I am so excited about Audrey's room. If I weren't married and didn't have to worry about pleasing a man in the same room with me, I would go totally girly and bling it out in every lush girly way I could. So, that is what Audrey got! The pictures don't do it justice of course and it isn't totally finished yet, but here it is 95% of the way done!
You can see just a hint of it in these pics, but I got this awesome black shag rug at Home Fabrics. Originally I had wanted to go with a white sheepskin, but I decided white was NOT a good idea for a girl who likes to drink milk in bed. I went to Home Fabrics on a whim one day and they had this last black shag outside, so I got it at 20% off. At $70 it was more than I had spent on Ethan's rug and a little hard to swallow but it fits perfectly and is a lot nicer than his anyway!
FYI: this paint color took a specific primer and then two coats of red. I think I was super conscious of saving $7 so I went with the cheaper paint. DON"T EVER GO WITH CHEAPER PAINT!!!
Paint treatment. I was going to do pinstripes, but decided that wasn't quite formal or girly enough. And I didn't want people to think 'yankees uniform'. So I cut out three different stencils, (thank you to the cricut once again) and bought a metallic paint. It is a white on white so it gives it just enough of a shimmer to look different in some light. It looks AWESOME. But definitely needs to be appreciated in person. Come over!
Shelving cluster for girly stuff. I have a little poem I am printing out about kids growing up and taking time to play. I think it is appropriate. This cluster is right above her chair and reading corner spot.
True Bling! I found this mirror at Habitat for Humanity for $10. It was perfect, just enough of an arch to make it girly, and is has probably $7 worth of little rhinestone beads glued around the edges. It took the longest to actually sort through my entire bag to sort out the sizes! EEK! I am thinking I will probably add a little etching at the bottom that says something like, "True beauty lies within" What you think?
Audrey's chandelier was something of much thought and provocation. I of course would have loved to make it out of crystals or beads. But that would have cost me a small fortune. Definitely not cost effective or worth it. Then it struck me one day in the middle of doing something else, sequins. I ordered a 100 yard spool of sequins and cut them and hot glued them to an embroidery hoop. Looks pretty good for like $8 eh? I am thinking it needs some rhinestones glued around the circle at the top though.
This is the only thing I had for Audrey that matched her room scheme when she was born. I agonized over this design with a very patient Cassidy for weeks! I still like the finished design. Although I am thinking it still needs a little something. So I might screw crystal knobs into black blocks to hang these from and add a little more substance. What you think?
This is the little girl quilt like block Colleen made perfectly for Audrey's room. It patiently awaits a frame with glass in it. I have updated pictures for her frames on the way and I am thinking of screen printing a swirl design on this lamp if my fabric doesn't stretch that far.
Still needs a black chair rail at the cut in line and a clock that I can bling out in some way. So I will update when finished. Ask about how anything else was done and I will tell ya!
I would say that the top five moments in my life have been getting married, giving birth to two kids, and now becoming a home owner.
So now you all know the reason for any lack in myself as a human being over the past year. Basically because almost every waking moment has been spent thinking about, being excited for, and planning for this house!!!
For those of you who get lost in the timeline of life like the rest of us, or for those who just don't know. We have been living with my parents for the past 6 YEARS!!!! and the entirety of out marriage. We have now joined one of the coolest clubs ever in becoming home owners. We are excited beyond measure and feel so incredibly blessed that for whatever reason, the Lord watched out for us and made this happen all at the PERFECT timing for us.
We have been working on this process for over a year. We started looking at houses in March of LAST YEAR. Then the lender we went to told us about a first time home buyers program where they will help you with down payment.... SWEET. So for the next 4 months we dealt with getting everything on the face of the planet to those people. It was a way bigger pain but totally worth it. If you think you can't buy a house, please look into the non profit agencies in your area. I never knew these exhisted and they saved us from having to put basically all of our own money into it! So finally then everything was in order to start looking which we did at the end of October of 2009; three lenders, two downpayment companies and two realtors later. We bid on one house and lost, and then fell in love with the one we bought. We put in a competetive bid two days after it had been on the market. They excepted and then we started the VERY LONG HAUL of waiting for everything to go through on our short sale. Man is this an emotional roller coaster as anyone who has every bought knows. We had our offer accepted on November 9th and we literally signed closing papers on June 9th! 7 months later!!!!!!! It was draining and long, but I feel unbelievably blessed and knew it was right because Heavenly Father blessed me to not be impatient for most of the time. (I was as surprised as the rest of you) Now it is all a memory and it almost feels like we have always been here (minus the HUGE mess that it all still is) It is weird because I almost can't remember living at my parents house. So, I take this as a sign that we did the right thing.
The kids love it and have been spectacular. We moved within 2 miles of two of Charles sisters, 2 of his brothers, and his mom. We are blessed to be so close and they have all been amazing. Taking my kids for hours on end so I can feel like I am accomplishing something more than thirty minutes at a time.
