Staining a desk is tricky business. Before Karl left for Florida and his reunion, he was wondering why we went with the make it yourself option. he was even questioning our sanity. At the time, I thought silly Karl, This is better. While I still think it is "better" I am defintely annoyed with my project. Which brings me back to my title of the post. Why is Miniwax my enemy you ask? I have been working on the desk all weekend. It is completed and in place and looking very desk-like. It isn't however useful yet. All my office stuff is scattered about the corner of the room and josh's room. Poor baby.
If you decide to stain something, you will probably go to Lowes or Homers, and you will probably pick up a can of MinWax. It is available in a variety of lovely shades. If you buy a can of stain, you will probably want to apply it and finish your project right away. That is your big mistake. Be sure to totally disregard the drying time on the can (4 to 6 hours) hah! 4 to 6 hours my left toenail! What a load of hooey! Of course, you will be sure to wipe off the excess stain after you brush it on. If however you forget that little step like I did you will brush on the very thin coat, in all but a few spots that you just didn't realize were to thick, and you will wait for it to dry. and wait. And Wait. 24 hours after the first application I realized the sticky spots were not getting any less sticky. So, trusty Google helped me out. Wipe after applying. ooops! I forgot the on the first go round. They will just never dry. too bad. Now what. Google to the resuce.
I have 2 choice, strip it down with mineral sprits or apply another coat of stain and wipe off the excess. I went with that option 2. the second coat loosens the first and you can wipe the excess then. But since they don't really tell you at what point you should wipe, I went with after I finished the desk. My rag stuck to the desk. Yuck. Fuzz on my lovely desk. So, then after 4 hours I wiped again with mineral spirits hoping it would be dry in another two so I could sneak in a coat before bed. Denied! I have 2 coats of stain on the desk right now and after yesterdays wipe down it finally seems to be sticky spot free. Yeah!
I am going to go upstairs and apply a coat of polyurethane to the desk to make it more durable. I have to do two of those. I am hoping that the time on that can is accurate. (Again with the 4-6 hours drying time. where do they get these numbers? Sure in an air conditioned perfect ly dry workshop it might work. In a normal home, in the summer, not so much) But then there is the 24 hour curing time before use. UGH! So best case, it is late Tuesday before my computer and any other desk things are seated in their proper place.
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Minwax is my enemy
Staining a desk is tricky business. Before Karl left for Florida and his reunion, he was wondering why we went with the make it yourself option. he was even questioning our sanity. At the time, I thought silly Karl, This is better. While I still think it is "better" I am defintely annoyed with my project. Which brings me back to my title of the post. Why is Miniwax my enemy you ask? I have been working on the desk all weekend. It is completed and in place and looking very desk-like. It isn't however useful yet. All my office stuff is scattered about the corner of the room and josh's room. Poor baby.
If you decide to stain something, you will probably go to Lowes or Homers, and you will probably pick up a can of MinWax. It is available in a variety of lovely shades. If you buy a can of stain, you will probably want to apply it and finish your project right away. That is your big mistake. Be sure to totally disregard the drying time on the can (4 to 6 hours) hah! 4 to 6 hours my left toenail! What a load of hooey! Of course, you will be sure to wipe off the excess stain after you brush it on. If however you forget that little step like I did you will brush on the very thin coat, in all but a few spots that you just didn't realize were to thick, and you will wait for it to dry. and wait. And Wait. 24 hours after the first application I realized the sticky spots were not getting any less sticky. So, trusty Google helped me out. Wipe after applying. ooops! I forgot the on the first go round. They will just never dry. too bad. Now what. Google to the resuce.
I have 2 choice, strip it down with mineral sprits or apply another coat of stain and wipe off the excess. I went with that option 2. the second coat loosens the first and you can wipe the excess then. But since they don't really tell you at what point you should wipe, I went with after I finished the desk. My rag stuck to the desk. Yuck. Fuzz on my lovely desk. So, then after 4 hours I wiped again with mineral spirits hoping it would be dry in another two so I could sneak in a coat before bed. Denied! I have 2 coats of stain on the desk right now and after yesterdays wipe down it finally seems to be sticky spot free. Yeah!
