Something Nice and Something a Little Crazy

Recently my bloggy friend Paula of Sweetpea had a giveaway for homemade herbal soap, and I was the lucky winner!  The soap arrived charmingly packaged in ticking stripe fabric tied with twine.  They smell so good, especially the rosemary mint!

I have been using rosemary lemon at the kitchen sink and I'm really enjoying it.  It leaves my hands smelling fresh.  If you'd like to try making your own soap, check out how Paula did it.  I'm thinking it sounds like a nice teacher gift.

On a totally unrelated topic, here's where things get a little crazy...for me, anyway.  First, some background.  My sister Laurie and her four daughters have matching tattoos.  It's five ichthus (Christian fish) in the shape of a flower, representing each of them and their faith.

While we were there, my nieces suggested that my sisters and I should get matching tattoos as well.  Laurie and I were totally on board (although I must admit I was a little nervous about it), but Wendy was a flat-out "no".

Wendy, me, Laurie

Back home, Craig and I celebrated our 19th wedding anniversary this weekend.  (That makes me sound so old!)  A few years ago on our anniversary I had tried to convince Craig that we should get matching tattoos, but he was against it.  This year, with tattoos still on my mind, I brought it up again.

While still not a big fan for his own sake, he was willing to do it this time.  Seriously, that's how much he loves me!

Long story shorter, we now have matching infinity tattoos.  They are small and simple, because for all my big talk, it was really a huge leap for me to even set foot in a tattoo shop, never mind actually sit down and let somebody inject ink into my skin!

For me, that's pretty crazy!

St. Patrick’s Day Love Story

It was March 17, 1991.  I was 20 years old (just), and on spring break from Abilene Christian University, at my dad’s house in Phoenix.  I hadn’t wanted to go to Phoenix; I didn’t have any friends there.  I had wanted to go to my sister’s so I could see my old high school friends, but it didn’t work out.  I don’t remember why.  In any case, I wasn’t particularly happy to be there.

March 17 was a Sunday, and on our way to church, my stepmom said “There’s a new family at church with a cute son about your age!”.  I knew what she was getting at, and rolled my eyes.  First of all, I didn’t think I would have much interest in a boy she considered “cute”, and second of all, I knew he wouldn’t have any interest in me.  Guys never did.

The new family came in after us, and sat in the row behind us.  I didn’t realize it at the time.  After the service, Stanna (my stepmom) introduced us.  He was tall and thin, and hmmm, kind of cute.  He shook my hand.

Later in the week, Stanna had the teens/young adults over to the house.  There were only about 10 of us that fit into that category; the congregation was made up mostly of retired people.  He was there but had to leave early for his nightshift job.  He seemed nice, but shy.  We didn’t really talk beyond what was necessary to play the games Stanna had planned, but there was something there.  I was…interested!

I went back to school with two impossibly long months stretching ahead of me.  I had never planned to go to Phoenix for the summer, but now my plans had changed.  Because even though he hadn’t said anything, even though I’d only had three short-term, non-serious boyfriends ever, even though guys never gave me a second glance, I knew, as if we had prearranged it, that we would be together that summer.

In May, back at my dad’s, I waited for the phone to ring.  We saw each other at church, made small talk in between class and service, and I waited.  My brother knew, and arranged it so I had to sit next to the guy.  My stepsister knew, and asked his sister if he had a girlfriend (no).  A bolder, more confident girl might have made the phone call herself, but I waited almost two very long weeks.  I lost five pounds, waiting.

Then the phone rang, and I knew it was him (no caller ID back then, either!).  He asked, and we went out.  It was kind of awkward; neither one of us was good at making conversation.  Later that evening I called and told him I’d had a good time.  It was a perfect summer.  We were together, and I knew.  I knew this was it.

He told me later that the first Sunday, when they sat behind us, he noticed my eyelashes (funny, because now my sister says that all I have to do is bat my eyelashes at him and he does my bidding!).  He also told me that he thought I would home for two weeks that spring break, and was disappointed on the second Sunday when he found I had already gone back to school.  He was thinking of asking me out!

Craig and I got married the following summer, in July 1992.  He is an amazing husband:  patient, selfless, loving, Godly, hardworking.  He is a fabulous father and our children adore him.  And, in case you were wondering, he’s not shy at all anymore and does a lot of public speaking!  He’s the perfect complement to my introverted, impatient self.  He encourages me when I need a push, and tempers me when I get worked up.

