Finally...pics of the house!!!

As you can see, there is still much to be done in the way of decorating...especially in the family room and master bedroom. I also still have to put up Mackenzie's name above her bed, and put up some wall words in the master bath...I have them, just haven't had a chance to put them up yet. Darrell's been working on putting together some temporary bookshelves in the loft, where we will put our books for now. Eventually, we want to do built-in bookshelves in the front room downstairs and make it a library/study/sitting room. But at $16 a pop for the short ones and $24 a pop for the tall ones, we couldn't beat the deal on the temporary bookshelves from Target!!

Mackenzie has her pre-op appointment this afternoon, which Darrell is taking her to. I'll update here later.

I....can't....stop!!!!

First, here are some pics of Makayla's feet sportin' the new shoes - cute, huh? But I need to make the with leather soles - after an hour and a half of jumping, she has already worn small holes through one layer of the soles!!

And here's what I spent this afternoon doing when I should've been doing housework!! It's a pin cushion. Cute, isn't it? Again, though, I chose yet another 3-D object to sew...I really need to stick to some flat stuff for a while til I really get the hang of this sewing thing!!

Oh my gosh - look what I made!!!

Can you believe this is my very first sewing project EVER???? I cannot believe how cute they turned out!! I used this pattern and tutorial, which was excellent. The girls are asleep right now or I'd take a pic and show you how completely adorable they look on them...I only was able to finish one of them last night, and I put it on each of them this morning, and it looks so cute. It fits Makayla better than Mackenzie, but it's still okay even on Mackenzie, just a little looser.

It did take a LONG time - I started around 8:30 last night, and stayed up until 1:30 a.m., and then just spent about 30 minutes this morning finishing the second one. But considering much of that time was just getting to know my sewing machine and learning how to sew in general, I don't think that's too bad for a first-timer!! I also was trying to get my machine to make button holes, to make it more professional looking for the slits where the elastic goes through, but for the life of me, I couldn't get it to work...stupid manual has TERRIBLE directions!! One step says, "Attach the buttonhole foot." Um, do you think I have a clue how to even do THAT??? And then I finally got it all hooked up and tried it, but it didn't work, and my bobbin thread got all tangled and my handwheel wouldn't even turn, and I had to take the bobbin out and take some other parts out, and I was walking blind trying to figure out what the heck I was doing...praying the whole time that I'd be able to get the thing put back together!! But I did, and it worked, and look at my cute little baby shoes!! I do think Susan (Mackenzie's teacher) was right - this really wasn't a beginner's project! But since when do I start out small - remember the wainscoting??

They are definitely FAR from perfect (which is kind of hard for the perfectionist in me), and let me tell you, sewing a 3D object is NOT easy...especially for someone who has never even sewn flat stuff before. But you have to assemble the shoe, pin it all together, and then sew around the entire thing - and I had the hardest time with that. But I am amazed at how even though the inside may look kind of terrible, the outside still looks cute!

So, I'm thinking sewing some flat stuff should be pretty easy after this! My next project is to make a cute pin cushion, with a free pattern from Heather Bailey; wish I had her fabric to do it in, but I don't, so I'll have to make do!!

So...what do you think???

Apron Give-away!!

You KNOW how crazy I am about aprons right now...so any time I find an apron giveaway, I'm all over it!! So now I'm passing on the chance to you, too! Go to Jan's blog, Maple Lane, and leave a comment under the give-away post for a chance to win!! Just take a peek at her aprons, then leave a comment telling her which one you would choose if you won! How easy is that?! And, by the way, I would totally choose the Blue Retro full apron - it would soooooo match my newly painted kitchen!! :)

Textured Walls and Ladders

I hate textured walls. Hate is a strong word, I know. But I hate textured walls. I don't remember having textured walls growing up. When did textured walls become standard in new homes? And why? Is it to hide sloppy work?

And I'm not so fond of ladders either. I have terrible balance. And a little fear of heights. Although, I guess it's not so much a fear of heights as it is a fear of falling from heights. With my track record, falling from a ladder wouldn't really be so surprising, so I generally try to avoid climbing them if at all possible.

Alas, my weekend was filled with textured walls and a ladder. And some really high ceilings - like 11 or 12 foot ceilings. Well, walls, really...really high walls (in the master bedroom). We painted our master bedroom, kitchen, and family room this weekend. It wasn't really so much fun, but the end result is oh-so-beautiful!! Seriously, though...there is no reason to make a wall that requires like 6 coats of paint in some places. And there was one wall that was so textured that even after 3 coats using the roller made especially for "rough" surfaces, I still had to paint pretty much the entire wall with a brush to get all the little white holes to finally get covered in paint. All while balancing 5 steps up on a ladder. Scary.

