Poor Kitty

Nora decided that our (boy) cat should be a mommy. He is so tolerant...

Pool Project

We bought our house in February, almost seven years ago. We were first time home buyers that were a little naive. We bought our house knowing that there was a pool but we didn't really look at it and figured that we would just fill it in eventually. Well in the spring we uncovered it and it looked like this...

Ugh. It was gross. Filled with old, rotting leaves and the paint was peeling. But my ever ambitious husband decided that he would clean it, sand blast it and repaint it with pool epoxy. I, of course, went along for the ride.

We started out with a small air compressor to drive the sandblaster. Well it worked but VERY slowly. You can see it in the above picture. So we had to rent a much larger compressor.

This picture shows the new compressor and Jim's dad who came to help us out with our crazy endeavor.

So we solved the problem of the too small compressor. But then we had the dust problem. It created this could of blue dust that traveled everywhere including our neighbor's yard. They were very understanding but were having a graduation party in their backyard the next day and were worried about having a layer of blue dust all over everything. So we tried to contain the dust a little by covering the pool with a tarp.
It wasn't too bad but it also trapped a lot of heat. I failed to mention that this was in June and it was about 85 degrees which isn't all that bad except you had to wear jeans, a long sleeve shirt, and a full face mask to prevent the sand from abrading your skin.
Here we are making progress. The white part is the old paint. The brown part is the exposed concrete. You can also see all the sand that collected at the bottom of the pool. When we were done sandblasting we had to haul all that sand out. Another back breaking part of this project...
Jim taking a well-deserved break...
The pool cleaned and ready to be painted.

Here's me painting the pool. We did it at night to avoid the heat but there was the added problem of bugs which were attracted to the light.
The painted pool waiting for water. Looking back on this project I forget how much work it was but I'm glad that we didn't just fill it in. We use it quite a bit during the summer and will probably use it more and more as the kids get older.

Happy Holidays

Here are the amaryllis that I potted just before Thanksgiving. They bloomed just in time. Have a wonderful holiday everyone!

Digging Out

We got about 10 inches of snow followed by some frozen rain here in New England. The kids had a great time playing in the snow. Even Benny got outside to check out all the white stuff and had a good time after he figured out how to walk with snow boots on.

Beading

Here are some beaded snowflakes and icicles I made which were inspired by all the real snow and ice outside

Little Tree

I made this little tree out of pipe cleaners. It's from the Martha Stewart website. I thought that it would take me forever and be frustrating but it actually turned out to be pretty easy and super cute. I'm still trying to figure out a good way to make it stand up. They suggest a wooden spool but it's still crooked.

Cookies, Cookies, Cookies...

I made cookie baskets for the kids teachers and some neighbors. I found the felt baskets at Target in the $ section. I thought they were cute and very PC.

More Sketches

Some more excerpts from my sketch book...

Bridal Shower Cake

This is a cake that I did for a friend's bridal shower last summer. My dad was impressed with my snowflakes that I made for Nora's cupcakes so I thought he'd like these (yes Dad, I made the daisies myself).

And the stockings were hung by the chimney with care...

Waiting

I planted these amaryllis before Thanksgiving and I'm hoping they will bloom in time for Christmas!

Ornament Thief

Benny can't seem to keep his hands off the christmas tree. I caught him red-handed this time!

First Snow

We had our first snow fall over the weekend and the kids were outside before 8 am to play in it!

Holiday Cupcakes

Some snowflake cupcakes I made for Nora's holiday bake sale at her school.

Benny says "Hi"

I can't believe that this...

has turned into this in 14 short months!

Benny says his first word, "Hi!" It's so sweet.

Holidays are Here

I've started some Christmas decorating. We'll probably get the tree this weekend so I'll pull out more of my decorations at that point. This is the mantel in the family room. I love those Command hooks. They are the ones that you stick on using a special adhesive that comes off when you're done without leaving any mark. They are the best!

Sit Still!

