Bookcase

I finished my bookcase on Friday!

I'm so happy with how it turned out!

 My sweet husband found some triple thick top coat,

so worth it!

The view from my table

Nunchuck Skills

Okay, so not nunchuck skills. We've been busy little bees. My sweet husband has been honing his tiling skills. He tiled our shower in our master bathroom. Now he's working on tiling the floor. 

I've been channeling my inner Sawdust Girl.

I decided we needed another bookcase because our current one is overflowing!

So looked at her website and found a plan for one I liked.

I made mine a little taller and decided against the fancy bottom piece, I like things pretty simple.

(My sweet husband has helped me some too, mostly with the big cuts.) 

And last but not least, I've finally started learning to play the violin!

This is a skill I've wanted to have for a long time.

I borrowed my Grandmother's violin about 5 years ago and I finally found a teacher!

My friend (who also doubles as my visiting teacher) is my teacher.

Another friend and I were discussing how we wanted to learn how to play 

and how that was on each of our resolutions lists for the year.

My friend asked my other friend and she agreed,

so we are taking lessons together before church each Sunday!

It's been really fun so far!

This was from our second lesson. 

Projects: Nursery

Ever since we decided to buy our home I dreamed of a window seat in the bay windows.

In one of my favorite tv shows growing up, The Torkelsons, the main character had a window seat in her bay window and I always wanted one after that. To sit and read and think, Dorothy Jane (from the show) would talk to the Man in the Moon. I don't know how long we'll be in this house, but maybe our little girl will be able to do some of those things thanks to this project.

While I dreamed of it, my mom was actually the one to convince me to actually do it, plus we really needed a place for our children's books, I love children's books!

I thought up a design, nothing too fancy, but something nice and practical.

I had my sweet husband help me determine everything I would need,

we got the supplies and my sweet husband cut out the boards for me so I didn't have to do the heavy lifting.

Then one day while he was at work, I assembled it!

Here is the first layer of bookshelves

 The second layer of shelves

 And the other end

 This was the picture I sent to my sweet husband to tell him that I finished assembling it and that I was super tired... lol!

 Another day I cut and installed the face framing.

Close up

 Whole shelf

 Another day I painted it... well some of it.

Laying on your side trying to get into all the corners is difficult, then add being pregnant into the mix and I was worn out! So my sweet husband helped me finish painting it one night.

Then I ordered the foam for the seat, that's what I was waiting on for so long. Amazon Prime spoils me, having to wait longer than 2 days kills me! But we made it.

While my parents were here helping with the patio, the foam arrived!

One morning my mom and I cut out the foam.

Monday, I made the cover and my sweet husband helped me get it on,

it is SO tight! I put a zipper on one of the sides so that if we needed to wash it I could take it off... I'm not sure we'll ever be able to take it off.. lol!

Now the room is complete...

 Except we need to get a crib mattress, but we'll get one.

 Oh and I sewed this cute little curtain to hide the totes and things on the top shelf of the closet

 While I was organizing the room, I decided to put a shoe organizer of things we'll need fairly handy on the back of the door. A few of the things in it are swaddling blankets, nursing cover, pacifiers, shoes, and hair bows and flowers. Hopefully it will be helpful, if not, at least they have a place to be.. lol!

The Stockings were Hung by the Chimney with Care

Ever since we decided to buy this house,

I've been SO excited to decorate the mantle for Christmas,

especially being able to hang our stockings from the mantle!

So of course I needed super cute stocking hangers.

But I didn't want to pay an arm and a leg for them.

Seriously, I saw some for like SIXTY dollars PER stocking hanger.

Uh.. no thanks.

So I started thinking about what I wanted.

I never found what I wanted.

So what was my solution?!

Make my own.

Behold:

 Here is the whole mantle.

I'm kind of obsessed with nativities...

Great Teacher

I got to teach my sweet husband something this weekend.

Since it doesn't happen very often

I had to jump on the chance.

I got to teach him how to use his nail gun.

Now let's be honest,

I'm sure he could have figured it out on his own,

but it felt good to help him.

We built a ramp to help make our move easier.

It's not pretty but it will work.

It was also really fun to build.

I had forgotten how much fun a nail gun is!

It was grand.

Lucky!

