Pursuit of Craftiness, Part II

After the original "pursuit of craftiness" project (see that post here), I was hoping to take on some more ambitious ventures in the future, and now - 6 months later - finally finished a few of them. My list of future projects has grown much longer, and much more ambitious, now that we're having a baby. Realistically, I realize I won't be able to do them all (the biggest ones are making his crib bedding, repainting a couple of pieces of furniture, and re-upholstering the rocking chair), but I still wrote them on my to-do list (although all that really does is make me stress about it - it doesn't actually mean I'll get around to doing them). Anyway - back in September I went to our ward's "Super Saturday" (for those of you who are not LDS or don't live in Utah, it's basically a big day of crafting for the women at church - you sign up & pay for various projects that you want to do, then the people in charge bring all the materials & supplies and you spend the day working on them).

I was a little ambitious in the number of projects I signed up for, so I didn't finish them all that day and it took me until the past week to get them done. Here are two of them - the third I'm not going to post because it doesn't fit where I had planned to hang it, and I haven't decided if I'm going to keep it or gift it. Don't look too closely or you'll see where I messed up. And really, I can't take too much credit for them - I spent quite a bit of time on them, but wasn't at all involved in the design phase :)

Next step: Get over my indecisiveness, which leads to a fear of putting holes in the walls, and actually hang the clock up (so it doesn't linger like all other decorations in our house - propped up against the wall where I think I want to hang them). Soon to come (hopefully!): Part III.

The Loot

Yesterday Ivory Homes had one of their model sales, where they sell furniture and decorations that they're no longer using in the model homes. We went to the last one last September and found some great deals on furniture, so when I was pretty excited when I heard they were having another one (click here to see our success from last year). Nate was in charge of a scouting activity, so I was put in charge of making the decisions at the sale. Nate signed me up to help with the sale, which meant I got to go early and scout out one item and a few accessories I wanted. Last year, we were still living in our tiny apartment so it was hard to know what decorations, etc. we would want, and I have since realized how expensive all that stuff is! I was a little nervous about making the decisions without Nate there, especially since the #1 item on our list was a crib, but overall felt like I did ok. I don't have any buyer's remorse (except maybe a couple of the picture frames I bought that I might not end up using), but have a little of the opposite - un-buyer's remorse? Mostly things that I couldn't decide on and didn't get, and then later wished I had (but they were sold by the time I went back to get them). I worked at the cash register during the sale, which added to the non-buyer's remorse - I would see people coming out with things and think "I wish I had seen that!" or coming out with the things I had debated about and think "I should have just bought it". I guess that's the result of being frugal and indecisive. The main successes were:

A Crib! (notice the penguin. Nate wanted to put something in the crib to represent the baby). I maybe wouldn't have picked it if I'd been buying it new, but it's very similar to the one I had been eyeing, it's sturdy, and it was only $25!! We're pretty excited about it. It's in good shape - I may be tempted to repaint it because of a few scratches, but my list of things to do before the baby comes is getting longer and longer, so we'll see if that happens. The assembly took a little more effort than anticipated, but it has a sticker with the model # so we were able to find instructions online and figure it out. Most of it was fine except for the part with the sliding rail (whoever assembled it the first time had screwed the sliding part on upside down).

A "console table" (I think that's what they're called). I've been looking for one of these for a while - the back of our couch faces the kitchen / dining room, so I wanted something to put behind it. I may end up painting it black, but that's probably an after-the-baby-is-born project. The white looks good for now. Notice Nate trying to get in the picture...

Crib bedding. I know what you're thinking, "aren't they having a boy?", but I didn't like any of the boy crib bedding they had, and I just couldn't pass up this girl set for only $10. The fabric seems like it's really high quality, and I just thought it was cute (I realize that the pillows are pretty impractical and that I won't actually use them in the crib, but they are still pretty). That's what Nate gets for sending me on my own and telling me he trusts my judgment :) [Note: just to clarify, I re-read this and realized I didn't point out that I'm NOT planning to use this for our boy, I'm planning to use it down the road for a girl. Hopefully I didn't jinx myself...]

