Margot Meg: here I am!

Look, it's a pumpkin! No it isn't, it's Princess Pukesalot. This dear little girl has a sweet disposition with a sour smell. Sweet and sour sauce. Saucy sissy. Sissy pie. Mag pie. Margs. She's a whole lot of all those things, soaked in a whole lot of love...and puke.:)

Etc.

Main floor bath- I have a fondness for emerald green.

Oliver's bed- he has a matching 'friend bed' on the other side of the room. Andrew and I ripped wood out of our barn for the beds and the kids' bathroom vanity. I saw an idea for a roll-up school map in a magazine once, so naturally when I found some maps at a school garage sale I snatched them up. When we moved to our new house- bingo!- one fit Oliver's window perfectly. Providential.

This is the office area at the top of the stairs. I'm thinking of converting it into a little reading nook/guest room with a daybed. Andrew built that sweet desk out of an old industrial ironing board base and an exotic wood called bubinga. How funny is that word? Anyway, this room has the best view in the house.

A verse I wrote over the window on the landing going upstairs. You can catch a glimpse of the makeshift railing on the right there. One of our remaining projects: stairs/railing.

I forgot to mention these pendants in the previous post-- we fashioned them out of a few things we found at Menard's and some other thing Andrew had to buy online.

That's all I've got at the moment. Gigi was sleeping when I was sneaking around taking the pictures, so I'll have to snap some of her room tomorrow. The master bedroom is sort of lacking right now...well, the opposite, actually. It's stuffed to the gills with stuff. Margot is still in there in a mini crib, and all of her gear along with her. When it clears out a little I'll take some pictures. Andrew did a pretty neat closet unit in there. Everything about our house is petite, so we have to create storage...let's just say 'master suite' is not applicable to our bedroom.

main floor

It worked! Here are some pictures of the kitchen, dining and living rooms. Note my beloved William Pahlmann book flying high in a place of honor.

The door next to the hutch there is a secondary door that we don't use much. It's original to the house, so that's cool. Hopefully we'll get some trim around it soon...

View from the end of the kitchen peninsula. I went with a cream paint color in the kitchen and living room- Benjamin Moore's 'white chocolate'- just because I wasn't sure what color we were going to do for cabinets, and I thought cream sounded both warm and fresh. I'm not thrilled with it now...it looks a bit stark. Andrew wants to put built in book cases in the living room, so that'll cover up some wall space.

Here's a closer look at the shelf bracket detail. We fell for Erika Powell's brackets, so Andrew came up with a variation for ours. This kitchen was such a process of evolution. If you recall, we spent the first year in our new house using the laundry room as a kitchen. We then progressed to counter tops, lower cabinets, and a sink on the main floor. Things just happened as we thought of them or needed them or Andrew had time to build them. "Oh, we should put something in the corner. Should we do a shelf through the window? How 'bout a cabinet that the shelf sits on?..." You get the idea.

Since we're doing most of the reno ourselves, things are still just slowly coming together, but that's better than coming apart! Andrew installed the shelf through the kitchen window and the glass tile a couple weeks ago. What a cheerful addition to my morning cup of coffee- sunshine bouncing off the iridescent citrus squares. Don't be too jealous, I'm usually brought abruptly back to reality with the waking of a baby girl or two...:)

There are still many unfinished edges and lacking details- as in, only 2 interior doors installed so far...on the loo's, thankfully.:) But we'll get there yet. Rome wasn't built in a day...or a home remodeled in 3 years??

And you can see better pictures of our kitchen and others that Andrew has done here.

sweet home sweet

Since I'm not great at computers, it's of course nearly impossible for me to figure out the picture

uploading business. After many failed attempts, here are a couple shots of our house's front door. I compiled the wreath with scraps of burlap and an old wool blanket, combining a couple of ideas found on Pinterest.

Now that I've given a teaser, I hope to share some photos of the inside, as well...

Oh!

Almost forgot-- we recently had our family photographed by a dear, extraordinarily talented friend. You can get a sneak peek at www.inspireddesignandphotography.com
Also, there are some shots of kitchens that Andrew has done (ours included!), and if you scroll back to December my dear little nephew Theo's mug is on the site, too.

Cheers!

Today we celebrate!
1. Being online (with a COMPUTER...for the first time in THREE YEARS!)
2. Margot's 5 months old
3. Andrew's 30 YEARS old
A redletter day for the Toftnesses- salute!

Hello my name is: stranger

Oh. My. Word. Now coming to you live from- my new phone! Still no computer here at 14852 (hopefully that will soon follow), but with my handy dandy space phone I can access my blog. Can I get a woot!

Since my last post- nearly a year ago!- a few things have changed in our family. As in-- I had a baby. Yay! Sweet little Margot Meg came in a fast and furious fashion on October 22, 2011.

The day's events, taken from my journal:

Saturday, October 22, 2011

8am- wake up, annoyed I'm still pregnant

9am- breakfast

10-11am- Andrew works on MTB trail with Oliver while I prep the house laundry for [dreaming of] having a baby. Bruce + Bonnie here.

12pm- lunch

1-2pm- Megan comes over to keep me company/commiserate with me (Mike broke up with her last week. What a JERK).

3pm- take a Tbs. of castor oil, walk the driveway, poop. [sorry about that last part]

4:30pm- [after working in the garden] first HARD contraction.

5:30pm- arrive @ hospital after leaving the kids with B + B.

6:30- resting comfortably with epidural.

7:45- feeling need to push intensify.

8:00pm- dr. has room prepped, I push.

8:02- we welcome MARGOT MEG TOFTNESS :)

She's a regular peach...uh, do most peaches cry a lot? This one does. But there's still that fuzzy sweetness. We're all crazy about her. This does not exclude Georgi, who loves to beep M's nose, poke her eyes, and burp her head. Yikes. I spend a lot of my hours each day just protecting the poor little lamb from her foxy sister. I won't lie and say it's all strawberries and sunshine, but we have our happy moments in the midst of chaos. :) I'm thankful for God's daily grace.

That's all for now...and probably for a while. This little hand gadget is a bit frustrating to navigate with its small smudged screen and touch-keys. I'm just thrilled to not have allowed an entire year to slip away without record. Eleven months sounds so much better.

And p. s. I can't figure out how to post a picture. Margot's really cute, so imagine a cute baby while you're waiting for my PC.