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Finally a weekend to work on the house!

And already we’ve made 2 trips to home depot 🙂 Although Friday night’s trip to home depot was to just get some weather stripping for the front door and some putty for the outside electrical entrance into the house (to make it water tight).

Today Ryan started removing the baseboards in the livingroom so we could wire, the sections that he removed and then drilled, i cleaned up and wired. We’ve got one more section (behind the radiator) to do and the livingroom outlets will be done. We also measured and bought the wire to run to the attic subpanel. We decided the diningroom doesn’t need any outlets on the small section of exterior wall if we keep the current outlet locations in there.

DSCN0755 — What will be the fourth and fifth outlets

We made a trip to the dump to finally get rid of the last of the wood from the porch project that’s been laying around.

I ended the day by getting 3 boston butts brining (to slow cook tomorrow for pigging out at work!). Then I made up a chocolate pie for tomorrow (just to enjoy).

Hopefully we can run some more wire tomorrow, finish up the tvroom outlets, run the subpanel wire and maybe wire the door bell. Next weekend we can start on the front hallway/staircase which is mostly lighting. It feels good to be able to work on the house again!

Happy Holidays!

Ryan surprised me after work today by putting up the xmas lights! We need to buy one more strand but considering last year all we did was buy the lights and never put them up we’ve gotten quite far this year 🙂

I would like to get a wreath for the door as well and maybe we can decorate the columns too.

It was hard to get a good picture since it was so dark out but the front of the house is nice and bright now 🙂

Happy Thanksgiving

I quit work a little early today so I could get started on Thanksgiving baking! I’m supplying the pies for thanksgiving this year and it was quite an order to fill.

I started with one apple pie (I have 3 total to make), then I made 2 lemon meringue and a chocolate (new recipe for dark chocolate)… mmm yummy!

DSCN0745 — Apple and Lemon Meringue pies done and painting in the background

Now that the 3 pies that need to go in the fridge are done it’s back to apple pies. 2 to go and I’m done for the night and it will be time to pack up the pies.
It’s too bad my back is already killing me and I’ve only been baking for 2 hours.

On the side I’m working on making a cute frame (painted it red and I’m adding white letters) for my niece’s certificate she got for finishing a work book. I can’t wait to give it to her tomorrow 🙂

Weekend update

I got home from California Friday night in time for Ryan and I to go out to dinner and relax for the night. Ryan had to work all weekend so it was nice to have one night to relax since I had been gone all week.

Saturday I went shopping with some friends up at a cross stitch store in Grantham, NH which really got me inspired to stitch again. I actually have been stitching a little lately, last weekend while recovering I stitched a small gift for someone for Christmas and I started a small kit I got at Celebrations for the plane ride to CA. So while shopping I bought some fabric for a set of seasonal pieces I’ve been wanting to do for a while and when I got home I started on it.

Today I finished cleaning out the livingroom/diningroom area so we can start on the electrical work now. All the trim and extra wood had to be moved to the basement and then I vacuumed and organized everything else. As soon as Ryan has some free time we can get the holes drilled and run some wire.

Once it got dark I settled in to stitch for a few hours. I’m working on Autumn in my Garden by Mirabilia (there is one for each season). I’m stitching this on 40ct hand dyed linen.

DSCN0744 — Autumn in my Garden - started 11/20/2010 on 40 ct linen.

Now it’s off to bed and a short week at work. Monday is a short day this week, I’m meeting up with my sister for lunch and then watching my nieces for the last time this semester. I can’t wait to see the girls, it’s been too long!

Shadow

She deserves her own post…

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.

Out sick

Lack of posting has been due to the flu. Last weekend Ryan had to work all weekend and Sunday I came down with what i thought was a cold after we did manage to clean up leaves in the morning.

Unfortunately by noon Monday (I was at work to get some important tasks done) I knew it was more than just a cold and I headed home around 2 to sleep for 36 hours straight under the influence of NyQuil. On Wednesday I awoke from my stupor in less pain and finally able to get out of bed, I spent the day on the couch napping, this time not taking NyQuil which indicated I was on the mend for sure!

Now that I’m back to work I’m a little behind and have been busy. I hope this weekend to get a little done around the house, Ryan has to work again but I will figure out some things i can do before I head out to CA for the week.

Happy Halloween!

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.

Costumes finished!

Halloween costumes for 2010 are finished up and dropped off as of last night. Wednesday night I finished up the princess dress no problem, then attached the collar to the Black cat shirt and the sequins to the ears. Thursday night I attached the ears to the headband.

And pictures!

I love making costumes for the girls every year. They really appreciate it and now that they get to pick out the fabrics it’s something I’m doing with them. Every year I hope we have a little more time together and they can help with sewing, but we’re all so busy. Maybe next year they can sew a bit on their costumes and learn the process. Anyhow – that’s over for the year, I didn’t get my own costume done although I could bring it back to NY and work on it Saturday at my mom’s house – tempting!

Overskirt done

That wasn’t too hard – I got the overskirt for Maia’s princess dress all done tonight. I’m going to locate the pattern for the underskirt and maybe even cut the fabric tonight but otherwise I’m pretty much done for the night.

I don’t know if this will end up really looking like Ariel’s dress but I think it’s a very cute pink dress and I think Maia will love it since she picked out all the fabric and embellishments. Tomorrow night – finish the dress and do some hand sewing to finish up the Black Cat! Thursday is my backup night but I’d like to drop the costumes off Thursday night.

The overskirt is “hemmed” with a matching pink wired ribbon Maia picked out. I think the wire is actually a neat idea because we/she can kind of form the overskirt however she wants and it should stay put.

DSCN0718 — Just getting an idea for what it will look like with a pink skirt underneath and the daisy embellishment.

I love making dresses like these! Of course I say that before attempting to put in a zipper (it’s been a while) 🙂

Girl time

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!) 🙂