Thrifty Frames

Continuing on our DIY spree, a quick downstairs bathroom update! I only took one photo of our downstairs bathroom when we moved in. But this is it. And yes, it really was that bad: 

We had stripped the wallpaper (the bottom half) partially, but hadn't gotten around to doing anything else. Until a few months ago (maybe sometime in the summer?) when I finally rolled up my sleeves and finished ripping the wallpaper off. Then, since I was pregnant, when my parents came down for a visit my mom graciously painted the whole thing the same white we've been doing throughout our whole house. Which made a huge difference. HUGE. As in I didn't cringe every time I went in that bathroom. Then my dad hung up our bathroom cabinet that had been sitting in our garage for months, and just last week I finally went to World Market and got some accessories to decorate it: 

I already had the candle, towels and elephant tray so I just picked up some fun colored candle holders and that cute little glass lantern and called it good. But the wall next to the cabinet still needed a little pop of color. Enter my cheap, art solution:

I picked up the frames at goodwill a long while back. They were an ugly brown color so I spray-painted them cream. And then while I was trying to find some artwork to put in them that matched the items on my medicine cabinet, I spotted a large party bag at Target. The colors were a perfect match, I loved it, Lucy loved it (she ooed and aaed when I put it in our shopping cart), so we bought it for three whole dollars. Then I took it home, cut it up, and framed the gift bag!

So both frames plus artwork probably cost 3.50 each, putting my total price for new wall art at 7 dollars. 

But can you put a price on happiness? Because I get almost giddy with joy when I walk into this bathroom and it no longer looks like that very first picture. 

What we've been up to

Yikes, another one month hiatus from the blog! I realized that part of the reason for my departure from normal blogging is the new technology I've acquired (an ipad and a smartphone). I love having these easier and more portable ways to take pictures and share them (hello Instagram!), but consequently I have less pictures saved on our desktop for me to scroll through and think "I should blog about this". But I'm going to make an effort to get back into blogging, for the grandparents' sake (they're our main audience anyway!). And because I still have plans to someday get our blog posts turned into a scrapbook. Someday....

So here's a quick rundown of what we've been up to. Before Christmas I had a week or two in which I really had nothing on my plate (besides caring for one child and growing another). So I took a look around our house and asked myself what I could plausibly do with my growing belly. And I saw this:

Yes, that is what our entryway has looked like for the past 8 months or so, ever since we moved in. The previous owners are responsible for the taupe to beige transition that you see happening above the doorway (I guess they lost incentive halfway through the project), but I made matters worse by trying out different samples right in that extremely conspicuous spot. That was back when I had the crazy idea that we'd have the entire house painted before we moved in. Bahahahaha. 

So over the course of a week, during Lucy's afternoon naps, I hauled out my rollers and paint brushes and a stepstool and painted our entryway white. 

It wasn't just that wall that needed painting, I had to do the whole entrance area and the ceiling, two coats, which is why it took so long. But I am so incredibly happy not to have to look at that horrible half-finished wall area anymore, I think I grin every time I pass through it!

And then after Christmas I took a trip to Ikea and bought a few entryway items to spice things up. Particularly this new rug, the floor vase and twigs, and the watering can.

A much more cheerful welcome when you step in the door! 

Our January project is to clean out the garage, and we're making pretty good progress on that as well. Our goals were to: find places in our two big attic spaces for all the junk in the garage (minus things that really need to stay out there like tools and paint supplies and bikes); tear out those rickety shelving units on the side of the garage so two cars can actually fit in it; get all chemicals up very high so small hands cannot find them; and build a new workbench.

We've been working on the garage on Saturdays during Lucy's nap. Here's the before shot:

Here is what it looked like after one day. It took a good bit of time to organize everything into well-marked bins and haul it upstairs, but we did all of that and Joel got started with tearing out those units:

This was the 2nd Saturday, Joel hard at work on his new workbench (see how abnormally tall his other workbench was? Also, the reason we could remove all those side storage units is because we have a ton at the back of the garage, as you can see in this pic. The high up ones are where the chemicals are now hidden). 

And here it is by the end of the second Saturday. Such a vast improvement already! 

So really what we have left now is to finish building the workbench and find places for the pile of items we decided to keep out in the garage. It's so nice to know where everything is now and for Joel to have room in the garage to actually use the tools he's been collecting!