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving! I probably won't be blogging again until next week. I'm having eight adults and seven kids for Thanksgiving so I'm busy preparing! Here's a shot of my living room mantel. I love the stoneware pumpkins I found at a local craft store. The antique silver lanterns were inherited from my grandfather and the map is a map (print) of Boston from 1722.

Nora's Grasshopper

I love this picture of a grasshopper that Nora drew. It so simple but very recognizable.

Pumpkin Bread

I made pumpkin bread the other day and the kids gobbled it up so Jack helped me make more yesterday. Here's a great recipe that the kids seemed to love:

3 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs lightly bean
16 ounces canned unsweetened pumpkin
3 1/2 cups flour
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon allspice
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cloves
2/3 cup water

Makes two loaves. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour 2 9 by 5 loaf pans. Stir together sugar and oil. Stir in eggs and pumpkin. Combine dry ingredients in separate bowl. Blend dry ingredients and water into wet mixture, alternating. Divide batter between two loaf pans. Bake for 40 minutes (or a little longer depending on your oven) or until cake tester comes out clean. Let stand 10 minutes. Remove from pans and cool.

Baby Gifts

A friend of mine knows a woman who had twin boys and wanted a gift for them so she asked me to create two bibs for her. This is what I came up with. She said her friend didn't want them to be identical so I made them out of similar material. She was really happy with them so of course I'm happy!

My friend just had a baby boy in October so I ended up giving her all of Ben's clothes and baby stuff because they were born at the same time of year. So when it came time for a gift I knew that I couldn't give her any clothes or typical baby stuff because she has most of it since I'd just given it to her. So I decided to do some boyish paintings for her nursery. This is what I came up with. A little rustic but I thought they were cute.

I need a new camera. I'm noticing that my camera doesn't capture my paintings or drawings very well.

Old Sketchbook

I've been trying to get more organized because we are having a few people over for the Thanksgiving Holiday. While doing so I came across an old sketchbook of mine and found these two pencil drawings. Most of the drawings in the book are incomplete but these ones are actually finished. I haven't done many pencil drawings lately, just watercolors. I might pick up the pencils again. I like the control I can get with the pencils...

Illustration Attempt

I usually paint and draw things from photographs or from real life. I rarely, if ever, try to create something of my own. This is my most recent attempt. It is so difficult! I have a deep respect for all those illustrators and abstract artists out there.

Hi There

Kitchen Remodel

For those of you who enjoyed seeing the pictures of our porch remodel here are some of the kitchen. We did the kitchen in January and February of 2006 when Jack was only 8 months old. Sometimes I wonder if we were crazy but when I see the before pictures I remember why we were so eager!

Before pictures. Note the faux brick wall, the robin's egg blue laminate counters and the 70's style vinyl floor.

The view of the wall where the oven and stove-top were. You can still see some of the faux brick on the wall to the right of the image.

An image of the area where the sink was and the bay window in the eat-in area of the kitchen. You can see the window to the left was originally in a different position and Jim had to move it again.

This is the view into the old porch. The opening to the left is where the door went (Jim had to move this too) and the opening to the right is where the refrigerator went. Jim bumped out the refrigerator out into the porch so that we could have a full sized refrigerator that didn't jut out into the kitchen.

Here's an image of my brother helping to install the new window in the middle of January...brr...

The drywall is up and prepped.

Now to tackle the floors. The whole center portion of the kitchen dipped down so we had to remove the sub floor and pulled up the joists to level out the entire floor.

Here's Jim fixing the joists. What you can see is actually the ceiling of our laundry room.

The hardwood floor goes in finally. What a valentine's day gift!

The cabinets arrive. The one thing that we decided to have done professionally. The cabinets were a costly investment so we didn't want to risk installing them incorrectly.

Cabinets going up.

Granite going in.

The sink and appliances go in.

Jim put in the picture frame molding that I wanted in the eat-in area of the kitchen and a new light fixture.

And here it is finished!