The Talented Miss Haylee

My little sister was in the Miss Rexburg/Upper Valley pageant on Saturday and she won! She was crowned Miss Upper Valley and will compete in June for the title of Miss Idaho. If she wins, she goes on to the Miss America pageant in January! Congrats Haylee! Here's a link to the official site. I am expecting better pics from the Beauty Queen herself soon, so stand by....
http://69.20.157.118/missrex/

Goodbye Whitie Tidy Bathroom

I love color. On my walls. Is there anyone who hasn't figured that out yet? This past week I painted the powder bathroom (1st floor) dark brown. It's lovely and chocolaty. Like a Willy Wonka Bar. Yum. :)
I also found some fun bathroom "niceties." They were pretty fun. Now we just need pictures on the walls and a towel and a rug!

Painting the Roomy Red...Sort of

The paint saga continues. Surprisingly enough, the next room to get done was...Ours! I was pretty sure that our room would be last, but we decided on a color and went to work this weekend. On Saturday we went shopping and got paint for our bedroom and the powder bath on the first floor (different colors). We also got a bunch of tools for Aaron (more on those to follow). Those gift cards from Christmas sure came in handy! (On the tools, not the paint. Don't worry!)

We both had Monday off for President's Day and went to work first thing in the morning. We taped and caulked and covered the floor. Then we started cutting in.

One more thing. The color (on the paint swatch) is called Warm Mahogany and is a deep red. (I know - you're all shocked. I haven't liked red since I was about 5 years old). Well, when the window is open and there's lots of light on it, the paint is a deep red. Kind of burgundy-ish. When the blinds are closed, it's like a deep plum. I like it! Here are some pictures!

Cutting in the Room

Us with our handiwork.

The master painter himself. Aaron was so good to help me paint even though he hates painting.

The room - looking very red I might add. It's not this red.

Our straight, clean line!

Look how pretty that is! For $1.28 you can buy Acrylic Painter's caulk at Home Depot or Lowes. You tape carefully, then apply the caulk where the tape meets the wall. Run your finger along the caulk to flatten it out. Paint like normal (cut in, roll, etc.) Let dry a bit, but not over night. Remove the tape. The caulk on the tape side will pull away, but the caulk on the wall will stay there. It stops the paint from bleeding through the tape, and you end up with beautiful clean lines like this! Hooray for whatever genius came up with painter's caulk! Oh and it lasts a long time. We did the nursery, the kitchen and dining room, and our bedroom with one tube. we might even have enough to do the powder bath with it before going to a new one! YAY!!! Come see our pretty paint job!

Sprouties!

Look guys! Sprouties! We are so excited to plant a garden this spring that when we saw the seeds in Walmart a few weeks ago we bought some! We only got the ones we knew would have to be started indoors first. So here in our nice little tray we have peppers (on the left - the ones that just look like dirt. Because currently, they are just dirt) and tomatoes (on the right where you can see green).
We were very excited when we started getting sprouties and amazed at how quickly they are growing (they are about twice this size now). One slight problem we discovered this morning - it says to transplant them when they are about 3 inches tall in April or May. Except I think we planted them too early because they are about 2 inches now and they will be way bigger than 3 inches by April or May! Oops!

Look at our 'Maters!

Craftiness Projects

So my latest project has been these soft books. I have a whole bunch of them that I am sewing together and then quilting (there is batting in between the pages to make them puffy). I'm totally excited about them since they blend two of my favorite past times (sewing and reading) together! Plus while at the neighbor's super bowl party on Sunday, I'm pretty sure the soft book I was working on was the only reason that Lynn (a 2 year old friend of theirs) warmed up to me initially. It also gives me something to work on while watching TV, riding in the car, etc. I'm all over these things! (No seriously, every time I see one at the store I want to buy it!) But they will be great later on because kids can't rip them and you can throw them in the wash when they are dirty! Someone brilliant came up with these.

Also I wanted to post a picture of my very first project with my serger! Here is the first receiving blanket I have ever made (I think it turned out pretty well) and it was so quick with the serger! I love it. I'm so glad I have it. And it's not even that hard to thread! YAY!!!

My Pink Razor

Great news guys! The nice Fed Ex man left my new cell phone at my house yesterday! It is home charging today. That means that tomorrow I will have a new pink razor with me to use! Hooray! Isn't it cute? :)

Brake Changing Captured on Film

Here is the promised video! Sorry it's so dark. Thanks to Aaron for the flashlight, but I guess next time we try to film a video at night in the garage we'll bring out a big lamp or something. :)