Kitchen Floor!

As you know, we are selling our house! We're hoping to make the big move across town this summer. We have our eye on a big yellow house and we're crossing our fingers that it will all work out. Only time will tell.

My wonderful Mom came out to visit in the middle of April. It was such a lovely trip. I was very happy to have her here. As usual, though, we put her to work. How come we can't seem to avoid doing that? Is it because there is not much else to do around here except read magazines and go for a walk? (Which sounds lovely actually)

Thankfully she is always up for a project - no matter how big or small. So, we tackled the kitchen floor.

This is what it has looked like for the last five years.


Ick. No one should have a white kitchen floor. Especially if it's the main entrance to the house and you own a dog. This floor looked dirty all the time. Eventually, I just had to stop caring or I would have made myself crazy obsessing over it.

So, we decided on the sticky, vinyl flooring system to solve our problem. And, after about 10 hours of hard work it now looks like this.


Isn't that fabulous? The project came together quite well. Miraculously it was one of those DIY projects that didn't get the best of us. The most time consuming part was cutting the edges of the exterior pieces. Thankfully we had knee pads and my Mom's company. Both were much needed and appreciated.

The house is officially on the market. And, now we just need a buyer.

Newsboy Hat

I love Easter. It's one of my favorite holidays - a week to remember the gift of grace our God has given us and to celebrate the hope that springs from that gift. It's fabulous.

I love to dress up on Easter and this year I got to dress up my little one too, and boy did I have fun. I was giddy about it at least three weeks before.

Isn't he precious?
The sweater vest was a garage sale score. I love it when that happens. The pants I made out of an old pair of corduroys that Jesse wore a hole through. And, the hat just seemed like the perfect addition.

I made it from this pattern.

Yes, this photo is from our actual egg hunt at Grandma and Grandpa's. Jude clearly didn't get the point but loved it nonetheless.

I loved the hat so much that I actually made two. One is corduroy/blue. The other is khaki/orange.



We have several weddings to attend this summer so I'm looking forward to the frequent use of each. I'll be sure to post pictures of my dapper boy. I won't be able to help myself, I'm afraid.

Feeding the Baby

A few months ago when Jude began eating solid foods I started making my own baby food at home. I was inspired originally when my sister-in-law gave me the book, Super Baby Food. I hadn't thought much about it until then, but once I started reading I loved the idea of the variety of baby food options and that making baby food at home is relatively inexpensive.

At six months we started Jude with oatmeal, apples and pears, which he still loves very much. Little by little we kept adding new things. Now there is such a list that it would bore you to death to read it all. I've been surprised with how easy it is to prepare and store these foods at home.

The other day we made a large batches of food that included pears, peaches, white potatoes, sweet potatoes and pineapple. The pineapple is pictured here. I frequently use the Super Baby Food book to look up how I should prepare the foods. The author provides really great detail on just about any food you can think of.

I should say, however, that I don't follow all of the instructions in the book. In fact there is so much detail and instruction that it's completely overwhelming. I don't even recommend the book as a whole at all.

A simpler (and free) guide I've found is www.wholesomebabyfood.com. They have a wonderful variety of lists appropriate for different ages and instructions on preparing foods. It's fabulous.

Once I steamed the pineapple I put it in my Cuisinart until chunky (since we're pretty well passed the smooth puree stage).

Then, I place it in ice cube trays to freeze. Once frozen I store it in freezer bags. And, when it comes to meal time, I warm up the right amount for each meal. Easy peasy.

One cube equals one ounce, and approximately three cubes equals one jar of baby food.

And, for those of you who need an updated picture of my little punkin, here he is. 10 months old now.

I captured that little grin on the same day I captured this little moment. It was a good day.

New Bedding In Progress

Over the last month I've been working on a big project for the bedroom. This project has been in my head for awhile and is finally coming into fruition - slowly but surely. Nothing like putting your house on the market that will catapult random projects like this to the top of the list. Why is that? No idea.

Our old duvet cover/bedding set was a nice classic khaki. It was one of those that we met in the middle on when we got married. I was quite surprised how opinionated my husband was when we were picking out things like bedding. It seemed like he had several stipulations - the main one being it couldn't be too feminine, which really meant any pattern whatsoever. So, we ended up with khaki.

