A Winning Season

After a year of not playing basketball, (which nearly did me in!) Tyler decided to play again this year. Not school ball, but a rec league team with a bunch of his friends. Lots of fun, very little (if any) pressure, practice one day a week and one game a week. Much better than the intensity and commitment of school ball.

They only lost one game all season, to a team that they had beaten once before. Last night it came down to those two teams for the championship. The score was pretty close at half-time, but Team Fixius came out on top!!

They guys were pretty happy! They even got trophies!!

Tyler hasn't had one of these since 3rd grade baseball!!

His mama loved watching him play ball again!!!

Congratulations guys!!

I'm in a funk. A garage sale funk.
Don't get me wrong, I love garage sales!! Love them.

But I've come to the realization that most of my house is thrown together with garage sale items and not all things go together.
Take my sewing room for example. Now my sewing room is one of my most favorite rooms. I love to sit up there surrounded by amazing views...and FABRIC!!But nothing matches, nor is it very functional. It works, but not great. Those tables, the old sewing machine the metal cart and the tv are from garage sales. The shelf is from a friend. The old toy box was made for my dad, by his grandpa, when he was just a little boy. I love that toy box! It holds all my wool!

I got this hutch a few summers ago. I have a computer armoire that goes with it, but they do not share the same room. I do love the butter yellow colored leather chair. Got that on Bainbridge with my SIL.
These red shelves are old Yankee Candle displays from a store in town. I painted them red and use them to store my fabric. I really like this shelving, except for the fact that some of my fabric has faded from the sun. I try and keep the blinds closed when I'm not in there, but I love light and often forget!!

So I've been researching furniture for my room. I love off white and need things to be functional, but pretty too! And not a hodge podge of furnishings! I thought about Pottery Barn's office furniture. It's classic, looks great and I can piece together exactly what I want. It was very expensive however so I kept looking. Found some things at a local store, but it wasn't very well made, which explained the cheap price. Then I found this: http://www.homedecorators.com/search.php?search=martha+stewart+craft.

I love everything about this line, except that I can't see it in person! I was planning on ordering a piece a month, but everything is back ordered until May, so I'm not sure how it's going to work. I orderd the desk as it was the least expensive piece and they were offering free shipping on desks! I'm so excited to put this all together!!!

I'm keeping the red shelves, because they are just so spunky!! Especially when my fabric is all neat and tidy!!

The Pioneer Woman, my Bud...

Those of you who follow my blog know that I met Ree, The Pioneer Woman, last year at a book signing and we became instant friends. We discussed Spanx after all and you can't help but be friends after a conversation of that nature!

She left out the reason for her spanx though. I assumed it had something to do with having children, growing older, gravity and such things. I now know that it has to do with the absurd amounts of butter in her recipes. And cream. Heavy cream.

I must admit that I've only made three of her recipes, although I've read her book cover to cover many times. I like to read cookbooks, but I'm not much for cooking out of them. Never made a single recipe from my Farm Chicks books, and although I have 30 Gooseberry Patch cookbooks, I've only made about five recipes.
I don't make a recipe unless it's tried and true by someone I know, has a beautiful picture, and doesn't have weird ingredients. My friend Lynda and my SIL Meagan try new recipes all the time and they turn out wonderfully, but I'm just not that brave.

Anyway, back to PW. I ventured out of my comfort zone and made her mashed potatoes for Thanksgiving and I must say they were the Best Mashed Potatoes I've ever had!!! But I haven't tried anything since, although the book keeps opening to the cinnamon roll recipe! But when I was at Haggen on Friday I picked up some Rib-eye steaks with her recipe in mind. So last night I made her rib-eye's with whiskey onion sauce. But I didn't have whisky so I used brandy.

Holy Moly!!!!!!! This sauce is amazing!!!!! And full of butter. And heavy cream. And you cook the steaks in butter. We went through many napkins, what with all the drooling!

After dinner I was looking through her cookbook and came across her Maple Pecan Scones. It used half and half, but I had cream that had to be used up, so I substituted. And I don't like maple so I used almond flavoring. And there was butter involved. And the frosting had butter too, but it also called for whole milk, which is almost like cream, so I used that instead.Now I know why she wears spanx, and that I will be wearing them too. ASAP!!!

To top off the evening I finished her new book! I tried to read it slowly so I could drag it out and savor it, but that lasted one night! This book is so good! and funny!!! and steamy, but not revealing!!!! Still, I couldn't read it in broad daylight!! Had to wait til night, when it was dark and romantic!!! Should have lit a candle!!!!

And all of a sudden it was finished. done. kaput. Sadness enveloped the room. I hope she's writing a sequel. In the meantime I have scones. And I bought my own copy so I can read it over and over again!

Randomness...

While the rest of the country has been covered with ice and snow, here in the Pacific Northwest we've been treated to this...

Sunrise over Mt. Baker with the promise of a beautiful day!!
And at the end of that day we got to see this...

I guarantee that my camera did not do this justice. The colors were so vivid! God was working some serious magic with his paintbrush!!!!

I treated myself to an early Valentine's day goodie, courtesy of Lisa Leonard Designs! It was the mason jar that made me do it!!! It's so cute and I've worn it many times already. I added the charms to my other necklace that I have from her. She has such quality and beautiful jewelry and is so helpful too. Thanks Lisa!!

I finished this during the last Seahawks game. Things weren't going so well for the Hawks so I planted myself in my sewing room and tackled this job!!!! Lynda and I have been adding up how many unfinished projects we have and it wasn't pretty!!!! Of course I need to quilt this, which is my least favorite part, so I can't cross it off the list just yet, but it would be nice to get done for spring.