We got our keys on Wednesday and we moved on Saturday. I was adamant about getting as much painted as possible before we moved in and getting everything cleaned including carpets. Not as much happened as I would have liked. But at least we got all the rooms painted that needed furniture in them, and we are working on the rest still. This meant however that I basically painted for almost 30 HOURS STRAIGHT. I slept only three hours the first night and worked myself into complete exhaustion by 6 the next night and wanted to sit on a COUCH and just cry. My dad was awesome and helped almost the entire time, and so did two of my sister in laws. They were awesome to stay up until two in the morning the first night with me.
I chose to be a little bold and different and most of the house is grey. I love it. The kitchen is two shades darker than the other rooms, but with 4 big windows and lime green accents I think it looks AWESOME. It is about the color of duct tape, as my dad so eloquently put it.
In this picture you can see how big our kitchen/dining area is. We decided to turn the end wall/right corner into an office space (down where the computer is now). We bought cabinets at habitat for humanity for $20 a piece and counter tops at Home Depot and hopefully the brothers will be putting them in this weekend. There is much that is waiting to be organized because this is not done yet. Then hopefully in the fall or begining of the year I will undertake the project of refinishing all cabinets into white. With the dark walls and bright accent I think it will look AMAZING.
We bought this house mostly because of the backyard size. We had actually gone through these models two years ago when they were new and this is the model that I loved. So we are thrilled to be saving about $100,000 from what they were back then. The yard isn't huge but it is way better than LOTS of starter homes out there and we are excited. I have big plans, which I will have to improvise a little with the addition of this monstrosity of a trampoline we were given for free. I couldn't complain and we all have fond memories of trampolines right?
The house is in a super nice community with an enormous HOA -which is why we thought we couldn't afford these homes- but they take care of all the front yards! So that guarantees nice upkeep and quality of neighborhood. We got this house for a total steel so we decided that it was worth it. It sits in a little half culdisak as do our neighbors behind us so it doesn't feel all closed in like many homes. It is 1830 square feet with three bedrooms, two and a half baths and a den downstairs. It actually has really good storage as far as closets and extra little nooks. And now having been in it three weeks. I can't really think of anything about it I am unhappy with. There is even a little nook under the stairs in the den for my giant craft desk. I am excited about that. We are super excited and hope we will have many visitors. I will be sure to post pictures as projects get completed and everything settles into place! Thank you all for all your love and blessings. Come visit us!
In true motherhood obsession, I took on the mother load of all projects. A year ago some friends and I were all talking about getting together to make our kids quiet books for church. We came up with some fun ideas but alas, new babies came and life got pretty busy for all of us.
So for some reason the time had come and I decided to tackle it. I agonized for weeks and weeks about the style of how I wanted it to look. Do I do everything out of felt, do I draw on fabric with fabric markers, do I design each page myself? Then I searched and searches everywhere online that I could to find some ideas, and came up with a few of my own. I will admit that Audrey (at 2.5 years old) is too old for some of the cute ideas out there. I wanted her book to be a little more interactive and challenging in her though process than pages with buttons and lift tabs. She has regular books that do that. Anyway, there is nothing worse than when a project turns out less than mediocre when you put so much effort into it.
So here is how it turned out. I can't believe it turned out so amazingly awesome I must say so myself. I better get a comment from EVERYONE that reads this, to tell me how AMAZING I am for doing this for my daughter and how stinking cute it turned out! HAHAHAHA
My final book pages measure 10 x 11 inches and the cover is 11.5 x 12.5. The pages in these pics are all unfinished but if you see in the final book pages I sewed them inside out and then flipped them and finished them like you would a pillow case.
I used a combination of hand drawn things ( the kites on this page, and clip art with iron on transfer paper) That way I didn't take quite as long as it might have if i had had to cut all those shapes out, and heaven forbid come up with decent art work. The point of this page is matching patterns. I didn't actually do a match for each kite because I like that she has to "search" through some extras to find the matching pattern.
Iron on for the face, and I ended up using tacky glue to put the pieces of yarn in place. Worked like a charm.
I wanted something to help her count. She already knows how to count but this page helps with the added bonus of learning to count one thing at a time. funny how you don't ever think about the "stages" of learning to count.
This is a page she can grow in to. The hands spin
The ark opens like a drawbridge with the animals inside.
Once again a page where her being older and already knowing her animals and sounds attributed to this outcome, Finger puppets. This is probably her favorite page. She loves to have me stick all of these on her tiny little fingers.
Learns to set the table and how to open a belt buckle.
I have seen an apple tree in almost every book out there, but I didn't think there was actually much point to just learning to stick them on! This is a great way to learn your family history early. Unfortunately with 7 kids on the Charles's side, I don't think she will be getting a Graf family tree.
