We Made It! Mostly.

Well, I have been away for just over a month now but I proudly return with wonderful news. My husband and I bought our first home! I report that we are happily terrified home owners. Mostly because it's all on us now, although, we weren't really the, 'call the landlord for everything' types but still it's a lot especially for a couple kids. (I know we are definitely not kids anymore but we forget that sometimes.)

A little background on our little slice of freaky luck. We looked all over the state looking for a place that was close enough to my husbands work and populated enough that finding nanny work would be easier. our budget was very tight but we had a little cash for renovations and restorations on the new place so a fixer upper was perfect. We saw the most bizarre looking homes. An old camp cottage that had a couple additions but they were never insulated so they were unlivable rooms and the only access to the water heater and the basement was a creepy floor panel crammed awkwardly in a corner that was only big enough for a smaller person to drop straight down. Then the old place by the hospital with the exposed hot water pipes along the walls, built in everything and strangely disjointed rooms. Oh not to mention the only bathroom was upstairs by the bedrooms and the stairs were cut in too close to the slope of the roof so you have to sort of duck under the roof at the top of the stairs. Yeah, I saw that going bad fast.

So after all these crazy things we found a two bathroom three bedroom mobile home that was set over a basement. Boom, I'm in, the price was right and it was in the same town we live in and we can make it our own. We discover the front wall is rotted so we were forced to walk away.
About two weeks later I get an email from the realtor selling the mobile home saying the bank is willing to fix the front wall, (new windows new dry wall, better flashing on the front porch and resided the area.) We are in. For those of you who have ever bought a home I'm sure you can imagine what the next month was like for us awaiting approval and sending in last minute paperwork etc. Nightmare! We got it and we moved in and started tearing the place apart. It was AWESOME! We painted everything, got brand new floors, which we are still in the process of putting it in.

It is a wonder my husband and I have not had strokes over the whole process. I swear my house was built by college students. Most of the trim isn't nailed down properly, the new wall is currently leaking again, the previous owners decided to try to heat the uninsulated basement by cutting large holes in the air duct so the heat is just dumping into the basement. This goes on and on.

Yet through all that I have to find a reason to smile. My husband and I bought our first leaky, drafty house together. We have an adult refrigerator and oven now, my daughter is comfortable here and is sleeping through the night again with very little bedtime fuss lately. Not to mention her hair is just barely long enough to do something with and that is very exciting.

 These are the new floors. Not bad for 99 cents a square foot. All of the renovations, and there will be a before and after post, cost us a little over two thousand dollars. As long as you have a plan in mind and the patience to bargain shop you can reno even a disgusting old trailer into a beautiful modern home.

She clearly has no problem with the move. She loves the sound of her boots on the hard floors. 

Hooray, no more gross carpet!

Well, now that we are back into somewhat of a normal routine I can come back and snuggle with the blog again I don't know how many of my little projects I will get done with so much needing to be done on the house but I did get a dremel tool for Christmas from my step father and it is definitely bad ass little machine. I'm pushing for a kraig jig for Mothers Day but we will see. Now I'm off to make a broquet for my husband for Valentines day. 

Another day. 

Another chance.

Another smile.

While I Was House Bound

Here in New England our winters get pretty brutal and we are all mostly used to it. It is common to lose power a few times. Well, we got hit early this year and had some down line and bitter temperatures. Regardless we cooked Thanksgiving dinner on the grill, you read that correctly, on the grill. The sides were all done on little propane camp stoves and we warmed the appetizers in ceramic dishes on the wood stove. To top it all off we had frosty cocktails and a little warming brandy to snuggle up to. All in all it was a pretty cozy evening. Even the baby didn't seem to mind since all the attention was on her and not the iPad or the TV. Anyway, since all the crummy weather came through it has been too cold to go outside so I decided to keep myself busy with some inane project. I cant really work on my furniture indoors and we are still working on the offer for the new house so I needed a relatively short project.

Crochet! Time consuming while still being productive. Well after about 45 minutes and two inches into a blanket I needed something a little more..... fun. Arm knitting seems to be the new fun thing so I figured if I do well I have holiday gifts and if I mess it up I have dog blankets. Win, win!

I am pleased to announce.... It worked beautifully and they look nice rather than like a child knotted a bunch of strings together. (I have a habit of busting out some epic pintrest fails from time to time.)

