Fearfully, Wonderfully, Beautifully

Some items on my nursery to-do list are super quick and super easy to get done. This is one of them, and it literally took me about four minutes to complete. I'm also throwing it out there, as a general project, DIY fact, that these kinds of ridiculously easy and quick projects are the kind that can really spruce up a space.

The inspiration for this little project is a Gungor song, called "Crags and Clay." I'm so in love with this song, the whole song, and listened to it over and over again when I was pregnant with Sam, after we lost Sam, and in the months since. I love it because it's beautiful and wonderful all on its own, and I also love it because the last lines that are sung are particularly special to me. As the song is winding down, Lisa Gungor sings the phrase "fearfully and, wonderfully and, beautifully made" over and over. The line is inspired by a famous passage in the Psalms, often used as evidence for the sanctity of human life inside the womb:

"For You formed my inward parts;

You knitted me together in my mother's womb.

I praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. 

Wonderful are Your works;

my soul knows it very well. 

My frame was not hidden from You,

when I was being made in secret,

intricately woven in the depths of the earth."

-Psalm 139:13-15

I love the verse, and I also love that Gungor chose to add "beautifully" to the "fearfully and wonderfully." Love it. And I thought it was extremely appropriate for a nursery. 

My original plan was to use the phrase from Gungor's song on a large canvas I had stashed in a closet with my craft supplies. It actually shows up in my original drawing, and was supposed to be above the dressers. 

After thinking that design through, though, I had a couple of problems. For starters, I had no idea what color to paint the canvas. The walls are already grey...the canvas is already white...I wanted to keep everything calm and in that color palette but I couldn't paint the canvas the same color as the wall I'd hang it on and I couldn't really leave it white. That would be weird. I would have figured that out though...my real issue was purely aesthetic. I liked the idea of the small rectangular frames in the middle of that collage, the naturally rough and misshapen plank of wood that the tree is on framing the right side, and a circular shape of some kind framing the left. Not another big rectangle. I just liked the image in my head when I used a big oval instead of a big rectangle. The only thing is that I didn't have an oval...and I was also starting to change my mind towards having the 1 Samuel verse be a bigger focal point in the room rather than this guy. Hence, the large oval chalkboard with the 1 Samuel verse, and this phrase showing up in a small frame on the side table next to the rocker. 

I used some Kohl's gift cards to buy four of the five total frames I needed to decorate the nursery, which was a huge bonus since people seem to think they can charge a whole lot of money for picture frames. This is the one I chose for this project. 

I liked the industrial-looking details on it, and I also wanted to deviate from a white frame since it would be sitting on a (one day) white side table. 

So like I said, this entire project literally took me about four minutes start to finish. That's not an exaggeration, that's real life. I got some sketchbook paper and traced the little insert paper from inside the frame, to give me the size paper I needed. 

Knowing that I needed three lines of text, because of the three main words in the phrase, I used my ruler to sketch out three faint guide lines, each 2 inches apart (it's a 4x6 piece of paper, so there was also an inch of space above the top line and below the bottom line). 

Liking the free-handed feel that the chalkboard gave me yesterday, I just went with it and grabbed my little black pen (with a moderately thicker tip) and wrote it out. 

I took a moment to put this in the frame and hold it back for a moment to see if I liked it. I took it back out, erased the pencil lines, added a tiny amount of further embellishment, and called it done!

 

And that, my friends, is it. Couldn't have been easier, is super cute, dearly sentimental, and adds a lot of fun to the side table. I'll hold off on showing you in its home until I paint the side table and it's all good to go for real. 

I mentioned before that this is the kind of cheap and easy project that really does spruce up a room. Doing this kind of project with your favorite Bible verse, lyrics to your wedding song, your favorite Kid President quote, or even duplicating that cute Etsy print that keeps floating around Pinterest (guilty) can really be a fun way to claim something as your own and add some sentiment and personality to a room. DIYing something like this, rather than buying every print and piece of art that is in your house, can be really satisfying and save a ton of money long term (especially if you can use gift cards to buy the frames they go in!).

Here's the updated nursery to-do list:

• 1 Samuel 1:27-28 chalkboard
• quote for inside side table frame
• hang all pictures 
• turn green bottle into a lamp
• recover lamp shade? new lamp shade?
• paint dressers white
• paint side table white
• paint side table drawer pull silver
• make mobile for over crib
• paint metal pail for books
• clean out closet and closet drawers
• clean out dresser drawers
• line dresser drawers with contact paper
• organizers for inside of dresser drawers
• hem curtains and hang them
• storage system and bins
• get small lamp for changing table
• make/buy crib skirt
• metal trash can for diapers
• basket with liner for hamper

The Master Plan

First of all, this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRr1rb_LUvo

Second of all...I wanted to go ahead and share with you the plan for the nursery.

