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Starting the weekend off right

Unfortunately on Friday Ryan got the news that he would have to work all weekend – as in – in the office work 🙁 Major bummer considering all the work we had planned, now he’s missing out and I know that bothers him.

I did manage to stay on top of my task list so far for the weekend. This morning I made a trip to the dump with the yard debris I’ve been collecting (and did a final pass through the yard and a quick weeding job too). Then a few more errands before I came home to work on the bathroom.

First I finished grouting the shower.. this went much faster than before – we bought a new float which is SO much better than the cheap one we had. I had used it on the walls (just not the shower walls) so I knew it was better and it was 10 times better on the shower walls.

Once I finished that I up decided to seal the grout on one of the walls. I did 2 coats and it looks good so I assume I did it right 🙂

At this point I was STARVING so I made up some home made mac n’ cheese (double batch) so I could freeze one, bake one and save a few small cups for bringing to work (in the freezer). I am just sitting down to my “lunch” now and Ryan JUST got home so he’s out mowing before getting back to work this evening.

Still on the docket for the night – I plan to do the touch up priming in the bathroom so it’s ready to paint tomorrow. Then grout the floor. I also sanded the trim and did some more touch up with wood filler so it’s ready to be primed tomorrow as well. Going to be a productive weekend!

Reading

I don’t have a lot of time for reading lately but I do have a 45+ minute commute each way every day so I have been listening to a good number of audiobooks.

I recently finished up Tale of the Thunderbolt by E.E. Knight, the third in the series and I really enjoyed it, even more so than the first two. It was kind of an abrupt ending but pretty fitting. After that I needed something lighter…

So I’m currently listening to Anne of Green Gables (Anne with an E) by Lucy Maud Montgomery. I loved the tv miniseries growing up so I thought I might enjoy the actual book. It was kind of slow going at first and I almost fell asleep a few times (not good while driving) but once it got going I thoroughly enjoyed it. Everything I liked about the tv series I like about the book and it definitely is a light easy “read”.

On the in hand reading side I’m finishing up “How to Train Your Dragon” which is very different from the movie but quite enjoyable. I’m now completely biased by the movie which is too bad, it’s also the reason I started the book before I saw the movie but I didn’t have time to finish it (that’s quite sad considering the book is a children’s book). But one or two more nights and I’ll finally know how the book’s version ends!

I’m looking forward to the weekend, finally a full weekend to work on the house! We have so much planned and the weather is supposed to be great so hopefully we’ll spend some time outside as well!

Late night

I was spoiled yesterday and got to leave work at lunch time to go play with my 3 year old niece. We played for hours, her imagination is wonderful and it was such a pleasant break to not think about work at all! It was also great to see my new niece – who is just so tiny it’s unbelievable really, and she is SO adorable. They are both such beautiful girls!

Tonight it’s back to the norm. I’ll be working late tonight and hopefully working from home tomorrow to squeeze in 2 extra hours that I usually spend driving. Hopefully this way Thursday and Friday can be normal days as I get ready for the weekend.

And this coming weekend I have so many plans…
First off – definitely want to finish grouting the bathroom (Saturday)
2 – prime the trim around the bathroom door (Saturday)
3 – prime the areas I touched up on the walls/ceiling in the bathroom (Saturday)
4 – start painting the bathroom (Sunday) – one coat on ceiling, one on walls
5 – strip the paint off the bathroom door (Friday and Sunday)

Is that too much? I’d also like to work in the gardens some if the weather is nice … hmm.. I better not plan on sleeping this weekend 🙂

Grouting

Finally – the tile’s been done for a month now but we haven’t had a free day to grout until today! It was a long day and the grouting isn’t done but it’s really close, and we can definitely finish it up next weekend! I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves…

DSCN0135 — A before picture. While the grout got settled I hooked up the electric to the bathroom. Lights finally 🙂

DSCN0137 — We started on the shower. Here the right wall is done.

DSCN0139 — We took turns grouting and cleaning off the excess.

Unfortunately at this point we ran out of the shower grout. We decided it was a good time to break for an early dinner and a trip to home depot. Home depot was out of this color grout though – luckily a shipment is coming this thursday so we should be all set for next weekend. So that decided how far we would get with the shower – 2 walls done.
After dinner Ryan had to work so I grouted the wall tiles. I started with just the main part of the wall tile but decided to do the decorative part as well just to get it done. It was a late night waiting for it to dry enough to clean it off but now the walls are done!

DSCN0147 — Had to grout the decorative part with my finger - notice I'm using my left hand on this side... my right index finger was bleeding by this point!

DSCN0148 — Scary picture - that's a lot of cleanup ahead - more sore fingers...

Now I’m taking my swollen and sore fingers off to bed so I can get up early. I want to get in the office early so I can leave at lunch time to go play with my niece(s)! It’s been a great weekend and I can’t wait until next weekend, the bathroom is really coming together. Now we just need to get our plumber back out sometime next month 🙂

Home to find progress

When I got home tonight, just as it was getting dark I had a welcome sight of Ryan working on the house. He took off the aluminum siding on the diningroom windows. We actually weren’t sure if the windows were boxed in like the livingroom cupola or if there was siding. Turns out they were boxed in – a bit more work for us but we think it will look better once renovated.

100_3294 — Revealed - boxes on the diningroom windows too!

Tomorrow we’ll work on the bathroom – starting with grouting the shower and hooking up the electrical!

