Quilt for Baby Marcella Anne

I am so blessed to have a wonderful group of girlfriends from college.  My sophomore year roommate, Heather, is also pregnant!  Her little girl is due to be born on Thanksgiving Day.  Two weeks ago our Notre Dame friends threw a fabulous baby shower for us in South Bend!

The whole weekend was perfect.  Here are just two pictures - Heather opening the baby quilt I made for her and her daughter, Marcella ("Ella") Anne and the tiny hat that Heather's husband, Dan, knit for us! 

 

New Bathroom!

Here are a few before and after pictures of our upstairs hall bathroom!  While doing the renovation, the contractors found a newspaper from the 1970s in the wall.... clearly the last time the bathroom was touched!

The old tile was horrible blue all the way up the walls.  However, after we moved in, we discovered that there was no cement board or other waterproofing layer behind the tile.  As a result, water had found its way through cracks in the old grout into the wall and was causing a little bit of water damage in the wall.  

 

The new shower actually has all of the plumbing in the wall, instead of this weird hand-held showerhead. 

I also love the "nook" that Gene installed in the front of the shower.  He had to route the plumbing around the shelf, but it turned out great and is so convenient to have right in the front of the shower.

I think Cillian was a little sad to see this old sink go, but it is so much better to have the new sink and vanity for storage below.

This picture is a watercolor of the local one-screen theater in our neighborhood.  It looks perfect with the new bathroom.

Southwest Waterfront Fish Market

The southwest waterfront has a number of mediocre restaurants and bars, but it also has a colorful and lively seafood market.

This is a spot that not a lot of visitors to DC get to see, even though it is a very short distance from the Mall and the Smithsonian museums.  Some of the highlights are the bushels and bushels of blueshell crab, sorted by sex and size, still alive as they're being pulled out to fill orders.  If you're in DC on a weekend with a little extra time, this is definitely something different to see.