10 Months Growth

The last time Brett shaved was in January 2011. He can remember because the last time he shaved was the morning of his interview for Sacred Heart. He has had a beard for so long I kind of forgot what he looked like without one.... Well, now he looks like this......

Just kidding... He didn't like this look and went for just the mustache

Bretty Boy's new look

To get a feel for the various stages of Brett's beard check out the pictures below:


No shaving or trimming from January to first of June



The last day for the burly beard

Cousin Jan's Wedding
He HAD to wear the pink tie so
he HAD to be defiant and sport a handel-bar mustache

From June to November 12, 2011
Brett beard has looked liked this

Brett claims that he shaved in honor of "Movember" - Men's Health Awareness Month for Prostrate Cancer but I really think he did it just to be cool.
I am going to have to say that I miss the beard - the trimmed beard that it is. What do you guys think?

"Sew" much to do

With the weather turning cold I have had more time to be indoors and spend more time sewing..... Who am I kidding.... This has been the case for the last 3 months.....But this is what I have accomplished this week...
First, I made a hooter hider for a member of our ward. Brett is her home teacher and she asked if I could make her one. I forgot to take a picture so you'll just have to trust me on this one. I found some great fabric and she absolutely loved it when she opened the gift today.
I then made an ear warmer for the upcoming winter. I have always wanted one of these because I have such a small head that beanies and hats of any kind look ridiculous on me. So here is this one...

Next, the other day when we were at the temple, I looked down at my slippers and decided that I was going to make me some new temple slippers. I have never liked the ones that I got when I first went through. They are really tight and let's just say, lack any style what-so-ever (not that I'm trying to be stylish in the Temple or anything...) So I made me some new temple slippers and some new house slippers. They are so comfy and I love them!

Sorry they are side ways - too lazy to fix it

Then I made a few more car seat canopies - this time for boys. I made one for my sister-in-law to give as a gift and the other one is up for grabs if anyone wants it. Emily still has to decide which one she wants - but the other one is available if anyone is interested.

Side 1

Side 2

Side 1

Side 2

Here's a picture of a gorgeous tree that is by our house. Living in New England during the fall has made me love fall even more (if that's possible - minus that fact that today is the Pheasant Hunt and I missing it). Everyone says that the colors this year are not good but I still think it's beautiful. I am loving the area right now and am dreading winter!

We also had to say goodbye to a new found friend - Elder Okelberry. He's been the only missionary to be in our ward that has been here the whole time we have been here. This was his first area in the mission field and he did great work here. He was a huge asset to the ward (especially because he could play the piano and he did every Sunday). He was a hard worker and he loved having him in our home. We wish him good luck with the remainder of his mission! His companion Elder McAllister is still here and we can't wait to meet the new companion....

I was laughing so I look kind of silly in this picture - don't judge...

You know you wanna...

Buy this!
So I have been doing a lot of sewing in all of my spare time these days and I decided to make a sell a set of baby stuff. I want like to sell it to someone I know but if no one wants it from posting it here, I will sell it else where. So thought I'd give the opportunity to those I love first... So the set is this:

 These are the seperate items, although I am selling everything as a set.

This car seat canopy is reversible! There is also an elastic around the base of fabric so that it stays in place when you walk outside. No more fabric flying everywhere - you're little one will stay nice and cozy. The window is also reversible.

  Boutique Travel Wipe Case

 Two burps cloths

and a rag quilt that is small enough to fit inside the car seat but not big enough to be huge and bulky. Also would work great as a blanket to cover them up when they are in a swing or bouncer.
Selling price: $70 plus shipping
Let me know if you have any questions!

