A Remodeling Plan Remodeled

As time goes on, our remodeling plan keeps changing. We discussed the next phase of remodeling the other day, and decided that instead of throwing money at the house in the form of new parts and pieces, we would rather make small changes on the house and throw money at the mortgage instead. We figure that since we have small kids and really can't have anything nice anyway, we might as well wait until they are older before we really spiff up the place. I was planning to replace the cabinets this fall, but instead, I will just be refinishing them. I still want to rip out the carpet downstairs ASAP, so I'm still holding on to the hope that it will happen sooner rather than later. I know that it helps with the echo and falls and such, but honestly I just want to walk on a floor that I know is clean. I'm also planning to make major minor changes in the office in the form of paint, and this carpet HAS to go! I'm sure that some day we will get the house like we want it, but I guess progress comes in many forms, and this is the one that ours is taking right now.

The Name Game

Going along with my previous post, I thought I'd share a little bit of my experience with one particular aspect of naming a baby that I like to call "the lineage effect". As I stated before, Henry and I played the deal breaker game when we were dating. You might recall that one of his items was that he wanted to have at least one child of his own. What I didn't mention before was that if the child was a boy, he wanted to name it Henry, no middle name, just Henry. My Henry doesn't have a middle name, nor does his father or his father or... you get the picture. What they do have is a suffix. My father in law, who goes by Hank so as to not be confused with his father, Henry, is a Jr. I think his father was a Jr. as well. My Henry is an III. The story goes that he was to be named Jr. but his parents were told that the hospital didn't allow you to name a Jr.'s junior a Jr, so they had to name him the third instead. Hank's argument was that he was a Jr., and his dad was a Jr., so why not? :) Anyway, years after my Henry was born, some family tree stuff was done and it was determined that he was in fact not the third, but the sixth. That's right, XI not III. So given this information, he wanted to name his son Henry XII in order to correct the lineage suffix thing. My argument to this was that wouldn't our Henry wonder what happened to IX, X, and XI? Anyway, I agreed to this naming thing even though I thought it was ridiculous. My secret plan was to work in a middle name if we ever had a boy. ssshhh!
A couple of years later, we were pregnant and the whole name thing came up. I fought tooth and nail to end this string of only Henrys, and I petitioned for a middle name. My argument was that it was still the same blood line even if the name Henry wasn't anywhere in his name, and record would show that the line lived on regardless. I got a long story about how the original Henry moved to this particular area and so on and so on, and about how the name didn't mean anything here but it did there. I was even driven up to the top of this crazy high hill by means of this tiny little road (think about those crazy roads on the side of a mountain and add in a tree lined dirt road factor) in the freezing weather so that I could see this monument that was erected in his honor. Still, the thrill of carrying on the exact name with a numerically climbing suffix didn't appeal to me. My Henry was extremely firm on this namimg issue and thus our first serious argument. He was mad, something I hadn't seen up to that point as he's really laid back and easy going. I liked the name Henry for him, but it seemed like an old name to tag a new kid with. I was ok with it as a first name as long as the kid had a middle name that was something cool and not as drab as Henry. This became a mini family feud as his family backed him and I felt like the wicked witch. They were extremely adamant about it, which made me hate it even more. My family doesn't do things like that really, and if they do it's in conjunction with another name that the kid actually goes by. If I was forced to passon this name, I was going to have a son with a name that I hated. My resistance had nothing to do with the people it was associated with, it was on principle alone. Some people would think this lineage name was cool, and admittedly it is a very hard thing to carry on as long as this one has been going unless you are some sort of nobleman, but I was not one of them. I didn't mind being the one to end this over extended name thing, a name change was long over due in my eyes. 
My moment of triumph came when we found out we were having a girl. At last the argument would end, and I would win by default if by no other means. I was ok with that. Kinsley was born, and months and months went by. I think it was my love for his father that finally saw the tide start to turn. I started pondering that maybe the name wasn't so bad. Maybe an old name in a rebellious society filled with cheap made up names was a good thing. Maybe it would seperate him from the rest. Maybe Henry was a cool name afterall, it's even gaining popularity again. The wheels started to turn as I felt more like a member of their family instead of just someone who married in. I started to embrace the name, and realize that it was more about a tribute to those who have meant something to us rather than just some weird tradition. Today, I embrace this lineage name. I'm not sure if we're going to have any more kids, but if we do, and if it's a boy, he will be named Henry with eagerness, pride, and respect. I will say that I dread it for his son who would be Henry the VIII, but I'm sure very very few people will know the words to that song by then. ;) -Kellie-

Are we done yet?