And, working at the library has it's benefits!!!! As soon as I knew Ree's book was coming out I put it on hold!! I got it yesterday and have only read the first chapter, as I have to finish another book, but this is going to be GOOD!!!!

Stay cozy!!! Spring is coming!!

Shopping...

Yesterday after church I had to run a few errands...groceries, costco and I needed to return a few things. I was Not going to shop. Big Mistake going to that mall!!!

American Eagle and Hollister were having HUGE sales...Old Navy too, but I only got a few things there. I get sucked in to the AE and Hollister, because it seems like their stuff never goes on a really big sale, but this time it was half off all clearance. I came home with 3 bags from each store!!! I'm big on buying whatever and going through it at home and then making returns.

So Tyler starts going through the bags and picking what he likes (most everything) and I decide he shouldn't get anything because he THROWS his clothes on the floor constantly!!!! And he had all this laundry, plus a load in the wash. I think he has enough!!!! Now I know you've seen pictures of Tyler...my skinny guy... and while he's grown many inches over the past 4 or 5 years, he just hasn't gained that much weight!! (wish I could say the same!)

Now I didn't used to be a Hollister fan...skanky A and F offspring and all, but I must say that their clothes are very well made. Back to the skinny Tyler...this is his first Hollister shirt, from 7th or 8th grade (he's a junior now) and he still wears this shirt, for P.E. and work, but still!!!!
It's even quite white yet!!!!


So I let him keep a few things. One for now and the rest for his birthday next month!!!! And I did his laundry. But he has to put it away!!!

Now for all those darned returns!!!!

It's still raining here...sigh...

Our leak turned out to be more work than we thought and we had to call in the pros!!! Steve and Brian had to take off the siding, take out the window and put on window wrap, which should have been put on in the first place, and put the window and siding back up. Plus new trim. Plus paint, which if you recall, we just did the whole house in Sept. We'll have to wait for warmer weather to to that.

Part of the roof needs to come off and a barrier put up with new roof going back on. It's been so wet that it can't get done. But I do have a lovely blue tarp up for all to see!

One good thing from all the rain is that our pond is so full and beautiful!!! It's never been this full before! Isn't the reflection just so pretty??

We can sit on these rocks in the summer, and there are a few more that you can't see. The pond has come up about 4 feet since summer.

The rain also brings out the duck hunters. This kid is walking in the field behind our house. Brian has had to tell them not to aim at the house!!!! Stupid kids!!
Oh my raspberries look messy!!!

I Won!

It's here!!!

Last week I entered a give-away over at Homestead Revival .http://homesteadrevival.blogspot.com

Amy was giving away this awesome solar powered radio/flashlight and I was the big winner!!!! For those of you who don't know me well....I love all the survival, homesteading, preparedness stuff. I was just a little disappointed that Y2K was a big nothing! I kind of wanted to see how we'd do!!! Don't get me wrong, I love having instant lights, a remote fireplace, TV, computer and most of all, indoor plumbing. But still, I wanted to see what we were made of!!!
I love all the tips and ideas on Amy's blog, so go and check her out and tell her howdy!!

I've been working a lot at my "farm" job, Drench-mate. I can pretty much chose my own hours, but best of all I get to watch The Waltons!!!! Four episodes is about my limit and then I head home. But this little dvd player keeps me sane in this old shop with no windows!!!

I get to use power tools and build things, but unless you're in the dairy business, you wouldn't be interested in this!

I make these little buckets with pumps, hoses and a few other parts and we send them all over the world! It's fun and a great little side job!

We had a lovely snowstorm last Tuesday during the big cross-town rival basketball game, in which the gym was at least 85 degrees!!! We came outside to snow coming down, the wind blowing and the promise of a snow day!! We had about 5" and school was cancelled!!!

Unfortunately it warmed up big time, started raining and has been raining ever since!!

This is what things are looking like this week...




I watched this guy attempt to go through this yesterday. He quickly turned around!!

I had to get out of the car and take some pictures!

I'm so thankful that we don't have flooding at our house, and pray that the rain slows down or stops. It always amazes me how powerful water is.

With all this rain we noticed a wet spot on our ceiling (what is it with us and leaks?). Brian's taken the last 2 days off to work on it. Found some rotting sheeting on the south side of the house, rotten window trim and now we need to take out a window and replace all the boards and trim around it. If it's not one thing it's 50!!

Playing Catch-up

Still have things to post from "last year" due to camera difficulties!!!! But I couldn't forget to post the finished bedroom after our attempt at board and batten. We're so happy with the way everything turned out!


Thankfully Brian enjoys this kind of work and figured out all the measurements, cutting etc. my only job is to paint, which I did grow weary of!!!

We trimmed out the window, the closet, the bathroom doors, the entry door and all the baseboards, chair rail, board and batten and crown molding. We lowered the crown molding because we had it that way before with the metal. Brian had put in an outlet and we ran rope lighting behind it. We still have to put the lights back up. I re-painted all of Ashleigh's furniture too. We love it!!!

Mid December brought TOLO and here are a few pictures of Tyler and his date, Krista. They went shopping to get the tie and the shoes to match and I think they look pretty nice!!!

Krista's parents had everyone over for pics...about 20 kids and their parents! Lots of fun!!


In November we had family photos taken by Jodi of The Snapsisters. (You can see them on my sidebar)
We haven't done this in years. I used to be so good at getting the kid's photo taken, but not lately. We had so much fun doing this and Jodi did such a great job!!

Awwwww.....me and my honey!!!! (looking older than we thought we did!!)

We brought some fun props...

had some sibling love...short lived...

and this was our Christmas picture this year.

We gave some pics as gifts, so I couldn't post them til after Christmas!!

Hope your new year is off to a good start!!!!