Thursday, October 28, 2010

Happy Birthday


It's my Mother-in-law's Birthday today! Happy Birthday, LaLa!
I'm so thankful for you. Thank you for being there for me - you're a true friend.
And thank you for giving me the best gift of all - your son - Rob!

Love you!
hi-d

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Fall Foliage

Last week, I went for a nice long walk in the neighborhood and was able to snap some photos of the beautiful fall colors.


Happy day!
hi-d


Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Weather Forecaster

Here's the 7 day forecast, folks!

Happy day!
hi-d

Friday, October 22, 2010

Comic Relief

Here's a link to some comedy for your Friday. This guy is hilarious!
His name is Jeff Allen.



A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.

Proverbs 17:22
 
Enjoy!
hi-d


Thursday, October 21, 2010

Pillow Talk

The last couple months, I've been on a sewing spree. Back in the day my grandmother taught me how to sew. My Mom coached me as well when I was young. I remember in junior high and high school I used to make a lot of my own clothes, which wasn't really the cool thing to do at that time. I had one friend that used to ask me, "Did you make THAT?" LOL...it's funny now, but man...kids can be so mean. I'm not saying that I was an angel either.

Anyway...I wanted to show you the pillows that I made recently for our living room.
I really like these fabrics - the colors, textures and patterns.
I picked up  this basket on clearance at Ross Dress for Less & the blankets at TJMaxx.
It's amazing how just changing up the pillows really gives a new look to the room. It's a simple and fairly inexpensive way to decorate.

Happy day!
hi-d

check out my other blog @ Proverbs for Every Day

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Shop by Color

When it comes to the Internet and shopping for specific things, it can be a little overwhelming. I came across this fun site today.

It's a consumer blog network dedicated to showcasing products by color categories (okay...not every color in the rainbow) but still, it's pretty cool.


What's your favorite color or color combo?

Enjoy!
hi-d

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Campaigning

Kooky campaigns to get people to eat more beef...
(for obvious reasons)

Happy day!
hi-d

check out my other blog @ Proverbs for Every Day

Monday, October 18, 2010

Shadows

A little randomness for your Monday Morning...

Shadows from Rob's stained glass lamp he made.

Happy day!
hi-d

check out my other blog @ Proverbs for Every Day



Thursday, October 14, 2010

Sign Making

I thought I'd give you a little tutorial on how I made the sign for Maximus in this post.

I started with an unfinished piece of wood that I purchased at JoAnn Fabrics with a 50% off coupon. Then I mixed together several colors of acrylic paint, to get this brown shade.

I typed up the name Maximus in a word document on my computer, using the font, Monotype Corsiva at a size of 250 and measured the sign and the name to get the right placement.
The 's' in Maximus didn't fit onto one sheet of paper, so I taped it to the rest of the name. In retrospect, I should have used Legal size paper so that all the letters would have been printed on one line. I think it would have made it straighter...the 's' was a little slanted.

Next, I used a Conte Crayon and colored on the backside of the name.
Then I flipped it over and placed the name on top of the wood sign and traced around the letters.
 After I traced over the outside edges of the letters, there was an imprint and light transfer from the conte crayon that was transferred to the board. I went back with a pencil and traced over that mark directly onto the piece of wood, so that it was more visible; however I wouldn't recommend doing this again. I noticed that the pencil showed through some of the paint, so I had to go back over and touch it up.

I ended up adding a little bit more "curl" to the letters, mostly to cover up some mistakes. I finished off with a coat of gesso to give it a matte finish and to seal it.
And that's it! I've tried using stencils in the past, but wasn't happy with the results. It never seemed to give me clean edges around the letters. The paint tended to seep underneath and then I had to go back and clean up the lines.

Have you seen Your Susie Harris' site? She is SO talented at making signs and has been inspiring to me! Make sure you take a look at some of her work here.

Happy day!
hi-d

check out my other blog @ Proverbs for Every Day

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Funny Signs

While at the beach recently, we went into a gift shop. These signs crack me up...especially the first one.

I hope they made you smile.

Happy day!
hi-d

check out my other blog @ Proverbs for Every Day


Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Dr. Kooky


Where's the heartbeat?
I don't hear anything!!!
Oh...THERE IT IS! Whew!

Maybe Kooky isn't cut out to be a Doctor.

Happy day!
hi-d

check out my other blog @ Proverbs for Every Day

Friday, October 8, 2010

Pregnancy Update

I'm now at the 5 month mark! Only 18 more weeks to go. It's hard to believe that I'm going to have a baby, but all I have to do is look down at my belly and see the reminder. hee hee...

Remember way back when? I said that we weren't going to find out the sex of the baby? Well, Rob changed his mind and really wanted to know...and he finally convinced me to find out. I'm so glad that we did!

