a red door welcome home

It has been crazy.

It has been downright nuts.

It has been awesome.

We have been renting our living spaces since we came back from Alaska seven years ago. For the past year, we have been looking at houses. The number of hours spent on Zillow was probably downright wasteful. Our search area was rather large and yet we couldn't find anything we wanted. We wanted room. We wanted some semblance of quiet. We wanted many things and were in no hurry to get them. There was one property out in the desert that I really liked, but it may or may not be available in November. We gave up the search months ago. Determined that we were just going to continue renting and even were entertaining the idea of moving back to windy cold country again. 

And then last month happened.

We got a call about a house that was available and voila!

Here we are!

A red front door to welcome us home.

We started making it our space before we even closed.
The list of dreams is so long that we probably both need second jobs.
None of it is going to happen overnite and much may just be on the ten year plan, but it is ours to do with as we wish.

We have an amazing amount of room and (as I have just found out) more than enough stuff to fill it. I have no clue how we managed to fit it all into the space we were in. We both must have mad stashing skills.

One last week at the other house to get some final cleaning done ... and maybe pick up my Marjanen Porch Rules sign (and a few miscellaneous things) that won't fit in my car ... and we can kick our feet up and relax! Start puttering and moving from one thing to the next. Unloading boxes and trying to find new homes for things.

Let's see if I can swing this big goal.
I want to park my car in the garage no later than August 1st.
Of.
This.
Year.

My coffee cups are here and we never run out of coffee beans.
Welcome!

night stands or side tables

Another Pinterest find. Sorry, I am not including the link in this one. 

#1 I cant find it.

#2 The instructions left much to the imagination of the builder.

Super cute and I wanted several of them.

It took some figuring to get this one to work. And then dear hubby wanted to put it all together at the work night and I said no. The legs needed to be painted. The top needed to be stained. And they needed to be done separately. Sorry guys!

 Isn't this little helper just the cutest? I'm betting he's going to have some mad skills when he's older.

I'm a wee bit embarrassed to post this picture. But this is real. My beautiful wine cabinet (for the person who never imbibes) houses paint and drills. Whatever. It works. I've run out of space in the house for things like sofa or entry tables. They are now living outdoors.

The guys put together 3 of these for me. I asked for 2 and got 3 because lumber still existed and why not use it up?! Absolutely! 

After putting them together ... we were not satisfied. The entire thing was much too wobbly for our liking. If an adult uses it gently .. okay. Not okay if it was going to end up in someone's living room with a houseful of activity. So hubby put his thinking cap on ... and made some braces for the legs.

I just realized that you can't even see the brace in this photo! It is painted white just as the rest of the base is. The streaks across the top are rays of ever warming sunshine.

I like it!

To be honest ... my instructions wouldn't be any better than the ones I didn't have. The legs were a bit of a bugger but so worth it! Another set of nightstand/side tables will be on my next guys' night list. Just a little less complicated in the leg department.

This table also required a little modification in another way. We are building these for a fundraising effort. The instructions called for lumber that was very cost prohibitive. If the project costs more to build than I can sell it for .... I may as well skip the crafting and go on vacation, right? So we modify as we need to ... still producing good quality products at a cost that yet ensures a little profit.

It might be a minute or months until the next ones are done. People are leaving the valley in droves for the summer and the workforce is dwindling.

Stay tuned!

wordless wednesday

spool book shelf

Did I share this photo with you before? I am a member of some Facebook local sale sites. Usually, they frustrate me to no end and I buy nothing. What happens is that they crosspost on multiple sites and, invariably, the item I am drooling over is gone before I can get to it. This time, these spools were listed for a good long while. I dreamed about them and then finally found a minute when hubby was available with the truck. Off we went and filled the back of that bugger.

He loves when I do this kind of stuff. Fill the yard with more projects that might just need his help ...

I have been dreaming of making this little bookshelf for probably a year now. Until I finally found the instructions .... for the life of me I couldn't figure out how it was done. Special thanks to Emily at Our house now a home for helping me figure this out!

The evening before we went to Kipa several weeks ago, we had a guys' craft nite. Yes, crafting for Desert Bloom Market is underway. If a lot of people do a little over a lot of time .... hopefully, a few aren't pulling their hair out in the last month. I have tools galore and a hubby who helps with anything I ask for help with. The problem is that I am a victim of that alpha oldest child syndrome. Does such a thing exist? I'm a wee bit stubborn and want to figure it out on my own. So, invariably, I spend a lot more time trying to get something accomplished. However, if I bring detailed instructions and photos of what I want accomplished to these guys' nites .... voila! It is done. Maybe not quite that fast and easy ... this little thing was a bugger and I promised I would only ask for one of them.

