Countdown: Days Five & Six

Day Five: I love you more than cookies!

I love p-nut butter blossom cookies, but for whatever reason, I never really think about making them other than around Valentine's Day. Must be like Easter and Easter eggs. I decided to go all out on the Day Five love note with this line "I love how I know for a fact that you will be better than me at changing poopie diapers." What do you think...too much romance??

Day Six: XOXOXOXO

Today's gift was six construction pencils. It's enough pencils to last 10 years, but hey, they're only 19 cents each. Since today is the Super Bowl, I hid them in the garage beer fridge. It was a pretty safe bet that he'd find them at some point today. Turned out to be around 2:00. :)

Countdown: Days Three & Four

Day Three: I Choo-Choo-Choose You! (I know - a bit silly, but it's a classic Simpsons reference. You'd have to go way, way back to the 90's to find the reference - holy cow, I'm getting old!) Although, my brother Brad could probably tell you the season and exact episode without much thought. :)

The day three gift was a ratchet set. I'm thinking that Darin has a ton of ratchetey, tool-type things, but I'm hoping they're like the girl equivalent to candles - you can never have enough!

Day Four: Bee Mine (Simpson's reference here, too!) Valentine's Day M&Ms in a fun container from Crafties. Most of the M&Ms - but certainly not all - made it into the container. Yummy!

Valentines Day Countdown: Day Two

Day Two: I'm Hooked on You!

- Krispy chocolate fish from Target

- Ribbon and heart from Joanne's

- Ooey, gooey love note written on the back of the heart

Hope I get a taste of that crispy crunchy chocolate candy fish - sounds fantastic!

Valentines Day Countdown: Day One

I l-o-v-e Valentine's Day, so this year instead of celebrating a single day, I'm planning 14-days of sweeter than sugar, lovey-dovey goodness. By the time Valentine's Day rolls around, Darin's going to be leaving honey in his footprints.

So, I spent some time over the weekend searching out 14 days worth of budget-friendly little gifts that I'm hoping Darin will enjoy. First stop - Home Depot $1 bins! Funny thing is though, this weekend they were more like $5 bins. Anyway, every time we hit Home Depot, Darin totally gets suckered into checking out all the chotskies in the bins - just like I do at Bath & Body Works! It prooved to be a good stop primarily because I actually just paid attention to all of the items as I walked down the isles, and I found a bunch of different things for $5 or less. So - here goes:

Day One: You Fit Like a Glove

- Workgloves from Home Depot

- Container from Crafties

- Ribbon and heart from Joanne's

- Sugary sweet love note written on the back of the heart. :)

New Family Member

Howie has a new roomie and dog BFF. Her name is Sage; she's a three-year old Llewellin Setter, and I think she's gorgeous. Howie, you need to visit us and bring Sage, too!

Captain Konrad's Nursery

I'm so excited that we're oh so, super duper close to finishing the nursery. Here are a few shots of the room.

We spent Christmas weekend painting the stripes around the room. Darin, of course, is a super good sport and did all of the hard work. All I have to do is come up with all these fun projects, and Darin makes them happen. If these lines would have been measured, marked and taped out by me, there's one thing I know for certain - they wouldn't be anywhere near this straight.

In the mail today I had two super fun packages from my Idaho BFF - Neeley. She's been sending me packages of all of her baby "favorite things" and today's packages mark number 3 and 4 - holy cow! It's so fun to go through all the items, and she also includes instructions, tips and what-to-do-when notes. I've never been so excited to read exactly why her favorite diaper rash medicine earned that title! She sent me the diaper bag in the photo below - a one of a kind bag made locally in her area from vintage fabric - I love it!

It seems like it took me forever to find a set of curtains that I liked, and I'm glad I waited, because these striped panels fit the bill.

The rocking chair in the shot below is from Darin's Auntie Annie. The chair has special meaning to Darin because his Auntie would rock him in the chair when he was just a little guy. The date stamp on the bottom of the the seat cushion is 1947. I'm going to give it a little love with a touch up of cream paint and antiquing, and then I'll re-cover the cushion in a plaid fabric. (Yes, just insert "Darin" where I put "I" in the sentence above.)

I think this is the fabric that I'll use for the seat cushion, and I think it will look fantastic on a cream antiqued rocking chair.

My hubby is also refinishing a dresser that I picked up via Craig's list. It was a great deal, and it's also a very sturdy piece with good lines. It's circa 1970, so the stain color was a little reminiscent of the Bee Gee's/Saturday Night Fever days, but it's going to look fantastic when Darin's finished. Only 14 weeks left until the Captain is planned to make his arrival, and that's if he doesn't show up early!

Baby Quilt Fabric

After many months of searching quilt blogs and chatting with Nicke about Captain's baby quilt fabric, I finally found exactly what I was looking for. Santa ordered the fabric for me for Christmas, and Darin even let me open it early!

I love the plaids and stripes with these prints! Do you love it, Nicke?

Ben was a big help as usual. I mean, what kind of trouble could a 140 lb Bloodhound cause? He really got into it and checked out the prints up close. I really appreciate his help - what a good boy!

Hmmm...I would move the red closer to the brown.

I don't know what it is, but if I've got fabric on the floor, Ben can't help himself - he has to lay all over it.

Don't mind me; I'll just lay on this little corner - just the very edge. You won't even notice me.

And then he's out for the count. It's tiring work, obviously!

I wonder if all hounds like to quilt?