We're on our way to Santa Fe

Lucia and I are heading out to Santa Fe, New Mexico tomorrow morning while Bede works on renovating our bathroom. Yay Bede! This renovation is not an "Oh, wouldn't it be lovely to enlarge the bathtub and put in track lighting" job. No siree. It's a "We really need to replace the floor before it rots, and by the way, the toilet and sink are on their last legs, so to speak-- and while we're at it, we'd better replace the pipes that three plumbers have told us are in dire need of repair."

While the bathroom is too small to do anything radical to make it roomier, there is a highlight. Bede found a cabinet especially designed to hide the cat litter box:



My brother asked me, "Will it hide the smell of cat-litter?" (Alas, no.)

I may blog some while I'm gone, but I'll mainly use the time to refresh the well. In the meantime, I will leave you with a few song and story resources I've enjoyed as of late:

The Beatles Complete Chord Songbook

The Cow-Tail Switch: And Other West African Stories by Harold Courlander (I've told "Talk" from here a couple of times, but I've not managed to convey the humor in the way I've heard other storytellers share it.)

The Twelve Dancing Princesses, by the Brothers Grimm, illustrated by Jane Ray (My daughter loves the eldest princess with her sun-mask. I appreciate the princess shown wearing glasses.)

And for those of you who are craft-oriented (ABCGirl!), I'd like to present Buttercup Corner. My favorite creations are Celandine's dolls, of which you will find a few here. Related to Buttercup Corner, I'll have a lovely surprise to share with you after I return.

Remodel

After flooding in our basement made it imperative to rip up the carpet, Bede redesigned the game room using three-dimensional mapping technology of Google SketchUp. While Bede comes from a family of proud DIYers, his particular style of renovation stems from his enjoyment of cartography as a hobby. Sometimes, people even pay Bede to design maps for them.

If you follow the link for the game room remodel, you'll notice the clownfish carpet in one corner. Bede used that icon to represent Lucia's new play area. This is what the carpet looks like in the IKEA catalog:


At Lucia's request, here is the clownfish carpet I made for her dollhouse:



No, I'm not crafty by nature (though I have admiration for people who are). I'm just sick from my petty cold. Other than emptying the dishwasher, sewing that dollhouse carpet was the one activity I completed today.