Productive Weekend

I think my life may have reached a point where I have time to blog again.  Hopefully I'll get back into the habit, and maybe even find time to post about what has happened in the past 4 or 5 months...

We had a really productive and fun weekend.  Friday Sam was home sick from work, which allowed me to sneak off and get some errands run while Olivia was sleeping and Noah was playing.  Joanns was having a good sale, so I went to go find some home dec fabrics I could use in some projects around the house. Initially I couldn't find anything I liked, but I decided to take a look at some of the red tag clearance, not really expecting to find anything (every other time I've looked it's been pretty hideous.)  There, among many ugly discards, was some beautiful juniper blue raw silk.  On clearance for $4.50/yard.  With my extra 10% off, it was just over $4/yard.  Regularly $30/yard.  I got 7 yards thinking  I could make some curtains for our master bed. When I got home I realized I was crazy not to buy the whole bolt.  So I went back and got the last 5 yards. Kind of kicking myself that I didn't buy it all in one piece.

I also picked up some fabric to do roman shades in Olivia's room - she's had black out fabric stapled to the wall, hanging pitifully over her window since we moved in. Too bad I didn't take a before shot, because it was truly awful. It was the quick fix I could come up with the day we moved in, when I realized there was no way she was going to fall asleep in her brightly lit room for her nap, and it has hung there ever since.

My sister Sarah had made some roman shades for her home, and said it was really easy.  I found a great tutorial which explained it so simply, and it really turned out to be an easy project.  For Olivia's window, the fabric I found was 45 wide, and her window is 46X58, so I had to make 2 roman shades which I hung side by side.  I think my seam allowances were slightly over 1/2 inch, so there is a little bit of a gap between the 2 shades, but I still LOVE how it looks.  I started these shades Friday night, and finished them up Saturday morning before we left for Harrison's basketball game.  I think they probably took me less than 4 hours.  And a lot of that time was spent measuring and re-measuring, because I wanted to get them right the first time.  I have learned (the hard way) to measure twice (or three or 4 times) and cut once.  Total cost for this project: just under $34.  ($7 for blackout lining, $15 for striped canvas, $1.5 for rings, $10 for hardware and wood.)  

My favorite part about this particular type of roman shade is how they hang when they are drawn.  The rings are sewn on in varying spacing (reducing the space with each ring) so that the folds create a pleated look.  I really love how they turned out - and I love how easy it was to do. The only thing I did differently than the tutorial was to use my sewing machine to sew on the rings.  I just followed the instructions for sewing on a button, and that made it so much faster than using a needle and thread by hand.  I really detest hand sewing.  I actually did one row by hand, and for some reason the row I did by hand made a noticeable hole in the blackout fabric, so you can see little dots of light on that row, when it's closed during daylight.  So I'm glad I did the rest with a machine. 

When I went back to Joanns to get the rest of the silk left on the bolt, it was already cut in 2 pieces.  2 yards and 3 yards.  I knew the 2 yards wasn't going to be big enough for a curtain panel, but I discovered 2 yards of 54 inch wide fabric was the perfect amount to create a roman shade for the guest room.  And since it didn't have any blinds or window treatments yet, and Sam's parents are coming in less than 2 weeks, I thought it sounded like a great idea.  So I whipped this roman shade up last night:

Here's what it looks like closed.  Perfectly fills the window frame. And with the blackout fabric, it makes the room nice and dark.

 Again, super fast, super easy, and I love the way it turned out. This was even cheaper to build, because of the deal on the fabric - around $28 total.  For silk roman shades.  To cover a 58 X 46 inch window.  Just to compare, I found some here you can order.  Silk roman shades for a window this size would have cost me over $200 on sale.  I have many more plans for places to put roman shades, and now I just need to find the perfect fabrics.  

