Hat making with Adriane

A came over and showed me how to make Mini Top Hats for the party.  I let Eliz pick out a couple of Fat Quarters to use.  We got two or three kind of done before she had to go, so, alas, she'll have to come again.  We tried to watch some Firefly, but the kids were around to much for it.  Maybe next time?

The invites!

I will admit, I had an obnoxiously good time making these.  Eliz and I got this idea from Pinterest, of course!  Since we didn't have to mail any of the invites, half of them could be handed out at church, and the other half I knew we would be seeing in the next couple of days, we went with kind of large boxes.  Remeber the things I made?  Well, you only saw half of them, and I was in too a big hurry to get them finished and delivered to take pictures before I did the next step.  The next step was to wrap each item in fuzzy yarn with a  'Pull Me' tag on the very end.

Then I made orgiami boxes from heavy weight scrapbook paper.  I got a big package of paper using a coupon at Jo-Ann's.

I printed the invites myself, since nothing looked the way we wanted it to.  I cut them so one piece was shorter than the other.

 I had fun picking quotes to use with them, I won't lie.  Of all the DIY I did for this party, the printing the invites was the most stressful and time consuming.  I'm getting a headache remembering it!

 But I love, love, love how these turned out!  I made sure the colors for the invites were all different and when I put the invites in the boxes, I again made sure they were different colors.  You can see them, kind of, in the next picture in the top of the boxes.

Pretty little boxes all in a row

And tied with a ribbon.

 

They are finished!

I bet you were wondering if I was talking about the floors or the invites.  The floors.  I'll be tackling the invites this weekend, since we can hand most of them out at church or at my parents house. Bry-D still had to do the trim, so we just put their mattresses on the floor.  It's so wonderful!

 We got all the flooring in,then the floorboards, and then took a cople days break.

 When he was putting the floorboards back, he had this little, teenie, tiny piece he had to work his butt off to get back where it was supposed to be. I guess floorboards are different from other projects in that you can't really have extra pieces when you put it back together.

And here it is, all put back together!  He's amazing, he's awesome, and he's mine!

I have decor plans, but it will take some time, since most of them are DIY.  But I'll keep you posted.

My mother's toaster oven hates me

I told my Mom my plans to makes things for Eliz's invites, and she gave me a large box of polymer clay & tools.  She also gave me a toaster oven, so the polymer clay wouldn't stink up my oven, or permeate it with toxic fumes.  So, here are my polymer clay figures, all Alice in Wonderland inspired, of course.

 AND, here they are after 45 seconds - not kidding, 45 seconds! - in my Mom's toaster oven.

I tried a second time at a lower temperature, and it happened again!  Something is wrong with the thermometer.  So, I'll be using my oven.  And I'll probably have to wait a few days until I'm not so angry before I can do it.  I'm an emotional artist.  I can't wait that long, we've only got 3 weeks until the party.  Luckily, I sent unofficial email invitations a week ago, and these are the official invites.

More flooring!

We went to Lumber Liquidators for the flooring.  We got 12mm with a pad attached, but Bry-D decided to lay down additional padding.

Yep, she's working hard.

Hhm, seems like a normal work crew; one guys works, the rest watch.

It got really exciting at this point, but the day wass over to quick & we had to leave it. 

We'll finish it sometime this week, probably.

We've started painitng

Since the goal of all this renovation is to sell the house, we're going as nuertal but on trend as we can - bright white.  Also, since we have agirly girl & a mud truck boy sharing this space, we can personalise more with the accesories if the walls are nuetral.  As long as the contract gets ratified in the next couple of weeks like they are syaing it will, next up is the flooring, I'm so giddy!

Since her Daddy can't braid hair...

He did this.  A very creative ponytail.  Where was I?  I was on a date with my mom.  In December my mom asked if we could start getting together once a month, just the two of us, for dinner.

