Drum roll, please...

After a mere 10 months (ha)...

I finally finished the top of our table (the legs still need some work...) and sealed it so once again, we can use our table for more than stacking clean laundry!

I love how it turned out, and I plan on doing some more pieces and I HOPE to sell them at some point, somewhere, some how.

Face Lift!

BEFORE: ($4 thrift find)...




AFTER: (total expense, less than $15)

Ellis' lovely yellow dress

Today was the first day Ellis wore a dress.  I bought this weeks ago thinking it would be forever before she would fit into this little polka-dot number, but alas, it fits!

This picture was actually taken toward the end of our photo session. I think it's clear why this was shortly before the end:

How you doin'?

Beautiful peepers:

Either tired or completely bored:

Look at how BIG she's getting!!!

Speaking of how BIG she's getting, check out these comparison shots from today and the day Ellis came home.

My finger is pointing to the strap level we had to use on the day we brought Ellis home:

Today {April 21st}:

March 21st:

April 21st:

March 21st:

Sorry, no word yet on how long this blog will continue to be strictly devoted to baby pictures of Ellis.  It could be permanent...

Nursery update and a Grandma picture

My mom was here last week.  She basically cooked and cleaned for us and just loved us the way moms do.  It was great.  She also got to meet and hold her granddaughter, which they both enjoyed very much. Another huge help was painting the dresser I bought for Ellis ($14!), which Vickie and I had planned on doing not long before I went into the hospital.  It didn't happen because I started feeling crummy and very busy.  After about 16 hours of cleaning and painting the dresser was transformed---and I didn't lift a finger.  It looks great and the nursery is closer and closer to being ready for a little girlie to come live in it.

Ellis with her Grandma Shelly

BEFORE...

AFTER!!!

These are just postcards I bought months ago that I thought would look cute in the nursery.  I bought four mismatched old frames at Goodwill and painted them white.  I like it.

jettisoning and the wall that will never be

It seems I was storing quite a bit of stuff at Granny's house, so because we had driven to Iowa, my mom and I went through it and packed up six boxes for me to take home with us.  It's truly amazing the amount of insignificant rubbish I thought important enough to save at some point.

Once we got home I decided to clean out the basement to organize and eliminate more of my meaningless possessions.  It feels SOOOOO good to be rid of so much stuff that was cluttering my life.  Just because it wasn't in clear view, does not mean that it wasn't cluttering my mind/life.  It was very freeing to take account and reorganize. 

BEFORE:  

AFTER:

That's it!  And the top bin is still empty.  About a third of the boxes in the before picture are empty, but still, it's incredible to me to see how much condensing and discarding was possible. I even got all of our Christmas decorations/ornaments into the green containers.  One container is Gabe's memorabilia, and the other four are mine.  Disproportionate, I know, but still worlds better than before.

Here are the after pictures of a white wall I painted in one of our school's girls' bathrooms just before going to Iowa.  I spent five hours creating a mural I thought girls would really enjoy. Our school beautification committee wanted to brighten up the bathrooms, among other things. The principal agreed to pay me to come in and do some painting.  But thanks to district policies this is now the before picture to a newly painted white wall.  Just like every other wall in our building.  Five hours for nothing.  Kids will never even know this was here.  Bummer, huh?

TADAAA!!!

Whew!  I didn't realize it had been a week since I last posted.  Gabe was gone with the computer.  Then Gabe and Computer came home, but I have (not surprisingly) been more interested in spending quality time with Gabe than with Computer.   

I've got some photos from life the last couple of weeks.  They aren't in chronological order. Going through them I realized I took an obscene amount of photos of Daly while Gabe was away.  Not to worry, I'll put just one or two on this post.

AMELIE IN HER SHADES.

TADAAA!!!  OUR NEW STEPS.  

(the original look was nasty old carpet, and the white back part of each step didn't exist.   I tore off the carpet a few years ago and the stairs have since undergone multiple transformations.  I finally found the look I like.  They WILL stay like this as long as we live here.)

TADAA,  AGAIN!!!  AMY WITH HER SASSY NEW 'DO' SITTING ON SASSY NEW STEPS.

Amy and Amelie saved the day by dropping off an air conditioner for our bedroom the other day.  Amelie started exploring immediately (she found Daly, Daly's food, Daly's water, almost Daly's litter, cold strawberries, and dust).  I found little fingerprint lines all over the television screen, clearly communicating she thinks its time for me to dust.  This photo reminded me of a certain Friends episode in which Rachel is the maid of honor in her friend's wedding and unknowingly walks up the aisle with her dress tucked into her underwear.  So you're in good company Miss Amelie.

I'm going to start another post for my other pictures.

photos

As promised, here are the pictures I described in my previous post:

One freshly painted reddish-orange table:

Many magenta peonies lovingly delivered to me by Amy:

 

Two things you should never buy me (and probably should never buy period):

Two shots of Gabe in the shower at Lowe's:

Later this same day, I found Gabe trying out the inversion machine at Sam's Club.  He was hanging upside-down, not strapped in, on the floor model of the inversion machine.  Gabe made errands much more fun that day.  Every time I turned around he was hiding in showers, inverting himself, or who knows what else.

One little Dooly napping in the kitchen window:

A dozen, or so, overripe  bananas thawing in order for me to bake them into banana bread in order to end the two years of Gabe teasing me about putting ripe bananas in the freezer for banana bread that never seems to actually get made in order to win a fifteen minute back rub in the bet made by Gabe that this time would be no different:  (I won.)

Seven envelopes I sent to Gabe (with letters inside) while he was in Costa Rica (I found them when looking for something else):

The journal I made for Gabe before he left for Costa Rica:

Nate and Jenn got here Monday.  We've been up to Ft. Collins for the New Belgium Brewery tour, where we ran into Collin L. during the free bear tasting after the tour.  Yesterday we went on a 7+ mile hike in Eldorado Park, and then to Keri and Charlie's for dinner and a bonfire.  Today we'll be heading down to the Springs, and then they leave tomorrow afternoon.  I've got a bunch of pictures from the week, but I think I'll wait to post them until the end of their stay with us.  

p.s.  Summer vacation doesn't yet feel like it.  It seems like the weekend--but it's been really nice so far...