God is no respecter of persons

On Saturday, October 15, 2011 we made our first trip into the big N.Y.C. - YAHOO! We went on a ward temple trip with a few members of our ward. We rode down with Sister Neary (Bishop's wife) and Jose Gallardo (ward mission leader). Jose kept us laughing the whole time! What a funny guy! The ward tries to do a temple trip once a month and they alternate between Boston and NYC. We are really in the Boston Temple District but it's 2 1/2 hours away as opposed to the NYC Temple which is about 45 minutes to an hour.
Going to the temple was an amazing experience. The city is SO busy and it feels like you have to constantly run to keep up with the world. The taxi driver was insane and I thought for sure we were going to crash about 20 times just on the way there. There was very noisy construction going on right outside the temple and everything just seemed so rushed and crazy. Then we walked into the temple and felt an entirely different feeling; one of peace, rest, love, calm, clean, and the list could go on. A brother that was with us referred to NYC as 'Babylon' as we walked out of the temple and I couldn't agree more. Although I love the city there is such a noticeable difference in the feelings from being inside and outside of the temple that it is an experience in and of itself just to walk in the doors and then walk back outside!
While I was at the temple I went through for a person who was from Africa. I also noticed that all of her ordinances has been done on that very same day. When we were just about finished the woman a few people down from me leaned over to the woman next to me and me and told us that the people we were going through for were her family. The name she had was the mother and then the three women next to her were her daughters. What joy must have felt that mother and daughters' hearts as they were able to receive their ordnances at the same time. I imagine the 4 of them were in that room on Saturday, embracing each other their work was being done. After she had told us that, I recognized the ethnicity of each person that was doing the work for each of those sisters was different. The thought came to me that "God is no respecter of persons", He truly doesn't care what we look like or what color our skin is, all He cares about is bringing His children back to the fold so that they can also know and feel of His love. I was deeply touched by this experience and hope that it gives you something to think about.
I LOVE THE TEMPLE and can't wait to go back!

Columbus Day

How appropriate that on Columbus Day we drove on Columbus Highway?!? I told Brett that I felt like we should be singing a Columbus song. Good thing we don't know any.
Yesterday, we drove to the great state of Massachusetts. The original plan was to head up to Camp Joseph in Sharon, VT, which is the land that the church owns and the birth place of our beloved prophet. However, we stayed up WAY too late chatting with friends and family on skype so we decided to alter the destination just a bit. We headed up to what is called the "Mohawk Trail", which is supposedly supposed to be the best scenic drive to see the fall foilage in all of New Enlgand. Unfortunately, once we got there we were told that we were about 1 week too early and that we weren't really going to get to see too many colors.
Despite the minimal fall foilage we had a glorious day! We went to the Village of Shelburne Falls and it really is just as village. It's very small town and was so nice to be able to feel like we weren't surrounded by 5 million people who just wanted to run us off the road. We did get to see some beautiful fall colors - however, you'll just have to take my word for it because we didn't/couldn't really pull off the road to get a good picture.
But here are some pictures from the Village of Shelburne - they are known for their Galcier Potholes and the Bridge of Flowers so the pictures are all from those two sites.

Bridge of Flowers

Brett loving every minute on the bridge

View of hillside from Bridge - much our drive looked like this

This is a picture that I took for my grandpa.
Brett kept calling me 'Adrian' for those who might enjoy that little tidbit

The Glacier Potholes with the town in background

Potholes

Potholes



These were the first horses that we have been able to actually see - we know there are more around, we just haven't seen any



As a side note, here's an update on how the couch turned out. (I made the pillows too!)

I also was given the task to recover the cushions from a rocking chair from a lady in our ward. She had the fabric already and said that she's been waiting for about 12 years to get this chair recovered. I honestly thought that I wouldn't be able to do it and make it look good. But i did it! I think this is the project that I am the most proud of right now. Here's what the cushions looked like before and after - I didn't get one of the whole chair because the frame was at her house.

Before

After (there were 5 pieces, this was the biggest)

Another sidenote - this is the beach by our house. in the distance is Long Island. There is only one building that is on Long Island that we can really see without straining our eyes to see - but you can tell there is a land mass in the distance



Fall is here and we are loving it!

Projects Galour!

After graduating in May my life went from being very busy to very dull pretty quick. I knew that I had to find some things to do to keep myself busy during the summer or I would do insane. So I did just that. I found lots of projects that kept me busy.
My first project of the summer was refinishing an old desk that used to be Brett’s grandpa Lamar’s. It had been sitting in our house on the back porch for a year collecting dust and I vowed that it would be the first thing that I would do as soon as I had free time. And free time I did have… I was also going to take some pictures of the before and after of the desk but I got too excited about refinishing it and before I remembered I was almost done…. So all you get is that after pictures. You’ll just have to trust me that I really did it. I can tell you that it did all used to be one color and now it’s 2!