Some of it has been a work in progress for quite some time now. We bought a glider when we were pregnant last summer and were able to pick it up in August sometime, so it's been hanging out in there for quite a while. So have two small hip-height dressers that the hubs bought way back when he was still in an Air Force dorm room. I had decided pretty early last summer what I wanted the color scheme to be, and I painted the walls one random day this fall when I needed a project and felt like I was in a good place emotionally to work on the nursery. The crib we bought off Craigslist in the fall - just as a "let's keep an eye out for good deals and accumulate things gradually over time instead of breaking the budget all at once" thing. And the rug we stumbled across on a sale at Home Depot one day...gosh. I can't even remember when. Sometime in between the summer and now.

Because of the mostly accumulated furniture presence, the room has felt like it's been in a weird limbo for a long time, kind of appropriately so I suppose. There's furniture, but it's not all the right color and it's not all finished looking (crib but no sheets, for example). There was a day, back before most of this furniture had even arrived, where I literally sat down in the middle of the floor with a sketchbook and pencil and drew out where I wanted everything to go and how I wanted to design it. I'd spent more than enough time on Pinterest to have some ideas up my sleeve, and within a couple minutes I had a completely designed nursery. I've tweaked only a couple things since that original design, and it's definitely been the layout I've stuck with.

My sweet friend pointed out - with a semi-mocking tone - recently that it's kind of funny that this piece of paper is labeled "nursery ideas" when in fact it's a fully detailed and concrete plan. Yes, good point. It was originally meant to be a brainstorm sesh...but it was just a really good brainstorm sesh, that's all. I know the pencil is faint, but you can probably notice that my original thought of having more than one rug in there was immediately debunked when I put my most favorite green rug in front of where the future crib would go and realized that the big empty room was going to shrink fast with furniture. So there's only one rug, but it's a big one and fills the space well. Here's some more pictures of what the room looks like in live time (which is also how it's looked for pretty much the last four to six months):

So like I said: all the furniture is basically there, it's just definitely not a finished space.

As you can kind of see from what's in there already, we're going with a very gender neutral color scheme of grey, white, and pops of green. We're doing this for a couple different reasons. First, we're not finding out the baby's gender before delivery. Just a decision we made this time around and we may change our minds with future babies, but for now, we're content with waiting and letting it be the biggest of surprises. The other big reason is that we're planning on rotating Baby #1 out of the nursery and into the room next door whenever Baby #2 comes along, and so on, so it would be silly to go pink crazy and then have a boy next and have to start over (not that we would actually go pink crazy...have you ever met either of us?). There may be some element of fun to being able to decorate a new nursery for each kid, but my guess is that by the time I'm in my second trimester with Baby #2, Baby #1 and whatever dogs we have at the time will be keeping me busy. Plus it's got to be a huge money saver to just...recycle. The third reason, although I think this is more a me thing than an us thing, is that I've mellowed considerably in my color palette tastes and choices. I just really like the idea of a calm and neutral color scheme in a bedroom, especially in a nursery (and you can blame both Pinterest and HGTV for that).

So that being said...here's the plan for moving forward. The to-do list I can't wait to tackle:

• 1 Samuel 1:27-28 chalkboard
• quote for inside side table frame
• hang all pictures 
• turn green bottle into a lamp
• recover lamp shade? new lamp shade?
• paint dressers white
• paint side table white
• paint side table drawer pull silver
• make mobile for over crib
• paint metal pail for books
• clean out closet and closet drawers
• clean out dresser drawers
• line dresser drawers with contact paper
• organizers for inside of dresser drawers
• hem curtains and hang them
• storage system and bins
• get small lamp for changing table
• make/buy crib skirt
• metal trash can for diapers
• basket with liner for hamper

For now anyway, this is the to-do list. It's not too bad, and it's a really fun list, mostly the kind of craft projects I love doing anyway. I am super scared of hemming those curtains...but I'll discuss that a different day.

Here are a couple of sneak previews for what the plan is for a couple spots in the room, as told by my original drawing.

For this child...

Can I take a moment to say that I have spent the last three months staring at our nursery with no ability to decorate or work on the many projects it requires. Unable because, for one, I was far too sick and for two...I couldn't do fun crafty things while I was in my first trimester! I wouldn't be able to blog about them! (I'm saying this as if it's a joke, but this is real life. I waited to do anything to the nursery until I could blog about it.) But now that I'm feeling a little bit better AND the news is finally public, the nursery is about to have its life changed. And I am so stinking excited, guys.

I chose the inaugural project very intentionally. A verse from 1 Samuel has floated around Pinterest for years as one that is perfect for nurseries, and it has always really resonated with me. As time passed and we experienced the loss of Sam as well as the handful of months where we didn't get pregnant, this verse kept popping up in my mind and heart:

"For this child I prayed, and the Lord has granted me my petition that I made to Him. Therefore, I have left him to the Lord. As long as he lives, he is lent to the Lord." 

