Lots of pictures

First set of pictures - Audrey's first bowl of rice cereal. My baby's growing up!

Hmm, I wonder what Daddy's putting in my mouth.

Whoa, what is this stuff?

Daddy, I love you...

But I'm really not sure how I feel about this goop dripping down my chin.

Actually, she enjoyed her first official solid meal. She's got a bit of learning to do before she gets good at keeping it in her mouth, of course, but she had fun getting good and messy. :-)


Next picture - the completely constructed bookcase, waiting to be sanded and painted.


We just bought a power sander today, and I'm looking forward to giving it a go.


Lastly - the crocheted corsages for my sister Janelle's wedding this weekend. All together, they look like a cheery field of blue and white daisies.


This one is for the Maid of Honor, Janelle's friend Nicole:


These two are for the mother of the bride and the mother of the groom:


And these two are for Marie and Rheanna, the excited younger sisters of the bride:


I made these corsages by crocheting each flower and leaf separately. Then I sprayed them with lavender-scented starch so they would hold their shape (crocheted objects tend to curl up). Next I used hot glue to attach them to two layers of white felt, then I glued a brooch pin to the back.


For scale, here's me wearing one of the corsages:


They're flatter than traditional corsages, but I think they turned out quite pretty. If I find time in the next few days, I might make a couple more for Michelle and I to wear. Putting together the corsages was pretty quick and easy, but crocheting all those flowers and leaves was a lot of painstaking work (especially weaving in the ends, yikes).

Fun Stuff

Yesterday was a pretty fun day. We started bright and early with the Cannonball Run - our stake's annual 5k. Jeff and I decided we would participate, and the whole family got in on it. :-)


We started out jogging, but after about 3 minutes we realized we were too out of shape to keep that up. So we just quick-walked the rest of the 3.1-mile race. With Jeff pushing Zaylee and Thomas in the double stroller, and me carrying Audrey in the mei tai, just walking the 5k was a good accomplishment. My legs are still sore. Our official finish time was 47:39.

After the Cannonball Run, there was a neighborhood Tennis Block Party being held at the tennis courts that are near our house. They had free food, and free tennis lessons for the kids. Zaylee was a bit frustrated at first because she was shy and wasn't quite sure what was expected of her. It even brought her to tears and I felt really bad for her. But then one of the volunteer instructors spent a good deal of one-on-one time with her, showing her first how to toss the ball over the net, how to hold the racket even while balancing a ball on it, and eventually how to hit a ball that was gently tossed to her. She ended up having a terrific time. I wish I had brought my camera (the batteries were dead). It would have been nice to get some pictures of her having so much fun learning about how to manipulate the tennis ball and racket.

While we were there, they handed out forms for a summer tennis program they'll be doing - it's free and the program includes classes for kids ages 4-6. I think I'd like to have Zaylee participate. She could spend time with other kids, and start learning a fun sport. Besides, no matter how important I think it is for my children to be with me (so much that I plan on homeschooling), it's good for them to spend a bit of time learning from other adults as well, things that I can't teach. Like tennis. Or any sport for that matter...

Anyway, in other news, I've completed construction on my bookcase. I don't have a picture of it yet, but it's looking really nice. All that's left now is to sand it and then finish it. I'll probably paint and distress it. Go ahead and have it start out looking worn and beaten, then I don't have to worry about it getting beat up in a house with 3 kids.

Getting Close!

Another update on the bookcase. Today I nailed on the back and part of the trim. There are a few areas where I need to shave off a bit from the edges to make it straight, before I can add the rest of the trim and finish it up. You may or may not be able to see it in the picture (I can, because I know where the crooked parts are), but if I were to try to add the outside trim now, it would be extremely wonky.


Unevenness aside, I am so excited every time I work on my bookcase. It's gonna be so awesome!

Progress on the Bookcase

After lunch today, Jeff taught me how to use his drill. Then with his help, and eventually on my own after I got it figured out, I attached the shelves to the sides:


And then attached the top.


By the time I got that done, it was time for Audrey to eat and Jeff to go to work. So the bookcase is now waiting patiently in the shed until I get time to work on it again. Having to start and stop so much, this project is going to take me a while. But with this little cutie helping me...


I'm sure it will turn out great!

Power tools are fun...

Okay, so the Farmhouse Bed may be the thing I want to make the most, but it's not the thing I want to make first. It's a really big project, and I want it to turn out really good. So I need practice in carpentry and furniture building first.