This is a question that Henry and I have been trying to figure out with regard to children for more than the last year. Let me start by giving you a little history here. When Henry and I started dating, I had been married before and had two boys, then ages 3 and 15 mos ( about the age Kinsley is now). Before we got too seriously involved in a relationship with each other, we played what we jokingly called "the deal breaker game" whereby one of us would say "this is just how I am/things have to be" and if the other couldn't handle it, then we would seriously consider walking away from the relationship in the super early stages so that we could all escaped relatively unscathed. One of his requirements was that he wanted at least one child (maybe two) of his own. That was a big thing for me to commit to as I was perfectly happy with only having the two I already had, plus no woman in my family has given birth to more than 2 children. I agreed because he was such a sweet guy and I had sort of vaguely pondered having a third anyway, but then my marriage went down hill so it was an issue not even close to on the table. I did specify that I would only have an absolute maximum of 2 more, because 4 kids is bordering on an entire litter. Speed past 3 years, and we had Kinsley. Life was great and about 5 months later we started giving thought to having another. Just thought, don't get excited. We pondered it together, and decided that we wanted to wait a little while to "try on" having 3 kids before we committed to having another. We revisited the issue months later and decided it was still too early to decide on, so we agreed to wait longer and discuss it again. We find that the longer we wait, the more un-compelled we are to have another. This is an issue that we are still coming and going on. It's been great having a baby, and she's cute and fun, but when we think about all those future school functions and baseball games and family vacations and whatever else comes with kids that we haven't even experienced yet, well it's alot and we don't want to sacrifice quality for quantity. We know that if we had more,we'd adapt and it would be the new normal, but being where we are now and thinking about stepping into that is a little daunting. We think about the things we'd sacrifice/ put off if we had another baby. We think about who we are and where we're going and how that would be affected if we had another baby, not to mention that we don't know where we'd put another baby which brings up a whole new set of issues. It sounds like we've talked ourselves out of it, but really it's still on the table somewhere near the edge and in possible danger of being knocked off. I still save everything baby related "just in case", and have been giving some serious thought to that growing pile of stored items. I keep thinking about how much more room we'd have in the attic (and other random areas) if we got rid of it. I keep thinking about how I farm some of it out to my friends with babies so that I don't have to store it, but I don't have to get rid of it either. It's a good deal for all of us really, but I don't want to be a hoarder (because I so could never really be that way, this is a temporary thing for certain) and I don't want to be a baby item loaner location. We've even considered just biting the bullet and having one more so that we could know that we were done because like I said, four is my absolute max unless God feels compelled to test my patience in a most severe manner. I think part of my issue is having a life changing unknown out there. I'm a control freak and I like to have a plan way in advance of what normal people feel is adequate. We are still on the fence about this issue, and not ready to definitely get off in one pasture or the other. It's a tough call, and one that we will probably put off making until we wake up one day and realize that we have slid off the fence. Either way, we will be happy about whatever happens. -Kellie-

I feel like the Jeffersons

You remember that show, or at least the theme song that said "we're movin on up..." That's kinda how I've felt the last couple of weeks. I've already posted about the "granite" in our kitchen and the mostly completed coffee bar, but there are a few other cool changes that have come up lately, planned or otherwise. Our first addition to the kitchen was the fridge. In case you don't know, we went to our parents' for the weekend and when we came back, our fridge was dead. Let me enlighten you to our fridge situations.

The Evolution of the Fridge

Let's start off with the "Bachelor" fridge that we had when we got married. It was the one Henry bought to go in his apartment. I think this one was 16 cubic feet?

After Kinsley was born and started eating baby food (which I made and froze in ice cube trays) the fridge's small size became super apparent. Things started literally falling out of the fridge and freezer every time we opened it. After one particular incident with this, I had had it. I got on craigslist and tried to find one like what we thought we wanted (a freezer on the bottom) at a cheap price. Size was the main issue though. We wound up with this one, that was 22 cubic feet.

 

It filled the space where the fridge is meant to go nicely, and offered the space we needed. The guy we got it from was an appliance repair guy and he got it because it was broken and the "real" part to fix it was more exspensive than a new fridge so he put an "it will work" part in it and resold it. We knew this going in, and he showed up how to adjust it if need be. He also delivered it, installed it, hauled off our old one, and did a "trade" on the fridge so all in all we came out pretty good price wise. The downside to buying a rigged fridge is just that, it's rigged. We are glad that we bought the fridge because it helped us see where we really wanted to go with it. We are very "get something that is a good representation of what you want to see if you like it before you invest the big bucks in the real thing" kind of people. So when we came home and our fridge (but not freezer???) was dead, we were forced to go fridge shopping. Thank God for emergency funds is all I've got to say. We hit the internet to check prices and styles. We went to Lowes- didn't have what we wanted in our price range, Sears- which has the commercial out that is a total lie because their prices were higher AND they were going to charge us $70 to deliver it!!, and Home Depot- jackpot all the way around. I should add that we have gotten all of our appliances thus far at HD because of quality, price, and service. We have even always purchased from the same sales guy. We were fortunate that we were shopping on the 4th of July so SALE! right up front. We found a fridge we loved, and started contemplating color. I had thought white initially because the rest of our appliances (which we want to replace because they are base models) are white, but then I started thinking about the "big picture" and where we wanted to go design wise because we were not getting a new fridge later just to have a different color. I moved my thinking to black because black is usually the same price as white, and the stove I have my eye on (also at HD) is black and stainless. We looked at the stove and chatted for a second and agreed that though black would match better than white, it would be a big black light sucking appliance. We timidly asked how much more it would be for stainless which would reflect light and match the stove better anyway. SCORE! it was the exact same price (though it usually wasn't)! WOOT! We purchased it on the spot and had to wait 3 days for it to be delivered because it was a special order.