1 Samuel 1:27-28

These verses couldn't be more accurate; we spent so much time in prayer for the children that we longed to have, and we fully intend to do everything we can to give this child and any that follow to the Lord. Our children belong to the Lord above all, and I knew that I wanted that message to be a clear focal point in the nursery. 

After doing a little bit of mulling over how exactly I wanted to use the verses (in a small frame by the rocker, on a large canvas, etc.) I had one image I couldn't shake out of my head: a large, oval mirror that I converted into a chalkboard. I set out on a thrift store excursion, expecting it to take me many trips and multiple stores. But wouldn't you know it...I found exactly what I had pictured at the very first thrift store, for only $20. Chalk one up to the Blue Ridge Hospice Thrift Store. 

It's great, isn't it? I almost didn't see it and was about to walk out of the store when I took one more quick sweep of the walls and saw her. And then grabbed her. Large, check. Oval, check. Super sweet details, check. 

I contemplated painting the frame a different color (first I thought white and then I was pretty set on silver) but after getting home and looking at the nursery again I felt confident sticking with the gold. Gold is wearing me down, ya'll. 

First step was to tape off the edges so I could paint the mirror without having to pay too much attention to cutting in. 

Next step was to paint. I used the same chalkboard paint that's designed for glass that I used to make our kitchen chalkboard.

I used a foam brush again to apply the paint. Foam brushes aren't really my favorite because, as a general rule, they take a lot of paint off as you're trying to apply it, but I think they're a better tool to accomplish the smooth surface of a chalkboard. 

The first coat wasn't enough at all, but the second one did the trick. Here's the finished chalkboard:

Yep, you can see it's still drying in a couple places. I get impatient sometimes. 

The writing would be done with white paint pens, to look like chalk but to be permanent. I'll be honest: here's where I got really and truly terrified. For some reason, I'd seen the writing of the verse as a simple step. Just...throw it on there. When the time came to actually do the thing, though...I basically had this feeling like nothing I'd ever done was any good and I have no ability to be creative or artistic ever. I was pretty solidly frozen for about two and a half episodes of The Office while I just stared at this blank chalkboard. 

When I finally started to jump on it, I made several key errors. The first was that I measured the height of the mirror, determined how many lines of text I needed to have, and measured out where all the lines would go on the mirror. This was a super logical first step, and seemed to be a great beginning. Then I sat down with a piece of paper and doodled for a while to come up with a design that I liked. Again, seemed like a really and truly great step. I was feeling almost confident by this point. 

And then I, logically, started writing it out, just like my sketch, onto the chalkboard with a pencil. Except my spacing didn't always work and sometimes my sizing didn't look right. Knowing from my last chalkboard adventure that pencil eraser marks can be slightly permanent, I ignored my mistakes and just kept doodling over it until I was happy. (Honestly, this was a good call because it was/is really hard to see the pencil unless you're at exactly the right angle and the light hits it just right...which I will mention makes it hard to trace...) When I started tracing with the paint pens, though, it just didn't look right. I had spaced all the lines out evenly over the whole mirror, so all the words looked scrunched from right to left on each line and yet there was a lot of awkward space between all the lines from top to bottom. Even with my little doodles in there to fill space, it just didn't work. So...I painted over it. Yep. Not exactly how I pictured it going, I won't lie. I painted over it all, took a step back and looked at it again...and just started free-handing it. I'm fairly certain I held my breath the whole time, but I really did abandon all instincts and fear and just did the thing. And all things considered...I am extremely happy with the final product. 

I still used the paper draft as a guide, and only really improvised a little, but I think the space is filled much more completely and fully in this free-handed version than the original measured out version. And by "I think," what I really mean is "it's definitely better." You're going to have to take my word for it though, because I didn't exactly take any pictures of the version I was unhappy with. But I promise, this is better. 

You'll notice, if you pay really close attention, that I changed some of the words to the verses when I put them on the chalkboard. I normally wouldn't approve of this at all, but the words I changed don't affect the purpose or meaning of the verses. Instead of keeping the "I," "me," and "my," I changed it to say "we," "us," and "ours." See what I mean? I wanted to make it clear, in this nursery context, that the hubs and I both prayed fervently for this child, and that we both intend to surrender our children to the Lord.

I'm so excited to have a nursery project done, and I love the symbolism of this particular project. I mentioned at the beginning of this post that I chose the first project very intentionally. It was important to me that before anything else was done to this room, we established our gratefulness for God's provision and blessing as well as our intentions as parents. And now that that's been done, I can keep crossing other things off the list as well.

