Grandma's dress re-invented

A long long time ago, my Grandma and Grandpa Boren served a mission in Mexico and then traveled back several times over the years. On one of the trips Grandma picked up several of these dresses. They are beautifully embroidered and made of very nice fabric but they have an odd fit so they have sat in my parent's basement for years. A while ago I took them thinking I would use them for "something someday"; well someday finally came when Aunt Rosie announced they are having a baby girl this Summer.

I used the existing embroidered hem and made a simple dress with orange bias tape neck and sleeves. I'm shocked it took me so long to discover a bias tape keyhole back closure - easy shmeazy!

This:

To This:

my nightmare

I get nightmares when I am anxious about something - anxiety dream etc. Well, I dreamed as I was waking that the carpet was delayed again and would not be put in today as scheduled. I laughed it off and we proceeded to move as much as we could off the to be carpeted area - see below.

About 7:30 our carpet guy called with the bad news that our carpet that was supposed to arrive at the warehouse from the manufacturer back east on Saturday did not show and they had NO idea where it was. Their best guess is it is on a truck to Boston! Now, Ryan has driven from AZ to Boston - it is very far away. I am a little discouraged and wondering how much of the house to put back together while we wait. I guess that's what we get for going with a local, small dealer and not Home Depot, but they have been so nice and gave us a great deal - it's just a messed up order - grrrrr. Maybe this is to inspire us to NOT buy a fixer-upper.

I did the put the couch back in the family room so the kids can have their Sesame Street.

random stuff to do without carpet

We were supposed to get our carpet today but it didn't ship out on time, so more waiting (insert Indigo Montoya, "I hate waiting." Although hate is an uh-oh word around here.)

Anyhow, without carpet we decided to do a little history before they cover it up, so we each wrote a bit about ourselves on the floor of the family room. The kids had a great time.

 

dia de los presidentes

We were supposed to spend President's Day weekend in Utah at Aunt Mel's show and fate was not kind. Isaac woke up at 3 am Thursday morning retching but I still loaded up at 4 with all the kids determined to go. An hour into the drive the brakes went ka-put. Now, I don't know about you, but I am convinced brakes are necessary (especially when headed to snowy Utah) so we headed home with a prayer we would not hit any red lights (we didn't). We got it towed that night and fixed the next day and found ourselves with a weekend at home.

I painted, the kids played for HOURS and HOURS outside (not having carpet has pushed them out). On Monday we needed to get off our block, so we hiked up to the basin or the Washboard as Ryan calls it of the Flatiron hike he takes At Lost Dutchman. Nora and Emily were the primary photographers.

The desert was green and it wasn't hot, so a successful day in my book.

Sarah found a nice high perch in the basin.

Nelson and Dad - backpack buddies. For a while at the very end Ryan also carried Sarah (I couldn't anymore and she was so tired).

 Isaac and Sarah of course had to go to the bathroom on the way down so Nora and Emily had time to be silly while we tended to their needs - sheesh!

On the way home after a satisfying nap in the backpack.

And then, after burning all those calories we polished off the cake from Sunday night - tasty.

carpet etc

Our carpet is gross. It is original to the house. It had 2 large dogs with the previous owners and has seen 5 kids potty trained. It is stained, matted, and had an exposed tack strip where the tile guys didn't do a very good job re-attaching it when they did the tile several years ago.

We are getting new carpet - HIPHIPHOOOOORAY!

In the never ending and losing battle for clean walls and baseboards, I decided to rip out the carpet myself so I could have some time to touch up paint all the way to the bottom of the baseboards. Isaac turned out to be my super duper helper and I only had to call the neighbor men over once to help move a bunk bed that had an extra mattress and box spring on it.

Note: removing carpet is a dusty, dirty, very satisfying job - the sound of ripping is great.

We began with the family room - by far the dirtiest - piled of fine sand under the pad.

 Day 2 was the stairs and landing and girl's room. I had lots of helpers with staple removal (some more effective than others). After day one, Isaac and I were tired of inhaling dust so we were more wise.

This is day 3 I was on my own again to do the blue room and prep my room (we had to move all the food storage down stairs, as well as clothes bins and books - oof). As anyone knows, the prep work for any project is the bulk of the work. When you have kids involved you have to prep to even do your prep. I prepped by popping a HUGE bowl of popcorn and letting them go at it. It gave me a good hour of uninterrupted work and filled them up so much we delayed lunch as well.

Isaac and I graduated to dust masks - a great improvement. Ryan helped get our room done - he is an even better helper than Isaac!

 This is the garage after day one - it looks WAY worse and full and disorganized now. And to think, only 4 days ago we could park 2 cars in here.

I started painting today - once again a challenge with kids. so many helpers!

New carpet goes in at the end of next week! I have hoes for being judicious about what we bring back into the house from the garage and what gets the boot! I love a good junk dump.

howling like a dog

Here is Nelson. He is howling like a dog. He is very cute.

The End.

2 random things

When I got married, Suzy gave me $50 for a pressure canner and I said to myself, "Self, what is a pressure canner and why would I spend 50 perfectly good dollars on that? I live in AZ and we are going to grad school and living in 400 sq feet - no canner needed here right now."

10 years later, I finally bought one (after my friend Cassie got me over my fear of canning chicken). I've done chicken and beef and it's tasty and now I can actually act on great meat sales instead of relying on my freezer space and I'm gonna do my own beans - tasty!

In January Mrs. Billings has her pre-school kids make a goal to work on. Isaac decided to sew something and we decided on P. J. pants for Nora's birthday present. We picked 4 fun fabrics and cut, pinned and stitched. He helped with every step and it ended up being a great project. I'm glad my boy has a desire to learn how to do things around the house. All 3 of my brothers know their way around a sewing machine and I think it's great. The fewer things in life that intimidate us the better.

zoooooooooo

Went to the zoo last week in the rain with the pre-school. Becuase of the rain it was un crowded, not cold, and the lions and tiger were out and up and moving. A fine outing.

Nelson learned how to quack.