Time Flies

I can't believe it's the middle of July already! Our yard sale went pretty well. We sold a guitar for a good price, which allowed me to buy this cute bag I'd been eyeing on Etsy.

And this cute fabric to make a baby quilt. I bought the fabric online and only realized the band only runs down the selvage edge after I bought it. I thought I'd be able to use it as a border on all sides of the quilt. Now I'm not sure I have enough.

We went to my parents house for the 4th of July and I raided Mom's fabric and patterns. I'm going to try to make a jumper, a romper, pajamas and a coat for Winnie. Last time I tried sewing clothes, they didn't turn out very well. Considering that 15 years have passed since my last attempt I thought it was time to try again. Plus, I shouldn't have to do much tailoring to make Winnie's clothes fit right.

As part of our yard sale, we sold our TV/home theater system. Now, instead of watching other people do projects (I'll miss you most of all, HGTV) I hope that I'll get more of my own done. One thing it has forced me to address--the wall I never painted behind the entertainment center.

Lovely, isn't it?

Right now, what I miss most is that we can't listen to CD's, since our DVD player was our CD player as well. We don't plan to be totally media free--we want to buy a laptop for me that we can use for movies and music.

Yard Sale

We're having our first ever yard sale tomorrow. Actually, it's a complex-wide yard sale because I figured a lot of people in the townhouses wouldn't have enough stuff to be a big yard sale draw. I'm a little nervous about it because the complex-wide sale was my idea and I've been in charge of advertising it. I posted the info on every free online venue I could find and then put up some street signs today (they ended up not nearly as readable from a distance as I'd hoped). I have a few more street signs to put up in the morning, as well. The problem is, I have a curse. If I'm responsible for something nobody shows up! I've thrown a party where not a single person showed. When I was the Enrichment leader, there was a time only the Relief Society president and I showed up--not even the teacher came. Only 3 out of 23 people came to my baby shower (family not included) and the baby was already born! Poor Winnie. Not even her newborn cuteness could prevail. Here's hoping we have better luck with yard sales and make enough money to replace some of the stuff I'm selling!

If life went according to my plans. . .

If life went according to my plans, Matt would work for the Public Defender's office where he's currently interning, and we would live in this Center Street house (the Knight-Allen House), a mere 2 blocks away.


Built in 1894, the house is 2,400 square feet with 4 bedrooms and 3 full bathrooms. It has a detached garage and sits on a quarter acre lot. The house is considered a historic landmark by the Landmarks Commission as "the best and most unique example of Victorian Eclecticism in Provo", but it's not feeling the love it deserves. Currently it's 2 units and county tax records indicate the owners live in Spanish Fork. The tax records grade its desirability an A and its condition an F. Doesn't this house look like it needs me?

Winnie's Room

Here are a couple of recent additions to Winnie's room.

This is the Ikea crib that I painted black. I still want to put some vinyl decals on the foot of it, but haven't gotten around to making them. In the meantime, the Alice in Wonderland quilt that my grandma made her hangs on the crib. I love this quilt--I've used it to decorate the whole room around.

I bought these Red Riding Hood prints off of Etsy. They're paper cuts by a local artist named Cindy Ferguson. I'm amazed by how expressive she can make a silhouette. You can see more of her work on her blog.

And finally, here are a couple of recent pictures of Princess Winnie.

New Office

I got entirely new office furniture last week! After 8 years of looking at the same wall for 8 hours a day, it's nice to have a new view and to not have my back to the entrance. I used to face toward the back corner of my office (where the locker is in the picture below). I'm now oriented so I face the secretaries and the hallway. I didn't take a before picture because I was sick the day they removed everything, but here's the after.

I don't quite have everything put away yet--moving has forced me to face my horizontal filing system and clean up my act! There are a few piles still to sort and file. Luckily, I have a lot more filing space. A few other highlights are my locker (finally, a place to hang a coat and put my purse!)and the slat wall system that enables me to keep everything up off my desktop and that can be reconfigured any way I like.

Another One

Another Center Street house is for sale. I don't want this one quite as much as the Van Wagenen house, but it still looks lovely.



http://utahrealestate.com/802491


Refreshingly, I think this one is only $20,000-$30,000 over priced.

A long weekend?

Matt and I both had yesterday off for Memorial Day. It was a long weekend that didn't feel very long at all! We were considering taking Winnie to the zoo yesterday, but it turned out to be rainy and a little cold. That coupled with the length of my to-do list kept us home to work on projects, but I still don't feel like I even put a dent in my list!


We painted Winnie's new crib/toddler bed black. For this painting project I used Krylon 360 spray paint. I love this stuff! The paint went on with a beautiful finish and had a great nozzle that really is much easier on your fingers than a traditional nozzle. Right now the crib is airing out in Matt's parents' shop because the 360 is a lot more smelly than the Krylon H2O I used on the dresser, but when everything is assembled and in place, I'll post pictures.

I made a mobile for my cousin's baby shower, which ended up being cancelled because baby decided to come a month early. I've been planning to make something similar for Winnie since before she was born, but never even got around to buying the supplies until last week. The shower was a great motivation to get going on this project.

I actually really love how this turned out, but couldn't get a picture that I think showed it well. You can't really tell in this picture, but the leaves are green vellum so they have a nice translucence. The birds are regular card stock, and the branch is from a Redbud in Marshall and Susan's yard that died last summer. The arm in the top corner belongs to Matt and does not come with the mobile. I'm planning to make Winnie's about twice as large (I had to keep transportation in mind with this first one) with red vellum flowers instead of leaves. I am somewhat concerned about how well this one will travel from Utah to Las Vegas--especially since, when we got back in the car after leaving it at Aunt Sue's, I found a leaf that had already been pulled off. If it doesn't make it in one piece, sorry Patrice!

Other than that, Winnie took her first tumble down the stairs, we did some projects around the house (a new shelf in the office, some hooks for my aprons in the kitchen, miscellaneous wall repair for damaged caused by my tendency to hang things on the wall and then decide to move them), tried to organize the office/Winnie's room/Matt's recording studio to help them all co-exist peacefully, and did laundry, laundry, laundry. How can 3 little people create so much laundry?