Sew what?

I'm feeling pretty darn proud of myself this week. I managed to sew these pillows, with no pattern even! Okay, well, I suppose you don't really need a pattern to make a square. Fine. But if you understood that my sewing abilities rank in the Little to None range, you'd know that this is a big deal to me! The back sides are actually a little fancy as I made an envelope back, so they are like pillow shams. That took a little more thought and engineering than just a plain old square, I'll have you know.




I'm totally in love with the red fabric I found. I actually looked at this fabric way back when I recovered my kitchen chairs last year, but I didn't think the blue would look right in my kitchen. So I was thrilled when found it again at the fabric store and realize that it would look great in my living room! I like it so much I'm very seriously thinking about making curtains out of it to go on the window over my couch. Flush with my pillow success, I went to the library yesterday and checked out about 8 different books on making curtains, but nothing caught my eye. I think I'm better off hitting the pattern books at JoAnn's because although I may be competent enough to sew a square without a pattern, I think curtains may prove a trifle more difficult.

Status Report, 03/29/06

Maren's had a busy day. So far she has:

1) Evacuated her bowels with such force that somehow her foot actually became encrusted with poop, requiring me to hose her off with the handheld showerhead
2) Broken a glass vase
3) Unwound about 20 feet of yellow thread off the spool
4) Found and gnawed on a small taper candle
5) Found and uncapped a red Sharpie and had it on the way to her mouth (I caught her just in time! Dodged a big bullet there)
6) Dumped a box of thumb tacks on the floor and attempted to walk through them while I frantically cleaned them up, then got mad at me when I wouldn't let her
7) Played in the dog's water dish
8) Dumped out 2 boxes of my tiny alphabet rubber stamps and I suspect, ate the rubber off 3 of them, rendering it impossible for me to spell any words with the letters F, U, or W, or the number 7. (Thankfully, she did spit out the Q so I can still spell Quin)
9) Grabbed a box of beads off my desk and dumped them

And it's only 4:00 pm. She still has about 4 hours until bedtime.

Thankfully, today she also:
10) Fell asleep on the floor in the middle of the living room much earlier than her normal naptime
11) Did all the above naughty things with such flair and overwhelming cuteness that all I can do is laugh at her after I scream!

Maren turns 1

"Ewww, it tastes like...red!"

This past weekend was Maren's First Birthday Extravaganza. My parents and grandparents came into town to help us celebrate the wee one's big milestone. Friday was her actual birthday, but Saturday night was when we had her party and her cake. I decided on a ladybug theme, and my mom made Maren this little chocolate cake and frosted it to look like a ladybug. I think we had to use almost the entire pot of red paste food coloring to get the frosting to be that shocking shade of red! When we put the cake in front of Maren, she was a little unsure and mostly just poked and patted it, rather than stuff handfuls in her mouth like most little kiddos do.

Here she looks like she has tasted it a little. She did grab a few big chunks and then proceeded to squish them in her hands. This picture makes her look kind of like a little Vampire Baby.

Maren got some fun toys for her birthday. Of of them is this little mechanical puppy that yips and moves. Maren took to it immediately, toting it around and patting it. I was so surprised to see this, as she's never done that with any other toys or blankies before. If only I had known, and I'd have gotten her a fluffy white doggie sooner!

I know Sanford had a Son, but do you think he had a Daughter?

Folks, I have taken one step down the slippery slope. The slippery slope that is.....TRASH-PICKING!! (dun dun dun)

Last Wednesday (trash day in our neighborhood) I was out running errands in the morning, before the garbage truck had made all its rounds. I happened to be driving through the neighborhood when something caught my eye...I literally did a three-point turn in the middle of the road to get back to it. I found this dresser sitting out on the curb next to a garbage bin. It looked to be in okay condition, so I hopped out and checked it out a little further--a little wobbly, needs new handles and a new paint job, but otherwise okay.

I've never trash-picked before, so I wasn't sure of the proper etiquette, but I decided to knock on the door of the house to ask if I could have it, just so I wouldn't get reported to the police for garbage theft. No one was home, so I decided to take it, permission or not!

Getting the dresser in the car was a little tricky because I had the stroller with me, so I had to move Maren's chair over, put the stroller on its side in the middle seat with her and then the dresser in the back cargo area. Luckily it is small and light enough so that I could carry it over to the back of the car and slide it in by myself.

Once I get it refinished and have new knobs put on, I'm going to put this in one of my spare bedrooms and I think it will be cute. I was actually on the lookout for a small dresser for the room, and had been watching for a cheap one at thrift stores and garage sales. Lucky for me I found one at my favorite price--Free-ninety-free!

Tomorrow's trash day, so maybe I'll take a quick look through the neighborhood in the morning for any *treasures* people might have mistaken for trash. I've got the fever...the Trash-Pickin' Fever! (hey, isn't that a country song?)

Paint my walls and call me Silly Putty

Last summer, I had some painting done in my house. It was no small amount--2 bedrooms, including one ceiling and one closet, and my large front room that has two-story ceilings and goes up a staircase. I had a less-than-stellar experience, which I shall not enumerate now as just thinking about it makes my blood boil. I chose two colors for the front room: a deep crimson that I really like, and what I hoped would be a Nice Neutral but what turned out to be the exact shade of Silly Putty. Or Band-Aids. It's peachy. It's pinky. It's horrible.

I'm finally to the point where I want to have the front room repainted, partly because we have company coming next week and I want the house to look nice. A friend lent me a can of the paint from her living room, and it is just the right Nice Neutral that I had hoped for in the first place.

