Operation Stocking

When Mark and I got married, I started making him a stocking.  This was in 2010.  Every year, my big plan was to have it finished by that Christmas, and every year the holidays would come and go with no stocking.  The problem is that I would get into the holiday spirit by about Thanksgiving every year, so I'd pull it out and start working on it.  Then I would get busy or get to a step on the stocking kit that was especially labor-intensive, so I would put it away for a few days, weeks.... and it would never get finished.  And who wants to work on a Christmas stocking after Christmas has passed?  Come January, it would inevitably get stashed away for another ten months.

So the stocking was never finished.  Well I recently suddenly found myself with {a lot} of time on my hands, so I asked Mark to bring the stocking kit up to the hospital.  And what do you know, in a matter of days, I have it finished!

Everyone who I showed it to all had the same idea - might as well start working on two more for the babies, while I am sitting here all day with endless time.  At first I kept thinking noooo, I won't really be here that long.  (Ha. Wishful thinking.)  I'd just get another one started and have it sit for years and years.  But then it really started to sound like I will actually be here for weeks and weeks still (tear), so Mark and I got on Amazon and picked out a couple patterns for our little babies.  Why not?  Let's see if having entire days with NOTHING on the agenda will help me get these whipped out in no time, or at least in time for the twins' first Christmas.  What do we think?  Can I do it??

New Year, New Look

Well, well what do we have here?  A spruced up blog?!  Yes.  It is true.  I gave up on trying to figure out how to make my little corner of the Internet look cute on my own, and instead turned to the shops of Etsy to find someone who could help me out.  Enter Angie.  She rocks my socks off.

I also cleaned the house today too, if that is exciting news to anyone out there.  Christmas is officially boxed up and back on the shelves and I {think} I managed to vacuum up all the glitter that fell of my {two} Christmas trees.  I was really into glitter this year.  I crafted up this topper for our tree, using a cardboard initial letter (less than $10 at Joann's), some gold spray paint, good ol' Elmers glue and GLITTER.

We are already five days into 2013.  What do I want from this year?  Health. Luck. Love. Adventure.

Any maybe some more blog followers?

Cheers to Chairs!

Yesterday I noticed that there was an estate sale going on a few houses down from us.  I really wanted to check it out, not only to see what was for sale, but also to look at the house.  I love looking inside people's houses.  When I drive/walk/run around neighborhoods in the evening, I am always looking for one that has the windows open and the lights on, so I can see inside.  I like to see how people decorate and set up their rooms.  I am not alone in this, yes?

So anyways, I recruited Mark to go check out the sale with me.  It was definitely an original owner that lived or was living in there, cause it was O.L.D.  Old.  Old appliances, old carpet, old wooden built ins and paneling.  Old.  And all kinds of old stuff for sale, including an Atari that was $90.  We passed on that, but did not pass on this gem of a chair, that cost me a whopping $5.  Mark helped me carry it down the street to its new home.

I was so jazzed to do a real Pintrest-y inspired re-do on this chair.  So excited that I immediately went to Home Depot AND Lowe's to get some supplies.  I came home and sanded it down, which immensely improved its appearance.  

Today I took it back outside and gave it several coats of a spray paint primer.

I would have kept going with the re-do, but it started to super rain.  And I had a paper to write, so I called it a day for the chair, for now.

But, my chair adventures did not stop there.  This week is bulk trash pickup in the neighborhood, so Mark and I did a lap around the block just now.  We were wanting to pick up some pallets that we saw out on a curb last night, because hello, Pinterest is full of pallet projects!  And this was apparently the week to get rid of your pallets, because they are all over the curbs around here.  So we hopped in the 4Runner and hit the streets.  Before we even made it to the pallets, we saw an even better find: a pair of wooden adirondak chairs.  We have been wanting some of these chairs since we moved in, so we wasted no time loading ‘em up.  I don’t have a picture because it was too dark outside, but let’s just say these will need a little sprucing up as well.

Are you tired of talking about chairs yet?  No?  OK, here’s a picture of my anniversary chair, in action in its new spot in our bedroom.  Please ignore all the laundry scattered around it.

And finally, Gus wants it to be known that he has already claimed this spot as his own.