I am going to go upstairs and apply a coat of polyurethane to the desk to make it more durable. I have to do two of those. I am hoping that the time on that can is accurate. (Again with the 4-6 hours drying time. where do they get these numbers? Sure in an air conditioned perfect ly dry workshop it might work. In a normal home, in the summer, not so much) But then there is the 24 hour curing time before use. UGH! So best case, it is late Tuesday before my computer and any other desk things are seated in their proper place.
If you decide to stain something, you will probably go to Lowes or Homers, and you will probably pick up a can of MinWax. It is available in a variety of lovely shades. If you buy a can of stain, you will probably want to apply it and finish your project right away. That is your big mistake. Be sure to totally disregard the drying time on the can (4 to 6 hours) hah! 4 to 6 hours my left toenail! What a load of hooey! Of course, you will be sure to wipe off the excess stain after you brush it on. If however you forget that little step like I did you will brush on the very thin coat, in all but a few spots that you just didn't realize were to thick, and you will wait for it to dry. and wait. And Wait. 24 hours after the first application I realized the sticky spots were not getting any less sticky. So, trusty Google helped me out. Wipe after applying. ooops! I forgot the on the first go round. They will just never dry. too bad. Now what. Google to the resuce.
I have 2 choice, strip it down with mineral sprits or apply another coat of stain and wipe off the excess. I went with that option 2. the second coat loosens the first and you can wipe the excess then. But since they don't really tell you at what point you should wipe, I went with after I finished the desk. My rag stuck to the desk. Yuck. Fuzz on my lovely desk. So, then after 4 hours I wiped again with mineral spirits hoping it would be dry in another two so I could sneak in a coat before bed. Denied! I have 2 coats of stain on the desk right now and after yesterdays wipe down it finally seems to be sticky spot free. Yeah!
I am going to go upstairs and apply a coat of polyurethane to the desk to make it more durable. I have to do two of those. I am hoping that the time on that can is accurate. (Again with the 4-6 hours drying time. where do they get these numbers? Sure in an air conditioned perfect ly dry workshop it might work. In a normal home, in the summer, not so much) But then there is the 24 hour curing time before use. UGH! So best case, it is late Tuesday before my computer and any other desk things are seated in their proper place.
Sunday, June 7, 2009
More Cleaning, Sorting, and Decluttering
We are still working to declutter the house as we work with my friend on her Staging course. She has come 4 times so far, and worked with me about 6 hours each time. We have donated & gotten rid of lots of stuff. We started on the office, and that is still in progress, but is stalled until the desk is in the office. We also worked on the dining room and Living room and kitchen. We need to tackle Josh's room, my room, the closet, and finish the office. We are not doing the girl's room at this time. She does not want to make them cry when she suggest parting with some toys! I don't blame her. I did that 2 months ago, and it was pretty bad.
This weekend our homework was to make a new L shaped desk for the office. We are part of the way there. It sounded so simple in theory, but as usual, the reality is much slower. Or it is if we are the construction crew. We have all the parts now, and the 2 long pieces are glued together. And lying in the living room. We had thought about a making laminate desk, or using some premade countertop or some countertop from ikea. But in the end, we went with Birch plywood and regular plywood that we are gluing together to be one thick board and adding trim on the ends. It will be attached to the wall with cleats, and supported by our existing file cabinets. We are going to stain it a dark mahogany. We are also going to paint out lovely red file cabinets another color. Probably Chocolate brown. I hope it looks good!
It took Karl awhile to get on board with the idea, but I think he is pretty excited now. Karl and I are trading sides of the room. I get more space, but I sew, scrapbook, and use a computer so I "need" more space. I did offer to share my sewing machine though. In reality I had three desk in here already, so I am just giving up the one, and moving all my desk space to one wall. My drafting table is too cool to part with, so it is moving to the home of the sewing machine. I will still scrapbook there.
We had started clearing the room yesterday so we would have room to build the desk in here and the loose stuff went into Josh's room. Today when Emily was getting ready for bed, she looked in here and said, "Wow, That is a really clean office guys!" The floor was clean, the desk surfaces were clean. It looks pretty good in here right now. Josh's room is a little cluttered, but hey, we can fix that soon!
I am also going to try to recover my office chairs since Emily decorated them with Sharpie other unknown things when she was 2, and they have never looked the same since. I will also make a pleated skirt for the desk. That will keep it looking very tidy, and allow some smaller storage areas underneath the desks. (ie. Karl's collection of computer towers, my project basket, trash cans and such).