The khaki was nice and for the most part I liked it. Unfortunately, however, the khaki didn't wear well. And, in the last year it started looking pretty shabby - and not in the "chic" sort of way.

I looked and looked and looked for new fabric - trying desperately to fit within the strict bedding stipulations. I finally picked up two pairs of gray curtains (a linen hopsack) at Ikea last year with the intention of sewing a new cover. Yes, it took me this long to actually sew something together.

I made up a pattern.

And, then crossed my fingers and started cutting and sewing.

For each "strip" across the width I topstitched with double stitching. Gives it a nice detail up close.

The end is closed with black buttons. Simple.

The whole plan is to add a king size blanket to drape over the bottom half of the bed during the winter and to use as a comforter during the summer. I'll also add king size pillows and small decorative pillows. The fabric is coming in this week. I wonder how long it will take me. We'll see.

So, out of 4 projects total for the bed. One is complete. Check.

Basement Face Lift

This is totally uninteresting to everyone but me. But, I will proceed anyway. Suckas. It's your own fault you're here reading this anyway.

Last weekend we did a little basement makeover.

You see, we're going to put the house on the market in May (no worries . . . we're not leaving the area), but the move is leading us to complete a few projects here around the house. One of them being a basement face lift.

Here's how it started . . .

Disclaimer: this is not Jude's normal play space. He was only in the basement with us while we were scraping the floor. He has a room of his own, remember?

Anyway, back to the project at hand. Yes, it's your typical unfinished basement. Not glamorous, but functional. Unfortunately, ours also had paint peeling off the floor. Nice. I should admit that there are other things we were addressing too, but none quite as significant as the floor.

So, last Friday, we brought the little boy with us to the basement and we scraped, scraped and scraped some more. Then, we swept, mopped and mopped some more. And, finally, after A LOT of prep work, we got to paint.

The end result looks like this . . .

Still not the most beautiful place in the house, but a big step up!

The epoxy paint kit came with these little paint chips that we spread around on the wet paint. It was like sprinkling seasoning all over the floor. My mother-in-law and I had a grand ol' time with this. Couldn't have had more fun, honestly.

Also, did you notice my new ironing board cover? I saw these polka dots at Hancock Fabrics recently and I had to have them. I knew immediately that the fabric was just right for an ironing board. Not sure why, but it sure was speaking to me. I'm glad I answered.

I got this project done during Jude's afternoon nap. It felt good for a project to come together that simply - I need more like that.

Bag of Blocks

Jude received some alphabet blocks for Christmas and I've been meaning to make a drawstring bag for them since then. I finally got around to it last week. In fact, I was giving a friend of mine sewing lessons and I decided this would be her first project. So, we sewed identical bags together.

I'm finding that I love to sew with my friends by my side. It might be one of my favorite ways to spend time. In the last couple of years I've now taught four of my friends how to sew. How great is that?

I added some letters to the front of mine and I left the edges raw because I'm lazy.

Does the blue, black, white combo make anyone else think of cookie monster? It's bothering me a little.

Dirty Thirty

Last week Jesse turned the big 3 - 0!

Every year I make his favorite - homemade chocolate cake with homemade white frosting. It's a recipe from his mom or grandma - I can't remember where it originated exactly. It's not my favorite, but he loves it and that's all that matters. I made it into a 9" round double layer and took it to his mom's where we celebrated.

This cake really gave me a run for my money. It's only by the power of a praying wife that it came together in the end - seriously. Both cakes stuck to the bottom of their pans and broke in two. I had to pry them out and glue them back together. I'm tellin' ya . . . it didn't look good.

You can tell it turned out a bit lopsided, but all in all, not so bad especially considering the mess that was on my counter.

This is the very first time that I've decorated a cake - you know, like with a real pastry bag, decorating tips and such. And, surprisingly, it wasn't as hard as it seemed. I might just do it again sometime.

It was a really fun celebration that involved not only that beautiful lopsided cake, but also a surprise iPad 2. Very fun.