The First Ever Moore Family Scrapbook

My mother is a scrapbook artist. She has systematically immortalized the history of our family in many beautiful scrapbooks. For many years she used Creative Memories products and scrapbooks and in the last handful of years she has embraced the wonders of Shutterfly.com. Are you familiar with the wonders of Shutterfly? I mean...goodness. It's fantastic. I'm such a fan. But more on that later; back to my mom's scrapbooks. They're treasures, and they're such a great way to share what your family has been up to at friend/family/holiday gatherings. I can remember many Thanksgivings where Mom would sit with my grandmother and show the latest scrapbook that told the story of our year.

I started thinking about putting together a scrapbook at the end of last year. I wanted to be able to share our family's happenings with people the way my mother had always been able to, and I figured I would appreciate keeping up with said scrapbooks each year rather than finding myself in a position where I had to catch up several years from now. My instinct was to use my [extremely extensive] Instagram photos rather than sift through other photos on my computer. I decided to go this route for a couple of reasons:

• I'm pretty terrible about using either of my cameras to take pictures, because - let's be painfully honest - my phone is always within arm's reach and that's way easier. 
• Most pictures that I take end up on Instagram anyway (again...painfully honest here). 
• Instagram serves as a kind of continuously updated scrapbook on its own, and all I would have to do is narrow down. 

As it turns out, all those reasons held up and that's the route I stuck with. I did, however, have to narrow down a lot. I think I have a problem, guys. I post entirely too many Instagram pictures.

But...as far as how I came up with the format and function of the actual book, I had a couple things that I considered. I wanted to come up with a style and format that I could duplicate for years to come, so all my yearly books could be displayed next to each other and have the same kind of feel/function/theme. I also wanted the book to end up being on the petite side, which meant that I really had to narrow down pictures, but more on that later. I also wanted very little (or no) words throughout the book, but rather for the photos to fill the pages and speak for themselves. So I got to work with those goals in mind and put together a book for 2012 and 2013 (I decided to go this route because I didn't get my iPhone - and therefore Instagram - until halfway through 2012). It took me several weeks but I got it done...but I just wasn't convinced that it was what I wanted. I wasn't really sure why, I just knew it wasn't right. So I left it alone for a while and forgot about it, knowing that I would come back to it eventually.

So when my favorite bloggers blew my mind with their own yearly scrapbook post, I did indeed go back to my own book. The big thing that I took away from the Young House Love scrapbook was that they had a page at the front of the book that listed all the highlights of the year. That really jumped out at me, and I decided my scrapbooks needed that feature too. Adding that page also made me feel better about leaving the rest of the book word-free like I'd planned. After adding that page, I sliced and diced photos like I was an insane person. I forgot to pay attention to how many pages ended up being cut, but I will say that I had completely maxed out on pages and edited down to a reasonable 50 pages. (In case you're unfamiliar with Shutterfly, that means that I also dropped my little project by many, many dollars.) Some ways that I accomplished this was by simply minimizing the amount of pictures that document each event (ex: I had originally included almost all 15 pictures taken at the Buffalo Trace Distillery when we visited in May, but ended up cutting it down to just one). The point, after all, is to document that we went there/did that/visited that person and not to share every single picture I felt the need to take during those times. The new streamlined version, after taking advantage of a couple different promo codes that dropped the price and eliminated shipping costs, this baby came in at a grand total of $30. So great, and so much better than the original effort that would have cost me approximately $130 (not kidding). The finished result came in the mail today and I can't stop freaking out about how much I love it. I'm most definitely going to be forcing it on everyone I can over the next several months I'm sure, so get ready friends. But here's a preview now.

I decided to keep the cover of the book simple and classic. The spine's color is showing up a little bit more gold than reality in this photo; it's actually just a beige. The book's title and dates also show up on the spine, which you can see below. 

(Yet another unabashed shout out to Young House Love.) 

The first page, like I mentioned, has the highlights of 2012-2013, stretching back to New Year's 2012 even though photos don't start until July of that year. How could I pass up an opportunity to at least document the beginning of our relationship and our engagement? 

Almost everything that's listed here is documented later in the book with photos, but there's plenty that happened that's in the photos and not listed here (you follow that sentence?). My point is that I like that you can read this list of our year(s) and then flip through the pages and see the photos that stood out from those trips and events. Here are a couple random examples of what the rest of the book looks like:

I'm extremely happy with how this little guy turned out, and I've already resisted the urge to start working on 2014's book. It was so much fun to go through the digital version on Shutterfly's website the night before I ordered it, and show the hubs what I had been working on. Some pictures made us laugh as he remembered moments he had forgotten (that bird in our living room, in the top right of the bottom picture, for example). Some pictures just show the fun year and a half we had together, visiting friends and family, working on projects around the house, and seeing our puppy grow. Some pictures discreetly documented the loss and pain we felt last summer after the miscarriage, which hold a special place in my heart. 

