Friday, November 20, 2009

Hopeful-New-House No Longer!

We now own the house! I just got back to my parent's place after signing all the papers and unloading a pickup load of stuff. Busy times ahead as our belongings are scheduled to be delivered tomorrow.

The next post I write should be coming from our new place. Hopefully, we'll get the ol' internet hooked up soon.

Come on for a visit. The door is open!! Just don't pay any attention to the boxes.

Thursday, November 19, 2009

House Update

Well, we are in the final push! Tomorrow (Friday) at 10 a.m. is the scheduled closing on our hopeful-new-house! This past week has been a frantic scramble to get it all together. I think our mortgage broker has been doing most of the frantic scrambling!

Today I discovered I needed to take our down payment in the form of a cashier's check. Well, the bank with which we have our accounts does not have any branches in the area! We had to do some quick thinking and phone calling. It looks like Big Fish will be able to wire the money while he is in VA picking up our belongings with the moving company.

Did I mention that I had to get power of attorney to sign the papers for Big Fish and I? Just another detail we had to take care of this week. I can't wait for the big sigh of relief that will happen after the papers are signed!

As I told our mortgage broker, we sure do have a lot to be thankful for (even with our closing day being pushed around). As another friend in a very similar house situation described; we just have to realize that this is all part of God's plan!!

One wonderful event this week for which we are mightility thankful: the arrival of my brother! He landed in Philly yesterday from his job as a missionary doctor in Uganda. He'll be home for about 3 weeks; we'll get to see him next week! Brookie has been coloring lots of pictures in preparation for her uncle's visit!

Monday, November 16, 2009

Knitting News

I'm having a love affair with the cable! In my very limited kniting experience it is one of the most fun stitches to do. Check out some pictures of my latest projects; one of which includes a wonderfully chunky cable running right up the center of the scarf.

The rust yarn on the single needle is the very beginning of a hat for Brookie. This pattern I am teaching myself how to do a picot edge. I think the yarn color is so rich and yummy!

The last couple of pictures show Small Fry modeling his new hat. On this project I learned how to use DPN's (double pointed needles). This was a cute little pattern available for free on Ravelry.















We have received news that our closing date for the new house is scheduled for this Wednesday afternoon. Yippee! Now I just want to scramble and get my mom's kitchen curtains done. I'm working on the valance for the last window.

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Follow Me

A new gadget (or widget) has been added to the right side of the blog. I don't really know the correct term; what is the difference between a gadget and a widget? You can follow me and stay on top of updates. Before I knew about following blogs, I manually clicked to each blog in which I was interested. This was a little bit of a time waster because often I was checking and re-checking blogs that did not have new entries. I love following blogs now, and I can really zip through and see who has something new. I hope it works for you!

Another area for my blog improvement is the banner. I would really like to make something personalized. This is a work in progress.

Today is a bank holiday (Veteran's Day), so we have no news on our closing date. Our mortgage broker is encouraging us with the idea that our closing should be early next week. We might be able to sleep in our new house next weekend!

Monday, November 9, 2009

Monday, Monday!

This is what happens to us when daddy leaves for the work week! Small Fry has to sit in a box to read his book, and Brookie has pj's on that do not even come close to matching. In mama's defense, daddy loves to see what fashion extremes he can go to in the choice of pj's including last night!




We have had a bit of great news just now; the second appraisal on our hopeful-new-house just came in the email! This appraisal is higher than the first, so we're hoping for a quick closing. We are thankful!


Today is project day. I've started to make some kitchen curtains for my mom. They're to be her Christmas present if I can get them done. She knows about them. Actually, she picked this awesome fabric!

It's a great little pattern on an almost wheat colored background. I have two regular size windows - about 40 inches wide or so and then a valance in the third window to make. Curtains are fun.....just a lot of straight seams!



Thursday, November 5, 2009

The Waiting Game and Fabric.

Our family is waiting - learning patience - for the second appraisal on our hopeful-new house! We are supposed to hear something today, but the appraisal company is based out of CA. We east-coasters hope that we will hear something tonight. I've always wondered if people who travel a lot for work have problems with time changes!





I did something rather adventurous today: I took some of my handmade items to a local shop! (I know, I totally lacked a transition there.) Tapas, located in downtown Sewickley, takes artists' work on consignment. They took some of my things! I most appreciated the time the owner took with me. This really is my first time approaching a store, and she was most helpful with suggestions. I really, really need to find cheap fabric and I mean cheap prices.





I lament the fact that a certain large store (name begins with a W) no longer sells fabric. Any suggestions you might have for finding fabric would be much appreciated. Maybe my research will help you a little bit. This site has served me well. It has great sales, and free shipping is available on orders over $35. Etsy has produced some quality fabric from individual shops. It just takes a little time to find sales. I have even bought fabric on ebay!





I am hoping to find some fabric suppliers in the Amish country when we move a little more close to that area. Lastly, it's a great idea to make friends with your local fabric stores. Fabric does go on sale, and they might be able to help you locate and order specialty items. A local yarn store, actually, carries a line of Kaffe Fassett fabric that I love. I asked if they ever put the fabric on sale, and the owner said she could give me 15% off right there! It never hurts to ask........ Oh, one more place I found cute fabric on sale was IKEA.





Hopefully, this will help someone out there! And hopefully, we'll have a house update soon! And hopefully, all the links in this blog post work! Thanks, Amy, for your help in that area.

Monday, November 2, 2009

We've Got Nothin'...

as far as Halloween costumes go! Check out all this great fun from other people:


In this post, I love how the whole family was involved. They look so great!
Have a glance at this amazing costume!
Amy did such a wonderful job with her little guy's getup.
This Curious George theme just killed me. Take a look!


So, what do we have? Here, this is what is on my camera from the weekend:



















This, people, is a naked kid with 2 small pumpkins! His sister calls them "punkins".




















Disclaimer - we actually had costumes that we actually put on the kids, but we didn't get pictures! I think I'll coin a new phrase for this situation: "parental error".
Enjoy your "punkins"!