So here we have our final fridge purchase for a while I hope. It has a whopping 26 cubic feet of space. Unless I'm lying without knowing it.

It barely fit in the opening, but it looks really nice (just ignore the tiny fingerprints) and it's cold and it's not rigged. The freezer is on the bottom and is a drawer type instead of a door like we had before. one of the cool features it has is that everything except the shelves slides out for easy reach. The freezer has an upper basket that holds the ice and stuff and slides out too. Speaking of ice, you will notice that we did not opt for the ice/water dispenser in the door because that would just be another for the kids to play with. Besides, it took up some of the room inside the fridge which defeated the purpose of getting a huge fridge.

I'm loving the french doors because I can separate my sauces and other items, and it holds both gallons of milk on the same shelf in the door. There are spaces in it that I haven't even put anything in yet. There are 2 fruit/veggie drawers, and that strange drawer on the bottom is a deli drawer that is for meat and cheese. It slides out too. There's also this little rack under the top left shelf that I am pretty sure is supposed to hold cans of soda, but we have cookie dough in it. :) It has an extra shelf, but we took it out to make room for the tall things like pitchers and juice bottles.

We are in love with our new fridge and it makes the kitchen look less crappy eventhough we still have the crappy cabinets. I'm still pondering what I want to do with them until we remodel. I should add that in addition to getting the fridge on sale, and the free stainless upgrade (only the doors are stainless, the rest is regular fridge enamel in gray), we also got credit on our Home Depot Gas card and were able to put gas in our cars for 2.29/ gallon. Sadly there was a 20 gallon limit though :( Still, that was another nice savings. When the fridge was delivered, it had a small dent in the side (it was brand new and supposed to be in a box!) but it was on the side that goes next to the cabinet. The guy said he could either take it back and re-order another one, or give me a credit. You can't see it because of location, it is small (watch the loading will ya'?) and I had been living out of 2 coolers with 3 kids for 3 days. The ice was all melting and we couldn't really buy food so I took the credit which was pretty nice so score once again! I'm still waiting for the refund check.

In addition to the fridge, I also scored a sweet deal from a friend on some lighting.  Here's a couple of before (left) and afters (right).

Now my cool stainless look is carried into the dining room too. I also have a matching light in a different style that I want to install in the stairway, but that is another blog because I need parts and time and help. Stay tuned though ;)  FYI, due to our attempt to reuse everything we take down (at least until we upgrade past it), the crazy black chandelier now lives in the office in place of the lonely light bulb fixture that had no shade or globe because it was originally a garage light. It's nice and bright in there now. I think we might need dimmers for both lights though, it might be just a little too bright...

$5 granite!

Ok, now that I have your attention, I will tell you what I've done. This will be a before and after post with reference to my kitchen.

Here's what I started with. I'm not sure if you can tell, but it's white contact paper on top of 3/4" plywood. That's what makes up our bar for now.

And here's the same bar, in granite!

Here's our coffee bar before

And here's our coffee bar now!

Looks nice with the matching granite huh? Ah if only it were real granite. Ok folks, in addition to hot glue and spray paint, here's a little trick I've learned about faking it. Take 3/4 inch plywood, and cover it with contact paper. That's all. True it doesn't really feel like granite, and it's not nearly as durable, and if you look close (like in the same room) you can tell that it's not granite, but for $5 a roll, you can just replace it instead of having to re-seal it. Don't like the color anymore? Five more bucks will get you a whole new look. Now this is NOT our final solution to this. We will eventually get real counter tops and use the plwood for something else, but for now we're happy fakin' it and savin' all that money for other things, like more contact paper.