Look at this magic happening! Can you just visualize me fighting with the piece of plywood?

Okay. That's enough. Quit the chuckles.

It got put together and came home for painting. Paint went on and hubby put some wheels on the bottom for me. It really wouldn't need wheels except that the bottom is a wee bit rough, even though I have sanded and sanded. I don't want any pulled carpet strands or scratched floors inside someone else's home. And ... it also makes moving it around a whole lot easier.

Seriously cute! So, I finished this and said "I want another one!" I think I was kidding but I really do have several more spools to be created into something.

Love it.

I have a daughter who would like two of these stacked on top of each other.
To.
Hold.
Shoes.
She needs to make a Goodwill run.

ear wax is not my thing

Dear hubby has a problem with ear wax. Only one ear has the problem, the other seems to drain just fine. That one ear can be a serious bugger. If we regularly use ear candles, it prevents the almond size clumps of ear wax. Apparently, we hadn't been doing those regularly. He got to the point where he couldn't hear anything out of that ear last week. Well .... he really complained about it for several weeks. We have these trusty little ear drop things that are suppose to loosen the wax. He really didn't want to use them because it takes about 4 days of ear draining to get that clump out. I sort of insisted.

Now I want to know who on earth is suppose to be able to read this thing. The little person who isn't old enough to use it yet and can't even pronounce the words maybe? I had to take a picture of it and then zoom in on it to see what the dickens it said. I'm sure the instructions in the box had large print but who keeps the box?! Not me. After reading, and insisting, I put drops in that nagging ear, followed by a cotton ball for the night.

The following morning proved to be problem. Now he felt like he was under water. I know that feeling and it's miserable. So he started flushing and flushing and flushing with saline and then warm water. After quite a lengthy session of that business, it was my job to see if anything came lose.

No headlamps exist in this house anymore. I'm trying to use my phone's flashlight and work at the same time. Not a good idea. Next plan worked fairly well! This lovely pen has a light on the end of it. Do the "mom" thing. Hold it in your mouth and aim the light inside the ear. Take the closed end of the bobby pin and started pulling ... and pulling ... and pulling. I could see what I was pulling. I was NOT blindly digging. Just makin' sure you know that. He already can't hear what I'm mumbling half the time ... don't need that any worse any faster than it is naturally coming my way.

I'm typically not a squeamish person. I can discuss any kind of bodily functions over my dinner plate without a problem. Children's vomit gets to me but I learned the coffee ground trick and can handle that usually without a problem. I'm afraid I was drooling around that penlight while I gagged and gagged.

The crud that eventually all was removed wasn't quite almond size but getting downright close.

I'm seriously thinking I should buy a case of 100 ear candles and keep them at the ready. Pretty soon I'm not going to be able to see anything and I really don't feel like a repeat. Not anytime soon.

That's my disgusting story for the week/month/year I hope!

crockpot lasagne

Thanks!

It worked!

Plop frozen lasagne container inside crockpot and put on low.

Dinner done house cool.

memorial day

I'm a lazy one.

I don't go to the National Memorial Cemetery.

I did go once ... I get cranky anywhere when it's too warm outside.

Maybe that isn't right, but my cranky isn't worth it.

Nor do we leave town on holiday weekends.

Everybody and their brother is trying to do the same thing and I don't like traffic.

So why, you ask, do I live in a huge metropolis?

Good question.

Alyx came over early on Monday with Dominic and then Tarron joined us later with Sebastian.

This was our days activity.

I do have some cute video of music making which I'll save for a video show when he's 30.

These two were actually playing together which is a rarity.

Dominic sort of likes his mom the bestest.

Do you notice the little bits of white threads on the couch?

Tain't nothing compared to what it looks like right now.

I'll show you why later.

Homemade potato salad along with all the other Memorial Day barbeque goodies.

Most importantly, a special belated thanks (at least in this posting) to all those who have served our country. To all those who continue to serve. Thanks to the families and loved ones of those who have given the ultimate sacrifice to protect our freedoms so that we can enjoy days like today where we pause and remember. Above all else, thanks be to God for His goodness, mercy and protection.