So as of right now, I am in the early stages of building this bookcase. It's just a simple bookcase, very basic steps for putting it together, made with very basic supplies. The cool thing about it is that it can become a sort of hutch. Build two bookcases, fit one with drawers, stack them together, and it's suddenly the perfect dining room hutch, which will go very nicely beside my refrigerator. I'm just working on the one bookshelf now, getting in some good practice and experience, but I will be making a second one with drawers and putting them together. Another cool thing about this plan is that, while I'm working on the second one, I'll already have a functional bookcase that I can use until I'm ready to put them together!

Here's what I've done so far:

We went to Lowe's today and bought the wood...


And a beautiful, shiny new circular saw...


We also got nails, screws, wood glue, stuff like that.

In the absence of sawhorses (another item on my to-do list), I improvised with what I had available. Food storage - it's not just for eating...


I used my, I mean our, new circular saw to cut the wood to the proper sizes for the sides, top, shelves, and trim for the bookcase. I could have had them do it at the store, but I wanted to try out the saw and do as much of this bookcase myself as I could. Plus Jeff needed to get to work. I learned a lot about using a circular saw and measuring wood in the time it took to cut those pieces!

When it came time to cut the back piece though, I thought the wood (1/4" plywood) might be too flimsy to support the big saw while cutting it. I resorted to more rustic measures.


Yes. I hand sawed the back of the bookcase with a utility knife. It took a fairly long time, and was hard work! This carpentry stuff can provide a really good workout.

After all my hard work this afternoon, I ended up with this stack of pieces for the bookcase...


And this stack of leftover wood I can use for the next project.


The next step is to predrill and countersink the screws to attach the shelves to the sides. I wanted to do that this evening while it was still light out. Unfortunately, I couldn't figure out how to change the bit in Jeff's power drill. And I definitely can't drill the screw holes by hand! So I have to wait until Monday when Jeff can show me how to work the drill before I can go any further on this project.

But wow, it feels awesome knowing that I'm building something for our home, something that will be strong and sturdy and last for years and years. And I'm doing it all by myself!

MUST HAVE!!!

So, I checked out the blog that Michelle just recommended in her latest post, called Knock-Off Wood. Okay, I've done more than just check it out. I've been drooling over page after page of furniture plans since yesterday, and already have a "shopping list" of furniture that I want to build. You can't look through that website and not choose at least a couple things that you want to make!

For me, the one item of furniture that I absolutely must have is this Farmhouse Bed:

Image from Knock-Off Wood

Yes, there are several other pieces that I would like to build, stuff that would be really nice to have, but this BED! I love it!

Our bed history has been somewhat pitiful. We started our marriage sleeping on an air mattress on the floor. It was a big day for us when we bought a bare-bones bed frame and a used box spring from the thrift store. Now our air mattress was actually up off the floor!

A couple months after we got married, Jeff's parents offered to pay for a mattress for us, as a post-wedding gift. Jumping on their offer, we gleefully headed downstairs to pick out a mattress (we lived in an apartment on top of a bed store). At last, we had a full bed - frame, box spring, and real mattress!

And that's what we've been sleeping on ever since. One of my fondest dreams has long been to some day have a head board. Anything over the head of the bed would work, really, I wasn't picky. I even considered nailing up a quilt and calling it good. Deep down, I knew I wanted a real bed frame with a head board and foot board, made of wood, but figured it would be years before I was willing to actually spend the money to buy a good quality bed.

And then Michelle told me about this website, and I saw this gorgeous bed! And those deep-down dreams of actually owning my dream bed started to stir. Not only can I own my dream bed, I can actually build it!

I don't know if this will be the first project I take on from this website (I mean, we don't even have a saw yet!), but a beautiful Farmhouse Bed will definitely be gracing our home in the future. Definitely.

All You Crafters...

I know that a lot of crafty folks read my blog - cousins, this especially applies to you guys! I just found out about a really fun craft challenge to participate in, and I thought some of you might be interested. It's called The 12 Month Craft the World Challenge (read about it here), and it looks like it's going to be really cool.

Basically, for the next 12 months, there will be a monthly theme. Each participant interprets the theme however they want and crafts something based on that theme. I plan on crocheting items for my Etsy shop with these themes. But you can do any kind of crafting you want - clothing, scrapbooking, jewelry, art, whatever kind of craft you happen to enjoy doing!

