The Fleischhauer's

wyatt's quilt

2012-01-17T06:00:00.000-06:00

Mike and I became Aunt and Uncle for the first time last April. Mike's brother and his wife welcomed Wyatt into the world. We were very excited for them and couldn't wait to meet him. Unfortunately, with them living in North Carolina and us in Missouri, we didn't get to meet him until Christmas.

One of Wyatt's gifts was a quilt from his grandma (my mother-in-law) and me. We decided it would be special if we were able to make it together. So we found a pattern with 2 colors of blocks; she did the red ones, I did the blue ones. Once they were done, she brought her blocks to me and I piece the quilt together and sent it off to get quilted. I think it turned out pretty well, with 2 people doing the piecing. I don't know if I would do it again that way, but Wyatt sure got a special quilt that I hope he will enjoy for many many years.

pagami creek fire

2012-01-16T12:26:00.001-06:00

While everyone sat and watched the fires in Texas this fall, I was a little more concerned with the one going on in the boundary waters of Minnesota. The reason was.....my better half was there fighting a wild fire.

We got a call the last weekend in August. A fire was developing up near Ely, Minnesota after lightning struck. Mike, of course, got so excited. See, foresters kind of live for their fire trips. Not that want to put anyone in danger or lose their homes; it's just exciting. We talked really fast right after he got the call and about 10 minutes later, he was on the list to go. At 10a.m. the next morning, Mike was gone.

I was able to talk to him the next night, but he had some bad news....no more phone calls. There were going where there was most likely no phone service and the crew chief just didn't want phones; the rule was to keep it in your truck. They were going to be roughing it....camping for 14 days and canoeing everywhere between islands in the boundary waters. I knew Mike was excited for the adventure, I was a bit nervous about not talking to him for 2 weeks. We have never not talked for 2 weeks since we met 7 years ago.

I did, however, find a federal website that updated on the fire once a day. That was my life-line while he was gone. It never said anything specific about people, it just noted how big the fire was, what they were doing for the day, etc. It was a nice relief to get some kind of information daily.

Mike made it back all in one piece with lots of pictures and stories. I'm very proud of my wild-land fire fighter.

the bed that mike built.

2012-01-15T16:02:00.002-06:00

The back story::

I love pottery barn.
I want I could live in their catalog.
Mike know this, but thinks their prices are CRAZY.
Mike also knows that I've specifically been in love with a certain bed of there's - but he won't budge.


the farmhouse bed. Need I say more???

So, about a year and a half ago, I came across a blog. A woman who makes knock-off furniture plans. Before pinterest. Before everyone knew her name.

Do you know who I'm talking about yet?
Ana White

If you haven't gone to her website - GO. Right now. You can finish reading this later.... :)

Anyway, I found this bed - Ana's version of the PB farmhouse bed. It wasn't exactly the pottery barn bed, but it was going to be a close as I could get. So there. Mike agree, and said when we buy a house, he would make a bed for us.

The present day::

We have bought our home.
We have remodeled our master bedroom.
We still need a bed......

Mike held true to his word, he was going to make our bed. We revisited Ana's website to find she has "blown-up" in the Internet world. She has tons of plans for anything and everything. We then found this "fancy-fide" farmhouse bed and we fell even more in love; we knew that was going to be our bed.

All of Ana's designs call for construction grade pine, but we wanted a bed that would last forever. Mike then found a small business that sells solid wood and ordered some Ash. It took about a month to get the wood in. He ordered quite a bit - enough for our bed, 2 bedside tables, 2 living room side tables and a new entertainment/t.v. stand.

early stages of the headboard.

day of staining.

Finished product!

with and without pillows.

simple foot board. love it.

After letting the clear coat fully dry, Mike put the bed together on New Year's Eve. It's very symbolic to me; new year, new bed. Back in October we bought ourselves a late anniversary gift, a QUEEN sized mattress. Yes, our first 3 years of marriage we slept on a full sized mattress. It was enough room, but now we have a little extra elbow room in the queen. It's nice.

Mike did an amazing job on this bed, I wouldn't ask for anything different. He is now working on our 2 bedside tables. I'm going to be so excited when those are complete.

bedroom built-ins :: complete

2012-01-15T12:27:00.000-06:00

Soon after I stopped blogging, we finished our master bedroom's built-ins. Once the doors were added, they completed the look. The whole look changed once the doors were there; they were no longer just bookcases, they are built-ins that will stay with this house forever. When I think about leaving this house (at some point), I know that they will be something I'll miss.

This is where we left off six months ago.

MY built-in.

Necklace tree.

I love that we have "His and Hers" built-ins. Mine is great for a "getting ready" station. I have my perfume, jewelry box, etc. I recently got this necklace tree for Christmas from my sister. I love it. :) I'm on the hunt for a small tilt mirror, nic-nacs and I'm wanting a new jewelry box. Again, with all decorating, it's going to take time. For the closed off area, it's great for an extra blanket, and I have my travel bags hidden away down there.

HIS built-in.

Mike's side doesn't really have too much on it yet; just his cell phone charger and a little of his own ~~decorating~~ stuff. I'm not really sure about what he's put on it, but since I have nothing to put on there right now. his stuff will stay. Plus, if I leave his stuff there for a while, that might be a bargaining tool when I do want to change it. :)

One thing that will stay for him is this "charging station" he made. We found this leather basket and then he made the wooden shelf out of solid Ash. I thing he did a great job! He didn't have any plans to go from, just numerous examples we keep seeing in magazines and online.

We do have plans for Mike's underneath storage. It's going to be our little linen area for the master bathroom (whenever that gets complete). We pretty much know the layout of the new bathroom, and it doesn't come with much storage, so this is out solution for that. His built-in is deeper than the one on my side and that was done on purpose. It will fit at least 2 rows of towels deep, and leave us room for extra soap, hand towel and all the other random toiletries .

gracie's quilt

2012-01-08T15:09:00.001-06:00

One of my cousins had a baby girl in October, Gracie. They had their baby shower over Labor Day weekend in Chicago land and I made the trek to deliver my gift and see family.

I made a quilt, just my second. It's a simple flying geese pattern, but I flipped every other strip to make it a little different.

I like baby quilt's that aren't too baby-ish. I don't like the fabric with ABC blocks, teddy bears, etc. This is definitely feminine but not extremely. I hope little Gracie will enjoy this for many years to come.

cosmo from ms. butler

2012-01-08T13:26:00.000-06:00

Back in June 2011, I bought a new sewing book. It's Amy Butler's Style Stitches. I've made purses before, but nothing this complex. I wanted to try to make a real durable bag. I started with the cosmo bag in the book. It was just a weekend project for me and took just under 22 hours to make..... and I was in l.o.v.e.

my cosmo bag

inside. with a pop of green.

I took my bag to work that Monday, and the girls said, "nice bag." I said, "thanks, I made it." Their jaws hit the floor. I had only been working there for about a month and never told them about my hobby of sewing. I could tell they were impressed.

So impressed, that three of them wanted me to make them one. The girls chose their fabrics and then I ordered it and went to work. It took be about a month to complete all of them, which I was happy with.

Here is Dana's.

this shows off the side pockets.

i fell in love with this paisley lining.

Candida's purse/

The other Kristi's purse.

Her pop of pink!

I really did have a good time making this bags, but I do have to say, I got a little burnt out of sewing after that. I realized this hobby of mine will remain a hobby. I enjoy it as a craft, but if it was my job, nothing would be completed on time. It's the procrastinator in me. :)

twenty twelve

2012-01-08T11:41:00.000-06:00

I got to uploading some photo to our computer and I realized it had been a while since I blogged. Well, I didn't think it had been SIX MONTHS; but it's true. I didn't mean to leave you hanging, and most of all, I didn't mean to stop this at all.

First and foremost, this blog is for Mike and I. It's for us to look back on and see what we've done and accomplished. And I failed....

Oh well, today is a new day. I can start fresh!

Today is just a lazy day for me. Mike is redoing the electric on the west-side of your upstairs (the two extra bedrooms), and I'm his gopher. So I figured this was the perfect day to get this blog back on track. I'll be typing and uploading photos in between running for this and flipping that switch, etc. :) He's up in the attic running wire right now. This is a project that we have been waiting for cooler weather, and I do not blame him for that one. Who would want to be in a attic full of insulation in 90 degree weather - not me!

kristi....na

2011-07-21T07:30:00.000-05:00

I am loving my new job. I could not image the difference in two banks being this great but it is. I actually like going in to work? Call me crazy, but that's not normal. :)

The one thing that has taken some time is my name. See, the teller supervisor's name is Kristi; spelled just like mine. I didn't think it really was going to be an issue since everyone calls her Kris, even her name plate is Kris.....but no, it was an issue. They didn't want 2 Kristi's especially since one's a supervisor and people would be calling specifically for her. So I'm officially Kristina at work.... :(

Don't get me wrong, it's my legal name and I like it. But I've NEVER been called that unless one of two things : 1-I was in trouble with my parents, and 2- it was the first day of school in every class and I told the teacher it was Kristi.

I told them at work it would take some getting used to because it's pretty much like calling me a name like Bob; it's just something I don't respond to. Shoot, I think my marriage vows were even Kristi, not Kristina. But now after a couple months, I'm much better at the responding, but horrible at saying it. I answer the phone, "This is Kristi.....na" and just throw the n-a on the end after thinking about it.

Something else that's happening is when my co-workers ask for "Kristi" I turn and look. I know I look like I'm eavesdropping, but it' just that they said MY name. I did go ahead and explain that one to everyone I work with because I didn't want to be labeled the nosy new girl. :)

So it's Kristina at work, Kristi everywhere else. It's kinda weird.

a recap :: windows

2011-07-20T07:58:00.000-05:00

My parents came to visit the first week in June and the plan was for the guys to install 4 windows. We did 4 windows to start for a couple of reasons: the cost, and that it was one whole side of the house. While going to some home shows, the window people told us if you can't do all your windows at once then at least do each side of your house together. Luckily, the side we wanted to start on had the least amount.....4.

Here is the side that we did - the bottom two are in the living room, the top two are in the new bedroom.

I just LOVE Abe in this picture. :)

old windows....

NEW windows.....so much better!

overall after picture of the bedroom.

We have definitely noticed a difference with these babies. Our living room and bedroom are cooler! :) I bet as we replace ALL the windows, we will definitely see a difference in our heating and cooling bills. I love the sound of that.

So, if you're keeping track...4 down, 22 to go!

in the bedroom

2011-07-18T10:25:00.000-05:00

WE ARE IN!

We officially moved into our new and improved MASTER bedroom two weeks ago. The windows are in the built-ins are done and the doors are on.

I'm not going to put up photos of all our stuff in it, because it's not pretty yet. Our mattress is on the floor, our dresser is still the one I've had since 3rd grade, etc. However, I will be posting some pics of items in the room, just not an over all photo. Not until it's done and pretty-fide.

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I'll get better. Promise.

the past 2 weeks

2011-05-17T08:09:00.001-05:00

A lot has gone on in the last 2 weeks - and I haven't blogged about any of it!

my birthday. It was the 29th. I'm now 26. I don't really know what to think about that. Mike and I went out for a very nice dinner at a place we had never been. It was great, I'm sure we will be going back for the next special occasion.

new job. I put in my 2 week notice at the bank. That bank just wasn't for me - I'm not into the whole corporate side, you need to work on $xxx,xxx (sometimes $x,xxx,xxx) worth of loans or else. I'm not a personal banker anymore; I accepted a job at an employee owned bank where you have to start at the bottom - part-time teller. I really enjoy tellering, so I think it will be a nice change. The part time kind of excites me. I can have time to DO things during the week. I can clean the house, do laundry, work out, sew, blog, go to the dentist, etc. I start TODAY! :)

bedroom remodel. It's complete....for the most part. All we have to do is replace the windows, and repaint the 3 doors and we are DONE.

new windows. We did it, we bought new windows. :) It was a big purchase but I'm glad to get the ball rolling on what will be a long process. See, we have a lot of windows.....26 to be exact. And all of them need replaced. All I see are $$$$. So we started off with 4. It's a good start. :) The windows are waiting patiently, in the basement. I can't wait to put them in and be able to open, shut, and clean with ease. Only 22 more to go....

Here are some photos of what we've done to the room in the past 2 weeks.

All the trim and shoe molding in place and painted.

The built-ins are just waiting on the two cabinet doors that will

hid the bottom 2 shelves. Do you see

what I see????

Our hidden outlets!! I can't wait to start using them. It was totally Mike's idea. :)

Our new closet system. :) I just starting putting our clothes in here yesterday and I got to thinking - this is the first time in 2-1/2 years of marriage that Mike's and my clothes are in the same closet. Our final step of co-habitation. :)

you can call me a new name....

2011-04-22T08:47:00.001-05:00

AUNT!

Mike and I became first time Aunt and Uncle yesterday evening. :) Wyatt David came in to the world about 6:45 pm EST to proud parents, Roscoe and Katie. He weighs 7lb 12 oz and is 21-1/4" long.

We are very excited to meet this little boy, I just don't know when that will be. See, he lives in North Carolina and we live in Missouri. :(

Luckily, we just got our iPad 2 at the beginning of April and they have a Mac as well, so we are able to do facetime (Mac Skype). So I am hoping to meet him "virtually" sometime this weekend-ish.

