Last day of ski class

 The little miss messing around before the start of class.

LMS had her last ski class last week. Since it rained the week before I hadn't used my lift ticket and equipment rental, and they said I could bring someone to use it the next week. So Mr M took the day off of work and accompanied LMS and I up the mountain. It was a gorgeous day and it had snowed two days before, so there was some snow on the ground still. It wasn't great snow, but it was definitely better than nothing.

 Mr M concentrating on keeping the tips of his skis together :) It was only his second time skiing, and the last time was 10 years ago.

The three of us on the chairlift after LMS' class was over. We took her all the way down the hill several times so we could all ride the high speed chair lift. LMS loved it!

LMS had lots of fun and is looking forward to repeating this ski class next year. So am I :)

St. Patrick's decorations

I don't do much holiday decorating, but I'm slowly building up my collection of things for the different holidays/seasons.

I saw this idea here and really liked it. I was going to follow her lead and paint the bottles shades of green, but I realized that by painting the bottles white and changing out the flowers periodically it would last through several holidays. We don't go through a lot of bottles in our house, so not having to find new bottles every time I wanted to change things up is a good thing.

Coconut aminos- pulled from the recycle bin

Mexican apple soda- bought at Kroger

fancy bottled water- bought at Kroger

Thai sweet chili sauce- had to empty contents into an old coconut oil jar

rice vinegar- pulled from the recycle bin

Green for St. Paddy's

Pastel for Easter/Spring

I picked up the flower for half off at Michaels, so they were $1 each.  I love how bright and cheerful they are.

Some other combos I might do:

Bright colors for summer

Yellow sunflowers for fall

Red for Christmas

Red, white, and pink for Valentine's

Another snow day!

 This morning we got more snow- yay!

There wasn't much when we got up, but by the time it stopped around 11, we had 5 or 6 inches of snow everywhere.

LMS had fun gathering snow to make snowballs to throw at daddy.

Schools were closed, so while we did a little schoolwork, we also made sure to play in the snow. LMS and I did some sledding and had a snowball fight, which mostly consisted of me throwing snowballs at her while she hid in her play house and giggled. She thought it was so fun!

The snow started melting after it stopped falling, but there was enough left when Mr M got home from work for him to do some sledding and help LMS finally build a snowman- she's been asking to build one for several years, and this has been the first time she's gotten to.

I like the leaf hair :)

Here's hoping we get some more snow!

Conversations with LMS

nailed by a snowball thrown by daddy

The little miss has been in the habit of praying for a baby sister for some time now. If her prayer doesn't include anything else, it always includes a request for a baby sister :)

The other night after family prayer LMS told me "You forgot to ask for a baby sister!"

I told her "We might not get a baby sister- we might get a baby brother, and mommy and daddy are good with whichever one Heavenly Father sends to our family. Just because we pray for something doesn't mean we'll get it. Even though you're praying for a baby sister, Heavenly Father might want us to have a baby brother."

Hardly pausing to think it through, she asked, "So if we pray for a baby brother, we'll get a baby sister?"

Ohh, we're in trouble! Not even 6 and she's trying to work the system....

Weathered clock

I bought this metal clock from wallyworld a year or so ago with the intent of putting it on a wood backing. I had the wood, I just never quite got around to putting it all together till recently.

I didn't take pics of the process, but it's pretty easy. I measured the width of the wood and clock to determine how many pieces I needed, then cut them all to length. I glued and screwed the pieces to two cross pieces on the back. I also screwed a wire hanger to one of the cross pieces.

I scavanged the wood from my parents' yard before we moved. My dad had some random pieces of wood in a pile, and since they were nicely weathered and I knew I could use them for something, I grabbed several pieces and put them on the moving truck.

I love the weathered edges of the wood!

(ignore the paint swatch- I'll eventually get the walls painted)

I need to recover the gold chair in the right corner of the pic, but I haven't been able to decide on a fabric yet. I'll paint the walls first, then make a decision. 

Overall, I really like how this end of the room is coming together.

