Happy Birthday Halloween!!!

Today is my oldest baby's 22nd birthday!!  I am so very proud of the wonderful man he has become.  My daughter and I made this video for him...

After the kids went trick or treating, we skyped Cameron in Hawaii so that he could blow the candles out on his cake :)  A thoroughly modern birthday celebration.(and my oldest daughter is on the phone)

Asher didn't have a costume, just a cute outift....he was not happy wearing the hat, as you can see in the pictures, no smiles...

The little boys went around the neighborhood with daddy, but the bigger boys stayed home.

I hope you all had a safe and Happy Halloween!!



Love,
 Tiff

Sneak Peak of Master Bedroom Redo...

  Yes, I know, I said no more home projects for awhile... but this one was a bit of a necessity. Hubby has pretty bad cat allergies and since the cats aren't going, the carpet had to go. Over the weekend we tore up the carpet in our bedroom and walk in closet. It actually went quite fast with the help up the big kids. We then attempted a "pinterest" project...using plywood for flooring.  We chose maple veneer plywood, each 4 x 8' sheet was $24.95 at Lowes.  We had the guy at Lowes cut the sheets into 12" planks.( they do this for free, saves us time, and makes perfect cuts, which we wouldn't achieve at home). We left half at 8' lengths and had the other half cut at 3' and 5' lengths...that way we could easily stagger them.   We then just nail gunned them down.   The whole floor was complete by Sunday afternoon, and we had the furniture back in by 7pm.

Here is the floor before I sealed it...

It's very smooth and has an old farmhouse feel to it.

We decided not to stain it, just let it wear and age naturally.... other than the thin liquid wax coat that I put on it(which just ever so slightly darkened it).

We love the results and it was a fairly simple project...so a Pinterest win!!  Hopefully this helps hubby's allergies subside a bit(well, a lot).  The whole room got a thorough cleaning and I really like the open sparseness of it. I am slowly going through stuff before I put it back in the room and closet so it will be less cluttered.  I am also going to change up the color scheme a bit.  I'll share pics when it's all done! Which may take awhile, life with a baby is all about the baby(as it should be!)

Speaking of babies... here is my cutie pie during his weekly photo shoot...11 weeks old last Thursday :)

Have a great day,

Tiff

Preserving the Past...

I was asked through facebook if I could repair a tear in an old family quilt. I agreed to look at the quilt that was made in Alabama by the woman's great grandma. The top consisted of all flannels and the back and border was a soft cotton.  When I saw the quilt in person,I quickly realized that there was much more than a tear to repair, in fact the "tear" was actually the result of deteriorating fabric.  All the flannels that were Not plaid, had this problem, but the majority of the bad rectangles resided towards the middle of the quilt. 

The back..

Closeup of the fabric...this was all intact.

The original "tear" that needed fixing...

More examples of the condition of the fabric...

She did not want to put this away as a display piece, she wanted to continue to use it at the foot of her bed.  I decided the best way to preserve the quilt was to hand applique new flannel rectangles over the existing ones. Thus, keeping the original quilt intact but also preserving and protecting it.   I couldn't find flannels that matched, so she told me to use what I could find and she provided a red flannel shirt and an old sheet(which I used).  In the end, I appliqued 64 new rectangles on. More will need to be done in the future and there is a section of the border that will eventually need to be addressed but for now, the quilt is usable, and she was very happy with it.

Here is the quilt with the new patches on it.

I printed her a paper with a picture of the original quilt and a picture of the repaired quilt on it. I wrote what I had done to the quilt and left her space to write down the history of the quilt. I told her to tuck away somewhere so that her grandchildren would then know what this family heirloom was. As is turns out, she has several family quilts(lucky woman!), but none was in as rough shape as this one was.
I enjoyed being able to help save this old quilt that someone made so many years ago.

Enjoy your day,

Tiff

Beadboard Wall...

We've been in this house for 9 years, the longest I have ever lived in a house in my entire life! And of course over those 9 years I have done a lot of DIY projects and many, many, many more room rearranges(I love to change up rooms!).  The one room that is more difficult to rearrange is the kitchen...table can really only go in one spot, right?  But that hasn't really stopped me over the years, we removed built ins so my hoosier could go in, I've added shelves, and I've tried half a dozen different tables in this room.  But because we need a big table, the room has always felt squished. It's not a small kitchen, but it was really made for a small family table.  My dream would be to expand the kitchen, but I don't forsee that happening any time soon;)  So I came up with a different solution to the small dining space.

