Changes to the blog

I have changed the settings of my blog to private so that I can better regulate who has acess to the details of my life.  Since I also have occasionally used the blog as a venting post I also want to know who can see that so that I'm not causing any more drama or fueling any fires with my frustrations. 

Last night was the first night that Cora stayed overnight with grandpa and grandma while Jason and I went to a Design Central party in Kansas City. I was very nervous leading up to dropping her off but once we left everyone was fine. Of course Saline county was under tornado warnings most of the night so Cora got to spend most of the night in the basement. Amazingly I wasn't nervous about the storms passing through the area while watching them via radar in KC. Of course we could tell they the stroms where missing Gypsum and I know how panicky mom gets when the weather gets bad and how quickly she takes cover, so I knew she was safe. Luckily the tornado lifted near Smolan and passed over Salina before touching down again or we would have had a mess to come home to.

I will try to be better about posting than I have been but my computer is on the fritz and may kill over any day now.


Can you believe that she is already 4 months old?

Life changing

Its amazing how much someone so little can make such a big change in your priorities. In my spare time I find that I have been cleaning house with my life. Websites that I used to visit daily no longer hold  my interest. I find that I no longer lurk on the nest boards or regularly read the blogs that I used to. About the time I decide that I'm done blogging someone mentions that the read my blog to keep up with what I'm doing and I'm convied to keep documenting my life and thoughts.

The more time that I spend at home with Cora the more I want to stay here full time. There are a ton of things on my "want to accomplish" list but they keep getting pushed to the side for snuggly time and wet slobbery kisses and then daddy comes home and has the same problem that I do... we want to play with our happy little girl not clean up the pile in the basement. Someday the house will be clean, Cora's room will be finished, I will be caught up on my scrapbooking and will have tackled my want to craft list but for now I'm off to get drooled on.

Update

It's been a crazy two months since my last post. Jason installed a new ceiling fan in the nursery then we ripped out the carpet. After cleaning the hardwood floor really well we put down a bound carpet remenant and then put together the crib.  We then started moving in the baby's things.


Then Thanksgiving arrived and so did my cousins from Texas.

We had a great week and were sad to see them go home. We again started working on the nursery and the craft room/office and I continued to work on diapers and preparing for Christmas.
And then we got an early present.

Our daughter was born two weeks early on December 13th. She weighed 7lbs 4 oz and was 19 1/2" long. We named her Cora. As per my husband's request, Cora won't grace my blog frequently but I wanted to introduce her.

Since her birth we have celebrated two birthdays and attended six Christmases and still haven't finished her nursery, the craft room or her diapers (thankfully we were given a ton of Huggies). We are doing a ton of laundry, spending a bunch of time in the recliner rocking and eating and changing lots of diapers. We are making progress on our to do list and I will post updates when they are completed.

Nursery Update

Since my last post I have painted the diamonds and removed the tape.


Then, I started connecting the points of my original grid to create the lines of the argyle. I used my ruler the thickness of my ruler to create the lines by first marking the center of each end of the ruler and then lining the centerpoints up on the line created from the grid. I then drew a line on both sides of the ruler.

This time the taping took a little longer.

I still need to go back and clean up my lines and touch up the original blue in a couple of places around the room but I love the final look of the wall and am glad that I didn't talk myself out of it.

Up next...
-a new ceiling fan
-ripping out the carpet
-curtains
-installing the furniture

Nursery Update

While planning the nursery I decided that I really wanted to incorporate the look of argyle. Originally it was going to be a quick detail like this:
 
 (Project Nursery: Henry's Nursery)

I had eventually talked myself out of painting the detail on the wall due to time constraints and how long my to do list was. And then I saw this on pinterest:

(Can not trace it back to original source, if it's yours please let me know)

I was in love and wished that I had found this sooner so I could totally redecorate everything. As I sat there staring at this picture it occured to me that there was no reason that I couldn't still do this without repainting the entire room. This would work with my blue just as well as with their greys. So I got to work cleaning out the craft room. Well most of it so I could get to the wall that I wanted to paint.

Using a white colored pencil I divided the room into thirds horizontally which for me was about 30". After playing around a little bit I figured out that at 27" wide I could fit 5 across the wall which would give me almost sqaure diamonds like the picture. After blocking out a grid, I started finding the center of each section so that I knew where my points should hit. Then I simply connected the dots to form my diamonds.

Here is what a close up of what the wall looked like at this point. It was time to start taping.

I laid tape on the outside of the diamonds that need painted and then used a 6" metal ruler to create a crisp tear at the point. I originally thought that this step was going to be a ton of work but it was really quick and easy once I had the pattern drawn and figured out an easy way to create a crisp tear. Up next painting.

The secret is out

Wow, it's June and I've been quiet for a really long time. Why? I've been keeping a secret and since this blog is linked from my facebook page I couldn't share until I was ready for everyone on facebook to know. Thought we are not annoucing on facebook we have told everyone who shouldn't find out via the internet.

Jason and I are going to have a baby. I'm at 11 weeks and due on Christmas which Jason's family finds a little funny because this cutie was due on Christmas last year.

Between her (the 27th) and Jason's dad (the 23rd) our child will have birthday buddies to celebrate with. (I'm very thankful for this because it's hard to have birthdays that close to Christmas) We are not going to find out what we are having but I have quite a collection of generic items that are on my to make list. Be prepared for lots of baby related crafts for a while.

Since my last post things have been very busy. Jason's littlest brother got married and we discovered that we have a young Marilyn in the family. Who could blame her though it was really hot that weekend.

My sister-in-law's father was given a cancer free diagnosis then ended up in the hospital where they found more cancer and was given 2 weeks to live. It was a crazy three weeks, where we did anything we could to help and took care of the kids so that she could be with him the last few days. He died the morning after Derek's wedding. Our entire family traveled to celebrate his life. The kids can always find a way to keep us smiling even though the hardest times in life.

 

When June hits so do the long days on the farm. If I'm lucky I get to see Jason before dark.

Yep that's him. Last week was the rush to get the beans planted and before that the corn. Now they are working on getting the combines and trucks ready for harvest.  Area farmers are hoping for an average yeild because there are a lot of sad looking fields this year. Jason hasn't even gone to see what ours looks like but he is not very optimistic. Hopefully he will be pleasently surprised. If you live in the Midwest be prepared for combines and lots of truck traffic in the next couple of weeks.