Prom Night

Today was the day – I went down to Hannah’s in the afternoon and braided/styled her hair for prom! She looked amazing!

Prom hair

Oh to be young again and looking forward to my prom! I wouldn’t put myself through high school again for anything though. I do however get to live vicariously through my cousin Hannah sometimes!

This Saturday is her prom and after deciding on a hairstyle that included french braids she thought of me – I was truly honored! So Wednesday night on my semi-regular visit we did a practice run of hair styles to make sure she could get the look she wanted. It was also a good chance to mark her dress for hemming.

First up we tried the inside out french braids:

DSCN0115 — inside out french braid - hair style 1

It was really hard to decide what to do with the back but we really liked a casual look which just worked out first try.

Then we switched it to regular french braids (pulling from only one side after the top was done) so more hair was left for the back.

DSCN0119 — Regular french braid - hairstyle 2

This time I tried a neater back, using more braids, we didn’t like it too much however, it was too tight, made the rest of her hair look weird.

Then after we decided to go with regular french braids (hairstyle 2) with the back (wispy) from hairstyle 1 I got to play around a bit. I curled Hannah’s hair – which is no small feat let me tell you – that girl has thick hair! It sure is a beautiful texture and length. Then I put it up, it was touch and go, we thought it would look really bad at certain parts but in the end I think it came out really cute. It doesn’t go with her dress style for prom but it’s very becoming.

DSCN0121 — Updo - Hairstyle 3 (just for fun)

And look she survived – no burns and no permanent knots 🙂 I can’t wait for the real thing on Saturday – I promise there will be more pictures. Tomorrow night I’m going to hem up her dress really quickly so I’m ready to go!

Tuesday Craft Night

I’ve decided that Tuesday nights will be craft night, which means I’ll do whatever I’m in the mood for but it’s not house work and it’s not work work.

So last night I went into my craft room around 7:30 and decided I wanted to go through my old unfinished projects to see what inspired me. Finally I decided I wanted to finish up 2 projects – the first is a cross stitch round robin I did back in 2003. A few online friends and I passed around projects and stitched on each others’ pieces. My project was herb blocks so I have 8 finished blocks that I intended to finish into a small wall hanging for the kitchen. My grandmother made me 2 matching towels to go with the blocks so I could decorate my kitchen in an herb theme.

My other project is the quilt I plan to do out of the wedding blocks everyone signed for us at our wedding. I bought fabric in Hawaii to make the blocks but dont’ have a pattern yet.

I decided to start small with the herb quilt. I picked out two fabrics from my stash that coordinate and that call to me. Originally I was going to just go with dark green but I decided since I like bright colors so much I would like the quilt more if I added more color. So I went with brown and gold. I found a pattern I liked and adjusted the block size to fit the blocks. Then I cut all the pieces and started putting it together and got 4 of the 8 pieced already!

Now I need to decide if I should use green sashing between the blocks or just attach the blocks and add a green border and then gold/brown binding.

Here is my progress with and without the green… input welcome!

My first crafty night was definitely a success, after 2 1/2 hours of fiddling I went to bed and finished reading “A Fatal Waltz” by Tasha Alexander which I loved! The 4th in the series is a little expensive on Kindle so I need to decide if I’m going to splurge or wait.

Tomorrow night I’m getting together with my cousin to do a practice hair style run for her prom this weekend!

Denver

This past weekend I met up with Ryan in Denver Friday night.

After long stressful weeks we decided to just relax for the weekend (well Saturday, Sunday we spent the day flying back). So Saturday we watched movies most of the day, even venturing out to watch How to Train a Dragon in 3D which was better than expected for both of us (and I was looking forward to it). I’m reading the book currently and it’s definitely different but very well done.

Now it’s back to work for the week and I have some car repairs that need to be done this week. Car inspection today (Monday) and I need to call a repair shop about some noise my car is making tomorrow. If they can take the car in I may work from home tomorrow because the noise/feel of the car was really bothering me today.

This weekend we have some house plans! We’d like to grout the bathroom and also hook up the electric to the bathroom (i know – i know!!! i should have done that by now but come on!). We also have to mow the lawn and maybe i’ll do a little outdoor work, not too much to do though since I haven’t started new gardens this year.

Flying

The most stressful part of flying for me is getting to the airport and through security on time. Once I know for sure that I’m going to make my flight I can relax and enjoy the ride (as much as you can enjoy a loud, cramped ride). I do like take off and landing and any time that it’s clear enough to see out the window. This time however I have an aisle seat, there were no window seats available which is a bummer.

Now the decision remains – do I try to sleep (probably not since I don’t have a window to lean against). So I’ll probably stitch and listen to my audiobook, just like the flight out here. And what am I listening to?

E.E. Knight’s Tale of a Thunderbolt. It’s the third in the Vampire Earth series which is a sci-fi series set in the future. It’s very different from most of the books I read but I really like the main character and I’ve started to care about how the humans will make out in this future earth.

On the Kindle – ooh.. maybe I’ll read my kindle on the plane… I’m reading the third book in the Lady Emily series: A Fatal Waltz by Tasha Alexander. It’s set in the Victorian age in England and it’s about a woman who has through a series of strange events in her life has turned out as a sort of detective. She’s always trying to prove that some person she knows who is accused of murder is actually innocent.

So I have a few options for the plane and while I can’t look forward to the actual ride I am looking forward to who is waiting a the other end.