It's sort of a goal for this year.  All my sisters have a monthly Mommy Daughter date night.  My Mom and I have set aside the first Thursday of each month, and I don't know what my sisters and my Mom do, but so far, we've sat and ate and talked.  Which is my idea of a great time.

Speaking of goals, last year my goal for this blog was to post 8 times a month.  I checked, and I came very close to that, which is cool.  I have 2 goals for this year, the first is to go deeper.  Be more vulnerable, more open, share my opinion on things that aren't frivolous.  I'll be honest, that thought terrifies me.  Most people see the Internet as an anonymous way to express themselves; I don't. 


My other goal is to follow through with some of the great ideas I get.  I'll have an idea, toss it around in my head, mention it in passing to someone who will agree it's a good idea.  Then, I never do anything with it.  And so, on Monday, February 20, I'll be announcing a March Madness Pinterest Challenge.  The idea behind it is not to pin more stuff, but to jump start actually doing some of the things we're all pinning and dreaming about.  And so, with that, I'm going to go cower in a corner and rock myself into oblivion!

Something missing

I wish I could put my finger on what it is that's missing...

 It's so much bigger in here now!

Blue Herron visit

He was up there for about a half hour, just observing, the way Herrons do.  How much more would I see, if I stood as still as him?

Truely, I want to be grateful, I do...

I want to appreciate the fact that I won't have to buy either of my children clothes. 

Ever. 

                                      
Really, I know what a blessing it is-I had to buy Eliz clothes in August of 09 because the handmedown bag had two pants and three shirts in a size 5.  Not only was it expensive, it was a headache. 

However, I have gone thru 4 bags of size 6 clothes and four bags of size 18 months clothes for Lex, and my head hurts from trying to sort it all. 
                                             
This is what their closet looks like without the laundry being done, and I have to figure out what stays and what goes...what fits, what is in season, what will she wear?  So, thank you to everyone that contributed to the piles of clothing in my house, but if any of you, and you know who you are, show up or try to give me a bag of clothes, I'm going to start banging my head against a wall.

Work in progress

So many things are in the middle stage right now. We're waiting to find out if AT&T and the union can come to a fair contract. Although I'm sure that neither side would agree on what's fair, Saturday is the final day, and if the strike happens, Bry-D will be on the picket line Sunday. Yay. Pardon my enthusiasm. Also, the house is in a state of confusion. We've been moving things around and out of the house since before Lex was born, but again, we have to wait on somethings before we can finish. We have lots of things in good condition to get rid of. We don't care if we sell them, but we don't want to throw them away. So, they are sitting, taking up precious space while we try to get rid of them. Which means there are things just sitting because there isn't anywhere else for them right now. However, happiness is shining in some areas-take a look at my sewing desk before Mom came over-

And here's after-

Yes, I know, there's a pile of fabric under the desk still, but I put that there to force me to refinish Granny's trunk, the future home of my fabric.

Then of course there's the disaster that is Lex's room, another place that had become a dumping ground while I was pregnant, this is mid morning yesterday-

Yes, that is an improvement from before-amazing!

And this morning-

It's a wet bleak day, and I'm thinking mostly about the long list of things to do that just keep getting longer. Eliz's school supplies-we had to stop school because towards teh end of my pregnancy, I just couldn't do it, and then I got behind and Eliz kept progressing(somehow), and I'd like to have something to wear besides jeans on Easter, which of course leads to I'd like to exercise again, but I'm not sure how to fit it in. I sound so depressing. Ugh. I've not mentioned this before, but I love Eeyore. I love Eeyore for the very reason most people dislike him-he's a downer. He's not a realist, he's depressing. He's also pathetic, in a most lovable way(at least to me) But what makes him so very wonderful to me, is that when this grey cloud gets happy, he stands on his head. That's just the way to express happiness - get upside-down.

So, right now, while I'm feeling very much like I've lost my tail, and that life's something of a grey cloud and there's nothing I can do about it, I'm looking forward to a few days from now when I can stand on my head in joy!