Mountain Rose Herbs Giveaway

Ok. I am super excited about this giveaway.

I already make my own laundry soap, which is super easy and I believe I have been remiss in posting about it. I will soon remedy that situation.

I would love to make more cleaning solutions to use around the house - and this company might just help me be able to do so, for free! :)

This giveaway from Mountain Rose Herbs is amazing!

If I happen to be the lucky winner, I'll definitely post back and let y'all know how many great items I'm able to create from all these wonderful ingredients.


I hope I win.
:-)

Sewing

I finally like sewing again.

Here's why.

First, the history: my mom sewed almost all of my clothes when I was young. She even made my prom dresses and my wedding dress. And my bridesmaids' dresses. And I could go on and on.

But I won't. {You're welcome}

I learned how to sew, but since my mom always did the sewing, I never really had to. Earlier this year I finally got rid of an old machine that wasn't working well (and helped create a disdain for anything that had to do with using that machine) and replaced it with a new machine from Costco. I got a great deal too since a), it was at Costco and 2), it was the "floor model", so I got a discount on top of the already good price.

Last weekend I found this sewing table - complete with old (early 60's?) Singer sewing machine. I haven't tried that machine yet, but I was told it works. So I cleaned the table up yesterday and gave it a light coating of Old English, and it looks pretty good. It really needs to be refinished - the stain was chipping off here and there as I was cleaning it. But it will work for now.

I added my knobs to the drawers for my own personal touch, and put my new machine on top. I sewed some little mermaid tail toys for my girls this afternoon and flipped out the top flap of the table on the right side for more table space - it worked out really well. I can't put my machine on top of the existing one when I flip out the left side of the table - it won't fit in the space unless I put some other piece of wood over the top of it. But the way it is for now worked like a charm. I'll most likely be keeping this around for a while.

I think it turned out pretty nicely for ten bucks. And the machine looks in good shape to boot -- I'll be trying it out later and let you know how it goes.

 What shall I sew next?

Antiques

I love yard sales. I love to find great deals on stuff that other people want to offload. As a result I sometimes end up with my own "offloads" so I also enjoy spending time with my dear friends having our own yard sale once or twice a year.

A few weeks ago I went out with one of my friends and we both found antique glass door cabinets, they were in a driveway back to back. She looked at one, I was drawn to the other. It was so much fun to find these things!!

So here's mine. It goes great in my entry way. I put my fun kitchen knobs on it instead of the brass-y ones that were on it, and it's perfect.

Enjoy.
I know I do, every time I walk by.

  

Glorious.

No Soliciting Please.

Not sure what “no soliciting” means?

Let me put it another way:

If I don’t know you, please don’t come to my door asking me for anything, sharing any information with me, offering me free *anything*, urging me to vote for your cause, or requesting my opinion. Additionally, please don’t come to my door trying to sell me anything (and just so you know, “soliciting” does not necessarily mean you’re selling something).

On the other hand, if I know you, please, by all means, come over, chat, tell me about your day, or offer me the option to purchase some Girl Scout cookies. I’ll even invite you in. I enjoy having people over. I don’t want any of my friends to get the wrong idea. If I actually know you, you’re always welcome. Seriously. I'm not trying to be rude. Honest.

So back to this sign by my front doorbell. Is it still not clear to you? Would you still like an official definition?

Definition of Soliciting:

~to make a request, application, or entreaty to (a person for business, support, etc)

~to urge (as one's cause) strongly

~to try to obtain by usually urgent requests or pleas (solicited donations)

So, “no soliciting” means do *not* do any of the above things.

Kindly do not knock on my door asking me to buy anything, requesting me to sign anything, or seeking to obtain me as a customer for anything. If I want to buy, sign, or be a customer, I will do so of my own choosing, when I want to do it. Not because some stranger knocks on my door.

Still want to argue with me by telling me that “it’s ok, I’m not asking for money” or "I'm not selling anything"? On the contrary, it’s not ok, whether or *not* you’re asking for money. If I don’t know you and you are trying to talk me into *anything*, you are ‘making a request’, or ‘urging strongly’, or 'trying to obtain' something from me. Even if it’s just using up 5 minutes of my time.

Do not try to tell me that I have my terminology wrong by saying “oh, you mean peddling”.

Definition of Peddling:

~to travel about selling wares.

~the act of selling goods for a living

So - Yep. No peddling either. But peddling falls under the umbrella of soliciting – you’re asking for something. You are walking up to a house of someone that you don’t know, and you’re trying to talk them into buying, listening, letting you come in and clean a carpet, or to install a ‘free’ security system (just to name a few).

All I am asking is that you pass by my house. I don’t want any. Free or not. No, thank you.

It’s really that simple.

If I happen to answer the door (which I should apparently think twice about doing), and you start talking, and I listen for a minute (looking for a place to interject) so that I don't rudely interrupt, and then I ask you kindly to take note of my sign and that I do not accept solicitors at my home, do *NOT* argue with me. If you argue with me, you are immediately considered hostile and you will be treated as such. I will not tolerate someone standing in my doorway telling me that I am in the wrong by asking them not to continue with their requests because I am not interested.

