Trim!

The last step was trim.

And finally, in Home Depot, we got a little testy.

See, here's Matthew on the drive home. It wasn't too bad.

We stained and cut and I painted the doors...

Two happy kids, all done. Notice Matthew's sweating and I'm all bundled up.

I feel very proud of us.

Here's Anna spinning with delight!

And here's one of my favorite things-the tools all sorted and ready for the next project!

Carpet

Now that the painting was all done, it was time for carpet!

First we went to pick out a remnant. Anna was very patient.

We were very happy that the room was narrow enough that we didn't need to do any seams.

And that we could just glue down the tack strip and not have to drill into the concrete.

And that we could rent tools.

Carpet was a great step. Lots of worry-not much trouble at all!

Texture, Prime and Paint

Ready for the next installment?

We thought it would be a good idea to texture the walls a little bit, because we really didn't know how they were going to look with paint on them. So one morning while I was at school,

Anna sanded

and Matthew textured.

We figured it was a way to hedge our bets a little bit.

Then two coats of primer (stinky stuff!)

And finally paint!

We used Benjamin Moore #318 Little Angel. If you think it looks familiar-that's because I managed to choose the exact same color of yellow that I painted the bedroom last year, though they were a year apart, in different stores, from different companies (Behr Cheerful Hue 330B-4). I guess I like that color.

"That is not a good project"

Anna wandered in as I was starting my project and asked what I was doing. I explained that I was going to try to make bowls out of rope and fabric. She did not think it was a good idea.

I tried it anyway.

Here's the tutorial I used.

To make these you wrap strips of fabric about 1/2" wide around rope and then stitch it into a coil with a zigzag. Pretty easy, really.

I had some orange-ish rope in my stash from a period when I was crocheting with unorthodox materials. It's fun to crochet with rope-I made a little rug and a basket-but it's hard on your hands and I used up all of the fun colors that I found on clearance and was left with the not-so-fun. Perfect for covering up with fabric!

I also love it because it uses up the bits of fabric that are too small to use in anything else but that I still have trouble throwing away.

I have lots of ideas for expanding on this-trivets, platters, I haven't tried handles yet but I think there are some neat flower shape-y possibilities there.

After I was done with the first one I showed Anna and she was impressed. :)

Snow Day!

We lucky kids got a snow day last week and had a wonderful time together.

I had the chance to do lots of little things that I've been wanting to do for a long time. Like clean the refrigerator.

I really had a good time. Anna was at the sink washing dishes, we were listening to Peter, Paul, and Mary, singing loudly and chatting.

Every time I open the door I sigh with happiness. All gleaming and tidy. Ahhh...

I even had time to reorganize the magnets, a "job" which never makes it to the top of the list, but is awfully fun. We have a travel section, a photo section, a funny section, and an Anna section. And now I know I need more photos-see all those empty magnet frames?

Then I filled out the little phone number magnet thing I've had hanging on the fridge, though empty, for over a year.

It kind of makes me feel like a grown up.

Then Anna was happily listening to books on tape so I had time to work on a project! Details to come.

On Saturday afternoon Anna and her Poppa Marion and I built a couple of snowmen. It was beautiful, 40+ degrees, and the snow was perfect for fun.

Fernando!

I'm headed to Denver today for an amazing fantastic birthday treat.

Katrina is taking me to see Fernando Ortega!



The pictures are a little cheesy, but you can just play it to hear the music while you pop over to another window.

I'm awfully excited. He's been such an important part of my life these past few years.

Geography

It shouldn't be this hard.

Dad sent me this quiz. It took me a long time and I made a lot of mistakes. Who knew I knew so little?

Anyone fare better?

Time Waster

I found this on How about Orange, a pretty craft blog.

What a Lovely Name

is a fun few minutes. You can put in the adjectives you like, and it'll spit out a name for you. Anna and I thought we'd like to know a girl who was happy, curious, and quirky. Her name would be Nedda.

Anna also thought that Abby should have been a name choice for all of the adjectives.

Personality Shift

Didn't we all take the personality tests in High School? I was always an ESFJ.

For my homework a couple of weeks ago, we had to take a couple of personality profiles and analyze them in light of language teaching and learning.

I was surprised to find that both tests now call me an ISTJ.

I thought personality was supposed to be a constant. I like my old description better. She sounds like a lot more fun.

Here are the two tests we took.

