Peri's Shelves Part 2

We finished! Peri's shelves have been painted and moved to her room, where they have done loads already to keep her room clean and tidy. We have a couple baskets to put in place still, and I'll probably end up moving a few things around later, but for now it is just so nice! Here is a picture!

It matches Peri's changing table!

I just sort of realized that those colors are more suited to boy people, but I like them so I'm not sure  that I care. I guess if we ever have a boy we'll be all set. I asked Peri what she thought about them, and she gave me this look...

She looks like her cousin Michelle.

Promptly followed by this look, so I guess she likes them!

And also like her daddy.

 And now it's on to more awesome projects. Gary's getting ready to cut the bed arches out this weekend, if the weather's good. So excited! After they're cut, assembly is going to go pretty quickly, and then it's just sand and stain and we'll be sitting in a new bed frame! Yay!

Peri's New Trick

Peri learned a new trick today. Naomi sent me a picture of Peri having pulled herself to a standing position in her crib. She went from sitting to standing; as soon as she can figure out how to go from lying to sitting, she'll be unstoppable.

After I came home and we had dinner, we put Peri in her crib and watched her do it again. She stayed standing and walked herself along the crib perimeter. She was also feeling chatty tonight, so I captured some of that as well.

Peri is getting stronger. She'll be crawling at any time, and as shown in the video, she'll get walking down at about the same time.

Moss Wreath

I made something cool for my St. Patrick's Day decorations! The full mantel decoration isn't finished yet, but I really like this wreath I made!

Sorry for the bad light, it isn't very bright out today, on account of the rainy windy storm outside. It's pretty crazy. Anyways! Gary is so nice to me, he's let me get a few things to make decorations for my new desire to decorate for all the various holidays that come up. Nothing fancy, but it's nice to have a little reminder around the house, and it's something I can change often. I like change!

Basically I just got a wreath form from Michael's  and hot glued moss to it until it was covered. It actually still has some bald spots if you look at it from the right angles, and I'll fix that when I get time to do the rest of the
decorations I have planned. For the flowers, I stole picked up some paint swatches (you know those papers that help you choose your paint color), cut out petals and leaves, and glued them together with a glue stick. I hot glued a button in the middle and then hot glued them to the wreath. The ribbon is from my ribbon stash.

While we were at Joann's I found some pretty ceramic Celtic crosses that I think will go well for the St. Patty's Day theme. Currently they hang on the wall like this:

I got a few things from the dollar store and have an idea or two of what I want to do on the mantle ledge with them, and hopefully it will turn out nicely. I'm also going to make a mantel banner/garland to go with. And I'll have more pictures when everything is done!

I really like this wreath, and plan on keeping it up through Easter, and perhaps Mother's Day as well. It makes a good Spring wreath in general. I love it!

Planned Furniture

I love Saturdays! Gary was able to sand down Peri's shelves this morning and now it is halfway primed and sitting in our kitchen. It would be all the way primed, except that Peri needed my attention. Now Gary is outside cutting boards for our bed frame and getting the pieces ready to be assembled. We've got to wait on our drum sanding kit to come along so we can do the arches, but I don't think Gary will get to that point until next week anyway, and by that time our kit will hopefully have come.

What is this about arches you say? (At least in my mind you do.) Well, since we got the sketch up of the bed finished last night, I'll show you what our plans are for our bed.

Tada! Gary likes to color the wood and things. We've also got all the stuff we need for the headboard, and the fabric we chose for it is somewhat similar to that design. Both our box spring and our mattress are nestled into that frame. We're excited to not have our mattress scoot around and our pillows fall behind the mattress. And no more bed skirts!

The other thing I just finished on Sketch Up is the dresser I want to build (or rather have Gary build). We probably won't have the time or money to do this one for a while, but when we do get it done, it will replace two pieces of furniture and fit in the space of one. It is rather tall, but I really don't mind. I'm not cool like Gary, so I don't color anything. It's easier for me to see that way. So y'all will just have to be okay with boring white.

Now theoretically there should be enough room in that empty space for Gary's computer that we like to keep on his dresser in our room. Someday we might not have a computer in the room, but when that day comes, I'm sure we'll find something to do with that big space. The drawer fronts are going to beveled (is that the right word?) so the edges won't be so sharp and blocky. We're still not even close to deciding what kind of drawer pulls we want, but I was thinking perhaps something like this:

or like this:

In any case, I think I like the look of Satin Nickel. We're staining our wood ebony, so I think it'll look really pretty. Any opinions as to which looks better?

Peri's Shelves

I told Gary I wanted to take apart that blanket chest in Peri's room, because it was large and was impossible to get anything out of, especially since we space bagged our blankets and they now live in Peri's closet (because she's not using it yet, right?) So we went to work. There were about a billion screws in that thing, but it was worth it, because as we were putting the pieces against the wall I had an idea. Why don't we just use the sides and top and bottom to make shelves in Peri's room? Then I'd have a place to put Peri's blankets and burp cloths and toys and all the other stuff that is strung around the room. I've been avoiding cleaning it because I simply don't have space for everything! The blanket chest is partially to blame, I feel. So I made a quick sketch of what I wanted, and asked Gary if he could make it with the tools he had on hand. He said it was possible, but it'd be better if he had a table saw. So we got him a table saw out of our tax refund. And just for fun he got a drill press too! Because I'm a nice wife and I have many more projects in mind for him now.

