Let's Try the return again

So we are now a home online! Hooray. So hopefully more crafting to come. As a last minute girl at all times I have given myself 6 days to make a wedding present quilt. after some investigation of the couples registry, three color combo swaps, today began the cutting and piecing together.

Things are going great. I had a wonderful weekend of programs in Busey Woods, Here is my collection of fall photos there. We just fell back, so my extra hour was well appreciated after an incredibly loooong couple of days. Ben catered, Asher sick/teething, fussy regardless. So anyway here is the lovely fall that we are enjoying. Thank goodness for cold evenings, the maples are stunning.

And me out by my lonesome, enjoying the fall weather.

The new Shower

So as an anniversary gift, Ben worked his ass off, ripped out our old surround and retiled in the bathroom. I was in time to see his detailed edging finished. All this over a weekend, when the boy and I were up in WI, plus he worked two shifts at the restaurant! I love when we are a super productive family!

The Mom Cut?

Well, while Asher may have played subconsciously into the decision, the heat and need for a change from the Willie braids really played a bigger part. It was time to cut it off, send the braid to locks for love and be done with it. Ben did the deed this time, I trimmed things up a bit more, adding appropriate layers and there you have a free hair cut. I am liking the shortness, I haven't returned to this length for such a long time, if ever. Now I get to buy some cute new barrettes :)

Hope all is well in your world.

Hoping for a Come Back

As I am settling into balancing motherhood with work, I hope to get some more time for me and crafting and blogging about things other than Asher. My craft room is organized and I have been plugging away at things, but not a ton at once, typically I have a project that takes 5 times as long as it did before baby... so bear with me, I have however done somethings.

The Wallet

I have been in dire need for a new wallet for a long time, last week was my day. With borrowed sewing machine in tow (thank you rd) I whipped out a project in one day. Loving the air conditioned room (only one in the house) I did some sewing and it felt great!

I also need to get back into the swing of taking pictures of things other than the boy... more to come soon.

Bloggin Break

So I don't know if I will be back here for a while, I am hoping to have a baby in the next few days, so that doesn't really leave time for blogging. I will return as I am able to, and as I find free internet sources and an available computer. As much as we don't need another bill, nor can we afford it, having a computer and internet at home would be very useful, especially with baby pictures and stuff.

We have gotten a bunch of snow here for the first time since we moved to Illinois. 14 inches on Tuesday and another 3 today and last night. It is beautiful. All the plants around our home are covered.

My parents are on their way, so it will be nice to see them, hopefully they can help smoke the baby out. I am looking forward to an evening with a nice dinner and some euchre.

Enjoy the pictures.

Kate

The Table's Funeral

So we had a fun suprise yesterday afternoon... our furniture was complete and they do Saturday deliveries! So I had to haul some stuff around, kick some ass flipping over the dining room table, bring out my womanly tools and take the legs off the table so that is could be moved to the garage. I don't really know what possessed me to do this on my own, belly and all, but I didn't break anything and I got the job done.

I was thinking how this table has been around for my whole life. This used to be in my grandma and grandpa's kitchen. It is where we died easter eggs, ate dinners. Where the meat grinder was attached, as well as the hand pressing orange juicer, where I at breakfast and of course was reprimanded for placing my feet on the spindles that brace the legs together. It has been a great table. Ben and I have had hundreds of meals at this table with friends and family... I don't know that I am yet ready to say goodbye.

Alas, we have a new dining room table. I will have a better picture later on in the week. Ben didn't take one of the actual table upright and put together, so the best we have is the table top coming in and a chair being moved by ben (caught with his eyes closed). The wood is beautiful... and the chairs look great with the table. It is definitely a fancier dining room set, but matches the floors well and will look beautiful when the sun shines through the windows. Can't wait to entertain. Monday potlucks just got a lot classier!

Oh and we got snow... finally

Just so happy that on Saturday night/ Sunday morning, we go snow. Ben and I got to sweep it up and all the wishes of my preschoolers came true. I had a snowflake program Saturday on a sunny no snow day and we made wishing wands to wish for snow and it worked!

