Well I have been thinking of starting back blogging, but had some pretty nervous moments.  I really enjoy it and it is definitely ‘good for me’ time.  But I had the nagging questions,

Can I do it and keep up with it?

Will anyone read it?

So considering all of this, I have decided to start back and this is my first venture back into the blogosphere! Yea!  I am very excited (albeit nervous) about this!

Here is a little update on our lives.  We are still working on the house but have completed a lot of it!  This does include the laundry room moving upstairs and out of the basement! Woot Woot!

We still have all 3 of our fur babies; Briggs, Shelby and Lady.  Lady is still my baby even though she has grown oh so much!  Here she is last year and this year:

Another new iron in the fire would be my job working for a local photographer.   How this came about is a post all in its own, but was most definitely God’s work!

Last but not least, we are expecting our first baby in October!!  Woo hoo! Yippeee!!  Needless to say we are thrilled! And nervous. And scared.  This is normal, right?  Being that I am a little older, I have been spoiled by having ultrasounds almost every time we go to the doctor.  I will show some of them in another post!  J

Everyone says our lives are about to change and never be the same again; they also say it is for the better even when it doesn’t seem like it.  I believe them because I have seen plenty of changes in me in the last few months!  The things they don’t warn you about!

Anyway, I hope everyone has a blessed day and see you soon!

 

We'll Work 'til Jesus Comes Wednesday

Well, any of you that have done any remodeling on a house or even just decided to update a few things, know exactly what I am talking about with my title.  I have to credit my MIL and her MIL with this song title.  This is what they say about our house and the work they have done already, and we have sang this lovely hymn a few times while we were working.  :)

So this will be the first of many installments on our progress remodeling our home.  Don't worry, I will try to keep it in somewhat short doses.  We will start with the beginning, when we first found our home.

My wonderful, amazing husband and I got engaged Christmas Eve 2009 and on Martin Luther King weekend we started house hunting.  Well, we looked at a lot of places and were getting pretty discouraged and then a friend told us to look at the foreclosures in the paper.  We did and found 3 or 4 to check out.  Our house was one of them.  We didn't call a realtor because we wanted to get a feel for things first.  The house had a side door unlocked (still wonder about that!) so we could sneak in and take a peak, so come join me walking around our house and what it used to look like.  :)

I believe our house was built in 1961 and they added a carport which they later turned into a screened-in porch.

The screened-in porch

 Front yard view and the front door.

The dining room area and the kitchen. 

The living room.

The 3rd bedroom and the bathroom on the main floor.

 The 2nd bedroom (check that closet!) and the 1st bedroom.

The basement stairway (love the fabulous green carpeting - NOT). 

 The first area in the basement.  It will be like a den or family room with couches, TV and a small table and chair set.  The wood stove has come in handy this year.

The doorways to the basement hall and the basement bedroom.

This was the gas furnace that was in the floor of the hallway upstairs so it protruded in the hallway in the basement.  Stay tuned for what happens to it later.

The basement bathroom and the basement bedroom.  The blue tape around the toilet is from the realty company.  They taped saran wrap around it so no one would use it since the water was turned off for the entire house.  :)

This lovely carpet was in the basement and holds surprises yet to come!!  

This picture shows what bad shape the hardwood floors were in when we got the house.

So if you are still here, yippee!  I feel like I have been through some of the work all over again just looking at these pictures.  Next week, we will start with the things we had to do to be able to live in the house much less make it pretty, but we always try to do that right? So we will be in the basement for a little bit.

Love and waggy tails,
Lee Ann

Monday Mutterings

Well, I am still trying to figure out what schedule to do so for now, today will be the first Monday Mutterings.  Mostly it will be an update of my life and that entails.  Hope it's not too boring for you!

One of the reasons I have not posted as much lately is I have been starting a new business.  Well, it's a new to me business, Bowtique Expressions.  One day in Hobby Lobby (gotta love that store!), I met a lady and her cute daughter and we discovered we had a lot in common.  She was working with two other ladies making handmade dresses, bows, ribbon sculptures, headbands and flip flops and you get the idea.  They would set up a booth at festivals to sell their wares.  The lady I met made the dresses and did the sewing and she was feeling overwhelmed so they invited me to join them.  Yippee!!  Well, apparently things were more overwhelming for her than we realized because she has decided to take a break for awhile and that has left the sewing to me.

So things have been quite busy for me and the other two ladies.  I have had orders for 11 dresses in 3 weeks along with a couple other things for gifts.  Most have been simple dresses, so not difficult but time consuming to figure out my work flow.  We are working on a website since most of our orders are from online.  Currently, we are using a Facebook business page.  :)

I did manage to get my "Easter" dress made last week.  Yes, it was the week after Easter but I still wanted to make it.  I made the Jaime dress by Sis Boom.  Sara over at Sew Sweetness had a sew along on her blog but I didn't get a chance to do it in her time frame.  It was very easy to follow and I had a lot of fun making it.  And since the royal wedding was happening, I got out one of my hats and donned some gloves!

On the home front, hubby and I are continuing to work on the house.  We are working in the kitchen and dining area.  With the help of family, our most recent lesson is about cabinets.  You cannot build a cabinet and then bring it in the house when you only have 1/4 inch clearance.  Happy to report we figured this one out before we put it together.  I picked out two pantry cabinets that are 96 inches tall so we had to work on these before we can do the tile, which is what we are working towards.  :)  We have a little demo to do first.  And yes, I love this part!! I even have my very own sledge hammer!! (and yes I can use it!! haha)

My MIL and BIL working on the pantry cabinets.  They rock!!

Well I think that is enough for the first time.  I don't want to mutter too much! I can talk a bit now and again, LOL.

Smiles and waggy tails,
Lee Ann