So a big Congratulations goes out to the whole family!

sluggish

2011-04-20T08:39:00.001-05:00

We are still working on trim.....

This past weekend we did make a lot of head way though. We placed the built-ins, installed the closet door frame, and put up about half of the base boards. No shoe molding yet.

progress. and you can REALLY tell I haven't painted that window trim.....yikes!

Now you finally have a picture of the built-ins. :) There are still some major changes in this built-in's future - the bottom two shelves are going to be in closed with cabinet doors (which aren't built yet.)

The arch over the top is all thanks to my dad. :) He was the one that pointed out to us that all our other built-ins (3) in the house have arches over them. Of course we knew this, but we would of never thought to add it to these two in the bedroom. I think it makes them look original and keeps with the character of the house. So a BIG thanks DAD!

a transformation

2011-04-12T08:26:00.000-05:00

With all these before and after photos of the floors, I got to looking at all our house pictures. More specifically, the move-in ones. I can't believe the transformation our dining room has taken, and I adore it. I know it's not completely done - shoe molding needs to go down now that the floors are done, and I'm still searching for nic nacs for the built-ins.

This room has completely changed. Take a look!

on word - YUCK!

Now I know on the first photo I focused on the walls and the bottom photo I focused on the floors, but this is the same area of the dining room. It's weird to look at these together. Weird in a good way.

bedroom floors

2011-04-11T08:24:00.000-05:00

We had the bedroom floors done the same time as the dining room - I'm just a little behind in my blogging. :)

We really like how the floors turned out in the bedroom; they are a little darker than the dining room, which is probably why I like them.

Here are some before and after shots of the space!

old closet space

you can't even tell what it used to be!

the entrance to the bedroom

i can't believe the difference!

Such character! Mike loves this center piece of wood - sadly, it's in the middle of the bedroom and will be covered by our bed...

Our sweet Abe approves! :)

Since the floors have been completed, I've been working on the trim and Mike's been building the 2 built-ins. The built-ins are done, except for the cabinet doors on the bottom. YAY! We worked really hard this past weekend, and got everything primed last night. It's such a good feeling to get paint on them. :) I get off work a little early today, so I get to start actually painting! *The pictures will follow soon!*

floors...complete!

2011-04-03T08:30:00.001-05:00

I'm so excited to show these babies off! I love how our floors came out. Granted, I would of liked darker floors - I still love them this way with all their character.

Here's some before and afters of the dining room!

I forgot an AFTER! :) Love Spray Paint!

I love this random piece of wood in the dining room!

hardwood redo

2011-03-25T08:52:00.000-05:00

We met with our floor re finisher this past Wednesday. He is really nice and definitely knows what he's doing - he gave us straight forward answers on how we were going to re finish 2,200 square feet of red oak hardwood floors. It's going to be a process during this next year or so.

And we start this MONDAY!

I can't believe the first step of re doing our floors will be complete next week. :) He will be doing our new bedroom and our dining room. I can't wait! I figured it would take a few weeks to get in his schedule, and he said it would be done by Wednesday. That means we can start on our trim next week and pretty much move in, with the exception of the 2 built ins and new windows.

One of the biggest blessings, is that we don't have to be out of the house at all. We were really worried about that. It would of made the cost a lot higher if you add a pet friendly hotel in to the works.

Here are some before shots of what this guy has to fix and make beautiful:

This is in the new bedroom. The lines on the right are where the wall was that we took down. Beautifully centered in this photo is a very large stain that I would be okay with never seeing again.


This is in the new closet. These grooves are where the old closet walls were (yes, we are totally upgrading the closet!) Luckily, we have extra flooring from the new bathroom that we are tearing out, so the floor guy will be putting that in to fill these spaces for no extra charge!

I'm so ready for some after shots!! I guess I just have to wait......

bedroom update

2011-03-23T08:33:00.001-05:00

I missed out on National Quilting Day on this past Sunday to do some painting with my dad. My parents came to visit us and we put them right to work on the bedroom and closet.

to do list for the weekend
~~prime ceilings and walls in bedroom and closet~~
~~paint ceiling in bedroom and closet~~
~~paint closet~~
~~paint bedroom~~

All was completed! I love the feeling of accomplishment. My dad was a great help with the painting, I think sometimes he missed his calling as a painter. My mom was a great help keeping the house in tacked - did my dishes, watched Abe.....and just visited - Thanks MOM and DAD!

I seriously feel is love with our bedroom paint color! I'm so glad we picked it - Mark Twain looks good on my walls. :) I can't wait to start on the trim, so the room looks finished, so to speak.

Dad and I priming the ceiling.

the closet done! sorry it's so dusty.

Dad aka my trimmer. :)

view from the closet door.

look! no second door to the bedroom!

our new fan!

We are having the floor re finishers come this afternoon to take a look at the floors. Hopefully they will be done in the next couple weeks - we are on their schedule now.

dust and such

2011-03-08T08:46:00.000-06:00

I never knew we would acquire soooo much DUST during this remodel. Now don't get me wrong, I knew it was going to be dirty, just not this dusty.

the hallway side of our door closure.

Maybe I'm surprised because I've never really been around drywall. My parents did a remodel of their kitchen and dining room about 13+ years ago, but it was contracted out. Maybe they were just really clean contractors or maybe I just didn't notice. Who knows.

The whole reason dust came to mind this morning is Mike sanded the first coat of mud on the walls. He's going to buy a ceiling sanding this evening and finish taping the corners as well.


you almost can't tell there was a door. I can't wait for paint!

the new closet!

It's hard to get a picture of the new closet for a couple of reasons:

It's a smaller area.
There's no light in there at this point.
You probably wouldn't know what you are looking at.

For those of you that have been here to visit, the new dry wall on the right is where our old closet used to be.

As you can see, we have a window in our new closet. I'm still not sure how I feel about this. We did it for a few reasons:

It was the best place for a new closet.
We weren't going to remove it and make the outside of the house look weird.
We centered the door way with the window so, if we want, we can leave the door open and get some light.

After weighing the pros and cons, we put the window in the closet. But I still think it's weird!!

This picture above is of the hallway side of the door closure. Yes, I know I'm behind on my de-wallpapering. I hate wallpaper. I think the only reason people put wallpaper up is because they know they won't be the ones removing it, they just move. There are a lot of trendy/neat wallpapers out right now that I love, but no! I won't do it. I won't be that person that does that to the future owners of this house.

Anyway, once the bedroom is done, we have to start on the upstairs hallway/downstairs entry. I don't want to look a this for 6 months. There is going to be some time when Mike is working on his projects that are only for him, like our built ins and making our new bed. So I'm sure I'll be doing some work on this hallway while that's underway.

Thanks for looking at my mess of a house right now. Maybe it made you feel a little better about our home. :)

progress

2011-03-07T08:51:00.001-06:00

We've been working on this Master Bedroom Remodel for 4 weeks-ish. I'm very proud of Mike and all his work. I love having a handy husband! I know I keep saying that, but it's true - I would have to be worried about what he is doing or second guessing him. I know it'll be great because he's doing it.

I would of loved to be a little farther on it, but life still goes on. We still need to go to the grocery, work out, keep the house semi-tidy. I wish I was able to help more, but I know I couldn't do some things as well as he. I know my help will come with painting, and prepping the trim wood.

Anyway, if you don't follow me on facebook, here's some new pictures!

the wall coming down.

goodbye second door!

Mike in the attic, drilling for the electrical.

Mike and Roscoe standing on the bathroom side. Mike is in the bathroom door, Roscoe (right) is in our built in area.

Dry walling the ceiling with a drywall jack! Great machine!

The closet side, ready for mudding. Again the hole on the left is for a built in! I love built ins! :)

Bathroom side with drywall.

Mike just got done with the first coat of mud this weekend. On to sanding!

3

2011-02-23T08:47:00.000-06:00

With the few so few votes (I was hoping I had more readers than 3....), I don't think I'll be opening any time soon. Sorry to the 2 that would buy from me, I appreciate your support.

We are in week 3 of our bedroom remodel and it's right on track. Mike almost has the electrical complete, then it's on to drywall. I'm not looking forward to carrying the drywall up to the second floor (do you know drywall is way heavy - it's true), but I guess I can just count it toward my upper body exercise. :)

We have also decided to replace the windows in our master suite while we are remodeling. We always planned to do it in steps, it's too expensive to do at once! Our house has a lot of windows - 25 to be exact! (Including the 8 in our sun-room/back porch) It was one of the main reasons we bought the house, we loved the light. So buying 4 at a time will be much easier on the wallet. I'm really excited to buy them, but it's a little intimidating. I don't want to cheap out but I also do want the most expensive one's we can find either... Once we decide on a kind/model/whatever, it will be much easier next time, just go in and order.

mark twain

2011-02-22T18:53:00.000-06:00

We just can't seem to get away from this guy! He's everywhere!

It's amazing how this one man could change everything in Missouri. He was born in Florida, MO but then lived in Hannibal until he was an adult. That's why the house in Hannibal is just called his boyhood home. ;) Hannibal provided the setting for Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer. With Mike and I living in Hannibal for a little over a year, we totally got our helping of Mark Twain - everything was named Twain this, and Huck that (gas stations, strip malls, taxi companies).....I was happy to move away and be done with Mark Twain.

But he followed us to Rolla....

Our new little town is surrounded by this little thing called The Mark Twain National Forest. Everyone assumes Mike works there because he's a forester. We always has to correct them because he just works for the state, uh hello, national is in the name of the forest. Once we have children, we live in the district where their first school will be.....you guessed it! Mark Twain Elementary School. :)

So, when Mike and I were thinking about redoing our bedroom, we obviously talked about color. I got a new duvet and sham set from pottery barn (still in it's packaging, it's waiting for the new room) for my last birthday and I wanted to pull a neutral color out of it. We settled on a gray. Side note, what is the difference in the two spellings of gray/grey. I never understood that. Gray is very popular now, so I knew there would a ton of pictures in magazines to help with the choice of gray. But really, no such luck. So, just this past weekend we were in Lowe's, our home away from home, and I found myself in front of "the wall of paint" and I just picked a gray, then went and found our trim color (valspar's Dove White) and showed them to Mike together. He and I both loved it. Yay, we agreed on the first gray I picked. :) And wouldn't you know what it's called.........Mark Twain House Ombre Gray!! We both just looked at each other and Mike said, "well, the name definitely fits us!"

18 seconds.....

2011-02-14T10:38:00.000-06:00

Apparently, that's all the time you need to tear down a wall.

Oh, P.S. our Master Bedroom project has officially began. :)

every other

2011-02-09T08:41:00.000-06:00

I'm really trying hard to blog more. I know it's better than it was (none at all!) but I wish I was better about it. The only time I seem to get is every other week's mornings. See, at the bank I have to work every other Saturday. And instead of giving me a half day during the week, they give me 3 morning to come in a hour late and 1 morning to come in a half hour late. :( I would love a half day! It would be so much easier to do dentist appointments, hair cuts, etc. But anyway....the thing I have figured out to use this time for is BLOG! Mike's not home, so it's just me, my coffee, and Abe. These are always good/relaxing mornings.

Gym Update......We are still going! We've been on track with our every other day routine, we have only missed one day. I'm figuring out that it really isn't that hard to fit into our day, and we actually enjoy going. I've kind of kept it quiet at work that I'm working out, hoping for someone to notice....maybe in the next couple weeks. My clothes still fit the same and I never weighed myself to begin with. I do have a general idea of what is was, because I went to the doctor the 1st of December. I know it's going to take time, so for now we really like it. :)

I've been making more onsies as well. I am really liking how they are turning out. The ruffle here is an improvement from my last; I used my serger to do a rolled hem on the fabric before I ruffled it.

happy valentine's day!

I know there has been some talk on here as well as in my head about starting an etsy shoppe. I keep going back in forth about it. If I did it would only have a few things in it at a time, which I don't think is a bad thing. But something I do think about it, is there is A LOT of this same stuff out there on etsy, so why would mine get bought over the others???? So, I'm going to put a poll up on my blog to ask what you all think about it. Just keep in mind, whatever wins the poll doesn't mean that is what I'm going to do.

winter project

2011-01-29T07:00:00.002-06:00

We have been doing little things to our back porch ever since we moved, and it's finally starting to take shape. We've painted the walls and floor and added coat hooks and a rug.

One of Mike's winter projects was to make a bench to go out on the porch so we can have a place to take our shoes off. He drew his own design and went from there. He really likes design things and is really good at it. At least I think so. :)

Mike did a great job on the bench, and it was less than $20 to make. Can't beat that! It was a great weekend project, he built it on Saturday and we stained it on Sunday. So simple. We added baskets to put hats and gloves in to finish it off.

I want to put a nail in the wall above the bench and then change out seasonal wall art. I just need the wall art! :) I guess I better get shopping....

our fire wood rack

2011-01-28T07:00:00.001-06:00

I am finally getting around to posting this....sorry! Mike and I built this firewood rack before Halloween. It was Mike's first "plan" that he designed and it worked really well, we bought the correct amount of lumber and supplies and only went to the store once.

before....

.....after!