I made this about a week ago, I've just been lazy and haven't taken a picture of it. I'm not really sure why I decided I really wanted to decorate for St. Patrick's Day, even though neither of us are Irish... lol. It's a fun holiday, even if we aren't Irish. When we lived in Provo we always went to our friends' house and ate "St. Patrick's Day Dinner," I'm going to miss it this year. Also, before I was married one of my best friends and I made "St. Patrick's Day Breakfast" every year, everything was green! It's a lot of fun! If you don't already do that, you should, it's really fun.

I love this little button rainbow! I really wanted to make one with real buttons, but I really liked the flower buttons and I don't have any so I just decided to print it out like the creator of it did. So it was a really simple craft, send it to a photo printing place, pick it up, and put it in a frame! Easy!

Sneak Preview

I thought I would give you a little sneak preview of the piano bench! It's coming along nicely, I think! I feel so tall now that I'm actually sitting how I should at the piano! Our short chairs are well... short.

We still have a little ways to go, as you can see.

It still needs:

1. The bottom of the... wow I'm having a total brain freeze... the place where the books will eventually go, it currently doesn't have a bottom.

2. We need to get some hinges so we can attach the top.

3. We need to sand it down some.

4. We need to paint it.

5. We need to put the satin clear coats on.

I know I said that I thought we could get it done before my piano lesson this week? Well, we obviously didn't get it completed before Wednesday, but my piano student canceled because she was sick. So we can hopefully get it done before the next one! Let's keep our fingers crossed!

(When it's finished you'll get a better picture. I like to edit them a bit before I put them on here, but I figured I'd wait until it's completely finished before I made the picture beautiful! Stay tuned!)

Another blog question:

See the sentences in parentheses up there? They are in parentheses because I wanted them really small, but for some reason when I change the text size it hardly ever works. It has worked one time... I also have a problem when I try to change colors. All of my Merry Christmases during Christmas time were supposed to be either red or green or both, but I think I got one that was actually not blue...

So my question is, for all of you fancy bloggers: What is your secret!?!

Thanks in advance!

Chairs: Part 2

First of all, I'd like to thank everyone that left a comment on my last post,

it really helped clear up that question I've had.

Thanks! You all are gems!

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This past week we worked on our chairs quite a bit.

The layer of sawdust in our piano/dining room, whatever it is.. proves it.

First we wanted to take them all apart so we could sand them.

Apparently a previous owner decided to glue a couple of them together.

So my strong husband got them apart.

This is a picture of him wiggling it apart...

it really doesn't do the whole scene justice, it was very entertaining to watch.

Once he finally got them apart,

we started the sanding process..

we are still in sanding phase... hopefully we'll be able to finish sanding soon so we can stain them!

And hopefully not move onto another project...

oops too late..

Saturday we spent a couple hours working on a piano bench for the piano!

We made a lot of progress on it!

Where my dear sweet husband works, they have a super nice wood shop,

a couple months ago we took the safety class so we can use it,

and we finally went back and took advantage of it!

It's not assembled yet, so I didn't take a picture because you wouldn't really be able to see it anyways, so stay tuned!

Wood Christmas Crafts: The complete edition

I finished my wood nativity scene.

I thought I should put pictures of each part up too because you can't see all the detail...

not that they are that detailed,

but when it's all set up you can't see everything in the picture.

So here are some close ups.

Mary, Joseph, Baby Jesus, the Angel, and the star

The shepherds, cow, and sheep

The three wise men and a camel

complete with gold, frankincense, and myrrh...

they kind of look like wii characters holding these because they don't have any arms, but oh well I still think they are cute.

And I told you I made another wood craft and forgot to put it up, so here it is:

Just spreading a little Joy around.

Merry Christmas!

Homemade Nativity

This year I got kind of obsessed with nativities! I love them! I really like the Willow Tree nativity but it's quite pricey... maybe someday; however, my dear husband said that I should learn to whittle and make one myself but I haven't learned. Instead I made one with the scroll saw. I think it's rather cute. Obviously I still need to paint the cow, I may make a camel or too, and I need a star and/or an angel. It's been pretty easy, and I really enjoy doing it.

On another note, I'm thinking about selling wood crafts someday... hopefully soon, but I would like feedback, do you think anyone would buy any of the things I've made... I just realized that I never showed my JOY craft that I made. I'll have to post that. Anyways, feedback would be helpful! Either way I've had a lot of fun making them!