Welcome Little Critters!

Our contractor warned us but it has still been difficult to swallow. The work on the house has eliminated most of the grass in both the front and back of our lawn. It also means my beloved hydrangea bush looks like a pile of flattened sticks. It's all replaced with the red clayish mud characteristic of this area. They will be flattening the ground so that what used to include dips and holes will be level, just without any life.

The flip side is that we have an unprecedented opportunity to recreate our lawn, which really needed the help. As winter drags on I can't help but start thinking of spring. Who knows what we will accomplish with two little ones this spring but we did find this. The National Wildlife Federation will certify your lawn (no matter how small) as a Wildlife Habitat. As they put it:

All you need to do is provide elements from each of the following areas:
Food Sources - For example: Native plants, seeds, fruits, nuts, berries, nectar
Water Sources - For example: Birdbath, pond, water garden, stream
Places for Cover - For example: Thicket, rockpile, birdhouse
Places to Raise Young - For example: Dense shrubs, vegetation, nesting box, pond
Sustainable Gardening - For example: Mulch, compost, rain garden, chemical-free fertilizer

You pay the NWF $15 and they send you a little certification sign for your lawn as well as their magazine.

Considering we already compost and have a bat house I figure that we can easily incorporate these other ideas into our plans for the yard. Unfortunately, I've had a hard time finding much information on plants native to New Jersey. The only sticking point. Any ideas for where to search?

Getting Kitted.

A group of my closest friends from college have all managed to stay very close. We try to have occiasional reunions, but many times life and kids interfere in our best plans. But, we email alot and do our best to share in eachothers' challenges and triumphs. Oh yeah, and we call ourselves "The Gammas". It's a long story but, yes, we are a fake sorority. It sort of started as a joke. We now use it as a dead-serious term.

Anyway, one piece of our ongoing connection has been creating baby quilts for each child born to one of the group. Each individual, except the one having the baby, decorates a 13 inch X 13 inch fabric square and then the whole thing is quilted together. It is a tradition taken from a great community of people I know in Madison, Wisconsin. Well, as it so happens, all of our first children have gorgeous, meaningful quilts to their name. But, it's been more difficult to get to the second children. There is only one (so far) but she is already a one-year old and we still don't have hers off to her. And, then, wouldn't you know it...three of us are also currently pregnant. So, with visions of our second children (also known as gambinos) growing up asking "Where is my gamma quilt?" I decided it was within my crafting range (under current restrictions) to create Quilt Kits.

I'm trudging through it slowly between endless research trips related to our house project and the good-old third trimester, but, it's coming along. I initially sent an email with pictures so everyone could pick a few patterns they like and I'm trying to match some solids with other prints and then throwing in a few other things to help the process along. So, take heart little ones and little ones-to-be you will not live quilt free.

Little good things

Perhaps it is my newfound appreciation for the spare but I'm mesmerized by this artist's rendering of New York in Legos that appeared in the NYTimes (that I now read on-line during the week). It's fantastically entertaining.

Being Broke Isn't Half Bad.

I shouldn't say broke, really it's budgeting. I'm aware I have loads of creature comforts. But, the house project is seriously stretching our budget and so we are very consciously cutting back. We limited ourselves to NYTimes only on the weekends (Oh, how I love you Monday crossword.), got rid of cable with the intention of existing on Netflix alone, cutting way back on fancy foods we make and those we buy, all new clothes and fancy coffees are banned. I've even stopped looking through the Anthropologie catalog (a dangerous endeavour) and we are taking advantage of our local library. I'm embarassed to say I've been a near-stranger to the library until the past month.

It's amazing what can be saved with lots of little savings here and there. I thought that I would find it difficult but necessary in the short term. Turns out, there is something great and liberating about it. I know I have all the necessary things that make a budgetted life easy like a home and heat and clothes I like, etc. And, that helps. But, seriously, it kind of feels nice when I choose to do something free rather than something expensive. I love that I'm not wasting time shopping for things I don't really need. Why did I do that to begin with? I feel like I get to let go of the need to have the cutest and newest because I just can't afford it. Decision made.

The picture is of the applique I put on a plain top to make pajamas for my sister as a Christmas gift. I paired it with matching pants. Just because I don't know about the picture-less post...let's not get that frugal.