Getting ready for Christmas

Have you been on Pintrest yet? I love this site where you can find many inspiring ideas like how to make a book wreath. Yes, you got that right- a wreath with pages from a book that you just tear out and hot glue onto the back of cardboard. Cheap and cool looking. I got my inspiration from this blog. Oh and if you're on Pintrest you can follow me here.

I love getting ready for Christmas and this year we are making some crafts. Alison and I are going to make some small felt purses for her friends. I've also been busy making ornaments.

Family Pictures for 2011

For our family pictures this year we had our friend Ashley take them. She did a great job and we all had fun. We took them at her in-laws beautiful horse farm (which is not far from us). They also have a gorgeous Victorian farm home on the property that dates back to the Civil War.

Tea time!

Lauren

Alison

Lilly

Bailey

November happenings

We had a great November. Our Thanksgiving was wonderful to be around the Sample family. The girls had fun visiting with their cousins and even performed a musical number for all the adults after our visit with Mama Jean. We had great food and a beautiful day.

The kids were especially hungry for dessert. Thanks AJ and Leon for your hospitality.

Aubrey and Charlotte came to stay for almost a week to visit in November. We had fun with them, but poor Charlotte had a fever for a couple of days so we did some hang out time at home. The girls had so much fun playing with her. Of course, Aubrey (mini me) and I had a great time talking and even got out one tiny night out (tiny- meaning: we dropped Alison off at Activity days and went to Ann Taylor Loft for half an hour and then came home).

I've been teaching a gymnastics class again in our basement. We had fun learning ballet, working on the balance beam and learning a routine to perform. All these girls live close by and are Alison and Lauren's friends so it was a blast when we got together for class.

Steve and Lauren went to a daddy- daughter dance in November. Lauren was thrilled to have her dad all to herself. Steve even got her a pretty corsage.

We Have Our Ironing Board Back!

We have wanted a console table for our living room for quite some time. Up to now, our console table has been our ironing board! We found some styles we liked on the Internet but none were close to the dimensions we wanted. Therefore, I decided to build one. I have had this goal to learn more about woodworking and this project fit right in. We used white maple for the tabletop, apron and legs and used dark walnut for pegs. Here are pictures I took along the way. It was a great learning experience and it has gotten me more excited about building more pieces.

The tabletop was built using 3/4" thick 2x6 boards with splines between the boards. Using splines may have been overkill but I wanted a solid tabletop that could support a lot of weight.

Here is the table top after it was glued up. I was a bit worried about cupping so I added breadboards to each end of the tabletop. This was something new to me. A breadboard end is a piece of wood that is joined to the end of a larger panel. The purpose is to support and maintain the rigidity of the tabletop, while allowing the tabletop to shrink or expand (due to humidity) across the grain. I cut slots in the tongue of the tabletop and used dark walnut pegs to hold it in place. Also, the breadboards hide the end grain of the tabletop. This feature took a long time but it added a neat detail to the finished table.

The apron and legs were connected with mortise and tenon joints. The mortises were made by drilling and then cutting out the rest with chisels. The tenons were made on the table saw and finished with chisels.

Here is the table base fit-up. The groves along the outer edges of the apron were made using a router with a triple fluted bit. This added a lot of detail to the apron.

In order to connect the tabletop to the base, I used buttons. These allow the tabletop to expand and contract somewhat with humidity.

Here is the completed table!

I really like the look of white maple. The completed table had a lot of wavy grain patterns showing and I wanted to highlight that with the finish. I learned a lot about finishing furniture during this project. The biggest thing I learned is that it is a LOT more involved than I thought. For example, white maple is a difficult wood to stain (should have figured this out before making the table, hey?). Finishing this piece ended up taking just as much time as building it. I sanded the table for a long time and then applied two coats of walnut stain and then five coats of clear polyurethane.

Here is the finished table in its new home. The table turned out great and I am looking forward to building more furniture in the future. The ironing board is now happily back where it belongs and is used as an ironing board just as much as it was when it was a console table.

