Hot off the hook!

One of these is for Mom. I'll keep the one she doesn't want. 

I like them both, so I'll be happy with the left over one.

Off to clean the kitchen yet again.  

Basement: after...for now

I was looking for the before picture and didn't even recognize this:


Today:

Ceiling: not falling down!
Walls: painted!
Floor: painted!
Missing baseboards and other misc trim: replaced!
And there's so much more....the hours spent scrubbing the floor so the paint would stick, repairing some cracks and nail holes in the floor, and replacing the dryer vent. I'm sure there's more. (I guess I should mention that I didn't like the finish on the first round of painting (satin paint) so we painted the walls and trim all over again with semi-gloss.)

I didn't even get a pic of the door to the crawlspace, but before it was covered over by a baby gate across the top, and a sheet of plywood pushed up against it and held by cinder blocks. Fancy! Now there's an actual door there.

Clearly we haven't put the junk back on the shelf over the sink, etc. And the basement was a huge mess when we started.

Here's a shot from by the sliding glass doors before:


And after! There were 3 wall shelves on the far wall before...you can sort of see them. They were just boards resting on some brackets, and one was so close the the ceiling that it was basically worthless. We painted them, actually attached them to the brackets, and made it one long shelf.


I guess I didn't get a straight on shot of the wall where the new shelves are, but this is close:


And one of the shelves John built:


And we still have room to pile stuff on! Woot!

I am proud of us. We thought it would take a month. Then we thought it would take three months. We started in late August, and John just finished it today. That's a long time. But now we know the pace at which we can do home improvement stuff (glad we didn't decide to tackle the kitchen first!) and stay sane AND parent two toddlers.

I think it will be a while before we start anything else. But John got the shelves he wanted. I hope he's happy:).

Last but not least, the granny blanket I made:


I wish the lighting would have been better, but I figured this picture was better than none. It's so pretty in real life. I hope my customer is pleased.

Ellie's first art project!

Yesterday was one of those days. Long, snowed in, no school, tired, cranky kids and a tired, cranky Momma. But then.....Mary wanted to watercolor. I thought maybe Ellie did too. I gave her a brush and paper. I let her sit at the counter just like Mary was. And for ten minutes, no one cried. No one fought. Mary didn't scream "ELLIE!!!! Leave my stuff alone!!!" Ellie didn't get mad because she can't talk.

They had fun! We could work together on something. Ellie won't be a baby forever. They might actually play together someday without me. Ellie won't always be this tiny, grabby tornado that destroys everything in her path. Ahhhh, life is good.

Then, it was time to stop. Ellie screamed. She cried. She tried to tell me something, but can't talk. She was frustrated. She went boneless. She flopped on the floor. She wanted back up. I don't blame her though, because I feel the exact same way when my craft time is over:).

Here's a picture from Saturday. It's too cold to even go out and take a picture today. Just imagine this with another 8 inches on top. Oh, and then another 2 on top of that as it's coming down hard again today.


The granny blanket is done! It's blocked and ready to go. I still need to get a picture. And mail it ASAP. I was going to do that Saturday, but the roads were closed. I'll mail it this Saturday if I have to walk to town. Errr. Darn snow!!!

Now I'm working on longies. Ellie's legs need to stop growing. I have Mary's old longies, but the are too long and about 3 or 4 inches too big around:).

New lighting!

There was this old milk glass fixture in the blue bathroom. I like milk glass, but it was broken (and ugly). The globe was actually held up by the light bulb. I think it had a support piece missing or something.

You can sort of see that the globe is leaning to the side in this one.


The bathroom basically needs a complete update (saving the vintage blue tub and toilet though! I love them:) ). But every time I went in there, I saw the leaning lamp. Poor old thing. I saved the milk glass portion. I will find another use for it someday.

John installed this new light for me Saturday.


Now the ceiling needs painted. Or maybe just scrubbed. The entire room needs painted though, so maybe I will get to that this summer.

Next up, our bedroom. There was this HUGE creepy ceiling fan. Only one of the three light sockets in it worked.


Ugh. Every night before I went to sleep (for 2.5 years) I prayed it wouldn't fall on me.

After! It's just a cheap fixture to last until we can afford something better. It makes the room look completely different though.

