much better to me.

Not that this isn't good...

I just like this better.  And I know you can't really tell because 

it's not the same vantage point, but trust me it looks cleaner.

I'm planning to make a field trip to Ikea in the next couple of days and load up on stuff to finish Sofia's room and our bedroom.  Our bedroom walls are so painfully bare it's sad.  

Oh and PS - thanks for throwing me under the bus on the whole bedding thing.  We're probably getting gray bedding now because I got voted down so hard.  

I'm kidding - even though I die for the black bedding, after considering what else I want to put in the room, the gray probably will look better.  Next time I ask for your opinion though, I'm going to have to figure out a way that Drew won't see it because I got some gloating.  "See!  Even your blog readers think you should go with the gray!"  Yeah yeah, whatever.

So, today I'm happy and that's a good thing.  I will remind myself that I'm a good mom regardless of when Sofia gives up diapers, learns the full alphabet, knows her colors or what college she gets into.  She's a wonderful beautiful child and I get to be her mom, so I'm already ahead.

I just may need your help remembering that the next time, and if you need help remembering it for yourself, just holler and we'll be there for each other.  Y'all are right and it does take a village, real or virtual and I'm so thankful for you that continue to visit me and join me on this journey.  

You're good people and I'm grateful.