 I will warn you, as I quickly found out, one pull on one of the chains and you will never get it back in the right place so try not to let little hands grab at them. The cuff with the button was just a quick single crochet stitch with a double crochet at the end to make the hole. This thing works great for hiding the seam where the ends are stitched together. These took about 15 to 20 minutes each and together they used about 2 and a half skeins of super bulky and bulky yarn. Make sure you get the fluffy stuff to fill in the holes a little.

Any of my projects you would like to know more about feel free to message me or leave a comment. I don't mind doing tutorials if you need one. I'll be back soon with some more projects as the Christmas gifts start coming together. Thanks guys!

Food For Tiny Fingers

It's official, my daughter is 1 year old! 

We celebrated her birthday over the weekend followed by my husbands party and it went very well. This morning my husband asks me, as he is making her bottle, "Aren't we supposed to be weaning her off of these soon?" Crap, he's right. That means more finger food, relatively scheduled meals, make ahead breakfasts. (I am out of the house by 6am and home with the other little one but 7am so breakfast is already a pain.) Then I start wondering where am I going to put all these meals and tiny tupper ware containers. Well, I think I've got it.

So There are several things I pick up for my lil munchkin to eat. 
Cut up green beans, peas, carrots, broccoli chunks, any frozen or canned veggies really. Throw some in a cup and microwave or grab a small pot and toss in your veggies. Storage is simply your pantry or canned goods cabinet and they take seconds to make. Pair them with some fruit or pretzels.

I will hard boil some extra eggs and throw them back in the fridge for a pre-made breakfast or an afternoon snack.

Cook an extra chicken breast or meatballs when you make dinner. Bonus: split it with the kids and make some quesadillas for lunch or a salad and you got your lunch too with little work.

I am a big fan of chunks of block cheese with some fruit and crackers or cheerios. All very easy things to put together.

With all these little finger foods filling up the fridge and pantry I decided to throw together some Martha Stewart and Betty Crocker and up-cycled some old formula containers to use as storage.

After you pull off the label you can spray paint it with plastic paint. Then I decorated it with some washi tape. The one on the left I use for storing crafts like beads, pom poms, washi tape rolls, etc.

Using small zipper bags and mini storage you can set these up for where ever you need them. For instance one will have small bags of cheerios, (instead of bulky boxes in the pantry.) pretzles, fruit snacks, snack pouches, really anything. 

For the refigerator snacks like fruits and veggies I have small storage boxes,

The white one you see here houses small tea boxes, instant coffee and all those rogue k-cups and kool-aid packets that make such clutter in your cabinets.

One of these little guys can slide out of one side of your fridge and all your toddler to-go bags remain contained in one place.

Last thing I am trying to do more of is making foods ahead, as I mentioned cooking a little extra the night before so you are all set for lunches and snacks the next day but I also like to load up the freezer. (Depending on space you can use those containers above to hold bags of freezer food.)

I like to make french toast sticks, mini pancakes, mini muffins etc. Its a good project for a lazy Sunday when I have an extra pair of hands for the baby. You can make up a ton of them in the time it would take to make a regular breakfast and on those busy mornings you toss 'em in the oven or microwave and the kids are happy. Not to mention all that breakfast stuff will make your house smell all yummy!

A new one I want to try is yogurt bites. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and use an icing bag (or a ziplock with a hole cut in the corner.) and make dots on the paper. Freeze them and pop them into a bag for a cool summer snack.

Anyway, off I go to start cooking then off to work so my husband can clean the kitchen. ;) 

What time saving tricks do you guys have?

DIY's This Summer

One sick baby, two sick babies.... Thank the universe we did not decide to have a second sooner because I am already elbow deep in snot and poop.

We are enjoying our first year as a family and trying to get in all those story book times together such as apple picking, pumpkin picking and of course the local favorite, one of the many fairs that hit the area in the fall. This year we got an extra treat! The stomach flu... let me tell you how terrifying that is with kids all over the country getting sick and getting hospitalized. Fortunately, it hit us one at a time starting with my husband. He was down and out for two days, the poor guy, but once a year he always gets very sick then bounces right back. Then our daughter got it. No puking, (that's my girl) but definitely uncomfortable and lots of dirty diapers.

This was followed up by a seasonal cold and lord there are boogers... EVERYWHERE. Granted this is gross but it doesn't bother me so much. It bothers me more that my poor little one is feeling so crummy and anything I can do to help ie. aspirator and tissues just pisses her off more.