It has been hard going through books and such to get rid of. I love books. I have book like Little House on the Prairie that I got when I was around 8. It is an old and cherished friend. You can't give those away. And then there is my Tintin comic book collection. I love those! I can't give those up either. I did decided to share my Calvin & Hobbes Collection with Emily. I retained reading rights, and she promised to take good care of them. She said she want to keep them and give them to her kids. I did not think that was a great idea, but let it slide right then. She is a little concerned because Calvin is a naughty little guy, but since Hobbes is a Tiger, what is there not to love?? I might even let her read of a few of my treasured favorites next year.
Since our wall of books is a little intimidating to potential home buyers, I put some books up in the closet on a shelf to lessen then initial impact. They won't be seen, but they are not in the trash or donated. Maybe at some point I will be able to part with them, but not now. I was also crushed to see that a textbook from college is currently worth $.01 on Amazon. I got it for $50. The current edition is $95. Note to Self-sell upon finishing the course. I thinking about taking a bunch of books to a used book store. I would get a trade in amount for them only, not cash.
I think Karl thinks I am nuts for worrying about future buyers so much, but he mentioned tonight that we could move somewhere as soon as 6 months from now. We just don't know. Also, when am I ever going to have someone willing to give up her time to help me sort through my things. It really helps if she holds the things and I evaluate them instead of touching them myself. If I don't hold it it doesn't seem so bad to part with it.
Karl did a little dumpster diving and rescued a few things I had gotten rid of. I think he does not trust me.
Funny rescues-He resuced some sheets of beeswax-he thought they were noskid mats he could use in the garage. he he! It gets pretty hot in there. He would have nicely waxed shelving. I got rid of them again since they were not able to be turned into candles anymore. they were all creased and mangled from 5 years of storage.
Yesterday he rescued (for the second time mind you) an empty scrapbooking tape dispenser. I was shocked. I tried explaining to him, that sometimes a thing is just trash. I could not figure out how an empty tape refill would be useful. (We were taking about when to donate when to chuck) he was going on about how you could still use it by unrolling the paper. Finally I told him, look, there is nothing there, it is an EMPTY tape dispenser. (the paper had torn off the wheel at the end) He said, oh really. What is that white stuff? I explained that it was the wax paper separating the tape layers. Finally he saw the light and chucked it for the last time.
On the other hand he did rescue a crossstich kit I started 4 years ago, and I have to admit, I felt bad later about that one and wished I had donated it instead, so I was grateful to see that again. and he gave the girls a pad of paper that I had chucked. That was good too.
This weekend our homework was to make a new L shaped desk for the office. We are part of the way there. It sounded so simple in theory, but as usual, the reality is much slower. Or it is if we are the construction crew. We have all the parts now, and the 2 long pieces are glued together. And lying in the living room. We had thought about a making laminate desk, or using some premade countertop or some countertop from ikea. But in the end, we went with Birch plywood and regular plywood that we are gluing together to be one thick board and adding trim on the ends. It will be attached to the wall with cleats, and supported by our existing file cabinets. We are going to stain it a dark mahogany. We are also going to paint out lovely red file cabinets another color. Probably Chocolate brown. I hope it looks good!
It took Karl awhile to get on board with the idea, but I think he is pretty excited now. Karl and I are trading sides of the room. I get more space, but I sew, scrapbook, and use a computer so I "need" more space. I did offer to share my sewing machine though. In reality I had three desk in here already, so I am just giving up the one, and moving all my desk space to one wall. My drafting table is too cool to part with, so it is moving to the home of the sewing machine. I will still scrapbook there.
We had started clearing the room yesterday so we would have room to build the desk in here and the loose stuff went into Josh's room. Today when Emily was getting ready for bed, she looked in here and said, "Wow, That is a really clean office guys!" The floor was clean, the desk surfaces were clean. It looks pretty good in here right now. Josh's room is a little cluttered, but hey, we can fix that soon!
I am also going to try to recover my office chairs since Emily decorated them with Sharpie other unknown things when she was 2, and they have never looked the same since. I will also make a pleated skirt for the desk. That will keep it looking very tidy, and allow some smaller storage areas underneath the desks. (ie. Karl's collection of computer towers, my project basket, trash cans and such).
