Recent Life in upstate New York

 

 

My first quilt is officially finished!  I started it a few months ago, finished everything but the binding on the edge and then finally finished that this past week. 

Dan helped a lot with that because the instructions I was reading made no sense to me. 

 

This was originally going to be a baby quilt for the baby, but it ended up being much larger than I thought it would be.  Also, it's made of cotton materials, and isn't very soft. 

 

 

So that's why I decided to start a baby quilt using these really soft materials given to me by my neighbor.  I was planning to do it all by hand, but Dan convinced me to try using one of the machines which we bought for $10.  First, he had to untangle the thread though...

 

This is unrelated to sewing, but I made coffee cake last week and it was absolutely AMAZING.  It was very sweet, but delicious.  I like to try at least one recipe each week.  Otherwise I get in a rut and make the same four things every week. 

 

This week I made pumpkin bread using a new recipe (because after Thanksgiving I couldn't resist buying up lots of canned pumpkin that was on a massive sale).  The recipe I tried wasn't the best however...Probably mostly because I didn't mix the baking soda with the buttermilk.  I always find that when a recipe calls for both buttermilk and baking soda, when you mix the two together before combining them with the other ingredients, it makes a real difference in the overall outcome. 

 

Anyway, I'm not sure how I got off on that.  But back to my newest hobby. 

I had decided to make two baby blankets, one for a girl, and one for a boy, since we don't know the gender of our baby yet.  I cut out all of the squares and laid them out on the couch to get an idea of the pattern I wanted.  After I cut out the girl blanket in 5 inch squares, I decided that that seemed quite small, so I cut the boy squares out to be 6 inches. 

 

Dan came home from his trip and saw the two un-sewed blankets lying on the couch and said that he wanted to try making the boy quilt.  We had a sort of contest to see who could do a better job. I honestly thought mine looked nicer until he started getting creative and decided he would draw little tractors and trucks and heavy equipment on his and then hand stitch them. 

 

He didn't use any stencils at all...

After that, I knew it really wasn't much of a competition.  What could I draw on my quilt and hand stitch besides stick figures and stars?  (those are the only things I can draw halfway decent)

 

 

I settled on doing a few flowers, after practicing on paper for awhile. 

 

And yes, the center flower is very off-centered...haha

 

 

It was a really fun little project.  And because Dan convinced me to try using the machine, it went so quickly too.  I think they only took two days to make. 

 

 

So whether a boy or girl, our baby will have a nice handmade blanket. 

 

 

And this is unrelated to blankets and quilts, but I really wanted to give out palm branches on Palm Sunday at church, so we found a grocery store that was selling them and got a few.  They were so tall that we ended up splitting them in quarters.  I think everyone enjoyed getting them. 

 

Not everyone is like this, but for me, having something tangible to feel and smell really makes me think more about the subject at hand. 

 

And I know that I talked about new paint in my last post, but here are just a few more pictures from the fourth bedroom upstairs in the house we bought.  Because this was most likely the master bedroom, the paint on the walls actually wasn't awful or anything.  But we decided to go ahead and paint over it with this "oops" paint from Lowes as well.  Dan thinks it looks too dark now.  We may decide to go back to a lighter color.  But I think when the ceiling and all of the trim is repainted a fresh white, the place will look bright enough. 

 

 

 

 

Our next step with the house is the support the weight of the house in the basement.  My next remodel post will explain more fully with pictures.  But right now the center of the house is sagging quite a bit due to lack of proper support beams in the basement. 

 

Hope this post finds all of my readers well and healthy. 

Until next time!



New paint = 100% better.

Have you ever cringed just walking into a room, seeing the paint color and thought,

"What were they thinking????" 

That was my reaction to first seeing this bedroom in the house we bought. 

Obviously, it was previously a child's bedroom and the child probably picked their favorite colors to put on the walls. 

