Pumpkin Craft

We went over to our Pastor and his wife's house for lunch on Sunday and Mrs. A did this fun craft with Liesel.  Liesel really enjoyed it!

The Dancing Pumpkin Man

Liesel was very proud of it

She had some help putting it together & drawing the face etc.

I'm somewhat embarrassed to admit I haven't done that many crafts with Liesel. This is only the 2nd craft she's really done and the first to hang on the fridge!  Lately I've been getting some more fun craft ideas so hopefully as the rain/winter weather starts to come we'll have some more crafts to do! :)

A Neat Website

I came across this neat website last night and thought I would share, its called No Time For Flash Cards  I've only browsed it a little but they have all kinds of craft ideas for kids of all different ages.  I love that she has things for babies and toddlers too! (That sure fits my stage of life.) It makes me what to go get a box of crafting stuff and have some fun with the kiddos! :)

A New Light

When my husband asked me a couple weeks ago what I would like for my birthday I had to stop and think. "You know I would be happy to find a light to put in the kitchen where the hole is in the ceiling. :)"

The hole in the ceiling

The hole in the middle of the kitchen ceiling was there when my husband bought the house.  He wired it for a light as it was just a hole put in by the previous owners, who probably had the goal of wiring it but well that didn't happen.  So 4 plus years later there is still a hole.  I've gotten kindof use to it so I forget its there.

As you can see we have other lights but....

So on my birthday we headed down to the local hardware store and picked out a light.  We have canned lights in the kitchen so this is more of additional/decorative light.  We both like it and its sure nice to have the hole gone not to mention the extra brightness!

The new light

  Thank you Sweetie!

Baby Boy's Quilt Colors

The patches for the quilt

The brown, blue, and yellow striped fabric will be the backing

 

 

The crib skirt fabric

So now all I need to do is get busy sewing!!

New Curtains

Back in my dear Hubby's bachelor days he moved into his house without a single window covering. No curtains (not a big surprise), no blinds, not even a sheet.  I can't remember how long he lived like that but I want to say it was a good while.  His dear mother saw the need and put her sewing skills into action and outfitted my DH's house with curtains etc. (When my DH and I got engaged she told me she would in no way be offended if I changed the curtains.) Well, many of those curtain are still hanging in our house as I've been a little slow on figure out what to do in each of the rooms.  So far our bedroom ones and Liesel's have been changed.

Well when my parents were out visiting last week mom and I tackled the project of the family room curtains.  I must admit mom did most of the sewing and measuring work.  She is amazing at taking a sewing project and just figuring it out and doing it.  I'm the one that needs more directions and encouragement to just jump in and do it.  Here is the fabric that we "happened" to find on one of our outings at a craft store and actually we weren't out looking for fabric but the right stuff jumped out.  Mom also find the hooks at that same store and they go perfectly with our rustic family room theme.

Okay here are some before pictures of the curtains in the family room.

I can't tell you what a huge differences the new curtains make in the family room.  It really opens up the view!

Oh don't worry I'm not going to leave the view "open."  We are going to put some mini-blinds up so we can have some privacy but they will be hidden under the new curtains! Thanks Mom for all your help!  I sure love my new curtains!

(For some reason I don't have a before and after picture of the other window. Sorry! I"ll have to atleast post an after picture when I get a chance!)

10 weeks to go!

Wow, it sure is hard to believe that we've reached the 30 week mark. Only 2 1/2 months to go and we will hopefully be introducing you to a new little one. Of course this little one could decide to come early making it less than 10 weeks or come later making it longer. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

So what have I been doing in the mean time? Besides finishing up subbing, school getting out, baseball games twice a week, working in the yard, I'm slowly trying to get the baby's room ready. It has taken awhile but I've decided to use the theme of my Great-grandmother's Dresden plate quilt as focus of our little girl's room. I was able to order some reproduction 1930's fabric to blend with G.G.'s quilt and I decided to make the quilt with one Dresden plate in the middle and border it with yellow fabric.

Here's the beginnings of the project. I have cut and assembled the entire quilt top and now all I have to do is mark and quilt it! I'm hoping to get started on that today so I better sign off for now. I'll post more pictures of the project soon!

Our Basement Project

Shortly after moving into our house, my DH and I undertook the job of cleaning out the basement so that we could us the area for storage. There was one bookcase type shelf that I used for my pantry/canning goods since I don't really have a big cabinet type pantry in the kitchen. That has worked out well but we really wanted to add some more shelving so that we could organize the "storage" in our basement better.

This last week we hired a friend to build us some shelves in the basement. We had him build them on two walls so that one set could be used for food items and the other set could store all the boxes, unused canning jars, paper goods, etc. Here's a smilebox of some of the before and after pictures. (Note: I haven't finished organizing the shelves but I'll post pictures when I'm finished with that part of the project)

Digital slideshow created with Smilebox

A New Flower Bed

Back in June my DH and I came up with a way to help disguise the "lovely" power pole that the previous owners had placed in very awkward spot in the backyard. It stood out like a sore thumb so we thought if we incorporated it into a flower bed it wouldn't be as noticeable. I've taken my time with this project and even now I still need to put down more bark dust and plant more flowers but I'm going to wait until spring. My mother-in-law was a great help on this project! Here is a few pictures of the project!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Oh and I want you to know my sister didn't even notice the pole the last time she came to visit. She actually had to go outside and look to see if it was there! Goal accomplished!

Corn and Painting

Yesterday was a fun day of picking, shucking, cutting, and freezing corn.

Make a Smilebox photobook

Plus I also prepped the shop/old carport for painting and managed to get one side painted. I hoping to get the other two sides done today but we'll see. Here's what it looked like before...

Outdoor Projects

Yesterday was such a lovely day. It was in the 60's and the sun was warmly shining. It was a day where it would have been painful to be stuck inside so my DH and I worked on outdoor projects instead.

My DH's project was putting the skirting around part of the foundation of the house. Here's a picture of the finished project on the front of the house.



And here is a picture of part of the side skirt that has just been stained.


My project was to add the woodchips to the front flower bed. In the first picture you can see what it looks like before and let me just say it looks a whole lot better now with the woodchips!

I'm so thankful that we had a beautiful day to work in the yard and we were able to get things done around the house! The warm weather sure makes me look forward to more warm spring days and summer!!!

A Small Project

Well, I pulled out the sewing machine for the first time since I got married and worked on a little project. I'm not that creative but there has been something that I've been wanting to make for awhile, so the other day I did it. I made shoe warmers. Since living in a cooler climate I have discovered how chilly it is to put one's feet into cold boots. I would keep them in a warmer environment but the dirty, mud and varies animal presents stepped on doesn't allow for that! I got the idea to make little rice bags from a Christmas gift given to me. (Thank you M. Family. I heat my rice bag up and sleep with it at the foot of my bed every night!) I made mini rice bags that can fit right inside of a pair of boots! I can't wait to try them out! I'm sure they'll beat cold feet.