The themes will be:

JUNE 2010 Black & White

JULY 2010 Nature

AUGUST 2010 Music or Michael Jackson

SEPTEMBER 2010 Red

OCTOBER 2010 Shapes

NOVEMBER 2010 Faces

DECEMBER 2010 Water

JANUARY 2011 Shoes

FEBRUARY 2011 Garden

MARCH 2011 Friendship

APRIL 2011 Ice Cream

MAY 2011 Solar System

Gets your creative juices flowing, doesn't it? Anyway, if anyone wants to sign up to do this awesome challenge, head over to The 12 Month Craft the World Challenge. For those who don't care to participate, but would like to see the projects I make for the challenge, I'll be posting them as I complete them on the blog where I post my Etsy stuff, Little Zaylee Creations.

Ah, Life

Just a generic post about our latest doings and life in general. Nothing too exciting, in fact, as I'm writing this I'm not even sure what this post will be about. But we're due for an update, so here I go.

- I have a big pile of clothes that I plan on refashioning into something else. I pretty much want to make myself a new wardrobe, a little at a time, because I don't have a lot of clothes that fit me well and are flattering. A couple days ago I was in the mood for refashioning, so I dug around in the pile. After a bit of cutting and sewing, I finally turned out ... a new dress for Zaylee. Yes, I originally wanted to make something to supplement my own poor collection of clothes, but I guess it's just easier to make stuff for Zaylee. :-)

This used to be a skirt that was too small for me (and had been for ages, but I kept it thinking that someday I was sure to fit it again...). I cut off the bottom and took in the sides, then used some of the extra fabric to make little straps. Zaylee loves it.


- Jeff and I have started planning meals two weeks in advance. This is so that we only have to shop every two weeks and, in theory, will save us money on groceries by reducing impulse buys. Still waiting on the money-saving aspect, for some reason we make the same number of impulse buys every two weeks that we used to make every week. But it is nice to know what we're having for dinner every day, and we can prepare for meals that require it, like soaking beans the night before we have chili, etc.

- Zaylee loves holding Audrey. I'll sit Audrey in her lap (and keep supporting her because Zaylee still doesn't do that quite so well), and then Zaylee will talk to her and give her kisses, and just be an adoring big sister. It's really cute. She does get a bit annoyed when Audrey drools on her shoulder. But after getting drooled on several times, she came up with a clever way to keep her shirt dry when giving Audrey a hug - she covered Audrey's mouth with the burp cloth before pulling her in for a hug. Whatever works, right?

- Speaking of Audrey, she is so cute! And growing so much. She loves to blow raspberries and get spit all over her mouth, she loves to suck on her thumb or fingers, she loves to roll onto her tummy and look around, she loves to giggle and squeal. And just tonight I've noticed a new thing she does - when she's lying on her back, she'll push her bottom up with her feet. That's a move I've seen on my Pilates video. When Audrey does it, it's cute. When I do it, it's painful.

- Mom asked me to crochet the corsages for Janelle's upcoming wedding. I've been making pretty blue daisies and tiny white flowers and all sorts of leaves. I'm still not really sure how I'll put them all together to form the actual corsages, but I have starch, floral wire, brooch pins, and a hot glue gun. I'm sure I'll figure out something.

Okay, I just looked at the clock and realized it's an hour past the kids' bedtime, and I haven't started getting them ready for bed yet. How did that happen? Zaylee, go potty and get into jammies! Thomas, let's change that diaper! Audrey, keep lying there looking cute! It's sleepy time!

New Curtains

I have been very slowly taking on the process of decorating the house. A couple days ago I finally replaced the old, dusty lace valance in the kitchen window with a cheerful, flowery green one. I made it myself, with some clearance fabric I got at Wal-mart a while back.



It's much prettier and brighter in person, it's just hard to photograph it with all that back light.

My next home decor project is to make a matching valance for the dining room/back door.


I have the fabric cut out, I just need to sew it together and put it up. And we seriously need to paint the dining room and kitchen, and replace the outlet covers. That will make such a huge difference! And I'd like to eventually paint the cabinets too. Yeah, I've got lots of plans for beautifying this place. It is nice to have finally made at least a little progress.

Yippee! Yippee! Yippee! Yippee! Yippee!.....

....Yippee! Yippee! Yippee! Yippee Yippee! Yippee! Yippee! Yippee!!!!

Have I effectively communicated my excitement yet?

And what is the absolutely delightful reason for my excitement?


