new home for the holidays

It's almost Christmas! This our first Christmas in our new house in our new locale. We've been traveling so much that it still feels new. But we are settling in, putting out little roots and starting new traditions.  This year, for the the first time ever, we cut our own Christmas tree:

Rain Dragon was a little confused (and cold):

But we invested in some non-breakable ornaments:

 and she got into the holiday spirit:

So we've decked the new halls:

And now our home is (mostly) ready for the holidays! Hope yours is, too!

on my desk monday

Taking a brief procrastination breather with fabric:

The Sasquatch's mother very, very kindly has agreed to make curtains in the studio for me! The pink flowers is for the window seat window and the bird fabric is for the window behind my reading/writing chair.  Will post photos when it's all finished...I can't wait!

working on the progress

So, I am still setting up the studio. I admit I have pretty high standards for it, which is why it is taking so long. One of the things I want to do is have the stairway wall going up to it set up like a gallery, a la salon style like this:

found on Pinterest

This is actually rather difficult to achieve. You need two people and neither can be afraid of heights. Lucky for me, the Sasquatch is not afraid of heights. He just doesn't like them. He doesn't like them a lot. But he does like me! So, we have been hanging frames:

 of some of my favorite moments:

the menu of  the Newbery Honor celebration luncheon

my seat reservation card at the Geisel Award ceremony

as well as my proudest:

my one and only math award, given to me in 5th grade!

We are almost done:

But there's still more to go...and that's just the wall of the staircase! I still have the whole studio to address...

work in progress: the new studio

One of the caveats of our move was that I had to have a new studio. And what was more, the new studio had to be dream studio, a new oasis...or at least better than my old one.

So, when I saw the top floor of our house, I was smitten. The previous owners used and staged the room as a master retreat:

But I knew it was made to be my workplace! All it need was a change of paint:

And some bookshelves...okay, a lot of bookshelves:

my favorite storage idea--the staircase bookshelf! Idea stolen from HERE (thanks, pinterest!)

with a window seat! this helps take the sting out of leaving the old bookshelves

 and my favorite anthropologie knobs:

I like the bird ones the best!

And the studio transformation has begun. Stay tuned for more...

Rain Dragon's Room!

So, there were two rooms that I wanted "done" for Rain Dragon's birthday party. One was the living room (since that was where we were congregating) and the other was her bedroom. I admit I wanted to show off the clouds.

Well, I didn't complete finish her room but it's pretty close! The Sasquatch says it's the nicest room in the house.  I am rather proud!

We hung up her 100 Wishes Quilt as it was too beautiful to use:

And the Sasquatch's mom sewed the bedding and coordinating curtains:

we are doing the Japanese tatami mat floor sleeping since we can't get her to sleep in a crib!

I wasted many happy hours just looking at fabric before I settled on these! The  constellation fabric was my favorite!  I wasn't sure if the  rainbow zigzag and the flowers  would go well together, but now I love it.

Her name spelled out with  Melissa Sweet's Alphabet Wall Cards:

And her reading corner:

the leaf canopy is from IKEA, it reminded my of My Neighbor Totoro!

And then there is her balloon light, floating in the sky:

This light was a huge splurge! But we couldn't resist.

But I didn't quite finish everything. I meant to do something more interesting than just simple blue paint for her IKEA dresser. And the unfinished switchplate and blank wall just cry out for something more colorful:

the animal lights I bought years ago, I don't think they make them anymore!

And behind the door is her  growth tree that I drew but didn't paint:

I'll post a photo when it's finished!

But, at least, the room is finished enough for her to enjoy it:

already a mess!

Rain Dragon's Lucky Destiny Birthday Party!

Have you just moved? Do you need incentive to unpack and clean your house?  Do you feel like you just want a challenge? I have the solution for you! Have a party!

Yes, even though we were still in boxes, I decided (I take full responsibility, the Sasquatch agreed under protest) that we should have a party to celebrate Rain Dragon's first birthday!  Even though it was a belated birthday party, I was afraid if I waited until we were "ready" she'd be a teenager. 

So we had Rain Dragon's Lucky Destiny Birthday Party! It was themed in red, for luck:

As well as dragons:

first time I baked in the new house!

It was a mad scramble getting the house in order. The Sasquatch's mom very kindly sewed the curtains and pillows for the living room:

it's still a work in progress

But what got the most comments was how I color-coordinated the books on the shelves!

