Halloween mice

Its been forever since I have posted and part of that is busyness and part of that is forgetfulness.

I have to post pictures of Comic Con because it was awesome but in a different way than from previous years.  Otherwise, small projects have been going on but not quiet completed so any picture would be rather uninspiring.

Horse: Faldur is doing well.  I wasn't able to ride him in July because I was gone and I wasn't able to ride in August do to some pretty big wildfires making lots of smoke.  Late Sept, I was able to get some rides in and its nice to be back out with my boy.  I also just got done prepping his pasture of winter.  I turned his salt bucket on its side so its sheltered from the rain and won't dissolve into salty mud.  I also moved a lot of dirt from the first half of the top pad.  My theory being with less dirt there will be less of a mud pit around the gate and his feeder.  Its a theory at least.  We also had a rain storm last week and the weeds/grass has been growing so I have had Faldur out grazing and using him like a weed whacker.  Its his favorite job.

Husband:  Last month, we celebrated our 10 year anniversary!!!  5 years dating + 5 years married = 10 years of loving the right man!  We went out to dinner and movie, which may not seem like a lot but we rarely do either so it was special to us.  The movie we saw was Austenland.  A total chick flick but with lots of good humor so even my man enjoyed the movie.  I totally recommend watching and I will have to get it when it comes out on DVD.

House: Lots of little things are in the works but not completed.  Fall things are getting done, like raking tons of pine needles and preparing burn piles for that glorious day when we can finally do burn piles.  We are prepping for a retaining wall and widening the pathway in the back yard.  A total pain and back breaking work so we working on that slowly.  My man is also finally able to turn the garage into a proper man cave so we are getting all the foundation projects done - running wire, putting in a housekeeping pad for the well water storage, etc...   I can't wait for these projects to actually finish so we can enjoy completed outcomes.

Halloween Mice!

Before this year, we moved a lot so all decorations had to be small and portable.     I had little mice outlines that I had cut out and would tape to the base boards.  But on a shopping trip with my mother to Micheals, we got sheets of black craft foam and I was suddenly inspired to make a longer lasting version of my little cutouts.
Steps:
Google for mice and pick out the ones you like.  I am pretty sure mine are from Martha Stewart but I don't remember.

Cut out your templates.

Trace onto the foam sheets.  Cut out with scissors or exacto knife.  I recommend the knife but I wasn't thinking about that when I cut mine out.  I used scissors and the rounded edges could be better.

Stick to your wall! (I used tape)

From Start to Finish

My templates traced onto the sheet of craft foam.

I had a spare space that was too small for a mouse so I made a mouse door!

    They are cute and much more durable.  Here are a few of them.  I did 2 sheets of craft and came out with about 20 mice.  They are now running around the hallway, entry, and living room.

With Family... So On Vacation?

I love my family.   I love my in-laws.  However, my extended family is messy, complicated, and not always the most relaxing thing for me to deal with.  I suppose if I had grown up with a sibling and had to deal with daily stress, then my extended family would be a breeze to deal with.  But I was and am a single child.  I remember going to visit family in Germany and I had to go through customs or whatever its called when they check your passport and ask you that important question, "Business or Pleasure?"  My gut instinct was to say,"Family" but that wasn't one of the options given.  I then wanted to say, 'Both' but finally got the word 'pleasure' to come out of my mouth.  I could say that this all stems from my grandparents.  I have one set that disowned me, my family, and most of the other related children when I was young and my other set has never given my family a true compliment.  Charming people, they are.

Yet they managed to produce the best set of people I get to call my parents.  To use British slang, we get along smashing!  I love my folks and we have always been close.  We went camping monthly when I was a kid and traveled a lot, too.  We still get together to go places and do things.  Which leads me to the title of the post in a round about way.  I came down before the 4th of July with my husband to see my in-laws and hang out with their puppy.  I went shopping with my mother-in-law and picked up some cute in sunglasses.  Then I came down to my parents' house and went camping with them for the 4th of July.  I will stay down until Comic Con is over and then I fly home.  So the shopping, camping, and Comic Con is my vacation.  The weeding, cleaning, organizing overhaul, and working out is not.  After all, this is family so its not really vacation, its home.

This a stained glass painting of my family my grandparents had done.  Its my favorite thing in their home because its so personal.  

Husband:  I miss him.  We had a good time while we were both down but I am happy to report that he is back home safe and sound.