**As a side note, I've never understood it when parents allow their children to pick paint colors...inevitably, the colors picked would be neon green with hot pink stripes, or some such monstrosity. 

My thoughts are these...if you want your child to have a wacky colored room, fine.  But at LEAST try to paint it well!!!  haha.

I laughed when I saw how poorly it had been painted.  For instance, the paint is like this in the whole room...

 

 

The light switch covers were painted over...

 

In general, it's just hideous in my opinion.  I've been longing to paint over it.  The other week, Dan and I were at Lowes looking for something entirely unrelated, and I said that we should walk by the "oops" paint section and see if they had any clearance paints.  Well, they did in fact have four gallons of similar-looking, nondescript, blueish- greyish paints.  We got them all.    

 

 

 

I started by pulling nails and tacks from the walls, and then sweeping and dusting the place. 

 

Since I can roll paint pretty well from a roller, I did that and Dan did the cutting in with a brush.  He honestly amazes me with how fast and accurate he is- and with no tape at all. 

 

 

I can still see orange, because it's only the first coat.  But to me, the improvement is huge. 

 

Dan did the next room by himself (since its really small and he is super fast).  Yellow isn't a disgusting color or anything, but Lexi (the girl whose bedroom it was previously) wrote threatening messages on the wall to her friends as well as drawing swastika's all over.  We felt that it needed to be covered up.   



 

 

He finished in record time.

 

 

 

While Dan worked on the Yellow room, I went to town on this room, peeling off the numerous stickers on the walls. 

 

Again, why a parent would allow a child to put hundreds and hundreds of round stickers all over their room is beyond me. 

 

 

 

And the finished product. 

 

By the way, we've begun making back part of the money we spent on the paint since I collected $2.31 in pennies and nickels so far in the bedrooms.  Not a bad deal!

 

So the walls might be boring now, but at least they don't hurt my eyes to look at. 

 

😄😄😄

 

 

 

 

A Rant on Furnishings.

First, let me say that I am still loving the winter weather, but I'm also anticipating the spring time when I can put in a nice big garden.  We got another 7 inches of snow last week.

 

 

 

 

Dan plows out the church and a few neighbors in the area.  He asked me to come with him this time, so I did.  One of the neighbors gave me this blanket she had just finished making.  She said it was for the baby.  Our baby will be VERY warm next winter, because it is made out of very nice fleece!

 

 

 

Last week, I had a strong urge to clean the house. 

I usually clean once a week, but sometimes I do a half-hearted job, or skip dusting the heaters...forget to bother with the rooms we don't use downstairs, ect.

 

Well this time was different.  I literally tore the house apart.  And it felt SO good.  I changed out our bedspread (which I like to do occasionally) and dusted everything.  I noticed something which I never have noticed before.  In every room, our furniture doesn't match. 

 

I love it that way...

I grew up in a home where my mom had mis-matched wooden furniture all through the house.  Something about it says "homey" to me. 

I know that everyone is different about styles and what they like, but really? The telling factor as to whether or not I'll like a piece of furniture is how much it costs. 

 

I love that our bedroom furniture cost a total of $25. Only the bedframe cost that...everything else we got for free! :) 

 

 

 

In our living room and dining room, the only things that cost money were the sofa, table and chairs, serving table, and trunk.  And they total roughly $100.  It's really quite easy to come across things being tossed that are really in very nice condition. 

 

By the way, if these pictures look strangely stretched, its because they were taken using the panoramic setting on my phone.  Our house isn't really oddly-shaped.  

 

This is my music room, which is where most of the clutter is.  I have shelves of music as you can see.  Everything in this room was free, including the piano, which actually holds its tune quite well!

 

 

And the spare bedroom, we splurged while living in Baltimore and bought a used rocking chair for $15 (it probably wasn't worth that because it has a massive crack in it on the seat), the tv stand for $5 and the bed frame for $15.  Even the two TV's were free...

