Happy Earth Day! (Better Late than Never!)

I finally finished my placemat & napkin project! I just love using cloth napkins and cute placemats for meals. So much nicer looking than paper napkins on the table! And more environmentally friendly than throwing away paper napkins all the time. So what kind of started as an Earth Day project, turned into a great excuse to use my new serger!

I had been wanting some new everyday placemats for the table that went with the new colors I was playing around with for the living/Dining room. When I found this fabric at Fabric Depot the last time we were there a I knew it was perfect! It is now the inspiration for not only the laundry room, but the kitchen makeover as well! The placemats are reversible. We have the light springy side for now, and the dark chocolate brown for the fall and winter months.

The napkins were a super breeze to make. I love rolled hems! My new serger makes them so easily, with just a flick of a switch - gotta love that! I could make those all day long! Now I need some cute new napkin rings worthy of the new napkins.

The finished product...

Here is the finished product of our glass blowing adventure. The red didn't show up very well in Bryan's ornament, but overall they are beautiful! The kids are going back today with Grandma & Grandpa to make more. Can't wait to see how theirs turn out!

Bryan's ornament

My ornament

Blowing Glass

Saturday we went and made our own blown glass ornaments, which was a blast! The hardest part I think was picking from the hundreds of color choices! It was hard to narrow it down, but we did. Bryan picked a red, green and white mixture and the kids and I picked a turquoise, lime green and pink mix for the 2nd one. I got to make one of the ornaments while Gabi took pictures, and Nick did the other one.

The temperature in the fire where the melted glass is was somewhere around 12oo degrees I think he said.

Here he is showing me how to mix the colors into the hot glass.

Then you stick it back into the fire to melt the glass pieces together into the base.

After the colors are mixed in you blow gently to make the ball. You blow really really lightly, like blowing out a candle. I thought you would have had to blow harder, but nope. Barely at all.

Here is the finished product when he puts the curly top on it to hang it from. It's still extremely hot so you can't see the final colors much at all. I'll post the finished products once we get them home.

Then it was Nick's turn.

Spinning, spinning, spinning

Adding some color

Mixing the colors together

And blowing to make it round.

I saw a blurb about making these on the news one morning, and called that day to make an appointment. The guy told us that was the first time they had ever opened it up to the public before, and the received 300 calls the first day! It was crowded there, but not too much. The wait wasn't too bad and once you were making your ornaments it seemed to go really fast. It was really a great experience and we've already decided we want to go back next year and do it again!

More house progress

Well we have made some great progress with the upstairs living room & dining room recently. Here are some pictures of the progress we have made. The finished results will be fabulous, and just having the paint on the walls has been an amazing transformation! Can't wait to get the new flooring laid!

 

Living Room before pictures

   

Living room during - Popcorn scraped off the ceiling and new lighting has been installed, and Bryan built a little wall by the entry to help straighten the wall by the stairs.

 

Look how the fireplace pops with the color on the wall! 

Dining Room before

Dining room during - Popcorn scraped off the ceiling, and the random niches filled in

  

Dining room with paint! Looks fabulous!

Coffee Anyone?

I really love my new coffee maker! Since I am the only one in the house who ever drinks coffee or even tea, it makes no sense for me to brew a pot of coffee. I drink 1 cup and that's it. Just not work the effort a whole pot takes. So I got a new single cup coffee maker this weekend. It is perfect! It uses the K-Cup style inserts that brew a single cup of coffee, or tea, or hot chocolate! No mess, no fuss, just nice hot coffee in under a minute from start to finish! It even came with a special adapter so you can use your own ground coffee, or loose leaf tea.

So now I am actually drinking coffee again, and drinking tea more at home because it brews so quickly and easily. I made a cup of tea using the special adapter and it made a really good cup of tea. I wasn't sure it would because of the speed it brews at, but it tasted just the same! Nick likes an occasional cup of tea as well, so I'm a little more inclined to make him some tea when it's so easy.

I figured when the weather turns colder too Bryan and kids might actually like Hot Chocolate more often too.  I figure brewing coffee or tea at home and taking it to work is WAY cheaper than wanting to stop for coffee on the way to work, and the stuff at work just isn't that good either. There are so many different variety of coffees and teas that I should be good to go. Not to worry though, I still have my bigger coffee maker for when real coffee drinkers come to visit. Now I might actually have good coffee to go along with it!

Interesting weekend

So we had a pretty good weekend, even with the rain and stormy weather. Nick was able to race on Friday which was a beautiful day I might add. Nick ended up with a second place which was so cool. He won the first round with an amazing pass that brought him from 3rd to 1st on the second to last corner. It was great! He has been racing the same 2 people for 2 weeks now and has gotten 3rd every time. This time the other guy, Issac pushed Taylor high into the corner and Nick was able to slide by them on the inside and take over the lead. That put him into position to win 2nd overall. They were all tied going into the main and he was able to beat Issac for the 2nd place spot. It was great!

