New phone, dirt, and crusty babies

I tried out some of the special features on my new phone last night. This one made me laugh. It has promise. It's called depth of field, so it fuzzes out the background around the subject. Of course the one I got it to work perfectly on Chloe was giving me a death stare. 

 Oh much better. But not in depth of field mode.

 Why yes, she is eating a lime. Just try to take it away and suffer her wrath.

 I made these with my activity day girls at church. Genevieve wanted one, so we made it for her last night. She loves it.

 I finished the green squares for Aaron's quilt last night.

 Chloe loves this gears toy. She's super particular about how  it can be setup though and she's very vocal in her displeasure if you do it wrong. Catching a theme yet? Chloe is nearing two and her wrath is ramping up.

 We got out the nerf guns and she was so happy to have me help her shoot hers. Hey mom, let's dump the entire bag out too. Fun!

 Naked baby! She loves taking selfies these days.

 And she and Aaron decided to pretend to nap in my bed one day this week. Cute little goobers.

 Hey  mom, take a picture of me eating these wild onions!

 More selfies.

 It got warm this week for a few days before it dropped again and Chloe had a ball in my garden one day. Aaron had a ball to, dumping dirt all over her. I found a handful of dirt even in her diaper, lol.

 Mom, this isn't safe? Too bad! I'm eating lunch laying across my highchair and the table, so help me!

Beginning of March

Chloe is picking out her clothes these days and her outfits are pretty fantastic. Sundress, furry vest, puddle jumpers. Winner!

 We went to the kids' school for a book parade. Genevieve dressed up as Anna and carried her requisite Frozen book.

 Spencer dressed up as a blue crayon and carried his book The Day the Crayons Quit.

 They were so cute.

 Genevieve the rockstar. I love that grin.

 Chloe has decided Genevieve's bed is her bed. This is how she spends big chunks of her nap time.

 My mother-in-law sent me the hugest box of scraps. It is amazing. I'm making a scrappy postage stamp quilt with some of it. I've got five red squares done for now. It's going to be for Aaron and he picked the quilt, which is a rainbow pattern of sorts.

 I picked up a bike for Genevieve on a rocking steal of a deal at Aldi for only $24. And am now hiding it in plain site. Haha!

 One day this week Chloe woke up sad and wanted to cuddle on the couch instead of doing anything else. She actually fell back asleep on me. It was awesome. I'm relishing all those times because I don't think there's that many left, relatively speaking that is. She turns two in June. That's hardly any time away!

Playing in the water

My friend hired me to make a bed for their toddler. It turned out great. I love this color and the farmhouse bed style is adorable. 

It was super warm this last week and so both Friday and Saturday we headed out to enjoy the weather. Saturday we went to the lake and the kids had a grand ole time. The water was still cold though, so we did not much more than dip our toes, save Spencer, who was all over swimming. He was a popsicle by the end, but a very happy one.

Friday we went to the Botanical Garden and went and played in the creek in our favorite little corner of it. The kids got muddy and wet and thoroughly happy.

Finishing a few more things

I've been on a quest since the new year to freshen up our house and replace some things that have worn out as I can fit them in my budget so when we move it won't feel quite so much like we're hemorrhaging money. So I've gotten new dish cloths and kitchen rags and hot pads and am working on replacing other linens. It makes a huge difference. I was really surprised, pleasantly so, about how much it really does freshen things up. We've gotten a few bigger items too, like replacing our couch, and I tackled repainting several pieces of furniture that were looking rather worn. Lastly I figured out a way to display my paint-by-numbers. I started all of these projects at the same time, so it got kind of overwhelming, but this weekend I finished them all up! 

I had wanted to make frames for my paint-by-numbers that are done on a thin canvas board instead of a stretched canvas. They don't look that great just hung on the wall because they are so thin. So I made these frames. I fiddled around with the stain and they ended up three different colors, albeit the one on the right is not as dark as it looks in this shot. But i'm quite happy with how they turned out and if I paint anymore on this type of board I'll mount them again like this so i can have a grouping. 

 We built a fire yesterday afternoon and ended up spending a couple hours outside. It's not warm enough yet for the bugs to have come back, but we didn't need jackets. So basically perfection. It was really great. We've had these super long logs sitting around for a year. It's junky wood that burns super fast, so rather than taking the time to cut them in half we just tossed them on top. Eventually they burned out the middle and I chopped them in half with the ax and fit them actually in the fire pit, but it was amusing to toss them on so huge.

 I moved my computer into the kitchen last week, which has been a fabulous change for quite a few reasons. But it did take our TV watching device out of the living room, so we had to find another solution for Friday night movie night. We've had this low end projector for years. It really isn't that great, but I got it a long time ago to replace a previous one that finally died, and it works well enough if it's totally dark. So we had a movie-watching party and a dance party afterward, clothing optional. :)

 I made these beauties this week. They're 30 inches square and six inches tall and the kids adore them. Genevieve sleeps on hers at night. They get dragged all over the house. I have one more that isn't stuffed yet because I ran out of stuffing. I foresee lots of use out of these.

