Room Make Over (WITH PICTURES!)

Monday I went to JoAnn Fabric and bought...fabric!I bought what is pictured below plus a bolt of natural muslin, bringing the total purchase to 31 yards of fabric that beautiful morning. I decided to use the top and the bottom of this pile for the girls' room. 

 Anna's first block.

 All of Anna's blocks sans border

 Nicole's blanket top sans border

 Before pictures of the girls' room.

 no, I didn't clean before I took the pictures.

 Nicole moved into the front room.

  This is a picture with paint on one wall. It's the wall without the window. You can see a small difference. That's the trouble with using a cellphone to document things.

 Green wall.

 I couldn't finish the edging until the next morning because both colors had to dry.

 finished walls.

 building the bunk bed.

 tape for stripes

 A few stripes. (We are going to add some more. We ran out of frog tape.)

 Another trip to JoAnn for batting. It was on sale for president's day. Sale ends 2-21.

  I asked my friend, Kate, how much batting I should buy and she told me to get a buttload. 

 a proverbial buttload of batting. 8 packages.

 The back of Anna's quilt.

 The back of Nicole's quilt...already 'quilted.'

 I burned out the motor of my sewing machine. It's dead. I had to finish the project on Nicole's. I've ordered a new machine and all will be right in the world again sometime between 2-28 and 3-3.

 Anna with her blanket. (She also got a haircut this week.)

 The beds made. I'm making pillow cases tomorrow.

 A view of the girls' room after everything is put back together again.

 The girls love it and I'm really happy with out it all turned out!!

I'm not one to share how much I spend on things. I don't want to brag and most people don't care. BUT, with all the fabric I bought (Remember 30+ yards?), the new bunk bed, a new mattress and paint, this project was less than $450 dollars. I'm pretty happy with that.

*can I use this as a young women value experience or project? Any ideas?? Would it count even though I didn't think of it until after it was done?  good works maybe? I don't really know.

Post with pictures!

So they aren't the best quality pictures, from my cell phone, but they're pictures!

I painted my nails on January 1, all them pink except for my thumb. I made this little baby. I had it on my thumb during church and felt kind of embarrassed, so I removed it later. But for a minute,  I thought it was cook. Even though I do not heart cross bones and skulls.

I made this shirt for Nicole. Over the years I've tried this pattern 4 or 5 times and I was happy it finally turned out. She's pretty happy to be modeling it for you today.

 We had an awesome sunset the other night when I was on my way home from taking Gina to the airport. The sky was bright pink off in the horizon.

 Ken is the ward mission leader. Every Friday the Elders come over for about an hour and watch videos on http://mormon.org/. Matthew was sitting the midst of them this last Friday so I took some pictures. I like seeing him with the elders.

 I ate sushi the other day. I took a picture for my friend, Kate who hates sushi. Kharma hit me early. The next morning I was sick and felt crummy all that day. I don't think I'll be eating sushi for a long time, if ever.

 We had refreshments after the adult session of Stake Conference on Saturday. 4 seminary tables clear full of pie. It was a beautiful site.

 This is my kitchen. It has the best sewing/crafting counter ever. It's more than 3 feet wide and 8 feet ling. I LOVE IT!

Matthew doing a crossword puzzle with a big pencil.

Resolutions Schmesolutions!

I don't typically make New Years Resolutions. Last year I set a few goals and didn't get one of them accomplished.  I didn't even copy the one I stole correctly. I'm that lame.

I am going to try one more time because I really do want to make a goal and succeed at it.  Here are my goals for 2011.

• Finish Personal Progress
• Run a 5k (at Whaling Days in Silverdale - the last weekend of July.)
• Drink enough water everyday
• Read the Book of Mormon twice. (1 chapter a day and 2 on Sundays is all it takes to read the B.O.M in 6 months. Give it a try! I know you'll like it. )

That's all I've got in that area.

Each year I try to do something new that I've never done before. To me those milestones are equally as important as resolutions.  Here are my accomplishments for 2010.

• I spent 2 full months without my husband while working full time, taking care of my kids and getting my house packed up to move to Washington.
• I swam in Long Lake fully clothed. (Swimming fully clothed is not a first, the Long Lake part is.)
• I ate eel. It was delish.
• We welcomed Anna into our home.
• Played 'music' on the violin and the viola
• I ate corned beef and cabbage. It's now one of my favorite foods and we have eaten it 5 or 6 times this year. (thanks Liz and Ben!)
• I am homeschooling.
• I made a rag doll...5 of them.
• I played a song on the organ using the pedals. (In the privacy of my own home.)

I think that is all.

One last note.  My little brother came to stay the night at our house on Tuesday. When they were packing up on Wednesday he wanted to vacuum my front room. I told him he'd have to do it using the hose because the belt was broken. I had plans to go to the store and buy a new belt on Friday and told him not to worry about it. He called me yesterday and told me not to buy one, he picked one up for me. I thought that was very nice of him. Last night when we got to a different brother's house he had me open a gift. He wrapped the belt. I like opening presents so this was all fine and good with me. The gift had an old USB thumb drive package in it and a note that said 'Have your kids open the big present.' This actually bothered me a little because he had a huge box that he wanted my kids to open and I knew they were going to be disappointed to find a small vacuum belt in it. But I played along. The kids opened the present to find not only a vacuum belt but a new vacuum to use that belt! Adam bought me a new vacuum.  What a huge blessing that is! Ours has been dying for almost a year but I keep 'fixing' it to make it last longer. Now that we have a new vacuum I'm going to let Matthew take the old one apart and we're going to try to build something new with it.  I think that is a great idea.  THANKS ADAM FOR THE VACUUM! We LOVE LOVE LOVE it!