 

 

I think one of the biggest things that cause people to spend money frivolously is thinking that they have to have the item right away, after moving into a place.  Most of this furniture in our house we acquired slowly, not right after getting our house and getting married.  If we had been in a rush to furnish our house, we would have ended up paying a lot more to do so.  

 

As it is, I am very happy with our mis-matched furniture.  We recently re-modeled the lobby of our church (which I'll have to post pictures of next time!), so we were visiting lots of furniture stores, thrift stores, antique stores...you name it, looking for deals.  I was shocked at the amount of money people regularly spend on low-quality furniture that matches, but isn't even real wood. 

 

 

 I like to think that my house looks nice and like a home.  I don't need to feel like I'm walking into IKEA each time I walk into my home. 

Wow, enough of my rant.  Hope you all are having a great week.  Dan went to preach for a nearby Bible college for two days and he'll be back any moment.  I'm happy, because since being together for nearly two years now, being apart for even two days feels like FOREVER. 

 

Until next time!

 

 

 

Slush City, NY

WOW! I am absolutely loving this weather lately!  Last week, the temperatures rose to 70 degrees!  In fact, it was so warm that the snow started melting rapidly.  When 25 inches of snow finally starts to melt, it really looks like a pond. 

 

 

 

 

I suggested to Dan that we go outside and splash around in the puddles.  It brought back memories from childhood! 

One of the best investments we've made since moving to New York was rubber boots. 

 

 

 

The weekend was a little bit icy/rainy. but still beautiful. 

 

Today it got up to 65 degrees, so Chula and I went for a nice walk.  We were finally able to pick up cans and plastic bottles for recycling again!  Its been several months that the cans alongside the road have been covered by snow. 

We picked up 40 cans and bottles (I always keep track so that I know how much money we made that time.  NY gives 6 cents for each un-smashed bottle and can!).

 

Chula has been doing so much better during our walks.  I've been training her to be alert and watching around us while we walk.  Since I'll be taking the baby for lots of walks in the stroller this summer, I want for Chula to be mature and trained well enough to always be on the watch. 

For the longest time, she would put her nose to the ground and just sniff around the whole walk.  It was frustrating.  This halter we got for her really did the trick though.  Now she keeps her head up constantly and looks around for movement of people, animals, cars...everything.  It is GREAT! 

 

All of the New Yorkers here have been warning me,

 "Don't get used to this weather!!  March is the worst month of winter usually!"

So I'm not getting TOO used to the gorgeous weather.  But I'm for sure taking advantage of it while it lasts!

Fastnachts, Antiques and Quilting

 Well hello readers!! 

 

I had a great week last week, and so far, this week is going really well too! 

The other week, Dan and I dropped into an antique store in Whitehall.  We were looking for a small end table for our church lobby, which we are beginning to remodel.  We didn't find a end table that would work for that, but we DID see an old trunk that needed some work, but I really liked.  I think the reason I REALLY liked it was because it was full of old letters from the 1800's and those would come with the trunk!  That trunk was $45.  Then the owner told us that he had more trunks, but they were sitting out on the porch.  So after looking them all over, we found this one for $15.  We couldn't resist the price, even though it meant that I didn't get all of the letters.   

 

 

 

One handle is broken off, and the leather straps were mostly dry-rotted off.  We ended up just taking the straps off, polishing up the rusty hinges and brass buttons as best we could and sanding and varnishing the wood.  The canvas is actually still in decent condition, so we are keeping that on. 

I DID find a sheet of paper at the bottom of the trunk that listed all of the items that were shipped in it.  It is clearly very old...and I enjoyed reading about the "puffs" and "shirtwaists" that were stored in it.  The shipping label is on the side still, but the year cannot be read unfortunately.  Now the trunk is in our living room!  I love it...

 

 

Another thing that has me excited is that I am almost finished my first quilt!  My grandma bought me a quilting frame and I used it to hand-stitch the diagonal lines.  It isn't a large quilt, but I'm very excited that I actually made it!  I'm looking forward to the next one I can do, which will be a baby quilt. 

