Seriously?

Nelson and I are off to pick up Amya early from school!...another snow storm.

(Our decorations seem a bit redundant now)

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Nelson thought Rudolph might like to play with the wooden spoon puppets.



 

Rudolph did not.

Ice, Ice Baby

What a week!  It was fun and beautiful.....at first. 
Then the weather did something naughty...it didn't do what the forecasters "predicted" it would!  The warm up didn't come, but the freezing rain did. 
In summery:  the trees turned into giant icicles.  The roads turned into a skating rink.  The power lines turned into a joke!  For two nights we had a slumber party on the living room floor (which the kids loved) because a tree was leaning towards the bedrooms, with candles lit (which the kids loved) because we didn't have power.

ICE WAS EVERYWHERE!

  But we stayed warm and cozy with our wood stove, clean with our gas powered hot water heater, and fed with our gas oven and stove top!  (I'm so thankful to the previous owners who made all these decisions for us!)

The ice is still outside.  Friends still don't have power, five days later.  And everyone seems a bit frazzled.  But...

...we all fared better than our lilac tree!

Home Tour: Playroom

Welcome to the CRAZY room on our house.

We tackled this room last year!...ikea shelving really helped clean this room up!

 I bought fabric from fabric.com and stapled it behind all the shelving, bookshelf and dollhouse (stole that idea from Kara).

 Doesn't this room scream that it needs a fresh coat of paint?  I'm thinking white, to brighten up the space. (beige, beige, beige, blah, blah, blah)

Music!

I painted an old frame white, which we call, "The Art Gallery."  We rotate projects in and out of there.  We also have a map up so we can show the kids where we are going every time we get on a plane to visit family!

 We put Amya's old crib mattress on the floor, originally for a "quiet space", but of course it turned into a trampoline!  I'm very grateful for our trampoline during weeks like this one (snow, freezing rain, rain, freezing rain, snow, trees snapping all over the place).  I made the sheet for the trampoline using Dana's tutorial.

 My favorite thing about this room is all the original works of art from so many different people!

This story page was part of a college assignment of Auntie T's!  (snagged that up right away!)

 Dan made the doll house, which is decorated with Aunt Danielle's Christmas ornaments (how could I put those in a box for 11 months out of the year?!).  The moustache skateboard leaning up on the right is Aunt Danielle's handywork as well!

Uncle John painted this panda bear for me when I was in high school.  I've brought it with me everywhere I've lived.  I love her.

I actually pulled this beautiful piece out of our friend's scrap fire wood bin!  It's original intent was to be part of a handmade wooden balance bike.  Slip of the saw = lucky me!!

That's it for now!  Doing these posts has given me the "renovation" bug! (sorry Dan)  Time to put some of the new ideas to work! (thanks Kara!)

Yuck!

This is what we all think about the weather lately!!  Yuck!

Home Tour: Guest Room/Sewing Room

 I just finished organizing this room!  I love to sew, but I've never been very good at organizing my material.  It took me a week of naps, but I'm (mostly) done!  Yeah!

 The color in the bottom picture is more accurate of what the walls look like.

 I have a little more work to do, but for the most part this room is ready for both company and a new sewing project! (Any takers??)

 Of course there have to be toys at hand, for when I don't quite finish a project before Nelson wakes!  When Amya keeps me company, she goes through all the ribbon and "decorates"! (is it any wonder this room has always been a disaster?!)

...still snowing!

Next....playroom!

Ask...

...and you shall receive!

  We've been waiting and waiting for a good snowfall.  I guess 18 in. overnight is "good"!

(can you spot Rudolph?  He loved "digging" tunnels through the snow)

 When you're a little guy like Nelson, 18 in is A LOT of snow!

 Boot:  FAIL!

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What do you do when the snow turns to freezing rain?  Bring it inside!

 If you're Nelson, you play with it in the bath tub (and polish your tractors with Mommy's face scrubber)

If you're Amya, you move right on to crafting! (more on that later)

Home Tour: Living Room/Kitchen/Dinning Room

I recently had a request to photograph some of our house.  It occurred to me that half of our family and lots of our friends have never been to our house {   :(   }

So, here we go!

It might take me a few posts.  I'm starting with the living room, kitchen and dinning room because those were the cleanest! (after each picture was taken, the kids picked up their toys and moved them into the next room...so this house never actually looks like it does in these pictures!)

My dad painted this room three times last winter (thank you, Daddy!) when my parents were visiting because I just couldn't pick the right color.  We are "lightening" it up from the overdose of beige that is was.  Third time was a charm!

 I still have our snowflakes hanging up on the wall!   We haven't decided what to do with that wall yet, so they can stay.  They are happy little snowflakes.

At the end of the living room is the foyer, where our computer and desk live.  You can see almost half of it in this picture, and half of the front door.  I'm thinking about painting the foyer the same color as the living room (it is beige right now) and the front door the same as the trim.  Any thoughts?

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 Here is our 1950's kitchen!...metal cabinets and all!  I'm testing paint swatches on the walls, trying to decide how to "de-beige" this room.  I love all white kitchens, but I don't know if it would work here.  I had to lighten these photos because our kitchen does not get much light!  The beige must go!

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 This is our lovely yellow dinning room!  It used to be green (look at the trim in the corner above the wood stove), and it wasn't a bad color...just dark, and the green trim made it feel even darker.  I love the color now!

 Our dinning room opens into the kitchen and the living room (as you can see in this photo).  The green metal cart is a restored thrift store find.  (Can you spot Amya's "hording shelf"?)

And there you have it!...3 rooms down!