Oh, How I Love My New Kitchen!

I think I am in love. With my oven. If you have visited me very often you have figured out that I really like to bake. Almost as much as I like to craft. My mom was very tolerant of my baking habits but lets face it, there is just nothing like having your own kitchen to make a mess in. Boy, have I been making a mess. And it makes me so happy! These recipes have all been here before. They are here, here and here.

The New Haircut

So here it is, the new haircut. Not very dramatic, I think this is the same look I did about two years ago but I think it is good, at least for now. Not my best picture I have to say. I had Brittany try and take one before school this morning and I think my late night out with the girls last night might be showing on my face-but man was it worth it! Thanks so much for your advise, nothing like having a great group of girlfriends to hit up when you aren't sure what to do!

Thanks!

Thank you for all the great advice on my hair! I don't know how I solved such problems before I blogged! I have an appointment tomorrow morning, I will let you know how it goes!

Hair Help Wanted

Okay, I am not sure what this blog is coming too. I am soliciting advice. I have a high school reunion coming up this summer(let's not discuss what number!) . Not such a big deal, but it is making me think a little harder about somethings than I usually would. So I am tired of my hair. I have this flip thing going for awhile. I basically do two hairstyles, the Bob and the flip. So here is my question, is it time for the Bob again or should I stick with the flip. Spring always makes me want to cut my hair, I think a stacked Bob might be a nice change but I don't want to get stuck with ugly hair for that reunion. However, I would have time to grow it back. What do you think?

This just may be the most pathetic post I have ever written!

Moving Update!

If you wondered if that last post was scheduled you would be right. I knew it would be crazy around here but didn't want to disappear altogether! So I thought I would update you one our move. First it was a lovely day! Hurray! I had visions of everything I owned being snowed on and ending up a soggy mess. But the sun shone on us all day! I should have widened this shot so you could see that there was another truck behind this one, a flatbed with wooden crates holding all our stuff inside. Looked just like those crates from the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark!

We were sort of hoping that somehow our stuff would come out cleaner, nicer and upgraded from the state it was in when it went into storage but no luck. William keeps insisting that we must have the wrong stuff, we had much better stuff than this! It has really but me in a simplify and clean it out sort of mood. This is Joshua with the load we donated to the thrift store this morning. We have now sent 16 bags like this to new owners! I know I could have one heck of a garage sale but at this point I just want it gone!

As of tonight the kitchen is pretty well put together, the kids rooms are in good shape and we are just so happy to be in our own, new, lovely place! I hope to start decorating next week, you know I am going to torture you with loads of pictures! My big accomplishment for the day was when I found the slip cover for my other big stuffed chair. It has been torturing me with its ugliness all weekend. It was in a box marked "toys from the garage". Go figure.

Handmade Toy Swap

I joined a handmade toy swap a few weeks ago in support of the effort to do something about the law that was going to go into effect limiting how we could produce handmade toys. By the way the effective date for that law has been postponed for a year! Yeah, we can still make toys! Anyway, I received the most darling set of embroidered dolls from my partner Kim.

Aren't they just adorable? I just love them!

This is what I sent her. I made a little family of my matryoshka dolls. I think I may have to do these again sometime. Speaking of making dolls I am hoping to start some new ones soon for Easter. After the dust settles a little from the move.

Moving Day!

This guy is coming back today! So if I am not around as much for the next few days you will know why!

More Spelling Bee

Well, Tuesday was the next level of Spelling Bee. It has taken me until today to feel I am somewhat over the trauma and can write about it. I am still not sure I am a fan or not.

This was the beginning, when we were still having fun. Brittany was amazing. She made it to the very last round, remember she is a fourth grader among fifth and sixth graders. They had given the kids a list of 300 really hard words which B had memorized. Backwards and forwards she knew those words. Then they got to the last round, down to about 25 kids and they needed 15. They had used up all 300 words so they started using words the kids had never studied. Hard words! The kids went down one after another. Including Brittany. They only had 8 kids so they went through the kids that missed again. And again. And again. It was so agonizing! Brittany got really hard words (epitaph, possessive and conciliatory). She also got more upset each time. It was probably one of the hardest things I have watch as her mom. Part of me wished I could be in her place, but not really because I would have missed them all! So the end of the story is that we won't be going on to the next level. It is hard and seems so unfair after all that work. But we are so proud of Brittany and the hard work she put in. We learned some lessons about things not always coming out the way we had hoped and worked for.
Next year, when they choose the kids from her class that get to participate I am sort of hoping she is absent. I think it took at least two years off my life watching!

Extreme Chair Makeover!

