World (ok a log cabin) Turned Upside-Down

Last winter sometime, I started this cross-stitch sampler that I found in the book Embroidery Companion found here http://aliciapaulson.com/. I love her designs and I thought this one would be perfect in the girls' room. I happily started sewing, distracted here and there by kids and life. I started with the log cabin and then moved onto the fence and it wasn't until the fence was done that I realized I sewed the fence on upside-down (in relationship to the log cabin). Now I would call myself a pretty experienced cross-stitcher and this was a major uh-oh. I was so mad that I threw a small tantrum (that Ryan witnessed) and vowed to throw it away. The fence, while easy, was very time consuming, so there was NO WAY I was going to rip it out - it wasn't worth it to me.

So I put it away (Ryan convinced me not to throw it away just yet) and didn't touch it for a few months.

After the sting was gone, I pulled it out, figured out how to make it work without ripping out a single stitch and bam! It's done. I couldn't find a wood frame that I loved, so Claire and I picked out an unfinished one, painted it, and here is the finished product, upside-down cabin and all.

I love how it turned out. It's hanging on the wall next to Rose's bed and the blue ties in with the blue in Rose's quilt and Claire's bedding. Anyway, check out Alicia's book and her blog is great. She is such a gifted lady and lately, her blog has brought me to tears.

Finishing

Well, it's here. My computer arrived last night. The keyboard layout is a bit different, making me erase a large percentage of what I type, but I'll get the hang of it. And while it's great to have a computer that works, I forget how much I hate getting acquainted with a new operating system and having to "personalize" it all over again. Again, I'll get the hang of it.

But while I have been waiting for its arrival, I have been a busy bee. My many projects are all underway and I have spent the last three days making a quilt and staining furniture. The project above was an inexpensive way to test my staining skills. In the end, I didn't love the color for my other projects, so I did end up buying a darker stain. But last night, I finished putting on the three coats of finish and it was a success! Now onto the real stuff - they have color, but need finishing.

I think I like finishing wood, but I'm not sure yet. I'll wait until it's all done to decide - things could go very badly yet.

Off

Now that the house is off the market (for the winter), I've decided to continue on with my home improvement projects. A paint color has been chosen for William's room (though it was not his first choice and there were many tears shed -by him, not me- but life goes on and I know he'll love it when it's done), I have three pieces of furniture to stain, which I'm a little nervous about... And I'm once again dreaming of a new front door.

So we move forward, hopeful that the housing mess will somehow all work out in the end. But in the meantime, I'm excited to make our little home a little more homier and I hope soon to be able to post some pictures of my new kitchen worktable. It is awesome! And it only took the cooperation of three other families to get it here!

On a Monday

We're just here; trying to take things a little slower so everyone can heal. Life keeps trying to creep in and keep us too busy.

Just have to make sure we leave plenty of time for prayers, scripture reading, snuggles and good food.

Oh, what would we do without these blankies?

Whatnot etc,

No pictures today - laptop crashed. But I'll give a brief update for those of you I don't communicate with often and for personal history purposes. We've had a busy week, some good, some bad.

Monday was of course busy with Halloween.

Tuesday was clean up and recover day, had to pick up kids from school because William had a bloody nose that wouldn't stop so he couldn't ride the bus home.

Wednesday was the usual until Rose fell off the couch, onto the coffee table resulting in 5 hours in the ER and 4 stitches.

Thursday (today) was taking kids late to school because I was up until 3am because of the ER, and the kids didn't fair much better, squeezing in a parent/teacher conference, playgroup where Rose got a nasty nosebleed (it didn't last long, but it wasn't pretty), washing bloody clothes while Rose and I napped, Project night and here I am.

I'm hoping that tomorrow will be a little calmer and less bloody. Some good, some bad. I take them as they come.

Creating Linus

This Halloween, William wanted to be Linus from "Peanuts"; we're big fans of Charlie Brown. The costume seemed easy enough. All I had to do was find the shirt; but that proved to be harder than I thought to find just the right thing. So I ended up making the striped shirt. My friend Jennifer had the great idea of how to put the thin black stripes onto the red shirt and I must say - it turned out awesome and was really easy to do!

I used masking tape to create the lines that I would paint.

Painting with black fabric paint - I was worried the paint would bleed through the tape, but it didn't! Oh, and I put cardboard inside the shirt to protect the underside.

A view from the back - I ironed on letters so that people would be sure to know who he was.

Linus

This was a great costume because it was cheap (only had to buy a shirt - cheap at the craft store, fabric paint, and red socks) and easy. He loved wearing it because it was so comfortable; not much different from what he usually wears everyday. And the best part? He got to carry around his favorite blue blanket, just like Linus.

Goodbye Terrible Twos?

As Rose nears her 3rd birthday, something very unexpected has been happening; Rose is chilling out. Lately, she is quieter, calmer, and less...well, crazy. I have found her sitting quietly in her bed, looking at comic books, listening to music for an hour at a time. She will play quietly with her legos or squinkies for hours. It is all very un-Rosie-like. I'm not sure what to think about it. She's not completely calm - she will still stand at her post on the top of the slide and yell at the dog across the street to "go to sleep, dog!" and scream at passing cars, but other than that, she has really mellowed out. We hear "the scream" less and less (which I am totally OK with). I don't know...I don't want to speak too soon or jinx myself, but I think the twos may possibly be worse than the threes for Rose. Claire was a three-year-old from you-know-where and William was always his sweet little self. Who knows, but it's kind-of weirdin' me out.

The Rose I'm used to...mopping the car.