Weekended

I started the weekend on Friday with a very rainy trip to my old neighborhood in East Van to pick up a high chair. Gwen is creeping up on six months old and will be starting solid foods soon, so I want to get her used to sitting in a high chair while we’re eating. Unfortunately even though we already had a trip to Ikea planned for Sunday, the high chair I wanted to get her is out of stock until the end of May, but I was lucky to find one on craigslist. To save extra money I took the bus both ways, which led to me getting some seriously weird looks on the way home, like no one ever rode the bus on a rainy day with a high chair and the tray stuck in their purse.

I actually went out an hour early so I could stop by the Value Village on Hastings St. I used to be super into thrifting and went more than once a week, but at some point I just got too busy and too over it and stopped going. I think the last time I went was a few years ago with my friend Bonnie, and all I got was a coat for Taylor. This time I had a little more luck and found some cute clothes for Gwen (which you’ll be seeing soon on Tiny Buttons, except for a cotton anorak that was SO ADORABLE I couldn’t resist it, even though it is meant for a three-year old so that one you’ll see in 2015), as well as a bright fuchsia suede skirt I’m going to cut up to make into shoes. There was also a dark brown suede skirt and a black leather one but I couldn’t justify buying them all, and the fuchsia was the cheapest. I also got some other coloured leather scraps earlier last week and I’m planning on trying my hand at making Gwen some of those two-tone sandals that are all the rage this spring, plus another leather-trimmed headband (this time with flowers and leaves).

Saturday was a continuation of last weekend’s cleaning, organizing and throwing-stuff-away. Taylor moved all his comic books to boxes and moved the boxes to the bookcase in the hallway, and I sold a few more things on Craigslist. Slowly but surely I’m getting this place sorted out!

In the afternoon we took Gwen and the dogs to the park to enjoy some sun. Taylor wore Gwen in the Moby and had a cool-dad contest with some other guy wearing a baby (Taylor had the man bun & beard so ADVANTAGE LARAMIE).

Even though I’m on this new diet where I can only have french fries once a week I decided that we had to have poutine for dinner (I was a wee bit hungover, I forgot to mention the part where I drank a bunch of gin AND a bunch of vodka on Friday night, oops). It totally did the trick, and I was revived enough for an evening of beer and Ascension (which I tragically did NOT win, although it was a close game with a final score of 199 to 197).

The big plan this weekend was our trip to Ikea on Sunday. The shopping part only takes a couple of hours, but the planning and logistics stages can take weeks, especially if you are planning on going on a weekend and don’t want to suffer a nervous collapse (the trick is to get there as soon as they open). I had everything carefully budgeted out, but not having to spend $140 on high chairs (I need two, one for Gwen and then one for the daycare which I still have to get sometime before September) meant we could buy A BUNCH MORE STUFF. Amazingly, even though we did go off-list with a few items, we still came in well under budget, which basically NEVER happens. We mostly got small things on this trip- a desktop so I can turn Taylor’s regular desk in ta SUPERDESK, little kid table & chairs for when I go back to work, cupboard inserts for the fauxdenzas I’m going to create in the dining room, a million picture frames, cups with flamingos on them (this is where I started to go off list, haha), and lots of other things. I spent most of the afternoon and evening building, arranging, and hanging things on the walls, but I still have a lot to do. Most of it is waiting on my actually painting the dining room though.

Tragedy struck as we were leaving, and while waiting for Taylor in the loading area of the parking garage, I had a weird butterfingers moment and dropped my phone on the pavement. I’ve dropped many phones on many types of pavement over the years and never had a problem but this time I wasn’t so lucky. Thankfully Taylor is a weird phone hoarder so once we got home I just switched to another random phone he had lying around.

Since we don’t have a car seat, Sunday was the first time we left Gwen with a babysitter since she was 3 weeks old. Now that she’s more aware of her surroundings I was a little worried to how she’d react to us not being there, especially since we left while she was napping. I’m pleased to report that she was perfectly cheerful and happy and the sitter (actually Sym’s dad, haha) had no problems. Phew!