Keirsey.com

Humanmetrics.com

Anyone else change?

Cereal Boxes

We gave in and bought the cute cereal from Target with the old-timey boxes and the free t-shirt offer. Anna's delighted with all of the sugary options. I had to think of something to do with the boxes.



A gift bag! That smells fruity!

We've got 4 more cute boxes. Anyone have an idea?

Thank You Kitten

Thank you to all of our helpers!

More on the continuing room work to come-but I think it's time for a break.

Spring Break Day 7, 8, 9

Finally we were ready to mud. I was worried about this part. I suppose we'll know when we're all done how it went. I keep reminding myself that it is just the first room and that there are lots of lessons to learn and this part is all cosmetic anyway.

We didn't quite finish before Spring Break was over, but we did do good work, and it was fun to do something so big together.

Spring Break Day 6

On this day (Thursday) we FINALLY finished hanging all of the drywall. It went much faster once we got a new bit for the drill.

Old bit:

I don't understand why, but there was some problem, and things were a zillion times faster with the new bit.

New bit:
Construction-y types: Any answers for me?

Also I remembered that Matthew forgets to breathe when he is concentrating so I was able to remind him to. That helped a bit.

The tiny pieces took soooo looong. I thought we were almost done for hours.

All done!

Spring Break Day 5

We spent all of this day hanging drywall.

And doing some farm work-stuck sprinklers, etc.

Spring Break Day 4

On Tuesday morning we passed our inspection and started hanging insulation! This was my favorite step because it went so fast. Lickety split!

Happy Workers.

We had lots of help. Michael got very itchy.

After that we eventually started hanging drywall on the ceiling, which was taking FOREVER. We also discovered that I can only carry 6 sheets of drywall into the basement before I am too tired to carry any more. Hmph.

Spring Break Day 3

On Monday we were ready for inspection, but found out our permits had expired. This turned out to be a good thing, because while we were renewing them, we found out about some new code. No untreated wood can touch concrete. So before they came out on Tuesday morning, we put some plastic shims in to fix that.

We also hung doors. That is really really hard. Super hard.

And we went to Home Depot AGAIN.

I was feeling a little discouraged.

You can tell because there are no pictures.

Our Spring Break Day 1 & 2

This year for Lent we decided to give up leisure in exchange for work. Ideally, that meant we'd work outside some every day, but other work kept getting in the way.

For Spring Break, instead of taking a vacation, we decided to try to finish that room in the basement once and for all.

Our good friend Daniel came to help the first weekend. We didn't know, back in 7th grade, what a wonderful friend we were making.

Here they are at the beginning.

While Daniel was here they finished the framing and all of the electrical.

Fortune Cookie

For my last project of the week I whipped out this little fortune cookie. The pattern came from the crochet daily calendar I had last year.

What should the fortune say?

This has been a fun, hectic, week.



Stay tuned for pictures of our progress on the room!

Ball

Tonight while watching "Blast from the Past" I made this little ball. I used this pattern, or some variation of it, to make my hairball last year.

I wasn't paying attention, so the stripe is not at all in the middle. Oops. Also the pattern wanted me to make two halves and then whip stitch them together, but I didn't want to do that so I just sort of reversed the first instructions to make the second half. It only kind of worked.

I used a hook three sizes smaller than suggested, and I think it's closer to the correct size.

Cross Bookmark

Tonight I made a little cross bookmark.

Here's the pattern I used. I love Google. You can find anything! So quickly!

The nice thing about a bookmark is that size doesn't matter so much, but I'm pretty sure this is bigger than the one in the picture.

I still need to starch it, but I'm tired.

Rainbow bag

Finished this just before Midnight...


I had this fun "Incredible" yarn from Megan that I hadn't been able to figure out what to do with. I decided to try a bag, using this pattern from Lion Brand.

I also added a strand of some blue scrap yarn I had to give it some more stability, but I used a hook two sizes smaller than they recommended.

I still had to alter and alter the pattern, once I realized my bag was already much too huge. I spent a lot of time pulling things out and redoing them on this bag. I tried three different handles until I was satisfied.

I think it'll be a nice bag for taking to the Farmer's Market. That was my idea anyway.

The next couple of projects will have to be smaller.

Baby Blankie

Finished this last night!

A sweet striped baby blankie with ruffled edging. I like to make smallish baby blankets, for car trips and cuddling. This one might be a teensy bit small even for that, but I ran out of white. I'm trying not to buy yarn until I've used up what's in my craft room.

