Projects

I've taken a little break from packing. There's only so much I can handle at a time, and thankfully, I have the time to take a breather. I don't actually have too much more to do. Elena's closet and a few things in the guest room are all that remain of items we don't use on a regular basis. I hauled some things to a thrift store this past weekend and returned a chair we'd borrowed. There is something in me that is satisfied when I get rid of stuff. We have a lot more we could get rid of, but some of that decision-making will happen once we actually move.

In the meantime, I've taken on a couple of projects. I bought some braided fabric at a thrift store months ago and finally started lacing it into a rug. It's some kind of synthetic velour-like knit fabric. It laces pretty easily, but still not as nicely as wool. However, the biggest surprise is that I think I'm actually going to like the finished product. I know it sounds silly - why would I buy braided fabric for a rug if I'm not even sure I'll like it? I figured if I didn't like it, I could always donate the rug back to the thrift store and let someone buy it who would like it. But how could I let perfectly good braids sit unlaced when I knew I could do it?!

The other project is sewing a swim suit cover up for a friend. I'll end up with a similar one since I want to practice it at least once before making the final product. You can see what it looks like at the following link.

http://www.merricksart.com/2015/02/diy-friday-pom-pom-trim-beach-coverup.html?m=1

Hope you're finding some hobbies to fill your evenings this winter (you know, something to distract you from the piles of laundry and dust bunnies under the couch.).

Moving: Somewhere, Someday.

We're moving. We don't know where yet, but we've started the house search since we're staying local. We've been renting for the past five plus years, and we're ready to own our own home again. We owned one (and rehabbed it!) during medical school, but since we didn't know what we'd want to do after residency, and the housing market still wasn't that great when Dan started residency, we decided to rent.

Now we know we'll be moving at some point within the next number of months, probably after the baby arrives. So I've started packing up what I can. I decided to start with the basement and work my way up to the 2nd floor. I had to organize our storage space to make room for more boxes, and I've been purging whatever items we don't need or want. (This is actually challenging for both of us. We tend to say "well, I might be able to use this sometime..." when we probably won't if we haven't used it much or at all during our time here.) I've gradually been taking the boxes to our upstairs storage space, so things don't look to cluttered.

I love to purge. I love to organize and clean things out. Since we haven't bought a house yet, and I feel the need to be nesting in some way, it feels very good to pack up what I can, knowing I'll be glad to have less to pack when I'm hugely pregnant or have a newborn.

I emptied our china cabinet and we plan to get rid of that piece of furniture. The china is all boxed up and ready for the next place. Anyone want the china cabinet? It's yours if you come and haul it away. We got it for free during med school, and it's an old piece that needs a face lift. Neither of us really want to put the effort into that, so we're hoping there is some one out there who would like to.