::project::

OK, so here's the living room project.  Our moms and dad have already seen this, so they won't be that impressed, but it is fun to see all the pictures together.

Back in 1990-something when the lady built this house, she included a large deep cabinet in the living room, just right for a deep projection tube television.
Well, it was large for back then, but there's no way it would've fit any of the flat screens we've had for a long time.

So the cabinet was just sitting there looking cruddy, and our TV was sitting on top of the fireplace looking kind of tacky.

We decided to CHANGE it all up.  We called our contractor who's done a few things at the office for us, and he came to get started.


Remember this picture from the other day?  It's a before for you.  I don't have a straight forward before picture that I can locate right now.

So John came and framed out the cabinet.  Then he drywalled it.

He put in all sorts of tubes and channels and smart places for cords to go so that we could keep all our auido components and boxes down in the lower cabinet. (I moved the baby toys to a better place.)

Yep, there's the good old monster TV looking super tacky up on the mantle with all it's cords running to it.

So John got the cabinet all covered and drywalled nicely.  Then it was my job to paint the wall.  Easy enough I thought.  There are cans and cans of paint in the garage--usually well labeled.  I've patched many a wall in this house.  I figured it would be a breeze.

I had a couple of free hours one morning.  I put the baby to bed and I got out all the stuff I needed except the paint.  Then the power went out.  And I couldn't find a flashlight.
When the power is out in your garage, not only can you not see anything but you can't open the door and let in the light--unless you're my dad and you like good old manual garage doors best.

So I had to haul all the cans in and try to figure out which one I needed.

Who thought there could be so many shades of green on the walls of one poor house?  I tried can after can and none of them worked.

Turned out this seemed to be the one color that didn't exist.
So my couple of hours were gone and I rushed out to try to make a match at the Home Depot.  Family was coming the next day for Max's baptism, I had to get it done!!
Of course the paint chip I had was too small and the old man with long groaty fingernails working the paint desk sent me away in disgrace.  I had to match it using the eyeball method.
It was stressful but I found one that seemed to match pretty well.
Then we went home and painted, and since half of the light bulbs in our living room are out right now, in the dim light it looked like a perfect match!

When the sun came out the next morning it was obvious to me that perfect wasn't exactly the word--I could see the difference between the new paint and old for sure. But it's truly close enough.  When you come and visit you'll have to see if you can spy my brush marks.

But all that aside, I think it looks much better now.  And I have a fun photo which we printed on canvas up on the mantle.  It's a lot nicer that way.
That's it for the project report.  I'm going to bed now!

::fixer of the gate::

I love it when my parents come to visit. It's so nice to spend some time with them and my dad always fixes as much of my broken stuff as he can fit in to his trip.
I had been saving our front gate for his expertise for quite a while.
I guess it's been rotting a bit on the inside, so it's been sagging and rubbing on the ground. The sagging effected the latch too, so it was really tough to open and close. And if it got left open because it was too tough to close, the wind would smash it into the gatepost and then it was impossible to open because the latch was buried in the wood. Anyway, you get the picture. I had friends standing outside and honking because they couldn't get in. My own brother thought I had locked him out when he came to visit and injured himself trying to climb the adobe wall.

It was about time for a repair!

So of course dad fixed it. And I took a few pictures of him because I couldn't resist. And it was just a good opportunity to document how he always takes good care of me.
And you're going to get to see all the photos because I like pretty much all the ones I took.



What do you think? Are these photos posed or candid?

And of course, wherever my family is to be found there is a surplus of cameras and camera-poeple. Look for the counterpart of this photo to show up here some time soon I'm sure!
(Mom was on her way to pick up Max from school for me so that I could take a little nap. Best nicest thing ever!!)


