St. Paddy's Day Nerds

The 4 nerdos all in a row.

(Nerd #1 is holding Oblio)

Nerdy nerd #2 

Nerdlet #3

Little Man Poindexter

(Nerd #4)

That about wraps up the St. Paddy's Day Nerd update for this year. Now back to your regular shenanigans.

P.S. We've been having some major problems with our Mac. I'm pretty sure something inside has fried. It gets way too hot. I'll be taking it in this weekend. So I won't be around for a week or so. Hope you all have a wonderful weekend. Can't wait to share pics of all the projects I'm almost finished with when I get the computer back. 

Pirate's

Playing pirate's on Daddy's truck. All hands on deck!

Pirate Aris & Pirate Zoe

"Ahoy Matey's!"

It all ended with a little suntanning on the "beach". I love these little pirates!

Greenhouse

Saturday my sweetheart turned 34.

Dean hates birthday's almost as much as he hates going to the Doctor. If he could he'd skip them both. Alas he married a girl who loves holidays & birthdays (Dr. visits, not so much) so I like to celebrate. He spent most of the day putting up the greenhouse. It's been on his list of things to do for a few weeks now. Just had to wait for the right weather. We have had some pretty crazy wind & rain with the occasional snow storms over the past month. Saturday started out warm & sunny & by the end of the day it was cold & windy. Dean had just enough time to get everything done that he needed. All he has to do is to hook up the water, electric, & to fill up the tank for the heater. This shed is amazing. What I didn't know was that Dean didn't even do work for this. I misunderstood. He has often traded his labor for materials on side jobs after work. This, I found out was a throw away from a man who bought a home up at Tahoe. Dusty (our family friend that you see helping Dean put the shed up) helped to clear out almost a whole hose of stuff that this man didn't want. He asked Dusty to throw the greenhouse away or give it to someone that would use it. He just didn't want it. This is a pretty common occurrence up at Lake Tahoe. Property is so expensive that often people will by a perfectly good home, knock it down or gut it & start over. Almost everyone wants new. So this greenhouse was free. FREE!!! We would have never in a million years have been able to afford something this nice. We are so grateful to Dusty for thinking of us & passing it our way.

Dean has already started quite a few of our seeds. We chose mostly heirloom seeds from two different catalogues. The first was Seed Savers Exchange the second was Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. Both provided wonderful customer service & seeds were shipped quickly. Why did we decide to grow mostly heirloom seed? I'll be honest, we are new to gardening. However Dean really does his research & he liked the idea of growing a piece of the past. We are growing things that you can't find when shopping at the market these days. It's also fun to try new varieties. Some of these seed varieties date back to the early 1800's. We also like the idea of being able to save our seeds after a harvest so we can keep the cycle going. I know all of this isn't easy but both of us feel a real pull to get back to basics. Do any of you have garden plans this year? I'd love to hear what you plan on growing.


Next on our list of things to do for the back yard (I say our but Dean does most of the work ;) is to build the planter boxes & the chicken coop. The girls are so excited that we are getting chickens. I will admit that I'm kind of excited myself. We will start with 10 because you have to prepare to lose at least 3. Right now we're just deciding what breeds to get. 


Last but not least I'm halfway done with 2 illustrations & hoping to share a few finishes this week with you. I also have been working on a few projects that I can't tell you what they are yet, but as soon as I'm able I will share them with you. I've actually been pretty busy art wise, just haven't been able to spill the beans quite yet. Hope you all had a wonderful weekend & hope you have a wonderful week!

Weekendnesday

Weeds in our backyard

Sometimes life gets a little crazy. Like it's been for the last couple of weeks. Sloan has been suffering so much lately from her arthritis. It's taking a toll on me. Mostly due to the fact that nothing seems to be helping her & no one seems to have answers on how to help. Her Dr. has been amazing & we are starting her on her meds again but my heart feels heavy. It's hard to watch your little one suffer in pain on a daily basis. Isn't daily pain for when we are old and grey? I know she isn't the only young person with health problems so please forgive me for complaining. If I could I'd wave a magic wand and make her troubles go away. Right now Dean & I focus on positive reinforcement with Sloan. We have been encouraging her to look at the positive & find the happiness in each & every day. I know that can be hard when you feel crappy. Hopefully she will chose to look at the sunny side of life when it comes to all of her challenges.