See my new art over the bed?


I found it at the antique mall right after Christmas. The frame was sort of fake gold-ish and was slightly damaged. So I painted it. It looks so much better. Plus the booth I bought it from was having a Christmas sale, and I got it for only $7.50. I think the frame alone is worth that.

I did have to go to Jo Anns over the weekend. Just for my red flannel. Guess it's time to get out the sewing machine soon. Maybe this weekend. I was hoping to just work on the granny blanket until I dropped, but I'm quickly burning out again. Since Sunday I've gotten the last 40 squares done, woven in the ends on all 40 of them, and then started weaving in the ends on the 8 rows I already had assembled. I'm about 30 or 40 percent done with that. Then, I just need to attach the last 40 squares.....and then do the border....and then.....NEVER CROCHET AGAIN. At least not until the next time a friend asks for a baby blanket.

Finally a working camera!

There are the picture frames that took forever. Maybe some day I will get real pictures for them, but for now scrapbook paper will have to work. And there are my 2 new pillows too. I still need to get some red flannel and make a couple more. That way every time we go in that room, the kids can throw them all on the floor, and I can pick them up again and again. I'm crocheting a couple cushion covers too in red, pink and green. I have one done and another half done.

Here are the picture frames before:

That picture was taken last fall right before I primed them. Before that, the frames were in the closet for probably 2 years. I loved them in Evansville, but I tried them 3 or 4 places in this house and they just didn't work. I saved the pressed ferns. Maybe I'll use them again some day. All those ferns were in our yard in Evansville. Most of them moved here, so I could always recreate them too. I'm just glad I decided to use the frames again instead of being mad they didn't "work" in this house.

Here's something Mary wrote recently:


Her handwriting has improved so much recently. She'll be four this month. I really love the picture of Mary and Ellie. I love their HUGE toes and fingers. I didn't want to send it off to "Papaw Toe" aka Papaw Joe, but I did anyway.

I've been taking a break from the baby blanket I'm making. I was burnt out big time. Back to it soon though! I still hope to finish it this month.


This week I'll be busy cleaning the house in preparation for Mary's birthday party! I can't believe my baby is going to be 4 years old.

Off to BED.

This morning's excitement and why not...a new to do list

This morning Ellie got up at 5:45! Ugh. We went into the kitchen. I started coffee. Ellie wanted to nurse. I sat down at my computer and checked my email while feeding her. It was still pretty dark in the kitchen. I heard a noise. I thought, "oh, dear Lord, what ARE the cats doing??" I thought I should look as soon as Ellie was done. Then I heard something else. A squeak? Surely not. I looked over and the cats were just sitting there. The next noise sounded like a squeak too. Not really wanting to look, I told Ellie we were done and I got up. Sure enough, under Ellie's high chair sat a mouse. Blech. Ick. Okay, there were two cats staring him down. I figured I didn't need to set a trap or anything. Hattie gently got closer.....set to pounce.....and ever so softly batted it like a toy. Damn cat. Well, Momma Cat was sitting right there too. She lived outside for years. We made her a house cat when we moved here from Evansville. She was ready. She was set. The mouse ran right by her! She.......smelled it. Really. She sniffed it as it went by. Really, Momma Cat? How did you live outside all those years? Well, the poor mouse was under the chairs in front of our fireplace. It would dart from one to the other....cats smelling it and gently patting it as it went by. John woke up. Mary woke up. John tipped the chair up, and there sat the mouse. Eating an old goldfish cracker. The cats looked excited....I think Momma Cat smelled it again. Or John said it ran into her trying to get away. Our breakfast was over at this point. John went to change Ellie's diaper. I went into the hallway and saw our massive (23? 25? pounds?), lazy cat Simon. I told him to get into the kitchen and help. Well, he went to the kitchen, saw that John had built a fire in the fireplace, and settled in for a nap. His head was still perked up, but he was relaxing. I think he was trying to figure out what the other cats were doing. I'm fairly certain he did not know about the mouse. I'd given up on the mouse and was going to set some traps. Simon's head was near one of the chairs. All of the sudden, the mouse darted for the other chair. Right in Simon's path! Simon didn't even stand up...he just whipped his head around at lightning speed and CHOMP.....sorry little mouse. Simon got up, went to the basement and enjoyed his breakfast. I've never been so proud of Simon in my life. Slow, fat, lazy Simon. He killed a mouse without even standing up. Darn Momma Cat and Hattie. They kept looking for the mouse. They didn't even know it was gone.

