The New Hairpin Leg Bench Plus Life Lately

A while back, I hinted at a project I was working on in advance of my Aunt and Dad+wife both coming to visit. The thing is that up until recently, we've only had seating for three around the kitchen table. And no dining room. Dinner parties with other families usually involved the kids at the table and the adults standing around - or even sitting on the floor. Sometimes we'd take it outside, weather permitting.

We're a casual family, which you already know if you've ever stopped by. Toys are seldom out of sight. We drink wine out of jelly jars - two reasons: the very nice wine glasses are on a high shelf and I think it's rustic chic. I may be wearing sweats if you stop by without advanced warning. There are computers everywhere. Heck, we even knowingly bought a house with no dining room. 

But even though I don't mind making my friends sit on the floor - sorry, friends - it felt weird to not have enough room at the table to host family properly. Thus plans to make my own hairpin bench were born. One discount remainder board later ($2.65) and four hairpin legs from Hairpinlegs.com, plus paint and supplies from other projects and some serious elbow grease provided by the BabbyDaddy, and my new bench was born.




I'm pleased to say that it's not only level, but also fits snugly under the table with enough room to push our three chairs (two grownup chairs and the Tripp Trapp) neatly into place. It also allowed us to host the aforementioned family visitors for home cooked meals without anyone having to sit in the living room or outdoors or on the floor. I'm pretty proud of myself. What do you think?

Oh, and just a few other things while we're on the subject of life lately:

The other day, we had non-family guests over for dinner - where my new hairpin leg bench let us all sit around the table together! - and the P. ate a tablespoon of straight Romano cheese. I was convinced she would spit it out, but no. She swallowed it with a smile. Is that weird?

Getting dressed for work this morning was definitely a new experience. With most of my work clothes being either form-fitting or sweaters, I was picking through my closet for a while to find something that looked like my normal office uniform but didn't emphasize my newly rotund middle.  

A middle that I think is just breakfast but certain parties are utterly convinced I'm showing.

Our trio might go to Costa Rica at the end of August if we get the okay to fly from my midwives. It's a maybe because P. was born a month and a half early about five days after I got back from a trip to Madrid - and that trip to Madrid happened five days after a trip to Florida.

Hope you're having a great day!