It has been hard going through books and such to get rid of. I love books. I have book like Little House on the Prairie that I got when I was around 8. It is an old and cherished friend. You can't give those away. And then there is my Tintin comic book collection. I love those! I can't give those up either. I did decided to share my Calvin & Hobbes Collection with Emily. I retained reading rights, and she promised to take good care of them. She said she want to keep them and give them to her kids. I did not think that was a great idea, but let it slide right then. She is a little concerned because Calvin is a naughty little guy, but since Hobbes is a Tiger, what is there not to love?? I might even let her read of a few of my treasured favorites next year.
Since our wall of books is a little intimidating to potential home buyers, I put some books up in the closet on a shelf to lessen then initial impact. They won't be seen, but they are not in the trash or donated. Maybe at some point I will be able to part with them, but not now. I was also crushed to see that a textbook from college is currently worth $.01 on Amazon. I got it for $50. The current edition is $95. Note to Self-sell upon finishing the course. I thinking about taking a bunch of books to a used book store. I would get a trade in amount for them only, not cash.
I think Karl thinks I am nuts for worrying about future buyers so much, but he mentioned tonight that we could move somewhere as soon as 6 months from now. We just don't know. Also, when am I ever going to have someone willing to give up her time to help me sort through my things. It really helps if she holds the things and I evaluate them instead of touching them myself. If I don't hold it it doesn't seem so bad to part with it.
Karl did a little dumpster diving and rescued a few things I had gotten rid of. I think he does not trust me.
Funny rescues-He resuced some sheets of beeswax-he thought they were noskid mats he could use in the garage. he he! It gets pretty hot in there. He would have nicely waxed shelving. I got rid of them again since they were not able to be turned into candles anymore. they were all creased and mangled from 5 years of storage.
Yesterday he rescued (for the second time mind you) an empty scrapbooking tape dispenser. I was shocked. I tried explaining to him, that sometimes a thing is just trash. I could not figure out how an empty tape refill would be useful. (We were taking about when to donate when to chuck) he was going on about how you could still use it by unrolling the paper. Finally I told him, look, there is nothing there, it is an EMPTY tape dispenser. (the paper had torn off the wheel at the end) He said, oh really. What is that white stuff? I explained that it was the wax paper separating the tape layers. Finally he saw the light and chucked it for the last time.
On the other hand he did rescue a crossstich kit I started 4 years ago, and I have to admit, I felt bad later about that one and wished I had donated it instead, so I was grateful to see that again. and he gave the girls a pad of paper that I had chucked. That was good too.
More Cleaning, Sorting, and Decluttering
We are still working to declutter the house as we work with my friend on her Staging course. She has come 4 times so far, and worked with me about 6 hours each time. We have donated & gotten rid of lots of stuff. We started on the office, and that is still in progress, but is stalled until the desk is in the office. We also worked on the dining room and Living room and kitchen. We need to tackle Josh's room, my room, the closet, and finish the office. We are not doing the girl's room at this time. She does not want to make them cry when she suggest parting with some toys! I don't blame her. I did that 2 months ago, and it was pretty bad.
This weekend our homework was to make a new L shaped desk for the office. We are part of the way there. It sounded so simple in theory, but as usual, the reality is much slower. Or it is if we are the construction crew. We have all the parts now, and the 2 long pieces are glued together. And lying in the living room. We had thought about a making laminate desk, or using some premade countertop or some countertop from ikea. But in the end, we went with Birch plywood and regular plywood that we are gluing together to be one thick board and adding trim on the ends. It will be attached to the wall with cleats, and supported by our existing file cabinets. We are going to stain it a dark mahogany. We are also going to paint out lovely red file cabinets another color. Probably Chocolate brown. I hope it looks good!
It took Karl awhile to get on board with the idea, but I think he is pretty excited now. Karl and I are trading sides of the room. I get more space, but I sew, scrapbook, and use a computer so I "need" more space. I did offer to share my sewing machine though. In reality I had three desk in here already, so I am just giving up the one, and moving all my desk space to one wall. My drafting table is too cool to part with, so it is moving to the home of the sewing machine. I will still scrapbook there.
We had started clearing the room yesterday so we would have room to build the desk in here and the loose stuff went into Josh's room. Today when Emily was getting ready for bed, she looked in here and said, "Wow, That is a really clean office guys!" The floor was clean, the desk surfaces were clean. It looks pretty good in here right now. Josh's room is a little cluttered, but hey, we can fix that soon!