Gabi didn't end up racing because she got an injury earlier in the day from the trainer we had picked up the night before. (It looks like the one pictured, only Gold.) Bryan found one of these on craigslist so we got it for their training purposes. It forces them to pedal hard and build up those leg muscles. But what Gabi found out is you can't stop pedaling or the pedals come back to bite you. She ended up with a huge nasty bruise on the back of her leg and was limping around the house for a couple of days. She's better now, but couldn't race on Friday night.

So we had really stormy weather pass through on Saturday with big gusty winds and tons of rain. It was a really cool storm that lasted about 15 minutes I think. Then it was all pretty and sunny after that. But it was drizzling most of the day too so the racing was cancelled that day. We were thinking of going to Salem for racing but it didn't happen. Laundry and cleaning happened instead. 

Sunday the weather held all day, but they still cancelled racing. I'm assuming the track was just too wet from the rain the day before, and the threat of rain all day, but who knows. In some ways it was nice to have a free Sunday Bryan and I ended up going to the Mexican flea market in Gresham. He had wanted to show it to me for a long time saying it was just like Mexico. Well, he was sort of right. The booths were not filled with Mexican trinkets though, just lots of cowboy boots, little girl prom dresses, CDs (all in spanish of course) and clothes and random crap. The food looked good though, but we felt completely out of place. It was a whole different world, and interesting to say the least.

Then last night I went to make dinner. The first ribs of the season for us. The menu: BBQ ribs, Corn, Salad, Mac & Cheese. Yum Yum Yum! So I seasoned the ribs perfectly, put them on the grill and sat down to watch some Hannah Montana. When I went out to turn them I opened the lid and this is what I saw:

For the 1st time in 16 years I burned dinner beyond recognition. They were just little bits of charcoal. That's all. It was hilarious! Bryan made me take a picture of it for posterity I guess. So needless to say we did not have BBQ ribs at home last night. We were forced to go to Busters BBQ and had ribs there instead. Mine would have been better, but well not that time. I'll try again later. And maybe a little less distractions that time. I'm sure my family won't let me live it down for a while but that's OK. It's not like I burn dinner very often at all. LOL

Wii're going to get in shape this year!

I bought the Wii Fit yesterday. I figured it's time to get in shape and thought not only would this fit into my schedule better than anything else, but exercising might be a little more fun if I can play games while I do it. Plus the kids and I can compete with high scores which should be another motivator.

I must say after trying it out last night and this morning it is actually fun to play, and the strength training and yoga exercises are actually quite a challenge for this out of shape body! My goal is to get up every morning when Bryan leaves for work and exercise for an hour or some before I have to take my shower. I figure I'm usually awake anyway since I can't go back to sleep after is alarm goes off so I should just take advantage of the time. 

Maybe this will at the very least help me become more active and sleep better. Plus the activities seem to really work on your balance and posture which could always use a little help. The kids are pretty excited about it too. Tonight I'm going to help them set up their mii characters so they can start their own exercise routine too. It should help with their coordination and balance which should really help their racing out for this year.

Something needs to be done with this "fluffy" body and this is a good start. Now if only I could get Bryan to give it a try...

A Year in Review

So it's the last day of 2008 and seems like a good time to reflect on the year. We had a lot of fun and got to play more than usual because of Bryan's work schedule. In May he was laid off from Fulton Provisions (a meat processing company) where he was one of the maintenance mechanics. This gave him lots of time to spend working on the house and he was home all summer with the kids which was great for all. He did an amazing job and was able to get the downstairs pretty much completed, the yard done, and the house painted.

In September Fulton called Bryan and asked him to come back to work. The timing was perfect! The kids were going back to school and well unemployment was going to run out so he is back to work again and we are enjoying our steaks and bacon once again.

Gabriella and Nick had a good year. Both got very involved in BMX racing this year and have been doing very well. Nick has advanced to the intermediate level and Gabi has won a couple of races and is on her way to success! They were both asked at the end of the year to join a team so next year looks like a lot of BMX racing all over the state! Should be fun!

Gabriella is now in 6th grade and loves her teacher. It's her last year at elementary school, and then it's on to Jr High. She can't wait! She enjoys her friends, riding her bike and her quad, and of course her kitties.

Nick is now in the 5th grade and can't wait until Gabi goes to a different school than he does! He loves BMX, riding his bike and quad, skateboarding, playing football with his friends, and basically all things boy. He's quite an active kid!

Me, well, I've just been doing the same old thing, still working at MotoSport as the catalog production manager. That takes up a lot of my time, but I do still try to find time for knitting, playing with the kids, camping and riding quads, and helping Bryan on the house.

That pretty much sums up what we did for the year, Next we'll review the fun we had throughout the year.