Is it possible to have too much fun??

We finally got some measurable snow here and when we got home this evening I decided that - even though I'm just about as sick as a dog - I couldn't possibly pass up the opportunity to take Leah sledding - her first time!!... At the rate we're going this winter, it could be another year before we get this much snow again. Sheesh! My theory is: If it's gonna be cold, we should at least get some snow as a (admittedly small) consolation so that a) we have something pretty to look at, and b) so my poor plants can have an extra blankie from the cold.

Anyway, I raced around the house grabbing gloves, hats, boots, snowsuits, etc. then spent 40 minutes (yes, really) blowing up our big honkin' sled. When we were just about ready Leah grabbed my face and said "Mommy, why are you so excited???" LOLOL!!!

We had a blast - my little munchkin is a daredevil just like her momma. Yes!! Hopefully this means I'll finally get a roller coaster riding partner in a few years! We went down a rather large, rather steep hill first, and she LOVED it! Let me tell you... we were smokin' on the way down. The only thing she didn't like was toward the bottom when the snow started spraying up into our eyes. That she didn't love so much. Later she convinced me to let her go down what she said was "just a little teeny tiny baby hill" all by herself. The 2nd, 3rd (& 4th) time she went down, she went head first. That's my girl!!! :)

We also had a snow fight and made a snow angel family (really, it was a tribe... I think there were like 6 mommies & daddies and about 12 kids!) on our way back to the house.

So, even though my health will certainly pay the price I am so glad I seized this opportunity and made this memory with my little girl... she probably will forget it in a few days, but I will cherish the memory of her cherry red cheeks, grinning face, sparkling-with-mischief eyes, and happy glow for a long long time to come.

Bathroom, Stitching, Etc. Updates

Stitching update... I have been progressing along slowly on Border Study in Non Red... This is my progress up to approx. 9pm last night:

I should be able to get this done in the next couple weeks, then I will work on the sampler for my dear friend Amy who adopted a little boy from Korea. She & her husband brought him home in September, so this is long overdue! I have a couple others that I am eager to get started on, but will force myself to wait until the sampler is done for her.

Our master bathroom... this is progress, right? We've gone from vanilla to chocolate. :) I absolutely love it. When I unveiled this to my husband he gave me the nicest compliment. He said: "I feel like I'm on TV!!" He was very unsure about my color choice, but really loves it. We will be adding a new light fixture over the tub, new vanity lights, and getting some more artwork up on the walls, but I just couldn't wait til then to post these pics. When it's 100% done, I will post more pics.

Not much else going on... the Lost premiere was as awesome as I could have hoped for, and I am really looking forward to seeing how this season shapes up.

I started planning for our trip to the happiest place on earth over the weekend, and our house is booked! We're going in September with a couple we are close friends with. We spent a week in Myrtle Beach together last year and had a fabulous time... you know you love each other if you can spend a week in the same house and return from the trip still as close as ever. :) Now I just have to pray that the Lord will bless us with coveted seating at the Cinderella breakfast in Cinderella's castle! Leah will probably pass out from the thrill... I can hardly wait to see her reaction to meeting a "real live princess"!

Trying to fight off a cold and praying it doesn't turn into a sinus infection like they always do... please... I really don't want to have to take any time off work.

Anyway, I'll post again soon! TTFN!

In Other News...

First, our flood. We got the water turned off, and the carpet and padding peeled back. It appeared that the padding soaked up most of the water, so we called that a loss, ripped it up, and tossed it out the back door. We turned on our tiny little fan, and a couple space heaters to start to try to dry out the drywall (which was totally soaked) and carpet. Sunday morning the hubby went and rented one of those industrial blower-carpet-dryer-outer things. We stuck it under the carpet, and kept the heaters going and in this fashion got the drywall and carpet bone dry. The plumber came Tuesday morning to fix the pipe... would you believe that the crack that caused all that trouble was so small it was barely visible?? Yep. Really. Fortunately, it was only $100 to get it fixed. Sweet! So now we just need to go get some carpet padding at Lowes, tape it to the stuff that stayed dry, then rekick the carpet, and patch the drywall. Overall, the damage to our pocketbook will be unbelievably minimal. God is so faithful to us!! If Ken had decided to go to bed when he normally does, we would have gone downstairs in the morning to find water up to our eyeballs.