We also got some good work done on our new kitchen table.  We bought boards a while back, and have been making careful plans for how to put it together.  Ana White's plan for a modern farm house table (almost an exact duplicate of West Elm's Modern Farm Dining Table) is where we started, but we wanted different dimensions.  And Sam got a Kreg-Jig for Christmas from his parents, so we wanted to use that to hide all the screws.  It took some figuring, but we got it done.  This weekend we worked on staining it, and hopefully in a few days we'll be able to do the final assembly in the kitchen. 

Here you can see a before and after of the stain.  We built it out of stock wood (stud grade) from Lowe's.  I think the wood for the table was less than $40.  Screws were another $10.  So, we saved about $450 off the sale price of this table. 

It will be beastly heavy once it's all put together, so we'll put it together where it will stay.  We bought chairs from Ikea back in MD, and then at Thanksgiving, we went back to Ikea in UT and found the stain to match the chairs - which was on super sale because they are discontinuing it.  I hope we have enough - it seems to take several coats to get the dark color that the chairs are, but we've done 2 1/2 coats and it's getting closer.  Just a few more coats, and then a couple of a polyurethane sealer, and it should be ready to go!  The boys are excited because the current kitchen table will become their new lego table once we have our new table finished.  Our new table will be significantly bigger than our old one - we'll be able to comfortably seat 10, so come on over for dinner sometime! 

The other exciting event this weekend was buying our first piano!  We've been wanting one for a while, and now that we have the space, it was just a matter of finding one.  We weren't ready to make a huge investment, since none of us really play, but we wanted a good starter piano that the kids could learn on (and one that we wouldn't have to worry about them destroying...) so we found one on craigslist.  We talked them down to $400 from $450.  It's in need of a good tuning, but all in all in pretty good shape.  It came with a nice bench, which happened to be full of piano lesson books.  Harrison has already made his way through half the primer that was in there (since last night!), and can't wait to have lessons.  I guess I need to start looking for a piano teacher. 

It's a good thing I "saved" so much money this weekend on these great deals.  Because, in case you didn't notice, my camera is in serious need of replacement.  See all the dark corners in the pictures?  My lens no longer closes or opens all the way.  I really want a nice digital SLR when we replace it, so we may just have to a while before we do.  Maybe a few more DIY weekends, and we'll have "saved" enough to get my dream camera.

Valentines day

A few fun/funny things about this Valentine's:

A friend in the ward had a great craft night at her home where she taught us how to make these wreaths:

I got out my banner from last year:

And figured it would be fine to do the same style of Valentine's I used for the kids last year.  New schools, new friends:

I think I earned myself spacey mom of the year award when I confused the days for Noah's Valentine's party, and didn't realize it until I picked him up from school with a bag of Valentine's from his friends.  Thankfully he was not phased by it, and was perfectly happy to bring his on the next school day.  Silly mom.

And I put together a cute little treat for the kid's teachers too (gotta love the dollar spot at target!):

I made cupcake pops in the shape of a heart, and they turned out super cute. I used a heart cookie cutter to form the cake ball into a heart, and then I just stuck a little heart sprinkle on the front. 

And Sam brought home these:

Happy Valentine's Day!

Sam's B-day

Christmas Vacation Thoughts

I know that I posted a bunch of pictures from our vacation with very little prose.  That was mostly just to get something out there, in case I went on another 6 month hiatus from blogging.  Life can get pretty hectic, and my forecast for the next few months is 'busy'.  I just wanted to take the time this morning and write down what a wonderful break we've had.

The best part about the break was having all of my family together so that my kids could have some cousin playtime.  It took some time to remember everyone; I overheard Noah ask, "Are you the one that I was playing with before?" But after that, there was no separating the cousins. Noah and Jack were constantly together, out on the tree, running around the yard, playing legos, etc.  Harrison had fun getting integrated with the older Anderson kids.  I was also really excited when he started to want to play baseball.  Adam and his boys do a lot more sports than me and mine.  That's been something I wish that I did more, but just haven't found the time.  We actually don't even own a baseball mitt.  Adam, Adam and Mark were often out in the front yard playing catch or pickle.  Noah and Jack really liked to join in pickle, although I 'm not sure Noah knew what was going on.  I think he just liked the running.  Harrison would come running from the house and ask to be part of the fun.  He did really well playing catch.  I think this spring we'll have to start in our back yard (we now have one!).

