Good Bye 2012, Hello 2013

What a year it has been!
I gave birth to my most adorable son in May and since he was born I don't know where the time has went.   
I gave up my apron business and am finally feeling good about not producing crafts to make a profit. There is a lot of pressure when you try to create something you hope people will like and then buy. 2011 was a far better year for aprons.  I'm not looking for something else to spend money on to sell though, I'm content.  
And now I look forward to focusing on creating a comfortable home for my little family.  Without thinking about moving to another location to open another business, I can just be, and be content.  I look forward to revamping our current livingroom ceiling, which is suspended.  I look forward to building a open curved booth in the corner of our dining room to create more flow.  I look forward to putting a vintage tin back splash in my kitchen, installing a floating floor in our livingroom, applying tin look ceilings on the 2nd floor of our home, painting our livingroom, decluttering, and hopefully taking over the property right next door to us.
I have non traditional New Year's Resolutions such as paying off my car to my dad which should have been done in 2010.  Paying off our van we just purchased with a loan this past August.  Getting home improvement projects done, successfully living wheat-free, exercise 3x a week, get back to 135 lbs ideally by May so I can reprogram my body before trying for baby #3.
My resolutions may more or less be goals, but that's what I plan and pray for.
I'm in the process of cleaning my home vs going out (super cold here in NE Minnesota) but I'm not a party goer, I am a home body.  I'd like to ring in the New Year with a nice clean home vs one I'm always trying to play catch up in.
Happy New Year to you!  If you are out and about Safe Traveling!
What are your plans this evening?

Catching UP

Now that we are home from visiting and I am finally home from work and from running errands, picking up my son, and getting him to bed, I'm frantically trying to catch up.  I didn't have time last week before we left or started the Christmas events to do laundry, so now I am trying to get it all washed and put away.  I have about 6 loads!

I'm still trying to put gifts away and fun new thrifted treasures, I'd love to find my dining room table, its quite barried at the moment.  I did take pictures of my fun finds but they are unfortunately going to have to either wait until way later tonight or tomorrow as the camera cord seems to have been lost in everything I need to put away.

I'd love to start getting to bed around 10pm but I don't know when that will be feasible either.  I'll post pictures later if I finally catch up.  I'd like my home to be prim and proper to ring in the new year!

Unpacking

I'm not sure whether I do or don't like to unpack.  We just arrived home from our Christmas trip to see my dad in Central Minnesota.  I unpacked our van and pretty much filled up the livingroom with stuff we brought, stuff we received as gifts, and stuff we bought while thrifting.  I quickly unpacked as much as I could before going off to church this afternoon and now there are those pieces that will take a day or two to finally get stored in the proper place.

I have so many things I would like to do, which would a long, hard days work to do it with out having a little boy.  So essentially when I get home from my 18 hour shift tomorrow at 2pm it will more then likely take a few days to put everything away as my little one depending on his mood may or may not let me get anything done tomorrow.

I also feel as now that Christmas is over I should also undecorate the Christmas tree and out the door to go.  But I guess a Christmas tree is to stay up for the 12 days of Christmas which will delay me in getting our livingroom ready for a new paint of coat which now won't happen until after January 6th.

And now off I must go to get ready for work, make a quit errand, get to my mother's for dinner, and then dash off to work.  I fear my husband is going to irritate my parents however and show up way late.  He's lazy and he knows it and it irritates me so very much!  Grr.  Well, I hope you had a terrific day, my post tomorrow will be more exciting as I'm hoping to have pictures inserted to previous posts and show what I will be up to tomorrow!

Thrifting

Today, my dad, my husband, my son and I went thrifting in central Minnesota.  I told my dad, thrifting is like garage saling for the winter.  Though thrifting you can spend hours in one store vs getting in your car and driving around and some times getting lost.

As long as I can remember after I was thru with college I tried accomplishing a adult modern looking home but as I had much fun thrifting today I was reminded that I own my own home and I don't need my home to look like an accomplished adult home.  I love white washed furniture, shabby chic, and bright colors like cerlean blue.  So forget the accomplished adult look, I'm gonna get comfy in my home and customizing it to the way I want it to look.  I also tried catering to my husband's likes which are far from mine and he doesn't help with much of anything so why not do what I want.

I found some awesome fabrics thrifting today and yesterday that were once sheets or curtains that I plan on upcycling into curtains or table cloths or clothing or a new purse/wallet for myself.  I came across an awesome find yesterday.  I have an antique high chair I've been in the process of refinishing for my little boy only the problem with it is the tray lifts up over his head and comes down.  That's not so much as the problem though as is when he sits in it, I can't adjust the tray to get closer to him, creating at least 6" of space between him and the tray.  I don't know about you, but everything will end up in his lap.  I tried thinking of ways to convert it to a high chair I could move the tray closer but before finding any hard ware I came across another older but more modern high chair for $12.75.  The tray is bubbling a bit with the paint, but my step-dad has already told me he will sand blast it for me.  This high chair I found is table height where as the other one we have is more in line with a bar table.

I have plans for painting our livingroom after the new year starts in which I will start changing the look of the livingroom more for my liking.  I'll post pictures when I get home this weekend.  I didn't bring my camera cord with this weekend (oops!).