The Riddler Syndrome

In the movie Batman Forever, Edward Nigma (before he turned into "The Riddler", but after he put on the crazy helmet) states that "If knowledge is power, then a god am I". Some real life people seem to feel that was about themselves. I met one of these people last night and felt a little sad that I had paid to see her, in my opinion, make an ass of herself. I know that sounds a little harsh, but here's the scenario; The Viking Sewing Gallery was offering a seminar by a lady (Kothy, and no I did not misspell Kathy) who writes some of their software, tests their new products, and knew everything there was to know about the use of machines and their design applications. I was intrigued, and went to said seminar with high expectations of numerous "AHA!" moments as well as gathering other relevant knowledge and learning what future options are out there for me. What I got was someone who was obviously a very accomplished seamstress, and she knew it. The short version of her story, aside from the afore mentioned things, was that her grand-mother was a German bridal gown designer/maker and that Kothy was raised by her and subsequently picked up the trade at age 7 or 8 when she began sewing on buttons and installing zippers. Cute story huh? She went on to say that she was a "Master Quilter" which is apparently a real title and not one she gave herself because she's good, and several other titles that I don't remember. She also stated that she had taken several classes in super advanced sewing, and had worked for Viking for x amount of years. I was fine with all that and in fact I was happy with the thought that we would be led for the evening by someone with accredidations (a fancy word for you're good and other people agree) and not just someone who had been doing it all her life, not that I'm knocking that in any way as my thought is that you don't have to have a title to be awesome.
Anyway on with the story. She began giving her speil and we were all awed and inspired when she began pulling out things she had made. There were pillows and quilts and clothing items oh my! She showed us how to put in an invisible zipper, use a ruffler (which is an attachment/foot for your sewing machine that automatically makes and sews ruffles when you feed material through it, and I want one at some point), and how to add cording/piping/welting to a pillow. Yeeeah baby, I was getting my money's worth. Then she proceeded to tell us some other things and that's where my fascination stopped and my irritation began. To someone who has been doing this professionally most of her life, things really are that simple and let's face it, she really did write a book on it, but to what she pointed out that we all were "novices"(and some of these older ladies seemed like they knew their stuff), it isn't always that easy and doesn't always make that much sense. She started telling us how awesome she was and what all she did, and that she was always a perfectionist, and the list goes on. I tuned out most of what she said during the quilting portion mostly because I don't quilt and have little to no interest in it, but also because I was just trying to process that she had basically just called us all hacks and said that we would never be as good as her. I'm not imagining that she really said pretty much that. My "wow you know alot, that is so cool" turned into "wow you sure are full of yourself and seem to enjoy making other people feel stupid and unworthy". I don't have, don't want, and don't need a $10,000+ sewing machineand all of its attachments, and intimate knowledge of how the software works, I'm just a "novice" who wouldn't even know how/where to apply everything there ever is/was to know.
That brings us to my last gripe about this seminar, and what I thought was a pretty darned good question that she again, attempted to make me feel inferior about but I don't because she's a jerk and I'm right. I was glad to have a computer geek husband that I have picked up a tiny bit of information from. She was going into the software part and explaining some of it, I was interested again. My plan was to attempt to understand and retain enough of it to come home and discuss it with Henry and see what he thought. Now we all know that software does not stay up to date forever, and that many times it causes our computers to fail as they can not keep up with all the information being shoved at it. The same thing applies to these new sewing/embroidery machines as they operate with a computer program. Without a computer program all you have is a fancy sewing machine with alot of potential and an extra part but all you can do is sew, no embroidery, no monogramming, no appliques, nothing unless you can do the old school freehanding of all those things which IS possible and was done for a long time before these new machines cam out. You'd have to be really good to achieve the quality that the machine can do on its own, think manual transmission/stick shift vs an automatic with an inexperienced driver behind the wheel and that's a lot of bucking and jumping you can avoid. My question was this: When Windows goes to a new version that surpasses the compatability of the software that comes with the sewing machine, will there be an upgrade program sent out so that you can continue using your software and sewing machine? I'm going to try to explain this so that my mom can understand what I just said when she reads this. Computers work by using software that gets bigger and better with time, that's why your computer has to be upgraded or replaced every so often so that it will continue to work faster than cold molasses or at all. The software that comes with the machine has to work with the software on the computer, that's why old cds with games on them can't be installed on new computers, there aren't enough like components and the two programs can't talk to each other to explain/understand what to do. So if the sewing machine has to have software to work, and your computer has software "smarter" than your sewing machine software, you have nothing to tell your machine what to do, and you're back to a fancy sewing machine with extra parts you can't use. SO, if there is nothing to tell your sewing machine how to work and you want to keep embroidering, guess what? You have to get a new sewing machine that can understand smarter software that can talk to your smarter computer because it can't dumb the information down enough to make your old sewing machine work. So after I asked her this question, her answer was "no, you'd have to upgrade your sewing machine and its software. BUMMER! Since I don't anticipate always needing the biggest and best, my solution/ next question to her was; So if I don't want to upgrade my sewing machine, I'd have to keep an old computer with old software to continue using my sewing machine. (For my Mom, old computers can't use new software because they only understand part of what it says and the rest makes them shrug and say "I dunno, we just won't use this part" but that won't work and the computer just sits there like an anvil.) This lady actually said, and this isn't an exact quote I'm sure, "well I suppose you could but why would you ever do that unless you want to stay in the stoneage, you really need to keep up with the times and get the newest thing". She shook her head and made a face that was a combination of disgust (because I fear change), fear (because I pointed out a way around the latest and greatest), and surprise (because my "novice" self just slammed her with an intelligent question and a very real solution). BAM lady, take that! How's your PHP, Java Script, Http, HTML skills now? Ok, I have no clue what that last sentence said or even means, but it's a bunch of stuff I've heard Henry say when he was programming. I'm still going to upgrade my machine after the first of the year for the same reason I finally upgraded my cell phone, but it will last longer than the "average 5 years the sewing machine software stays good" because with a computer savy hubby and a sister in law who works for Microsoft, we all know that our computer and its software will stay current. In conclusion, I personally find it cheaper and more practical (despite what the evil lady said) to save my old outdated laptop with my old outdated software that works with my old outdated sewing machine and stay home. At some point I will have to upgrade my machine because they will likely cease to make parts for it, but until then I say "whatever!"