Let it SNOW!

We had a very light sprinkling of snow here in Eugene, but it was enough to make this 2 year old giddy with joy:

So we hauled out the dusty snowsuit (and don't worry grandparents I did eventually find some gloves, see the last picture), and Lucy got to build some very tiny snowmen!

She had a great time, although the sensation of having cold toes (no snowboots so we went with rainboots) was new and apparently not very pleasant, so the morning outing ended with a nice warm bath and lots of oatmeal. 

Merry Christmas!

Just one year

What a difference one year makes!

Winter 2011

 Winter 2012

 Winter 2011

Winter 2012

Christmas is Coming

Christmastime has taken on a completely new level of fun with a 2-year-old in the mix. She has wanted to be involved in every aspect, from setting up the Christmas tree to hanging the advent calendar (and taking the candies out each day to inspect how many are left), to reminding us which presents under the tree are for her. We've even worked in a few catechism questions that she can answer: 

"What happened on Christmas?" 

"Jesus was born!!"

"Where was he born?" 

"In a TABLE!!" ("No, Lu, a STABLE, not a table...") 

"Who came to worship him?"

 "Three wise men kings!"

 She understands so much more than I thought she would about Christmas, and I love guiding her into even greater understanding of who Jesus is and His unending love for her. 

She's becoming more and more rambunctious every day. Most days at our house involve a lot of ballerina dancing (to the nutcracker music), long stretches of bouncing on the bed, and a lot of running and jumping onto the couch. She is definitely not a snuggler, so we love those rare moments where she'll pause and give us some love. Even if it's just a quick butterfly kiss:

Lucy might be loving this Christmas season, but someone had to pay the price for all that fun: 

Lucy even shed a few tears for penguin's broken foot. But she got over it pretty quick.

Here's a shot through our kitchen into the dining room:

And of course little girl number 2 has been working hard too, getting fatter and longer by the day. Here I am at 27 weeks:

She is just as wild (if not wilder) than Lucy was in utero. I love how constant and unrelenting her little kicks are. They're actually getting less "little" these days, but I still love the reassurance that she's alive and well in there. And I can't believe we'll get to meet her in a few months!

Fall Weather Part 2 and a Baby Bump

Since I didn't have any pictures to go with the lentil soup recipe, I thought I'd post a few from yesterday when Lucy and I were out enjoying some beautiful fall weather:

And here's a shot of Lu admiring our fall porch decor, with our gigantic white pumpkin in the background:

Some pretty baby curls:

Dancing in the street with mama:

And, I actually snapped a shot of my baby belly! Okay it's not great and my face is hidden, but at this point it's better than nothing! This was 22 weeks. I promise I will get Joel to take a better one sometime in the near future. But now you know I'm not making this up! There really is a baby in there (and she's a kicker). 

Fall Weather Fever: Lentil Soup

There are so many things I love about fall, but making lots of soup is very, very high up on that list.

I don't have a picture to accompany this post because I haven't made dinner for tonight yet, but this recipe was given to me by a good friend, and it has become one of our favorite soup recipes. I included her parenthetical notes because they make me chuckle when I'm preparing this soup.

So here it is:

Jill's Lentil Soup Recipe

2 tsps oil
2 onions diced
3 carrots grated
3/4 tsp marjoram
3/4 tsp thyme
1 28 oz can of diced tomatoes w/juice
7 cups broth (if you use chicken broth then it's like it has meat in it..)
1 1/2 cups lentils- rinsed and picked over
1/2 tsp salt
1/4-1/2 tsp pepper
6 ounces dry white wine (guzzle the rest while the soup simmers)
1/3 cup chopped parsley
4 ounces shredded cheese (we usually use cheddar)

1. Heat oil in a large saucepan and saute onion, carrots, marjoram and thyme. About 5 minutes.
2. Add tomatoes, broth and lentils. Bring the soup to a boil, reduce heat and cover. Simmer for 1 hour.
3. Add salt, pepper, and wine. Simmer for a few more minutes.

Serve with cheese and parsley on top.

I do have one side note and that is that I often am too lazy to buy parsley and since Joel is not a big cheese fan, we usually don't serve this dish with cheese and parsley on top. I imagine it tastes even better that way, but it is still so yummy without!