Frandtastic!

(The cutest Mary and Joseph I've ever seen)

funny how the P is backwards...
he hated taking this picture (ask Mindy, she was on the phone)

We're in the airport! On our way home!

We left our house early because you never know about NYC commuting and we wanted a "cushion" in case of disaster.
We've already drank some Orange Dream Machine, watched some Office episodes, tried watching Raising Hope, and now Paul is MIA looking for the finest in airport dining. (just came back with some delicious food!)

But the good news is we will be back in the homeland soon! yay!

My project for the weekend: helping PB label his insect collection. You see- we're flying to the homeland on Tuesday night, and so Paul's finals/projects have to be turned in a week early. Poor guy has been working his heart out on a Population Genetics paper, so I volunteered to get my craft on and label those bugs. Aren't they pretty? Oh yeah- bad pic. (Okay! Okay! I'll grab the real camera!)

Everyone keeps writing such great blog posts, that I don't feel the need to.

Check out Paul's blog to see his early Christmas surprise. Also- he didn't mention this- but he won his race, so he's really the Pennsylvania State Champion... in case you haven't heard.
Also- isn't the towpath awesome!?

It's not secret that I'm very excited to head home for the holidays. Yesterday I was talking with my mom, and she mentioned a new project she's been working on. Today, I noticed our Carruth family blog was updated for the first time in a year, and found that my mom had revealed her big project.
This lady should start some kind of blog. Do you remember her gingerbread house? She does this sort of stuff all the time, it's amazing!
This year her project was our REAL house, not gingerbread- and she revamped our chimney. My dad was a big help too of course. Good job mom and dad! I wanted to show off your great work on my blog too!

Here is how my mom worked her magic (in her words):

For a long time, I've wanted to change the way our chimney looked. I considered a few options: stucco over all the brick (messy, and not quit the look I wanted); or stripping the paint off the brick (very difficult, plus not knowing if the bricks even look good. In the end, we decided to make it look like we uncovered the brick by painting them on.


We were going to try to tape off all the mortar lines, and sponge paint in between, but we couldn't find the right size tape, and/or it wouldn't stick. So Dave cut me some stencils out of a handy pizza box, and we were in business.We began by stenciling on some base colors, grey, black, brown and tan. Then, we used a brick red and sponged over the base colors, some heavy, some light, making it as random as possible.
 


We left the middle section unfinished because we are covering it with a mirror, anyway. Here's the kitchen side.

I was really pleased when my mom asked how we knew the brick beneath the paint would look so good. (Yeah, I fooled her).
Now, I just have to find something really cool to hang on it.

This finished product:


(She didn't mention this- but years ago, my parents added the mantel and the dark brick. The new mirror looks really great too!)

Good job mom and dad! I can't wait to see it in person!