I did this for effect, but it's actually a really great organizing system. Easier to reshelve than the alphabet and I always remember cover colors!

Old friend and new neighbor Alissa brought the red balloons:

And old friends and neighbors-no-longer traveled the distance:

with new baby!

and needed immediate nourishment:

The swingset was a big hit:

it came with the house and distracted from our rather sad landscaping!

And Cousin Lily played "Happy Birthday" on her flute:

I feel like it was just yesterday when we were celebrating her birthday!

But the big event  was when it was time for Rain Dragon to choose her destiny!

If you've read my book Year of the Rat , you'll remember how one-year old Max chooses his destiny at his birthday party. That is a real Chinese custom!  A one year old is presented with a variety of objects, each one symbolizing his/her future vocation.

We had Rain Dragon choose from money (finance manager), wrench (contractor),  computer mouse (computer programmer), book (author/librarian), thermometer (doctor), paintbrush (artist), ball (athlete), spoon (chef/baker), solar lamp (new energy engineer!).

After much hesitation, she chose....

she was a little overwhelmed by all the attention

The spoon!

maybe she will fulfill my cupcake dreams!

Yay!  Rain Dragon is going to be a chef!

Well, even if her lucky destiny isn't quite accurate, at least we know she had a very lucky  birthday party!

everyone clapped, so she clapped too!

Thanks for coming! Happy Birthday, Rain Dragon!

step 2, star ceiling

So, now it was time for step two of Rain Dragon's sky ceiling. I wanted it to be clouds and blue sky during the day but I wanted it to be stars at night.  I wanted the stars to be pretty realistic, those glow-in-the-dark star stickers just didn't seem right after all the work I did to make the clouds. So using the intergoogles I found this make your own planetarium kit  and put it on my Christmas list:

Thanks, Santa!

It was a pretty neat kit. You choose the date and time of your star chart, project it and , following the projection, dab in glow-in-the-dark paint:

I choose Rain's Dragon's birthday as the time and date!

I think the star theater was made for a bigger room because there was a fair amount of distortion. Also, it was impossible to dab the glow in the dark paint in a neat way and at first I was in a nervous panic that I was ruining my clouds.

But, surprisingly, it turned out great! The overall effect is actually rather magical, though you will have to take my word for it because none of the photos came out.  Suffice to say it came out so well that I might do a star ceiling for my studio, too!

sky ceiling, step 1

We're still living in two places but that hasn't stopped us from starting our own personalization in our new house. My pet project is getting Rain Dragon's room ready. I have big plans for it. At first I though I would paint a mural in it like I did for L& R but the view outside Rain Dragon's future window changed my mind:

and I decided on an elaborate sky ceiling instead. First, I needed to paint a daytime sky with soft puffy clouds which meant blue paint on the ceiling:

Rain Dragon watched me with great interest and confusion the whole time. Since she was going to be witness to all my painting I used low voc paint which is pretty amazing-- it really is odorless!--but gave me a bit of shell-shock at the cash register. So I tried to use it sparingly. The color is Benjamin Moore Barely Teal, which is a very light greenish blue instead of the typical sky blue because I wanted more of a fairy tale sky.

But I still wanted the clouds to be realistic looking. So I mapped out cloud formations:

and then I layered in four different shades of white (just in case you want to do this yourself the colors were Benjamin Moore Chantilly Lace, Vanilla Ice Cream and then a mixture of Vanilla Ice Cream + Peach Parfait  and a mixture of Vanilla Ice cream + Majestic mauve) to give the clouds depth.  Painting clouds and making them look real isn't that difficult (the trick is to dry brush--not a lot of paint on the brush and be willing to ruin your brush by scrubbing the color in with it), but it is time consuming--mainly because you have to keep going up and down the ladder to figure out each step. It took me a couple days until I was satisfied.

And while I liked how the winter white color of the walls brought out the whiteness of the clouds, I felt it was too cold for a baby's room. So we changed the wall color to a soft cream which makes the clouds look a little peachy--like a clouds at sunrise.

I think it turned out well, if I do say so myself! I admit I'm pretty proud!

Rain Dragon didn't seem that impressed, though. Oh well, maybe step 2 of the sky ceiling-- glow-in-the-dark constellations-- will!