Brett’s family also had a garage sale in which they donated all of the proceeds to Relay for Life, which they participate in every year. There was this old frame of a couch which I would have bought for myself but knowing that we were going to be moving soon I knew that wasn’t an option. So I loving thought of someone who could use a couch on their porch (my mother) and told her that she was buying it so that I could refinish it for her…. I’m the best daughter, huh?!? Again, I got too excited to refinish it before I took a picture but here are the end results. Oh... I refinished her porch swing to match and now it also has matching pads on it but I don't have a picture of it.

This is actually a very comfy couch and works fanstically on their porch

Next, I decided to build myself a magnet board. I’ve needed something new to put picture on and my best friend Heidi got married and at her shower she was given a very cute magnet board. So I copied the idea and made my own. I can’t believe how easy it was!

A few days after I had finished that magnet board I was in a friends office and she had a very cute idea for hanging/displaying pictures. I just HAD to make it too! All it is, is 4 boards nailed together with plastic chicken wire stapled to the back and then mini clothespins that hang them up. Super easy and very cute! The original one I saw a bit more rustic and she just left the wood bare. But I decided that I wanted to paint mine and my cute sister-in-law, who is way more creative than I will ever be thought it would be cute to cute some vinyl lettering and put on it. So I did! Here is mine that currently hangs in my house, and then I also made two others for wedding presents with their last names on it (also pictured below).

This was what mine looked like until I painted it - I almost left it like this
but thought that with the lettering it would look better painted.

Another shot of the kitchen before, on the left hand side of the picture you can only see that the back room also has wall paper all over. I didn't get a before picture of that room so take note of small portion you have here.
BEFORE

Next, Brett’s mom, Susan has been saying for the last couple of years that she has wanted to redo/repaint her kitchen. So I got talking to her about it one night and soon enough I was painting the whole house! I did get a few before pictures of some of the rooms so I will try to show you the changes that we made. Our favorite rooms ended up being her master bed and bath. Sadly, I don’t have a before and after picture of that but just trust me that it was a BIG change. I painted their whole upstairs, 8 rooms and 1 hallway (minus one room – the living room) in just 10 days. Working with Suz on this project was a blast, I will redecorate/paint anyone’s house if they pay for it!J I now understand better why it takes Brett forever making decisions – he gets that from his mother – but usually the decisions he makes are better than my not-so-thought-through decisions. All-in-all this major project was a success and it was even fun!


In this picture you get an idea of what the
 family room,
the bathroom (room with light on)
and the kitchen looked like BEFORE

Tea cart area - entrance into the house
BEFORE

Kitchen again - looking into the living room
(which I didn't paint)
BEFORE

Kitchen area
AFTER



Kitchen area
AFTER

Bathroom
BEFORE (minus the painting stuff)



Bathroom
AFFTER



Office
BEFORE

Office
AFTER

TV/Family Room
AFTER (refer to top picture for comparison)

No Before of this room but it was full of stuff and unusable because of that
However, a little organizing and a fresh coat of paint and the kids have a huge play room all for themselves

Master Bath (no Before)

Master Bath (no before)

Master Bedroom (no before)

Master Bedroom (no before)

Back porch/laundry room AFTER
Before picture was only a little view from the kitchen

The projects kind of stopped for a brief moment because of the big move and then settling into our new apartment was a project in and of itself! But now I am back on the project wagon thanks to the awful luck of not finding a job, having WAY TOO much time by myself and the newest addition to our family…. My Sewing Machine! It was a cheap one from Walmart but it had great reviews online and it certainly does the job! So far I have made a new scripture bag (thanks to this website http://alove2create.blogspot.com/2011/02/scripture-bag.html) and a new messenger bag style purse (thanks to this website http://www.craftbits.com/project/messenger-bag). I’ve been looking for a cute messenger bag purse since we got here because I have to go to a Laundromat to do our laundry and I HATE having to set my purse down because when I am moving the clothes around I have to take it off my shoulder because it just keeps falling off and is super annoying. So I got the pattern from online and made it the size that I wanted. I was even able to sew pockets! Man… I would have to say that I am quite impressed with myself. Who knew sewing could be so easy/fun/time consuming – just what I need! 

The new addition to my world...

The Scripture Bag

Check out the pockets! There is two pen holders, a cell phone pocket and a lipstick holder all in one!

I am currently working on a new couch cover for our new futon and some pillows to go with it…. I will let you know how it turns out. Oh– and I’m would also LOVE to make a car seat cover like this…. But I don’t have anyone to make it for. Anyone need one?