Next the master bathroom. It is nearly complete, and I must say it looks AMAZING!! My husband gave me the best compliment when he saw it done... I'll save it for when I post pics. All that is left to do is hang the light fixture, and put a couple more pieces of (as yet unpurchased) art on the wall.

Last but not least, stitching... Haven't done much since last week. I did spend a couple hours on Border Study last night but due to the nearly constant need to frog (remove and re-do stitches... think "rip it! rip it!"), and horribly tangling thread, I think I got about 40 or 50 stitches in. Maybe. Ah well. No more stitching til the weekend, probably.

Hallelujah!! It's finally here!!

What on earth am I talking about?? Surely something momentous! Surely something that will have far reaching effects felt across the globe! Surely something that could alter life as we know it!

Uhh... actually... it's a TV show. Yeah. Really.

LOST!!!!! Season 5!! TWO HOUR premiere!!! TONIGHT!!! The 8 month wait is finally OVER!!! WAHOO!!!

For the uninitiated... well, I'm not sure I can explain. But, I LOVE this show! There has never been a show on TV that is absolutely do or DIE viewing for me (OK, except Days of Our Lives when I was in junior high... but does that really count?? I think not.).... Did I mention I love Lost?

I'm addicted. Totally, irrevocably addicted. I love all the strands of mystery that make up the storyline. The blend of complex characters, sci fi, hard science, literary references, nods to pop culture... I think the part that has me hooked though, is that every week, the strands of the show get more and more closely woven. In May of 2010 the strands will finally be woven into one coherent thread. Until then, I will thoroughly enjoy wallowing in all the possibilities for how it will all play out.

Just 8 more hours til my blissed out state can begin!! Well, if I can get the munchkin to STAY in her bed, that is! :)

What on earth is that noise???

The hubby was sitting in our basement watching a movie, generally minding his business and not doing a thing to bother anybody else, when he suddenly heard a loud, persistent, somewhat disturbing noise... coming from behind the drywall... it almost reminded him of a... waterfall??

He crept forward to investigate only to receive a harsh wake up call as he approached what sounded like the source of the noise. His feet were soaking wet... as was the carpet!

Yes, dear friends. We had a pipe burst. Oh joy, oh rapture. Being the inexperienced homeowners we are we ran around like the Keystone Cops for a good 5 minutes (at least) trying to figure out which red knob to turn to TURN. IT. OFF. Phone calls were made (sorry for waking y'all up!), and eventually the hubby ran a couple doors down to beg rescue from our "handier" neighbor. He ran (literally) over, and turned off the correct pipe!

It could have been MUCH worse. Praise God the hubby was actually still awake and in the basement so that we caught it as quickly as we did!

Plumbers, and drywallers, and air blowers... oh my!

Busy, busy!

What?? It’s been a week since my last post?? Where does the time go?

Let’s see… what’s been going on…. We took down the Christmas decorations last weekend. Is anyone with me on this: I think this is the most depressing annual task I perform. Ugh. However, there is one undeniable plus. As Leah so eloquently put it the next morning when we came downstairs: “Oh WOW mommy! We have a BRAND NEW HOUSE!! YIPPEE!!” :)

I’ve also begun my first interior project of 2009: Re-doing the Master Bathroom. It’s going to be sooo nice to have this done! I’m not changing out cabinets, or counters; it will all be cosmetic. Paint, accessories, new curtains, new rug(s). Here are the “before” pics (yes, we did have a curtain up, and yes, all of our personal effects have been removed from the space):

As you can see, it is very… vanilla. It might be a while before I post my “after” pics…. There is one thing I want to do that I cannot do myself, and I’m not sure when our family friend (who happens to be a fabulous roofer and handyman) will be available to help me get it done… I don’t want to post the “after” pics until every detail is in place. Yes, yes…. The wait will be torture, I’m sure. Hehe.

On the stitching front, I continue to slowly progress in tortoise-like fashion on the Border Study in Non-Red. I’d say I’m about ½ done now. Here’s a progress pic:

There won’t be too much stitching going on until the bathroom is done. And, I’m afraid my 2009 stitching plan will have to wait until my next post (or the one after that, or the one after that)… I need to go do some painting! :)

Here I am again...

