Sick days and wood piles

Hey everyone! I’m here, stuck at home with two sick kids, and a cold myself. It’s gloomy and rainy outside, which has made this transition to fall quick. With this cold though, I’m already making loads of warm tea and snuggling up under my Pendleton with two kids and a book. So it makes it worth it! Jeremy and I always check in on Ruby and Shepherd before we go to bed, and lately we’ve been amazed at how big they are getting. The other night, we found Shepherd on the floor next to his bed, cuddled up with his blanket still on him and his teddy bear he calls “baby.” We are not sure if he fell out of bed, or just decided that was cozier, but it sure was cute! We decided last night could be a special night where they both could sleep in the bed with us…turns out we can’t all fit. Shepherd kept slapping me in the face or kicking me in the stomach. I had to quietly move him back to his room. Somehow when I woke up this morning, there he was, squished right between Ruby and I on the bed (such a sneaky boy!)

Aside from our sleeping stories, Jeremy has been keeping busy with collecting wood and creating things from his collection. He keeps bringing home small scraps of wood that he couldn’t see go to waste. The past few months he’s made cutting boards, a wooden knife, fairy wand, a desk, a mallet, and wood handles for a purse I made. I love that he can escape into his shop for a few hours and come out with something he free form sculpted.

Well, I’m off to make another cup of tea…and go brake up a fight.

 

 

 

The never ending demo...

As we enter into spring, we are preparing to replace all of our windows! We scored 16 matching windows at The ReStore in Ballard for $20 each. I am eager to see the drastic change it is going to make to our house, inside and out. The inside of the house is on a bit of a standstill though. As the clear days become a bit more consistent, we've been doing a lot of demo in the yard. Our backyard is now without a pond, a bridge, and 4 trees. We have also accumulated piles of brick and granite rock from digging up the pond. Did I mention the pond is GONE?!!! I am very excited to see a huge dirt pit instead of a dirty, overgrown, dangerous pond. Our plan is level out the ground and build a wood platform where the pond used to be. But for now the only word in our remodeling vocabulary is demolition.
      To satisfy my desire to fix up the inside of the house, I've been rearranging, organizing, and sewing some things for the house. Since we don't have a basement or garage to store things, I've managed to use every bit of space until we can get proper storage built in the house. The other night, Jeremy and I were discussing our kitchen remodel ideas, which included knocking out walls, rearranging the cabinets, new flooring, etc. Ruby decided to chime in and tell us, "I like the house just the way it is mom. You don't need to change anything!" It is nice to hear a child's perspective on the topic. I love that she is comfortable here, and it feels like home to her. We are so thankful to have this house that provides our family with shelter and comfort and we are blessed that God gave us a creative outlook on life and we can use our house to express who we are and what we love to do.

 

 

 

 

 

Clarence Cook on the rise

For the last couple months Jeremy has been working on a custom built stereo cabinet for a client. Today was the anticipated drop-off day. Before we left, there were some much needed pictures to be taken, a constant echo of warnings to the kids about NOT whacking the piece with a toy, and there were nerves up to our necks (mainly Jeremy's) as we approached their house. Thankfully, they absolutely loved it and all was well. I am proud of what he has accomplished and I am eagerly anticipating what is next for his future furniture building.
     (more to come about Clarence Cook)...Oh and he even made them a stool (seen in last picture) as a thank you gift for letting him build this for them. How awesome is that!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

grow grow grow

Our credenza and window sill are slowly being taken over by plants. Many of them were given to me from a friend. I love having that splash of green everywhere I look, especially when I get to find glass jars and other containers for them to live in :-) I think one of my favorite containers that I used for a recent succulent is my cow that had an original purpose of pouring creamer into a morning cup of coffee.

Settling in

       Sometimes it is just too hard to say "no" to something that is free. Last week my husband had an opportunity to say "no", to,  well basically, a whole living room set. Did we already have 2 couches, a coffee table, 4 chairs, and 2 credenzas? Yes, but what's one more couch, chair, table, and shelf?! With that said, our house was a bit of a disaster for a few days until we finally figured out how to redesign our whole main level. We decided to eliminate the playroom/art room and make that a t.v. room with 2 couches right next to each other. Luckily, the rest of our furniture fit perfectly in the main living space which has become my favorite room in the house.
    
      This morning I was able to snap a few shots of our living room before the kids got all their toys out and we also devoured some waffles with home made raspberry sauce!

All art work was done by my grandpa and Jeremy's grandpa