And it all started March 17, 1991, twenty years ago today!

 

{I usually get Craig a St. Patrick’s Day card to celebrate the day we met, which is the only St. Pat’s day celebrating we do.  Usually they’re just kind of silly, but I couldn’t believe the absolutely perfect card I found this year!  Except that I don’t think luck had anything to do with it; I believe it was God’s plan from the beginning!}

Whining Pays Off

{Oh. My. Word!  I've been thinking all along that the Knock-Off Party is this Friday, until I just looked at my sidebar and saw that it is tomorrow!  I am so not ready!  I guess I'll be coming up with something really quickly today.  I hope some of you are more on the ball than me.}

 PB, Restoration Hardware, Ballad Knock-Off Party is tomorrow....I hope you'll join!

I had a different post planned for today, and was sitting down to the desktop computer to type it out.  As I once again tried to figure out the vagaries of Linux and was once again failing, my frustration level was mounting.  Trying to keep my voice and tone calm, I asked Craig if he could please help me.  Again.

It’s usually about 2 minutes into this process that my voice start rising and steam starts coming out of my ears and Craig gets equally frustrated that I’m so impatient.  It was at this point tonight that I said  “why don’t you just get me a laptop for my birthday?”.  After all, the big 4-0 is coming up on Sunday.  Still, I wasn’t really serious, as we just don’t spend that kind of money on birthdays.

I guess my dear husband was at the breaking point, because he blurted out “I did!”.  Guess what I did then.  I started crying, partly because I was sorry that I had more or less compelled him to spoil his surprise, and partly because though he has given me some wonderful gifts in our 18 years of marriage, I don’t think he has ever once been able to surprise me.  I never peeked, but somehow or other I always knew.  This would have been the first time, because I definitely would have been surprised to open a laptop on my birthday.

Not only that, but he has secretly been working on setting it all up for me, so that it would be ready for me to turn it on and go.  So tonight I’m sitting here typing on my new MSI Wind Netbook.  It’s super tiny, about 11”x7”, and really cool.



I’ve got Picasa back, and I’m using Windows Live Writer.  Hallelujah!
 
I’m not sure what the moral of this story is.  Certainly not that whining will get you everything.  Maybe it’s just that I should be more patient.  Maybe it’s that I have the most awesome husband in the world…but I already knew that.

I love you, babe, and not just because you got me a computer, but because you constantly make sacrifices to try to make me happy and make my life easier.

I’m a happy computer camper, and a blessed wife!

Spring Has Sprung 2010

The season change always surprises me with how it seems to sneak up on me and happen over night. The first truly cold days of fall depress me with the thought of the long winter ahead. Then by the time warm spring days appear, believe it or not I’m always a little sad that the cozy cocooning evenings by the fire are over.

Just a little. Mostly because I’m not emotionally ready to parade my winter skin around in lighter clothing. I do, however, love the warm weather, sunshine, and greening of the landscape.

Here are a few signs of spring around our house.

Last fall, Craig planted three tiny forsythia bushes at the back of our yard. I wasn’t sure how much to expect from them this spring, but they actually produced a few little yellow blossoms.

He has also been working on our square-foot garden for a month or so now. He’s got the whole crop rotation planned out for the year, and covers to protect from rabbits, scorching sun, or cold. A couple early crops went in a few days ago. He’s really into this. Hopefully it goes well and is fruitful.

Our lawn is greening up, I put the spring wreath on the door, and Saturday I bought two Boston ferns to hang. Pretty soon I’ll get some flowers going in my chair planter.

If you look really closely, you can see a bird on the chain of the fern on the left. Pretty much as soon as they were hung, a pair of purple finches took a strong liking to the ferns. I’m not sure if they’re going to build a nest or what, but they’re fun to watch out the front windows.

Happy Spring!

I Have a Handy Man

Last week Craig took a few days off while the kids were on spring break and we did family stuff.  This week, he has taken two days off, just to get some things done for me.  What a guy!

Tuesday, he did some work on my kitchen cupboards.  The lower cupboards all have a roll-out shelf on the bottom, but the top shelf is just this narrow little thing way at the back.  Kinda dumb.

