C'est Fini!

I made a rag quilt for my mom to keep her warm and comfy while recovering from her chemo treatments. It's rather large, so it should be big enough for her to snuggle in. I wish I had measured it prior to rolling it up, but I didn't. I used 1 yard each of 10 different patterns and cut 8" squares. I wish I could tell you how long it took me, but I was working on a few other projects while I worked on this one, so I have no idea.

Before I sewed the squares together, they took up just about the entire floor of my kitchen. Either I have a small kitchen, or the quilt is huge. Let's just say the quilt is huge. :)

A Blizzard in Oklahoma, On Christmas Eve?

Yes! It's 1:47 pm and I'm sitting at my computer watching the wind swirl snow around. My clock says it's 24.5 degrees outside, but with the windchill, it feels like it's 10. Indoor, it's a nice 67. The meteorologists on channel 5 say it's supposed to last another 6 hours or so. We're very excited at the prospect of a white Christmas!

I got to drive my Land Rover LR3 around in the ice & snow today for the first time--it was beautiful! Mr. Cottontail and I agreed that it's fun to drive in the snow. We've been in such a jolly (ha ha) mood today, which I find shocking after all of the pre-Christmas fighting that's been going on lately.

Here is our little elf at her Christmas program last week:

The woman two rows in front of me in the black coat with short black hair was driving me CRAZY and would lean forward and to her right every time the kids would start singing. Unfortunately, during one of my unposted videos, I said the d-word...at a children's Christmas program. Oop! During another video (and perhaps the most important because our little elf loves to sing "Feliz Navidad") the gentleman in front of us let his ~10 year old boy stand and move around during the "performance." I dislike other parents. The shot is horrible because of the boy and the black-haired woman, so I'm not going to post it. At least it's available for us to watch when she gets older.

Now it's 24.7 degrees out and the wind is still constantly blowing snow around. Our neighbors have a funny snow-drift pattern in their backyard. Merry Christmas!

Wannabe

I've finally gotten to the point where I can blog again...I think. My camera is still broken and I'm still too lazy (er, busy) to fight over it.

The purpose of this post is to share my newest creation with you: my homemade paper coffee/tea cup sleeve. I've been reusing Starbucks' for a few weeks now and, one day, I was told that I could give a discount if I brought them back. How much? 10 cents.

I've tried to be "green" (I hate that word) and preserve the earth in my own way. I noticed some of the sellers on Etsy took the initiative and made their own versions. I jumped on the bandwagon and made one for a dear friend as part of her surprise Christmas present, accompanied by a Sbux gift card (she's almost as obsessed as I am) and cinnamon-mint gum (I hope she doesn't take that the wrong way). Good thing she doesn't read this blog.

[The lighting in the following pictures is horrendous! Please ignore the backgrounds, as well. Thanks.]

I haven't perfected the sleeve just yet (this is my first)...and this was my first time sewing on snaps, as well. Good thing my friend doesn't judge. :-)

Broken

Welllll....a lot has happened since the last post: we had a wonderful, short trip to Dallas, played with a bunch of really great friends, went swimming, have been riding with more frequency (yay!), purchased a "new" car, celebrated the 4th of July on the 5th with family, and played putt-putt. Unfortunately, all of our activities will be etched in our memory, not on paper or in digital format. My beloved DSLR is BROKEN! I'm not quite sure what the cause is--it won't automatically focus and my only lens isn't good enough to do anything manual. Unfortunately, I bought it and the extended warranty from the now bankrupt Circuit City a year and a half ago. I rarely admit to being a little lazy, but I confess that is my reason for not having it fixed 10 days ago. I just don't want to go through the rigamarole of getting it fixed/replaced! I'll do it Monday...
Now, off to swim lessons sign up and a reunion of sorts...

Say Hello to Our Little Friend

Innocently, I went to grab a mixing bowl from one of my favorite set of bowls and found this:

Yup...a fiddleback, aka BROWN RECLUSE! Usually, I am all about saving (my sister-in-law and I got into an argument one day before she became my sister-in-law because she was going to squash an innocent brown house spider with her shoe and even my eldest daughter is on alert and notifies me of a crawly in the house that needs saving), but this one had to die. The poor, unlucky thing was sent down the drain and met the "in-sink-erator." It is my opinion that brown recluses belong in the same category as scorpions and wasps--they have to go, sadly. I realize he was trying to live his life and didn't want to encounter me, but he was in my mixing bowl. I need to get the exterminator back in here.