Well, now that Christmas is over (and Leah's quilt is done) I have some time again to devote to stitching. So, this is the WIP I'm currently devoting my attention to. I actually started this mid '08 (I think), but it was/is the first time I've stitched on linen, and I got frustrated with it and put it down... I seem to recall making the mistake of trying to stitch while the hubby was driving down a windy country road. Problem #1: Near instantaneous nausea. Problem #2: I couldn't keep track of the stinkin' holes! So, being wiser now (ummm... maybe) I have picked it up again. It's going pretty well, actually (other than when I have to frog b/c I'm not paying attention, and other than the bane of every stitcher's existence - knotting thread). I only get a couple hours per day (at the most) to stitch. Considering that I only had the first few rows done when I picked it up again, I think it's actually going pretty quickly. I'd say I'm almost 1/3 of the way done. The design is Border Study in Red (obviously, I did not choose red. I chose DMC 3750.) from Heron House Designs.

One of the things I think I've learned while working this project is that the quality of the fabric used really does matter. I bought a cheapo 28 ct. linen at a big box store, and I wonder often if the way the fabric catches on the threads is part of the reason I get knotted up so frequently... any of you more experienced stitchers have any advice or insight on this?

My other WIP is Gentle Strength... not sure when I'll pick it up again, but I will. I really want to give it to my mom as a gift some day... not sure when that "some day" will be, though.

I have lots of grand plans for 2009 stitching-wise, but more on that in the next post.

New Year, New Blog

Welcome!

So, we finally got high speed internet at home, and I thought: “Hey, since I don’t have nearly enough things to fill up my free time I think I’ll start a blog!” I’ve been lurking on several really great blogs for a while now (see side bar), all of which relate to one or more of my interests. They have all inspired me in various ways, made me laugh, and just generally been a source of great enjoyment… so much so that I feel compelled to participate in the blogiverse!

So, dear reader, what should you expect from this brand new baby blogger? Welllll… I’m not really sure! :)

Definitely progress pics of current projects (once I get myself set up in Picasa)… one note of warning: I am in awe of the rapidity with which many of you finish your WIPs! And I am definitely a very (to put it politely) S-L-O-W stitcher. So slow in fact, that although I could swear I finished a couple stitching projects in ’08, I can’t think of a single one! Umm, yeah. I have a theory, though. From late Jan. thru late March, I worked feverishly on a BAP for my mom (Gentle Strength – still not finished, by the way), and got a serious case of burn out. Well, by that time Spring had rolled around and I gave in to the urge to indulge another passion – gardening. That lasted until Fall when I started my first quilt (for my daughter). I finished the quilt Christmas morning at 4:30am. So, anyway, yes, not a single x-stitch finish in ’08. Maybe I’ll have an epiphany though, and remember one.

I’ll probably also torture you every so often with tales about my 3.5yo (going on 16) daughter, Leah. These will, of course, be absolutely fascinating and entertaining little tales in my mind (b/c of course my child is the smartest, most beautiful, funniest, blah blah blah… and besides - why else would I feel compelled to share?), but I warn you now – something may get lost in the translation.

Seriously though, and to try to wrap up this first post (oh yes, yet another warning – I can be seriously long winded… in case you hadn’t noticed)…

With this blog I plan to:

~In the cooler “indoor” months: Post progress updates & pics of current x-stitch, needlepoint, quilting, and home improvement/ decor projects.

~In the warmer “outdoor” months: Post progress pics of my ever evolving garden (which, honestly, currently consists of a v. small front bed [we have a TH], and a slightly larger bed in our postage stamp sized back yard). I have fabulous plans for turning the back yard into a garden oasis for the hubby & I (and friends) to enjoy this summer… ummm… we’ll see if hubby stays on board with those plans once real $$ are discussed. :) Hopefully stitching progress pics as well.

~In all months: Post about books that I particularly enjoy. Especially series I get addicted to (current obsession: The Fever Series by Karen Marie Moning. O.M.G. Don’t let me get started. I’d be here all day). And as mentioned above, occasional tales of the deeds of my little cutie pie.

I think that’s about as ambitious as I should be right now. :)

So, welcome, and I hope you enjoy my blog!