One more thing. I’m sorry to say, my front porch light is currently out. So if you come at night, which you shouldn’t be doing anyway, I will give you the benefit of the doubt and just tell you that I don’t accept soliciting, and kindly ask you to leave the premises.

But if you come in broad daylight when my sign is clearly visible, tell me that I am in the wrong when I show you that I have a sign that asks you not to offer me *anything*, free or not, and then you stand at *my* doorstep and argue with me about the definition of the sign, then who’s really wrong?

Yeah. I thought so.

Amen.

House

OK. So the year in review wasn't as quick as I had hoped. Oh well.

Here's a picture of us in front of the new house. It's our "happy new year" card picture. Enjoy...

Most Current House Pictures

Click the picture to see the most current 2009 pictures!!

Photobucket Album

New House Pictures

If you click on the picture below it should take you to my photo album of pictures of the house. It starts with some of the options we chose for our house. Then you'll see the empty lot, and lots of pictures of the progress!
We're really excited. The completion date is January 20, so we're nearly a month away from moving in.
Enjoy the pictures, I will add more as we take more, so check and see what comes next!
The following album has our 2008 pictures...there's another album with the 2009 pictures.

Photobucket Album

Wow. I've gone a whole month now and haven't posted a single thing. I have been meaning to post pictures of our house progress. I will do so soon. In the meantime, for updating purposes, I will just write a brief overview of the last month.

We've moved in with Brian's parents until our house is done. Our house is scheduled to be done by January 20. We are very thankful for our new house, for a place to stay in the meantime, and for God's hand in all of it. I will post my pictures soon.

Things are so busy right now that I don't have much time to do it. This week is our Christmas program at church so I've been running here and there to practices and stuff.

It's really interesting to see how fast the house has progressed. In fact I might even put the pictures in a different form than posting here because frankly, posting multiple pictures on my blog posts is kind of a pain. So I will think about that.

In the meantime, please be patient with me and I will make a way to view the pictures very soon.

Famous last words.

My Shiny House

As promised (read below to see the earlier posts where I promised pictures...) here are pictures of my bright shiny sparkling spotless house. We have cleaned, de-cluttered (we have a bunch of our things in storage, we knew we needed more space, but wow...), painted almost every room, and now our house is ready to sell. I took a bunch of pictures today, partly for my ad and partly to show my mom and sisters, who probably won't be able to visit to actually SEE this wonder. I'm praying that this house will sell quick enough that they won't have the chance, even though I want them to see how awesome it looks. We really had accumulated a bunch of stuff over the years. I had many useful "creative storage solutions" but it really all boiled down to clutter! So we cleared out stuff and are ready to show someone how awesome this house actually can be. I'm adding the picture of the front of the house, and also of "The Great Wall of Pasco", since it looks so good! I will miss my wall.
I "panoramanized" (that's my own made-up word) a bunch of pictures so you can get a view of the whole thing. Most of them turned out really good. You can tell that some parts are a bit stretched out, but you get the idea here.
So Mom, Tan, and Tash, I want to hear how you like my pictures and our rooms!!
And if anyone else has any words, let me hear them! By the way, if you know of anyone who wants to buy a house, please let them know that this little number is for sale!!
(Click here to see my ad on Craigslist)

Our cute little house:

The Great Wall of Pasco:

My Awesome Kitchen:

The Living Room, from several angles:

Emma's room:

and her reading corner:
Rachel's room:

And her reading corner:

Our room:

Late Nights

You know, it's usually very late at night when I update my blog. Why, you ask? Well, it's because once Brian and the Trolls go to bed, it's party time for me. I can get stuff done with no interruptions! I can play my Lego Indiana Jones X-box game, and then after relaxing with no one asking if they can play with me, I put away the game and do dishes, laundry, and update stuff on the computer. This is how it is with me. I just keep finding more things that I can do and then I end up staying up late. again. The nice thing is that I can usually sleep in, at least for now. I'm not working "in the office" at the moment, since we're getting our house ready to sell. So I'm doing some work from home, while juggling the house stuff, taking the girls to their swimming lessons, and running errands. So again it's late at night and I'm doing things other than sleeping. It usually catches up with me by Saturday morning, when there's no swimming lessons, and I can sleep in even more. But for some reason, I usually get woken up by a troll asking for pancakes or by the neighbor mowing the lawn (not ours, unfortunately), or by a phone call from someone who has no idea that they're disturbing my slumber on a Saturday morning. It's pulling teeth to get this pancake-lover out of bed on a weekday, but on Saturday, she's up bright and early! WHAT is UP with THAT?? I guess it's my own fault for not just going to bed when I know I should. So I suppose I should get to bed, but I really want to get these pictures on my blog so my mom can look at them! They are of my house all shiny and spotless for my house-selling ad. So I will post them and THEN go to bed. So my little troll can wake me up at the crack of dawn (ok, usually more like 9:30) for pancakes.
Yum yum.