There was a lot of wasted space in there, and I had to kneel down and reach way in the back to get anything that was on that top shelf.  It was particularly frustrating with the pots, pans, and lids, and the containers.  It really made for a big mess, and the kids especially just tended to toss things in every which way.

So, I had Craig build a pull-out shelf on the top for both the pot and the container cupboards (only got photos of the pots).

You can buy ready-made pull-out shelves for about $50 and up.  Craig’s materials were under $20 for both cupboards.  That’s pretty awesome for something that just made my life easier.

Tomorrow is his second day off, so I need to check the honey-do list and decide what’s next.  Yippee!

Cover-Up

Linking up with DIY at A Soft Place to Land.

We have a built-in desk in our dining area where we keep the family computer. The kitchen/dining/family room are all open to one another, across the back of the house. Although I wouldn’t call it a great room, because size-wise it’s not that great. Anyway, I like having the computer out in public where I can keep an eye on what’s going on.

Photo taken as we were moving in; from family room looking toward dining/kitchen, desk on right.

The problem is that it’s a mess magnet, and even if the mess is cleaned up, the computer and printer and all the cords create their own visual clutter.

You may notice the drawers pulled out with a board laid across for the keyboard. That was our solution to one of those what-was-the-builder-thinking problems: the desk surface is too high to use comfortably. When I sit in the chair, the original desk is at chest height. Typing was giving me lots of neck and shoulder aches. So while this may not be beautiful, it’s more functional. Theoretically, I can put that all away when it’s not in use. Realistically, it stays out pretty much permanently.

Today I had two goals: hide the mess, and recover the chair seat. Remember this chair makeover

using my garage sale fabric that was also used on the kitchen windows,

but that fabric on the chair seat literally shredded, just from normal daily use.

This time I used the garage sale fabric to sew a little curtain to hide the mess behind. Four straight seams and a tension rod did the trick. Originally I was going to use the small check to cover the seat of the chair, because the scale of the large check was too similar to the scale of the garage sale fabric.

But as Craig and I looked at it, the small check began to kind of quiver and do something weird to our eyes; I seriously felt a little nauseous. So, the big check it was, scale or no scale. But I still think the small check would look better.

The cool thing was that Craig got on board while I was working on the fabric, and he drilled a hole in the desktop and fed all the cords down through it. Now that mess is all under here behind the curtain

instead of all over the top of the desk. Perfect? No. Better? Definitely!

Powder Room Makeover, Phase 1

See Phase 2 here.

Last week I mentioned my powder room makeover, but at that point the only thing that had been done was paint. Which was still pretty huge for me, because it’s been builder beige ever since we moved in over 18 months ago. I was beyond thrilled when Craig busted out the paint supplies last weekend.
We used Restoration Hardware’s Silver Sage, for one main reason: we had a gallon of it sitting in the basement. Also, as it turned out, of all the colors I was considering, it actually looked best with the Benjamin Moore Natural Linen that is in the adjoining room. So this is now the fourth house in a row in which we have used Silver Sage.

Here is the only before picture I could find, and actually it’s after we put down the vinyl “wood” floor. But you can catch a glimpse of the typical unframed plate mirror which was over the vanity.



The mirror, of course, had to go. My plan was to use the mirror that belongs to my great-grandmother’s dresser (click on the link for an explanation of the bad photo below).




Craig hung it over the vanity, and then I got thinking, wouldn’t it be cool to make it look like a piece of furniture! The bracket that attaches the mirror to the dresser was too big for the vanity, and there was no way I was cutting it up. However, as luck would have it, I had this other mirror bracket from a different old dresser that we got out of our neighbor’s trash. It’s been sitting in our basements for the last 8 years.



This one was also too wide for the vanity, but since there’s no emotional attachment to it, I laid out my plan for Craig and he got out the saw.

First, he pried the strip of molding off the bottom. It was 11” too long for the vanity, so he cut a piece out of the middle, leaving the finished ends intact.



Then he cut the arms off the bracket. They had to be cut at a certain point to allow the one on the right side to fit between the mirror and the wall.



A few dabs of Liquid Nails put the whole thing together.



Now it looks like the bracket is holding the mirror and the whole thing appears to be attached to the vanity. (A piece fell off the top of the mirror in the last move; it’s around here somewhere and we’ll reattach it when we find it.)



I added a couple of knobs that I got at Hobby Lobby for 50% off, and I think the whole thing really gives the feel of an antique furniture piece! Even if it is a decidedly modern sink and faucet.




