December, thus far

December is always a busy month, no doubt about it. Here are a few snapshots into this Holiday Season for us:

J's Birthday

My Grandpa turned 90 (circa very late 80's)

J and I celebrated 8 years together.

My parents came over for our annual fudge making... 

the one day of the year my Dad claims that he can cook!

My parent's 2011 Christmas card picture

J hung our collage wall just days prior to our "Home for the Holidays" housewarming party. 

I'm told this project was very difficult and many men at the party commented on 

J's exacting standards and very straight lines. Kudos to you, J!

Of course, no pictures were taken at our party... I was a little busy!

We also had J's company Christmas dinner and his extended-family Christmas dinner this weekend.

Tonight is my older brother's birthday celebration.

On and on it goes! But I wouldn't trade away a minute of it!

May your Christmas be Merry & Bright!

No-Sew Drapes

alternately titled: "Things you can do with your Straight Iron"

Our house has an 8'x5' picture window at the stair landing. For Christmas, I knew it needed to be dressed, so on Black Friday, this crazy lady (pointing finger at self) went to JoAnn and waited in too many long lines for the perfect fabric. (Hey, no judging: 8 yards of quality fabric = $$$).

I should also mention that J's Birthday was soon after my mini-shopping spree and he received a Little Giant. Needless to say he was excited, and my drapes got hung that night....

...before I'd had the chance to hem and press them. Oh well, at least they got hung! There is no way those things are getting pressed now, but I had to figure out how to hem them (the edges were badly frayed). I was NOT going to hand sew them and my machine was out of the question.

Have you all met Sherry? Well, she keeps making curtains and bed skirts that are no-sew. I kept reading her posts and thinking "pshaw! I have a machine, I'll hem the 'right' way." Boy, was I ever wrong! Here's to you Sherry, for showing me the error of my ways!

Gather up your supplies:

You'll need iron-on hem tape, scissors, and an iron. Because my drape was already hung, a standard iron wouldn't work, so I got creative. 

Place hem tape along the edge of your project and fold the fabric and tape up into a hem. Iron with medium heat and NO steam. DO NOT touch the hem tape directly to your iron. The glue will melt onto your iron and ruin it. If you're like me and using a straight iron, be sure to wipe off the plates (once cool) before using in your hair. My iron took on a bit of the red dye in the fabric. 

My finished, clean-line hem!

The final product shown from the top of the stairs.

Thanksgiving 2011

Our Thanksgiving was a lot of fun this year. We hosted 18 people in our new home and it went great. Our pictures from the actual day are on my Dad's camera, so I don't have them to share here now. I'll try to remember to get them soon!

I chose to do one long running table through our dining and living rooms. Great idea to allow for greater communication and no one got stuck at the "kids table." We had to do a bit of mix and match with the place settings, but I actually really liked the little extra pop of color from the blue plates.

The centerpieces were inspired by (where else?!), Pinterest. This is the original picture.

J thought this would be a fun project to do, so he grabbed his saw and went to my parents who'd just chopped down a cottonwood tree. He was also very excited to get to add to his collection of tools. 

This drill bit in the 1.5 inch size is perfect for tea lights. The project took make 30 minutes total to make me 5 logs that had 3-5 tea lights each. We plan to save them in the attic for use next year, too!

On Sunday our Pastor did an awesome thing, instead of preaching about Thanksgiving, he gave us many Biblical examples of times when God was praised with Thanksgiving, and then he invited us to partake in open mic. The people around us are so amazing. I sat through the service with tears in my eyes as people came forward and praised Jesus through the hard times and were thankful for the redemption they had found. It was truly inspirational.

Also, have you read Abraham Lincoln's Thanksgiving Proclamation? He wrote it in 1863, in the midst of the Civil War. You can read the entire proclamation here. Here is my favorite excerpt: 

"I do, therefore, invite my fellow-citizens ... to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens. And I recommend to them that, while offering up the ascriptions justly due to him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners, or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation, and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity, and union."

Happy Thanksgiving to you all on a daily basis. I hope your hearts and homes are filled with love, happiness, and thankfulness throughout this Blessed Holiday season.

Ten on Tuesday

1. What are you doing for Thanksgiving this year?
We are hosting this year. 18 people in the house we've been living in for one month. Crazy? Yes, we are!

2. What are you most thankful for this year?
The health of my family and that both J and I have secure jobs.

3. Do you have any traditions on Thanksgiving? The parade? Football? Long naps?
None that we have to do every year. Normally the parade is on in the background in the morning while Mom and I pour through the Black Friday ads. Later in the day, football is turned on.

4. Is it called stuffing or dressing? Is it in the bird or a separate dish?
It is called stuffing. Dressing is a liquid you pour over your salad! And no, it does not go in the bird because we don't want to get sick from under-cooked food. 