I also really was glad for the kids see a variety of fun Christmas traditions.  For the last several years, since Harrison was an infant, we've done Christmas at our house; just us.  Holiday travel is difficult, and we were poor students a lot of that time.  I love Christmas with us, don't get me wrong.  It's calm and relaxing.  But with several groups of relatives this year we got to see lots of different ways to do Christmas.  At my parent's house with the Andersons, we had a rocus Nativity re-enactment.  It was a lot of fun. They include Samuel the Lamanite on the wall as part of the nativity, which I thought was fun.  Then there was the classic donkey ride to the full inns.  I got to play a sheep, helping to mark my corner of the living room as the stable.  Sara brought their costumes from Arizona, and had enough for all my kids.  A neighbor of my parent's came over to offer a hay-ride.  So they got to be out in the Texas night singing carols with a full moon.  Then at my Aunt Betsy's house in SLC, they got to be part of a musical retelling of Luke 2.  The Fetzer and Nagel cousins all came with their violins/cellos.  John Nagel would read a verse out of Luke and then they would play a Christmas song.  I figured that since I didn't have a violin to play, I would sing as my talent.  Clark, John, Sara Nagel and her kids soon joined in.  This was a really beautiful way to relive the Nativity.

This Christmas also featured a lot of family building.  My sister-in-law Sarah had her first baby on Christmas Eve.  My sister Sara is expecting. My brother David got married. My brother Dan got engaged.  I was struck by how much fun families can be; the more the merrier. We're all at some point on the path, but I really love being with a big family.  When people ask me why I have three kids, these times are one of many, many reminders.  My mom and dad did a heroic job raising six kids, and it's wonderful to be part of that.

At the Temple

Here's some family photos of us at the Houston Temple.  We did not get any pictures of the bride and groom,  but I assume that they have some for themselves.  It was a nice sealing, and a beautiful day.

Family for Christmas

This Christmas, my brother David got married in Houston.  For the occasion, all of the siblings got together at my parent's house and had a great vacation.  Since we are spread throughout the US, we don't often have a chance to all get together under one roof, and we barely fit under one roof.

It was fun to be together.  We don't really need a lot of activities to have fun, just being a family together.  I am grateful just to be family (mormon message on the topic). So here are some semi-random shots of us together.

Here's my mom with her three granddaughters.

Dan and Jack making lemonade

Paynes and Andersons playing legos on the upstairs balcony.  My parent's house has two big buckets of legos, and that makes a home for my boys.

David found that he could easily entertain kids with videos of kittens

 Mark and Naomi

 One of the things that my mom likes to do is tell stories.  So she gathers all the grandkids on her bed and invents some winners.  I heard my boys retelling parts of the stories throughout the trip.  It's great for me, because it's like a hour of peace and relaxation, time I can spend reconnecting with my siblings without constantly checking on my kids.

 Mark was very excited to play backgammon.  I think that he played nearly everyone in the house.  Maybe he will grow up like Dan, and be a total backgammon pro.

Monopoly, star wars style.

The Old Oak Tree

In the front yard of my parent's house in Texas, there are a few fantastically beautiful oak trees.  They are perhaps 100 years old and 30-40 feet tall.  Like a picturesque children's book, one of them has a solid branch that bends down and touches the ground.  It is a perfect climbing tree.  It is a constant source of fun for our visits to grandma and grandpa.

This Christmas we were there at the same time as the Anderson's and the kids camped out around the old oak tree. Here's a shot of Noah and Jack playing up on one of the branches.

Olivia playing (posing) in the leaves.

A better shot of the branch that comes down.