House:  Nothing new will be accomplished this month while I am gone.  Unless my husband decides to work on the garage or finish installing the home entertainment system.  However, I have been overhauling my mother's sewing room with great results.  I hope to take pictures and post them.

Horse:  Faldur is happy and healthy according to my husband and the daily reports I received from the neighbor taking care of him.  He handled the fireworks pretty easily and is doing fine in the heat.  He has actually been spoiled while I have been gone.  Faldur has been groomed and bathed daily.  He has been getting lots of Wheat Thins, which the neighbors bring over a new box each time they take care of him.  They write 'Faldur Cookies' on the box.  My boy is blessed.


  

Glass Stone Words for Landscaping (Fixing up my ugly hill)

You can, of course, use these in other places than the yard but I put mine in the yard.  My yard needs some major prettying up.  My yard is more of a hill.  A steep, ugly hill that refuses to really grow anything.  I must do more homework on plants for that hill..... 

Anyways, here is my ugly hill in my back yard.

Yup, steep and lacking all sorts of pretty.

So I started looking into my Pinterest board to get ideas.  Plenty of ideas for stepping stones, flat places, and pools.  Not many ideas for hills or whimsy.  I really wanted whimsy.  So I started thinking about how I could take what I had seen and make it mine.  There was this one pin that I really liked.  Someone on Etsy have taken stones and shaped them into dragonflies and flowers.  I like it and looked into using pavers and such from Home Depot.  But they didn't have the right shapes and I don't have the talent to shape them myself.  So I thought about making molds and making them that way.  I didn't have the patience to do that.  Then I came up with gluing glass pebbles together into words.  I don't remember how my brain made that leap so don't ask.  So I got the small flat glass stones and glued them into words and the big flat stones and glued them into flowers.  I used E6000 glue in clear.  I spent maybe $35 between the glue and the stones.  

Pretty

A couple more of my flowers.  I bout 3 bags and made about 10 flowers total.

Some more of the flowers. 

Laying out one of the words

Ready for gluing.  Don't skimp on the glue.

The size difference between the 2 stones

Finished product

Now there is some pretty in my garden.

Mullock - means dirt, rubbish, and tree stump.  My thoughts about my hill.

 Tips:  Don't skimp on the glue.  The stones are heavy and need the support. 

           Use short words if you are going to place them on a hill.  Mostly to help the glue hold it together.  This hill is very uneven and the bigger words had a tough time staying on the hill.
            Make it your own.
           Use wax paper, E6000 doesn't stick to wax paper and you can use the wax paper over and over again.
           Allow the letters to dry at least 12 hours before moving them.  This is a good time to trim up any glue spiderwebs and flip the letters over to air out.  E6000 is very stinky.
           This project should be done outside!!!  E6000 stinks!!

I used all sorts of words.  Fun words, silly words, meaningful words.  I was struck by the phrase "I am Loved" so I made it.  I also used words like: pure, fun, sun, read, grow, wild, wish, hero, date, wit, care, bliss.   I had many other words I wanted to due too (risk, tact, echo, delight, enchant, star, wine, lazy, allure) but I want to get the project done and I was running out of glass pebbles.  I will add more words at a later date, most likely. 


My other plans my hill include a retaining wall, fly repelling plants, plants on the hill, a rosemary bush fence on top of the hill.  At least, those are my plans currently. 

His and Hers Master Bedroom: Pink and Brown

I was trying to write a post about how we transformed our bed room from hell to heaven.  However, it won't let me post that.  It won't even save it for me.  So I will try again later but I will leave you with the before and after pictures.

Before:

Hit with the ugly stick.

Ugly fan, faded paint, icky boarder.

After:

Pretty, classy pink and chocolate brown walls.  Canvas with Foxglove was given to us by my Mother In Law, when she heard about the colors I wanted.

New paint on walls & ceiling, new chair rail and base board, flipped the fan blades over.

One wall of rich chocolate to help keep the room girly and manly.  New trim on the doors.

Our new bedroom rocks!

I Made a Wreath

A giant wreath!  The thing is wider than our actual door which is why its hung up next to our door.  It looks awesome.  It was a pain to make.  I still have to make another one for Halloween because I already bought the materials. Think twice, buy once.  A motto I need to learn.

To start with, I saw this pin: http://pinterest.com/pin/127367495684040350/ and knew I had to try it.

This Pin

I read the directions and bought the materials.  Pretty easy.  The directions are great and the process was easy.  But she did 4 colors and I did 3, so I used up all my rolls and I wish mine was a little more fluffy (if you can believe that).