This is Simon. He's actually much bigger in real life. Maybe he was having a skinny day. The picture is also over a year old. Maybe he was smaller back then.

In other news, we are snowed in. Not technically snowed in, but who wants to go out in this weather? I think we have 6 or 7 inches. The girls and I went out and played yesterday, but I think it is too cold today. Ellie gets cold really fast out there.

Being snowed in makes me think of projects I wish I had time to do. Mainly, paint stuff. But it's too cold. The first day it hits 50 degrees, I'm going to be out there painting like a mad woman. In the meantime, I have plenty other stuff to do.

1. Finish granny square baby blanket (8 of 11 rows done and assembled)
2. Make pillows for "green room" aka the room where we change Ellie's diapers. There's a futon in there and I want some pillows on it. I wanted to make 3 colors--pink, green and red. I went to Jo Anns and they were out of red flannel. How?? I even asked. The lady said someone had just come in and bought all the red they had. (I wonder what she was making?).
3. Repaint the green room closet. It's too damn pink. I'm going to use the pink I already have a mix it with some white we already have.
4. Make some Valentine's crafts. I already have some salt dough hearts made. I need to paint them. I also want to make a Valentine's bunting/banner thing. I have the fabric for the fronts, just need some RED FLANNEL for the back. Hmm.


I think that's it. Everything else involves spray paint or painting furniture which needs to happen out in the garage. Come on spring! Or even a nice day--maybe next month?

I can't believe 2009 is almost over

First of all, we survived Christmas! Mary got a piggy bank from Santa. She was so happy. She got a dress from Grandmother and of course wanted to wear it right away. She wore it for 3 days straight I think. Ellie was less excited about her gifts, but really liked unwrapping them. I got new flannel sheets for our bed! I love them. I got a cool book on making sock animals. I need to find some funky socks and then make some of them. Not for toys but for me to keep!

This year flew by. I'm already thinking about planning Mary's 4th b-day party and it seems like her birthday was just a couple months ago. I can't believe my baby will be 4! We're trying to figure out what school we'll send her to next year--either back to pre-school for 3 days a week (she currently just goes 2) or if we'll start her in a multi-age pre-k/kindergarten which would be 5 days a week.

Ellie's currently (well, in this moment she's sleeping on my lap) having a word explosion. Not much we can understand yet, but she's very into identifying things. And playing a game we call "where's your fork?" while we eat lunch/dinner. She takes her fork, hides it behind her, waits and if we don't notice she says "fork? fork?" We have to ask her where it is, then she produces it from behind her back with a HUGE smile on her face. And speaking of things I can't believe, in three weeks Ellie will be the same age Mary was when we moved here!!! How crazy is that? The first 16 months of Mary's life took 5 years and the first 16 months of Ellie's life have taken just a couple months, if that.

After Ellie's nap, the girls and I are going to take the Christmas stuff down. I didn't even put much out this year, but thinking of taking it all down and packing it away is overwhelming. I'm ready for it to be gone though, so I can go back to some of the decorating projects I was working on in November.

Speaking of projects, I finished my Christmas knitting at 7pm on Christmas Eve. Time to spare! Now I'm crocheting a baby blanket. It's a fun project. I really hope the recipient loves it.


That's 27 of 143 squares done.....plus sewing them all together and weaving in what will be 572 ends. It goes quickly though. I'm hoping to finish it this month (errr, I mean January!) IF I don't get sidetracked by other projects.

A bird, thrifty finds, and basement progress!

John almost finished the structure of the shelves today! Woot! No pic though. Sorry. A week ago when he started he asked me "how long until I forget that light is there and break it?" Answer: today. It was just a bare bulb, no big deal, but when I went to go take pictures it was too dark down there. Hopefully tomorrow I can get some if the sun comes out.

(Part of) this week's crafting:


I saw the pattern for this while reading One Pretty Thing last week. The actual pattern can be found at Attic24. I really want to make a couple more.

Today's thrift store finds:


Can you tell what's getting spray painted ASAP??

