New Addition to the Family (Not the Kind I'd Like to Announce)

Can you tell what it is? He's in Lance's pocket.

This is him when we first met him, just a little guy.

He's a squirrel. Technically she's a squirrel but for some reason most animals in our minds are "he's" or a "little guy" so its hard to associate him as a her. Lance was thrilled to meet him when my sister in law introduced him. Her dad rescues.........takes care of........something like that.................................lots of different animals. This baby squirrel was abandoned and dying so Heather's dad took him in and fed him a bottle. Heather showed it to Lance who fell in love. I put my foot down, I mean we already have a hamster and a rabbit, how many more animals do we need? Heather's sister took the little guy in for two weeks while Lance and I argued about keeping him. Really argued. Lance eventually got him. (I really hate fighting, nothing is worth fighting).
We named him Lord Rutledge. He eats nuts and lots of fruit. Any kind of fruit is his favorite, in this picture he's eating an apple. The red thing around Lance's neck is a pouch his mom made him from fleece so the two can "bond."

A New Hobby

For the past few months I've been working on redoing some furniture. In my jewelry room where I design everything, I use an old dresser for bead/supply storage. In an effort to update the house and make some new surroundings since we can't move at the moment, I decided to redo both of them. I forgot to take before pictures of the dresser but here are the knobs which I replaced. It was a pale pink with lots of dents, scratches, and just really worn.
I painted it this bright turquoise-y blue. I couldn't decide if I wanted to antique it or white wash it so I started with the moulding. I haven't white washed before so I really didn't know what I was doing. I knew the plain dresser needed some pizazz of sorts so I applied new moulding and hardware. (By the way does everybody know how expensive knobs and pulls are?! Of course you do because I'm sure I'm the only one that doesn't own a house. I bought a bulk package of these satin nickel beauties which weren't my first choice, 10 for $20. The ones I wanted her $4 a piece and I couldn't bring myself to pay that much for 8 knobs). I decided to white wash the moulding first to see how I liked it and I fell in love. I didn't think the rest of the dresser needed white washed so I left it as is. Which was a win-win because I didn't have to sand the whole thing. Now seeing it altogether I wish I would have done another coat of white washing, but oh well. I'm still absolutely in love!

BEFORE of the cabinet.
Ugly pale yellow with lots of potential.

On the inside are these thick cardboard-like, plywood-like, wallpaper-like thing-ies. Luckily they weren't attached so they were the first things to go.

More of the wallpaper thingy that was on top of the cabinet. This also went.

AFTER........TA DA!!

Here's the inside shot. I painted it white and I'm going to decoupage the back wall with awesome scrapbook paper but I haven't had time to get that far yet. What I love is the space in this puppy. I also love that there are little slits to slide wood separators into each shelf for more organization. Love it!
I painted the cabinet this lime dark green, I love everything about it. After a few coats on the outside I took it outside and sanded down all the edges and made lots of natural looking worn areas. I brought it back inside (since we don't have a garage) and applied a glaze. I've never glazed anything before but I wanted to antique it to bring out the aging and character of the cabinet. I mixed in one part chocolate brown paint to 4 parts glaze and got to work. If you've never glazed before, you just paint on the glaze/paint mix and wipe off with a rag (I'd also recommend using latex gloves). The dark glaze gets into those itty bitty areas and really brings out the character of the furniture.
I didn't think I'd be able to replace the knobs on this cabinet because there were at least 5 different coats of various paint colors on there. The knobs and hinges were painted over and I couldn't remove them without splinting the wood. It was pure luck that I was able to get the knobs off, the old hinges still remain. I can't budge them.

I have a few more projects to finish for my new "studio" which I'm anxious about. My goal is to be finished by Christmas but I don't think that's going to happen with everything going on the next few months. I have LOVED every moment of working on this furniture. I think I may become a DI and yard sale regular to see what else I can turn into something more my style. I have really love, love, LOVED it!!!

I Can Wait For Winter

I can't believe it's November already, I'm totally bypassing the fall decorations for the house this year. Halloween took too much out of me and I haven't even finished cleaning up the party yet. I don't really have any expectations for the upcoming holidays. I'm not ready for cold weather. We have no money for christmas so shopping is out of the question. I am in no mood to bake a bunch of goodies. I truly just want to be with family and friends, to sit and think about all we've been blessed with. I'm anxious to listen to the first presidency Christmas devotional. I want to cuddle up with my Number One sipping hot chocolate, reminiscing of past times and preparing for even better past times. I want to bask in the spirit of thanksgiving and remembrance of our Savior. Oh and who can forget, Scottie Boy is coming home from his mission on December 9th!

City of Horrors 2010

Our 3rd annual All Hallow's Eve party was a blast! We sent out toe tags as invitations (not real ones, we found a template online) with black outlined envelopes and a skull wax seal. Lance designed it all and I helped him with it, but the credit is all his, they really looked great! We served chili, 7 layer bean dip and chips, salsa, ham and tortilla roll ups, cupcakes, sugar cookies, rice krispies, candy, and root beer. Thanks to Donna and Steph for all the help.

We found quite a bit more decorations this year thanks to craigslist. With that we had half the house as a spook alley. Unfortunately I didn't get pictures of it until after the party so it wasn't picture perfect, and the flash was on so you don't get the creepy feel of it. Oh well. These are kicking legs we suspended from the door frame with a strobe light. They were my favorite.

This ugly guy was suspended from the ceiling.

Marcus the carcass stuffed in the old chair.

Crime scene, I don't know why I didn't get the picture of the head, that was the best part.

Animated skull, his eyes and jaw moves and he talks.

Pine coffin courtesy of Lance and the mortuary.

Zombie hanging from the ceiling which was part of the graveyard.

This guy pops up and yells when you walk by.

Mad scientist scene.

Nope, not a fake. This is Lance's dad. He was our scientist who scared people when they went through the spook alley. I'm surprised how long he lasted with the mega strobe light and fog machine going all night. He was perfect!

All the great costumes! I know there were several others whose picture I didn't get, I apologize.
Rhett and Cassie - carrot, tomato, and peas

Halle, Heather, Aubrey, and Brad

Halle and Aubrey were so scared of Brad, it was funny.

KJ and Sonya

Lance and I had no idea who this guy was for about 20 minutes. We finally figured it out because of the golf score card in his pocket. Jim Lee.

Stimpson boys, aren't they cute!

Ma and Pa Pratt

Lloyd boys

Actual sister missionaries. Sister Khadgi is from Nepal and has never heard of Halloween. She would not come in the house at all so Lance went outside and walked with them through spook alley. She then took tons of pictures and videos of the spook alley.

Sara and Greg - fifties couple

This won for best costume in my book! They made this entire thing. Tami is a loofah and Audrey is a shower made from PVC pipe, tin can, shower rings and curtain, bicycle streamers and balloons. AWESOME!!!

Batman duo

Emily and Amanda

Yvonne and Mitch

Emily and Martin

Sydnee

Sage

Mikayla

Shelby

Taylor

Sariah

Tawny and Ryker

Brittny

Baylee

Trish, Charity, and Devin (the other boys were sick)

Maren

The Karren's

Alexis

Connie

Brooklynn

Tim, KoLei, Melony, Valarie, Tyson, and Savannah