Time in the Hospital

 Today I finally had a little time download pictures and found some pictures to share from the hospital.  Above is a picture of Violet in her bassinet at the hospital.  Her dad brought in the blanket just for the occasion. I laughed a little because to me it is a boy's blanket.

Self portrait. Looking lovely.

 Gotta love the gown sleeve undone. I look a little uncomfortable, but the baby girl sure looks cuddly.

 She was a snuggler from the beginning and very sweet.

 A picture of the whole family. Does she look more like me or Abdu? I think that dad wins.

Sleeping away.

Violet Lametu

On St. Patrick's Day my little Violet decided to enter the world early.  I am thankful, because she only would have grown bigger.  She arrived 8 lbs and 11 oz, 21 3/4 inches long.  She looked like a little unicorn, but that quickly resolved.  I have a few pictures from the hospital, but none of them are really cute.  I will post those later.  Today I finally got around to taking some better pictures.  I wish I were rich and could have a professional take some cute pictures, but I feel like I didn't do to bad.  Here are more photos than you probably want to see.

Miscelaneous Gem

The Christmas of 2011 I was driving home to Utah and ran into this little store in Wyoming.  I was just taking pictures off my camera and saw it.  If only the stores here could be so versatile. A little sewing, a little drinking, and a lot of sports.

Slowly Moving Along

My life is pretty mundane, so all that is really happening is home projects as I prepare for this baby to come.  I am also attempting to be frugal, so the goal is complete the projects with what is on hand here in the house.  So far, so good.

Abdu helped me to clear out the downstairs room, which I am turning into a guest room.  It has no closet, so I think that makes it a den, but I figure it can be whatever I want it to be.  This is the room when the previous owner lived here.  If you can't tell the purple walls are sponge painted and there is lovely floral wallpaper all around. 

Shortly after moving in I had help from Natalie, Carrie, and one of their friends, Monica, in wallpaper removal.  I had other priorities though, so the room was put on hold and became a storage space.

When my mom and dad came, my dad became a miracle worker.  He spend a day and plenty of manual labor and created a masterpiece in the basement.  I had storage shelves down in the basement, but they were small and droopy.  He decided that I needed more and came up with these beauties.

Many of the items were moved down to these shelves when my parents were at my house, but there were stragglers.  I also had to remove the ceiling light in order to paint.  So, Abdu and I removed items and then began to fill the holes in the wall created by way too many wall hangings and torn paint that had been under the wallpaper.  Harley and Duke maintained their usual stances while I worked with Harley (blue collar) standing and Duke (red collar) lying down.

This week Carrie came over and motivated me to get the primer on everything in the room.  We were able to complete all the priming, Happy Valentine's Day to me!  Then Abdu and I painted the ceiling and the baseboards.  I used the same paint as I used in the kitchen.  Which I have to say is some quality paint, because I have only had to use one coat.  It covered the whole room.

Walls primed and ceiling painted.

Baseboard painted, but a look at how badly the floors need to be redone.  This is what they looked like when the carpet was pulled up....minus the splattering of pain from priming the walls.

Blue Walls

Not to bad looking, but there is still plenty of work to be done.

Before the room is guest ready, I will need to get the new light up.  The floor will need to be refinished and who knows what else will be in store for this little space.  It has been nice to check the projects off my list though.  Slowly, but surely they are being completed.

Kitchen Light

When working on home projects, even the little things become big things.  I forgot to post this picture down with the updated kitchen.  When you look at the before picture of the kitchen you can see the gold light fixture up on the ceiling.  Each project quickly dips into the budget, so as I am working I often have to find ways to save money.  I decided that since the knobs on the cupboards look similar to the light fixture, that I would just paint the light.  The top light is actually the sister light to the one in the kitchen above the back door, but it gives you a good perspective about what the light used to look like.