I really wanted to have a couple of new chairs for the family room in the new house. I have one large chair with a red slipcover already and thought I would make a new slipcover for it. My mom and I went shopping at our favorite discount fabric store and found great stuff. Enough for two chairs. So we bought it, not even know what it would eventually go on. That night my mom went back to the thrift store and found a chair we had seen earlier in the week. She convinced the guy at the thrift store it had been there too long and got him to mark it down to $10.

I think it was probably because it was the ugliest chair on earth!

So then I spent the entire week last week working on it in bits and pieces. This is how I kept Joshua busy when he was awake and I worked on the chair. Yep, that is the Barbie doll dreamhouse from my childhood. My sister and I spent more hours than I could count playing with the dream house! Joshua loves the tiny little food, he is holding the corded phone. Thought it was fascinating.
I have meant to show you the little tiny food I used to make for my Barbies. My cousin Karen taught me how to make little boxes to fit the tiny pictures they used to print on coupons. I had the best fed Barbies in town. They have held up pretty well considering how old we all are.

Josh had to sit in the chair as I worked too of course. That is a Barbie mirror I am supposed to be looking in.

Finally, after all my hard work, we have a new chair! A lot cuter don't you think? Now I can hardly wait for the movers to find my old one so I can start on it!

**Note, I was working in my mom's only unfinished room. Her house really doesn't look like this!

What Happened This Week!

Well, we had a great Valentine's Day weekend! The kids had a blast at their school parties. They came home and produced one of my favorite traditions. The Valentine placemat. We take a sheet of clear contact paper, they arrange all of their Valentines on it and then we cover it with another sheet of contact paper. Presto! A cute placemat and there are no loose cards floating all over the house to make me crazy!

There was a lot of snow this week so we had lots of fun outside again. Have to say we are starting to wish for Spring but the snow fun is still not getting old. This storm finally produced the perfect kind of snow for snowmen. Especially ones that like to wear Dad's hat.

Good for snow angels, or snow naps-not sure which. Oh, Brittany says she was catching snow in her mouth here.

Joshua discovered the joy of our little red shovel. He loved helping Dad and Grandpa. Now if we could just convince him to share.

It was a good week for trains for him too. Built them all around himself!

Next week we might have moving pictures! Assuming we have a functioning computer in all the chaos!

Happy Valentine's Day!

This is what I would do if I could, send you each a cute Valentine! I remember when I was single how sometimes Valentine's Day could be sort of depressing. I remember the thought in college that the whole world was getting on the ark two by two except me. When you think like that it can be sort of depressing. I also remember periods when I expected my husband so come through with superhuman standard romance. Although William is good in the romance department he is not superhuman and so was occasionally set up for failure resulting in less than perfect results. I would like the record to show however, he is practically perfect these days! The last few years I adore Valentine's Day. I think I learned this from my friend Tif. She made Valentine's Day a celebration of all the people she enjoyed in her life. So I started doing that, sending little notes or treats to friends or family I might not have ordinarily. And guess what? It is fun! It also makes anything that comes my direction in the way of special treats even more fun. I didn't do as well this year, anticipating the move soon and I miss it. I can at least wish anyone who visits me this weekend a super fabulous Valentine's Day and thank you for making this blogging thing such a fun part of my life!

A Blanket for Joshua!

Some friends of ours have the most beautiful family. They have Amanda who came to their family in the more conventional manner. Then they were lucky enough to add Adrianna about the same time we had Matthew. At Christmas time they tried to add another member to their family. They came home to Utah, not just for the fun Christmas holiday but for the chance to adopt a new baby. After much heartbreak the trip ended with fun Christmas memories but no new baby. What a wonderful surprise when just about a week later they got a phone call, found places for their girls to stay and whisked off to Georgia to meet their Joshua! Here he is, isn't he just beautiful? Bryon and Amy are very special to us, I consider them family really. Bryon and I grew up in the same neighborhood and were best buddies through high school and into college. He and William were great friends from high school on. Amy's dad and my dad grew up in the same neighborhood and we knew each other all our lives, but really got to be great friends in college. They dated and got engaged around the same time we did. We have lots of memories and lots of history together. So when they add a new member to their family it is a big deal to us. And of course that means I have got to make something special for the little guy!

Here it is. Joshua's cowboy quilt.

This has become one of my new favorite features of my baby quilts. I love finding just the right quote for each baby. This one seemed just right.

Here they are, all together. Just as they should be!

Joshua, the Great Decision Maker!

First of all, you guys are the best! This is the number one reason I love blogging. It is so much fun to share great stuff with friends! Thank you for your kind words about the house, we are really excited.

So the day came when we had to decide what carpet to put in the new house. William had the samples all spread out in Mom's living room. Before you know it, he was joined by Joshua, the great decision maker. Apparently every time Dad would rub his chin or scratch his head and say "Hmmmm", so would Josh. It got pretty funny!