We lifted the gate back up and reinstalled it. The dang thing was so heavy.
Then while dad was on an adventure club bike ride with Max I located all the painting stuff and the right color of paint and painted/repainted the whole thing.
A finished project--amazing!! And now my life is seriously easier than it was before. I can go in and out of my front gate while carrying babyseats and such and actually close and open that gate. YAY!
So thanks dad, you're the best fixer dad ever.

These are pretty much the only pictures I took while my parents were here. We were busy running places and working a little and taking care of kids. Oh yeah and a little yummy eating out and some fun shopping. I didn't have much time for photos. So you'll have to go here if you want to see more. I like to see my house and kids through my mom's perspective, it's pretty fun. And she takes such great portraits!

So there you go. Happy green gate and happy me.

::mothers day bracelets::

I was inspired by the tutorial on my friend Katy's blog. I just loved the bracelet that she had made out of wool pebbles. I thought one of those would be a fun mother's day gift.
But I'm nothing if I'm not practical--I knew I wouldn't get it done if I tried to make my own pebbles. I'll try it some day, but for this time I ordered some from here. Isn't etsy wonderful?
Once they came (all the way from the UK), I took a bunch of beads from back when I thought I might have a knack at jewelry making, and I put them all together.

I think the pebbles are just so interesting--they've got such a cool texture, and the marbled colors are beautiful. It was fun to pick beads to play against the pebbles.

Kris was concerned they'd look like "dryer lint bracelets." He admitted they were cool once I was done.


I like them. What do you think?
Thanks for the inspiration Katy!!

::boston's monster::

Kelly & Lechelle are in the process of adopting a sweet little baby whom they've named Boston. He's fun and cute--so we hear. It's always a bummer to be so far away from family when special things are happening.
So since we can't come and visit them right now I made a monster for him to snuggle with.



I think he turned out cute. Hopefully Boston will like him as much as Max did. Max tried to keep him here of course.

::another project::

This one turned out pretty darn cute. I made it a few weeks ago for a friend's new baby.
I took the little hippo pattern I've made many times before and modified it so he looked all sleepy like the puppy we made earlier. I would've just made a puppy, but I still can't figure out how to knit well enough. Someday I'm sure.
Anyway, sleepy hippo needed a blanket. So I knitted/crocheted him one.
Max said he needed one--just like everything that I make.
So what do you think?

::collaboration::

When I was in Utah I bought a knitting book that I'd been wanting. It's full of adorable patterns for toys and I couldn't resist it. But I didn't (and still essentially don't) know how to knit. So I assigned my mom to teach me how to make one of the toys. Which turned out to be a tougher assignment than I thought. Anyway, she started working on one of them, and finished it just before we left. It turned out super cute.

It's an adorable puppy. BUT there's a problem. It's a sleeping puppy, and it's supposed to have a little blanket to be wrapped up in. She didn't have time to make the blanket, so I took on the challenge when I got home. Which is a big deal for me since my knitting skills are so very basic.
So here's how her blanket turned out:

Yes, it looks kind of like a washcloth. And yes, as usual I picked out a multicolored yarn that made it so I couldn't tell if I was doing the stitches right or not. But it turned out fun. The edges only look good because the pattern had me crochet around them, and I'm good at that!
But I thought the blanket turned out pretty cute too.

But the cutest is when they're together.




Needless to say, Max is in love. He walks around shushing us: "The puppy is SLEEPING!!!!"
My mom and I make a good team. Now I just have to figure out how to do the more complicated stuff.

::more little projects::

I had a couple of things I was working on for christmas that I had to keep secret, but now I can show them to you!
First is the project that got me crocheting in the first place.
My younger sister Charlotte loves cuttlefish.
Have you ever seen a cuttlefish?

image from here

I'm not sure if I had or not before we went to Disney World this year. Anyway, we ran across a whole tank of cuttlefish and Charlotte declared her undying love. So I knew I needed to give her one for Christmas. Then I found a really cool crochet pattern for a cuttlefish on etsy. And I knew I had to try it. So after a lot of practicing and a lot of messes I finally created a cuttlefish!!