Once again the wonder of iron on made this page so easy and so much better.
So simple but this one turned out super cute. Fun little game thrown in the mix.
Right now I only have the one set of coins to explain the concept of tithing, but later you can add lots more to help learn to count the worth of money.
Pretty self explanatory. I just traced my own shoe.
Pockets for the letters of the alphabet and then an entire page with rows of velcro where for now she can practice her ABC's and eventually spell words of sentences.
Cute page where she can write letters and put them in the mailbox, eventually teaching how to address letters and put a stamp on it
Printed out a wintry scene on iron on and then built all the snowman pieces out of felt, each piece comes off.
I decided to make kind of a zipper folder cover for the whole thing to stay in so that if any of the little pieces fall out, hopefully they don't get lost. Plus I used pretty sturdy iron on interfacing to make it lots more sturdy but still have a pretty soft appeal to be tossed around and things. I was so excited at how cute this cover turned out. I didn't have a pattern, I just kind of dreamed it up in my head. I cut out two layers of fabric about an inch and a half larger than my pages ended up being. I might actually do it more if anyone cares to follow my technique. Then ironed one piece to sturdy interfacing, and then heat bond onto the other piece so that the finished two pieces could eventually be bonded together. I added all the front page accessories and then bonded the front and back of the "folder" together. Then I ran a zipper all the way around the inside of the folder. Then I decided to use bias tape to cover the unfinished edges.
I ended up punching the brad holes into each page to turn it into a "three ring binder". this way you can take each page out or add more pages if you want.
I want to advise also, a SUPER easy way to do some of this stuff is with the heaven sent machine called a CRICUT. My sister in law has one and I knocked out the titles for each page in like a half hour. It was awesome! Saved me lots of cutting. Sanks Cassidy.
NOTES: -If you are making things that come off the pages strictly out of felt ( like in the tic tac toe game) I would recommend using a thicker interfacing to keep them sturdy. Felt stretches in the hands of curious two years old's.
- I used a thicker interfacing on each page to help it hold it's own and then when sewn together each page (which is actually two thick) is quite sustainable. Some people just use felt alone as the page, or I have seen muslin or straight pellon used. Pretty much up to you and how you want it to feel.
- I spent very little on this project, I only had to buy some interfacing, the cute cover fabric, the zipper (need at least a 36 in) and the iron on paper (which is actually kind of expensive so do a test print, and remember to change your paper setting in your printer or reverse your image.) All other fabric and felt was stuff I had.
- DO NOT re-iron anything with the iron on transfer paper on it. It will stick to whatever is against it. I did that on the clock and the felt from the hands got stuck in the clock face. URG!!
Is there anything more divine than real Italian bruschetta with fresh basil and enough garlic to taste it for days?!
I think not! And it's healthy!
Bruschetta with Tomato and Basil
Bruschetta with Tomato and Basil Recipe
INGREDIENTS
6 or 7 ripe plum tomatoes (about 1 1/2 lbs)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
6-8 fresh basil leaves, chopped.
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 baguette French bread or similar Italian bread
1/4 cup olive oil
METHOD
1 Prepare the tomatoes first. Parboil the tomatoes for one minute in boiling water that has just been removed from the burner. Drain. Using a sharp small knife, remove the skins of the tomatoes. (If the tomatoes are too hot, you can protect your finger tips by rubbing them with an ice cube between tomatoes.) Once the tomatoes are peeled, cut them in halves or quarters and remove the seeds and juice from their centers. Also cut out and discard the stem area. Why use plum tomatoes instead of regular tomatoes? The skins are much thicker and there are fewer seeds and less juice.
2 Make sure there is a top rack in place in your oven. Turn on the oven to 450°F to preheat.
3 While the oven is heating, chop up the tomatoes finely. Put tomatoes, garlic, 1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil, vinegar in a bowl and mix. Add the chopped basil. Add salt and pepper to taste.
4 Slice the baguette on a diagonal about 1/2 inch thick slices. Coat one side of each slice with olive oil using a pastry brush. Place on a cooking sheet, olive oil side down. You will want to toast them in the top rack in your oven, so you may need to do these in batches depending on the size of your oven. Once the oven has reached 450°F, place a tray of bread slices in the oven on the top rack. Toast for 5-6 minutes, until the bread just begins to turn golden brown.
Alternatively, you can toast the bread without coating it in olive oil first. Toast on a griddle for 1 minute on each side. Take a sharp knife and score each slice 3 times. Rub some garlic in the slices and drizzle half a teaspoon of olive oil on each slice. This is the more traditional method of making bruschetta.
5 Align the bread on a serving platter, olive oil side up. Either place the tomato topping in a bowl separately with a spoon for people to serve themselves over the bread, or place some topping on each slice of bread and serve. If you top each slice with the tomatoes, do it right before serving or the bread may get soggy.