As funds become available, I’d like to change the faucet to something with a more traditional feel. Maybe something like this:

source

I’ve also got some basic decorating to do, but I’m very happy with my new "antique washstand”!

Joining DIY Day at A Soft Place to Land and Trash to Treasure at Reinvented.

Name My Etsy Shop

A. I am procrastinating on getting my etsy shop going, partly because I can’t decide on a name. I’m a bit of a perfectionist, which makes it hard for me to make a decision. Because, you know, what if I make the wrong decision?

B. Firstborn wanted to show me how to make a poll. (Incidentally, he turns 12 today!!!!) He’s pretty good at this computer stuff. If he had grown up in the 80s, he would’ve been the kid who painstakingly typed in pages and pages of code and then waited for hours for it to download onto a cassette tape so he could play Pong. Only to discover that he had omitted a keystroke somewhere and had to start all over. Oh, wait, that was Craig.

A+B=C

C. There's a poll on the top left sidebar to let you name my etsy shop. If I get a sufficient number of votes, let’s say a minimum of 50, I will use the name that wins the vote.

I will leave the poll open for approximately 48 hours, until about 3:30 CST Friday. Go vote!

The giveaway still ends Thursday (tomorrow) at 11:59 pm CST. Go enter!

Brand Spankin’ New

Well, here’s the new blog design! I may tweak it a little here and there, but this is pretty much it (btw, for reasons I don't understand, the old posts may show my signature twice). Craig did the whole thing for me. He deserves an award for putting up with such a hard taskmaster me (direct quote: “you are not a pleasure to work with”—lovingly said, of course). Thanks, hon!

The catalyst that started the whole makeover was the realization that my old header was using a photo that is copyrighted. I guess back then, we didn’t understand flickr. I got many compliments on that header. It’s a lovely photo, and I especially liked it because it is an old farmhouse in Ontario, and reminded me very much of many scenes I saw while growing up there.

I am happy now to give the photographer credit. Go see the original photo here, and take a look at his other work too. (But don’t turn me in to the copyright police, please!)

Be sure to come back tomorrow for my fabulous giveaway! You’ll have to come back to see what it is, but I promise you, you will not be disappointed. Cross my heart!

Unequally Yoked

Imagine my surprise when I read my husband's blog post today. I've copied it here with his permission for you to see. Of course, you can also read it at his blog, You Could Call This a Blog.

I'm beginning to wonder if I ever really knew this man that I've been married to for almost 17 years.

Suffering Through The Thrift Store

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

I love my wife's ability to sniff out a deal. She has saved us thousands of dollars over many years by being thrifty. I'm proud of her and wish her continued thrifty success. That doesn't change this powerful and undeniable fact.
I hate thrift stores!
You have never been to a thrift store? Well you are in for a treat, grab some coffee (or some other caffeine, or stimulant) and join me on my recent journey to a local thrift store, The Salvation Army's Family Store.
Today at the T.S. (thrift store) all pink tags were 50% off. TSs know how to mark down merchandise. There are usually different colored labels at different discount. Just a little insider info for you.
As we walked in we were greeted by this head. The severed head of a mannequin decapitated many years ago. The lifeless eyes staring at you saying, "buy this old Chicago Bears hat for 40 cents". Notice the safety precautions taken by management by putting a tennis ball on the end. Wouldn't want to poke an eye out.
Moving deeper into the store reveals a great looking wooden doll . A local artisan painted a face on this fine piece. It's as if she is ready to slam dunk a basketball. You might want to consider this item for Fathers day, or maybe an anniversary to say to your spouse, "marrying you was a slam dunk".

One of my favorite parts is the standing around. Here my bride is searching for a treasure, I would help her but somebody has to hold up the walls.

After visiting this aisle, I was given the task of holding the treasure. Today we purchase two heads of lettuce made out of some kind of ceramic or metallic something. Also a glass jar. I believe we also took home this basket.

Another thrift store success! So there you have it, a small glimpse into a typical thrift store. How do you survive thrift shopping?

DISCLAIMER: The views expressed in this blog post are not meant
to represent the views of the author. This is pure fiction.
The time spent with my beautiful wife far outweighed any discomfort,
angst, boredom that may or may not have occurred, if it actually
happened. Which it didn't, maybe.