We have a piano! This little beauty was waiting for us at D.I. today. It was $300, is in good condition, and came with the cushioned bench and a big box of piano music. I knew as soon as I saw it sitting there in the furniture section that I really wanted it! I had to check it out first, of course, so I played a few songs on it. A cute young girl of about 10 sat and listened to me play, which was pretty neat.

I was overall quite pleased with the piano; it could probably use a tuning, but is definitely playable as it is. The only flaws are that it has a few dings and scratches on the woodwork, and the very top key sticks. But I don't mind those things one bit. I never use that key anyway. And this way I don't feel as though we have to mince around the piano and never let the kids touch it or they'll ruin it - it's already comfortably broken in. I just say it's previously loved. :-)

So having decided that it was a decent piano at a decent price, I coaxed Jeff into agreeing to buy it (actually, once I decided I wanted it, the poor guy really had no choice). I told him it could be my early Mother's Day gift, and I don't expect anything else for that day, except maybe some candy.

Getting it home was a bit of a challenge. Well, actually getting it from the van to its position of glory in the living room was the challenge. But thankfully, we have a houseful of strapping Polynesian boys and men living right next door to us, and they cheerfully agreed to help. It took Jeff plus another man and two teenage boys, a moving dolly, and a blanket to get the piano out of the van, up to the door, through the door, and up the seven stairs to the living room. Apparently it's very sturdily built and quite heavy - I was getting exhausted just watching them do all that work! Yeah, we definitely need to bring the neighbors a big batch of cookies or a cake or something, to thank them for their help.


Sigh. We have a piano. I'll sleep happy tonight.

I Have Learned...

I have learned that a bad haircut is not the worst thing that can happen when a young child gets her hands on a pair of sharp scissors.

I try to keep scissors out of the kids' reach, but we aren't always as careful about that as we should be. The kitchen scissors were somehow left where Thomas could reach them, and reach them he did. Zaylee, being a watchful and helpful big sister who knows that scissors aren't for little boys to play with, tried to take them away from Thomas. However, in doing so, she somehow managed to slice the pad of her finger (the part with the fingerprint).

The screaming and crying brought Jeff away from the cake he was baking, and me away from the show I was watching. We knew as soon as we got a good look at her finger that she would need stitches, so Jeff took her to the ER. I got to stay home and clean up the red stains on the carpet and in the bathroom. And finish the cake Jeff started.


Zaylee ended up with 8 stitches. And a fancy cake with pink frosting and chocolate sprinkles, to help her feel better.

I don't like Spring

Totally inexplicable, yet totally undeniable. I just don't care for Spring.

I don't know why. I know that there are so many reasons to love this time of year:

The apple tree in the back yard is blooming!


I have daffodils popping up in the front garden area!


The weather is great - the kids have been playing outside almost every day and they love it!


Impromptu picnics in the back yard!



I have the clothes line set up, and am finally able to line dry the clothes and diapers, which I've been looking forward to all winter!


So why don't I like it? Spring is wonderful and lovely and pretty and all that, I just can't get excited about it, it gives me a weirdly unpleasant feeling.

Yeah, I'm strange. I've pretty much accepted that by now.

Mega Giveaway Going On!

You may have noticed, I started an Etsy shop recently, and the link is in my sidebar. My shop is part of an Expectacular Mega Giveaway over at Jewelry By Solange & BeadieandThings, and what an awesome giveaway it is! 45 Etsy shops have contributed prizes, everything from gift certificates to their shops, to pieces of jewelry, to art, and a variety of other things. I have offered a lace cuff bracelet from my shop. I'm excited because this will give my shop some much needed and appreciated exposure, and because giveaways are just plain fun! Head on over to this Mega Giveaway, and enter to win one of 45 awesome prizes!

New Haircut

Well, it's that time again. I finally reached the point where I couldn't stand to keep my hair long, and I always just threw it in an unflattering ponytail, so I got it chopped off. I think this is the shortest I've ever had it, and I totally love it.



Now if I could just convince myself to wear a bit of makeup...

Audrey Makes a Speech

Just a fun little moment with Audrey I captured just now between sessions of General Conference. She sure has a lot to say!

Tales of a Newbie Refashionista

I found an awesome website called Wardrobe Refashion. You sign up and take a pledge to not buy new manufactured clothes for yourself for a period of 2 months, 4 months, 6 months, or life, and to "refashion, renovate, and recycle preloved items for [yourself] for the term of [your] contract." I've been looking through the blog and getting so inspired - I want to sign up! The next sign up isn't until April 15, so I have a little while to wait. But that doesn't mean I can't do some refashioning in the meantime!

