what to say...

... after months of neglecting this blog? I could write a book - a very long, boring book. But I won't. I'll just say that life has been crazy! The end of November we went up to Red Lake and spent some time with my family and friends. It was a swell trip, aside from the hours on the road. Then pretty soon it was Chrsitmas already. How did that happen. We were able to spend a good chunk of time with Dave's family in Iowa on Christmas day and through New Years. If we can make it through January, February is shaping up to be a really fun month - get togethers with friends, more family, etc. But first we need to survive the next few weeks. Through a long chain of events, it has happened that we are (once again) moving the beginning of Feb. I've discussed at length our never ending issues with mice and bad water at this place. Well, ad to that a scare that there might be bacteria in the water (turns out there almost for sure isn't) and our landlord said he'd change our lease to a 6 month and we could leave the beginning of Feb. Despite my utter loathing of packing, loading, moving, and unpacking, the joy of departing our little rat den slightly overshadows that at this point. Of course I haven't really started packing yet. ha. Thankfully a lot of out stuff is still in boxes from our last move. We found a place we really like and are working on moving forward with that. Hopefully it all works out and we'll be there soon. I have lots of pics I could post, but for now I'll leave you with this one - some day we'll teach her to sit like a lady.

my fall project...

I wanted to do these letters for our new neice and it ended up taking way longer than I thought it would. Some aspects of it were really fun, others not so much. = ) But it was fun be creative again. I got some help with the finishing touches from my sis and friend up in Red Lake. So here you go - if I was smart I'd have step by step photos, but I don't. = ( But it's pretty simple - start with wooden letters, cut out scrapbook paper of your choice for each letter. Modge podge it on there, and then the really unfun part - sanding it down to the get edges to look nice. I was very perfectionistic, but the paint kept coming off and all that. Then my sis convinced me that it's supposed to look like that - a distressed look. So I tried to stop stressing about it. Oh, I forgot that step - paint the sides of the letters. With paint. I used yellow. Oh, and you modge podge the top of the paper too once it's stuck on there, to give it a nice shiny, finished look - likely my favorite part. Then put on any cutsey embelishments your heart desires and spend hours on each letter deciding what looks best with what. Then yer done!

oops - little ribbon placement problem at the bottom of the R. didn't notice that till I looked at the pictures.

(I'm secrectly in love with the "A.")
the end.