This weekend is my chance to get caught up on unfinished projects. I have two illustrations to finish up, a shelf to paint, laundry to fold & put away. If I'm lucky I might even get to sew. I'll keep my fingers crossed. Look forward to sharing lots of finishes with you next week. Hoping you all have a happy weekend!

Merris

Little Miss Stinker I love you so!

Of Things to Come

Dean digging trenches for the footings of the greenhouse. This is so exciting. He's wanted a greenhouse for a few years now. A few months back he had a chance to do some work on a house & the owner wanted to get rid of it. They did a trade. Perfect since it's almost $4,000 to buy one brand new. This one even came with climate control for those super cold nights that we sometimes get here.

The first compost pile

The second compost pile.

So let's talk compost. I am in no way an expert on it whatsoever. All I know is that it's super easy & good for our garden. You can compost anything organic. We even compost our paper napkins. We have started to use fabric napkins but sometimes we still grab a paper towel here & there. With composting & recycling alone we have cut our garbage in half. Half! We are a big family & should be filling a few trash bags weekly. Some weeks it's hard for us to fill 2 cans. The great thing is all this goes right back into our backyard & not into some landfill. Believe it or not it takes about 2 weeks of us not emptying the sink of compost before it smells. Yes, sometimes it overflows & we are too lazy to take it out. The girls are big helpers when it comes to putting items into the compost. I almost never have to remind them.

The days have been perfect here. It reached the high 60's today & I have to say I'm longing for warmer weather. This week has been a little tease of things to come.

My little crew is ready for those warmer days too. Aren't we all?

8 Months

8 Months

Seriously? How did this happen? Look at you!!!! You are sitting up on your own & you just cut your first tooth. You also love to crawl EVERYWHERE. Did I mention that you are into everything you shouldn't be? Those cheeks! Oh those cheeks! I could kiss them all day long. When you cry your nose turns red just like mine does when I cry. You don't like to sleep as much as you used to but that's okay. You are my snuggle boy. I'm so glad I had one baby that likes to snuggle. It makes up for your screaming in the middle of the night. Yup. Random bloody murder screams that wake me from a sound sleep. As soon as I pick you up the screaming magically stops. It's a freaky thing. Let's hope that phase passes sooner than later. Oh my sweet little Oblio how I love you so!

My Little Piece of Crafty Heaven

 I was pretty embarrassed to post pictures of my art area the other day. That was probably the messiest it has ever looked since moving into the house. I don't know how that happens. How can things be so organized & my work area neat & tidy then, BAM! It looks like a bomb went off. Crazy!

I worked for a couple hours over the past few nights & I finally have my art area in working order again. 

It's nothing fancy but it serves it's purpose. A place for everything & everything in its place. Well.......almost everything. I have 4 more giant bins of fabric but Dean says another $50 cubical is not really in our budget right now, lol, so this will have to do until a later date. A great excuse to get working on projects. The more supplies I use the more I can move in from the garage & out of storage. How about you, where do you create?

Storytime

Zoe reading to Omri

My only regret is not capturing the "reading" of this story for posterity's sake. It was hilarious. Way more entertaining than the real story. 

7th Finish

I'm almost ashamed to post about this finish. Mostly for how very long it has taken me to get it done. I won this lovely giveaway almost two years ago. Two.....years.....ago. Well almost. Anywho. SO as I was going through my disaster of an art area I found the box with this darling felt cake inside. I knew my girls would love to play with this, but I wasn't willing to pick up felt cake pieces from morning until night. I wanted to sew the little felt embellishments on. So I sat down & did it. It only took me a few hours of hand sewing over two nights. 

I love how it turned out! 

The girls love it too.

Even though I didn't actually make the cake I'm still counting the hand sewing as a finish. It's a project that has haunted me for far too long. 

::7 Down, 45 to go::