Free Refurbished Cabinet

the after version

I answered an ad on craigslist for this cabinet. They were asking $25 for it, and it needed some sanding and some paint.

The above pics were all included in the ad, showing that it wasn't in perfect condition.

I was fine with a fixer-upper, so I arranged to pick it up. However, when I got there I found that the cabinet had fallen apart when they pulled it out of their basement. As a result, they offered it to me free, if I wanted to try to put it back together. I figured the worst that could happen would be that I couldn't make it stable again, so I took it home with me.

This is what it looked like when I got it in the work room at home. Pretty sad, huh?

Here it is with the legs glued and screwed back on and the bottom hinge glued and clamped on the left hand door. I also screwed together the crosspiece (it was broken in two) and then glued and screwed it in place between the legs.

I sanded it a bit, but left a lot of the bigger scars. I primed it with a gray primer, then put white paint on top of that. After distressing the edges I applied a paste wax. I also spray painted the handles with oil rubbed bronze spray paint and reattached them.

The cabinet is an old tv cabinet, and the wood frame in back is removeable, with space above and below it for ventilation and cords. I pulled off the old black fabric and hot glued some fabric from my stash to the frame. After putting the frame in place, I stapled the bottom edge of the fabric to the edge of the cabinet (I didn't want the space open).

Doesn't it look like a whole new piece of furniture?

I  love what a little elbow grease can do!

I wanted a cabinet to hide this mess:

 Yes, that's our modem and router, in a pile on the floor. Very attractive.

This cabinet is just right for getting that stuff up off the floor:

I had originally planned on putting some of our games in the cabinet, but then I realized that since the cabinet is right by the back porch door (where the grill is), it would make a great place to store our grill utensils. Eventually I want to have an outdoor cabinet for that, but that is not anywhere near the top of my list right now. I still need to find some containers to hold and organize everything, but I think this will work out well.

Doesn't it look so much better? And the entire project was free, since I had the paint, wax, and fabric, and the cabinet ended up being free also.

And can I just say that I have met some of the nicest people through craigslist? I sold some file cabinets to a lady who homeschools and has adopted kids, and the lady who gave me this cabinet also homeschools and has adopted kids. It's so fun to randomly meet people who have a lot in common with us.

Linking to Thrifty Decor Chick's Before and After Party

Losing kitchen cupboard space

Vickie made a comment about losing valuable cupboard space in the kitchen. We did consider the loss of cupboard space, but ultimately came to several conclusions:

1. Most of the cupboard space we lost was being used for food storage and paper goods storage.
     - the food storage got moved downstairs once we got the food storage shelves organized
     - the paper goods storage could easily be stored in several other places: above the fridge and in one of the remaining cupboards that had also had food stored inside

2. Some of the space was used for our pyrex dishes.
     - after moving all the food storage items downstairs, I had room for the pyrex in one of the cupboards above the counter

3. There's a massive waste of space above the fridge (see above pic).
     - we'll be building a cupboard with a couple shelves above the fridge to better organize the stuff currently stored there and to make room for a few other things.

4. I will probably build a simple open cupboard to place on the wall between the bay window and the door.
    - if I do this, I'll put my Fiesta ware in the cupboard. The rainbow colors would work well in an open cupboard. Not sure how easy it would be to actually get dishes in and out of it though, since it's above the counter and I'm short. Thoughts?

5. The cupboards are poorly designed, like most I've seen. I have plans to add pull out shelves at various heights in all the lower cupboards and the pantry. This should allow for a much more efficient use of space in the cupboards and make it easier to find things without having to pull everything out of the cupboard.

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Since our kitchen isn't overflowing with storage, taking out the hanging cupboard has forced us to be more efficient with what we put in our cupboards. Do we need it? Do we use it regularly? Can we get rid of it?

Physical Therapy

I haven't talked about my running lately. That would be because I haven't been running :(

After the half marathon my physical therapist re-evaluated everything: watching my gait, comparing left leg strength to right leg strength, etc.

The verdict? I'm very right-dominant, and that's causing a lot of problems within my body. The inequality in the muscles perpetuates problems in my gait, which leads to injuries, which leads to inequality in the muscles.... It's a never-ending, vicious cycle.