During the day I watch a little boy around my daughters age and they are the best of friends. In fact, they share binkies... This morning I started sneezing etc. I am so glad my husband is taking his vacation next week because one sick baby is enough for me, two, however, as well as being sick myself, is just far too much. So tonight it's a hot bath and fuzzy pj's, some Chicken noodle soup and an early bed time. I'm already exhausted.

This leads up to the fact that I have little time for projects left not to mention that I am currently looking for a house and we are slightly broke so it occupies a lot of my time. However, as promised, I have other little fun things I have done this summer. Such as,

Mission Impossible for Toddlers!

My niece and nephew are three and five years old and smart! Well, I like to have activities planned for them while they are here. A couple times in the summer my mom has Grandkids weekend. We go to grammy and papa's house and go camping.
 All this required was some bright red yarn. (I know it's a little difficult to see but it's there.) and you zig zag from tree to tree, high and low and cris-crossing every which way.

In this case I was not able to gather all the materials so I didn't use the bells but when tied to the yarn the bells will jingle when the "lazer" it touched letting them know they lost. On the other side of the obstacle is a small path leading them right back to the starting line. Not everyone has this kind of land especially when you live in the city so this can easily be done indoors. A long hallway can do the trick with some scotch tape (don't ruin your paint job.) and the yarn and bells if you want.

You can do this with older kids and toddlers alike. I am thinking we can do the spy theme when my daughter is a little older and set this up at her birthday party. The kids can win little prizes is they get through. (You can use the same toys as you have in the goody bags for the kids so that everyone gets a fun toy.

I did one other project for them with the help of my brother.
Sone day I'm driving down the road and I see the frame for a papasan chair on the side of the road. (I am a big fan of free or cheap.) So my husband picks it up for me and it is brought to my parents where the base was promptly shattered. Sad but hopeful I assure them I am going to make a swing out of it so please don't burn it. My mother rolled her eyes so hard she may have sprained one but the chair went unburned. Finally, the last big camping trip I have got to do something with it or it goes in the bon fire. Got some big fat rope, the kids and went hunting for a tree.

With the help of my monkey brother we got it hung and the kids loved it. It was like a carnival ride and strong enough to hold my brother and I.

Assuming the wood holds out through the winter I will be using a very large cushion I made to cover it but an old comforter will do just fine. I don't have a photo yet of the kids up high but that swing hums and the rungs of the chair serve as handles and foot wedges without the threat of tiny busted fingers. They had such a blast that they wanted to keep it up after the rain started. Until, of course, there was talk of s'mores and fire. 

Sadly, the camp is now closed but we certainly enjoyed it while it lasted.

Where Do I Begin?

Where do I begin?

So I suppose this would be my introductory shot at blogging. I am a big fan of writing but never really got into the whole blog thing. It's sort of like I decided that blogs would be a short lived fad like online journals and tamagotchis. Alas, like the skinny jeans, I was wrong.
Anyhow, adventures as a mom and the many hats I wear in my life. I am an amateur photographer, a nanny, a mother, a wife, an outdoors woman, a prepper, a coupon clipper, a shopaholic and a variety of other hobbies I attempt everyday.
I have a beautiful daughter of my own that will be turning one in October so prepare to see lots of planning and decorating going on. I was recently married to her father, we have been together seven years now and we haven't killed each other yet and I think that is merely due to the fact that we are much too tired. I kid, we get along very well and I am super excited for the adventures we have to come. Alright enough about me, there will be lots to see later on.

Fall! It's what everyone is talking about right now. Me, I'm excited, one of the cool things about living in the northeast is that once you get sick of one season here comes another. He had had just about enough of the humidity and baking heat and boom. It's fifty degrees in the morning. So I couldn't wait to get the simmering potpouri on the stove. Find a fun burlap project with some leftover scraps I had laying around.

Maybe even make some of those cool luminaries I keep seeing on Pintrest.

I had lots of left over material from my recent wedding, such as tulle and mason jars. The wreath was my husbands idea and I just loved it, which is ironic because he is forever making fun of my Pintrest escapades. 

Anyhow, today my attentions have been turned to rearranging my house so I suppose I ought to get back to putting the living room back together and get the kids fed and off the their homes. As I encounter more adventures I will share them with you all as well as some experiences that I love to reminisce about. Until next time...