We really had a good time working together on this project. And as you can see, we now have plenty of room for firewood. I don't know if I've every told the blog this, but we have a fireplace insert in our living room. I really enjoy a fire, and with the insert and the blowers, it actually keeps the downstairs warm. It's really nice to have (and it's also nice on the heating bill). :)

onesie factory

2011-01-27T07:00:00.001-06:00

FACT: Everyone is pregnant it seems like!!!
FACT: I enjoy making baby onesies.
FACT: I am not one of these pregnant people and I'm ok with that! :)

I don't know what it is about baby clothes, but I LOVE them....so cute! When we do have children, Mike's going to have a problem on his hands...me making baby clothes and onesies! I really enjoy making them and I love giving them to the ladies in my life.

So here is what I've been up to lately....

Two Turkeys for girls I work with that gave birth right before Thanksgiving!

necklace for Millie!

....and a ruffle butt to go with it!

I LOVE the ruffle butt!! I have plans to make some Valentine's Day onesies' with ruffle butt. I can't get enough. :)

living room built ins

2011-01-26T07:00:00.000-06:00

Our built ins in the living room needed to be repainted. The previous owners painted over oil based paint with latex paint, so the latex didn't adhere to the bookshelves properly and was just peeling off. And when it peeled, you were able to see this lovely turquoise color that apparently was a favorite color of someone....because they used it a lot.

We gave ourselves a deadline of Christmas to get them painted. They needed to sit empty and dry for a long week, so we knew they were cured.

Mike was the scraper. He did a great job!

loving the fact that I'm covering that horrible color for good!

finally looking a bit like home.

They aren't done yet, we have a bit more to do with them. We need to repaint the bottom part. This will be easy, because there isn't the paint problem down there, so it'll be a light sand and paint. We also still need to add some trim. We are waiting to do this because we want to replace the green tile with a solid surface (not sure what it'll be yet). We are moving this picture to the guest room, so we need to find a bigger picture to replace it. And of course, there is still some more decorating. Now that I see what I have and the spaces that are left, I think it might be easier.

There is also room to grow with these shelves - I'm always going to buy books, and I will always be shopping for nic nacs. I'm glad there aren't full to the brim already. :)

my first quilt!

2011-01-25T07:00:00.001-06:00

I don't know if you all remember, but all last year I talked about making a quilt. Well, I did it! And it really wasn't that hard to do. I'm glad I picked what I picked for my first one - crib size, simple pattern. It didn't take anytime at all. I worked on it for a total of 4 days, then sent it off to get quilted. Easy as can be!

I made it for my friend Jennifer. She is expecting her first baby, Millie, in March. I'm so excited for this little one to get here! Jennifer is my oldest, best friend, and I knew I wanted to make something special for her first little one. It is still crazy to me that we are old enough to have kids....where did the time go. :)

all the fabric! I love the colors.

me with the finished product!

picture's from jen's blog. :)

My next quilt is for my first nephew! He will arrive in May, and me and my mother-in-law are going to do it together. She is sewing half the blocks and I'm sewing half the blocks - it's going to be a fun project!

resolutions

2011-01-24T07:00:00.001-06:00

I have never made a new year's resolution before. I know, it's about time! I think I never made one because I know myself too well, and I wouldn't follow through. But for some reason I did actually think of quite a few, and I figured I would put them out here. Then, sometime in December come back to this list and see what was actually done and what I've kept up with. It may be fun, but I guess we will just have to wait and see!

new kitchen.

We have finished the planning part of the kitchen design. There are a few things we do need to figure out though, like flooring, wall color, and what kind of windows. I have my finger's crossed that the original hardwood floors flow into the kitchen and are in awesome shape under the layer's of linoleum. (hey, a girl can dream!) But if they aren't, we will be going with a porcelain tile of some sort. Since the plans are complete, all we really need to do is wait for warmer weather, so my hope is to have it complete by September.

finances.

Mike and I are actually pretty good on this, but I just want to continue what we started. I want to continue to pay extra on the house and the car (our only debt). But the improvement I want to see is with our saving ability. I already put 10% of my paycheck in the savings, plus what ever is left over from the month; but I would like for it to be 25% by the end of the year.

get healthier.

We need to improve on everything in this category- being more active, eating better, going to doctors in a timely manor, etc. We both want to lose weight - simple as that. All we both have done since being together is gain, and that's not good. We joined a gym last week, and have already gone (which is big). I've never worked out in my life, don't know how, so we are going to set up appointments with trainers to find what is best for us both. This is going to be the hardest resolution by far. This resolutions means a total life change for us.

new master suite.

Our house is a 4 bedroom, 1 1/2 bath home. But we are going to be making it a 3 bedroom, 2 1/2 bath home! So this plan involves taking down a wall between two bedrooms, adding a master bathroom, and where there were 2 small closets, making one walk-in. I need this to be done this year.All the bedrooms are the exact same size. Mike and I are pretty cramped. This wasn't at the top of our project list until we actually moved in. It's just unbearable right now. And actually, it may be our first project of 2011. The new bathroom doesn't need to be complete right away, just walled off, so our new bedroom looks done.

Wish us luck in 2011!

recap.

2011-01-23T13:44:00.002-06:00

thanksgiving.
We had a great trip to Michigan! Loved seeing family I hadn't seen it a very long time. Mike and I stayed a day longer than the rest of my immediate family and got to go to these little towns on the western coast of Michigan and shop with my Aunt and Uncle. We had a great time, and Mike even said he would like to come back when we had more time. That is BIG - Mike hates to travel, so we are definitely moving in the right direction on this one! :)

christmas.
I had to work until 2 on Christmas Eve (UGH!) so we got to drive home in the horrible snow storm that hit the Midwest that night. You know, every year I hope for a white Christmas, but I think all that hoping is done since we now travel for the holiday. :( But we had a great holiday, even if it was short. We got to see both side of our family, and I was able to see Jennifer's baby bump in person and catch up with her.We both wanted to have more time for friends, but it just wasn't in the cards.

I wish my job would allow me to take more time off around the holidays, but it's just not possible. I am afraid that this Christmas was just a preview to all future ones, and I'm not a fan. I would love to be able to just be off for the week between Christmas and New Year's like Mike.... :(

new years.
Mike's friends, Matt and Dustin, came from Indiana. While our friends, Brad and Lindsey, came from Illinois. They all came so the guys could go off roading at a park near us, Flat Nasty, and Lindsey and I got some girl time with some antique store shopping. It was really nice to have a full house! We've never had that many people stay with us. It was also nice to be able to shop them all our new town and house, since it was a first time visit for everyone.

thankful for thanksgiving

2010-11-09T08:30:00.000-06:00

I am so excited for Thanksgiving - you have no idea!

Reason #1- It's basically my vacation for the year....
Reason #2 - We are headed to Michigan to see family, and I know I'll be able to truly relax there.
Reason #3 - I always have a great time on road trips with my husband! 9.5 hours each way!
Reason#4 - Uh hello....the FOOD!

Now, all I have to do is get through these 2 weeks at work, which for now seems like it will take 2 years. I still have to make Abe's reservation at the doggy ~~kennel~~ spa/retreat (I love how the company makes it sound so luxurious), but then we are ready to hit the road. :)

Completely unrelated:
We have been doing a lot of work in the yard the past couple weeks (pictures to come). It's no where near where it needs to be but every little bit helps. It's sad to say, but the yard will take years of work for me to feel good about it.

We are going back to our kitchen designer on Thursday. We've had our plans for a few months and really let them soak in (figured out what we liked and disliked). So we are hoping the new ideas we bring to the table will be the winning plan. This is a huge (and expensive) part of our remodel and I just want it to be perfect!

the bell

2010-10-20T09:25:00.000-05:00

I know my door looks dirty, but it's just dingy and old. :(

Since we got Abe in the middle of May, we have continually had a problem with potty training. More recently we've only had accidents 2 a week or so (thank god for all hardwood floors :) ). But that shouldn't still be happening. We are both pretty frustrated with.

Well, about a week ago, we went to the store for more dog food and came across this bell. We had both heard from other people that if you have a dog that won't bark when it needs to go outside to get a bell for them to ring on the door. We both thought it was silly and didn't think anything of it.....but as you can see we bought this bell, and IT'S WORKING!! :) How it works is we ring it every time we are about to take him out and say "potty!", and then we go out. So at some point he will just be ringing it every time he needs to go out.

He's only rang it on his own twice now, but he's had to go; and we haven't had any accidents (knock on wood!) this whole time.

I know this may be boring to the non-dog owners, but this is a huge step for us and I couldn't be more excited! I'm so glad we found something that works for Abe.

fire duty

2010-10-03T19:24:00.000-05:00

So I went a whole month without blogging....sorry guys.....

It was just a really busy September. After going back to Indiana twice and then having a pretty uneventful (but lovely) anniversary, we are now in October. I can't believe it! This year has flown by and I know if has no intentions of slowing down. ugh.

Here is a little news in our lives right now - Mike is out on FIRE DUTY! We got the call last Friday night about 8:45 pm and he left a 10 am the next day. phew! We don't really know when he will be back, but he can only be out for a maximum of 18 days. He was shipped to Virginia; I guess they had a really dry September. He was really excited "because no one ever goes east, babe". :)

That was a crazy night; trying to get him packed, figuring out how to get him there, and our minds racing with thoughts of what's going to happen (like how do you put gas in a lawn mower???) I have never mowed in my life - big shout out to my Dad and Mike for always doing it. Mike did, however show me how to pull start ours about a month ago, but that's it. So the morning he left I asked him how to put gas in it. I know that may sound stupid, but I didn't know. :) Mike laughed a little and then suggested that I just hire someone for a one time job. Let me remind you, next to my father, and brother in law, Mike is the cheapest man I know ( I think this and being Harley men are the two things they all have in common). I told him a can do it! I know I can; and I haven't tried yet so I'll let you know how it goes.

He's been gone a week and I miss him like crazy. Abe has been a life saver, I'm glad there is still someone to come home to. It's been pretty quiet this week and future is looking like it will be a quiet week ahead....

On the plus side, I'm organizing! I bought a lot of Rubbermaid totes and labels to organize our storage. It's kind of boring, but it's something to do and it needs to be done. Our basement isn't a completely dry basement so I want to put everything that's in boxes in those totes just to be on the safe side.

decorating is hard.

2010-08-28T15:25:00.000-05:00

I started shopping for the dining room, and let me just say - it's hard. I'm so worried things won't look right together. I want everything to "match" but not look matchy-matchy..... I guess I just want flow. I know I'm probably just freaking out because I've never really done this before and haven't really started yet. The thing is, is that most of what I want to buy to decorate isn't available in town, so that means online shopping and I just don't want to deal with returning things online. On a lighter note, I've bough two things for the dining room and some book-ins for the living room. :)

I'm going to back in Indiana next weekend, and I'm hoping to hit up some stores. We will just have to see if there is time.

abe and me time

2010-08-15T15:50:00.000-05:00

It's just been Abe and I this weekend since Mike was out of town, and I can tell you one thing. We BOTH missed him. In the morning, when I went to get Abe out of his kennel, he ran upstairs, because he knows there are two of us. He just keeps looking for him. We will definitely be happy once Mike returns this evening.

It was a lot harder to have my relaxing sewing weekend this time. I've never had one with a puppy.... It's hard to tell Abe that I just want to sew right not and not play fetch. He just sat next to my chair and whined over and over. I really felt bad, so I set the timer and sewed for 30 minutes and then played for 10-15 minutes. Well, this makes my purse making last for Saturday AND Sunday. I was not planning for that.....but I couldn't just let him sit there; it wasn't fair. It was funny this afternoon, I couldn't figure out what he wanted; didn't have to go potty, just was fed, not really into fetch. So I went and sat on the couch, and you want to know what Abe did - he jumped up and fell immediately asleep on me. He's used to laying on one of us. :) So spoiled, just like a tired kid needing a nap; He is truly our baby.

I did end up getting a purse made for myself in the end and a present for someone. So it was still productive. Since I don't have my sewing room set up yet, I took over the dining room. It was actually really nice. I wish I had a big table for my sewing room now. I loved having all that work space.


Loved having my four stations -sewing, serging, pressing and cutting.

pretty fabrics

This is just the second purse I've made that has coordinating fabrics instead of just one. What do you think?
I'm liking the change. I can't wait to carry it! :)

sewing - i miss you!

2010-08-11T09:20:00.000-05:00

I have something to tell you all and it's not good.....I haven't sewn since before Christmas. GASP!

I know, I hate it.

I can understand not sewing from January to maybe April, because of the whole moving 3 hours away/buying a house thing. But there really isn't a good reason for not now. I don't have my sewing room set up yet and that's probably why it's not in use. It just wasn't anything that needed to be unpacked and with every bedroom needing updating, I felt silly unpacking everything and then just rotating rooms when one is completed. But now since it's been so long I feel that it just needs to be unpacked or I'll never use it until the house is done, which is expected to be Summer 2025. :)

Since Mike is going to be out of town this weekend, my plan is to take over my newly finished dining room and SEW! I know I could do this any other weekend while he's here, he would have no problem with it at all, but I feel better doing it while he's gone. I won't be making myself proper dinners that need a dining table this weekend, just soup.