Some cool French pictures. I haven't decided yet where I'm going to hang them, but I'm a sucker for almost anything French, and I loved that the handwriting on the blackboard is exactly what you would see in a little French store.

All that, plus a flower pot, several pictures in frames (including a really big one to hang above the fireplace once I switch out the picture), and a few other small decoration things...grand total with the furniture of $105. That's what I call a bargain.

A Little Update

Since I haven't written in a while, I figured I would update you on what we've been up to. Some of this is old news, but oh well. Here are some highlights of the past few weeks:

* My work had a retreat up at Sundance for all the partners and managers. We had a meeting all afternoon, then the spouses came up for a fancy dinner and we watched a movie in the screening room at Sundance. I was thinking it would be some fancy or unique theater, but it was really just a small theater. It was fun though - most people left before the movie and they had tons of candy and popcorn and drinks, so we got to pick whatever we wanted. Sundance was really pretty too, although most of the pretty colorful leaves in the canyon had turned brown by then.

* Ryan Shupe Concert - this was another work event (it seems like I've had lots of these lately! It seems to happen a lot in the fall because it's recruiting season for the accounting firms). Ernst & Young sponsors a Ryan Shupe concert on BYU campus every fall, so Nate and I went down to represent EY. It was entertaining, as usual, although after the third time of seeing the same concert, I'll admit it gets a little old. My brother Dave is in the accounting program now, so we got to hang out with him during the concert.

* We visited the Packer Pumpkin Patch (aka Nate's parents' garden) on the Monday before Thanksgiving for FHE. The nieces and nephew came dressed up in their cute Halloween costumes, and we had fun watching them picking out their pumpkins.

* Nate's brother left on his mission on October 29th. He will be serving in Carlsbad, California, speaking Mandarin Chinese. He took Chinese a little bit in high school, so hopefully that will give him a little bit of a head start. We went with the family to take him to the MTC. It was pretty similar to our experience taking my sister 5 months earlier - lots of pictures, lots of excitement and ancitipation, and lots of tears. He will be in the MTC until towards the end of January, so he has a while, but seems to be doing well and learning the language.

* Yet another recruiting event - we went with my work and our recruits to the season opener Jazz game. They beat...the other team...I'm drawing a blank on who it was...in a close game, so it was fun to watch, even though we were in a room at the very top of the arena.

* Last weekend, Nate had a campout with the boy scouts - his new calling in our ward. They went up to a cabin in Midway and the boys slept in tents outside while the leaders got to sleep in beds in the campout - pretty smart! He had fun staying up late with the scouts and getting to know them a little better. It was the first time I've stayed at our house alone since we've been married - I'm usually the one to travel and leave him alone :) I rented a chick flick to watch Friday night, and told myself all the random noises I was hearing were just the house settling (I'm sure they were, but it seemed especially loud when I was home by myself). When he got back, we went down to the BYU game against San Diego State. For once, we actually had decent weather for a BYU game - the ones we've been to have almost all been in the middle of a rainstorm or on a sweltering hot day. Thanks for the tickets Dave!

* We had Nate's former mission companion and his wife and little girl over for dinner after the BYU game. Their daughter was really cute and gave us a good name idea for our baby when she told us she had named her doll Lemuel.

* This week was pretty crazy - it felt like I wasn't home at all. The most fun was a birthday dinner for Nate's brother with Nate's family and sister-in-law's family. Unfortunately, his brother recognized the back of Nate's head through the window when they were walking up to the restaurant, so it spoiled the surprise. I guess I'll have to give him a less distinctive haircut next time.

* Pregnancy Update - I'm now 28 weeks, or a little over 6 months for those of you who don't count in weeks :) Although it's not very flattering, I've had several requests for an updated profile picture, so here you go. No mocking though.