5. Do you cook?
Love to!

6. What is your favorite dish?
Sweet potatoes. 

7. What is your dessert preference?
All of them! This year I'm making pear custard pie, pumpkin maple pie, pumpkin walnut maple pie, and an apple caramel pie. With homemade whipped cream.

8. What is your favorite Thanksgiving memory?
Going to Grandma's with all my cousins.

9. Do you plan to shop on Black Friday?
Nope, I usually don't. Maybe I'll hit one or two sales after 2 pm when all the crazies are finally in bed sleeping it all off. 

10. What are you most dreading about Thanksgiving this year?
The fact that I work the night before and will be sleep-deprived, and the clean up. Who wants to come wash my turkey roaster and my floors???




Ten on Tuesday provided via Roots and Rings.

Gift help

Good morning, Lovelies!

I was recently invited to a 'belated' bridal shower for a co-worker whom I really like, but that I just don't know very well yet (she's fairly new).

She recently got married, did not register, sounds like she had a lot of household stuff to begin with, oh and is just starting to share news that she's pregnant (but not with many people).

I am clueless as to what to get her. Do you have any ideas?? HELP!

Laundry Room Mini Makeover

The boxes are all unpacked and the dust has settled (mostly). And I have a blank canvas for a house. What to do? What to do! So far, the only rooms I have a clear vision for are the master bedroom and the laundry room. The master is going to wait til after Christmas as I'm hoping to receive some particular linens as gifts... (cough! cough! hint hint!)

The laundry room was easy. Just needed a quick little painterooo to make it pretty.

Before:

The two white bars are where the existing shelves were hung.

The wall color is actually really pretty: it's Valspar's "Boston Cream"

J helped me remove the existing wooden shelves, I then took them into the garage and prepped them for painting. When painting/refinishing wood, you can't scrimp on the prep work. It's a lot like painting your nails: remove old polish, wash polish remover off, base coat, color, top coat, Voila! 

The shelves got sanded with 150 grit sandpaper to get off the old sealer and sand out any imperfections in the wood. I then followed up with 220 grit sandpaper to really prep the surface for paint. After sanding, I used our ShopVac to vacuum away major dust and followed up with a damp cloth (tack-cloth also works well). If you don't get the dust completely off, the paint will stick to that and flake off over time.

The shelf on the left is sanded, the one on the right is still shiny with varnish.

Time to prime! I used Rust-Oleum "Painter's Touch" Primer in gray. The trick to spray painting is to do many light, even coats. At first, it will look awful, but after about 3 coats your project will be amazing and there will be no paint runs. You can apply each new coat after 15-30 minutes of dry time for the previous coat.

Once your primed coats are dry, you can paint your desired color on. I chose Rust-Oleum's Painters "Touch" Gloss in Purple. Once again, many light even coats, always keep your spray can moving.

The color turned out so pretty!

I opted to not use a clear varnish/lacquer type top-coat because my paint is very glossy and these shelves are fairly light-duty use and don't get wet. 

I also had this bathroom shelf from IKEA that I painted the same purple and Hubs installed. It now holds our keys, my purse, J's wallet, and our cell phones. It's SO NICE to have all that stuff in one place.

The finished product! The lighting was poor, but you get the idea. My next additions will be a purple valence for the window and hopefully a fun little chandelier!

House Hunters: Mission Complete!

We did it! The house is officially ours. We received our keys on Tuesday evening and since then we've been having a grand time imagining, measuring, discussing, and generally agreeing about all the stuff we get to do.

Tuesday night I cleaned the kitchen and all the bathrooms. J checked out his garage and learned how to program the thermostat. I ran some laundry and then we played a game of cribbage in the dining room (I won). You know the things you normally do when in an empty, new-to-you-home. :-)

We have to buy a microwave so I measured and am researching. I think I've selected the model I want, it's a GE, so hopefully it'll last us a good long while.

Today, J took the afternoon off so we're going to move over the most fragile items: the TV and wine glasses. (Yes, we have priorities!) and then I think J will mow the lawn if it's dry enough.

Oh you want pictures? OK!

It's all ours!

Dining room looking into kitchen

Living room

Kitchen

Shiny!

Office

Stairs, landing, and entry

Master bath

The move is officially Saturday. My Mom and I are going to try to get all our food and kitchen stuff moved over on Friday. Hopefully it doesn't rain and everything goes smoothly!

House Hunters: Update

I can't believe that I didn't update you all on what's been going on with our house.

The landscape bid came in within the budget that we had set, so we put a second offer on the house. After some negotiations, we arrived at a fair selling price.

To give you an idea, the house is to the left (see the corner of the deck?), the trees on the right are planted down the hill into the gully.

This picture is the bottom of the gully, the large rocks between the "tea house" and the bamboo are the "creek bed" that the sellers created for the storm drain to run down to look pretty. This will all disappear in the spring, no more tea house, bamboo, or storm drain. Hello fence and semi-terraced grassy yard!