I need to put fresh batteries in my camera so I can take pictures for you.

Other happenings over the long weekend...

• I finally got the apnea monitor belt for Makayla on Friday - did I already mention this? I had to go pick it up...grr...but at least we have it. So far, no apnea alarms, just one low heartrate alarm...but I'm thinking maybe the parameters need to be changed since she's older now and they were set when she was a newborn. I think the low HR is set to alarm at below 80 BPM, and I'm pretty sure it's okay for them to go below that while sleeping now that they're older...but I could be wrong. Will be asking the doc about that.
  
• Mackenzie decided she no longer needs to sleep during the day. At all. And she has decided to throw a big 'ole temper tantrum if we try to make her. Which then wakes up Makayla, who is sleeping peacefully across the room. And then Makayla gets whiny b/c she hasn't had a full nap. Really fun.
• I can finally see at least one, maybe two, teeth coming in on the bottom for Makayla!!
• Makayla is now crawling on hands and knees, and the same day she learned how to do that, she learned how to sit herself up and pull herself to standing. Uh oh.
• Makayla has surprised us by continuing to sleep through, or nearly through, the night on a regular basis for about a week now. She occasionally wakes up once, and last night twice (but the first time was thanks to her brother), but overall, I'm totally impressed and still kind of in disbelief!
• Mackenzie is sitting up on her own for a few seconds, before falling over. Progress! She's also gotten good at rocking back and forth on all fours.
• I made homemade baby food for the first time - peaches. So easy - why haven't I done this before now?? Steamed them in the microwave, peeled them, blended them in the Magic Bullet...froze them. Too bad I can't find our old ice cube trays, though...had to re-use some baby food containers.
• My sister-in-law Chrissy and nephew Jake came for a surprise visit this afternoon, which was nice. They got to see the newly painted walls, and it was Jake's first time seeing the new house. Anthony, as always, enjoyed the additional audience!!
• My wonderful, fabulous, fantastic, awesome husband went shopping this afternoon, and came home with......................................................................................................an early birthday present for me. Can you guess what it is????
  

Didn't I tell you he's awesome? Now I have to get some thread and learn how to use it! (And yes, I already took it out of the box, and it really IS a nice, pretty, new sewing machine!) And no, he did NOT buy it at Walmart this time!!

Vinegar can do THAT???

Okay, so I need to be quick, b/c I promised myself I'd get to bed early tonight...but I just HAVE to tell you about my cleaning discovery yesterday! I told you before about how I'm trying to use less chemicals, and I've heard over and over that white vinegar is great for cleaning...but I'm so skeptical about stuff like that. I mean, how good could it possibly be? Especially when the recipes I've seen call for you to add only 1/4 C. or so to about a quart to half a gallon of water.

Was I ever wrong!! So, I added 1/4 C. white vinegar to about 24 oz. water (b/c that's how much my spray bottle held), and I added some grapefruit-peppermint essential oil, to make it smell wonderful. I started by using it to mop the floors. I tried something else new, too. Instead of using the regular rag-mop, which I hate, b/c I hate working with a heavy bucket of dirty water, I picked up a pack of 18 white washclothes for a little over $3 at Wal-Mart this week. I put one on my regular Swiffer dry mop and just pushed the wash cloth corners into the little holes where you usually push the swiffer pads. It worked GREAT!! (This was a tip from my sister, Karen!) And they scrubbed the floor wonderfully - honestly, they are so rough, I don't know how anyone could possibly use them on their bodies!! So, anyway, I sprayed the floor with the cleaning solution, then mopped it with my washcloth-Swiffer dealie, and it worked wonders! Grease spots - gone. Spit-up spots - gone. And instead of having to ring out a dirty, nasty mop, all I had to do when the rag was dirty was flip it over and use the other side, then switch it out for a new rag (seeing as I have 18 of them and all!). Piece of cake!! And my house smelled great too!