I'm going to definitely make myself a new purse. I've ~~needed~~ wanted a new purse since December. I bought some fabric for myself when I bought for Christmas presents and it's still in the box. :(

I just want to get back in my groove so to speak. I have other projects I want to start: Christmas tree skirts, stockings, that dang quilt I've been talking about for 6 months, etc. I also want to try my hand at baby clothes. Since I have my serger now and know how to use it, I want to make presents for people. There are a couple of girls at work that are pregnant and I think it would be cute to make them part of there present. I guess we will just have to wait and see.

chimney work

2010-08-08T08:00:00.002-05:00

A couple weeks ago we had our chimney worked on. It was something we knew had to be fixed when we bought the place and it was the main thing the previous owner told us he was going to fix before he sold the house to us. Well, we all know how that story went, the owner did not hold up his end of the deal.

Sadly, I don't have any before shots of the chimney. The workers kind of surprised us with when they would start working on it. They just called Mike one morning and said they finished a job early and asked if they could start on our a week early. Mike said 'of course', and I found out when I came home for lunch one day. But to give you a visual, the top bricks of the chimney weren't connected anymore. They were just laying up there; all the mortar was gone.

So the plan was to remove the bricks down to the roof line and rebuild. They would also grind away the mortar throughout the entire chimney and re-mortar so it all looks uniform.

showing how much they ground out.


bricks removed.


finished!

It took about a week, and was pretty painless for us (except in the checkbook!). We really like how it turned out. It was a little nerve racking doing our first expensive thing to the house, but I'm sure the next ones with will be easier. :)

dining room

2010-08-07T11:24:00.000-05:00

before....

after!

before....

after!

before....

after!

Here is the dining room all painted! I'm so glad we decided to tint the blue a little darker. I would not of been completely happy with the lighter blue that was the first coat of paint.

I seriously can't believe the change. That mustard/mcdonalds yellow was so bad. And let's not forget the fruit wallpaper border with clashing floral curtains. :)

The only thing left to do is refinish the floors and add shoe molding to the bottom of the baseboard. Well, and of course decorate! I told Mike last night that it's time to start shopping for some art/pictures and things to go in the built ins. He hates nic-nacs, so this is definitely going to be a challenge to find things that we both like. I don't want to fill them to the brim with crap, but I don't want them to look bare and empty.

what i'm doing today

2010-08-01T14:42:00.000-05:00

The only thing I told myself I have to accomplish today is painting the second and final dining room built in.

So I'm making it look like this......

and I started with that.

The thing that keeps me going is knowing the next step is decorating! I can't wait. :)

question: where are you going on vacation?

2010-07-07T08:33:00.000-05:00

answer: weddings.....

Since I started my new job at the bank after the new year, I was only given 5 vacation days for the year. I wouldn't have been a big deal, but we have 4 weddings this summer/fall....all in Indiana, which is now 6.5 hours away. So all my days off are being used for the Fridays before the weddings. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE weddings, it's just I don't really love using all my vacation on them. :) Our first one is in a couple weeks, but where it gets tricky is September; we have a wedding and then a reception in Indiana, then a reception in Missouri, and some where we HAVE to fit in our anniversary.

We had a chance to go to Michigan for Thanksgiving to see family. I used to always go there as a child/teen, but we haven't been in 6 years. So, I changed all my Fridays before weddings to half days, and we get to go! I'm really excited to take Mike where I celebrated as a kid. I guess my real "vacation" is going to be this Michigan trip. My great Aunt and Uncle we are visiting have lived in this old haunted Victorian home (yes, I said haunted) and they are going to retire next year and sell the place, so this is the last Thanksgiving there. It will be sad, but I'm glad to go one last time to really soak it all up.

As a kid, we had a vacation every year. It wasn't always a big one, but my Dad work's somewhere where there is a 2 week shutdown in July, so we always had time for one. I love vacations and really miss having one since being out on my own and now married . I know I was spoiled with this...Mike is doomed. :)

when the cats away...

2010-06-27T10:21:00.001-05:00

....the mouse will do nothing! :)

Mike went to a bachelor party this weekend out of town, so it gave me a chance to catch up on ME time. I honestly didn't really do a thing yesterday. Well, I watched girlie movies all day and took a two and a half hour puppy nap with Abe. It was just what the doctor ordered. Now I know I probably should of been working on the house, but you got to have some down time every once and a while, right?

Since Mike's coming home sometime today, I need to get crackin' on my wifely duties of normal weekends....back to reailty! The plan for today is making a grocery list and go to the grocery, laundry, cleaning the house a bit, and giving Abe his bath.

I've also been hitting the quilt pattern search a little harder recently. I said a the beginning of the year I wanted to piece my first quilt this year, and look, the year is half over and I'm still where I was 6 months ago. :( I guess that's what happens when you buy a fixer-upper for a home. Anyway, I've narrowed my pattern down to 3. I may buy all three of them, and then choose later. I like them all so much that I can see myself making all of them at some point. One of them is actually a Christmas quilt and if I started now, I think I could have it done just in time for the holidays. That gives me a deadline. I work better with deadlines....

Enjoy your Sunday everyone!

chairs

2010-06-21T07:30:00.021-05:00

Since we moved to a house with an actually working garage, Mike's been wanting to do some wood working. I've been telling him for years that I would love to have Adirondack Chairs on my front porch. Well, we bought a house with a big front porch, so Mike made my dream a reality.

He started on Memorial Day weekend, and he didn't stop the entire weekend. It took one more Saturday to finish the four chairs and then we stained the next weekend. He did an amazing job on them. :)

Next, will be 2 matching cocktail/side tables. I hope to have them done sometime this summer, but I know there is a lot more important things that need to be done. There is also a matching love seat version and I would love to have that as well. It would make a nice conversation area on the porch.

We've already sat out on the porch twice now and love it. It's nice to sit outside on a summer evening just watching the cars and people.

I love my handy husband!

abe

2010-06-20T12:27:00.001-05:00

This post is only about a month too late, but we got a puppy!

We have been casually looking at the free dogs in the newspaper and rolla net (our local craigslist) but just hadn't found any that just jumped out at us saying "come get me!" I've really been wanting a chocolate lab, but in the end we got a beagle/patterdale terrier mix. We saw him online one evening and the next day at work, he was all I could think about. So Mike agreed, and we went and got him. It took us a couple days to decide on a name, but we ended up with Abe. When I first met Mike, before we started dating, my friend and I would call him Abe. With his sideburns we thought he looked like Abe Lincoln. I know it's silly, but it was neat to incorporate his name with something from our past. I really wanted to find a name that was from our honeymoon to Ireland, but we couldn't agree on any of those names.

I'm really happy that we decided on a smaller breed in the end. He's expected to be between 15 and 20 pounds. It will work out better when it comes to making the trip back to Indiana.

Abe is full of energy, but loves his puppy naps on Mike and I as well. Oh, how I love it when he falls asleep on me! He loves to play rope/tug of war, he can play it for longer than I've ever played it with a dog. We can play for 20 minutes straight, and then promptly followed by an hour long nap. :)

Abe has definitely been an eye opening experience for Mike and I. Mike has never had a puppy nor an indoor dog before, and I haven't had one for 13 years. He's taught us a lot already about changing our lives to fit him in to it. I don't want people out there to think I'm categorizing children with pets (but don't get me wrong, I feel that pets are part of the family), but Abe has definitely shown me a slight "preview" to what it's like to have a child.

still here

2010-05-06T17:49:00.000-05:00

I'm sorry I left you high and dry....It's funny, when I have the time to blog, nothing is going on; and then when something big and eventful is happening, I don't have time to blog. Oh well.

Here's a bit of a recap:

My job at the bank is going really well. Finally started opening checking and savings accounts. And I got my first loan yesterday! Now lets just hope it goes through. :) I'm really enjoying the environment and the people I work with. Mike is also fitting right in at his new location. There are a lot more employees his age and so he just has more in common with them.

The house is coming along slowly but surely. (I still don't have my computer set up, or there would be pictures). The dining room came out great. The second coat of paint the was darker than the first is perfect, exactly what I envisioned. We bought a new light fixture a couple weeks ago and it just finishes off the room. I still have the corner built ins to paint, but I gave myself a goal that they WILL be done by Memorial Day Weekend. They need to be done, I've dragged them out long enough!

As I said, my computer is not hooked up yet! I know, we moved in 2 whole months ago and still no office. All I have to say is thank god for my iphone! But the main reason the computer is not set up yet is that we are going to be redoing all the bedrooms up stairs and so everything is going to move atleast once to free up another room to redo. And I didn't really feel like setting things up just to repack them.

While I was MIA on here, we had a kitchen designer come to the house. I'm very excited! We knew buying this house the kitchen would be one of the biggest things we changed and we didn't really want to wait too long to do it. We want to fully enjoy it before we sell (we aren't planning to sell for awhile, just fyi). Well, we got the estimate back and it was a bit high for us and it was a bit too fancy for the house. So we are going to go back and have them simplify it a little and maybe the price will go down too. We really want to remodel this house right and so we really want the custom cabinets.

My birthday was last week, and my sister and brother-in-law came to visit. Jeff had never visited us before and Sarah hadn't seen the house before. We had a great time! We were planning on going to a few wineries in our area and then I found out about a beer and wine festival that was happening. Well, we decided to go to that and it was so nice. Great weather and tasting wine all day - perfect! Another great thing that happened was one of a winery representatives commented on my sisters purse, and we told her I made it. She's wanting locally made "stuff" to put in there gift shop and asked me if I was interested....heck yeah! I'm super excited about it! Nothing has really happened yet, just emailing back and forth. I'm probably jinxing myself, but I couldn't keep it in. :)

falling

2010-03-15T11:09:00.000-05:00

Things just couldn't be better. I am really on cloud nine right now.

I have a new job!

I'm so excited about it! It's at a bank here in town where I'll be a Universal Banker. Which is a personal banker (open accounts, explain accounts, start loans, etc,) and then I'll be a back up for the tellers (during lunch, vacations, or just when we are busy). I had the interview the day after we signed for the house and then last Tuesday, I got the call that I got the job. It's funny, I actually interviewed for a teller position but after the interview the manager call me and asked if I would be interested in the Universal Banker position. Of course I said yes, but it took a whole week for the official offer to come. I'm glad they saw potential in me to put me in a higher position. I don't start until next week and I'm glad. It gives me time to get the house a bit more in order.

Things are just falling into place. I'm so thankful it only took a week to get a job, instead the 5 1/2 months it took when we moved to Hannibal. It makes me feel like we definitely made the right choice with Mike taking this job, moving 3 hours away, and buying this house.

it's official...

2010-03-08T09:33:00.000-06:00

...we are homeowners! We've made it through!

We had a couple of hiccups on closing day, but in the end we closed, signed and went on our way. When we did our final walk through (3 hours before signing) we found that basically nothing was done on our list of things to fix after the inspection. UGH! We were quite upset with the owner, to say the least. As I said in a previous post, instead of giving us the $1,000 off the price for the problems, the owner said he would fix them. And then he didn't. The reason we were so upset was he could of negotiated the $1,000 down or just said no to it and we would of been okay with it. But no, he said he would fix them. And what made us even more nervous about the situation was the seller signed all his stuff the day before us (he couldn't get off work) and couldn't be contacted before we signed. Our realtor did the best he could in the situation, called the seller's realtor and she couldn't even get in contact with the seller. There was a lot of piddly stuff of the list to fix but the big thing was re-mortoring part the the chimney, some of the bricks are pretty loose. I have no idea how much something like that costs and now we have to pay for it. Luckily, when we went to closing, the sellers realtor offered us $200 of her own money for the situation. I know it's not enough to fix the chimney, but it will definitely help. I felt bad that she had to do that, but my realtor explained that she would most likely be reimbursed by the seller.

I know buying a house isn't easy and those things happen, we were just hoping it wouldn't happen to us. The seller also left the house with a lot of trash and it was just in disgusting/dirty shape. So we spent a fair amount of time cleaning it out.

But on the other hand, we bought a house! And we did a lot of painting this week, thanks to my Dad. My parents decided to come help us get the house ready to move in and I'm glad they did. The living room was a bigger project than I anticipated. The walls are plaster and needed a good overhaul. There were cracks, divets (sp?), and waviness. I know I couldn't of done a job as good as he did on those walls, it was a full day of prep work before we got to the paint.

These are the before pictures again:

Here's some prep work:

Finished painting:

We definitely have more work to do in this room, but this was a big part. I LOVE this room now. I can't wait to get our furniture in it and decorate! We need to do some work on the mantel and built ins, so we didn't paint them yet, so that will be another task to be done.

We were able to get the first coat of paint on the dining room. With seeing all the work that had to go into the living room, we didn't expect to get anything done in the dining room. I'm really glad we did it though. I wanted a grey-blue, not too bright. We put the first coat of paint on and it's too bright for us, so we are going to take our other gallon of paint back and ask them to add some more grey.

Here is the before of the dining room:

Here's after the first coat:

Hopefully this week (it might be next week), we will get the second coat on of the grey-er color. The movers are here now packing us. Oh, how I love free movers! But I do kind of feel in the way and feel like I should be helping.

I am hoping to have the computer/internet up and going soon in the new house, so it may be a week before I post again.

dreaming of a sewing room

2010-02-28T17:30:00.000-06:00

Mike and I have been stuck in our house this whole weekend....cleaning and packing. These are the 2 things I dread most in life, I think. Since we are relocating for Mike's job, they are paying for movers to pack and move us. Yay! But our house was in dire need of a spring cleaning regardless of the move. I hate to say it, but our house has been a mess since the new year. We got home from our Indiana Christmas visit and it's been down hill from there. Now for our defense, we then found out about the move, found a house, did my sister's bachlorette party, Mike's been out of town for work, went to Mexico for the wedding.....phew! Our weekends have been really busy for the last couple months.