Business is boomin'

Well, it's not like I'm makin' some serious jack or anything, but I'm managing to stay kinda busy. I have several projects to do for marketing, but other than that I'm able to do things for friends and friends of friends, and family and actually get paid for it. I have several new designs to be on the lookout for and as soon as I get funding to get supplies, I'm on them! I even managed to score a bunch of coupons but I'm sure that will blow up in my face like it did last time. They usually send out great coupons when they are having a big sale, thus rendering your coupons (for a bigger discount) useless. Oh well, I will get my supplies cheaper than full price anyway. I also have a plan to hit the local WalMart and sift through their clearance stuff. They recently remodeled, cut the fabric section in at least half, and have put lots of great items in baskets at the end of isles for a fraction of the cost. Tomorrow, I'm there! Zippers haven't been .69 since the 80's. If you're looking for some custom embroidery or a gift for someone, please visit my Etsy store ClaireBearBaby

Realization and Acceptance

I've been sewing off and on for about 10+ years. I've never been what I'd consider awesome at it, but my skills are improving. The big change came after Kinsley was born and I made her this insert pad to go in her car seat. I had several people ask me about it and a few even bought one. That got me thinking about making and selling them on a larger scale than just to those who saw mine. I had some skill, a little talent, some extra time, and a strong desire to feel like I was doing something other than just cleaning the house over and over. The thought occurred to me that making things could be a source of income that could at the very least, cover the cost of my own personal projects. I heard of someone who had a site on Etsy, an online store I had never heard of that was for people like me who wanted to make and sell things. That was the target market I'd been looking for. I signed up on January 8th, 2011, and on February 11th, I had my first order. I was hooked, and I began making more infant car seat  protector pads to list for sale in my online store. I bought fabric in different patterns and different colors, and started taking requests.I upgraded my sewing machine to one that does embroidery and I've since added other things to my Etsy store besides the pads. These days I'm not doing too bad. I'm also not doing super great in that I'm not making alot of profit due to re-investment and my own projects, but it's something and it makes me feel good to know that other people who I've never met want and like my products enough to pay for them. So it's now June, and I've gotten more and more into the sewing thing. I recently made Kinsley and I matching dresses, and I've made some "promo" items for some friends as well as numerous baby gifts and other presents. I have to say that I was really impressed with the way the dresses turned out, and after finising and looking at them I realized that I'm not too shabby at this sewing thing. I've accepted that I'm not the greatest, but I certainly don't suck. In fact, I pretty consistently rock out loud on my projects.That's not meant to be cocky, but I am proud of the work that I can do and have done. I'm getting more vision, talent, and skills. I have people around to support me in my endeavors and give me help and advice. I'm thankful for friends like my wonderful husband Henry, my friends Nancy & Joy, and Cynthia, the lady at The Viking Store where I got my sewing machine. It's nice knowing that she can tell me things I didn't know I didn't know. Now I actually have questions to ask that don't sound like I just crawled from under a rock. I've come to realize what tools I need to do a proper job, and I've gotten a lot of those tools. It's an awesome feeling that my friends ask me for advice and help too. Obviously my skill level has improved to a "worthy of help" status. My friend Joy now has her own Etsy store. I'd like to think that I encouraged her to do it, but really I'm not sure. She and I are like non competing business ladies who bounce ideas and projects off each other. Sometimes we work in tandem on projects and other times we hand off prospective projects to each other. Yep, this realization and acceptance thing is pretty nice, and as I sit here listening to my latest project stitch out in the machine, I think about how far I've come and the progress I've made knowing that more of both is on the way.


Here are the dresses I made.

 

 

These were baby gifts for Henry's cousin.

 

 

These were a custom order I did for Etsy. She wanted 2 Picachu outfits.

These were custom invites for a friend.

This was a promo thing for a friend. The photo just doesn't do it justice because it was way cute!

In over my head?

Sometimes, I have to remind myself that just because I can doesn't mean that I should. I had this thought again today as I was trying to watch the kids and clean up the house and do the laundry. I had 2 Etsy orders to ship, a double custom Etsy order to construct, a pending Etsy order I haven't started, and a friend who invited me to the pool. I didn't go to the pool because the boys didn't follow directions at the post office, so instead of a day at the pool they got a nap instead. They ended up being loud at nap time, woke the cranky teething baby, and then later I saw them using the furniture inappropriately so they are now grounded from the tv for the day. While they were supposed to be napping I got a phone call from a lady at church who heads up this sewing group. I called her yesterday because the group is meeting Saturday to make dresses for girls in Honduras. After speaking with her, I find out that they aren't just any girls, they are orphans in one of the poorest areas of Honduras. She appliques and embroiders the dresses they make so that the girls have something special. I of course volunteered my embroidery/applique skills in addition to my sewing skills. The bonus is that she said she'd teach me how to use a serger so now I can start cruising Craigslist for one. :) I remembered that I was supposed to help a friend with a yardsale Saturday, but it sounds and of course feels better to say that you spent your Saturday volunteering for a worthy cause. I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed by the fact that my house is still a wreck and I have so many projects started but not finished. I'm contemplating sending the boys to my mom's for a week so that I can catch up, but that would only lead to grand-parent detox and I don't have time for that right now. Yep, I'm pretty much in over my head. I'm treading water seemingly against the current. I'm not moving forward too much, but I'm not moving back or staying the same. I'm burning way to much energy for the little amount of progress I'm making, but at least I'm making some. I need a nap. zzzzzz