Really, at the end of the day, this is just a scrapbook. Nothing crazy and nothing revolutionary. But it's our first family scrapbook, and I'm excited about it. So humor me.

The Happiest of Announcements...and a Reflection

That's right! We officially announced this morning - you know you think Facebook makes things official - that our family is growing! Baby Moore is due at the beginning of October, and we literally couldn't be happier. Well, the hubs and I couldn't be happier, I think Captain and Zuriel just think those booties are a new toy and/or treat.

Even though we can't wait to meet him or her this fall, I can't go without mentioning that we're still mindful of the baby we lost last summer. Sam would be almost two months old by now, and we absolutely wish we had him with us. We will never know or really understand why we lost him, but we do have complete faith and trust in God's plan, and His timing. That's not meant to sound like a cliche, and it's definitely not something that I say flippantly. It took us many months to come to a place of true peace and trust after losing Sam, and it was a growing process that we cherish with thankful hearts. It's because of that growing process that we can now move forward in anticipation and utter excitement for this baby and any babies that follow. Losing Sam was extremely hard, and the months of unsuccessfully trying to get pregnant after Sam were hard, but we really do wholeheartedly believe that God has a plan for our lives, for our marriage, and for our family. And the lessons that we learned about our own private relationships with Him as well as the new depths in our marriage that came as a result of that journey are irreplaceable. And honestly, I am so very thankful for all of it.

Thank you so much to those of you who have held our hands, listened to our heartache and fears, and who have prayed for God's will to be done in our lives over the last year. Thank you also for rejoicing now with us as we celebrate this new baby who is growing fast and keeping his momma super sick almost all of the time :) We love you already, Baby, and can't wait for October.

ps: Let the fun nursery posts begin!

Twisted: a brief review

I've been crossing a lot of books off my list so far this year, but as I've added up the numbers for my 2014 challenges it's occurred to me that I've been neglecting my 94-Book Challenge...all those unread books staring at me from my bookshelves. Between my library card and books that have been given to me in the last couple months as gifts, I've kind of forgotten about the 20 books I promised to read this year from my shelves. Whoops. I bring you: Twisted, by Laurie Halse Anderson. 

I've mentioned before that I'm a huge fan of Anderson's. Between Speak, Wintergirls, and the Chains/Forge series, I think she's pretty much the stuff. So does one of my sisters, who actually gave me this book for a birthday several years ago. We were both really interested to see how she would handle yet another dark and deep plot...but this time inside the head of a BOY. As it turns out, she did a great job once again.

Tyler Miller has always been "Nerd Boy," small and pimply and avid fan of video games. He's been bullied, picked on, and teased for many years, mostly by Chip Milbury. After getting caught spray painting the school at the end of his junior year, though, he spends the summer performing community service and working for a landscaping company. He enters senior year several inches taller and impressively muscled, which immediately catches the attention of his life-long crush and twin sister of his nemesis Chip, Bethany Milbury. Everything seems to be looking up for Tyler...until all the right things start to go horribly wrong, and he finds himself caught in the middle of yet another battle with the law, his father, and the entire student body. 

I don't think I can say that Twisted is quite on the same level as Speak or Wintergirls, but that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy it. I actually enjoyed it quite a lot, and cruised through it in less than 24 hours. Something that I've always loved Anderson for is her ability to get inside the mind of her protagonist, and truly reveal to her readers the deepest and ugliest details of their personal struggles. It was pretty interesting this time, having such an intimate front row seat inside the mind of a 17 year old boy. There was plenty that felt weird to read, but to be completely honest she really held back a lot. Anderson made conscious choices to be true to Tyler's thoughts and reactions without going too far or really saying all that much. I would say that some of the content would definitely push this book from Young Adult into Teen, but that's fairly typical of Anderson's more intense novels anyway. 

Like I said, I read this book super fast. It's a quick, easy read despite the depth of most of the plot. Twisted touches on - and overtly discusses in some cases - some pretty difficult topics that more than a couple teenagers deal with. Bullying, popularity, social classes, relationships with parents, parents who spend all their time fighting with each other, teen drinking and partying and the extreme consequences that can follow, and even suicide are all discussed and studied in this novel. Anderson handles them all with grace and ease, but there's no real surprise there.

Stuff I Like: Hardwood Floor Vacuum

When I was probably twelve or so years old, I casually told my mother that I loved sweeping. "It's so relaxing," I believe I said. Shortly after she gave me the nightly chore of sweeping the kitchen and dining room I decided that I actually hated sweeping. That unfortunately did not change at all when I grew up and got married and became the sole cleaner of a house with two dogs. Two dogs who shed a lot.