I am also going to try to recover my office chairs since Emily decorated them with Sharpie other unknown things when she was 2, and they have never looked the same since. I will also make a pleated skirt for the desk. That will keep it looking very tidy, and allow some smaller storage areas underneath the desks. (ie. Karl's collection of computer towers, my project basket, trash cans and such).
It has been hard going through books and such to get rid of. I love books. I have book like Little House on the Prairie that I got when I was around 8. It is an old and cherished friend. You can't give those away. And then there is my Tintin comic book collection. I love those! I can't give those up either. I did decided to share my Calvin & Hobbes Collection with Emily. I retained reading rights, and she promised to take good care of them. She said she want to keep them and give them to her kids. I did not think that was a great idea, but let it slide right then. She is a little concerned because Calvin is a naughty little guy, but since Hobbes is a Tiger, what is there not to love?? I might even let her read of a few of my treasured favorites next year.
Since our wall of books is a little intimidating to potential home buyers, I put some books up in the closet on a shelf to lessen then initial impact. They won't be seen, but they are not in the trash or donated. Maybe at some point I will be able to part with them, but not now. I was also crushed to see that a textbook from college is currently worth $.01 on Amazon. I got it for $50. The current edition is $95. Note to Self-sell upon finishing the course. I thinking about taking a bunch of books to a used book store. I would get a trade in amount for them only, not cash.
I think Karl thinks I am nuts for worrying about future buyers so much, but he mentioned tonight that we could move somewhere as soon as 6 months from now. We just don't know. Also, when am I ever going to have someone willing to give up her time to help me sort through my things. It really helps if she holds the things and I evaluate them instead of touching them myself. If I don't hold it it doesn't seem so bad to part with it.
Karl did a little dumpster diving and rescued a few things I had gotten rid of. I think he does not trust me.
Funny rescues-He resuced some sheets of beeswax-he thought they were noskid mats he could use in the garage. he he! It gets pretty hot in there. He would have nicely waxed shelving. I got rid of them again since they were not able to be turned into candles anymore. they were all creased and mangled from 5 years of storage.
Yesterday he rescued (for the second time mind you) an empty scrapbooking tape dispenser. I was shocked. I tried explaining to him, that sometimes a thing is just trash. I could not figure out how an empty tape refill would be useful. (We were taking about when to donate when to chuck) he was going on about how you could still use it by unrolling the paper. Finally I told him, look, there is nothing there, it is an EMPTY tape dispenser. (the paper had torn off the wheel at the end) He said, oh really. What is that white stuff? I explained that it was the wax paper separating the tape layers. Finally he saw the light and chucked it for the last time.
On the other hand he did rescue a crossstich kit I started 4 years ago, and I have to admit, I felt bad later about that one and wished I had donated it instead, so I was grateful to see that again. and he gave the girls a pad of paper that I had chucked. That was good too.
This weekend our homework was to make a new L shaped desk for the office. We are part of the way there. It sounded so simple in theory, but as usual, the reality is much slower. Or it is if we are the construction crew. We have all the parts now, and the 2 long pieces are glued together. And lying in the living room. We had thought about a making laminate desk, or using some premade countertop or some countertop from ikea. But in the end, we went with Birch plywood and regular plywood that we are gluing together to be one thick board and adding trim on the ends. It will be attached to the wall with cleats, and supported by our existing file cabinets. We are going to stain it a dark mahogany. We are also going to paint out lovely red file cabinets another color. Probably Chocolate brown. I hope it looks good!
It took Karl awhile to get on board with the idea, but I think he is pretty excited now. Karl and I are trading sides of the room. I get more space, but I sew, scrapbook, and use a computer so I "need" more space. I did offer to share my sewing machine though. In reality I had three desk in here already, so I am just giving up the one, and moving all my desk space to one wall. My drafting table is too cool to part with, so it is moving to the home of the sewing machine. I will still scrapbook there.
We had started clearing the room yesterday so we would have room to build the desk in here and the loose stuff went into Josh's room. Today when Emily was getting ready for bed, she looked in here and said, "Wow, That is a really clean office guys!" The floor was clean, the desk surfaces were clean. It looks pretty good in here right now. Josh's room is a little cluttered, but hey, we can fix that soon!