I've always been a Goodwill girl. I donate there and I shop there. Well, last week I finally stopped in at Salvation Army. Holy cheap stuff!! Plus, stuff is all marked down?? Things are either "new" or on sale. Some stuff is 75 percent off. Strange but I'm not complaining.

Butterflies: To be painted. Pink? White? They are going in Mary's room, which currently has blue walls but really needs to be painted (pink? probably). Don't tell John I want to paint it though, okay? He painted the room blue for me before we moved in. Anyway, butterflies $1.50 for all three of them.

Ceramic leaf thing; LOVE IT!!! I think it's handmade? There's a name and a year carved into the bottom. "Clements '68" I have no idea what I am going to do with it yet. It was $1.99 marked down to $1.

Wreath: It's barely in the picture in the bottom right. It's just a styrofoam wreath with fake moss attached to it. I'm hoping to turn it into a fall wreath for next year. Possibly using this tutorial? Anyway it's new in the package, but had a Goodwill tag on it for $2.99. I paid 29 cents for it at Salvation Army.

I also went to a little independent thrift store. I'd never been there but will go back. Cool stuff and great deals.

Green votive candle holder (with candle!): 25 cents. It's going up on the black bookshelf.

Little wire basket: 50 cents. I love little baskets like this yet never actually find them.

Matching gold frames: 50 cents for the pair. To be painted!!! Black? White? not sure yet. I think I'll do some embroidery work and stick it in there.

I've got to get some knitting done. Christmas is coming. I have Mom's stuff knitted, but it needs felted. I'm trying to get 2 more things knitted so I can felt them all at once. Hopefully I'll work on that tonight. Or that basket I'm painting. Or both:)

two things done!....well, three I guess

Remember the knitted bag?

It's done and ready to be wrapped!

I think the handles are too long. I am going to leave it as is, and take my sharp scissors with me on Christmas day. If the recipient doesn't like them long, I'll cut them off for her.

Next up, Mary's gift! A gnome family that each comes with a blanket and pillow. John's almost done with their wooden beds. He should get them done tonight. (they have light pink mouths, just not showing up very well).

And last but not least, in my spare time (right!) I made these longies for Ellie. It was my first try at dip dyeing! So, before.....
And after!
The cranberry salad, banana bread, and cheesecake are made. The chili is almost done. Turns out that "helping" with the chili actually meant that I was supposed to just make it myself. I still need to make an apple pie tomorrow night, and MAYBE finish Ellie's blanket. I don't have very high hopes for it. It's more of a toddler sized blanket though, and I'll get right back to work on it after Christmas if it isn't done before.

Ellie's sleeping in my lap. It's sucking the life out of me. I'd PAY to take a nap. I'm so exhausted that I don't want to participate in the parties (there's 3 of them starting today). But Mary's awake and I need to put Ellie down and try to get some more stuff done. I'll sleep when I'm dead.

Would you like cookies with that?

After you finish your hamburger, you should have some cookies and tea. Two of the cookies are for Mary, and 4 of them are being shipped off in the mail this afternoon. These cookies are my last yarn project for a while. I am going to drag out the sewing machine and try to make some diapers for the baby. I am not the world's best at sewing, so who knows if anything will actually come of trying.

We are also working on an old hutch that Mom gave me. It has a beautiful natural finish on it, but the shelves are so warped that the hutch can't be used anymore. I want my vintage Fiesta in it, but every time we walked by the hutch everything banged and rattled so much I took it all out. So the hutch is in the garage. John's going to put new shelves in it and work on the doors and drawers. Currently they are all so out of square that they don't shut right. Then we are going to paint it white so that the Fiesta will show up better. I'd like to add lighting, but the lights I want are a bit expensive so that will have to wait. I hope to get started with sanding it tonight.

Anyone hungry?

If you are hungry, I could make you a cheeseburger with tomato, red onion, and lettuce. But, it would take about 3 days to make it. So I hope you don't mind waiting:).

I made this one for Mary. She LOVES it. I gave it to her piece by piece as I finished them. Yesterday she took the cheese, tomatoes and lettuce to the store with us and we "ate" them as we shopped. Then we lost a tomato. I've already made a replacement. Thank goodness for scrap yarn!