But I didn't stop there. I decided to finally tackle the white railing along the top of the loft. It was still gross from when we moved in - dusty and covered in dirty handprints from the kids who lived here before. Spray and wipe - unbelievable - the black handprints came right off!! So then I decided to try it on the black handprints on the white walls near the staircase - spray, waited 20 seconds, wiped (didn't even scrub!) - gone! I became a believer!! I then used it to clean the bathroom sinks and faucets, and let me just tell you how easy it was to clean my bathtub - you know that nasty, stuck-on soap ring you get from the bubble bath - yep - spray spray, wipe - gone! Unbelievable! Seriously - why did I ever buy chemicals from the store??? Now when the babies are crawling around on the tile floors slurping up dust mites, I have no worries about what random chemicals they are sucking on!!

And, before I head to bed, here are some of the lovely aprons I am admiring...some are from sewing sites I visit, some from etsy, some from www.kaboodle.com. Seriously - don't they just make you wanna be like martha??? So so so cute!!!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!!

Tag, You're It!!

I've never been tagged before...hmm...well, now that I wrote that, I'm thinking I may have been tagged once before by my sister, and I'm thinking I maybe never did write my entry!! Oops!

Anway...

Here are the rules of this tag game:
1. Link to the person who tagged you
2. Post the rules on your blog
3. Write 6 random things about yourself
4. Tag 6 people at the end of your post and link to them
5. Let each person you have tagged know by leaving a comment on their blog
6. Let the tagger know when your entry is posted


1. Thanks, Alison!!

2. Check

3. Hmm...6 random things...okay...

• I have a current obsession with aprons. I cannot wait to get a sewing machine so I can start making some!! For me, for gifts...seriously, you should see how many pics of cute aprons I've downloaded in the last few days...there are some REALLY cute ones out there!! Go on www.kaboodle.com and search "flirty apron," and check them out!
  
• My feet hurt. All the time. Seriously. I take an enormous amount of ibuprofen just so I can walk around without being in horrible pain all the time. It's really aggravating!!
• I just noticed Anthony get his step stool, out of the corner of my eye, and take it to the kitchen. Curiosity made me watch to see what he was going to do. Yep, he got up to the island and got the corkscrew down to play with it. Great toy.
• I'm starting to kind of enjoy cleaning...a little bit. Well, maybe I should rephrase that. I'm starting to not hate it quite as much as I used to.
• I found a great new deodorant scent, thanks to my sister Karen - Dove, grapefruit lemongrass. It's wonderful. Who knew deodorant could smell so yummy??!
• I'm finally getting an apnea monitor belt for Makayla today...only b/c I called them AGAIN and once again threatened to sue them if my daughter dies, AND I have to drive to Temecula to get it. I'm gonna find out who I can write a letter to and file a formal complaint...this is ridiculous. She's been without a monitor now since August 4!!

4. Tag 6 people...okay, here goes...

• my sister, Karen
• my friend, Deanna
• my cousins, Mike & Val
• a breastfeeding triplet mama who's one of my heroes, Karen
• a fellow Barefoot Books mama, Melissa
• my sister's college roommate, Darcy

5. Okay, gonna go do that now...

6. And gonna go do that now...

And I'll be back later (hopefully) to tell you all about how I've discovered the wonders of white vinegar!!! :)

Bloggers unite for an incredible cause!!

I am so overwhelmed this morning, reading blog after blog of incredible women who have come together today in the great "blog-0-sphere" to help another blogging mom. Stephanie, aka "Nie," and her husband Christian, were in a horrible small airplane crash a couple weeks ago, and are both in serious condition in the hospital. Their family has rallied around them to care for their children, and you can find updates on her sister Jane's blog, C Jane Run. I've only been reading Nie Nie's blog for a short time, but here's an example of what I love about her - The bell is ringing...again. What a completely awesome way to celebrate the beginning of the school year!

But today, something really incredible is happening. It started small, but it has mushroomed into something HUGE. There is an online, silent auction taking place. On many blogs. With incredible products. And all of the proceeds are going to a fund set up to help pay medical bills and household expenses for Stephanie and Christian during what the doctors say will be many months of recovery.

If you would like to take part, or just get a glimpse into what's going on, here are some of the participating blogs:

Design Mom - she's the one coordinating the overall effort
Oh Judy
Tangled and True
A Room Somewhere
Vermillion Rules - this one's very cool - she'll make a quilt out of your baby's outgrown clothes!!

Those are just a few - there are literally probably a 100 different sites, if not more, holding auctions in honor of Nie Nie and her husband, in addition to many online stores offering to donate proceeds to the fund. Go to Design Mom for the complete list.