Anyways, my lovely husband took my sketch and rendered it in Google Sketch Up, which is pretty nifty for measurements and things, but is a pain to work with, though we're getting better every day. The sketch up looks like this:

Pretty cool no? Also a very helpful reference!

Gary getting his tools out to get started.

A visit from a special helper!

We decided that putting the thing together with pocket hols would be best, since we don't yet know how to do fancy joinery, and we were working with plywood after all. Cabinet grade, but plywood nonetheless.

We came out to help again!

 This is what it looks like so far. It looks pretty good to me! There are a few minor things wrong, but nothing to get upset about. In any case it doesn't bother either of us enough to try to fix it. Now all we (and by we I mean Gary) have left to do is sand, paint, sand, paint, and sand, and we'll have an awesome shelf for all Peri's things!

We'll be sure to post when we have a finished product!

We've also got a few other things in the works. We bought wood for a bed frame that we're in the process of making a Sketch Up for. That's the next project on his list.
 I also want to add some shelves in the kitchen closet to make a pantry that fits my vacuum, broom and Swiffer, and all my appliances! Plus some storage space for cans and probably the china too. We'll see if we can't rustle up some scrap wood for this project.
After those are done, I've made a rough draft sketch of a new dresser that will fit both our clothes and also have a space for Gary's computer, which currently lives atop his dresser. This way we can put my dresser in storage for when Peri is older and she needs a dresser rather than a changing table.  We're very excited to get these projects going, and hopefully it will all happen sooner than later. I'm sure I'll think of some more things for him to do after these projects get done. I'm so excited!

Valentine's Day!

We had a pretty low-key Valentine's Day this year, and we're just fine with that. We enjoy the opportunity to just relax and have a "luxury" meal together once in a while. Gary knew that I was going to make some cioppino for dinner, along with a Caesar salad, but he didn't know what else I had planned.

First though, we'll share what Gary made for Peri's V-day present. It was very thoughtful and very well-made, Peri and I both love them! Here are pictures:

On the one side it says Peri.

On the other it says love! How cute!

I put them in front of Peri when I set her in her usual play spot. She was a little unsure of what they were for at first.

What's this?

 But she decided she liked them in the end.

 I made a pretty table setting using some things we had around the house, some things I got from the dollar store, and the beautiful white bone china that belonged to Gary's grandmother. They are simple and elegant and I love them to pieces. We also found a table cloth and matching napkins with them, so I figured I might as well use them too!

 This next picture is sideways, and I can't muster up the motivation to fix it. Oh! as a side note to other bloggers with this problem (it crops up a lot actually) if you save the images in .png form, it won't turn sideways when you upload it. Anyway, The fabric was something that Gary's mum sent back home with him from his trip to Portland. It is great fabric, and I can't wait to put it to use somewhere!

I made napkin rings out of the fabric with hot glue (Gary let me buy one a couple weeks ago! I'm so excited!) I'd rather have sewed them, but time was short, and Peri was impatient.

I got little suckers from the dollar store and put them in our champagne flutes for a festive touch! I thought they were rather cute! We removed them for the sparkling juice, though I wonder what that would have tasted like?
 

Peri and I got all dressed up for Dad when he got home. 

 

She's wearing my pearls!

 We were planning on taking pictures of the entire meal, but we only got one of the cioppino. We got so busy eating, we forgot about the rest! What we had after this was Caesar salad, with homemade Caesar dressing because I forgot to buy some at the store (I might make this a habit. It was so good and a cinch to make in the food processor!) After that I had some lemon pepper chicken breasts and butter fried parsnips and zucchini to round out the meal. I hadn't had time to make dessert before Gary got home, so we made the cherry chimichangas together after dinner. Yum!

Peri was so tuckered out after the long day of preparation. 

Oh! I almost forgot about our presents to each other! I made Gary a pillow out of his favorite(?) shirt that had holes in the armpits and was too short for him after about a decade of washings. It is still a bit lumpy, but he loves it!

Thundercats, HO!

As for his gift to me.... well, I haven't received it yet. He's making it out of wood, and hasn't had the time to get it done yet. Mostly because he's working on another project I asked him to make, but that's another post! Still, a very great Valentine's Day!

Union Pacific

So! Gary got the results(?) back from Union Pacific yesterday and....

He did not get a second interview. Bummer.

We're actually not that disappointed though, because that means we don't have to live in a hotel in Omaha or live separately many many miles apart only seeing each other some weekends for 3 months and having Gary be gone for months at a time on training expeditions. If we had got the job, we would have been happy and dealt with it, but it was giving Gary some trepidation, as he would probably miss out on a lot of the things Peri will be doing in the next few months. So all in all, we feel that this is right for our family, and that Heavenly Father  is watching out for us and sooner or later, we'll find a job that is right for Gary and our family, and will give us some much needed stability. For now, we're happy with what we have.

And if that isn't a good feeling to have, I don't know what is.