This is another pattern I love because it works up quickly and looks nice.

I can't find the pattern I use on the Lion Brand site, but here's one that is very similar.

I love Lion Brand yarn and they have tons of free patterns on their site, which I also love.

Whew! 3 days down, 3 to go!

Shamrock Crochet

I made this little shamrock in about 30 minutes, even with Anna distractions and learning the pattern. I'm learning more and more to like the thread crochet, because you can make a little project so quickly. I still have the "too big" problem though. For this I used a smaller hook than recommended, but it still came out much more loose than the one pictured.




Here's the pattern I used.


I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it, I thought about putting a pin on the back, but I'm not quite sure how to do that. It would also be cute as an applique on a bag or sweater or something.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

National Crochet Week!

March 16-22

Who knew there even was such a thing?

I'm going to try to post a completed project each day this week.

Eeek! I'd better get moving.

Here's a blanket I've been working on for 2 years! Just a snippety picture, because it'll be a gift later and I don't want to spoil it. (Hmmm...that's going to be a problem all week. I'm not sure how I'll get around that.)

The pattern is "Tantalizingly Teal" from "Afghans for All Seasons" from Oxmoor House. I make this blanket ALL the time because it's quick and fun and you get to use a huge hook.

Itsy Bitsy Spider

curtain skirt

Someday Anna is going to say to me "You can't just put elastic in something and call it a skirt." Thankfully that day has not yet come.

I bought this valance at Goodwill.

Looking at it at home, it struck me that it was all finished and hemmed and had an elastic pocket already! 10 minutes later (should have been 5, but I put the seam in on the wrong side so it was inside out, so I had to rip it out and fold it the right way and sew again) she has a skirt!

She takes modeling very seriously.

An interview

Saw this from my friend Liz--on facebook--I'm off for lent but I still read the emails.

Answers by Anna, age 3.75
1. What is something mom always says to you? I love you
2. What makes mom happy? When I give you a hug.
3. What makes mom sad? When I do something wrong.
4. How does your mom make you laugh? When she's silly.
5. What was your mom like as a child? You played with your Mama.
6. How old is your mom? I don't know.
7. How tall is your mom? Hunanimous...that means big.
8. What is her favorite thing to do? Play games and races.
9. What does your mom do when you're not around? Help herself.
10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for? Party.
11. What is your mom really good at? I don't know
12. What is your mom not very good at? Umm, rolling. (demonstrates a somersault) I mean this.
13. What does your mom do for her job? Go to school.
14. What's your mom's favorite food? Umm, lots. Chinese food?
15. What makes you proud of your mom? When she wins.
16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be? A Mama.
17. What do you and your mom do together? Play games and races.
18. How are you and your mom the same? Have two eyes, one nose, two ears, one mouth.
19. How are you and your mom different? Big and small
20. How do you know your mom loves you? 'cause love to pieces.
21. Where is your mom's favorite place to go? School.

Anna "reads"

That's her favorite CD in the background. Sorry if it's a little long.

Beginning Readers

I mentioned in Anna Fans (not getting Anna Fans emails? Let me know!) that we got some fun books from the Library that were great for reading together, and there's been lots of interest from fellow Mamas.

Here's an example page:

And here's the website.

Oh my! They have them in Spanish too! Exciting.

Auction part three

The final thing that I really wanted that I did get was this adorable suitcase for a little girl's Birthday. I always wanted one of these when I was little.

Yay for auctions!

Auction part two

Dad and I decided at the last minute to bid on this little tea cart. I always think they're cute. I was excited to get it.

It fits by the fridge, and holds some of my cookbooks, with a nice space on top for laying out the recipes and books for the week.

I went to an auction

I love going to auctions. I had forgotten how much. The last time I went I took Anna with me, she was tiny in the stroller.

I went because it was an auction with lots of crafty supplies. Mostly they went too high for my low budget, but I did get the main thing that I wanted. A giant stack of old crafting magazines from the 70's. I'm super excited. I keep thinking that I can have a party with a bunch of crafty girls and we can look at them together and it will be loads of fun and then I remember that I am the only person who thinks that would be fun. I'll have to have my own party.




I put a couple in front so you can see-The stack is a good two feet tall.

In the months ahead, as I slowly savor my treasure, I'm sure you'll get to see some funny ads and ridiculous projects.