So I had to stop running while we focused on strengthening my left leg. I have exercises to do every day and I roll my legs and hips with a foam roller. I'd really like to start running again, but I'm being good. No February race this year, and no March race either, unfortunately. But looking at the big picture makes the frustration worth while. I was foam rolling before the half, and my shins didn't bother me. After 12+ years of shin problems, I'm willing to do just about anything if it means I can run pain free. Being patient and doing my exercises will help me reach that goal.

I've been good and resisted the urge to go running. I have skied twice, but I've been very careful and skied very conservatively so I wouldn't risk an injury. I get to try running for a few minutes when I go in for my PT session this week. Hopefully that will go well and I can gradually increase my mileage.

I finally figured out where to set up my bike trainer- I need to have a place where I can leave it up. I had thought about the basement work room, but since I still need to build our bookshelves, I wouldn't be able to leave it up, which would decrease the likelihood of me actually using it. Then I realized that there's room in the guest room. It'll mean carrying the bike up a flight of stairs, but I won't need to take it down again right away. In any case, I plan on spending some time on my bike soon. If I'm careful about my form, it should help strengthen my leg also.

I can't wait till I can start exercising again in earnest!

Sunday Funny

Meet Little Miss Sunshine's friend, Nanny.

This is waaaaay late, but I found these pictures and just had to share them :)

Our stockings hanging above the fireplace: Mr M, myself, LMS, and one for my sister who spent Christmas with us. Do you see the little red one hanging next to LMS's stocking? She decided that Nanny needed a stocking too, and it needed to hang with everyone else's (I'd originally hung it off to the side).

Nanny on Christmas morning with her stocking. I put the candy in and LMS put the penny in.

Nanny is also wearing a sweatshirt that was originally on another stuffed animal.

Apparently Nanny got cold :)

Creative food storage

Our food storage shelves (purchased from IKEA) are currently in our basement workshop room. Someday we'll have a storage room just for food and such, but we're not there yet. In the meantime, I finally have a central location to put our food storage- it's no longer scattered among various kitchen cupboards and boxes in the laundry room. Now I can see at a glance what I'm running low on. So nice!

 

The problem with sharing the space is that whenever I cut wood sawdust gets EVERYWHERE. I tried draping a dropcloth over the shelves, but it was way too long and made it hard to get to anything on the shelves.

So I cut three dropcloth panels to size and stuck them to the shelves.

I used the existing hems in the fabric so the only raw edges are at the top, covered by the velcro.

I had 20' of sticky-back velcro that I've had for awhile, so I used that. I hate sewing sticky-back velcro because it gums up the needle and makes the thread break, which is why I still had 20' of it in my stash.

So I used staples. I used my staple gun to staple one side to the shelf and I used my regular stapler to staple the other side to the fabric.

The top edge of the drop cloth panel.

I added a couple tabs to hold the panels together along the edges- I just stapled those as well.

It's not the prettiest job ever, but it made use of materials I already had (the velcro and the dropcloth), it decreased my stash of stuff, and it works great. Can't beat that!

Snow day

Sunday night we FINALLY got some snow! YAY!

I thought the sun coming up behind the snow covered trees the next morning was very pretty.

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Monday afternoon LMS and Mr M broke out the sled and did a few runs down the little hill in our yard. She tried to run and jump on the sled, just like daddy did.

And she crash landed towards the bottom. Love how she's all sprawled out :)

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Snow on the bench, starting to melt away :(

The snow didn't last long- it was 70 degrees on Thursday, so it didn't stand a chance.

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And since we're on the subject of snow, here's a self-pic of LMS and I on the chair lift Wednesday after her ski lesson. She's learning a lot and getting more confident each week.

Updated sling bookshelf

I made this bookshelf for LMS a year and a half or so ago (here it is in her old room).

But I decided it needed a bit more color before I finished her new room.

I mod podged some polka dot fabric to the sides, which gives it a bit of pop against the white beadboard.

A quick and easy spot of color!