So now we are cleaning and packing for the movers. It's kind of like cleaning before the cleaning lady comes over so she doesn't think your too big of a slob. Wouldn't it be nice to have a cleaning lady....

Today I put away my sewing machine. I'm been on a sewing break since Christmas, and I really miss it. I can't wait to unpack my sewing room and start making things for the house. I'm also excited to get back to my purses, I have a couple patterns I've "designed" and I really want to try them out. I got my serger and it's just sat in the box; there was no reason to get it out. I wanted to paint it an aqua-teal, but Mike said no. :( So I'm going with a grey-blue. I like the grey-blue but I was kind of looking forward to a bright, bold space. It's now going to be more calm looking. I guess I'll just have to do bright, bold accessories and wall art. Our new home is a four bedroom, so for the time being I will have a room just for sewing. I'm not sure which room it will be (we still don't know what room will be ours, since there's no "master" bedroom).

But here is a contender:

5 days

2010-02-25T20:56:00.000-06:00

....until were are homeowners!

I am really getting excited now. I did the last thing today that needed to be done before we sign. The house gods were definitely on my side today. We had to move some money around to get our down payment all in one account....and I waited until today to do this. I know, I know, two business days is not really that best time-line to give your money. The teller said there is normally a 9 day hold on that amount of money....GREAT. But when she put in the deposit we didn't have a hold. Woo Hoo! We are truly lucky.

I'm starting to make a list in my head what I need to pack for the first week in the house. We are going to be roughing it until all our stuff is moved, air mattress, camp chairs, etc. But we are taking advantage of the time...painting!! While Mike's at work all week, I'll be painting the living room and our bedroom. Those are the two rooms the "need" to be done before the furniture comes. If I have extra time, the dining room will be next.

So here are some before pictures of the living room:

Sorry for the quality of the pictures, these are from the listing.

We think we are going to take down the bead board, just because we want to put in up in the dining room. I don't want the first floor to all be bead board. But of course, our minds could change between now and painting. We are both on the same page with going with a tan color, but Mike wants a more brown-tan, and I want a more yellow/golden-tan. We will see who wins this battle! :)

This is a pretty big room (like 14' x 25'), so I will definitely have my work cut out for me. Plus, with all the trim and the built-ins.....long days of painting are in my future. Mike is a horrible painter; his hands are too shaky. So I may spend most of my time on the trim/built-ins and Mike will do the big open space on the walls. :)

sushi class

2010-02-23T20:13:00.000-06:00

Mike and were lucky enough to attend a sushi rolling class at the resort in Mexico. And when I say lucky, I mean lucky....we didn't sign up for the class when we should of and they ran out of space. I ran into the lady who was conducting the class and she said it was full, so I read by the pool and Mike headed to the bar. :) Then about 10 minutes later the woman came back and said there was a cancellation and we were in. YES!! Mike and I were pretty excited about the class; we both love sushi but found it intimidating to make. We were wrong; it's so easy! Now granted they had everything laid out for us, but at least we were able to try out our rolling skills. I know there is a lot of prep work, especially the "sticky" sushi rice, but the class changed our thoughts on homemade sushi. Mike wants to get a rolling mat, and is actually considering a rice cooker. Rice cookers are pretty inexpensive, but are "one-hit wonders" in the kitchen and Mike normally hates those.

This class was definitely a highlight of our vacation. :)

mrs. hanson

2010-02-21T16:49:00.000-06:00

My sister in now a married woman, and was the most beautiful bride! I couldn't be more happier for her and her husband. The wedding went off without any problems (for the most part). It down poured the day before the wedding, so she was a bit worried; but it was a beautiful ceremony on the beach right before sunset.

I wish you guys the happiest life together. :)

We had a great time in Mexico with family. Their destination wedding was a great way to get the family involved. I just wish I was there longer; with the wedding it felt so short.

Mike even enjoyed himself (I'm thinking it had something to do with all alcoholic drinks were included), he said he would even consider doing it again. This excites me to no end, because my husband hates to travel. He also hates to spend money on trips because he would rather a material item for the same amount of money. This is something we disagree on and I'm sure I'll change his mind at some point. ;)

mexico

2010-02-14T12:44:00.000-06:00

We are heading down to St. Louis this afternoon for our early flight tomorrow to Mexico. I can't wait for this week of relaxation and my sister's wedding! :)

more inspection

2010-02-13T13:57:00.000-06:00

After the inspection , Mike went back to the realtors and asked for $1, 000 off the house price to do some little things found in the inspection. We were kind of shorting ourselves with the amount but didn't want to sound too "greedy". There were a few things wrong that weren't in the last post because my lovely husband didn't tell me about them. :) Aren't men great?! I know he didn't want to explain electrical stuff, and all the knit picking stuff that were found in the inspection, but I want to know what's going on with the house. So when I was told about the $1,000 off, I was really confused, because I thought the pipes and the insulation were it. So Mike explained everything to me.

One of the bedroom windows has a crack.
The dryer circuit is over fused.
Full bathrooms sink drain doesn't work very well.
The downstairs half bath is gutted. We knew this buying the home, and it will most likely been our first project.
Half the kitchen counter is off. Again something we knew going into it and we would of replaced.
One of the fireplaces' corners needs to be re-tucked....I have no idea what this means.....
The dining room and living rooms' outlets have cross polarity.

So we put in the $1,000 offer, the seller came back and declined it. But he's going to fix everything on our list instead!! We couldn't be happier! It's better for us so we can move in and take our time with the remodeling we want to do, instead of rushing. I'm really happy about the half bath and the kitchen counter the most. Even though we will be redoing the bathroom still and it will most likely still be the first big project, but at least it's functional for the time being.

Also, the seller was really upset when he found out the gas wasn't on to check the furnace. It turns out the renter in the seller's nephew, so I'm sure he had a few choice words for him. ;) I kind of felt like I was overreacting, because Mike was so calm about it. So I'm really happy the seller was upset, so I wasn't the only one.

inspection...part 1

2010-02-10T17:42:00.003-06:00

So we had our home inspection yesterday! I was so excited for it to happen, since it was the deciding factor on if we were buying the house or not. It started at 9am and it was just Mike and the inspector....and it took 5 hours!! I can't believe it took that long. Now don't get me wrong, I wanted them to go through everything, but I didn't think it would take all day. Right??

Everything went really well. There are just a couple things that are pretty standard things.

There could be more insulation in the attic but it's up to code. We want to insulate the garage, so we will just do it all at the same time - no problem.
Some of the pipes are original to the 1935 house. They aren't in bad condition, just old. The inspector recommended to replace them before we resell - no problem.

Now here is the problem (and it's not really a problem just a set back). The gas isn't turned on in the house so they couldn't check the furnace. I'm a little ticked! We have had this inspection set for 2 weeks, they knew this was coming. And who doesn't have everything that's staying with the house running during the darn house inspection???? So now we have to get the gas turned on (don't worry we aren't paying for it) and the inspector is going to come back (free of charge). It's just frustrating... so note to anyone house hunting, when you schedule your inspection make sure everything is on so you only have to do it once. There's a fireplace with an insert (this makes it basically like a wood burning stove), and this is what the renter has been using this winter, so that's why the gas wasn't on, but still...

So we have 2 weeks until our closing date (March 1st) to get the furnace checked, and one of those weeks we are going to be in Mexico. So we have a small window to get this done, but I think it can do it.

one week

2010-02-08T20:36:00.002-06:00

.....and we will be in paradise!

I cannot wait for this vacation. My sister is getting married first of all! So excited for that. She's going to be the most beautiful bride and she gets to do it on a beach! And Mike and I get a relaxing mexican vacation at a resort to go with it. We haven't had a proper vacation since our honeymoon in Ireland, so it is much needed. We are having our house inspection tomorrow; fingers crossed everyone! And if everything goes well, the stress of the house will almost cease to exist. Then this vacation can truly be a stress/worry free week.

a wedding dress moment

2010-02-07T15:37:00.000-06:00

Any married or engaged woman knows what I'm talking about. That moment you see your wedding dress, you just know that it's the one. Everything in your mind is so clear and you have the highest level of assurance that your making the right decision. Well, we totally had that when we saw our new house. Mike and I were talking about it in the car yesterday, and he said as soon as he walked into the house he knew it was the one. I told him he had his "wedding dress" moment. :) I had to explain it to him, and he thought I was crazy I'm sure. But it's the truth, and I know I had it for the second time in my life with this house. I'm pretty sure this is just a starter home for us, but it's our dream starter home.

Mike left yet again this afternoon for a week of work in Rolla. This weekend was great, but was definitely too short. We went bowling with Brad and Lindsey and had a great time with friends we haven't really been able to hang out this recently. They've been really busy with him about ready to go into surgery, and us with the whole house/moving thing. It was nice to just relax with them.

With Mike being gone for a week at a time and not having the a proper kitchen where he's staying, I've been making food for him to reheat. Today, I was a cooking fool! I made a weeks worth of dinners for us and split it up. The good thing is, no cooking for the rest of the week for me. :)

I'm not a huge football fan, but this Indiana girl is rooting for the COLTS! I'm heading over to a co-workers to watch with her and her husband. It should be a fun time; they're Saints fans. But like me, are super into the game. So I'm sure someone will end up gloating, and hopefully its me!

change

2010-01-31T14:39:00.000-06:00

It's so weird how much can change in just one month. Our whole lives are completely different than last month. Yesterday marks one month on knowing Mike got promoted and we were going to move. I can not believe what we have accomplished in this month, I honestly didn't think we would be half a far as we actually are. January went by in what seemed to be a blink. First off, I couldn't be prouder of my husband; being the first one at his level to get promoted says a lot about how well he's doing.

Now we are homeowners. Something we didn't plan on doing for 6-8 months from now. This new time line scare us both to death in the beginning, but we have made it through. We found a house we love! We went to 'Home Depot' yesterday and ~~planned~~ day dreamed our house all out. Even though somethings won't happen for a while, we know we are both in the same mind set, which is great! It amazes me all the things we can do now that we are homeowners. I've trained myself to live in rentals for the past 6 years, that it's strange that we can do whatever we want. When my parents come to visit, they can bring their dog, Tanner. Our rental doesn't even allow visiting animals. It's those ~~silly~~ little things that I can't wait to discover in home-ownership.

Today also marks a new part of the moving adventure of ours: Mike left today because he starts his new position bright and early tomorrow. It's going to be hard, but it was for the best decision for us. Good thing is is that he will be home on weekends, and we have my sister's week long Mexican wedding vacation; so February will go by as fast as January. Maybe even faster!

In house news: Nothing really big has happened. We've heard back from the bank and closing papers are basically done and ready. :) We have our inspection on the 9th. Mike will be there, not me. Mike's really excited for the inspection. Since Mike worked construction during college, he know quite a bit about buildings. So he wants to see what he knows versus what the inspector knows. Since inspecting things is this guys job, I'm assuming he will catch something that Mike doesn't....but you never know. If everything goes well, our tentative closing date is March 1st! We will know if that date is locked in after the inspection.

homeowners!?!?!?!

2010-01-26T17:47:00.000-06:00

This weekend has just been a crazy one, that's for sure. I went to Indianapolis for my sister's bachlorette party. I have a great time and it was nice to see her and my mom. Overall, it was just nice to spend a weekend with my sister. I don't know how long it's been since we were able just to hang out the two of us. I think everyone had a great time at the bachlorette party and the best part was I wasn't the first one to pass out! I never go out, I never drink a lot, and I always go to bed early; so I thought I was going to have a hard time keeping up with everyone and falling asleep at the bar. But I did great, had fun and everyone got home safe and sound. The only bad thing is I woke up with possibly the worst hangover of my life. I mixed alcohols and of course that didn't mix well with my head in the morning. I had a long 5 hour drive home and it was fabulous. (a little sarcasm)

I can't wait for my sister's wedding in a few weeks! It's going to be a fantastic week. :)

So, I'm sure everyone is eager for info on the house, right??? Well, the way I left it with you all is we put in an offer on Wednesday and gave the seller until Friday at 5pm to respond. We figured we would of heard something Thursday, but no! The seller's realtor waited until Friday at 4:45pm to call our realtor. (gee, thanks!) The seller put in a counter offer (he came down a bit), so we countered back (we moved up a bit) and gave the seller until Saturday at 5pm to respond. Saturday at 5pm came and went - no response! I got really nervous; our realtor called and said he could be just "playing hard ball" and our realtor would call us back on Sunday. Our realtor call and told us the seller was out of town and didn't want to do any business while away and would get back to us on Monday. Well, Monday came and Mike heard from the realtor, yet again, and he told us that the seller offered us a "verbal offer". He came down a bit more. Our realtor warned us that if we accept it, papers still need to be drawn up and the seller could change his mind because nothing was on paper. And since we basically "showed our cards" and told the seller what we would be willing to pay, he could raise his offer. But our realtor has worked with the sellers realtor before and confident it would work out, but just wanted to let us know what could happen. (Sorry if this is boring, but it may be helpful to first time home buyers)

So, I got the call from Mike (who is down in Rolla today) that the seller did put in the verbal offer to paper and he was on his way to sign for it!! WOOHOO! So we still have the inspection coming up, but we are one step closer to buying this house. : )

offering

2010-01-20T18:06:00.000-06:00

So I don't know if anyone reads this who isn't my friend on facebook, but I figured I should announce here as well.