Our house in Woodbridge was 90% carpet, with only the kitchen and modest entryway containing laminate flooring. (Well, the bathrooms had that too I suppose.) The carpet was a pain in the butt to keep clean with the dogs, but I had strong negative emotions for those hard floors that turned me into a raging lunatic on cleaning days. Have you ever tried to sweep floors covered in dog hair? I mean, really. Have you? Because if you ever have, even once, you probably know everything I'm about to say. The dog hair would tornado and fly everywhere except the path of the broom, and I would spend so much time chasing it around the small spaces trying to just get it in the stinking dustpan. When I would consider the job done and look back on my work, I'd usually still see hair lurking and mocking me. I promise I'm not being dramatic here...this is real life. This happened.

When we bought our Berryville house almost a year ago, it occurred to me very quickly that the ratio was now reversed. Instead of having only two rooms that are hard floors, our new house would have only two rooms in the entire house that are carpeted. The rest are all either hardwood or tile. Although this really excited me - so little carpet to keep clean, hardwood is my ultimate fave, etc. - it also worried me a little for my own sanity. I knew there was no way on earth the traditional broom was going to work. At all. Hubs actually said to me after we bought the house: "you're going to go crazy keeping those floors clean." He knows me.

So I started doing some research. My mom had bought a hardwood floor vacuum a year or more before I went on the hunt, and she had lots of great things to say about it. I didn't end up with the same one she did, but after much research and reading of reviews on Amazon, I decided on the Bissell PowerEdge Pet Hard Floor Corded Vacuum.

Besides the fact that it costs a mere $50 on Amazon, there are so many things I love about this thing. And after almost a year of using it, none of them have faded. Here's my list:

• The unique front end makes it easy to vacuum around awkward objects and get in small places (toilet bowls, the legs of items, deep into corners). 
• It's super lightweight, and extremely easy to push, lift, and maneuver. 
• The cord is more than long enough (our mudroom/laundry room doesn't have any outlets so I use a short extension cord to reach the whole room, but other than that it's not a problem at all around the house). 
• The fact that it has a cord is a huge benefit if you have a lot of hard floor surface to clean. There are lots of vacuums that are battery charged instead, and I knew that with the amount of floor that I would be cleaning regularly it would be extremely inconvenient for it to die halfway through the house. Having it plug in means you never have to worry about that. 
• The bagless canister that collects the dirt/hair/what have you is compact but holds a surprising amount of stuff. I can do my entire house, full of piles of dog hair, without emptying it. I have to empty it after doing the whole house, but not during. 
• The canister is also really easy to take out and empty/clean. 
• The fact that this vacuum is specifically designed for pet hair means that there are no spinning wheels and brushes on the bottom of the vacuum; it's just a plastic and rubber opening that sucks everything up. This keeps the dog hair - and everything else - from getting caught and tangled and wrapped around brushes like in other vacuums.
• You can vacuum low-pile area rugs with this vacuum, although it's not the same as a normal vacuum and you have to use a specific kind of finesse. I have a couple of small rugs in the kitchen - in front of the stove and sink - and when they get little crumbs or dirt on them it's easy to clean them up by lifting the vacuum and slowly pulling the vacuum backwards over the rugs. I've found that going forward like you normally would doesn't really work. It's not perfect, but if you don't feel like pulling the big carpet vacuum out it does do the job. 

In short, this thing is fantastic. I highly recommend it, especially if you have dogs that shed. I can definitely and confidently say that it's one of the best investments we've made.

(Nope, I'm not sponsored in any way. Just a heartfelt supporter of the product.)

Gone Girl: a brief review

taken from Goodreads.com

Holy crap, this book.

I literally just finished the last page and my eyes are still bugging out of my head a little and my brain is still saying "what the heeeeck...?" and "holy crap, this book" seems like the only logical thing for me to say, but that's probably not enough. So I'll say more. 

Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl is one of those that's been on my radar for a while, just because it's been really popular and seems to be everywhere. I mentioned in my Books-to-Movies Challenge post back at the start of the new year that I wanted to read it sooner rather than later because it's being turned into a movie this fall. (A little bit more on that in a minute.) It's forever on the waiting list from the library but when stumbled across it available last week on the library's website I snatched it. And then proceeded to absolutely devour it.

Nick and Amy Dunne are celebrating their five-year anniversary in their newish home in their newish zip code in Missouri, having relocated from a posh and carefree life in New York City. Stories from their early relationship paint a picture of a genuinely happy couple, playful and excited, but perhaps things aren't still quite so perfect. When Nick comes home from work and finds the front door open, the house a mess and Amy gone without a trace, the town - and soon, the country - becomes obsessed with figuring out what happened. Where is Amy? What happened in their home? Who is responsible?

