DIY Sunburst mirror

Here is one of the small DIY projects that I was able to complete while on bedrest.  They required minimal labor and I did everything sitting on the floor so technically my legs were up.

The first is a DIY sunburst mirror.  I love sunburst mirrors.  They're all the rage right now.  Again, they were all the rage a year ago on the mainland and I think they're just hitting Hawaii, but anyway.  For the last 3 years, I have struggled with deciding what to put above our couch in the our living room.  On the wall adjacent to the couch, we have this rectangular frame of a beautiful orchid giclee print (which was a gift) done by Jocelyn Cheng, a second cousin of my husband's.

Nice to have talented relatives!  And on the wall opposite from the couch is this triptych o f photos we took when traveling (the first is of a fisherman's boat in Madras, India, the second the glaciers in Patagonia and the third a wall in Morocco), which is over black and white wedding photos of my parents, in-laws and our grandparents.  Again, more rectangles and squares.

I wasn't sure I wanted another painting (I figured that would be too much going on), or a rectangular mirror.  I'm obsessed with these mirrors that I see this designer Erinn Valencich use on hgtv.com

But, again, more rectangles, so wasn't sure about that.  And, I wanted to be sure, before spending lots of money on this mirror (not that I know how much this mirror costs, but it looks expensive!)

Then, I came across this DIY sunburst mirror on Centsational Girl


It uses paint sticks and an embroidery hoop.  So, I decided to try it.  My mirror cost a little more because I paid for the paint sticks (23 cents each) and the hard part was finding the longer paint sticks.  I went to 3 different home improvement stores - Lowe's, City Mill and Home Depot and all of them only had the shorter paint sticks.  Then, it occurred to me that a paint center for professional painters would probably have longer paint sticks since they use 5 gallon paint cans.  So, I hit the jackpot at the Glidden Professional Paint Center on King Street.

 

I followed the directions on the blog( the only exception is that I used different paint colors) which were easy enough to do, even on bedrest and whalah!  My new $20 mirror for above our couch.  I love the way it turned out and it was nice that I could customize the
paint colors, mixing paint until it was exactly what I wanted for the space.

My "Food Board"

If you're into home decor/design, you know about Mood Boards.  Boards that designers put together with all the design elements - chairs, fabric types, art pieces, etc when redesigning a space.  I love scouring the internet for them.

Here's an example of a mood board from one of my favorite DIY blogs Young House Love.  Kind of a wish list/plan for the new room.

So, for 9 months, I've been craving all different types of foods which I can't have.  After the birth of our first son, my poor husband had to return to work the very next day (thankfully our clinic is just up the hill from the hospital where I delivered), so he wasn't really thinking about satisfying my food cravings.

In an effort to make things easier for him (he says I expect him to read my mind too much, so this should be real clear!), I created a "Food Board" for my plan for what I want post-pregnancy.

Granted, I don't really want him to bring me a bottle of wine to the hospital room, but a nice half glass of Riesling for when I return home (and when my milk hasn't come in yet, so I'm not endangering my new baby at all).    Prosciutto and melon, Mountain dew, caramel machiato (of course, you can't get that decaf from Starbucks, so even though I'm not a huge coffee drinker, I really want this!), sushi, spicy poki and eggs benedict.  I realize some of these things don't exactly fit in a gift basket and are a little difficult to get to a hospital room, but at least all my cravings/desires are laid out here, so hubby has no excuse!

Other than that, I just had the most fabulous baby shower thrown my dear friend Hope.  I am so blessed to have so many awesome friends who were able to make it to the shower, it really was exactly what I needed.  I'll post pics of that soon once I get them off my camera and another post coming also of some small DIY projects I completed when on bedrest (i was totally stationary I swear!)

I Get By With A Little Help From My Friends

Bed rest...not all that it's cracked up to be.  When my OB put me on bed rest 2 weeks ago, I argued with her.  No way could I cancel patients for 2 weeks, especially when I was so booked up before I was to go on maternity leave.  But, thankfully, Jeff was there to talk some sense gang up on me with my OB (with his iphone app in hand which times contractions and showed her the history of my every 5 minute contractions I'd been having the night before) and they convinced me to go on bed rest.



So, I thought, wow, I'll finally have time to get all these projects done that I've been wanting to do before Baby #2 arrives.  How wrong I was.  Everytime I stood up, I got contractions, so I realized trips to the fabric store and Home Depot were not in my future.  But, as anyone who knows me realizes, it's extremely hard for me to stay still with feet propped up for long periods of time.  My mom said that I used to get bored of summer vacation after 2 weeks when I was little and would ask her "What's next?"  Even Jeff was suspicious.  He would come home from work and ask if I went somewhere like Ben Franklin (he knows my love of crafts and sadly there's no Michaels or Hobby Lobby out here in Hawaii), because the car looked like it was in a different spot. 

It's hard being on bed rest.  I'm not bored.  At least I finally have the time now to finish writing the textbook on strabismus surgery that I'm collaborating with my former colleagues and chairman from Boston.  But, I'm not even supposed to clean my house or cook.  It's crazy.  Thankfully, I have awesome friends, hence the title of this post.  So, here's a shout out to all of them (do people still say that or am I dating myself?)

My friend, Hope, who has a 2 year old and a 4 month old of her own, was kind enough too cook us dinner and bring it over to our house.  How did she find the time and how awesome is that!  And, my sis-in-law and another close friend Abby, know my penchant for all things sweet (thank goodness I passed that 3 hour glucose tolerance test after failing the first one) brought me cupcakes and cookies.  Our friends, Erin & Jon brought us dinner last night as well and the boys had some time to pound out some tunes on the piano! 








Another awesome friend, Daphne who is a talented photographer (see pics below) brought me a much needed chai latte and some good old company!

Speaking of Daphne, thankfully she took my maternity pics 2 weeks ago before I went on bed rest.  Here a couple shots.  We loved them.  Of course, Nik who usually loves to see the baby, it's the first thing he asks when he comes home "I want to see the baby. Hello, baby"  I think he believes my belly button is like a periscope.  He tried to feed the baby a cracker through my belly button and puts his Thomas trains right up there so that he can see them.  It's all very cute.  But, he did none of that for the photo shoot - of course, right?  Well, thankfully, Jeff came prepared with all sorts of bribery snacks to at least get a couple quick shots in.

So, all in all I'm surviving.  I make 35 weeks on Wed and my OB said I can return to work on Thursday, because I'll be term then and can deliver at Queen's.  So, of course I've scheduled surgery and full day of patients.  I figure if I go into labor at least I'm in the hospital, right?