I got the call tonight from Mike that we officially put in our first offer on a home! We were waiting for our financing to completely go through before doing so (we heard your offer is taken more seriously that way). I'm so excited and yet so nervous. We gave the owner until 5pm on Friday to respond, so it will definitely be a long 2 days. The realtor said it probably won't take that long, so maybe we'll know something tomorrow. I'm not really expecting him to take our first offer; I'm sure he will counter with something.....

I'll update you all when I know something! :)

non-house post

2010-01-18T17:50:00.004-06:00

I figured the blog has been on house-hunting over load. So I will only say one thing with regards to the house; our realtor has figured out the style of the home. It's dutch colonial. I'm glad we've finally figured it out so IF we get the house we can keep with the period of it.

Mike's gone for the week for training. Luckily he's in Rolla, so we can easily put in an offer this week. It's going to be lonely, but I'm going to be able to get a lot done. I may even get a purse sewn! I figured with this whole moving thing I wouldn't be able to sew until we do move. And just in time too, I'm headed to Indianapolis this weekend for my sister's bachlorette party. It was very last minute, but I'm super excited. I'm in charge of the food while my sister's future sister-in-law is in charge of the games. I'm so excited to make the food! We are doing a Mexican theme since she's getting married in Mexico next month. I can't wait to go to Mexico! I need a vacation....

Completely off the wall, but I'm getting a sewing serger!! I never thought I would be able to get one because they are so expensive and I wasn't sure how often I would use one. But on the bright side, I'm getting it for FREE!! And it's NEW! I'm sure your asking yourself how can that be??? Well, my job gives us "bonus bucks" and we got a lot for working during the holidays. Bonus bucks are basically money to use in the catalogs I work for and we get our discount too. So with those 2 things the serger will be free. I can't wait! I'll be able to make clothes for my kids, and just more of a variety of projects in general. I always see these cute kids patterns and dream of making them, and now I'll be able to in a professional way.

are we ready????

2010-01-17T12:06:00.004-06:00

So after going through houses yesterday, we decided our #1 is still our #1. It has the most character and the most work. The other homes just didn't compare to this ones potential. It truly surprises both of us. Mike hates formal/separate dining rooms (I happen to love them), and this one is separate and Mike said he thinks the dining room is his favorite. Then the whole 2-story thing I've already discussed. It's downtown and we normally don't like downtown, and the location is another one of our favorites; it's right across from 2 huge parks with lots of things to do and lots of kid apparatus'. So we don't have to buy all that stuff ourselves when kiddos come into the picture. A major plus (that stuff is expensive!)

It will be fun to make it our own and pick out floor tile, kitchen cabinets,sinks, paint, MORE furniture, art work...etc.

We haven't put in an offer; we are "sleeping on it". We are going to wait until the middle of this week. We don't really feel pressured to do it, we really doubt some else is looking at it right now. Not that we want to wait too long, but this is a HUGE decision and we just want to make sure it's the right one for us.

One concern I do have is just the layout of the kitchen. It obviously will have to be remodeled soon (like in the next year or so). The size is a bit small, and shape is horizontal p (if that makes sense). But it does have a pantry!!! So excited for that. I think we will take advantage of a "designer" at Lowe's or some place like that. I think that service is complimentary when you purchase there, so we'll see.

So now comes the hard part....money! Picking the house is easy. :)

a picture and a poll

2010-01-15T08:58:00.006-06:00

Tomorrow is going to be a big day! We are going down to Rolla for an afternoon of house hunting. We are looking at 4 or 5 houses, so hopefully we will be able to make a decision after that. I wish we could take our time and look for months for the perfect house, it's just moving very quickly. Maybe that is the normal pace of buying a home? It's just hard for me to make this kind of purchase with only seeing it maybe twice. At least for me anyway, Mike will be down there before me, and we will be able to go a lot more often then me. I'm very appreciative of what Mike's job is reimbursing us or just out right paying for, but they only will pay for 2 visits of the spouse, but unlimited ones for the employee. Obviously, I will have to go down more then twice, but we will definitely limit my trips as much as possible.

Here is our #1. (The one I've been talking about in the past couple posts) It's so funny that we are actually considering a 2-story. I like the look of them more than 1-stores, architecturally anyway. But Mike and I hate 2-stories, just for the fact that if you forget something upstairs you have to go right back up. We actually told the realtor that we only want to look at 1-story homes; our exact words, "it's a deal breaker if it has a second story." It's just makes me laugh, because as soon as we both saw this one online out eyes light up and said we liked it, not 10 minutes after the 'deal breaker' speech.

Now here is a question for everyone....WHAT WOULD YOU CALL THIS KIND OF HOUSE????

I would really appreciate a lot of comments on this one, even if you've never commented before and if you want to comment anonymously. I don't care, just really need feed back. I can't find this style house anywhere online to tell what it's technically called. I have a name for it and Mike hates it; I call it the dairy queen house. Just because my parents actually lived in one right after they were married and that's what they called it. The reason I want to know the style is we are going to be doing remodeling IF we buy it, and we want to keep it is style of the home.

The only help I can give you is that house was built in 1935. That's really all I have.

Thank you in advance!

mike on his own

2010-01-13T17:27:00.004-06:00

Mike was in Rolla for the day for a meeting and he had the afternoon free, so he was able to see our #1 choice. I was pretty jealous that he went without me, but we only have so many 'reimbursable" trips. So we need to make the best of them.

But Mike saw it and finally called me about 3 hours after...I was so anxious! He was told to take pictures, but that didn't happen either. Apparently, since the house has been for sale for over a year, they now have a renter (enter sarcastic "great...") and it is not a good renter from what Mike said. And to top it off the renter wasn't told the showing was going to happen, so the renter was there when Mike walked through. Awkward!!

Mike really liked it though! He said it needs work and that's what want - a fixer upper. He said it was structurally sound, and just got a new roof a couple years ago. That was what I was worried about, major, expensive repairs. I guess the windows are original, but in good condition, so that is something we would probably replace soon. It's a big house with lots of windows, so that's going to be a big chunk o'money. But I just love the character of the house, from what I've seen. It was built in 1935 and has built ins. *sigh* I get to see the house this weekend and I can't wait....don't worry, I'll take pictures!

round one

2010-01-11T17:01:00.004-06:00

Well the house we went to go see was a BUST!! We understood it was a foreclosure and would need to do a few things to it, but it being only 4 years old, we thought it would really just things to make it our own. WRONG....before I even get to the layout, it just had major problems. Starting with when we walked into the garage we smelled mold. The house has not been sealed properly for the winter because there was mold on all the walls, and an inch of ice on all the windows. Then Mike found some problems with the electrical, like 4 electrical outlet in a 5 foot span...Just bad news all around. Mike and I were actually both glad it didn't work out. It was kind of at the top of our price range but didn't want to pass up a chance to buy 15.5 acres with a house that cheap.

But the banker that took us to see the house was really nice and told us what rates we could get with his bank, so we did decide to go with them. It will be nice to deal with a bank in town, something we haven't had here because we still banking from Lafayette. :/ Anyway, we then asked him if he had a recommendation on a realtor in town. He said yes, made the call and the banker took us to the office so we wouldn't get lost in town. How nice!

The realtor is super nice as well, he reminds me of my dad in the way he's explaining everything. I learned a lot sitting there with him. It was too late on a Friday to set up any walk throughs for the weekend, but we took a look at his data base and found a few we liked. Saturday, Mike and I drove our town, found our barrings and found the houses we like. The town is pretty easy to drive around and we picked up on it really quick.

But we did find a house we really want to see. We probably like it too much right now. It's an older home built in 1935 with beautiful built-ins. :) The bathrooms are original but in great condition (as far as we could tell in the pictures). It definitely needs remodeling, but we LOVE that character of an old house. We like that fact that we can remodel it, but keep the integrity of the home.

Mike has a meeting in Rolla this week, so we are trying to get him a chance to see it to "pre-screen" it. Then, when I'm able to go down soon, we both are going to see it, if it passed Mike's inspection. :) I hope it does!

We got so much accomplished this weekend! So much we didn't plan for that happened. We came home feeling a lot less stress about this and not so much in the dark.

house hunting begins....

2010-01-07T10:11:00.004-06:00

All Mike and I have been doing for a week straight is look at houses online, ask questions about houses, etc. I feel like we've been busy, but honestly, nothing really has come of it. Well, I guess I can't say nothing--we have found one thing.. a foreclosure. We've contacted the bank that owns it, and are going down to see it this weekend. I know it's probably not too responsible of us to go see a house without a realtor or being pre-approved for anything yet, but we just want to see it! Everything sounds great on paper and we saw an exterior picture of it but who knows what the inside looks like or the layout. This house and property is right up our alley....we shall see. We are both excited about this house and it could be the one, but I've been joking with Mike that I don't want it to be. I want to look at houses!! I want to do the SHOPPING and if we by the first house we see I won't get to do that. But seriously, even if we really like this house we will still look at other houses.

The reason why we are going this quick should be obvious...houses sell quick and right from under you if you wait too long.

As of now that's the only house we are seeing this weekend, we really just want to see the town. We both have never been there, so it will be nice to just drive around and see the neighborhoods..... maybe find a fabric store. :)

Mike is going to be down there some of next week, so that is when we are going to get a realtor and get that ball rolling. No fear everyone! We are still on the plan of me staying back in Hannibal until we find and buy a home. Mike's job is paying the movers and we really want to take advantage of this. So if I stay behind, then they can do all the work; if I go when Mike goes, they would move us into storage and then WE would have to do the actual moving into the house. And I really don't want to do that.

thank you 2009

2010-01-05T18:21:00.002-06:00

you were truly great to us!

We've learned so much this year about growing up and what marriage is all about. I can't really say anything too bad about you 2009, except for those week long training sessions Mike had earlier this year. But then again, they were good to us too because Mike got a new job right at the end of the year. I guess they paid off...

So thank you 2009, for everything...and tell your friend 2010 to do the same! :)

announcement time

2009-12-31T07:38:00.004-06:00

Well, I have an announcement....We're MOVING! :)

We found out yesterday that Mike got the job he interviewed for on the 16th. So it looks like the Fleischhauers are headed to Rolla, MO (it's pronounced Raul-a). It's about 1 1/2 southwest of St. Louis, MO. We are really excited for this job. It's somewhere we can see ourselves staying. It really hasn't sunk in yet, I think once we go down and start looking at houses it will start feeling real.

Now here's the kicker...they would like it if Mike could start by February 1st! That just stresses me out to no end. We were planning on buying a house when we move, which I'm so excited for, but I'm feeling the stress of the deadline. We don't know where to begin...we know we need to start with getting approved for the loan, but what lender? And there starts the waterfall of questions in my head.

I told Mike worse case scenario is him moving down while I stay in Hannibal until we find a house. I don't think that it would take too long but it does calm me down thinking about it this way.

So there you have it, you'll have a good idea what we'll be doing in the month of January. :)

christmas sewing projects

2009-12-30T19:57:00.001-06:00

We had a really nice visit back to Lafayette. It was good to see everyone and it was a pretty relaxing trip. We ran in to snow on our way home, but Mike did such a good job driving us safely home.

I am so happy I can finally show the projects I made for Christmas! Enjoy!

a book cover

all the purses, and one I made two of...a totally of 7!

The craft bag I made for my Mom. I designed the pattern myself! I'm pretty proud of myself on this one. I can't wait to make one for ME! :)

from our home to yours...

2009-12-25T07:49:00.000-06:00

merry christmas eve eve!

2009-12-23T07:26:00.003-06:00

When I was little I always would say this on December 23rd, and my family continues to say it.

I can pretty much sum up my last few weeks in 4 words: eat, sleep, work, SEW! I have been sewing everyday! I think I have figured out I don't really like deadlines...or at least working right up to the end of one. I'm still not done! I have about a half of a project left. I can't wait to be done. I probably won't sew for a few weeks after this.

Another thing I can't wait for is to actually show all of you what I've been making. I hate just talking about what I've made in the most general way and then no picture!

Mike and I will be opening our gifts on Christmas Eve morning. My present still hasn't shown up (hmm...seem a little too familiar). Hopefully I will be opening gifts with him. Then we are traveling back home tomorrow afternoon; both of us have tomorrow off! We will most likely head back to Missouri on Sunday, but maybe Monday. I haven't got my schedule for that week yet, so we will know soon enough how long our visit will be.

Mike had an interview on the 16th. We haven't heard anything yet, I was hoping for something by Christmas. It was for the area we wanted so, please keep thinking of us. I told Mike I won't really be sad if you don't get it, but i hate this waiting thing...just tell me already! :)

do you see what i see?

2009-12-11T07:00:00.000-06:00

Do you see any thing special??? Guess! Are you sure you know what I'm talking about? :)

It's the Mississippi! And craziest part is this picture was taken from our front porch! Yep, that's right, you can see the MIGHTY Mississippi for our house. You can only see it in the winter because all the trees leaves get in the way the rest of the year. Dang Trees!

Anyway, just thought you would like to see what I can see!

i've been commissioned!

2009-12-10T07:44:00.000-06:00

*just a fancy way of saying I sold a purse!