I am also going to try to recover my office chairs since Emily decorated them with Sharpie other unknown things when she was 2, and they have never looked the same since. I will also make a pleated skirt for the desk. That will keep it looking very tidy, and allow some smaller storage areas underneath the desks. (ie. Karl's collection of computer towers, my project basket, trash cans and such).
It has been hard going through books and such to get rid of. I love books. I have book like Little House on the Prairie that I got when I was around 8. It is an old and cherished friend. You can't give those away. And then there is my Tintin comic book collection. I love those! I can't give those up either. I did decided to share my Calvin & Hobbes Collection with Emily. I retained reading rights, and she promised to take good care of them. She said she want to keep them and give them to her kids. I did not think that was a great idea, but let it slide right then. She is a little concerned because Calvin is a naughty little guy, but since Hobbes is a Tiger, what is there not to love?? I might even let her read of a few of my treasured favorites next year.
Since our wall of books is a little intimidating to potential home buyers, I put some books up in the closet on a shelf to lessen then initial impact. They won't be seen, but they are not in the trash or donated. Maybe at some point I will be able to part with them, but not now. I was also crushed to see that a textbook from college is currently worth $.01 on Amazon. I got it for $50. The current edition is $95. Note to Self-sell upon finishing the course. I thinking about taking a bunch of books to a used book store. I would get a trade in amount for them only, not cash.
I think Karl thinks I am nuts for worrying about future buyers so much, but he mentioned tonight that we could move somewhere as soon as 6 months from now. We just don't know. Also, when am I ever going to have someone willing to give up her time to help me sort through my things. It really helps if she holds the things and I evaluate them instead of touching them myself. If I don't hold it it doesn't seem so bad to part with it.
Karl did a little dumpster diving and rescued a few things I had gotten rid of. I think he does not trust me.
Funny rescues-He resuced some sheets of beeswax-he thought they were noskid mats he could use in the garage. he he! It gets pretty hot in there. He would have nicely waxed shelving. I got rid of them again since they were not able to be turned into candles anymore. they were all creased and mangled from 5 years of storage.
Yesterday he rescued (for the second time mind you) an empty scrapbooking tape dispenser. I was shocked. I tried explaining to him, that sometimes a thing is just trash. I could not figure out how an empty tape refill would be useful. (We were taking about when to donate when to chuck) he was going on about how you could still use it by unrolling the paper. Finally I told him, look, there is nothing there, it is an EMPTY tape dispenser. (the paper had torn off the wheel at the end) He said, oh really. What is that white stuff? I explained that it was the wax paper separating the tape layers. Finally he saw the light and chucked it for the last time.
On the other hand he did rescue a crossstich kit I started 4 years ago, and I have to admit, I felt bad later about that one and wished I had donated it instead, so I was grateful to see that again. and he gave the girls a pad of paper that I had chucked. That was good too.
Sunday, May 31, 2009
New Bike, New Hairdos, New Projects
So this morning Sydney asked me if I would be willing to braid her hair before church. Since I had the unfortunate chance to get up at 6:30 and stay awake, I had plenty of time to braid. So we checked out the SheDoeshair blog and found a neat pattern for a crisscross braid. So she sat patiently and let me do the most complicated hair style I have ever done. Amazingly enough she kept it in all day. She also ended up sleeping in it too, so we will see how it looks in the morning. Emily also got the same hairstyle but hers came out tonight.
This weekend we also decided to get a new bike for Emily. She has definitely outgrown her other one even though she has not really mastered riding yet. On the upside, she is so in love with her new bike, it may help her get over her fears of riding. It is shiny, purple and Hannah Montana. Yeah for Hannah Montana.
This last week I started working on a organization project with a friend of mine. She is taking a class on Professional Staging. One of her assignments is to declutter a home. Mine definitely qualifies. So we started in on the worst room in the house, the office. We hauled the the stuff out on the right side of the room, sorting it into baskets, we took down my sewing desk and drafting table, and set up an ebay basket, and and trash pile, and a donate pile. The trash pile ended up filing one of our large trash cans. The donate pile was not much smaller. It was hard going through and getting rid of many things. however when I thought about having things for 8-10 years for a project, and I still had not done anything with them at all. I figured it was time to unload. Karl is not excited about the unloading part. I was concerned about our home looking overstuffed to prospective renters. I also want to have the Place for Everything and Everything in it place. Since we are not moving into a 4000sq ft home any time soon, I better figure a way to make my stuff fit in our existing one.