The "Amen" Pew

So we're trying out a new church. Don't be freaked out or make a big deal of it, it's just something we're doing. We're kinda diggin' it at this point, it's big enough to be interesting and to have a good youth program but the people actually know each other and speak to each other after services, something that we haven't really found at most of the other churches we've attended. It is  Church of Christ (which I was raised attending), but with a serious twist that I thought seperated us from the Baptists, they have music. I have NEVER heard of a C of C that had music in services, but I guess in this day and age and in this location, you have to compete with aaaall the non denom churches out there. They have a guitarist, a base guitarist, a percussionist (usually a bongo or box cajon which I had to look up to find out what it was) and sometimes a keyboardist. In addition, they also have a choir or sorts up on "stage" that consists of about 7 or 8 people with mics who lead the rest of the congregation in song. I'm pretty sure the song leader writes some of the songs they sing. They also sing some of the traditional church songs, which honestly are the only ones I feel compelled to sing because in my mind they are "church" songs and all the rest are just christian music. After I recovered from the shock of music in a C of C service, I  decided to embrace it not to be offended by it, and I don't feel that I have to slink down in the pew for fear of going to hell because I'm engaging in un Church of Christ behavior (my own feelings, not something I was taught). The sign says Church of Christ, so we're all in it together.
There are some other things that go on at this church that are unfamiliar for me in a Church of Christ. They have an "Amen" pew. Now this title takes me back to my childhood of listening to Ray Stevens songs and the one about the squirrel who got loose in church. Feel free to sing it if you know it, and if you don't know it, google it and give it a listen you're in the south now. I was raised in what I thought was a semi "liberal" church. I say that because we listened to music and went to prom and all sorts of other things that some "purist/conservative" C of C members don't engage in, or so I've been told. We were taught that you went to church on Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night. On Wednesday night you were allowed to participate in a group discussion type class, onSunday night it was a more casual service, but on Sunday morning  you were to go in, sit down, and shut up. There was no amening unless you seconded someone else saying it at the end of a prayer, you didn't blurt out "preach it" when the preacher was on a roll, and you certainly didn't clap or hold up your hands while you were singing because, well I'm not really sure why people do that last one, but you didn't do it "back in the day" as Henry would say. Things you were allowed to do during church were chewing gum as long as you didn't play with it, smack or stick it under the pew, color if you were a child, and ponder what restraunt you were going to eat dinner at if it wasn't already in the crock pot at home. You were also allowed to hope the preacher finished up in time for you to beat the Baptists to said restraunts, or ponder if your casserole waiting in the multi purpose room would still be hot in the event that you were having a potluck because eeeevery body knows there's only one thing Church of Christ people love more than softball and VBS, and that's a good potluck.
Given the afore mentioned "no nos", it's easy to see why this church confuses me a bit. They do all the things that I grew up not being allowed to do. Having said that, I still like the church and plan to attend there unless something really strange happens. If anyone starts speaking in tongues or floppin' around like a fish, I'm outta there! I also like that the preacher wears a mic so that you can hear him in the huge auditorium, and they have projectors and screens that show you what song to sing and also show the preacher during services in case you got there early and grabbed a back pew. That's a little C of C humor because everyone knows that the people who sit up front are either asking for prayers, or they got there late. I also like that they put a tag on your child and give you a matching tag that has to be matched up at pick up so that no one runs off with your kids. It is afterall a big church and crazies show up everywhere. In the event that you have a baby as we do, they give you a pager in case your kids starts to cry uncontrollably. That's handy too. I suppose that's really all I have on our church adventures for now, but if anything else happens I'll be sure to post about it. Oh, one more thing. They have a sewing group that is meeting on Saturday to make dresses for women in Honduras. I'm planning to attend if the lady calls me back about my RSVP.

Frappe secrets revealed...

It's summer time and we all know what that means, frappe season is upon us! Frappes are the ultimate solution to breakfast when you have that "gotta hurry up and get it done early before it gets super hot, don't have time for breakfast" mentality, or when it's afternoon and you need an icy cold pick me up. Some of you know that I have been working to perfect my frappe making skills since last summer when I got shamefully addicted to McDonald's caramel frappes. I later discovered that Sonic has a pretty good hazlenut java chiller, but it's totally different. The difference in these two is that McD's is more icy while Sonic's is more like a coffee milk shake. When I started out in my quest to replicate, I searched the web and found that there was surprisingly little information out there in the form of a make at home recipe. Most of the few recipes that I did find wanted you to use special powders and or make simple syrups which isn't hard but it's hot and sticky and lets face it that's just another step. I purchased some coffee syrups instead of going to the trouble. I also came up with the plan that if I froze my coffee in ice cube trays  I could both flavor the frappe as well as combat the disappointment that happens at the end when you have watered down, nearly tasteless slush. I have since altered even that recipe and resorted to using cold coffee in liquid form. Now that I've bored you with the why, I will get on with the how. I highly recommend that you get a "Ninja" blender. This is by far the best blender thing I have ever owned. If your blender does a great job with ice and doesn't leave you chunks that get stuck in your straw, go for it. Otherwise, go to the store and make the investment, you will not be sorry. I use the large pitcher, as it obviously gives more area for things so mix. I add 3 regular size scoops of vanilla ice cream, not like "Baskin Robbins" size scoops, just like once across the top of the bucket scoops. I add to that about 3/4 of a cup of the coffee brew of your choice, I have found that hazlenut makes it awesome. I use my caramel ice cream topping syrup and make about 5 laps around the pitcher. If you don't like caramel you're probably going to have to use a plain simple syrup, but I like caramel so I haven't had to worry about that. I have also found that the 5 lap rule applies to chocolate syrup as well. If you like it less caramely or chocolatey or less sweet, feel free to adjust that amount. I add 5 pieces of ice. If you like it more milkshakey, add 1-2 less, but if you like it more icy as Henry does, add 1-2 more. I do not add milk to my frappes as I find that it makes it too liquidy. I'm also not sure that all these words ending in y are real words, but I don't care. Pulse blend this concoction until you stop hearing ice hitting the pitcher, that will tell you that you have a perfectly well blended frappe that won't choke you because you sucked a chunk of ice down your throat. I will also add my personal thoughts about cups.