I've always had some sort of hutch on the one solid wall but that takes up table and chair space.  Removing the hutch would solve this, but I would be left with a big empty wall, something that is just not me.  My solution was to put up a beadboard wall with a shelf.

Here is the wall last Christmas with the hutch...

This freed up so much space around the table and I like the simplified look of things.

Of course my kitchen was a disaster for days while I tried to figure out where to put all the stuff in the hutch... which then required me to clean out cupboards, and then I redid the tops of the cupboards(talk about a dusty mess!)... but things are back together now :)  I am still figuring out how I want the shelf to look, so things will evolve up there.

I have no idea how my Christmas decor will go this year, but there will be more people space for my gingerbread party!

 Kitchen wall after...

And before...

Projects are a lot harder with a baby in the house...takes me 10x along, so I may postone any more big ones for awhile.

Have a lovely weekend,

Tiff

2 Months Old Today....

My sweet little boy is 2 months old today and growing fast :)  He looks little in these first two pictures...

But look at how chubby he really is!

He goes for his 2 month check up tomorrow, so I will see how much he weighs then...I'm guessing at least 15 lbs.

He is my little cutie pie and I love him so much!

Tiff

Yarn Along...

Joining Ginny over at Small Things with her "yarn along".    I'm working on a sweater for Asher. I really prefer the look of knit things, but since I don't know how to knit, crocheting will have to do :)  The pattern can be found here... Aesthetic Nest.  It's very easy to follow.  I'm going to try to finish this up today as it is a nice gloomy rainy day to sit and hold a baby and crochet.

Have a great day,

Tiff

Happy Birthday to Me!!!...

I couldn't be more Blessed!!  ALL my children are here, my heart, hands, and home are full and I wouldn't have it any other way :)

Asher was 7 weeks yesterday and he is a chunky little bundle of love!

From 5 to 22 years old....everyone loves a good old fashion race!

42 will be a good year :)

Love,

Tiff

Jack Be Littles...

Jack Be Littles... the only pumpkins I can successfully grow!  Picked these 20 little guys yesterday and still have some more growing.

Tiff

Look Who's One Month Old....

Our little man is one month old today!!!
I guess he's not quite so little anymore, at his 4 week check up last Friday(Sept. 4th), he weighed in at 10lbs 9oz, up a 3 whole pounds since his last weigh in at 4 days old. He was 21.5" long and had a head circumfrance of 15"....72% for weight, 50% for height, and 80% for head.

He is very much into Cuddle mode right now and wants to be held all the time, which is fine, he will only be little once and there are plenty of loving arms to hold him :)

Tiff

New School Year...

It's that time of year again...the beginning of a new school year.  Five of my six children who are still at home are in school this year...so it's just me and the baby at home.  I haven't been home with just a baby since my oldest was born, 21(almost 22) years ago!  I've always had a toddler and a baby, so this will be all new again.

Zach and Mason waiting at the bus stop... it was Mason's first bus ride to school... he was so excited.

Here Mason is yesterday on his first full day of kindergarten...

Zach started 4th grade...

Noah started 7th grade...

Becca is a Senior!...

This was Mason on Monday...it was his introduction day to kindergarten and I went along with him.

Gavin started on Monday too, he is now a freshman in high school :)

We have such a wonderful elementary school...everyone was looking out for Mason on his first full day.  The school secretary called mid morning and told me how he waved and smiled at her and was doing so well.  Then later in the day, the vice principal texted me a picture of him on the playground.  From a little boy who say there was no way he was going to school to a little boy who is now super excited about going! I'm so happy that things are going so well for him and he is in a place where he knows everyone(being dragged there for the past 5 yrs with me volunteering has it's rewards!) and everyone loves him so much.

And I couldn't post without sharing some pictures of Asher!  He is getting so big already. He has his 4 week checkup on Friday, it will be interesting to see how much he weighs.

He is such a sweet and good natured baby... we all love him so incredibly much!!

Tiff