the last of may

Week 22 saw continued progress on the nursery front. When I left off at the end of week 21, it was Memorial Day weekend, and Steve and I were trying to get as much done as possible. We had gotten one bookshelf moved on Saturday, but we took a day off from that for a fact finding mission downtown on Sunday.

First on the list was a trip to The Container Store. We wanted to look at their closet hardware, as well as the options for plastic storage containers to go in the closets. Their website isn't terribly helpful, so it was good to see everything in person, even if we didn't buy any of it at the time. The next stop was CB2 to look at the side table we had in mind for the living room, and then Crate & Barrel to look at a floor lamp, also for the living room. Again, we decided to hold off on buying either of those; I wasn't so sure about the floor lamp, and we didn't want to have to carry the side table home at the time. Last, we stopped at Sur la Table and Bristol Farms in the basement of the mall, looking for a stock pot (unsuccessful) and meat for dinner (successful).

On our way through the mall, I paused for some pictures in the window of Janie and Jack. Since I had been too focused on our to-do list on our previous stops, I needed to make a point of taking a picture or two while I could. I didn't know at the time that we were having a boy, but I did have a hunch. Between that and having already used displays of girl clothes for previous pictures of the day, I figured I should go with the shot of the boy clothes this time.

148/366 for the baby tourist to cuba

It was back to shelf moving on Monday. We had 4 IKEA bookshelves in our office prior to this: one corner shelf, two full-width shelves, and one half-width shelf. The corner shelf will be leaving us, and one of the bigger shelves got moved to the living room on Saturday. That left two shelves to move. We put the other big shelf in our bedroom to hold photo albums, the rest of the cookbooks, and various other books we're keeping. It's not my favorite spot for it, especially since we had to move the full-length mirror to a new, less convenient spot in the bedroom. But our space is limited, so we didn't have too many other options.

The half-width bookshelf, however, just got moved to a different spot in the future nursery. While it really doesn't go with the white and birch look that I have in mind for the nursery furniture, it does fit perfectly in the corner behind the door. And in that location with the door open, it's pretty well hidden. That gives us a bit more shelf space for things like our Harry Potter books, my old picture books, and some other things that might not quite go with the nursery's eventual woodland theme. For example, here is one shelf with a dragon Beanie Baby (Steve's), a couple wooden puzzles (also Steve's) and a vintage Steve The Steam Shovel book that we got from Carmen in a Christmas stocking one year. I also put some the children's books, which we already had, on that shelf.

149/366 memorial day progress

I spent some time going through boxes in the office/nursery closet on Tuesday afternoon, but I decided to take a break for a walk and hopefully some pictures in Noe Valley. Also, I felt like getting a bagel for a snack. So I found an interesting old lamp in the window of Ambiance for my picture, and then I got a whole wheat bagel with cream cheese at Noe Bagel.

150/366 blue belle

More box sorting occurred on Wednesday, and this time I found the box that contained some of my childhood stuff. There were the picture books that went on the bookshelf in the nursery, as well as my two old Sesame Street blankies. I was always more of a blankie kid than a stuffed animal one when it came to security items and things to sleep with. Those two Sesame Street blankets were my favorites, and the one with the hot air balloon (vs. the one with the picnic scene) was always the most preferred. Both are pretty sad shape now, though. There are holes, the trim is detached and fraying from being chewed, and there are even faint stains from bloody noses. I'm sure my mom tried her best to bleach those stains out, but there was probably only so much that could be done. Anyway, I took the blankets out for a few pictures before refolding them and putting them back in their plastic bag for storage again.

151/366 the well loved blankie

At last, on Thursday I had a more exciting subject for a picture than whatever I had found in boxes... That was the day of the Craftsman and Wolves trunk show at Pot + Pantry. See, last year I had been to the Tell Tale Preserve Co. trunk show at Big Daddy Antiques in Potrero Hill. There had been talk of them opening an actual store downtown, but then Tell Tale had partnership/investor problems and went under. It was very sad, but now the pastry chef from Tell Tale has opened a patisserie called Craftsman and Wolves in my neighborhood!

Before the shop opened, they had a preview trunk show for a day at the adorable kitchenware store Pot + Pantry. I heard about it on Twitter and Facebook and decided that I must go. So I walked down there before lunch that Thursday and bought a few goodies: a little chocolate zucchini travel cake, The Devil Inside, and some sipping caramel that came with croissant chips. The obvious choice for my picture of the day was The Devil Inside: chocolate-almond cake with a soft center of chocolate-toffee ganache studded with foie gras. It's one of their signature creations, although it will only be available in that form until June 30, since the CA foie gras ban goes into effect on July 1. I did a mini photo shoot with it that afternoon, and then Steve and I shared half that night. (The other half was shared the next night.) It was rich, chocolatey, and very interesting. I'm generally a fan of chocolate with caramel or toffee, and the foie gras added a nice savory dimension.

The Craftsman and Wolves storefront is now open, but I haven't actually gotten over there yet. There will certainly be pictures sooner or later, though.

152/366 the devil inside

Friday marked the first day of June, so I tried to think of some new way to shoot another page of the Simply Breakfast calendar. We happened to have some donut peaches, which related well to the crumble picture on the calendar, so I used those and the background of our new desk. It was nice to have a different wood surface for pictures, but I suspect it will be used less for that in the future, now that Steve has moved his computer stuff over to it.

153/366 june is for crumbles

On Saturday, I found myself at a bit of a loss for picture ideas. I took my weekly white-tank-top-and-black-pants belly shot, but I had already used one of those as my picture of the day a couple weeks before. Looking around the house for ideas, I found myself in the bedroom, where the mirror was waiting to be hung on the wall. I hadn't yet tried any pictures of myself and my new figure in a mirror, so I shot a few after I had thoroughly cleaned said mirror. I don't think it actually got hung until the next day, but it worked fine for my impromptu 19-week picture. Incidentally, this is one of the few non-maternity t-shirts I have that still sort of fits—for now...

154/366 a bit of a bump

That's it another week, as well as the month of May. You know what that means: mosaic time, of course!