We spent the weekend with family – sisters to be exact. Saturday after a trip to the dump (bye bye plaster!) we drove down to my sister’s house where I primed and painted one of their spare rooms with Aimee’s help. We also went fabric shopping for some curtains. They still have to paint the ceiling and trim but the chocolate color they picked for the walls looks great. The pictures don’t show the color too well but here it is all finished up Sunday morning:
It’s really between these two colors 🙂
Then Sunday we drove up to Ryan’s sister’s house to visit with her family. We spent hours playing with our nieces. They are so much fun, especially the two of them together. Finley just cracks up when Emily entertains her, it’s a blast to watch.
We got home around 8:30 to a pretty cold house so we spent the rest of the night upstairs where it’s warmer. Can’t wait for that insulation!
My tiny bit of sewing for Christmas this year included an ornament for Aunt Mo and finishing up a small ornament that I stitched a few years ago for myself. (Just had to had to add the cording to that one).
Ornament for Aunt MoA little dragon for me
Also in stitching news, Tuesday I went down to Hoops and Needles with my friends for their after xmas sale! I picked up a few patterns 🙂
We had a wonderful Christmas with family but got home late on Monday due to the snow storm. Tuesday I went shopping while Ryan worked, then Wednesday Ryan woke up with a cold, I have been fighting one as well but it hit Ryan harder. Hopefully the rest of our vacation is a bit better.
Some of my favorite pictures from Christmas Eve with family. Before we did presents, Ryan was holding Finley and she wasn’t quite sure what was going on 🙂
Ryan and FinleyRyan, Emily and Finley
After these pictures we proceeded to open gifts and then have a wonderful dinner.
Shadow - picture taken from Mom's blog back in April
My parents’ dog Shadow passed away this week. We got her as a puppy when I was in high school and she was a much loved and spoiled dog. Holidays and visits home will not be the same without her and just thinking about camping without her makes me very sad. I miss her just thinking about her.
We had a family and friend filled weekend! We drove home Saturday and spent the day with Aimee, Jason, PJ and Erica. Aimee and I made up a chicken dinner while PJ and Dad carved the giant pumpkins (above) – I got to pick out the patterns and draw them although PJ significantly modified the dragon I drew for the better.
Sunday after a relaxing morning we drove back home to make dinner for my friend Sarah and her boyfriend. We had dinner and handed out candy. We got quite a few trick-or-treaters even though it was so cold.
When we first got home today however we realized that we had no hot water to shower! I tinkered as much as I could but the heat is working (furnace is working) so I didn’t have a lot of options after draining the water and refilling it.
Unfortunately neither of us can stay home tomorrow to get the boilermate fixed so I’ll be boiling water to wash my hair (again) and hopefully tuesday we can get it fixed. UGG! We just got the circulator thing fixed a few months ago, not sure what else could be the problem, there are not a lot of moving parts involved especially since the furnace is working just fine.
Anyhow on the good news front – the roof work is done on the cupola… some more pictures…
We are really glad we went with the copper, it looks great. Now we just have to scrape down the soffit and paint it at some point (not happening before winter).
A few more hours of Halloween, time to settle in with a book for the night.
I just got home from a day and a half spent with my nieces. What a great time we had. I drove over at lunch time Monday and stayed the night. Emily and I got a few walks around town pushing the carriages (she had her baby doll and I pushed Finley), we played some games, we played outside on the swings and finally this evening we took a nap (well Finley woke just as Emily crashed on the couch so I didn’t actually get to sleep but Finley was happy to lay on the floor and practice rolling so I had an almost nap).
Now I’m back home and back to Halloween costumes. We’ll see how much of the princess skirt I can get done tonight. I found out today I have to be in the office for an early meeting – so I can’t stay up too late (I don’t think that was really an option though since I’m not used to the level of activity required to keep up with a 4 year old!) 🙂
On Saturday we had quite a busy day. We had some visitors as well as my sister and her husband who came up for the night.
We worked a bit on the deck and used up the rest of the decking, we didn’t quite close up the gap but it’s down to about 12 inches.
Some new supports to help get rid of the sag.New decking down!stained
We had our night visitor again so we have little critter foot prints across the wet stain AGAIN. Next time I’m putting up barbed wire for the night!
Aimee and I spent the evening up in the sewing room after dinner working on halloween costumes. I got Georgia’s Gypsy costume finished up with Aimee’s help on the belt. I was quite happy with this one, it was fun. The only problem was that the belt is made of a plastic-y material that can’t be ironed which was a pain. It looks like fake leather though so it’s a nice affect.
Gypsy costume finished.
Sunday was the girls’ birthday party so after breakfast we headed over to Uncle Pete’s house for lunch, presents and cake. Georgia got her costume – the other two will get theirs on Friday…
Georgia the Gypsy for 2010
I’ll post pictures of Maia and Chloe when they try their costumes on later in the week.
When we got home I started right back on the costumes. Chloe’s black cat is just about finished after some planned hand sewing. I wanted to get it ready to bring with me to Becca’s house tomorrow night (I’m staying the night) so I can finish it there.
Black Cat costume - ears and collar left to finish by hand.
Then I started on Maia’s dress. I decided to just cut and sew the bodice, leaving the skirt for Tuesday and Wednesday night.
Pink princess dress top done
So the costumes are on track to be finished by friday at least. It’s a little late this year but they’ll get to do trick-or-treating friday and sunday in them. Then the real question is if I’ll get to working on my costume at all 🙂
Well time to call it a night, I have to get in to work at a decent time since I’m leaving early to watch the nieces – I can’t wait!
After some shopping on Saturday we packed up and headed back to NY to see family. There were birthdays to celebrate, good food to eat and lots of catching up to do! We had the official birthday party today and little miss Emily got the quilt that I finished on the drive home.
Emily gets her quilt
I finished attaching the binding on the drive home and put it through the washer/dryer Saturday night at my mom’s house before clipping on the bobbin threads from the back this morning and packing up it. It was as big a hit as a quilt can be for a 4 year old’s birthday present 🙂
Now we’re home and I’m ready for bed I’m so tired, maybe a little reading. I can’t wait to see my nieces again tomorrow (I’m watching them for a few hours in the afternoon). Then I’ll be in the crazy rush to sew halloween costumes in the evenings this week! Be prepared for sewing pictures – if things are going well anyway!
We had the 3 cousins over for the evening Friday night. I took them to Joanns to get fabric for their halloween costumes, then we went to the park, made pizzas for dinner and watched a movie. It was a nice relaxing night before a weekend of work!
Yum!
Ryan has Monday off for Columbus day so I also took the day off and we plan to get some outside work done around the house. So far the weather looks like it’s on our side and we’ve already managed to get the lawn mowed so things are looking good!
It’s really between these two colors 🙂