The yard truly is peaceful and beautiful, but it just won't work for us long-term. We want our kids to be able to run and kick a ball, not trip on rocks and play in storm water run-off. We're hoping to retain most of the privacy and greenery of the existing peripheral landscaping, this will be a huge project but hopefully a fun one. We have plenty of time to git 'er done...30 years to be exact! ;-)

The inspection went fantastic. There was a small amount of water in the crawl space and 2 non-structural support beams weren't "footed" with concrete and were starting to rot.  But the seller was so upset that something was wrong that he had everything fixed within a week to the specifications of our home inspector and his recommended contractor. (The water ended up being from a spot in the foundation that a pipe runs through that hadn't been properly sealed--a very minor problem to fix).

All the paperwork is now complete, we are awaiting an official signing appointment and we close on Wednesday, October 19th! Two weeks! Ahhhhh..... So much to get done!

My Quilt

September was National Sewing Month according to Joann's. I decided to partake and challenge myself to a quilt. Michelle posted a quilt she'd made for a niece and I loved the design/pattern. So I used her tutorial as well as the help of other bloggers and I now have a finished product.

First, I invested in the Olfa Deluxe Ergonomic rotary cutter plus the pinking blade, this tool alone made cutting all those squares so easy, and NO edges frayed.

I did a lot of math and bought enough fabric to make a double size quilt, then I cut squares, stitched, and cut again based on Michelle's instructions. Then I laid all the squares out in the pattern I desired for my quilt top and sewed them all together.

With the top put together, it was time to get some batting and back the quilt. Thank goodness for Pinterest! I found this pin to Diary of A Quilter's Beginning Quilting Series. The Batting 101, Intro to Quilting 101, Machine Quilt Binding 101, and Bias Binding 101 were EXTREMELY helpful!

I laid out and taped the backing, placed the batting over it, and rolled the top out so that all layers were smooth. I then pinned them all together using dozens of long straight pins. I machine quilted using the above-mentioned tutorial and instructions in my sewing machine's manual. Quilting is tough, but with a lot of patience, it can be done!

Notice that I had help quilting.

For the binding, I purchased Wright's Double Fold Bias Tape: Quilt Binding. I then followed a combination of found tutorials. This tutorial was the simplest and most helpful, however I used tips from this one to join the bias tape at seams (also use it if you want rounded corners).

Happy quilting!

House Hunters

We have found a house that we love! Yay!

The neighborhood is perfect, all the houses are nicely maintained (except one...of course!), the road is quiet. The houses is in a cul-de-sac and on a large corner lot.

Isn't she purrrrty?! 

The current homeowner has been in it since construction and he had extra windows put into the house so it is extremely naturally well-lit. Which is perfect for my night-shift habit.

It has 3 beds, 3 baths, and an office. The kitchen and baths were all upgraded 2 years ago. And it's within our price range.

Why don't we own it yet??? Great question:

The back yard is a gulley. With water running through the middle of it from a storm drain. The "creek" is actually supposed to be within the back 15 feet of the property instead of the middle. 

We put in an offer with the contingency that the owner moves the run-off to where it's supposed to be. He declined, so today we had a landscape company come and bid out the work for us to have it moved. Depending on what the bid is, we may put in another offer on the house. We can work with the sloped yard, that doesn't bother us too much. Running water is a whole 'nother story.

Cross your fingers for us!

Ten on Tuesday

1. What is your favorite brand of shoes?
ALL! Let's see, I love Dansko & Privo by Clark's for work, Sperry Topsiders for daily wear, Teva for flip-flops, Nine West & Paolo for dress shoes.


2. How old were you when you learned to tie your shoes?
I was probably about 5, but I truly don't know the answer for sure.


3. How do you feel about freckles?
I think they're cute...too a point. 



4. I can count to ten in ___ languages.
2: English and Spanish



5. What is your favorite store-bought ice cream flavor?
Lately, I've been loving Dreyer's All-Fruit bars in coconut. But scoopable, I don't actually have a favorite flavor...I rotate my flavor choices!


6. Were you in ballet or gymnastics as a little girl?
I took 1 gymnastics class and 1 ice skating class when I was about 5. That was it until I was 11 and started horseback riding lessons.


7. Who is your favorite Sesame Street character?
Snuffleupagus!


8. What’s your bedtime?
Between 10 and 11:30 when I sleep at night. When I sleep during the day, I get to bed between 8 and 8:30 am.



9. Do you have any jewelry that you wear every single day?
My wedding ring when I'm not working (we're not allowed to wear them to work).


10. Who is the bug killer in your household?
Whoever gets to it first! 

Guess what?

I jumped on the bandwagon and I am SO GLAD that I did!