So far we are about a third of the way through the office. I did not get as much done without her help over the weekend. I still have some homework left to finish before she comes tomorrow! The plan is to make an l shaped desk, swap sides of the room for the two of us, and have all my craft supplies in the closet so everything on my desks at least are cleared and put away when I am not working on them. Karl is getting excited about the desk but he was disappointed when I asked him not to put 5 monitors on his part of the desk.
New Bike, New Hairdos, New Projects
So this morning Sydney asked me if I would be willing to braid her hair before church. Since I had the unfortunate chance to get up at 6:30 and stay awake, I had plenty of time to braid. So we checked out the SheDoeshair blog and found a neat pattern for a crisscross braid. So she sat patiently and let me do the most complicated hair style I have ever done. Amazingly enough she kept it in all day. She also ended up sleeping in it too, so we will see how it looks in the morning. Emily also got the same hairstyle but hers came out tonight.
This weekend we also decided to get a new bike for Emily. She has definitely outgrown her other one even though she has not really mastered riding yet. On the upside, she is so in love with her new bike, it may help her get over her fears of riding. It is shiny, purple and Hannah Montana. Yeah for Hannah Montana.
This last week I started working on a organization project with a friend of mine. She is taking a class on Professional Staging. One of her assignments is to declutter a home. Mine definitely qualifies. So we started in on the worst room in the house, the office. We hauled the the stuff out on the right side of the room, sorting it into baskets, we took down my sewing desk and drafting table, and set up an ebay basket, and and trash pile, and a donate pile. The trash pile ended up filing one of our large trash cans. The donate pile was not much smaller. It was hard going through and getting rid of many things. however when I thought about having things for 8-10 years for a project, and I still had not done anything with them at all. I figured it was time to unload. Karl is not excited about the unloading part. I was concerned about our home looking overstuffed to prospective renters. I also want to have the Place for Everything and Everything in it place. Since we are not moving into a 4000sq ft home any time soon, I better figure a way to make my stuff fit in our existing one.
So far we are about a third of the way through the office. I did not get as much done without her help over the weekend. I still have some homework left to finish before she comes tomorrow! The plan is to make an l shaped desk, swap sides of the room for the two of us, and have all my craft supplies in the closet so everything on my desks at least are cleared and put away when I am not working on them. Karl is getting excited about the desk but he was disappointed when I asked him not to put 5 monitors on his part of the desk.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Memorial Day Weekend
We got to spend a day and a half with April this weekend and celebrate her birthday and have fun with the family. The girls were so excited to be there for her birthday. They each made her a card which were very cute. Caleb was happy to see everyone too. We went for walks, went to the pool, and had a picnic on the playground. Josh really enjoyed playing peak-a-boo with Matthew too. He was also such a good sport in the car. And of course, the girls howled when it was time to go home. I love that they get so happy to see family it crushes them when it is time to leave, but it also is just so hard t know what to do with the tears.
We tried to get Josh to practice crawling on the carpet while we were there, and while it worked better than on the floors at home, he wasn't too happy to be on his tummy. I think he tends to gag and have more reflux on his stomach, because while he drools a lot all the time, when he is on his tummy he actually spits up. That is about the only time he does that.
I have been taking pictures of April and Caleb in front of there house almost every time I come to visit, but this time when we tried, we discovered how much harder it is to get a toddler involved in the picture taking process. His only desire was to get rid of me, and run over to Emily & Sydney. He did not want to sit on April's lap and smile. Such a shame. We had such a nice series going. My best shots are going up on Flickr though.
We had to cut the visit a little shorter than initially planned and come home Sunday night. I was just called to be the Activities chairman at church, and I had my first big activity on Monday. I had planned to skip it, but as the weekend approached, I felt really unprepared and decided to be here to make sure it ran smoothly. I am so glad I did because there were so many things i did not think of that needed to happen. Like bringing trash bags. Nope, didn't cross my mind. Luckily it crossed Karl's mind. Also, if you cook hot dogs, bring something to use on the grill. Tablecloths are also really nice to have. I also got too much food, but everyone really seemed to have fun, so I think that overall it was a big success.
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