For the last two weeks, I've been getting estimates from painters to do the job, something I failed to do the first time around. I wanted to do due diligence so I could feel confident in my choice, because I really can't afford to be screwing up again--that was one expensive mistake I made the first time.

• Painter #1 came a day earlier than expected. Very professional, wrote everything out in detail which leaves little room for miscommunication a problem that plagued me the first time around. Quote: $395.00, plus I have to purchase 3 gallons of paint to the tune of about $70.00.
• Painter #2 came two days later than expected, after many excuses and apologetic phone calls. Showed up 10 minutes before I told him I had to leave the house. Looked around briefly, didn't write anything down. Quote: $350.00, including paint.
• Painter #3 came early for the appointment, but started things out by asking to borrow a wire coat hanger, as she'd just locked her keys in the car. Not a good sign. Looked around and gave me an estimate of $1980.00 and said I'd need 8-10 gallons of paint (included in the cost).

No, I did not make a mistake typing that. She honestly quoted me almost TWO THOUSAND DOLLARS, which is $1600 more than the previous quotes, and almost $1000 more than it cost me to get a much larger amount of painting done last summer. And 8-10 gallons of paint? What, are they going to do 6 coats? She told me they use exterior paint, because it's "practically bulletproof." Yes, I'm sure it is practically bulletproof, because you used 8-10 gallons and now it's 3 inches thick!

Quin was eating lunch as she gave us the quote, and I thought he might actually choke. I kept a straight face, but what I really wanted to do was ask her just exactly how many rocks of crack she is smoking and how often, because that is just EFFING insane.

About 15 minutes after she'd left, while we were still laughing about the incredulity of the quote, she called back, and said that she'd made a mistake on our quote. Oh good, I thought. This should clear everything up, I knew she must have been mistaken. It was actually supposed to be $1480, rather than $1980. $500 less than the first estimate. Mmmkay. Still about $1000 too high, you nutso. But thanks anyway.

I went with Painter #1. He's coming Monday. I'm thrilled.

Gimme some sugar

Sunday after church as I was cooking dinner, Maren was rummaging in the pantry and found a half-full sack of brown sugar. It was one of those bags with the built-in Ziploc zipper at the top, you know, to Seal In Freshness. Well, those seals may keep out stale air, but they don't keep out babies! Maren managed to get the bag open and dump almost all of the sugar right in the middle of the kitchen floor. Bronco thought he'd died and gone to heaven, and proceeded to lick as fast as he could while I grabbed his collar and physically dragged him back behind the gate.

Maren treated the sugar like her own personal sandbox, and stamped through the sand before running around the kitchen island, still clutching the bag like a trophy in her sugary little hand! She didn't get far, as the sugar stuck to her little bare feet and made them extremely slippery, so she slipped and slid all over the place. Quin and I laughed and laughed, and I'm so glad the camera was close!

Remind me to add 'brown sugar' to the grocery list.

Thrift store finds: Tuesday

After a long hiatus, I went out thrifting again this week. Here are my finds:

tin cup, $.39. I just liked the look of it.

old aluminum "Short'ning and ice cream spoon" $ .99. Love that spelling! This will go with my other vintage utensils.






Old yellow Pyrex dish, $2.00.

Vintage printed dishtowel, $ .99
















I think this is my favorite find of the day. This was $8.99. It looks like a window, but I think that it is actually a frame with molding added to the front to make it look like a window. I have been wanting to go to the architectural salvage place to get an old window to do this exact treatment to. I want to hang it by my front door. However, those old windows aren't cheap, and by the time I had mirrors cut to fit, I'd be in for WAY more than $8.99. I think I may paint this and distress it, or use a crackle finish or something fun. Then once the house painters come next week, I can hang it up! I'm pretty excited about this one!

Flowers & Freedom

Aren't I lucky? These are the beautiful flowers that Quin got me for our anniversary yesterday. Back when we were first dating, Quin secretly asked my roommates what my favorite flower was so that he could surprise me. I have always loved Gerbera daisies, and nearly every year since then, I have gotten a beautiful arrangement of them for one occasion or another. They make me smile every time I see them!

Tonight we've arranged for a baby sitter for Maren for a couple of hours so that we can go out by ourselves for the evening! This week she's been very Mom-clingy. If I leave the room or go out of her line of sight, she cries. She's not normally like this so I'm sure it's the discomfort of the teething, but I'm a little worried about how she'll behave for the sitter. If Maren is naughty, I may have to pay the sitter extra for Pain & Suffering.

Four Wonderful Years

Happy Anniversary, Sweetie! I love you!!

It all comes out in the wash

So, the Sears repairman came and fixed my washing machine to the tune of $192. Ouch. It was an easy fix, took approximately 5 minutes for him to install the new pump, for which I was charged something like $60. Man, I am SO in the wrong business. Even though it cost $192, if I'd decided to just get a new washer altogether, I would have been looking at $65 service fee+$399 new washer+8.1% sales tax+the time it takes to research washers, find one I like, buy it, have it delivered and installed+not be able to do laundry for who knows how long. In light of all this, I still feel like I came out ahead.

Bad night again for Maren last night. She was up 3 times and would fall asleep in my arms but wake up the moment I set her down. I just let her cry. Poor kiddo, I wish there was something more I could do for her. Darn little tooth.



Here's Maren yesterday with her new haircut and a new outfit. The jeans are from Baby Gap and they are supposed to be capris, but on Maren they go all the way down! They are 12-18 months, but they have this nifty adjustable waistband system so they actually fit her. They were expensive for baby clothes--$24.00, and I don't even think my jeans cost that much--but because they are adjustable and supposed to be capris, I think she'll be able to wear them all spring and summer and into the fall, so they were worth it. Plus they are just so darned cute!