The house looked so nice and the air felt good with just a bit of white insulation. While others brought out their snow blowers (8 am on a sunday- butt holes!) we used our brooms. I know that they may have purchased them when we actually got good snow here, but they really aren't necessary for the one or two times you actually have to clear your sidewalk.

Kitchen in the Works

So we are still working on things around the house, or I should say Ben is as i am too tired to help and plus am playing the pregnancy card to exempt myself from painting.

Ben did a ton of scraping, cleaning or grease from 40+ years ago and discovering the laziness of previous owners and the downside of making improvements to a home that was a rental property for so long. The paint that was peeling from the doors was literally doing so because the door was never cleaned between paint jobs and instead of paint clinging to the door, it clung to grease build up from a kitchen environment! Lovely! Thank you previous landlords.

The red paint got it's second coat this morning. We will be moving back into the kitchen this evening, peeling off tape, protecting shelves with a non adhesive contact paper of sort and replacing shelves and cabinet doors. Ben also took the extra time to take off the ugly wood framing the window and re-framed the whole thing plus took apart the screen windows and replaced the screen and half round oak trim that was keeping the screen in. Then of course repainted and went to pop the windows back in to find them 1/8 of an inch to big, so he has some more planing work to do to make them fit. The glass windows will be fixed up this summer, as we didn't want to much cold air in the house. You can see the window progress in the pictures, click for larger views. I will post more before and afters once i have completed project pictures.

k

The French Presses Cozy

So for a few years now Ben and I have been wondering how to keep our french pressings warm in our cold, cold house. I think about 6 months ago on some craft blog I saw tea cozies and there was some discussion about french presses, so I put it on my list of things to do before the baby comes and voila last night I cranked it out. I am very happy with it. Using some of the funky 70's quilted fabric from the stash my mom gave me and again making a cool bias tape to match, we can have tea or coffee sit out and keep it warm! Or so we hope, haven't really tested it yet. But hooray another thing checked off the list!

LK's Birthday

We had a fun, late night weekend this past. Tim and Mark tested out little bud's new blocks and we got to begin the celebratsion of LK's birthday enjoying the first couple hours of it. The late night really took it out of me and Sunday easily became a very sluggish day. It is actually the equivilant of a hangover, just staying up late while pregnant has a similar effect on your body, no headache luckily but the tiredness definitely.

Monday night we celebrated further at potluck. Ben made some really kickass cupcakes, with about 1 Tbsp per cake, they are rich, and lovely and what Ben describes as an "Adult Cupcake"

Lot's of kids over for the potluck the house was a bit crazy and incredibly warm, the woodstove had died down, but the house was up to 75 degrees. Talk about a good way to cut back on your heating for the winter.

Ben

So Ben has been just great these past weeks. He has been working evenings and spending his days getting the babies room ready, the paint job looks awesome, check out the other blog. He has been motivating me to walk and this photo was taken with our brand new wonderful camera in Busey Woods yesterday. I used the watercolor filter in the editing phase, and just love the picture, in his new holiday sweater.

So many reasons to love him.

So I had some great friday night fun and Saturday-day making and decorating cookies in attempts to get in the holiday spirit. I don't know if it was the warm weather, the fact that I was "on call" for work or what, but i really had a tough time this year. I was way behind on presents and struggled a bit at the last minute. Perhaps it is can also be blamed on pregnancy and the fact that my head is more focused on getting things ready for the babies and this life altering experience rather than gifts, holiday parties and what not.

Regardless, the cookies turned out yummy! And they look beautiful, plus ben helped out a lot with the decorating.

Hope everyone that celebrates had a merry christmas.

K

Solstice Party

So we had a great celebration with friends on Sunday night, unfortunately no fire on the driveway due to rain- yes lots of rain on December 17! But some things, paper things, a bit of polyester and some cotton were burned in the wood stove.

Being the third night of Chanukah we made latkes and everyone brought over toppings and beverages and of course their holiday spirit. We had a great understory of kiddos this year entertaining all. And for those willing to stay up a little later we had some chase the ace and texas hold em.

Lots of cookies consumed and we had vegetarian (veggie oil) and meat (schmaltz) latkes to make everyone happy. We have such an amazing group of people that fill our home with love here in Urbana and are so happy to have this family tier in our lives. Thanks to you all for being so wonderful.