I never would of dreamed I would make something someone else would want to buy. I know it's a small step and I don't really know where this step is going to lead, but it's really exciting!

oh christmas tree..

2009-12-09T19:43:00.003-06:00

Here is our Christmas tree. Now like I said earlier, it's a pretty sparse tree; I can't wait to get a new one. But it will do for now. I think we had a pretty good time putting it up. Since Mike doesn't really like decorating, I was really surprised he helped. He didn't last year....I'm totally turning him! I need to make a tree skirt, so hopefully I can find some Christmas fabric on sale closer to Christmas. We really don't 'need' it this year, but if I could get the fabric on sale, I would have a whole year to make it. :)

You can't have Christmas without a leg lamp in your window!

Just a tad more decorating...

We really don't have much Christmas decorations. I guess that just mean I get to buy a whole bunch of it when we buy a house! :) I know I've been complaining about not having things or wish mine were nicer/bigger, but I am very appreciative of what I have (just didn't want to leave a wrong impression with this post).

I'm hoping to get some Christmas baking in before the big day, but in reality I probably won't be able to until after the holidays...let's just call it my winter baking. I've been so busy sewing and I'm not ever half done. I really should be sewing instead of blogging right now....

...I think that's what I'm going to do. :)

blog-anniversary

2009-12-06T19:10:00.006-06:00

I made it!

When I started this blog a year ago, I truly didn't think I would keep up with it as much as a have. Now I know I've kind of been a slacker in the posted department lately, but as a whole I think I've done pretty good. I've really enjoyed blogging, it's a great release and I get to update everyone on our life. :)

We had a really nice Thanksgiving. We went Wednesday night to St. Charles, Mo to have actual Thanksgiving dinner with Mike's Aunt, Uncle and Cousin. Since I had to work Friday, we couldn't really justify going back to Indiana for 1 day. Then Friday afternoon my parents came to town for the rest of the weekend. We had a really great time; didn't do too much. We did go bowling though! Bowling was always a big thing in my family. We actually had Lindstrom family bowling the first Saturday of every month. We really enjoyed it and have missed it since moving to Missouri. Mike and I had only been once before here, and the was in February for Valentine's.

This weekend was really nice. It was good to have a relaxing one after the hussle and bussle of Thanksgiving. Yesterday, Mike went to his first auction and I stayed home to sew. :) I really enjoy just being in the quite house and sewing. I didn't get as much done as I would of liked but I got a lot of prep work done so I can do a bit of sewing this week. I'm making some Christmas presents, and I'm just hoping I can get everything I planned for accomplished. I just need to set aside an hour or so a night and just....sew.

Then today, we kind of just lounged around in the morning, did a bit of Christmas shopping, grabbed some eggnog and came home to put the tree up. Our tree is kind of a sad tree; pretty thin. It was my college tree and we just haven't replaced it yet. We went to Lowe's today, and I checked out their trees. Mike said we might be able to buy a new one on the after Christmas sales. :) We need a new one, but since we don't really have Christmas at our house yet, I don't really feel the need to put money into one yet.

But it was really cool to have Mike say we could get a new tree. I hate to say it, but my husband is a grinch when it comes to decorating. He feels it's too expensive, doesn't see the point in it and hates that it's just more stuff to store. I'm the complete opposite...I love to decorate, and not just around the holidays. Maybe I'm finally turning him.....let's hope! :)

6 am

2009-11-21T08:30:00.000-06:00

This is the second day in a row I've woken up at 6 am on the dot WIDE AWAKE! I don't understand it. I haven't really gone to bed earlier or anything. Yesterday it was nice because I was able to kind of relax while I got ready for work, but today is another story.

I needed to get up anyway today because I'm driving to Peoria for my sister's bridal shower, but not that early. It's going to be a long day of driving so I really wanted to sleep in as much as possible. I just guess it wasn't in the cards...

I'm getting excited for this shower. I get to see my sister and mom, but more importantly I get to go out to eat. :) Just kidding! I haven't gone out to in over a month so I'm ready for my treat!

To the shower I go!

a quilt???

2009-11-19T12:00:00.000-06:00

Am I ready for one??

I'm thinking about starting my first quilt. I wanted to do small sewing projects until I was comfortable with the machine, the fabric and the technique. I'm really glad I went with this approach. I taught myself to pull through and finish. Now, I know I'm probably jumping the gun, because in reality I won't start it until January; but I'm constantly looking through patterns and fabrics to find the perfect match for my first quilt.

Things I'm looking for in my first quilt:
-queen size
-matching shams
-pattern that Mike likes {believe it or not, he's picky}
-lots of white with pops of color

Yes, I'm going to make it for our bed. We have a plain white quilt on it now and I love it, but I want another to accent with.

thoughts

2009-11-18T19:10:00.004-06:00

We unfortunately haven't been up to much lately...but we did have a new development come up a couple nights ago.

We've always know we would have to move in the near future. Mike's job is an entry level/training position that should last about 2 years, and then he would be promoted to an official resource forester. Well, the first job popped up this week that is in a "okay" location. We aren't going to be too picky on applying for jobs except for where the cost of living is higher aka St. Louis. We are not getting our hopes up just because it is in a very desirable location in Missouri. See, Missouri has a lot on itty-bitty towns.....and this job is in civilization. It's down south near the Lake of the Ozarks. :) That is where we would like to end up. It's a bit warmer, more to do when people come to visit, and the lakes and forests.

I'm putting this out for the world now so that we can be in your thoughts. Not for this job in particular, but just this upcoming process. When he does get a new job is just going to snow ball into buying a house, me getting a new job, finding new friends, etc. I feel our life will actually start once we move. I know that's silly, but I just feeling like I'm on pause right now since I know this isn't permanent.

I wish we weren't at the beginning of this process and it was just...done. I hate the waiting and I feel this is going to be like a year long wait. {let's hope not...}

43

2009-11-11T06:00:00.000-06:00

That's how many days there are until Christmas. I only know this because I work for a catalog company geared toward this holiday and I have a counter on my computer at work. Work has definitely got busier in the last week. I work in the credit department, so everyone and their brother is calling in to get their payments up to date and an increase in their credit limit. The sad thing is is that I know this is just a preview of what it's going to be like between Thanksgiving and Christmas. It's going to get worse and busier, there's no slowing down in the near future.

Last night Mike and I made a trip to Quincy to go to the orchard! We went about a month ago for apples, cider and pumpkins. Ever since we've had those apples, we can't get enough. We bought a 1/2 bushel! We also bought cider again because I'm wanting to try and make Apple Cider Donuts that I saw in a magazine. If they turn out, I'll definitely put them on the cooking blog. I hope they do...

We also were able to stop at Hobby Lobby. I say we, but Mike stayed in the car. I just need to pick up some sewing supplies that I can't get in Hannibal; cheaply anyway. I love Hobby Lobby; too bad it was an in and out quick kind of shopping. I could just roam for hours.

the start of the season

2009-11-10T06:27:00.001-06:00

I know it's just the beginning of November (wasn't it just March???), but I feel the start of baking season come on. I love to bake-cheesecake, cookies,brownies, pies (am I making you hungry?). But there's also my other favorite kind of baking-casseroles, lasagna, pot roast, pot pies (how about now?). I LOVE food like this. I think that's why I like fall so much; I can do all this baking with the foods I love and still have beautiful weather.

I'm glad Mike works where he does because everyone brings in goodies around this time of year. So I can make something, have a serving and ship it off with him to where I know it won't get wasted. :) I feel like I'm in training to have a kindergartner....

silly anniversaries

2009-11-09T07:00:00.002-06:00

This weekend was the 5th anniversary of Mike and my's first kiss!

I'm such a sap.... I try to remember all these little moments of our life together. I always remind him and he rolls his eyes at me (not in a mean way, just a "I can't believe you remember these things" kind of way), kisses me and says "happy anniversary". It always brings a smile to my face. :)

At the end of this month, we will have been officially together for 5 years. half a decade. That is just crazy to me. Time sure flies by and I doubt it will ever slow down.

the funny thing about purses is......

2009-11-08T13:52:00.005-06:00

that I can NEVER have too many! :)

Mike went out to his uncles farm this morning, so I decide to make another purse. Why not? I think I'm really getting the hang of this because the one yesterday took about 6 hours and the one today, just under 3 hours! I seriously can't believe how easy they are. Why did I wait so long to discover purse making??? B.M. (before marriage) I probably bought about 6 or 7 purses a year (don't worry, nothing super expensive); what can I say, I just love the feeling of carrying around a new purse. Well, I have yet to buy a purse in the 13 months we've been married. It's shocking, I know. I joked with Mike last night that this may be the only way for me to get new purses. He just laughed; men don't understand the want/need of a new purse. It's not something that you need, so I get that point on view, but still!

Well, here's my most recent creation. I actually think I'm going to carry this one first. I have to take a 3-ring binder back and forth to work and the first purse was just a tad too small. But this new one fits perfectly. So the other will just have to be a weekend purse for now.

from Amy Butler's Midwest Modern Line

It's funny, I always hate making the first cut into a new fabric. I know I'm about to make something lovely out of it, but I feel like I'm destroying this beautiful fabric at the same time.

I'm really liking this flower/purse pose.

Well I'm off to the park to go for a walk! It's too gorgeous of a day to be inside all day.

my first purse!

2009-11-07T17:50:00.006-06:00

My $3 fabric!

I really didn't think I would get a whole purse done in an afternoon. I'm still a little shocked. Since I was finished, I couldn't wait to post these pictures! I'm pretty proud of myself for how well this came out. I definitely learn things though; when I snap it closed, it doesn't lay flat, etc. oh well. This was also my first time using fusible interfacing; I don't know why I was so nervous, it was so easy and it definitely gave the purse structure. Anyway, after completing my purse I decided to have a little photo shoot...I know, I'm a nerd.

frost and chirpping

2009-11-07T12:17:00.004-06:00

Two nights ago we had our first "frost". I'm using this loosely because I didn't have to scrap my car's windows, I just used the windshield washer fluid. I guess our surrounding area has been having a morning frost basically every morning, but since our house is so close to the Mississippi River, we are sort of shielded.

Last weekend while I was sewing I started to hear a fire alarm chirp. It was really faint so I figured it was downstairs. But then we I went downstairs, it sounded like it was upstairs..... So for like 3 days, Mike and I were trying to figure out where it was coming from; neither one of us could figure it out. Finally on Wednesday, I had a thought...what about the BASEMENT! duh. Well, I was right and we got it taken care of. I still can't believe we didn't think of it sooner and that I could actually hear it on the second floor. I guess that's an old house for you.

Today is such a gorgeous day! I went to the fabric store to get some fabric for the lining of my purse! That's right, I'm finally making my purse. The one I've been talking about since before April. Since this has been in the plans for a while, my original fabric for this purse was pretty "spring-ish" so when I was at the store I found a beautiful "autumn-ish" fabric on their sale rack for $3 a yard! My heart skipped a beat I think when I saw it. So the spring fabric could be scrapped all together or I'll just make it later this winter, who knows.
I'm so excited and nervous. I don't want to mess it up. But if I do mess up, it's just on $3 fabric. :)

halloween

2009-10-31T23:00:00.000-05:00

I guess we are just getting old, since we have no plans for tonight. :)

Mike was out hunting again and didn't get home until after dark, so we had a late dinner. He had an unsuccessful day of hunting and is thinking about going out in the morning but, I don't really see that happening. But we will see.

I on the other hand had a pretty productive Saturday. I did some much needed laundry, sewing, and made some sugar cookies (shaped like pumpkins and leaves, of course). This mini project I'm doing is almost complete and probably would have been but I need to figure out some logistics. Hopefully it will be done tomorrow.

hunting

2009-10-30T17:45:00.004-05:00

Mike went out tonight for the first time this bow season. Actually, I think this is the first time Mike's hunted dear with a bow; I've always known him to go out during shot gun season. He recently bought a used bow off of someone we know, so I know he's excited to go out and really try it out. I'm hoping he gets something today, or he's going to go out this whole weekend. :(

I'm looking forward to a quiet, simple weekend. We've have two busy weekends in a row so I can't wait to just relax. maybe get a little sewing in.. :) I can't show what I'm making but I will show a sneak peak with the fabric. I went to far lengths to find this, since it wasn't available at my fabric store I ordered it online. I had a pretty good experience with ordering online, and I guess it's good practice in case we move somewhere else that doesn't have a fabric store.

that's it. that's all you get.... :)

Hope you have a great weekend!

smokey

2009-10-28T07:30:00.003-05:00

We carved our pumpkins about 2 weeks ago after we went to the apple orchard with Brad and Lindsey. Sorry it took my forever to post these, but over the weekend we finally got our computer fixed and I was able to upload a ton of pictures. YES!

Mike getting Smokey the Bear all squared up.

The boys took a bit longer than the girls. :)

My Eiffel Tower.

Smokey all lit up.

Mike definitely took his time with Smokey. With Mike being a forester, they have tons of Smokey the Bear stuff; key chains, lanyards, ruler, etc. Then he got a email with this stencil, and it was a easy choice for him.

hog roast

2009-10-23T07:21:00.002-05:00

I think Mike had a pretty nice birthday on Wednesday. We had our friends, Brad and Lindsey, over and it was just a over all relaxing evening. The guys hung out while Lindsey and I were in the kitchen. I got Mike a new alarm clock and a boning knife. I know a alarm clock doesn't sound very neat, but it does a whole lot: inside/outside temp, auto daylight savings change, projector, sound machine and radio. I think that's all it does.... I figured he could use a nice knife for when he gets a deer this year (here's hoping). He did a really nice job butchering last years, so I'm sure this one will be even better.

