For my mom, on mother’s day.

4 Replies

Happy Mother’s Day to all you mothers out there!  I thought I’d take this opportunity to tell you a little about my mom, it’s something I’ve been working in for a while but never found the “right” time to post.

Jane Mom

My mom is awesome. She is the best piano teacher in the state of Delaware and is an absolutely amazing (retired) concert pianist.

Mom Grandma Recital Prep

My grandmother, doing my mom’s hair before one of her concert performances.

My mom and her dad, playing chess in the 60s. She is a killer strategist in games.

My mom and her dad, playing chess in the 60s. She is a killer strategist in games.

Oh, and did I mention that in addition to teaching piano, she also learned braille and taught piano to blind students for many of her younger adult years?

DSC_0003

My mom, taking notes in braille, while teaching a blind piano student.

She is stubborn and creative and extremely hard working and is talkative and loves to entertain. She should have been a Greek or Italian mom because she loves to have guests and feed them.

DSC_0009

Teaching young me to play piano.

Upon meeting her for the first time, Ryan left and said to me “It’s definitely nurture, not nature.”  He said this because I’m adopted, yet I too have all those traits.  However, I prefer to think that we are “determined,” not stubborn. :)

When my brother and I were young, my mom refused to ever let us have a Nintendo, but when it came to Legos, there wasn’t a set she didn’t buy.  She also stood in line for hours, multiple times, to get me the Cabbage Patch Kids and other silly toys I just “had” to have.

DSC_0011

From day one, my mom ensured I had a diverse selection of toys. :)

More importantly, she dove into educating us about interesting topics with such zeal.  When we studied dinosaurs we had puzzles and coloring books and 3-d models to assemble and camps and stories and books on tape to listen to. When we did constellations and the sky, she got us sky maps and glasses to look through and even took us to constellation camp at a local observatory and I still know more constellations than most people.

When my brother and I discovered and subsequently caught tadpoles in the stream, my mother turned it into a learning experience, buying a huge aquarium, checking books out from the library, and helping us create a safe habitat to watch them grow into frogs, then release back into the wild.

Little Jane Tadpole Fishing

Tadpole fishing, circa 1985?

I used to think that was normal parenting, but now that I’m older I see that not every parent is so enthusiastic about creating a home of learning. Of course, she also made us do math homework in the summer, even on vacations to the Grand Canyon, but no parent is perfect. :)  They just do what they think is best because there’s no manual to follow!

Now that we’ve flown the coop, she’s using that determination and killer work ethic to run the League of Women Voters and the state’s music teacher association as well as helping many other organizations.  The idea of relaxing is something that does not compute with her.  In fact, I suspect she feels guilty whenever she allows herself to sit down and read a book, or watch a movie.  I’m not sure why.

DSC_0010

I love her purse in this photo :)

The thing is, I love my mom and I want to see her spoil herself the way she’s spoiled others for so many years,  especially because for the last 8 or so years, my mother has been successfully battling a form of bone cancer.  Because I’m selfish, I want her to take as good care of herself as possible so that she can  experience the things she dreams of in the future with me and my family.

I think it’s an inherent “mom” trait to put other people and organizations’ needs in front of yourself.  This mother’s day, I’d like to remind mothers that they should take great care of themselves the way they care for others, and they deserve to be queen for more than one day a year.  I know my mom definitely does.

DSC_0008

My grandma (right) was also always rushing around, taking care of others, for 97 years.

And so, in the spirit of love, I’ll continue to lecture my mom, telling her to relax more and make more time for herself.   After all, she bossed me around (or tried to) for the first 21 years of my life.  Now it’s my turn!

I’ll just try and resist using that phrase mothers love:   “Trust me.  It’s for your own good.”

Easy DIY Farmhouse Table Idea

Leave a reply

When I built my Pottery Barn style desk, I had to take extra steps to ensure that the legs were installed in a sturdy fashion.  I detailed those steps – adding the tightly fit aprons, most importantly – in my how-to guide.  However, if you want to just build a simple farmhouse table without drawers, I wanted to let you know that there’s a much easier way to do it!

My Home Depot is making it much easier for me to build my own furniture.  They now have a selection of table legs of many lengths:

Table Legs at Home Depot | The Borrowed Abode

I found this all in the section with the different types of wood trim and moulding.

Next to all the legs that are sold at Home Depot you’ll find metal top plates.  To install the legs the easy way, buy the metal top plate. The idea is that you install the plate on the bottom of the table top, then screw the leg in.

