One Year

Baby SevPrez is one! I feel like I really accomplished something. I'm awash with total satisfaction. Then, in the next moment, our lives flash before my eyes. She's one, that's what a year felt like... Soon she'll be two, then three, then seven, then 12, then off to college. It's as exciting as it is scary. I'm excited about who she will be, but scared of time passing too fast to really feel it.

But on to more frivilous things... Yesterday we had her party at our house. Just family, which for us is a gaggle of people. The weather cooperated, which is really something for New Jersey in late July. On the day she was born I enjoyed an amazing 5th floor view of a thunderstorm as I lay in bliss after finally getting an epidural. Yesterday thunder rumbled as the coffee brewed, and storm clouds were all around, but we had no more than a light spritz as we served cake inside.

The grandmas brought food (and the lion's share of everything from Costco), we grilled steaks, and I made the cake. The little one knew she was the star when we sang to her, but she was not too excited about cake. Maybe she could tell it was vegan chocolate cake (but it had full butter/full sugar icing, I'm not a monster). She did, however, go to town on some watermelon slices. If I hadn't taken it away from her she would have eaten the green part. What a charater.

As predicted, her favorite gift was a piece of wrapping paper. Ah, to be one.

Bringing New Life To Old Chairs

As I mentioned in my last post, Mr. SevPrez and I have been busy renovating our back room. We spend most of our time there, so we're really excited about all the changes taking place. It's a pretty big space, as far as our little house goes, and it has bothered me since we moved in. Actually, we almost didn't even look at our house when it was on the market because I hated the pictures of the wood-burning stove in this room so much. Luckily we stumbled across the house when searching for another home in the area, and realized it was definitely worth a look inside. Mr. SevPrez promised me that if I hated the stove, we could take it out once we moved in, but more on that later.

One of the cornerstones of this room redo is the reupholstery of two wingback chairs I inherited from my Grammy via my cousins in Brooklyn. These chairs are at least forty years old and have seen much, much better days. The cushions are shot, and the fabric and stuffing has been attacked by cats. I actually can't even believe we've had them out for people to look at and sit in, because they are really in shameful condition.

As anyone will tell you, reupholstery is not cheap, but since these chairs have both sentimental value and good bone structure, it was the right option for us. And let's face it, to find a really great comfy chair, wingback or otherwise, is going to put you back at least $600. So really, reupholstery ain't so bad.

The serious upside is that you get to chose the exact fabric you like -- no settling! And of course I fell in love with the most expensive fabric on the planet, as my upholsterer likes to keep reminding me. I looked though probably fifty fabric books at his shop and only found one sample that even came close to my vision. I am a bit of a princess-and-the-pea about design things once I have a vision, and I don't think he runs into that very often. I think he deals with a lot of old Italian ladies who like all the stuff in his books. I found Trina Turk for Schumacher Fabric online and realized, after much personal accounting, soul searching, and talks with my husband, that we had no choice but to go with the cool expensive fabric. When you're already spending several hundred to redo your chairs, you might as well go all the way. So, without further ado, here's fabric we chose.

(I'm sure it'll make more sense once I reveal the details of the rest of the room to you, but you're just going to have to wait with baited breath!)

20 Years Is A Long Time To Spend Doing Anything

It's almost impossible to find my sunglasses in my gigantic purse, 

so I walk around squinting all the time.

This afforded me the opportunity to notice that

I live in pursuit of the sun.

It's not poetic, it's a fact:

I get up with the sun in my eyes

and I go home with the sun in my eyes.

I have not been graced with a similar epiphany 

about what I do all day in the interim.

Twenty years is a long time to spend doing anything.

I am just now getting acquainted with the idea that I know 

what twenty years feels like.

It's cliché, but my experience supports the popular notion 

that as your lifespan stretches out, the days speed up. 

It's March, then it's April, then your father calls to tell you 

that Grammy died twenty years ago today. 

And you think, am I that old?

And when your chin wrinkles up, and your nostrils flair out, 

you think, am I still that young?

Twenty years is a long time to spend doing anything.

Just last night I was talking to an almost long lost friend, 

swapping womanly stories of anticipated pregnancies --

not imminent, you know, but theoretical --

and the new, strange game of picking baby names with a man.

I told her about my little plans for Agnes Lou,

and the funny part about how the original Agnes never liked her name.

If she were still here she would probably tell me that 

Ag is not a name you choose to pass on.

I kind of agree that the whole Ag thing is unfortunate, 

but I'm a woman now, not so young, 

and if I can bring another Agnes into my life, 

so help me God, and Grammy, I'll do it. 

Copyright D.M.Dellinger Hlatky. April 2, 2009.

More on those crafty grandmothers of mine

Trimming the Christmas tree really reminds you of who you are. I realize that my urge to make ornaments in genetic. 

Exhibit A: The Felt Ice Skate by Grammy, that you've already seen.

Exhibit B: The Counted Cross Stitch Stocking, by my other grandmother. 

(These are pretty awesome, for all you needlepoint mamas out there.)

Exhibit C: The Clothespin Skier, by Grammy (There were also soldiers in this fashion).

Exhibit D: The Clothespin Reindeer, by Grammy

Exhibit E: Last but certainly not least, the Crocheted and Starched Angel, by Grammy.

Felt Ornaments

Every year I intend to make ornaments as gift add-ons: 2008 is the year I finally succeeded. Martha Stewart is a good place to go for inspiration, but I always end up paging through her magazine or clicking through the website thinking, these projects are far too exacting. Where is the Christmas joy, you know?

Felt ornaments seemed to be Martha's easiest and most rewarding project, but they required printing templates, which, in my book, is inherently lame. Yet I knew I had a bunch of felt in my crafting drawer (yes, I have a crafting drawer! 2 points for the suburbs) leftover from an aborted pillow project (I still think I can make those for far less than $200 --someone let me know if they are interested), so I decided to let my creative cider mull and wait for an idea come to me.

And then it hit me -- letters! Specifically, the initials of the recipients' family names. Low and behold, it turns out I have four B families in my life! That really made things quick and easy. I still have aspirations to make an H, and a couple other letters (maybe a D and some Ws?), but for now, I am just happy to have completed a Christmas Craft. I'm off now to sew a loop in the top so they are ready for hanging. 

And today, while trimming our tree, I was reminded that my very crafty Grammy made some felt ornaments in her day, too. I think replicating these will be something for next year.