 Joann has a fantastic reusable cup for frappes (or milkshakes). It's sturdy clear plastic so you can see what's going on in it, it has a screw on lid so you don't spill, it has a silicone grip band so you don't drop it and it also prevents your hand from freezing while you hold the cup, and it has a hard plastic straw that won't collapse and has a bit of a propeller type thing on the bottom so that you can re-mix your drink should you need to. They also come in different colors so you can get one for every member of your family for milkshake night.

Starbucks also has a good reusable frappe cup. It is called the "Via" is is actually intended to be used with their new instant coffee. You will notice that it is also a sturdy clear plastic with a silicone grip. It has a screw on "sipper" top with a tab you can close to prevent spills rather than a straw but you can easily add a straw if you get a long one like the ones from Sonic or McDonald's big cups. You will notice that it also has a propeller type thing on the bottom, but unlike the Joann Cup it is mounted on a twisted stick (think drill bit). This stick has a tab on the top and when you move the tab up and down, the propeller spins thus mixing your drink. This mixing apparatus is far more thorough than the paddle on the straw, but the straw thing works fine for the minimal amount of stirring you might need to do. *Note* Do not use the mixer while your straw is in the cup as it might maim said straw. You know that comes from personal experience.

So there you have it friends, the culmination of my frappe studies. I hope that you enjoy making your own frappes in this simple on hand manner. Feel free to tweak the recipe to your liking, and don't hesitate to use flavored coffees or perhaps even flavored creamers to create your perfect summer frappe. -Kellie-

Our big weekend plan

A few weeks ago our nephew Aron graduated Suma Cum Laude with honors from Murray State University, the alma mater of his mother and his Uncle Henry.

This weekend, he will be moving to Mississippi so that he can attend Ole Miss and get his PhD in chemistry.

I really hope that I didn't get those facts confused, but if I did you still get the picture. Anyway, after moving him out of his dorm after graduation, I realized that he didn't really have much stuff. I suppose that's kind of good, but kind of bad. On the good side, it's fast and easy to move him home at the end of the year, things he didn't own were provided,  and he had everything he needed. On the bad side, since he is moving into an apartment (he's had enough of dorm life and I don't blame him) he has pretty much nothing. No bed, no storage, nothing to eat on, nothing to do homework on, and nothing to put his tv on. ;) I asked him what he was going to do about furniture, and he said he really didn't know. That didn't sit well with me. He's a super great guy and works really hard to do well. Given those facts, I decided to make it my personal mission to make sure that he had enough stuff to live comfortably until he can get better stuff. We had a worn out love seat that we decided to contribute. It has a slip cover so it's not so bad anymore, and if he spills beer juice on it he can take the cover off and wash it. I also had an end table to add. I talked to a friend who also had a few things to add. Now I was getting somewhere. I hit the local Goodwills and got him some dishes and such. I had Henry ask around at work and see what he could find. Full size bed, jackpot. I still lacked some clothing storage and maybe a few other things.  My friend who contributed things knew someone who was moving. They lived in what she called "a ritzy neighborhood". This was good, very good. She said they had a desk and a dining table. That was most of my remaining "want" items, leaving me only to find a chest of drawers for his clothes. Henry picked up a U-Haul trailer and hooked it to the van so that we could start gathering the items. We rolled up at the house to pick up the items, and when we went in we found that we had hit the jackpot! She had lots of stuff, nice stuff, that she wanted to give us. She didn't want to move it, they had had it for a while, they got some of it for free at some point anyway, and she wanted it to go to a good home where someone would use it. We scored an extemely heavy desk, a leather chair, a file cabinet with a hutch that I plan for him to use as a chest of drawers/clothing storage, and another filing cabinet that looks like a low dresser that I figure he can put more clothes in and his tv on top of. All of those things looked as though they came from a law office. Super score! The dining table (which also had a matching china cabinet) was too big for him to use, but my friend had a small one so we traded :) On the way out, the jackpot lady added that she had a hutch for the desk, as well as a random (sorta shabby) bookcase in the garage. We carted off those items too. So I headed home with my little trailer filled with goodies and the thought that Aron will have a place to eat, sleep, hang out and study. When Henry got home he unloaded the trailer as I suspected, and we repacked it as tightly as possible including his contrubution of the bed. We ran out of room (shoulda gotten a bigger trailer but we didn't know that we would score so much free stuff) so my table and Goodwill finds ended up in the van and the couch? Well, the couch is tied to the roof of the van like the Clampets. It's going to be a long 4 hour trip (or longer) while towing a U-Haul trailer and trying to keep the kids quiet and happy. On top of that we found out that his apartment is on the second floor, Lord help us with that extremely heavy furniture. Provided that no one gets mamed or killed, we will be back home tomorrow night. I'm sure we will all be really tired and possibly sore, but it doesn't matter, because that's what you do when you're a family, you help each other out.