You think I'm gonna tell you?

Okay...


a few of you know already...


but for those who don't...



It's gonna be a BOY!!!


&


We're going to name him Maximus.

We found out about a month ago. It was so fun to see the ultrasound and how active he was. He was doing summersaults & all sorts of acrobatics. Because of this, the technician said it was really easy for her to get all of the measurements. In my mind, I kept thinking it was going to be a girl. Rob was pretty insistent that it was going to be a boy. So, when I heard the news, it took a bit for it to sink in that we are going to have a little guy...but I couldn't be happier. The biggest blessing is that everything looks great - he's healthy and right on track. I really couldn't ask for anything more.

Before we found out the gender, I started making a bassinet skirt. Oh...back up...my parents gave us the bassinet that I slept in as a baby. My 3 brothers used it too. I bought some fabric that I thought would be pretty gender neutral, but when I got it home, Rob convinced me that the fabric would make beautiful pillows for our loveseat & chair, so we needed to find something else for the bassinet. I also purchased a small amount of yardage that had some little monkey faces on it. I wanted to use this as an accent. Rob had the brilliant idea to use a solid brown as the base and suggested that we use some old sheets that we had. It worked out great.

Later I added a ruffle to the top. I didn't want to go to foo foo...but it needed a little somethin' extra. I debated about sewing buttons and ribbon onto the skirt, but finally decided to use some bows that were from my best friend, Shirley's wedding dress. She took the bows off when she purchased the dress and I have saved them for all these years, just knowing that someday they would be put to good use.

So here it is...it's simple, but I like it...
I didn't even have to hem the bottom of this - I just used an old flat sheet. It was already hemmed and finished.
The inside quilted portion my Mom had made when my nephew was born and used the bassinet. She sewed velcro to the fabric, so I was able to attach the skirt to the white fabric. I made a fitted sheet to go over the mattress...and the cute little monkey was given to me by a good friend.
Here are the bows - aren't they sweet? I attached them with safety pins.
Maximus will sleep in our bedroom, until it's time for him to move into a crib in the nursery. I love how close he will be to my side of the bed.
When I found out it was going to be a boy, I painted this little sign. That's how we ended up telling our parents the gender...they got to see the sign.

I am happy with how everything worked out. We were able to get the bassinet from my parents, LaLa (Rob's Mom) gave us those brown sheets years back. They were always my favorite. And the bows were from my best friend. So, it's both sentimental and practical. I love being able to re-use things.

I'm excited that I finally got to share this with you. We still have lots of work to do in the nursery. We need to find a crib, dresser and some other items, but we still have some time.

A couple things...
His name will be Maximus. I might call him Max or Maxi for short, but he'll be introduced and known as Maximus. Rob is insistent on this. (~smile~) And, of course, grandparents have the right to call him what they want. But, I imagine that a lot of people will call him Max. I don't think that there's much way of getting around this.

We like the monkey fabric and stuffed animal for the bassinet, but we're not really using this as our "main theme." It's cute, but we don't want it to become all about monkeys.

Okay...thanks for letting me share our exciting news with you. I hope you have a great weekend!

Happy day!
hi-d

check out my other blog @ Proverbs for Every Day

Thursday, October 7, 2010

I'm Back...

Actually, I never went anywhere. The last week though, has been really busy for me. I've missed blogging and reading your blogs. Kooky Chicken has been busy too...sorry he didn't post anything on Tuesday.

So...What have I been up to lately?

I sold my car - my cute little Toyota Celica. We really needed to get a bigger car for our expanding family. I bought it 10 years ago from my cousin's wife and last week I sold it back to her. Yep! She was the original owner and was so happy to get it back. We are thinking of writing to Toyota about "our story" and perhaps they'll use us in a commercial...haha... :)

The day I sold the car...

Yesterday we bought my parents Honda CRV! We are excited. It's going to give us more room for passengers and for hauling around stuff...like the baby stroller!

I've been subbing as a Substitute Teacher's Aide since last Thursday. And since we were down to one car, I was taking Rob to work and picking him up. It made for some long days, but I have to say that it was fun seeing a lot of the Teachers and kids again.

Last Saturday, our Church Life Group started back up again. I am looking forward to it, since we don't meet in the Summer. This Fall we have 8 couples in our group. It's going to be so much fun!

Proverbs for Every Day is back - that hasn't been updated in a while.

That pretty much sums it up. I haven't posted anything about my pregnancy lately, so tomorrow I'll give you some updates!!! I'm very excited!!!

Casting all your care upon HIm, for He cares for you." 1 Peter 5:7

Happy day!
hi-d