What I had a problem with was the Deco Mesh itself.  It was scratchy.  It sheds some when cut and I was just unhappy working with it.  this project should have taken me about 5 hours but I stretched it out over a week because I just could not get excited about cutting and rolling more Deco Mesh.  All said and done?  I LOVE MY WREATH!  For all my whining, the finished project looks great and cost me about $18.  Hobby Lobby was having a sale on the mesh.  Here is my finished wreath:

My Patriotic Wreath

See how huge it is compared to the door?

Can't miss my walkway!

Husband:  He is out on business today but this weekend we are having a belated date to celebrate a successful Opening Party.  I am very excited, he even suggested that we go to my favorite sushi bar for the date.  Things like that are why my husband is wonderful, he doesn't care for sushi but he knows that going will make it special for me.  :)

House:  I have several crafts and projects going on in my head.  Hopefully, I can implement them soon and share them here.  With the wonderful weather, I am mostly in garden/landscaping dreams and plans.

Horse:  My boy is fabulous.  He has decided to wear his flymask again so all is right in my horsey world.

Back from Camp (with a cold)

Camp Timberwolf Opening Work Party 2013 was a success.  I had a great time cooking meals and the men accomplished many projects during the week.  It was fun hanging out with friends, new and old, around the campfire sharing stories.

Camp Timberwolf

However, I had a sore throat going into the camp that I thought I had beat into healing up and I was wrong.  The last 3 days of camp were utter hell for my throat.  The swallowing razor blades kind of hell.  So I have pretty much slept for the past 2 days and I will continue to do that today.  After today I hoping to feel 90% normal.  I miss my Zumba and RIPPED classes!  I have weight I need to lose before mid-July when I have to shimmy into a corset for Comic Con!

Almost a whole year has past...

Without an update.  I suck at posting.  I am going to try and post 1 to 2 things per week.  *laugh* I make this bold resolution just before we are going to Camp Timberwolf again.  There is not internet or even cell service there.  So next week, I will for sure post nothing!  Ah, life.


House:  Its much better than when we bought it.  I don't cringe at having people come over to the house.  Most of the rooms are painted.  Mike's office and the kitchen ceiling are left.  The dining room has been converted into a movie room.  My office desperately needs bookshelves.  I have the wood, I just need brackets and finalize the shelf layout.  Big steps have been taken in making the house nicer but overall projects are still not done.  Curtains need to be hung, pictures mounted, etc...

Faldur: I have made his stall bigger by about 9 times.  He likes walking around the 2 levels of his pasture.  Mike built me the Faldur Feeder 1000, an automatic pellet dispenser that feeder 5 times a day right now.  The hopper has a design flaw that causes it to jam if you put more than 3 days of food in so we are reworking the overall design.  We are thinking about trying to sell new model to other horse owners and barns.  Faldur and I have been going on trails.  It involves a lot of walking on the road, bad drivers, and barking dogs.  However, it can get us to one trail so I will take what I can get.  Faldur did not get ridden much over winter because I had an arm surgery in Nov.  He was a sweetie while Mike had to take care of him.  Faldur was a double sweetie when we finally went riding again about 3 months later.  He acted like I had ridden him just the day before.  I love Icelandics.  Especially mine. 

Husband:  We are doing great.  We celebrated 9 years together and 4 years of marriage.  This past month has been stressful just because Camp T Opening Work Party is next week and he is in charge of all the projects.  He has been buying supplies, running up to camp for measurements, calling people, and making lists.  So his stress level is sometimes taken out while I am around.  I confuse that with yelling AT me and we fight.  Things are later cleared up and all is forgiven.  Yup, fun.  Good things have been going on, too.  We went to Florida and Key Largo with my parents for my 30th birthday!  Lots of fun, swimming, and good food.  It was great to take a real vacation.  Mike and I have also been on some fun dates.  Thank goodness for the datingdivas.com blog!  Lots of fun ways to spend time in or out of the house with your man.  Last night we had a s'more bar for dessert.  With toppings like caramel, fudge, strawberries, lemon curd, Andes mints, and peppermint patties; it was a very yummy dessert and a fun time roasting marshmallows with my husband.  It also served double duty as a trail run on dessert I am serving at Camp T.  Because, like my husband I am also prepping for camp, I am in charge of all things food: menu, grocery list, cooking, etc...

Its going to be a busy next week.

 The dog is my in-laws pup.  Charlie is a cutie and we love to puppy sit!