Note: I am not pregnant. I don’t want anyone to get the wrong idea.

I’ve bounced this idea off of a few people and I’m still hoping I’m not totally out of line doing this for myself. (Part of me thinks this should be something someone else does …like a baby shower… The other part of me thinks that people who really would like to be involved will get left out if anyone but me organizes this.)

Anyway, we’ve received a lot of e-mails, letters, phone calls, notes, and kind words that say how much they love our little one already. The support is overwhelming. We are so loved. Most of all, our little one is so loved.

I saw this idea on another blog a while ago. I didn’t bookmark the page, but the idea stuck with me. (If anyone knows where this came from, please let me know so I can give credit where credit is due!)

I would love to make a blanket for Baby Call. With a piece of fabric from everyone who loves him/her already. It can be a piece of fabric from anything. Clothes, blankets, the fabric store, etc. This will be the blanket our little one comes home in. Our baby will be welcomed and wrapped in the love of all those who prayed and fasted and cried and hoped for his/her arrival.

This is a 2-part project, though. If you decide to send some fabric, please include a little note. I want to record the story behind each square in this blanket. I want your love to be tangible for our little one. I want our baby to know just how much love it took to bring him/her safely home. I want him/her to know that they were worth the wait.

I hope this came across the right way. Please be kind in the comments. This is something very dear to my heart.

If you’d like to be a part of this, please send a small piece of fabric (2″x2″ or larger) to us. If you need our address, e-mail me at k.call.design{at}gmail{dot}com.

(And if you’re sitting there wondering if it would be “weird” or “not your place” to send something, but you really want to, please do. It’s all about love and support right now. Even if I don’t know you at all, or have never met you in person, your support means everything to us.)

now looks like this…

And I can’t wait to show you what it’s going to look like! It was a fabulous Saturday. :)

C and I are big fans of Harry Potter, and the first part of the 7th movie is coming out in November. You better believe that we’re getting ticket to the midnight showing. Allow me to refresh your memory if you don’t remember the midnight showing of the 6th:

We do the whole dress up, scar on the face, best seat in the house thing. That premiere was in July of 2009, summertime.

This premiere is in November. Which means it’s going to be cold, and possibly snowy. And what do Hogwarts students do in the wintertime?

They wear scarves.

And just for a perk, what do Hogwarts students have?

They have owls. That is an OWL on my HAT that I KNITTED. Bammo. I’m thrilled. :) Pattern from here. :)

We’re going to the midnight showing with our friends, the Heldts. We’re each wearing a scarf with one of the house colors on it. C gets to be Gryffindor. I have to be Hufflepuff. And the Heldts are Ravenclaw and Slytherin. We are dorks. and we are OK with that. :) I now have to go about finding a way to make a yellow and black scarf less heinous. I’m thinking ochre will fix my problem…and perhaps I’ll make the black optional? idk. Any ideas are more than welcome!

A few months ago, my cute friend Whitney made a picnic table for her two kiddos. She blogged about it. She had found the plans for it off of a website called Knock-Off Wood, and the entire thing had cost her about $10. I spent the next hour or so on that website and noted dozens of plans I wanted to make in the future. And I started hounding C about making the Farmhouse Bed. One day, we were discussing what we were going to be for Halloween. C suggested we go as Avatars. (For those of you who don’t know, I absolutely canNOT stand that movie, but that’s an entirely different story.) His next suggestion was to go as a Jedi and Princess Leia, which isn’t near as bad, but still not my #1 choice of costumes. I saw an opportunity here, though, and said “C, if we have the Farmhouse bed completely built, painted, decorated, new bedding, etc. I will be whatever you’d like for Halloween.” And two seconds later we were price checking wood at Lowe’s and Home Depot.

[The wood prices were exactly the same at both places and we ended up going to Home Depot based on its close proximity to Texas Roadhouse, where we ate dinner with my awesome Mom. *Thanks Mom!*]

Home Depot and Lowe’s will cut your wood to the lengths you need. Generally, your  first 10 cuts are free, and you pay for the rest. I think they’re about 10-25 cents a piece. We went on a Friday night and the store was dead, so the employee cut all of our wood for free. He saved us a BUNCH. We were cutting the wood for about an hour.

At Home Depot with the guy who cut our wood for FREE!

We went home after dinner and the guys put on a movie. Me and Mom, however, stayed up LATE cutting out the pieces for the king-sized quilt that would be on the bed. We made a good team. My mom hates doing the math for quilting and I can’t cut in a straight line. She made everything go so smoothly the next week. Couldn’t have done it without her. [Not to mention she stayed up with me to finish the job when she had a 7 hour drive the next day. The woman is amazing.]

Saturday, we started building around 2. We borrowed tools from Emilee and Adam and set to work assembling our new bed.

Gluing the panels together.

We borrowed a friend's jigsaw and C cut that arch out for the headboard. It really added a lot to the bed. We LOVE it.

Attaching the legs. We assembled the entire thing in our Kitchen. The headboard is suspended between our new dishwasher and the countertop. Not having a garage makes you get creative. :)

C making the frame at the end of Day 1. We thought this would go together real quick because it looked so simple, but it took SO LONG! C was a trooper. I had lost interest by this point. :)

We'd left the headboard and footboard in the kitchen, but the bedframe wouldn't fit, so we went to take it upstairs and leave it in the spare bedroom. We quickly realized we were about a half inch away from getting it inside, but that it wasn't going to fit. We took it outside and wrapped it up in a tarp, hoping no one would mess with it overnight.

Sanding was my least favorite job. But it sure made everything look nice!

C sanding down the headboard.

Showered and Clean at the end of Day 1. 8 hours of work!

Starting to look real!

Painting. 2 coats made all the difference!

Turns out our 1x8 panels, which are supposed to be 1x7.5, were 1x7.2. Which meant that our footboard and headboard were too small to fit the bedframe. We weren't about to start over, so we made some minor adjustments and it all came together just fine!

All Put Together!!

Making the quilt the next day. (Note to self: Big = overwhelming) This was a big lesson in biting off more than you can chew, but it all worked out!

The quilt was ginormous!

All finished! Major sigh of contentment. We're thrilled with how it came together. And REALLY, you can do this. I highly recommend Knock-Off Wood for saving you some serious cash! We spent $180 on the bed. Bammo. :)

…but this is what I’ve been up to instead of blogging/designing/calling you guys/being a daughter-sibling-friend/etc.

details on the way!