Jul 12, 2011

The One Done Room

I'm Back!!  Just kidding.  Not really.  I just like to say that.  I actually say it all the time.  Every time we enter anywhere that has a door, in fact.  I will throw the door wide, stand in the doorway with my feet apart and hands on my hips and proudly declare, "I'm Back!!"  to anyone who might be there to hear me.  It gets a better response than you would expect.  One time somebody threw me a pizza.   And whenever I am at home I will sneak out the back door just so I can burst through the front door and shout it at my family.  Over and over.  They love it.

Anyhoo, I figured it was time for you to know more about me and my life.  Maybe I'll even tell you my whole life story, one little bit at a time.  Who wouldn't benefit from that?

In case you are new here, we are remodeling our house.  Not so much because that is the popular thing to do right now, but because our house is an ugly, falling apart hole.  We bought it as a fixer-upper, so this was actually the plan, but we really didn't know what we were getting ourselves into.  And slowly, bit by bit, we have been fixing up our 100 year old house.  So slowly in fact that I am going to want to redecorate the bathroom again as soon as we are done because I no longer like the colors I chose 7 years ago when we redid it the first time.   We have lived here 7 1/2 years and we just finally finished one of the rooms.  FINISHED the Boys' bedroom.  Every single thing is done in there.  Well, except carpet, but we have to wait until the whole house is done to put that in (right now it just has a carpet remnant in it).  Wanna See?


Ta Da!!  Richard always said he was going to make a bed, and then one day, he did.  Out of the blue he just started cutting wood.  And Harrison loves it.  For about a month afterward he would say "Thank you for my bed" whenever he was in it. 


 And I made this crib out of toothpicks and tar.  I have a very special gift.


So there it is.  The one done room.  It doesn't usually look like that though.  It usually looks more like this:


which is exactly how a boys' room should look.  And looky there - I moved the toy bin out of the office where it was driving me crazy and stuck it in here under the bed.  I like it.  It gives the space purpose = playing and mess making.

And because I have to assume that you care (because if all of my readers are a bunch of people that don't care, then what are you DOING here?) I will tell you more!

I will tell you that I love my doors.  They were special order from Home Depot.  They are so pretty.  My walls are a very pale gray and I love how it looks next to the bright white of the doors and trim.


The big robot on the wall is by Nicole LaRue. I printed it on what I will call a transparent substrate, for lack of my ability to remember what it is really called, checked out an overhead projector from the library and then traced the robot onto the wall.


On the dresser is a very cute robot I made out of felt.  I found the pattern on Etsy, in a shop called Gulf Coast Cottage.  Ack!  I love him!  He is so cute!  I seem to always make that sound whenever I look at him!


He is sitting in front of this Robot Timeline, which you can see bigger if you click on the picture.


I printed off little pictures of all the most important robots from TV and movies and then just traced them.  (Luckily there are all sorts of nerdy articles written about which robots are the most influential, or I would have had to come up with my own list.).  And I know, Daleks are sorta more like cyborgs, and transformers are aliens, but I don't really care.  We'll let the nerd forums hash it out.  

And now I think I am done.  I'm tired of sitting here.  I've been writing this for like 7 hours.  I don't want to write anymore. Oh wait!  I forgot about the Before Pictures!  We can't have that.  Hang on....................................


Yes, I know, you can't see much.  But that is pretty much how it looked.  That pinkish dingy wallpaper all the way around.  The door was in a different place


And we made the room a couple feet shorter so we would have room for the closet and a laundry room out in the hall.  And look what we found when we pulled off the trim around the windows:


Sorry.  I probably should have warned you.  Gah.  It gives me the heebie jeebies.  Golly, aren't you glad you stayed???

Jul 6, 2011

The 4th of July



Every year we go to an Independance Day breakfast put on by Richard's sister Heather's ward.  This year we even got there early enough to be the first in line.  We waited though.  We are so very shy and proper.

Colin loves to swing.  Harrison thinks swinging is all right, as long as he isn't really moving.


This picture of Richard and I really sorta tells the story of our whole relationship.



Colin & Grandma
Anyhoo, we ate and played on the playground and ran around the baseball diamond for a while.  Usually we see some balloons from the air balloon launch floating over head.  One year a balloon even landed in the parking lot of the park we were eating in.  But there was nothing in the sky this year.



After breakfast we did some sidewalk art at Grandma's house.  Here is Colin throwing a tantrum because I wouldn't let him crawl out into the street.  He has a very strong sense of injustice.


Later at home we made smores.  Only it was too hot to build a fire, so we roasted the marshmallows over candles.


It worked too, for the most part.  And the candles were vanilla scented.  Bonus!  Richard said he loved them.


He's just not too good at showing his emotions.
Finally, under cover of afternoon, we set to work lighting off our fireworks.  Harrison liked the first 2, which was better than I expected.


But then he thought they were scary.


Here is what Colin thought of them.


So, after lighting 3 fireworks, we called it a night and put the kids to bed.  Then Richard and I watched The Doctor Who 2010 Christmas Special.  Ah!  It was so good!  The effects!  The cinematography! The set!  The music!!  Watching the Christmas Special was the perfect way to finish off 4th.