Then of course everybody had to get in on the decision making. a

Don't you just love those froggy jammies?

A big announcement!

It is official! The sale of our California house finalized. This means someone else now owns it! Hurray!!! I cannot tell you how much lighter I feel now! Now the real fun begins. Let me show you our new house:

We hope to move in about two weeks. It is a brand new house so we were able to choose the carpet and have some more tile laid. It is in a great neighbor hood, we are really excited!

This is the kitchen, the new appliances come Tuesday.

It is a great room so the window you see here on the far right is the same window you see in the far left in the previous picture. I hate the mantel on the fireplace but William will fix that. I didn't love the stone of the fireplace but it is growing on me. The carpet comes on Monday too.

So there is our big news! Hopefully this is the beginning of our return to "real life"! Boy are my kids going to miss staying at Grandma and Grandpa's house though!

Happy Birthday Gram!

It was my grandmother's 87th birthday this week. My sister and her family came up to help us celebrate. My mom tried really hard to make it special for her with presents and the same kind of cake roll Gram used to get for a special dessert treat for us when I was a kid. She is suffering from dementia and is in a care center. My Gram is such a major character in all of my childhood memories. She is still such a sweety even though she struggles each day. She was having a hard day today, she usually looks much happier than she does in these pictures. My dad and his mom!

Gram with the grandkids from my dad's branch of the family tree. I wish I could explain the excitement and joy that Gram greeted each one of these babies with. She really has treasured each one.

Gram getting just a little help blowing out her candle. Poor Brittany couldn't help, she has a cold.

We love you Gram and are so grateful for the way you have blessed our lives!

Valentine Faces

I have seen a lot of variation of cloth brooches around the web and decided to give my own a try. These are obviously for Valentine's Day. They have a pin on the back.

These were going to be brooches but were a little too large. I had just a tiny bit of this great fabric left from the babushka girls and couldn't toss it. So now they are bookmarks!

I am too lazy to list them on etsy, V-day is awfully close too so they will probably be gifted to my own loved ones but if you would like one they are $5.00, free shipping. Just send me an email and I will send you a paypal invoice.

I had a few sweaters that I had picked up really cheap, but that I wasn't totally in love with so I decided to change them a bit. Forgive the before pictures, it was night and in the basement.

I didn't like the white buttons and this was just sort of boring.

You can't tell in the picture but this had really cheesy white buttons but I like this color.


I changed the buttons to some neat vintage(old!) ones mom had, stitched some daisies I had from some trim and embroidered leaves.

I actually wear it now.

So I changed the buttons to more of the vintage ones my mom had, stitched some daisies I had cut out of trim on and then embroidered leaves. Now I like it a lot more!

Not the greatest pictures, sorry it is really hard to take pictures of yourself! But you get the idea. It was fun to do the hand-work, I got two new sweaters and I can pretend I was recycling

A hysterical movie!

William, my mom and I watched this movie last night. We were laughing so much that we woke the kids up! Josh woke up saying, "What funny?" It was that good. I have not watch a movie that was honestly smart and funny like this in a long time. It probably did earn its PG-13 rating but it wasn't the stupid, nasty humor you usually see with that rating. The idea is this really obnoxious dentist dies during a routine procedure. After they bring him back he can see dead people around New York. I know, it doesn't sound that funny, but trust me!

Button Rings

I am trying to get a lot of crafting out of my system so that when the move finally happens(soon we are hoping!) I will be able to just concentrate on unpacking and such. So I have seen some of these rings in blogland and had to try one myself It is made from one flat button and one with a shank that I cut off and then superglued them together. Then I superglued them to the ring thing (don't know what the thing you build it on is called but I found them on etsy). It helps if you have all my Grandma's old buttons at your disposal like I do here at my mom's house too. I think I may have to make some more!

Sunday Update-Snow Days

I was so good at doing these Sunday Updates when we lived in California. I guess it seemed like we were up to more exciting things. But I am trying to be better because half of my justification for blogging is to record my families activities. So the Sunday Update is back!
The most exciting(read photogenic) activity of this week has to be all the time the kids have spent out in the snow. It isn't very fresh at this point but the sun is shining so who cares! My parents have a low spot in their backyard and after the rain proceeded the snow last week it turned into a mini-ice skating rink.

There was a lot of sliding by the big kids. Then they got Joshua in on the fun.Which of course turned into this. Don't you think my taking the photo first and then giving the loves should have me up for mother of the year? Don't worry, he wasn't really hurt.

Nothing and outdoor hot chocolate party couldn't fix anyhow.

Yep, loving the snow and the sun!