A while ago I bought some cheap $3 shirts at Wal-Mart for the express purpose of refashioning them. Today I came across a great tutorial for turning a turtleneck into a cute ruffle-collared top. It that looked simple enough for me to try, so I took this shirt:


... And turned it into this:


I cut off the sleeves, then cut them into 1-inch strips. I sewed the strips into ruffles and attached them to the collar of the shirt. Then I zigzagged around the new sleeve cuffs to make them ruffly. The whole thing took less than an hour.

Here's a couple close-ups of the ruffled collar.



Isn't that so fun?

And as an added bonus, here's a cute use for the cuffs of the sleeves:


A little girl's choker! She came up with that all on her own. She loves being girly!

Another refashion I did recently was that black skirt I'm wearing in the above picture. It started out as a velvet shirt with a mock turtleneck. I rarely wore it because the sleeves made my arms look like white marshmallows, and the turtleneck was a bit tight. Similar to this skirt, I cut off the collar and the shoulder seams, and cut open the tops of the sleeves, and turned the shirt upside down to become a skirt. I found a bunch of lace that I bought a while ago at the thrift store, and sewed some onto the bottom of the skirt. I love love love! the way that it turned out. Here's a closer look:


Yeah, it's fun to take one ill-fitting, rarely worn piece of clothing and turn it into something much more wearable and beautiful. :-)

p.s. The lace cuff I'm wearing is available at my Etsy shop. ;)

Miscellaneous updates

- I gave the kids haircuts the other day. Thomas' was getting unruly and scraggly again, so I pretty much buzzed it off. I wasn't intending to make it quite as short as I did, but it's cute anyway. And Zaylee's hair was really long - halfway down her back when wet. But with that beautiful length came tons of tangles, and hair brushing was on the verge of being torturous for Zaylee. She actually requested that I cut her hair, so I gave her a chin-length bob. It's much easier to brush now, and very cute.



I know these pictures aren't the best, I accidentally had my camera on a weird setting. And Thomas had food all over his face.

- We finally got our tax return money. With the credit for buying our house, it was quite the sizable return. We were able to completely pay off our van and our credit card. So now, except for our mortgage, we're completely out of debt! And we even had enough to put some into savings. Good feelings. :-)

- Audrey turned 4 months old on Sunday. And we think she's the coolest little 4 month old around!




She had her 4-month well child visit yesterday. She's now 24 1/4 inches long, and weighs 12 lb. 5 oz. She's strong and healthy, and right on track for development. It's fun to see her learning new things. She has recently started reaching for things; when I hold a toy in front of her, she'll get this intense look of concentration on her face, slowly grab the toy and then bring it straight to her mouth. It's very cute.

- With the weather finally starting to really warm up, the kids have been having a blast playing out in the backyard. They like playing with sticks and rocks right now, but they'll soon get a fun surprise - we got them each a tricycle for Easter. I think they'll have a total blast with them when they find them outside on Saturday! Hopefully the weather will cooperate with these plans, it unexpectedly started snowing this morning and hasn't stopped. Blah. I like snow, but now that we've gotten a beautiful taste of spring, it's kind of irritating that the snow came back.

- When the weather does warm up again, we'll be ready! Seeds, shovel, hoe - I'm ready to start gardening. We're planning on several tomato plants, a pumpkin patch, and a few other veggies. I'd like to try growing pinto beans as well.

- I'm in the process of putting up a clothes line. I wanted something that can be put up when we need it, but taken down and put away when the clothes are done. It's hard to describe how we decided to do it, once we get it done I'll take pictures. But it involves hooks and pulleys. Right now I'm just waiting on the weather to clear up so Jeff can tie the line properly (he's much better with knots than I am). Then it will be ready to hang clothes on. Yay for saving money and helping the environment!

And yay for finally getting on and updating the blog.

Sock Monkeys

Okay, so Jeff has this total obsession with sock monkeys. He absolutely loves them. Anytime he sees one, he gets this goofy grin on his face and starts giggling.


And honestly, who can blame him? These things are so stinkin' cute!!!

So I when I saw this crochet pattern, I knew I had no choice but to make one for Jeff.


I did change the colors a bit from the pattern, Jeff wanted his hat to be more true to the original sock monkey colors. And I crocheted the eyes instead of using buttons.


How cool is this hat?! I think I might have to make some for me and the kids too.