Halloween

This year the girls dressed up as Wizard of Oz characters. Alison was Dorothy, Bailey and Lilly- the munchkins, and Lauren was Glenda.

We also did our annual visit to the pumpkin patch and lots of other Fall things like making caramel apples, Booing people, and going to some fun parties.

Happy Halloween! (Lilly)

The Beast that turned into a Beauty

This entertainment center was something we bought when we first were married and we loved it. However, over the past eleven years of bliss, it has taken on some bumps and bruises and it was a bit dated. I actually wanted to paint it last year, but Steve kept saying he didn't want me to- he liked it just fine. A few weeks ago we reached a compromise- he could stain the console table that he was making (more on this later) if I could paint the entertainment center. Done. It took a week and a 1/2 to finish this project with some long nights involved. I read several blogs on how to paint laminate. You can read here how we painted it. Our house was under construction during this process- its good to have it back to normal and less clutter.

Here's the before shot in all its cardboard- backed beauty.

Now we have a bead board backing that we painted with a mix of colors from our paint supply store in the basement.

Another improvement we made was to hide all the wires and access holes. No more wires!

Some crafty days

I saw this framed fern idea on another blog and being the copycat that I am I snagged it. This summer I collected some ferns on M.V and pressed them in a big book. Then, I used some modge podge to really glue it all down and now I love how it looks. I made two, but its so easy I think I'll be making more- good gift ideas?

Our gallery wall looks better now that I made our button L for Laverty. However, I think I'll continually be adding to this wall.

the china cabinet

I found this beauty at a local antique store that was on a major sale! Yippee! I had been looking for a china cabinet like this one on Craigslist hoping for this look with the broken arch up top. We have been in need of more storage as of late since I keep finding paper clutter everywhere. The cabinet needed a little TLC so of course I painted it (Steve helped too). We used Annie Sloan Chalk Paint. It's not chalkboard paint, but a special paint that distresses easy and you don't need to sand or prime. I really liked using this paint because there is no major prep work, and it only needed one coat.

Our house has been looking like this lately with all the projects we're doing. But we had to take all the pieces apart to get by all the glass.

Here's the before

and here she is now! We are very happy to have a place to hide some craft clutter and display books.

Back to School

This week the girls were back in school. Alison is now a 3rd grader and Lauren in 1st.

They were both excited to go and see their friends and meet their new teachers.

Of course Bailey and Lilly wanted to get in on all the action too. So they posed for their first day of not having their older sisters at home with them in awhile. At this stage its easier having twins because they play so well together. It's also a little hard to break up fights and help them share my lap for story time, but overall they are quite the cute pair.

the Summer wrap-up

Arrrr mateys! We've had a great summer visiting with lots of family and friends. After we left MV we had a nice stay at Grandma and Papa's house where we visited:

The Jones family! We will miss you guys. Good luck in your move to Washington.

Visits with sisters. Our girls are lucky to have some amazing Aunties.

We visited with my friend Mara and her adorable girls.

My BFF from grade school and high school- Mara Gleason (now Powers). Its always a blessing to catch up with a dear friend.

Steve's brother, Joe and his family came to visit us. We took them into D.C to visit the Zoo, the American History museum and the Natural History museum. Ahh, I just love museums!

visiting the Ape House

Downey and Laverty girls

Summer Art Camp

My friend Elinn and I did another Summer Art Camp for our children and their friends. We had a great time doing art projects like painting rocks, perspective drawing, working with watercolors, and collage art. We also did artistic snacks like decorating cupcakes and working with fruit. Everyone was so creative- can't wait for next summer!

a sampling of collage art

Lauren with her painted rocks

owl and cookie monster

On another note, for my birthday this year the girls worked on a "big card" which I think looks more like a patchwork quilt. They were so cute to write little messages to me and draw some pictures. They kept it a big secret working on it for awhile. I love it.

Also this summer we found a great pool nearby and were happy to spend

some of August at the pool with friends.