 I finished painting my second dresser. I like how the pair turned out! It turned out to be a nice room update.

 I repainted and added a clear coat to the kids' nightstands. Chloe doesn't have one of her own yet as we got them last Christmas when she was still in a crib. She and Genevieve share one for now. They look all fresh and new. I ran out of the bright green Aaron's used to be, so I did his in this darker green. He doesn't hate it, so win there!

Finishing projects

This was a week of finishing up projects. I have a tendency of taking on too many at the same time and then my mental space feels super cluttered and I can't relax until I finish them all. I'll have a stack of books to read and a sewing project and a couple wood projects and a painting all at the same time and then I feel totally overwhelmed by so many things I want to do but compete for my limited free time. It's kind of ridiculous, but oh well. Once I finish all these things I'll probably do the same thing again without realizing it and the cycle will start over, haha!

So first up Bill had the great idea to re-purpose the foam from our old couch cushions and make an ottoman of sorts. I made it last night and it turned out really nice! It's too squishy to sit on comfortably, at least as an adult, but it's real comfy to rest your feet on and it's nice and square. 

We also let the kids pick out fabric to make giant floor pillows. I got a bunch of duck fabric and I still need to get more filling, but I can make the shells for now. 

 Here's the router table I finished this week. I made it without the bottom shelf and it was super top heavy. I didn't really factor in that that table on top is really small, so the cart maybe should be bigger. But then I added the bottom shelf and put my box of router stuff on it and it pretty well fixed that problem. I did some routing with it on Friday and it works great and I can just step on the edge to add more stability.

 I finished this paint-by-number this week. Routing grooves out for a picture frame is what I did with the router. The pieces are all stained but I ran out of clear coat and my re-order doesn't get here until tomorrow, so these are on hold.

Not pictured is my second dresser that I finished painting. It also only needs clear coat to be finished.

I also finished a series by Brandon Sanderson that didn't have a happy ending, which was totally shocking. He's a wily writer. That's a huge reason why I like his work. Did not expect how the Evil Librarians series ended!

This week looks like it will be a sewing week. I've finally caught up, save for the clear coat, on all the furniture projects I've decided on. My MIL is sending me a huge box of her quilting fabric scraps and I'm going to work on a postage stamp quilt plus the floor pillows. I might even give the quilt to one of my kids. Or maybe not. Haha! Depends on how it turns out and how much I like it.

First week of February

I've been hard at work on several different projects this weekend.

 I intended to use my Java gel stain to update the color of our rather boring dressers this weekend. However, I tried several methods and could not for anything get the stain to take on the wood. It was just too smooth. It wouldn't soak in or stick or anything. And to do a real stripping process is messy. I wasn't that interested. So i decided to try painting with some gray I have and my black glaze I used on my nightstands. Here's the completed project. It looks sort of space age to me,but it's growing on me and it will match my color scheme much better than the light oak color.

 This picture is super dark, but if you look close you'll see Chloe and Genevieve are cuddled up together asleep on Genevieve's bed. This is exactly the reason we gave her the full-size bed we have around rather than a twin. Cutest thing ever. They slept until 7:30 Sunday morning too! Of course they tried to repeat last night and it didn't work at all, but hey, I foresee more of this in the future.

 We bought a couch yesterday! It is so comfy. Once we move and have room for it I will probably get the love seat and chair options that match this, but for now we only have room for the one. I really ought to have looked years ago for what couches go for because we totally could have upgraded from our sad, old, hand-me-down before and just never bothered to check.

 I got an idea from my friend's Instagram months ago for DIY frames for my paint-by-numbers. This is what I came up with. I like them. I have one more I'm nearly done with and then I will hang them over my couch. I like the rustic look for these outdoor prints.

 Chloe is always pulling stuff out of our cupboards to find little corners to climb in.

And here's Chloe in one of her older siblings' bathrobes. She is just at the cutest stage. Everything she does is adorable. We'v got to enjoy this golden stage before she turns two and turns into a terror for a couple years. Hahaha!

This month flew by

 Sister play=Chloe sticking her finger up Genevieve's nose. Hahaha!

 Just chilling out, reading books on Genevieve's bed after school. That was a fabulous afternoon.

 Chloe got her own bed this week and she loves it! She rolls off some nights, but mostly she's doing great. Naptimes are interesting because she has to be really tired before she'll fall asleep, and that usually overlaps with school pickup. So there's been a lot of walking into a sweet baby sleeping and waking her up to strap her in and go pick up the biggies. Poor younger siblings. They get woken up more than the older two ever did.

She woke up crusty and I wrapped her up on my lap and she fell back asleep! That's unheard of! Cutie little girl. I'll take the sweet napsoccasionally.