Then & Now

I'm currently working on a "In Memory of" Quilt.  I've never made a quilt in my entire life.  A friend of mine over at Finnish Ethnic Creations in Embarrass, MN has been doing crafts for 30 years.  When you want to learn a new one I call Deb Wiitanen.  Her classes are all hands on, 1:1, and entirely affordable.  The memory quilt I am working on is in memory of my paternal grandmother to whom I loved and miss very dearly.

When I was a little girl and my parents were busy at work and I would get sick, she would take care of me.  Or when school was out for the day I would go to her house after school until my parents were off of work to pick me up.  Then when I turned 16-years-old she fell in the middle of the night and broke her hip.  When she returned home I spent my entire Christmas vacation with her and all weekends until she was back to her old self.  I essentially became her primary care giver until a stroke took her in August of 2008.

My grandmother LOVED butterflies of all colors and varieties.  So after she passed away I started collecting fabrics with butterflies on them knowing that I wanted to create a quilt.  Well, Deb got me started on a pattern and I cut out squares of the fabrics of the butterflies.  But part of my quilt has 2x2 inch squares and I want to use this space for fabric photos of my grandma and me.  I have a few but I was hoping my dad would have a lot more.

He found a box of scrapbooks he thought was what I was looking for.  It wasn't as my dad is still a child in most of the books meaning I'm not in any of them.  But the box he found is full of the cards my grandparents received from their wedding in 1946.  I'm amazed at how small the cards are.  I even found their wedding invitation.

My grandmother also had curriculum books from when she was in school.  One in particular I'm going to have to share in an upcoming post was Home Economics from when my grandmother was in the 6th grade which was around 1929.

Life is so much different now then it was then.  My dad often says that the 1950s and 1960s were such a better time and if he could ever repeat or have life lived like a certain era those would be the times.  And I have to say I think they would be.  Interest rates were high on investing and saving your money, people didn't use credit cards nor did they quite exist yet people had the mentality that if you wanted it you had to save up for it.

I found a quote by an unknown author in an antique store this past fall that stated, "This recession won't be over till we raise a generation that knows how to live on what they've got" -author unknown
Now if everyone read this, understood this, and lived by it, life might be just a bit better and got us through the recession so we could live like they did then.

Noah's 1st Christmas

Well, I was right, Noah could care less about unwrapping Christmas presents, though he did seem to like what was under the wrapping paper, even more if it made some sort of noise.  He didn't especially like the dinner grandma had for him though, he wanted what we were eating.  I screwed up on my part I could have introduced him to beef before Turkey or Chicken so we would have known whether or not he was going to have an issue with it or not and then he could have had what we had.  But there's always next year when he'll more then likely have some teeth.

Noah's Christmas gift to his daddy was a dog tag that was inscribed, "Daddy" and then "Peyton 2008 & Noah 2012."  Christmas is espeically hard for me for two reasons.  One, in 2007 I lost my dear grandmother.  I took care of her for the 7 years prior to her leaving us and she truly was one of my bestest of friends.  Then in 2008 I was pregnant for the very first time and we lost the baby in a miscarriage.  We named our miscarriage Peyton so we would never forget our first little one.  My mother also got a similar gift except it was a metal circle that was inscribed "grandmother" with Noah & Peyton with the years they either were to arrive or did arrive.  Grandpa got a sweatshirt I had a friend of mine embroider that said, "A dog may be a man's best friend, but Grandpa is my best friend, Love Noah" © 2012. All Rights Reserved Jennifer Smith  

Peyton is just as common of a name in our house hold as is Noah.  I used to design and sew aprons and I had named the children's apron Peyton for boys or girls.  My huband found a Christmas tree ornament this year that spelt "Peyton" the way we spell it vs Payton.  He also found one for "Noah."

Noah's first Christmas is just beginning. We celebrated Christmas with my mother and her husband last night on Christmas Eve, today if my husband weren't working we'd be on our way with my mother and her husband to Christmas at my grandparents in a tiny little town in central MN called "Genola," to see my mother's side of the family.  But, my husband has to work so we are heading off to his mother's in about a half an hour.  Tomorrow we'll be traveling to central Minnesota to my dad's home where we'll be staying for the remainder of the week to celebrate with him, and then my mother's parents on Thursday.  This was a normal Christmas for myself growing up over the years, I see it the same for Noah.

Later when we come home it will be all about unpacking the car only to repack for another outting into the van.

Merry Christmas and Safe Travels

Merry Christmas

Today is Christmas Eve, in about 5 min I'm going to go start the car, then we're going to church an hour early to save seats for my parents.  This has been such a tradition since I was old enough to drive.  Jenni's going to save seats!  At least I have some help this year as I have for the last 5 years.  My husband will be saving with me as well as our son Noah who is celebrating his very 1st Christmas!  Not sure what Noah thinks about all the hustling and justling nor do I think he really cares about presents yet.

As I wait I gaze at our Christmas tree in hopes that next year it will be full of hand made decorations made with my little boy vs the mix of store boughten Christmas ornaments, silver garland, and ornaments from when I was a little girl.  I'm thinking of burlap garland and all the fancy ornaments we can make from packaging from products we use every day.
Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.