Tatted Bookmarks

October is Pastor Appreciation Month, so I decided to tat bookmarks for our Pastor and his wife.



Bethann is always explaining the Fruit of the Spirit as being interconnected like a cluster of grapes, so I decided to try and make a bookmark that looked like a cluster of grapes. (plus she has grapes decorating her dining room) It didn't turn out quite as well as I would have liked.



I wasn't sure what to do for Pastor, so I gave him a cross.

This is Pastor and Bethann opening them.

Costume Party

Every year, my brother, sister, and I take turns hosting a costume party. This year was my brother's turn (or should I say, my sister-in-law's turn!?).



I had picked up some yellow fuzzy fabric on clearance last year with some sort of costume in mind. (just not sure what type) So with the fact that I am 8 months pregnant, I decided to make the girls into ducklings and myself into an egg.



I had to come up with the patterns first, which was a little tricky to get the shape just right.





Here's the whole family.

Dan, who isn't much into costumes, is a farmer.


















I thought it might be easier to see the costumes if we were standing up, but my egg is sort of hidden.
















I had Sarah stand sideways so you could see the shaping of the duck costumes.














Emily wanted her costume off almost right away, so here she is riding the bouncy horse sans costume, with Sarah waiting for her turn.

William's Nursery

I finished William's room! The sponge painting technique doesn't show up very well, so look here to see it better.





















I made the cushion covers,


curtains,


and mobile




to match the baby quilt my mom made. Well, actually the whole nursery was geared around it!

Adventures in Painting

I have a loft that I used in my classroom in my pre-mommy days. I want to turn it into a swing set/play structure. In order to weather proof it a little, we decided to paint it with exterior grade paint.



We decided to let the girls help.....Can you see where this is going???





Maybe I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves!!

I don't know if you can tell or not, but Emily's paintbrush is laying on the board in front of her!


She is trying to get the paint off of her hand (and getting more on in the process!)

I should say, that Sarah only ended up with a little paint on her (mostly from Emily touching her!)

Christmas in September

We got a new refrigerator! We had a power surge problem during a recent storm and a bunch of things got fried, including the refrigerator. Well, God provided a really nice one that is even nicer than our old one.

It was kind of hard to get a good picture because there isn't much room since the stove is right across from the fridge! (The old one's door took up the whole space!)

Right after the delivery guys from Sears drove out, in drove the FedEx truck!

It was the "preemie" size prefold diapers that I had ordered. The yellow lump in the bag is my lanolin for treating my wool soakers.







They were very stiff and thin feeling, so I threw them in to wash them.








This is after one washing and drying.













Now after 2 washing and dryings.









After 3 washing and dryings. It doesn't look much different than after 2, but they are supposed to get softer with each use.

Now they are all folded up and ready to go in William's room.

Watermelons!

I finally brought the watermelons in the house since their vine had died off.

They were "supposed" to be about 8 inches in diameter, and only got to about half of that.

Almost a Nursery!

I couldn't wait until it was all finished to post pictures of William's room!

This is the color it started from being Emily's nursery.





















The girls helped paint, too!








Emily had the sponge backward so she just painted herself, but she had fun anyway!














Sarah wanted to use a brush but I told her we were using the sponge for this time! (She helped to paint Emily's room with a brush)



The pictures of the girls painting show the wall color pretty well. I was trying to make the walls look like water, and I don't know if I succeeded, but I think they look okay!

Here are the "after" pictures:

















I still have to put up the wall decals and do a little more decorating. I also have to make a cover for the rocking chair cushion.