Adalyn Crawling! {A New Phase Begins}

Just a few days shy of her sixth month, Adalyn, fascinated by a wooden alphabet puzzle, crawls!

Hello Bee, Hello Me {Adalyn's First Halloween}

Adalyn's favorite book is "Hello Bee, Hello Me" so I thought it would be fun to dress her up as a yellow bumble bee for Halloween.  I just sewed a strip of yellow felt around the middle of a black, long sleeve t-shirt, added elastic to the bottom and stuffed her shirt with cloth diapers. Hot glued the wings on and made a headband out of felt, yellow pom poms and elastic. Black leggings and yellow bloomers completed the look. Comfortable and cute! The glow of the sunset was beautiful and we had fun taking pictures of Adalyn and her best friend Miranda.

 

A Super Hero Costume for Marin

Marin's favorite movie is The Incredibles, so when I offered her the choice of a superhero costume or a mermaid costume, she quickly chose superhero. The cape is a modified version of this free pattern from http://www.thelongthread.com/. And the mask was a free template from http://www.armommy.blogspot.com/. Both with my own modifications and touches to personalize this for Marin. I created a belt as well, and the only picture of it is the last one, and it's just a peek. Ah well.

Pumpkin Carving Party 2010 {aka PCP '10}

My family is a hoot and this year they were ALL at the 2010 Pumpkin Carving Party. All 14 of us! So, naturally we had to take a family picture and it's tradition that after the "formal posed" photo we do a crazy shot. Always entertaining! We served Taco Soup and Boudin and guests brought pies! Yum. Steven is a great cook and the soup was a tasty hit.

And the pinata for this year was a slice of pumpkin pie. Sadly this is the best photo I have of this little beauty. And if you read my post about past PCP pinatas, you'll notice I did NOT take step by step photos of my process. Maybe next year.

The outdoor showing of "It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" was a BIG hit with the guests (adults and kids alike)!

Did I mention that my best friend flew in from Virginia and brought her adorable pumpkin head, baby M, with her? Aren't the matching pumpkin caps too cute for words.

Another successful party. Onward to Thanksgiving and Christmas. Hello cooler weather and family time!

It's Not All Fun and Games

When it rains it pours, or in our case when the city's sewer main backs up it makes the grass really green. During a drought GREEN grass is a sign that something is wrong. An abandoned sewer drain line that ran under the cement sidewalk in our backyard was leaking moisture into the ground. The moisture caused the sidewalk to sink and broke the grey water drain line for our kitchen and washroom. After Steven identified the broken drain line and repaired the line we thought our troubles were over. He pumped out the hole and within hours the hole filled with water. We thought maybe it was just water leaching out of the soil, so he pumped it again and once again it filled quickly...HELLO SEWAGE! That's when we realized there was more to the GREEN grass than just our leaking grey water.

Poor Steven spent most everyday of this week, digging holes in the yard, repairing plumbing, talking to city officials about easements and sewer mains and digging around in sewage. Things could be worse. We could be living in our neighbor's house. Her home sits right on top of the City sewer main that's causing all of these problems. A crew of guys came out today and dug a swimming pool size hole in her backyard and capped the old abandoned service line from the tap that once serviced our home and out buildings. Hopefully that will be the end of our sewer fed GREEN GRASS.

I always share the fun aspect of remodeling This Old House, so I thought it only fair to share the yucky side too. Sometimes it's about choosing paint colors and custom cabinets. Other days it's about sewage, digging holes in the yard and drinking BEER, lots of beer.

So here's to here's to the adventures of remodeling an old house and having an UBER talented Handyman by your side. Thank you, Steven.

Pumpkin Carving Party 2010 {The Invitation}

This little beauty is the 2010 Pumpkin Carving Party Invitation. I L.O.V.E. it!!!!! My UBER talented brother-n-law Kevin Kaleh (aka Kevin Elliott) created the fun, colorful watercolor illustration inspired by vintage pumpkin pails.

The event is just days away and I am scurrying around trying to pull the details together. Atleast the invitation was done well and sent out in a timely manner (ha)!

This invitation is a beautiful tribute to our seventh year! Thank you, Kevin.

Vinegar and Salt to Clean Old Faucet Bodies

 

After researching ways to remove lime and mineral deposit build up from these old faucet bodies, we settled on a concoction. Five table spoons vinegar to two teaspoons salt. WORKED LIKE A CHARM. After testing a few small pieces, we made a large batch of the mixture and let the faucet bodies soak. That was the key. That and then scrubbing them gently with a wire brush. The tedious part was picking at the grooves with a set of "dentist" looking tools Steven bought for the project. After paying to have the visible parts of these faucets rechromed, we just couldn't bring ourselves to screw the new, freshly chromed pieces, to these green scummy faucet bodies. What a pleasant surprise it was when, after a little elbow grease, they came out so clean and shiny. Steven has put one faucet body back together on the fresh, refurbished porcelain sink. Will take pictures of the final product once the sinks are hanging in the bathroom. Little by little...