I think he turned out really cute. I'm guessing I could make an even better one now with all my practice, but I think he turned out wonderful.
Maybe I'll try my hand at creating a sibling cuttlefish for him one of these days, maybe.
Thanks for inspiring me to start making stuff Char!

I made a little alligator for a friend's one year old a couple of weeks ago. He turned out pretty cute too.


It's fun to be able to make gifts that kids actually seem to like. And it's a good thing I have people to give these little guys to, or the house would be overrun.

Lastly here's a bird that I made in december. My mom has a traditional ornament exchange party every year, and I was thinking it would be fun to participate from afar this year. So I made this bird and sent him across the country.


Now I just need to make one for myself! At least I have the picture in case my own version never gets made.

So there are a few fun projects for you. It feels good to make stuff right now. It's so nice to have something to do with my hands that feels so productive so quickly.

::finished::

Check it out:

This is what I did with those cute snowflakes.
My original idea was to hang them from the ceiling of the kitchen. But I needed tons and tons to do that, because I would've wanted them thick. And the ceiling in our house is a bit low, so I was afraid Kris would be banging his head on them all the time.
And there was this perfect overhang at the window that was just begging for some fun.

So there they hang. Those two you see that look yellow aren't really that yellow. They're just kind of off white. When I realized how they looked compared to the other yarns I didn't make any more of those.

I think they're really fun. They make the winter seem just a little more festive. And you can't really tell, but most of them are made with yarn that has a little bit of a sparkle to it.
I like their silhouettes:

I got the pattern from here. They look really hard and complicated, but they're really very simple. And they're fast too, once you make one or two. I cranked out like 8 the other night when we were watching a (dumb) movie. And it's easy to improvise with them too. I came up with two other patterns based on the original that I really liked.
So try them. It's fun!!

In other news Kris has been tying a lot of fly fishing flies. He's getting good at it. He's working on flies for salt water fishies.
They're a lot bigger than the freshwater ones I'm used to seeing.
ALSO, Kris fixed my stained glass lamp. You can see it in a couple of the pictures in the beginning of this post. We got it for our wedding from some wonderful friends and I love it. One of our last moves did it in though. The post was totally broken. It wasn't of the highest quality to begin with, and four moves in four years was just too much. Anyway, Kris attempted to fix it a while back and it turned out badly--gorilla glue + fingers = bad news. But the other day he had an epiphany and fixed the dang thing with a dowel. I'm so happy to have it back! We need it out here in the winter. It's so dark and gloomy almost all of the time.
Anyway, I know my husband loves me when he solves a nearly unsolvable problem for me and doesn't give up on it.
That could light up anybody's january.

::work in progress::

::more little guys::

Green eyed kitty:

Little blue hippo:


These guys are fun because they're such small projects that I can actually get them done. It feels good to finish a project once in a while!

.::Project-pillows::.

I'm very proud of myself because I made all these pillows!

And for those of you that know me well, you know that sewing anything is a huge feat, and sewing something that actually turns out well (with out being helped every step of the way) is next to impossible for me.
So I'm very proud!
I got the fabric at Ikea, it was so cheap--like 2 or 3 bucks a yard for the blue, and about 5 bucks a yard for the patterned stuff. So great. And most of the pillow innards came from Ikea too.
Carie showed me how to make the first one (thanks Carie!!), and after about a week of trying and a lot of help for my mom I actually remembered how to thread my sewing machine. After that I went crazy and if I hadn't run out of fabric I probably would've ended up with like 15 pillows.
I'm excited to bring them to our new house, hopefully they'll look good on our nicer couch that someone else is borrowing from us right now. I'm looking forward to relaxing on that couch once again--with the new pillows of course!
I love the fabric, it's so cute. The colors are so cheery. And they make Max sing the Katamari song. "na, na na na na na na na na na na na na na" I can explain that later for those who are confused and care to learn more about weird japanese video games.