I am having so much fun on Pinterest!

Are you?

(Click on the icon to see my pins.)

Houseward Bound

Things are happening around here! J and I have decided that it's time to buy a house. Exciting. Scary. Expensive. Fun. Nerve-wracking. Wheeee!

UP house source

We've been pre-approved for a loan, secured a realtor to guide us, narrowed down the location to 2, possibly 3 areas in our locale, and now we're just waiting for our perfect home to pop up!

Visiting houses is an interesting experience. Sometimes the empty houses are a bit creepy, sometimes the owners are cluttered and it's hard to look past all the nick-nacks and wallpaper, sometimes there is a room that I'm just dying to replicate, sometimes there's a deal-breaker, sometimes it's "just fine." But it is always totally amazing to peek into people's lives and see how they live.

We are feeling blessed to be in a position to buy right now and are wanting to take advantage of the low interest rates.

For fun, here's our wish list:
~3 bedrooms with den/office/loft/bonus area or 4 bedrooms
~lots of storage and closets
~large, well-laid out kitchen with good counter space
~3 car garage or 2 car garage with space to park our snowmobiles next to the house
~large yard (10,000+ square feet) with some privacy from neighbors
~laundry room with a utility sink
~Lots of natural light. It's gray enough 6 months of the year here without living in a dark house too.

We're pretty flexible about the rest of it: house age, eh. turn key vs. needs some love, eh. formal dining and living room, eh. total number of bathrooms, eh. (It's pretty standard for a 3-4 bed house to have at least 2 full baths). In a neighborhood or on a residential street, eh. Type of flooring, eh (easily changed!). color of appliances, eh. (so long as they work).

For all you home owners and house hunters out there, have any tips? anything to beware of? anything to look for in particular? secrets of success? Also, J wants to know if anyone has had success in negotiating your interest rate down with your lender?

L.O.V.E. by Justin Forsett

Justin Forsett is a Seattle Seahawk. He is married. He is a Christian. He wants the world to know that he loves Jesus and his wife.

Here is an article with some background on this athlete whose faith is in action. 

Please watch his one-year anniversary gift to his bride. You won't regret it. 

Sun Savvy

I know it may seem like I've harped on this topic just a little bit. But it is sooo important to me.




Today, Megan posted something that touched my heart. 2 fantastic bloggers, Allison and Danielle have started a new site called Sun Savvy. They have shared their skin cancer stories and their intentions to spread the word and help other people prevent their own skin cancer.

They have an awesome chart about sunscreen and it's proper usage. Just today I learned that I am definitely not reapplying my sunscreen often enough.

Please, go read their stories. And if you are as touched as I am, please take the pledge. It's worth it. I promise.

I pledge in honor of my Grandma, the kindest, strongest woman I know.

Note that Grandma's left eye/cheek is bruised from having another skin cancer removal surgery on that side of her nose a week prior to having this photo taken. She is so brave.

Las Vegas 2011

J and I took a quick getaway to celebrate his graduation from graduate school. We wanted some place quick to get to and not too expensive, so we chose Las Vegas. And we had a blast!

We managed to get an ace deal and stayed at the Bellagio, in a room overlooking the Strip with views of the fountain show.

We spent a lot of time walking the strip, checking out hotels, art, and other points of interest.

Outside of Crystals

NY NY Jelly Belly Lady Liberty

Aria

Chihuly Glass in Bellagio Lobby

But it was 105 degrees out, so my favorite place was the pool.

Bellagio fountain pool

And, of course,  the yummy goodies.

Frozen Hot Chocolate at Serendipity 3

A Hair-ifying Experience

My hair has always been long, thick, and straight. Back in February, I decided that I wanted some body in my hair so that I could add in curl to jazz it up. So I went and had a perm.

BAD DECISION.

The stylist who did the perm should have thinned my hair first and didn't. The perm didn't turn out at all how I expected that it should and I hated it. It always looked like I'd let my hair dry while braided. And it wouldn't uncurl with the straightener.

I was afraid to have the perm chemically removed and to cut my hair for fear that the loss of weight would wind the waves up tighter and look even worse.

So, for the past few months I've worn lots of ponytails and braids and avoided the camera hoping for fast grow-out.

3 weeks ago, I took a small risk and bought a Living Social deal for a Keratin Express treatment and haircut.

BEST DECISION EVER!

I love my hair again. The keratin bound with each strand of hair and filled in the pores and damaged spots from the perm, making each strand of hair smooth and shiny, counter-acting the perm's leftover curl.

And just for fun, yesterday I went back to the same hair genius who fixed my lifeless tresses and she put in a purple feather. The feather is washable, curl-able, straighten-able, and ok with product. It's attached with a small metal 'bead' that is crimped onto the hair near the scalp. I can bury the feather if I need to hide it, or pull it up on top to show it off.

Love it!