I honestly can't even tell you how swept away with this plot I was. It was basically from the first page; I couldn't put it down, and when I had to I thought about it almost constantly. I really can't remember the last time I felt that way about a book...that I was that obsessed with finding out what happens next. I've always wanted to be the person who could stay up super late at night reading, but I get tired and fall asleep. I'm human. This book, though, had the opposite effect on me in the middle of the night. Okay...have I painted the picture for you enough? I really and thoroughly enjoyed this crazy book. From an entertainment perspective, I really did devour it. Couldn't get enough, couldn't stop thinking about it, couldn't stop wondering what absolutely insane thing was going to happen next. Yeah, I think you get the picture.

That all being said: I do need to give a disclaimer. I read mostly Young Adult books, and therefore review mostly Young Adult books on this blog. That's not because I have anything against books written for adults; it comes from my background in teaching middle school Language Arts and I've gotten comfortable with the genre for lots of reasons. Gone Girl, let me be very clear, is not a Young Adult book. Not that anyone would think that, but I just needed to say it. There's quite a lot of vulgar and sexually descriptive language (although not much actual sex) throughout the book in its entirety, which wasn't my favorite and makes it harder for me to actually recommend, but the plot is mind blowing...which I think I've already covered.

As far as the movie goes, it's far away and coming out in October, so there's not even a trailer to get jazzed about yet. There is, however, a full cast list on its IMDB page, and I had a ton of fun with it while reading the book. Most of the time, I read the books well in advance and then get super annoying and vocal about how Hollywood cast the characters wrong because they're not how they look in my head. Sometimes, though, I read the book when there's already a Hollywood framework in place and I get to spend a lot of time flipping back to my IMDB app on my phone to see who they cast for this new character. And sometimes, that is super fun. I have to say, the cast list for the movie works really well for the characters in this book. Time will tell whether the movie will actually be good, but (in my opinion) Ben Affleck is a great choice for Nick, Neil Patrick Harris is a shockingly terrifying but excellent choice for Desi, and I even think Tyler Perry will do a good job with Tanner Bolt. The only one I'm slightly unsure of is the choice of Rosamund Pike for Amy, just because she will always always be sweet and wonderful and perfect Jane Bennet from Pride & Prejudice, but I'm sure she will be great.

So...those are my thoughts. I really do think, though, that I could have gotten away with only saying "holy crap, this book."

The Continuing Dryer Sheet Saga

So...a little while ago (a month ago? a month and a half ago?) I wrote about making my own dryer balls to replace chemical-laced dryer sheets. What actually happened was that I wrote about how the hubs made me some dryer balls because I didn't have a sliver of the patience or fine motor skills needed to wrap all that wool. Between the annoyance of actually making the balls and the fact that one of them unraveled in the dryer the first time I used them, they had their share of issues. I thought they were working pretty well, though.

But then there were a couple of times I pulled my flannel shirts out of the dryer and they were super static-filled. And then I noticed that my microfiber cloths were full of static...as well as most other things. I shrugged it off. The fateful day came, though, when the hubs was examining his closet and pointed out that all his clothes had quite a bit of dog hair on them. For someone who wears a whole lot of black Harley t-shirts, this wasn't going to work. The dryer balls might have been doing a decent job of getting our clothes dry and a mediocre job of getting rid of static, but they were officially doing a terrible job of eliminating our 75-pound baby's hair off of our stuff. So back to the drawing board I went.

Thankfully, this was a pretty easy process and has been painless so far (I say "so far," acknowledging the fact that there may someday be a follow-follow up post about how this current solution isn't working anymore, but fingers crossed). I had seen the cleaning product brand Seventh Generation in various stores, and knew they boasted their clean, eco-friendly products. I figured that was as natural (no pun intended) place to start as any. I did some minimal research and confirmed that fact that they don't have dyes, bleach, or chemicals, and figured that about crossed off everything on my minimally-informed list. I have officially used them for a full day of laundry - meaning that they were put to the test with towels, sheets, a comforter (covered in previously mentioned dog hair), and all of our clothes, and they worked like champs. No dog hair to be found, and no static at all. Win win.

Obviously, they're more expensive than the regular dryer sheets I was buying at Costco before my minimally-informed self decided to switch things up, and they're more expensive than the homemade dryer balls with a one-time cost of the $8 wool. But if they're free of chemicals and do everything I need them to do, I think it's probably worth it.

In other news, I now have three tennis ball-sized wool yarn balls who need a purpose...

A New Cleaning Schedule

I've been following the blog I Heart Organizing for a couple years now, and have gotten lots of great ideas for how to make my home more efficient and organized (not that I've followed through on all of them yet, but ideas are ideas folks). For the last couple of weeks she's been blogging about her quest to keep a cleaner house in less time. She's decided to tackle that by doing one small cleaning task a day, and even though I was intrigued with that concept I decided it's not best for me right now. I know a lot of people prefer to break their cleaning up into multiple days, but that's not appealing to me at this current stage in our family. I don't enjoy cleaning day - which happens to be today...ugh - but it's one day and I can end the day knowing that the house is clean for another week, give or take a couple tasks that need touch-ups in between Thursdays. My days fill up faster than I expect them to and it just works better for me to have one day out of the week that I tank with things I don't enjoy, like cleaning and laundry, rather than spread them out all week long.