We are going home for the weekend. Our friend, Matt and Katie, are having a hog roast! Since we won't be able to come home for Thanksgiving, this just seems like that right time for a visit home. I'm really excited to see everyone and hope we can get everything in that we want to.

My great Aunt Lousie passed away on Tuesday, and her funeral is Saturday morning. I'm glad we will be home so we could be there for it. I hadn't see her in a couple years. It's definitely a sad time.

Hope everyone has a great weekend.

missourians

2009-10-18T18:39:00.004-05:00

Wednesday was our one year anniversary........of living in Missouri. :) I can't believe it's been a year. I knew it was on the 14th , but when it came I nearly forgot. So I guess we are now official Missourians.

This weekend was the Folk Life festival here in Hannibal. It's comparable to "the feast of the hunters moon" back home, but a prairie version and it's downtown on Main Street instead of in a field. We went yesterday and wandered our way looking at all the pottery, jewelry, art and FOOD! The food was really good, Mike and I had cheese steak sandwiches...mmm! We bought a spoon rest to go next to the coffee maker and some pumpkin fudge. So good!

This coming Wednesday is Mike's birthday! He's going to be a old man of 26. :) It seems like just yesterday I saw him on his 21st birthday. We had just met and I was hanging out at his house when he came home from the bars (I was only 19). 2 weeks later we were a couple!

We aren't really doing anything that special, our friends Brad and Lindsey are coming over for dinner, I'm making homemade pizza and pumpkin roll (birthday boy's request!). I'm sure it will be a good night, I just want to make it exciting and special, but I married a simple man. And it's his birthday, so I told him it was his choice.

Small thing I learned this week - Mike puts the bread tie on in the opposite direction as I do. So it always takes me two tries to untie it. :)

the meaning of friday

2009-10-09T18:49:00.003-05:00

....I finally understand the joy of this day. :)

Since I've always worked retail, Fridays never meant that much to me. I always worked some part of the weekend. Well, not anymore! This is my first weekend without a job in awhile. We don't really have plans, except we are resigning our lease tomorrow morning.

I heard a advertisement on the radio on my way home this evening about a orchard near by. It's doing a demonstration on how they make apple cider and they have it and pumpkins for sale. It's on Sunday, so I'm going to try to find it online and ask Mike if we can go. We haven't bought our pumpkins yet and I can't wait to get some and figure out what to carve it in to.

So I got tagged.

Here are the rules:

1. open your first photo folder

2. scroll to the 10th photo

3. post the photo on your blog and tell the story behind it

4. tag people to do the same

Well, here's a little back story. My computer crashed about 2 months ago, so I've been using Mike's laptop full-time now. Don't worry, I have all my pictures saved on CD, but I'm waiting for my new hard drive before I upload them. So the only pictures I have on a computer are pretty recent.

This picture is from our anniversary camping trip (in September). This was the view from our camp site. So peaceful. I love that we weren't surrounded by other campers. It was a great weekend. :)

Since I don't really know that many people that read this that blog as well, I'm going to tag Anne and Laura. They are sure to have great pictures and great stories.

free day

2009-10-04T16:44:00.003-05:00

Here I am at home on a Sunday instead of at work! I'm finally free of BB&B. It felt so good to just get up and make breakfast and then have nothing else really planned for the day. Well, I do have things planned for today, I guess; I'm catching up on everything I needed/wanted to do this week. I've already made granola bars for Mike's morning snack, and hopefully I will get cookies made for lunches.

Mike's at a friends today to help on a vehicle so I have the house to myself to get things accomplished. I really want to work on my table runner, but my sewing machine has other plans. I've probably sewn six lines and ripped them all out. I think my problem is the tension of the thread, and of course, I can't figure out how to fix it. I'm going to pull out my manual and try to fix it before Mike comes home. Fingers crossed...

I love having a day to do whatever I want. I don't think I've had one of these days since about February. True story.

work in progress

2009-09-30T18:34:00.003-05:00

Didn't know if anyone wanted to see my Christmas table runner. So this is my 3rd table runner, and yes, it's the same pattern. After I finish this one I'm going to spread my wings and try another pattern. I'm just comfortable with this one and I know how much fabric I need for it, so I can buy fabric on a whim for it. :P

The fabric is Figgy Pudding by Basic Grey for Moda

I love charm packs!

All laid out.

In the progress of quilting.

Hopefully I'll get this project completed soon. I just ordered some fabric for some gifts I really need to get started on. I'm going to try to be the kind of "crafter" that only works on one project until it's complete and on to the next one. Let's see how long it lasts... :)

catch-22

2009-09-30T17:27:00.001-05:00

Since I've started my new job, my whole schedule is out of whack. I'm behind on laundry, dusting/vacuuming, dishes, etc. I used to be able to do chores before work every morning (since I didn't have to work until 10am) , but now I just don't have time in the morning. Then when I get home a little after 5, it's ready to make dinner. I'm confident that I can get a new schedule rolling once I'm done with BB&B (this Saturday!!), hopefully it will turn around next week.

Why is it when I have time to blog, I don't really have anything to say, but when I have things to share I don't have the time to write about it.....it's just a blogging catch-22 I guess.

well....

2009-09-29T07:59:00.003-05:00

....it's officially Autumn! It happens almost a one week from the solstice. I'm loving this weather! I love it when it's cool enough to have the windows shut but still warm enough not to turn on the furnace. Now that our windows are shut, I'm sleeping so much better. Since we live basically right on the Mississippi (there's about 200 yards, trees and a railroad between us-I think that's "right on" the river) , we constantly hear train and barge horns. Now there is at least a barrier of windows between us.

Well it's time to go to work this morning. Time to go look like Madonna - the "cool" microphone headset, sans the cone bra. :)

a whole week

2009-09-25T07:27:00.008-05:00

I'm still here! Sorry I left my readers (all 3 of them :) ) hanging this week. This has probably been the busiest week I've had in Missouri. My new job, which I'm really enjoying, is going great! So here is a real quick recap of the week:

Camping was a blast! I really enjoyed the calmness/laziness of camping. We went on a 2 mile trail around a lake at the state park, but when we went around to the edge of the lake, we were walking right next to a soy bean field. That's just not what I want to see on a nature hike, you know? So we decided against more hiking. We finally got to use our cast iron dutch oven. It was really neat cooking over the fire. I will have to say it was a little difficult controlling the heat, but our chili was delicious. It rained on Sunday morning, so that kind of stunk, but over all we had a great anniversary trip.

Making chili with the spurtle!

Breakfast: part 1 (part 2 was eggs, bacon and hash browns)

happy campers!

We had our anniversary cake on Sunday night after a great steak dinner. The cake was really good, as good as on our wedding day. The only thing was there was a TON of icing on it. I'm thinking she did this to protect the cake from a year in the freezer, because our wedding day cake didn't have that much on it.

The green icing sort of faded to gray, but our strawberry swirl cake was perfect!

So I'm sure all of you are curious about what was in the big box, right???? Well, this dear husband of mine MADE me a pasta dryer. I've been looking at them online, but he made me one! I like this one so much more than him buying one. I love that he took the time to make it and I had no idea. Now I'll be able to make loads of pasta and dry them properly.

p.s. I got Mike tools for his gift. You can never go wrong with tools, right?

the past few days

2009-09-18T09:23:00.003-05:00

This is what my last two days have consisted of....I had a really bad cold. Wednesday my body was just so aching - I hate that feeling. Now, I feel a lot better, but my nose is still running like crazy. I'm glad I've been off work since Tuesday because I probably would've called in on Wednesday. I hope I'm feeling even better tomorrow, since we are going on our anniversary camping trip. :)

I start my new job on Monday. I hope I don't still sound sick, since my job is talking to people on the phone. I'm ready to start something new! Too bad I'm working at BB&B the whole weekend, so Monday is going to start a 12 day work streak (at least). I'm not really looking forward to that. :/

I'm so excited to get our anniversary cake out of the freezer today! I still can't believe it has been a year. I really hope it tastes good. I have high hopes for this cake. The lady that made our cake makes a separate anniversary cake, so we actually served the entire cake at the wedding. Since a professional sealed the cake, I'm thinking it won't be stale, but we'll see. :)

i can breathe easy now

2009-09-15T07:46:00.004-05:00

I have found a new job! It's at a calling center here in Hannibal for catalog orders. I will be answering the phone when people call in to make a payment. It's not what I really what to do (what is that anyway?), but I'm very excited. It's a Monday - Friday, 8-5 kinda job!!! I'm still going to keep BB&B for at least a couple weeks to see how this job go, but I have a feeling I won't be working the Christmas season in retail. :)

This all has happened pretty quick - I got the call last night about 6 and I start next Monday. Mike and I kept talking about all the great things that come along with this job all night. We are going to have nights and weekends together, I'll be using less gas, I'll be payed more..... The night and weekends are priceless to me, I can't wait to be able to do what I want on the weekends and not have to ask off 3 weeks in advance.

Things are finally turning around, it's crazy how a new job can change everything.

a calm monday morning

2009-09-14T10:34:00.003-05:00

I hate to say it, but I'm sort of glad the weekend is over. GASP! I know, but this weekend was a busy one for me. I just feel like I didn't have any down time. We had the last 'down by the river' on Friday night. Then on Saturday evening we had a wedding of one of Mike's co-workers. It was nice to see some of Mike's co-workers that I haven't seen since last years Christmas party.

T minus 4 days until our anniversary camping trip. :) I'm getting really excited about it. I just want to relax with my husband by the fire, toasting s'mores. What more can a girl ask for??? I'm trying to get the menu made up in the next couple days. I pretty much know what I want to make (chili in the cast iron dutch oven), but I'm thinking about trying a new recipe.

Speaking of the anniversary, here is one of my presents from Mike. He told me he's going to wrap it. I was also told not to touch it, and I haven't. I just wonder what the heck it is?!?!? Any guesses? (not jewelry, obviously) :(

mail call

2009-09-11T10:29:00.005-05:00

I just got home from my haircut and was welcomed home with surprises in the mail box! I received my etsy order - I'm so excited to get this. I ordered some fabric I can't find anywhere anymore. Since I'm still new with this whole fabric/sewing thing, I'm not sure if fabrics are only out for like a year and then they "retire" or if you can always get them. I fell in love with these so I jumped at the chance to own them.

Isn't the packaging cute?!

I ordered the 3 flower fabrics; they're from Amy Butler's line, Midwest Modern. I even got a free scrap of fabric with mermaids on it. It's really cute and it's the beginning of my 'scrap' drawer. You never know when you'll use scraps. My plans for the fabric are tentatively purses. I say tentative because you never know when a new pattern is going to come along. :)

Along with my fabrics I got 2 new magazines, and the new Crate and Barrel catalog. It was a awesome surprise and the best part - NO BILLS. :)

productive day

2009-09-08T14:00:00.004-05:00

I had yesterday off work. wahoo! I was nice to just do things around the house. Mike had a few things to do out in the garage, so I decided to piece together the top of my Christmas table runner. I got to thinking about how nice it was that we both could do our own projects at the same house. B.M. (before marriage), I would have to go back to my place if I needed to do something and visa versa. I know it's silly to think about after almost a year of living together (it's like a 'duh' moment). But this was the first time we both got something completely different accomplished. It's still neat/new to me that I get to live with this amazing man.

We had some friends over last night for dinner. We had a really nice time, dinner and Skip-Bo. :) Mike and Brad played horseyballs while Lindsey and I chatted in the kitchen. I'm so glad we have found a couple that the guys get along, the girls get along and the four of us have a great time together.

We've made a decision on what we are doing for our anniversary --CAMPING. We are going to Wakonda State Park. It's about 40 minutes north of us (in Missouri). I'm glad we will finally be putting our wedding gifts to use. We received a new tent, new stove, dutch oven, lantern, etc. It seems very fitting to be using them on our 1st anniversary, right? Now I'm putting together lists so we don't forget anything....

busy weekend ahead

2009-09-04T10:47:00.004-05:00

This weekend is going to be busy. Mike's cousin and his girlfriend (Jake & Amanda) are in town from Indiana. This is basically a repeat of Memorial Day weekend, Mike's aunt, uncle and other cousin (Pam, Bill and Laura) will be out at their farm as well. I'm sure Mike will be out there ALL weekend; he even wants to stay out there on Saturday night. I, of course, have to work all weekend. :/ So I won't really get to participate in the 'festivities' of the weekend. Maybe I'll get a few pictures in. I'm horrible about taking pictures, but wish I had more.

I haven't sewn a thing this week. I went to the fabric store to find fabric for the previous mentioned Christmas present. Well, they don't have it and aren't planning on carrying it. DARN! Well, I have my heart set on it, so I'm going to have to order it online. Too bad I can't order the yardage until later this month. That's how new this fabric line is! Since I have to wait on the fabric, I'm either going to start my Christmas table runner or try my hand at a purse. If I go with the purse, I have to work with interfacing, which I've never done. I've been researching it online, but if anyone reading this has any hints for fusible interfacing, I'm all ears!

Happy Labor Day weekend. Enjoy you're 3-days off and think of me.