Too bad if you can’t, because here is a picture of sweet little Jenna Rose
No more nieces due anytime soon, but our exciting news is that we’re going to go see 2 and possibly 3 of the new babies in October!
7lb 15oz,
Waiting for news of a new niece today!
My grandfather always used to make mustaches on and blacken the teeth of people’s pictures in the newspaper. It was just something he’d doodle if he was sitting somewhere, not a serious activity or anything, but it was really funny and unexpected to come across altered pictures while reading the news. The boys never got to meet him, but they’ve inherited his love of altering pictures. Yesterday they spent all of their free time with the little local papers , recent ads , and magazines. Several times they were laughing so hard they were crying at their artistry.
This was one of my favorites:
Look out world if they inherit my love of spray paint.
My sister Wendy’s baby Anna was born first as expected, but Baby D, my other sister’s baby is hanging out in the waiting womb past her due date. Scott’s sister Lisa’s baby decided to take advantage of the pause in action and crossed the finish line - 15 days before her due date - today! Congratulations Lisa! And I’ll post more details when I know them!
Our library has a cart with discarded and donated books for sale. They used to be 1.00 for hardback and .50 for softcover but they have recently changed it to .25 for anything. Saturday I got 9 issues of Better Homes and Gardens Christmas Ideas from 1954-1963 and have been poring over them ever since. Christmas crafts have not really changed that much over the years, but everything else has!
By the end of the school year I usually have a list of projects a mile long of all the things I want to do with all the time I’ll have when Scott is off for the summer. And then we go to MI for a couple weeks and then settle into a summer routine and somehow there isn’t that much more free time and then Scott is back to work again. I’m not complaining, it just always surprises me that my ambitions and my reality are so different. I did manage to accomplish some of the things from my list in the last week or so though, and we’ve already settled into our school-year routine so maybe I won’t put that list away just yet. . .
I made another portable chicken coop - yes, even better than the last. If IKEA were to start selling chicken coops I think they might be something like this one - inexpensive, little waste, portable, and multi-purpose in design. A few little bumps to smooth out still, I’m building another one now in hopes that evolution might work out the glitches.
I’ve read for years about people who make their own laundry soap and been vaguely interested, but it always seemed like too much work and my usual laundry detergent always went on sale for really cheap every couple months so I never bothered. I’ve noticed that my usual detergent just does not work as well anymore (reformulated) and it is never on sale, so when I came to the end of my stockpile recently I decided to give the homemade recipe a try. I used this basic recipe, but I just chopped up the fels naptha and poured a pot of boiling water on it to dissolve it and then mixed everything together on a 5 gallon bucket. I added about 25 drops of lemongrass essential oil to scent it. So far it works great and smells good.
In other thrifty laundry news, I now have a clothesline! I’ve been using the deck railing for years because there isn’t a good place to have a clothesline across the yard, but I saw this idea and it works perfectly for us. We even had a double shepard’s hook that we weren’t using.
And to continue the craziness I started doing(or not doing?) this too. I’m about 2 weeks in, and so far so good!
Old houses like ours don’t usually have much storage space, so when I came across this idea a few years ago I put it to use right away. Clear shoe organizers that hang on doors are about $7 and have 24 pockets in them. In this one I have most of the kids’ art supplies and frequently used but easy to lose little things. Everything is easy to find, easy to put away, and easy to re-organize (I just did this today so I took a picture.)
I have another one for small craft stuff, one for bathroom stuff, hung in the appropriate places.
I use one for seed and labeling organizing/storage, but that one I fold up and keep in a ziplock bag (to keep the seeds fresh and because I don’t need it out all the time.)
I’ve been washing and folding fabric like crazy - all the freecycled fabric and ribbon I got was from a smoking home (she mentioned that in her posting) so I had to wash it before I could put it away. I’m keeping a gallon of vinegar by the washing machine - that’s my new trick to get out any funky smells.
You can get an idea of what an shockingly huge amount of ribbon she gave me from this picture.
In addition to all the free fabric I’ve been really lucky at goodwill recently. I have some things in mind that I want to make so I know what I’m looking for - and I’ve really been finding it!
I went to Goodwill last night with some friends before we went out to celebrate my b-day, one of the many things I found was a bolt of this fabric. This morning I unwrapped the bolt to get it ready to wash and then we had to take the boys to art camp. While we were gone it got rained on - so it is wet in this picture. Pretty much whenever I hang clothes or fabric out to dry it rains - I’m taking credit for alleviating the drought in this area of GA!
Since we were in the area again today Scott and I went to goodwill again and I found these boots - these are the boots that stomp through my dreams! They fit perfectly and are roomy enough for thick socks. I’ve been planning on spending a lot of money on the perfect boots someday and now I have them for practically nothing.
It rained about an inch while we were gone today and more than two inches two days ago - Hazel enjoyed playing in our flooded front yard.
This is the main intersection in the town where the boys have art camp. It was seriously like being in a time warp. There were tons of kids riding bikes around town - boys about 10 either riding a two-year old sized bike or an adult bike that they couldn’t reach the seat of - being followed by a dog - not a helmet in sight and most of them barefoot! It was such a cute town and such a beautiful area.
And the most exciting news today - one of my nieces is on her way!
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