Now it feels like spiders are crawing up my legs, so I'm going to publish this blog and get off this topic!

"New" Sparkly Kitchen

I am VERY pleased to show you pictures of my beautiful "new" kitchen!

This is a "before" picture. Here is a student of mine--she's baffled by the mess and darkness (we were cooking for an Easter bake sale).

This is Rico, a bird that found me and landed on my car at a friend's house. We no longer have him, since we found his owner (thank goodness), but you can see the beautiful green leaf print on our former countertop.

I've been searching my files for a before picture of our "breakfast" bar. I put breakfast in quotations because it wasn't big enough to do anything but catch clutter. Of course, I cannot find a picture, so just imagine.

The beginning: we saved 300 bucks by ripping out the awful counter (boy, that was a chore, but totally worth it!!!) and backsplash. I have a few war wounds from that stupid backsplash! Once it was out, it was kind of fun and very challenging to have missing countertops for an evening. We discussed with some friends how funny and convenient it would be to have clear counters with lids that lift (like at a bulk candy store). It's amazing what you can find "behind the scenes:" in the trianglular space behind our sink cabinet, I discovered an old Pepsi bottle, a lot of "house building" dust, a glove, and some other junk. I'm not long enough to reach it, nor did I want to prick my belly on the rough wall, so it's probably still there because I highly doubt the granite people removed it.

The granite was put in on May 28th and the electrician couldn't come until June 5th. One week felt like three...and, of course, the electrician couldn't come on the 5th. However, he did come on the 7th, a Sunday, which was very nice. I think God was teaching me patience because I couldn't put up the tile until the electrician made all the necessary little holes he needed (my friend, Natalie, was right--they make a TON of holes!). Finally, after a few hours of tiling and the electrician's return to mount the lights, my (our) kitchen is FINISHED:

I enjoyed laying the tile myself. I measured, cut, and set on my own for the first time ever. It was such a learning experience with a very rewarding outcome. Naturally, there are some things I would do differently, but now I feel like I can tile anything! And want to.

While in limbo and waiting on the electrician, I had to do something. So, I painted a wall with some chalkboard paint and framed it. Kaitlyn and I love it!

Here's what we did: we changed the countertops and backsplash from the hideous green leaf print laminate to a venetian gold granite and a natural tumbled marble set in a brick pattern. We also extended the breakfast bar a few inches, purchased two barstools, hung two pendant lights over the bar, and had under-cabinet lighting put in (all connected to a switch). Aside from the granite, the most expensive cost was the totalled hourly rate charged by the electrician. I sure wish I could do that myself! Doing the tile on our own saved us about $500. Our total kitchen re-do cost us less than $3k, thanks to some connections Eric (granite & electricity) and I have (tile).

Now we enjoy cooking again!

The next step is to paint the kitchen (nice and inexpensive!) and we'll be finished with it then. I've given up on fancy stainless steel appliances because ours work fine and I doubt we would get our money back on them by the time we're ready to sell (third time's the charm, we hope!) and they don't seem to stand out as much against a lighter palette; although, Eric and I both agree the kitchen would be stunning with them!

I love home improvement so much that I hope to tackle other jobs in the house. I'd like to put slate tile in our outside entry way, paint the front door blue (it needs to stand out and red would look weird; although, orange would be nice!), stain the concrete patio in the back a dirt color (to match dirty doggie footprints), paint the garage floor and add the little blue speckles, and adjust the girls' bath to look bigger (i.e., take out the giant sink & cabinets). Hopefully after all of this work, our house will look like it's worth the amount we've listed it for when it comes time to sell again [fingers crossed].

A little side bit:

Because I am SO PROUD of my little girls and SO THANKFUL for the wonderful blessings God has given us, I have to insert a picture of my little beloveds. Elise is 7.5 weeks old in this picture.

Preg No More. Hooray!

Well, as most of you know, Elise Abigail debuted on April 16 at 10:44 am. She was so content in her uterine environment that the doctor and I decided that I should be induced. Here's the happy, comfy 7-day old baby in her Moses basket.