Taking one for the team- the fence part I

This is how our house looked before our last project began. It looks pretty normal, but we have never liked the fence in this location.

 If you look at the middle right, you will see why the meter man didn't like the fence in this location. If you look at the middle left side of this picture, you will see one of the main reasons that I did not like the fence in this location. You can see that there are little trees growing there, but what you can't see are the tree roots from the giant pine tree that we cut down, and the poison ivy... Henry is very allergic to this evil plant, so in an effort to spare him the pain and suffering that it brings, I carefully (or so I thought) removed it myself. I did save him from getting it, but in doing so I subjected myself to it and its evil oils. I like to think that I took one for the team.








So here is the after version of our fence project.

My intention is to extend the flower bed/landscaping in the front so that it curves around the corner and in front of the fence. I'm planning to add a miniature weeping cherry in there somewhere. That will probably not happen until next spring. At some point, we will complete part II of our fence project. In that part, we will move the side of the fence over to the easement on the street and extend front of the fence to meet it. It will be nice to have a large private backyard, instead of a small backyard and a side yard that we don't use. I think that we will be getting a small bobcat to level the yard and create a terraced section at that time in order to get the biggest bang for our effort. So there you have it, our latest semi major project. ;)

Recent Crafty Projects

 So part of the reason that I haven't posted more recently is because I've been doing lots of sewing and embroidery projects. I'm pretty proud of my recent projects. Some I've made to sell on my Etsy site, and some I made just for us or family. I'm soing to start off with what I've made for us and family.

This is my mom's mother's day gift. It's an embroidered canvas of our family tree using stick figures. 

This is his mom's mother's day gift. It's an embroidered pillow of their family tree using stick figures.

This is a Hawaiian shirt that I made Henry. He was drawn to this pattern so I whipped him up this shirt.

 Burp cloth for a friend.

 Burp cloth for another friend.

Burp cloth for a friend to give to a friend. ;)
















OK, on to Etsy things.

This little gem has become my bread and butter. I have been selling them like hotcakes, and personalizing them to match the kid they are for. I've done brown, blonde, and red hair, as well as one with glasses.

This is an altered version of an invitation that I already make.

I have high expectations for this Lego Harry Potter invite/banner. I haven't taken pictures of it as a banner yet, but they are coming soon. I'm also working on a Ron and Hermione cutout.

Here are some custom piddle pads (my signature product) I've made.

This one is for a toddler car seat. She ordered 4. :) They are larger than the original and at her request have vinyl in them for potty training.

 This one is actually a shopping cart pad. I made the top taller and omitted the crotch strap piece. I also made the cut out in the middle more narrow.

Here is a set of custom appliqued and embroidered piddle pads for a set of twins.

 

 I have several more products that I am working on, and will of course post pics when I am finished. :)

Let's start with the most recent project...

In an effort to catch up my blog, I will just start with the most recent project and work backward. Let me shorten up the story some by saying that we had a flower bed that went around the front porch. We had done some work to it last year by planting flowers and adding mulch. Long story, but we later installed some landscape lights along both sides of the front walk and as a quick fix we tossed some mulch over the cords. This spring, grass grew up through the mulch and looked awful. We spent 2 days basically cutting sod (which we used to fill in some bare spot in the yard) so that the grass would be gone. We gave the new flower bed a new shape and put down plastic to discourage future weed growth. I also installed some edging to keep the grass out and the mulch in. The sad thing is that we did all that and then realized that we didn't have money in the budget to get  mulch or  flowers. Semi fail, as people driving by had to view our empty plastic covered flower bed. My friend and I were talking about flowers and I said I wanted to put in some monkey grass and she asked why because she had some that she hated and wanted to get rid of... see where this is going?  So yesterday, I went to her house and dug up some of her huge monkey grass, although I'm pretty sure it's actually mondo grass but no matter because it serves the purpose.

This gives you the basic idea of what we had created to begin with.









So then I added the grass that I got from my friend and a transplanted coreopsis and got this.

So this morning I went and got some flowers to fill in, and some mulch to finish it off. I lucked out and found the mulch 5 bags for $10! Shazaam! I got 10 bags for good measure. ;)

So this is what I ended up with. I should also add that these pictures do not do it justice as it looks way better than they reflect. I also mowed the grass.



So there you have it, my landscaping adventures for today. I'm hoping that the blanket flowers that I moved perk back up as I think they are in shock. :(  I also mulched around the mailbox and translplanted a monkey grass to replace the one that croaked. Now if I can just remember to water the plants until they are established, I'll be doin all right.