Because of the long blogging absence, I'm going to be doing a series of "Year in Review" posts about what has been going on in our lives over the last year.  As part of our open adoption agreement we send monthly update letters to our adoption agency to be given to Emma's birth parents should they want an update.  In January I started keeping copies of those.  (Why oh why didn't I keep them all along?)  I also keep all of our digital photos of Em divided up by month for easier backing up.  So hopefully the year in review won't be a huge task :)

I've become a HUGE fan of Ana-White.com formerly known as Knock Off Wood.  Ana is a stay at home mom who has started creating DIY furniture plans. She has a huge variety of hundreds of different plans.  Many items are Pottery Barn inspired.

I'm a fairly handy person.  I'm crafty.  I love to create.  Whether it's from wood, paper, camera, computer, fabric, yard... you get the idea.  So Ana's site is right up my alley.  I've built a few basic things before, and Mark and I built our fence in our back yard.  I love DIY projects.

My first project was this set of stacking cubes.  I'm a bit of a perfectionist.  They are not perfect.  So I got a little discouraged, and distracted.  They are close to being finished, but they are in the garage... There will be five total cubes.  One stack of two and one stack of three.


My next project was a step stool for Emma.  She isn't getting a lot of use out of it yet.  It has built in storage under the top step.  She loves to open and close it.  I have used it to get her closer to the sink to wash her hands.  I can see it being more useful in the future though.  I still need to decorate it.

Then I decided on the next project.  (Are you getting that I'm out of control here?) I made a table that was a modification/combination of a couple of different Ana plans. I made it smaller so Emma can use it now.  I'm very happy with how it turned out.  She really likes it.

I'm going to make another chair for her and modify it so there are arms on the chair to help keep her from falling over.  I've got the lumber in the garage, just need to get out there and build it!

I have a funny story about the paint.  Now that we are a one income family, budget is very important.  I'm going to be redecorating Em's room to be pink and brown.  I had a gallon of white paint that I bought on clearance last year for something else, then didn't end up using it.  Then last month I was browsing the "oops" paint at Home Depot (an Ana White recommendation) and saw a pint of red paint.  I didn't have anything to make with the red paint, but hey, it's $1.00 and she's always talking about mixing up her own crazy custom colors, so why not?  So, think back to your elementary days... what do red and white make?  You got it!  PINK!!
I mixed up the paint for that table with my red and white paint in a pickle jar and stirred it with a chop stick.  Some times ya gotta make due with what you have.  I think it turned out quite well!!

My current project is a Christmas gift.  Since the recipient is too young to be reading blogs, I can talk about it here (as long as her mom doesn't show her a picture).  It's a doll bed.  The plans for this bed are modeled after the most downloaded plan from Ana's website, The Farmhouse Bed.  I must admit, it's very cute.  I may have to make myself a farmhouse bed.  This one is still a work in progress.  I built it today.  I still have to sand, fill holes, sand again, prime and paint.  It will be painted "Pickle Jar Pink." Then I will make bedding for it.  I believe I have scraps of fabric so the quilt will be free.  I have foam for a mattress.  It's designed for an 18" doll. So she can use it for awhile.  This gift will have a large investment of time, but not much money at all.  I think that makes it even more special.  I'll try to remember to post a picture when it's complete.

Three years ago I  made snowman kits to give to friends and family as gifts.  A snowman kit is wooden eyes, carrot nose, pipe, buttons, and carrot all on wooden dowels to poke into the snowman, and a fleece scarf.  All of these things are in a cute little burlap bag that I personalized.  I had extra supplies so I sold some through a forum I participate in as well as on ebay.  A co-worker wanted a bunch of them for her family, so I ordered more supplies.  She never came through.  So I boxed up the stuff and forgot about it.  My sister called a couple of weeks ago and asked how much it would be to make some more snowman kits for her to give to some people.  This reminded me that I had a bunch of supplies boxed up.  I dug through the boxes, and I found two kits, packaged and ready to mail.  I don't remember what happened, but I must have had an order fall through or something.  Tears came to my eyes when I saw the personalized name on one of the bags.  This was three years ago. God knew all along.

So, early last week I went to Once Upon a Child to look for a snowsuit and boots for Emma.  I succeeded in getting her a jacket, a snowsuit that looked brand new, and a hat all for $12.00.  I love a good deal!!  They didn't have boots her size.

Friday night, before I went to bed I looked outside to it had been snowing, and looked like it was starting to stick.  I immediately wanted to go to Wal-mart and get some boots so we could play in the snow in the morning.  It was quite late at night (or rather--early in the morning) so a trip to Wal-mart wasn't all to practical, so I went to bed.  Emma was still sleeping when I woke up, so I left Mark home with Em, and I went to get some snow boots.

We had a busy day ahead of us, and Emma was going to my sister's house for the afternoon.  This was the first time Emma had been with anyone but Mark or I since the end of August.  My mom had mentioned that the kids wanted to build a snowman.  I wanted so badly to be the one to build her first snowman with her.  So we hurried up and made it happen.  We all bundled up and went outside.  It did my heart good.  These are the memories I waited so long to start making.  I want to cry now just thinking about it.

I've been gone too long.  I know, I know, I've said it before.  Let's see if I can get back into the habit!  I post everything on facebook these days.  But I know at one time I had several followers that were not facebook friends.  I haven't blogged regularly in so long, it's doubtful that anyone will even see this stuff for a few months, but I'm going to work this week on doing some "Year in Review" posts.

I even redecorated the blog for the occasion. :)  For now I have a princess whining in her crib.  I guess no early nap today.

I had a coupon for a free photo book. I thought I had till the end of the month to use it. I looked at it it yesterday, and saw that it expired today! So I had to hurry and scramble to get something put together. I see lots of things I would have changed if I had more time, but I got in just under the wire!

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