Saturday, December 17, 2011

How Joseph got a boo boo

I love my willow tree nativity set. So does my sweet two year old, Drew. I don't have the manger for it, so we flipped an old crate from Shaun's grandparents farm on its side, and I actually like that better. Only Joseph doesn't fit, he's just a little too tall. The nativity is in our dining room, and Drew tells me at pretty much every meal "Joseph, don't, fit." (there's a comma between every word because that's the way Drew talks, very precisely, pausing and choosing each word so carefully.) Whenever Drew has been playing with the nativity I can tell because every character who can fit is always in the barn/crate, and there's Joseph standing outside.
Well Drew must have been trying to make Joseph fit or something because he accidentally dropped him and Joseph's arm and staff broke off. My first reaction was to think about telling Drew he can't play with mommy's nativity set anymore. But then I realized something. In 25 years, when we pull out our nativity set and our kids are way past the point of wanting to play with mary and baby Jesus and the wisemen, we're gonna miss that time. I fixed Joseph right up with a little gorilla glue and some hot glue for his staff. He's not perfect anymore, and you can see where his arm broke off. Now when Drew looks at Joseph he says "Joseph, have, boo boo."
But every year from now on I'm gonna smile when I pull him out of the box. I'll remember the way Drew talked, the way he looked so sad when he accidentally broke him, the way he thinks all crates are barns now, and his happy little boy high pitch voice. I'm so happy Joseph has a boo boo :)

Monday, December 12, 2011

Projects

This post is mostly for me, just so I can see all in one place the projects that I've attempted over the past two years. Now that I am staying home I hope to accomplish a lot more of the ideas running through my head, but here's what we've got so far. :)

This is the first piece of furniture we ever re-finished, thanks to help from our friends Nat and Salena :) It was passed down to Shaun from a great aunt when he was young, and just needed a little help being beautiful again :)
And maybe some new hardware too...

So here it is all finished up and serving a purpose. Wish the lighting was better, but I didn't know I would be sharing these photos one day.

I covered the insides of the drawers with a pretty black and white damask fabric. And the knobs were less than a dollar a piece.

Project 2: Chalkboard platter artwork :) These were a gift for two of my friends last christmas. We weren't supposed to spend more than $15 on each other, and I wanted to give them a few things, so I got cute baskets from pier one and filled them with a candle, homemade poppyseed bread, and these chalkboards which I wrote their last names on. (I found the silver trays at a thrift store) Again, bad lighting--sorry.

Project 3: Covered boxes.
 I saw this idea on another blog and made them right before I had Isaiah. They are sitting on our changing table and I keep Drew's diapers in one and Isaiah's in the other. Just hot glue, burlap and twine and they are quite cute :)

Project 4: I spent $0 on this, I think that's my favorite thing about it. 
I used a cardboard lid, sheet music from shaun's mom, and black paint. (I may or may not have accidentally printed out our name and est. 2007 on one of shaun's company checks...)

I love the way it looks hanging with our family photos in the living room :)

Project 5: our second piece of furniture redo. 
Shaun's parents let us have this dresser that they were not using and just keeping in their basement. It has a mirror that goes with it too. We were back and forth between painting it white and staining it. We (and by we I mean Shaun, with some help from Drew) gave it a light sanding and stained it darker to match our crib, since it was going in Isaiah's room. 

There it is stained, it looks beautiful with all the drawers in it. 

There. Now I can feel all accomplished whenever I look at this post. This definitely does not include all the "projects" I've done, but at least a few of my favs are all in one place :)