Life isn't complete without your very own cape, Right?

Yep, I did mean to type cape:) We are going to a birthday party for a special little gal this evening and as I was thinking out loud about homemade gift ideas to my s-n-l, she very quickly and boldly stated, "every kid needs a cape!" Well then, I made a cape, because every kid needs one:)

I have a prom/formal dress given to me to add to my piles of clothing for re-fashioning that is this weird puple/pink fabric. I hacked it to pieces this morning while Gavin was being enriched by Thomas the Train, and came up with this simple cape. I used a bit of purple velvet that I had kept from another project for the yoke and the ties from the dress. Gavin happily modeled for me, being that he and our little friend are close in size. A cape for my little man may be in order after seeing how much he enjoyed wearing this one, maybe without the ruffle for Chad's benefit:)


After it was all said and done, I was wondering what kind of strange and foreign material the original dress was made of...just a quick peak at the tag and whoops, I just cut up and made a cape from raw silk. Yep, silk. Sure hope she likes it:)

Drum Roll Please...

Well, we've done it, we've painted our house! The rain has started today and Chad and I finished up the final coats last evening as the sun slipped behind the mountains! We have some touch up to do, we can't be all the way done now can we:), but we'll get to that in a couple of weeks when we get a couple days of dry weather. All in all, I'm pleased with the finished product. I can't believe it was such a long and difficult project, oh the battle stories we have to tell and the scars we have to show:) We do need to work on the front porch a bit, but it's covered so we can do that at our leisure, that is if I ever pick up another paintbrush again:)

We have some amazing trim work on the house, thanks to the era it was built, but you couldn't tell with the previous paint job. After hours and hours of painting, moving ladders, taping, and painting some more, I understand and fully appreciate why they didn't fancy up the previous paint job. I had a friend stop by this weekend, she had driven by early in the day and then was driving back through and saw me painting in the same (or very nearly the same) spot both times. She just had to stop and mention it to me:)

I painted my studio door purple/maroon:) Now I can tell my clients, "Just come to the purple door."

If you look at the pictures, you'll see that all of the downstairs windows have small, white stickers on them. That signifies our next adventure with the house, new windows! We've longed for them since shortly after we moved in (now 7 years) but the cost was quite prohibitive. We did replace the upstairs windows when Kyla was a baby but have been dreaming of strong, sealed, safe, and warm windows for the downstairs as well. Well, with this economy, the price was right! We're getting all nine windows replaced (and installed, hallelujah!) for half of the last quote we received! We just couldn't pass that up! Come Thanksgiving time, our house will be sealed, warm, and lovey:)

Now as I pick the paint from beneath my fingernails and put medicine on all my bruises (from the constant battle to stay ON the ladders and from climbing up and down them), I swear on my mother's head to never paint this house again! I'm not really sure if I can swear upon my mother's head at this point...she's still alive and kicking. Anyways, back to the point........We will never paint this house again!!! I will move out before it comes to that:)

Feel free to drive on by and "Ohh" and "Ahh" and the wonder that is our house:)

Have you thanked your child's teacher yet?

Kyla (looking like a praying Mantis???) and Mrs. Imholt - Spring of 2009

Kyla has been blessed with an amazing teacher this year and last. Last year I waited until Teacher Appreciation Week to send a gift to her teacher. I realized just last evening that there was no reason to wait! I truly appreciate all that Mrs. Imholt does for Wascher Elementary, and Kyla in particular, and wanted her to know that. I baked ALOT of zucchini bread last night and wrapped one up all cute and sent it with Kyla this morning.

Kyla labored over a thank you note (notice the horse themed card, Kyla and Mrs. Imholt share a love of horses), and drew her a picture, I believe the subject ended up being our chicken coup:)

Really, it's all pretty simple and easy stuff, but it will make a big impact on a teacher!

Go ahead, let your child's teacher know that they are appreciated and that you notice all the hard work that they do!

