While The Mice Are Away.....

...Malcolm plays with everything he can get his hand on, enjoying the cars, trains, books, bits of toast with jam, and having Mummy's undivided attention.

As we did last year, Edward is currently into week two of his solo parenting* of The Ducklings in Shediac, while I'm rushing around like a mad fiend at home trying to work through an endless pile of projects.  I started two months ago, crafting and getting art together for Colin and Malcolm's room at Colin's request.  Since they've left, I've converted the cribs to beds, cleaned, cleaned with more cleaning on the horizon, hung art, a blind and a mobile, and refinished and reassembled our new (old) kitchen table in anticipation of seating six.

I'm still in the midst of it all, along with a baby who is lonely in his room without his big brother, creating much drama and complaining; combined with a developing aversion to his morning nap.   So, in tiny increments, it is sloooowwwly getting done, often to the chorus of a much-put-out baby.  In other words, the same as last summer's mad dash, but louder.

However, I thought I'd post a few progress pictures of what's been changing around here!

It's AAAALLLLLL mine!

Our much loved kitchen table was getting too small, so I hauled out our old dining room table that seats 8, and went to work refinishing it.  Sadly, the table top was in such awful, irredeemable condition, that I went against my profound aversion to painting wood.  The stencilled part is the leaf, and if the pattern looks familiar, it is.

Colin specifically asked me for a mobile - thus:  Colin's Space Odyssey.  I started working on this months ago, and my vision (dimensional stars and planets) looked great on paper, but was actually very hard to make.  In addition to making my own templates, and assembling the pieces with exacting precision, I had to make tiny props out of aluminum foil and paper clips to keep everything in place while the glue dried.  So frustrating, but hopefully Colin will like it.  It's one of those crafts I will never do again!

The space ship with aluminum foil legs and tissue paper afterglow

A look from underneath

New art on Malcolm's side, including his gorgeous baptismal sampler made by a member of the church congregation

Cribs are now beds!! 

*with the help of Grammy, Grampy, Aunt Jane and Aunt Pinie, Merri, as well as the usual friends and family who are so generous with their time and patience.