Desk Building Legs Aprons2

Just like that, you’d have a table on your hands!  You’d probably want to run two support boards across the bottom of the desk, perpendicular to the top boards.  This would provide a little extra strength under the table top, since the planks are only joined with dowels and glue.

I know this isn’t a detailed tutorial, but I wanted to let you know about this option in case the idea of building the full-blown desk with drawers scares you!

Goodbye Guest Room, Hello Janery Studio

6 Replies

In April I shared the Guest Room “Reveal” – in quotes because it wasn’t a finished in my mind – and told you I was taking the room apart.  If you guessed that I was clearing the space out to turn it into a dedicated workspace fro Janery, you guessed right.

For the longest time I was pondering the idea of transforming the guest room into my Janery studio, since Janery is something I spend time on every week, and guests are only occasional.  I think that’s why I was so unmotivated to finish decorating the guest room, because in my gut I felt it wasn’t the right use of the space.

Having my Janery studio share space with our basement TV room has been a total disorganized disaster.  I think it’s mostly psychological, but I have really had trouble working in that combo lounge/business space over the last year.

Then, when my first big bolts of fabric showed up needing a large storage rack, I realized that it was time to get serious.

With that in mind, I emptied the room a few weeks ago, and set about transforming it into a sensible workspace.  This fun ensued, but then you always have to have chaos before you create order:Basement Mess1

I moved my sewing table and storage into the space, using this floor plan.  My sewing table is quite large for the space, and if it gets to be too much I have a back up plan for turning it into an expandable yet smaller table.

Janery Studio Floor Plan

Then I set about building massive 10-foot shelves for part of the space.  It was quite an adventure that is still in progress, because it didn’t turn out right the first time:

Building Shelves1

Depending on how much I can finish before we leave for Italy, I’m looking forward to sharing the progress with you over the next few weeks.

It’s not finished yet, but already I know the change was right.  Not only do I now have a truly pet-free studio, I can enter the room, close the door, and know that it’s work time.

Lazy Sunday: Pre-Italy Edition

8 Replies

It’s early Sunday morning and I’m holed up at my favorite coffee shop, trying to write a few blog posts ahead of time – be still my heart, this never happens – because in one week Ryan and I are heading to Italy for two weeks of technology-free honeymoon/first anniversary adventure.

Venice Photo Via A Home in the Making

I have some questions for you, but first, the back story:

In a way, this trip has been 4 years in the making.  When Ryan and I got married we decided to keep things simple for the post-wedding relaxation, so we headed to a family friend’s house in New Hampshire.  I don’t know how people plan both a wedding and an exotic, overseas honeymoon at the same time.

I’d asked Ryan to go somewhere exotic over the winter, and my main choice was Indonesia, which I feel in love with while reading Eat, Pray, Love multiple times.

After the wedding, I remembered that years ago Ryan wanted us to take a trip to Italy. But we’d only been dating 6 months, and I told Ryan “We shouldn’t go to Italy.  That’s the kind of trip you take for your honeymoon, not just a random vacation when you’re first dating.”

Four years later, after walking down the aisle, I remembered that conversation and asked Ryan if he still wanted Italy.  He said yes.

Crap, I thought.  There goes my exotic adventure in the jungles of Indonesia. Fortunately, in the process of researching our Italian Adventure, I have become very, very excited.  Specifically, I can not wait to visit the hills of Tuscany.

San Gimignano, in Tuscany.  Via Flickr.

Our Italian Adventure includes the following:

  • Train to Levanto.  Spend a few days exploring the Ligurian coast, to include Cinque Terre.
  • Go to Tuscany.  Spend a weekend in Montepulciano, home of one of my fave red wine varietals.  Drive around the countryside just exploring places like San Gimignano.
  • Spend a few days in Florence.  See art, artists, and opera.
  • End in Venice.  Do whatever Ryan wants, since he’s most excited about that city.

In the planning process, I’ve loved re-reading Jenn’s posts about her anniversary trip to Italy last fall.

I’m also devouring all of Cassie’s travel posts about Italy and Europe at Hi Sugarplum, especially her recent post about Venice.  Apparently I’m copying her and doing a very similar trip :)

Do you have any recommendations, warnings, tips, or comments? I’d love to know your experiences if you’ve been to any of the places I’ve listed above!

Of course I’m going to blog about the trip when I return.  But if you just want to look at pretty pictures, check out my Italy Pinterest board where I’m keeping track of hotels and sights to see.