Kate

The New Craft Room

So here are some photos of the new upstairs room. We are still debating the whole bed futon thing. It is really hard to justify having a bedroom for guests when we really rarely have any overnight guests. We are still contemplating the futon, just need one that is not too huge.

I love the color. Ben really did a lot of work on the walls and I think it looks great. I have a good little sewing niche, the ironing board fits well in the closet nearby so I am able to sit and sew and get things done quickly. The space feels crafty and inspires creativity, the only drawback is the temperature. We typically use this room for our root cellar in the winter, we don't let heat up and stuff, so if I plan on working i and it is a cold day I really need to make sure to open the door for about an hour ahead of time so that I don't freeze up there.

The closet looks like hell with the lighting of this picture, really it is not that harsh. I will hopefully be spending most of my next days off in this room finishing up holiday gifts. If you want a peek at craftiness for the baby visit Little Bud's Blog, I know not all of my readers had the link.

Oh and the quilt is almost done there. I don't know why I stopped working on it last year. I have 75% of the quilting done, so it is on the list of projects to finish before baby.

Coffee Table Completion

So Ben finished our coffee table this morning with a layer of wax to preserve it. we scored this piece of cypress almost two years ago and finally it is a piece of furniture in our house. We used it for awhile as a plant table, and for cards and drinking table, propped up on a crate or two, but now it is beautiful and centered in our "new" family room, completing the coziness of the room. Ben started sanding away at it upon our return from
New Zealand when we were on our making shelves kick and staining and woodworking. The summer came along with all of it's business, so it sat in the garage. When we rearranged, Ben was re-inspired and voila, 9 days later here it sits! I love the completion of long awaited projects!
Sun is finally shining here after a couple days of rain.

The Great Pumpkin

So back in October, Ben and I went to the great pumpkin patch in Arthur. We each picked out our favorites and I chose this gorgeous pumpking called Fairy Tale. It was beautiful, blueish and orange together with a silvery hue, just phenomenal. I was hoping that we would be able to grow it soon. I don't know if Ben was a smitten with it as I was but when he starting cutting it open on Sunday it was true love. The color was amazing, so we took some pictures, we had some amazing sun coming into the house on Sunday, such a beautiful day, frightfully cold, but clear, sunny and beautiful, I can handle as many days like this as winter wants to throw me.
Then roasted, the flavor was incredible! And then the next day the flavor was evenbetter. Ben made a dessert out of it and I am pretty sure that this sealed Fairy Tales fate and it will be on the seed list for next season. I only hope we are able to grow such a gorgeous pumpkin.
l

Home Adjustments

So it has been a while in the making but we finally switched the dining and living rooms. this will be great with the babies arrival as we can cuddle near the wood stove and not have to sit on a colapsing dining room chair attempting to be comfortable.

Watching the wood stove is fabulous, and being able to lay on the couch while doing that is even better. We have a crafty space and the cypress tree cookie will re-enter the house as Ben finishes sanding and oiling it. We will finally have our dream coffee table.

The new dining room is very spacious, we still have a few things to work out, but for now we are loving the change. It just feels really good to do something different. Almost makes you feel like you moved and are someplace fresh, with good energy. And now we are eating breakfast at our Lambertville table in front of the stove, so nice to be using that again.

The Amish Rule!

So we went down to Artur again yesterday to look at furniture. While our real goal was a dresser for the kid, our side adventure was a new dining room set for us. We have decided to purchase a new table and chairs, as the spindles are falling off the chair and my weight isn't decreasing at the moment, the other day I really felt as though one was going to split as I sat down and it gave that wood creak, a little bit deeper and longer than the average I just sat down creak, more of a I am going to break and make you fall on your ass type of noise. Although I survived, we have come to the conclusion that new chairs are necessary.

Our pictures aren't great, the color is different, and we are upgrading the wood to the quarter sawn white oak, which is stunning. The stain is darker, which I love and it has a great elegance about it. The chairs look short compared to this table, but that is because it is extra tall for arm chairs. As not extra tall people we will be opting for the lower version and may get two arm chairs for the end, or may not. The table is 72 inche with 2 self storing 12 inch leaves, so lots of space for all of our dining. It should be great and hopefully here before the baby.

Kate