Quick Pics

My brother and his family were down from the Tri-cities at the end of September and we all squished into my parent's house for a weekend visit. We played at the pond, had a campfire, celebrated Josh's birthday, rode the tractor and then rode the tractor again:) Donny and Shirley came, Chris and Megan, Steve and Dee, Trina and of course we were there to complete the guest list:) Here is a pictorial rendition of the weekend (otherwise known as a super quick blog update).

Kyla is driving BY HERSELF!

Okay, Okay...I'll admit it

We have a CAT! My friends and family know that I'm not really a pet person, but somehow we have a hamster, four chickens and kitten. The hamster is Kyla's and she and Chad take care of him. The chickens are for egg production (at least they will be whenever they feel like getting around to laying) but ended up with names as well per Kyla's need to name/humanize everything:) And lastly, there is Max. There is a story about Max. Max is/was a stray/ferral cat that was roaming our neighborhood. The kitten showed up at our garage door and stole Chad and the kids heart. The first full day that the kitty was around, my niece, Ana, took one look at it and decreed it's name would be forever Max. Little did we know that Max was a girl:) I had a friend who's a vet come and take a look at her and got an age guesstimate and an overall health report. She was severely malnourished and had a respiratory infection. She wouldn't/couldn't eat for the first couple of days and then started eating with gusto. She's full of energy, loves to play, is kind and careful with the kids and most importantly, in my mind anyway, lives outside.

We took her into the Ferral Cats Coalition in Portland today and had her fixed. What an amazing organization! By taking her in, we have committed to feed her for life and our family is okay with that. She's a bit woozy still and not her normal energetic self, but she is recovering well and should be ready to play tomorrow. Who would have guessed that I, an admitted non-pet person, actually have come to like this little ball of fur and energy:)

So the Riddle Family would like to announce the newest member of our little family, Max or Maxy, or Maxine:)

The Canning Continues

I exploded out of my comfort zone cooking wise and attempted home made ketchup this week. I've been saving and freezing all the tomatoes that are coming off my tomato bushes with this in mind. I ended up with 20 lbs of tomatoes (I did have to supplement with 5 lbs from my mom) and got down to business.

I found a recipe online which seemed pretty straightforward and simple at first glance. After prepping 20 lbs of tomatoes, I barely managed to fit them in three of my largest pots (one was borrowed) and cooked them down for about an hour.

Next came running it through a juicer/grinder. What a hot, sticky mess! Just imagine hot liquid flying everywhere, juice running down my cabinets, and the smell of hot vinegar and celery seed combining to form a noxious odor and you'll have a point-on mental picture. Oh, did I mention I started this all @ 8:30 pm. The recipe called for cooking the tomatoes down for 12 hours in the crockpot...so I did it overnight. Any way, I got the tomatoes juiced and mixed all the extra ingredients in and then poured the whole mess into two crockpots for the night and wearily crawled into bed.

I went downstairs 6 hours later, I had to get Kyla to the bus stop, and it had only cooked down a half inch! What!!! I didn't want to deviate from the recipe, I was sure that they knew what they were talking about. Hmm, turns out, not so much:) After another 6 hours and 1 more inch, I calmly and carefully (Hah!) put the tomato puree back on the stove and let it cook down for almost 3 hours. Then I actually had to do the canning! I filled my waiting glass pint jars and gazed in utter shock at my six measly pints of ketchup. All this work and I got six pints of ketchup.

Thankfully the canning went smoothly and my six precious jars all sealed.

I must admit though, It's pretty darn good ketchup:) Is it good enough to slave away again next year? We'll just have to wait and see:) Maybe it's like childbirth...you forget the large chunks of unpleasantness and remember the amazing end result. Like I said, we'll just wait and see.

Welcome to Mrs. Imholt's Classroom!

Kyla had her first of the year family open house last night. She was excited to show us every aspect of the school, most of which we had seen last year:)

Here is her class room...
Here is the Library...
Here is part of the cafeteria, they have a reading section for the kids during inclement weather and as another option for recess and before school. Kyla spends lots of time here, according to her.
She's pretending to be an apple tree. Or maybe the karate Kid:)Go Wascher Wildcats!