An update.....Finally......

I know it's shocking....I am finally updating my blog! I just never take the time to sit down and do it. The past few months have been busy with lots of stuff happening. So, here are a few things that I've been meaning to post...

This is a quilt that I've been working on. I just love these fabrics. I still have 2 borders to add and I'm thinking I'll use the striped material to back it ....

My friends and I made this quilt for another friends wedding. It was a whirlwind. We made it start to finish in 4 days....talk about hectic. It's one of those projects that was good in theory, but then reality sets in and you realize that you should have left yourself more time or picked out a gift from a store.. However, I have to admit that the finished product was beautiful.

In the same week that we tackled the quilt, we ended up in another pickle...literally! We got 5 cases of free cucumbers and decided to make pickles to put in our storage. Mom and I had fun with the process and we made some delicious dills and sweets.

My friend Wendy and I made curtains for her roommate. We made them for her doorway and her window. I think they turned out awesome. I want to make some curtains for me now. We'll see if that actually ever happens ;)

She doesn't have a door, so we wanted to make them look nice from the hallway too. So, we put a sheer overlay on the back. I really like how it looks.

Here are the set for the window.

This next picture is for Sarah - how's this for an inspiration purse!?

I love it!

This summer, I was in Idaho and went to Tautphus Park Zoo with my mom and Jer and Heidi's family. We had a great time. This video is of the Gibbon monkeys that we saw. They make the loudest noise ever and were hilarious to watch because they entertained themselves by swinging around the cage and then slamming into the glass to scare the people watching. This one's for Jer & Heidi.

The following pictures are a series of cakes I've made over the past few months for people's birthdays. There are a few more, but I don't have pictures. Breanne wanted the Molten Lava cake from Chili's, so we made a copy cat recipe. They were delicious.

That's all for now! I will try to post more often!!!!

Projects...

As some of you know, Mom has had an orchid cactus for years. I always think it's an ugly plant and that she should get rid of it....However, my opinion has changed. This is the very first time it has ever bloomed and it is huge (About 8 inches across) and gorgeous.

This is a picture of the sewing room. Yesterday, we pulled up the sewing room floor for the 3rd and hopefully last time in 3 years. We originally tore out the carpet and painted and then replaced the floor with vinyl tile. The tile was defective and within 24 hours had peeled itself off the floor by curling itself upward. We replaced that tile with m0re vinyl tile. It looked beautiful, but within a few weeks it was cracking at the edges and then big chunks of it were coming up. So, after dealing with that for the past 3 years, Mom has decided to get it replaced by the professionals. So, here is the empty sewing room and office.

So, where did ALL that stuff go? It went back into the ORIGINAL sewing room in the house which was Sarah's bedroom and which we now refer to as the laundry folding room. Here is what it looks like. This is everything except for a big wardrobe and a dresser that we had to shove into the storage room. The first two pictures show the room half full.

And that's not the only big project we've tackled in the last week. We spent last Friday and Saturday laying sod in the back yard. Here are a few pictures.

This past Wednesday, we had 6 guys from church come over and carry the extremely heavy garden boxes back onto the beach and fill them with dirt. The yard is slowly coming back together. Aren't you so sad that you aren't here to help? You're missing out on all the fun!!!

Haircut and Highlights

It's been 5 months since my last haircut so I decided that it was time to get one. Here are some pictures of the new do....I had to take the pictures through the mirror to get the right angle. The highlights are super subtle, but I think they'll get lighter once I've been out in the sun doing all that yard work....

And while I'm at it, here is the yard in it's mostly finished state. All we need is a lawn chair, a beach umbrella and a kiddie pool :)

A Yard in Chaos

So, we had to take down the tree between the garden and the fire pit. Dad asked the neighbor if he wanted the wood and if he would help cut down the tree. A few minutes later, he was half way up the tree with a chain saw.

Here are Ben and Dad watching from below. I'm so glad he didn't fall. That's a long way down.

About 15 minutes later, the tree looked like this....

Here is John, inspecting the hole he is digging for the septic tank.

Nothing like having a huge hole in your back yard.

This truck was supposed to back down to the end of the tennis court and dump a load of sand. There wasn't enough room between the tree and the hole for the guy to get back there. He tried, but he got this far, jumped out of the truck and looked at the distance between the hole and the tire and said "I'm just not that brave" So he dumped it at the side of the house and they scooped it up and drove it back with the backhoe.

Here is the truck that delivered the tank on Friday morning. That tank looks like a concrete vault. I have a video of the tank being dropped in, but I couldn't get it to load. I'll try to get that up eventually.

Here it sits, waiting to be hooked up to the pipe.

This is the first day of excavating the leech field.

Nice big pile of dirt.

We woke up on Monday morning and it had snowed. Talk about bad timing. They drove backhoes in mud and kept on digging.

Here is the backyard shot from the end of the tennis court. Tha's about 2 feet deep.

Here is the backyard Monday morning, before they started moving dirt out of the back. They didn't want to get trucks stuck in the mud, but they had to move the dirt somewhere so they could keep working.

So, they dumped it here for now. Dad and Mom decided they can level out that part of the back. Some of that dirt will be hauled off to our neighbor's yards.

In an effort to save trucking expenses, we had them dump a bunch of dirt in the front. Those ruts are 18 inches in some places.

Here is the leech field being put down. Those are big plastic domes that connect to make a sort of tunnel. There will be 4 rows like that and they will all be covered with sand.

This is how it looks after 2 rows have gone in. Sand Castle anyone?

Here is the view from the railroad tie garden.

I'll try to put up more tomorrow....