That all being said, I have taken away some great ideas for ways to clean our house differently from Jen's cleaning challenge over at IHeart. She's blogged about some things she's cleaned that have made me say "oh...duh...that's embarrassing that I've never done that." So I've decided to switch things up the tiniest of bits in my cleaning regimen, but I'm actually just adding quite a few tasks that will show up on a monthly and bi-annual basis. My weekly cleaning schedule won't change, and just because it's pretty basic I won't share it here. But here are my new additions:

Monthly Cleaning:
-clean all windows
-vacuum out cars
-clean microwave
-cycle clean appliances
-vacuum mattresses
-wipe down all doors
-clean inside of fridge
-clean out freezer
-clean oven
-clean out pantry
-purge unneeded items around house
-reorganize a drawer or closet

Bi-Annual Cleaning (spring and fall):
-scrub baseboards
-clean screens
-complete clothes overhaul and purge
-purge entertainment

Since it's the middle of a month, I decided to wait until April to start with the monthly cleaning, and I chose May and October for my spring and fall cleaning. Yes, there's only five months between May and October, but I figured no one would want to be cleaning screens in either April or November. I'm excited to see how this changes the maintained cleanliness as well as the functionality of our home. I definitely won't blog about every item I tackle on these lists, but I will try to at least share some before/after pics and follow up on how it's working. I'm sure it will need to be tweaked over time and I'm also sure I'll add to the lists as I find/discover/come up with more that needs to be done.

The Book Thief: a brief review

taken from Goodreads.com

Have you ever finished a book and needed some time to sit quietly and digest? Like...don't talk to me or ask anything of me for a while, because I am filled with both love and the deepest of sorrows and I'm not sure how to proceed. That was me last night. I truly loved this book, everything about it, but I'm finding it a little hard to put into words why. Not because it isn't obvious, but because it's so special I just want to hold it close to me and cherish it. That might sound odd - and it very well might be - but all I've done since finishing it is sleep and eat breakfast so I'm still in an emotional state.

Markus Zusak's The Book Thief has been well-known and well-loved since it's creation, but it's become wildly popular since Hollywood turned it into a movie. In fact, that's when it got bumped from my "I really want to read that list" to my "I now have a deadline to read it before I see the movie list." I loved it from the first page; as someone who is attempting to write a novel of her own, I can't even put into words my level of respect for Zusak and his incredible ability to describe, explain, and paint his characters into existence. One of my favorite examples of his characterization comes from the beginning of the book:

She was good at being furious. In fact, you could say that Rosa Hubermann had a face decorated with constant fury. That was how the creases were made in the cardboard texture of her complexion. (page 32 on Kindle)

As far as an actual plot description, here's my attempt: Liesel Meminger's mother is forced to place both Liesel and her brother in a foster home in pre-WWII Germany, but on the journey to their new town Liesel's brother dies. When she arrives at the Hubermann's home, Liesel is young, alone, and terrified. Her initial observations of her ill-tempered foster mother and grumpy foster father, though, quickly become brushed aside as she realizes the depth of their love for her. Whether it's sitting with her all night after a nightmare or expressing affection through vulgar nicknames, Liesel quickly finds her home with the Hubermanns on Himmel Street. As time progresses and the war begins, she finds love in other places as well, like the next-door neighbor boy Rudy who is intent on kissing her, and the stranger Max who has moved into the basement. Through it all, Liesel finds solace and excitement in the books she steals and the way they bring all of the people in her life together.

I can't even describe the happiness and the heartbreak that this book brings. You will absolutely adore the characters; you will absolutely adore this book. Zusak took an interesting approach when writing this book by using Death as the narrator. It sounds a little odd, and it does take a little bit of time to get used to, but it's also a completely appropriate choice given the content. I'll end with one of my favorite - and most haunting - paragraphs in the book, as told by Death himself.

Summer came. 
For the book thief, everything was going nicely. 
For me, the sky was the color of Jews.
When their bodies had finished scouring for gaps in the door, their souls rose up. When their fingernails had scratched at the wood and in some cases were nailed into it by the sheer force of desperation, their spirits came toward me, into my arms, and we climbed out of those shower facilities, onto the roof and up, into eternity's certain breadth. They just keep feeding me. Minute after minute. Shower after shower. (page 349 on Kindle)

Read this book, if you haven't already. 

And for added excitement/incentive, here's the extended trailer for the movie (which comes out on DVD today, actually).