 

 

The other week, it snowed 12 inches.  Dan wanted to make a snowman, so we did our best attempt.  After beginning to make it though, we realized that the snow was not good packing snow at ALL.  So our snowman looks really interesting....

 

And finally, last Monday, Dan and I made apple fritters and Fastnachts to celebrate "fat Tuesday", the day before Ash Wednesday.  Actually, we don't really celebrate the day, but we did make the fastnachts!  I remember from my childhood, my grandmother would make fastnachts and deliver them to our house in bags.  We would eat them for breakfast and roll them in confectioners sugar...mmmm, SO delicious.    This was my first time ever making fastnachts myself; I was pretty happy with the outcome!

 

 

But before the fastnachts, I made apple fritters.  It was also a first to make those. 

 

 

 

Dan said to me after eating one "Wow...these are great, but not very good for you!"

 

And THIS picture was taken after he ate his fourth fritter.  :)  I said "I guess you can afford to eat four of them!"

 

These are the fastnachts.

 

After they were done frying, I decided I'd use the leftover glaze from the fritters and dip the fastnachts in them.  It actually helped really keep them soft and also made them a little bit more sweet (they are generally not a sweet doughnut at all).

 

 

Just on Wednesday (Valentines Day), Dan woke up early and made me breakfast!  I couldn't resist taking this picture of him. 

 

So you can see why last week was awesome!!! :D  So far this week, I've learned how to grind venison meat, and helped Dan to sand down the whole church lobby and re-paint.  It's been fun! 

I hope that all of you are having equally amazing weeks!

Fixing up the 1900 House

Well, things here in Granville are very snowy and icy.  Last Sunday, we got 12 inches of snow and then another 9 on Wednesday.  Then yesterday and today, we got sleet and rain, so now we have mounds of ice and sheets of ice. 

We still had church today though!!  :D

 

I figured that I'd post another update on the house.  Of course, these updates and are from the autumn.  In September, we tore the shingles off of the garage and addition roof. 

 

 

 

 

 

Then Dan built new tresses and roof to just go over top of the old one. 

 

We decided that instead of re-doing it with shingles, we would put a tin roof on.  It was certainly cheaper...

As you can see, if you compare this picture to the third one in this post, Dan built a new roof addition to cover the basement entrance and the addition entrance.  Before, the rain water was running straight down the side of the house and into the basement. 

 

We rented that dumpster and filled it to the brim...  

 



 

Another thing that needed to be fixed was the water main going to the house.  Sometime in the vacant years, it had busted during a hard freeze.  Our options were either to rent a mini excavator and dig it up ourselves or to pay someone else to do it.  And considering the fact that we had no idea WHERE the mess was in the 60-something feet of water main, we decided to just pay someone to do it.  It was a good thing that Dan told him to start digging right next to the house too, because that was where the bust was! 

 

In the back of the house, at the addition, there is a serious buildup of dirt.  One of our spring/summer projects this year will be to grade the whole property either by hand or with a bobcat.  This excess dirt has built up around the whole foundation and causes the water to just sit, eventually seeping into the addition.  Thus, causing lots of rot.  Of course we won't do the grading until it is warm out again, but we were able to put in a sidewalk, which helps quite a bit. 

 

Dan did the hard part.  I mixed the cement. 

 

This past week, Dan took out the tub in the downstairs bathroom and found a shower on craigslist that has never been used before.  So it will be nice to have two full bathrooms now, instead of just one and a half baths. 

 

Between the snow and icy weather, I have been staying indoors a lot.  I am really looking forward to it warming up, even though I still LOVE the winter weather.  The baby Shedd is growing fast.  We go to another midwife appointment Tuesday, and I always look forward to hearing the heartbeat.   

 

I will try to post sooner next time.  Hope you all are doing great!