Salvaged Frame Project

Confession: I save stuff for future projects or purposes that I rarely get around to.

I'm a little embarrassed to say that the project I did today was actually about 7 years in the making.... but I finally got around to finding a purpose/ project for something I had tucked away!

My friend Nicole got married back in June of 2006. Some of the "groomscake" take-home treasures from that day were these simple, adorable Ikea picture frames that Nicole had used to make these:

It's just a gray piece of matte heavyweight paper with a white ribbon taped onto it, and in the middle of the ribbon is a tiny metal ring. (I am sure I actually have a few more of these hiding somewhere in my office!)

I saw this Pinterest idea months ago and decided that when I came across one of these frames from the wedding nearly 7 years ago, I would use it for this!

Voila! A little 10-minute project that I admittedly could have done forever ago with any design or free printable like this one.

All I did was:

• Wipe off the frame and use a damp Mr. Clean Magic Eraser to wipe off the dings and dirt, then wipe the frame off with Swiffer Duster Cleaner.
• Wipe plastic cover with Sprayway cleaner.
• Print off the free printable design (resized to fit the square frame), and cut the edges with my Fiskars straight-edge cutter. 
• Remove taped ribbon from gray heavyweight matte paper.
• Use glue stick to adhere printable to the heavyweight matte paper. 
• Put it all back together. 

I'm hoping to get more of these little projects done this next week!

Dip Day!

We do this super awesome event at my work once a year - Dip Day!

Last year, I was so new to the campus as an employee, I kind of opted out of participating. But this year, I decided to totally go for it! There are several categories, and I chose to enter into the "spicy" category.

Here's the recipe we (Robert and I) came up with:  Triple Cheese Cayenne Dip

1 lb. regular cream cheese (softened)
1/3 c. Beecher's Flagship cheese, finely grated
1/4 c. Parmesan cheese, finely grated
6 oz. IPA beer (don't worry; the alcohol is completely cooked out of it!)
1/4 of a green pepper, diced
1/4 of a red pepper, diced
1/3 cup fresh basil, diced
1 1/2 garlic cloves, minced
1 heaping tablespoon of Dijon mustard
1/2 tsp. Italian seasoning
1/2 tsp. Cayenne pepper
Sea Salt to taste

Mix all ingredients together, and cook for 40 mins. at 325 or 330 degrees Fahrenheit. Stir the ingredients about halfway through, and continue to bake.

To keep it warm, I kept it in my "Little Dipper" crockpot on warm until it was time to take it over for judging. We chose to serve it with tortilla chips.

It was a hit! My co-workers insisted on tasting it before the judging, and one of them even licked the spoon, lol!

Also, I won a prize! I won the spicy category! There were 13 entries, 83 votes and 4 categories. Super exciting! I chose a $25 Starbucks gift card for the "winner" prize, and a post-it note holder shaped like an apple for my desk as my "participant" prize.

I'm so glad I got to participate in a fun event like Dip Day today. :) 

32 Weeks/ Progress - For Elizabeth Johannah and For Us

We had a fantastic doctor's appointment on Friday!

Here's me at 32 weeks! (Sorry about the hoodie/ yoga pants - but I wear these yoga pants to work all the time because they're comfy and still a little dressy with my preggo blouses and such, and I was freezing tonight, so the hoodie stayed for the pic!)

I actually gained 2lbs!! (I was quickly reminded that actually means I've lost 33, but I'm still saying I gained 2 lbs!) My blood pressure was really good - 110/72! The M.A. said that's the lowest it's ever been (even though it's usually 120/74 or something). The doctor said I'm measuring right at 31-32 weeks on Friday (I'm 33 weeks tomorrow), so I'm a little small, but Elizabeth Johanna is growing right on track! Everything is looking good. No anemia, nothing to be concerned with. I did quietly smile when the doctor said that he "can tell I've been taking my extra iron," which I totally haven't. It was really hard on my system, and in order to take iron, I have to take like 4 other medications to ease the absorption - not worth it, and I refuse. It's unnecessary. Until and unless my test results show that I'm anemic or the baby needs it for some reason, I'm not taking anything extra! I did commit to taking more calcium, though. I definitely need that.

Tomorrow, Robert starts his new job at the bank. :) We've been pretty quiet about it until now, mostly because we were waiting until we knew for sure what he was going to be doing. Now that we know, I'm posting about it! He starts his training tomorrow, and he'll still be working in North Everett - just not at the restaurant, and he'll be working Monday-Friday only - no more weekends! I also want to take a minute and thank everyone who was so encouraging to him (and reassuring to me) throughout the process of applying and interviewing for this awesome opportunity.

As we get closer to Ellie Jo being here (yay!), we find more and more that we have to accomplish. Robert finally got a weekend free to work on her nursery furniture. It's new - was manufactured within the past two or three years, and we purchased it used for less than a month at a great price - but the color was terrible. It says it's a "cherry brown," in the listing we got it from, but it's really, really reddish brown. More red than brown, in fact. (See my post here to see what I mean). It wouldn't be so bad, except that we're doing her nursery in chocolate brown and pink - and it totally clashes and looks awful together. But I seriously could not pass up the amazing deal we got on her whole nursery furniture set - $250 for a crib with mattress, changing table with pad and dresser. All matching; all pretty much brand new. So daddy is working hard to paint it safely for his baby girl. It's going well, but I haven't taken any pictures yet. I'm waiting until Robert gets it all done and finished, because he's working so hard on it. He was able to find this amazing little kit thing that allows him to save a lot of time on the project - it's basically sanding, painting and top coating all in one, and it's a fairly simple process. It's 100% safe for Elizabeth, like I mentioned, and he's happy with the results so far! He's nearly completely finished with the crib, and he'll be doing the dresser next.

For myself, I've been getting more little projects going, like the bow clip holder. I got it all painted, now I just need to get some silky pink ribbon for the actual "holder" parts. I've got some more little things I want to get done soon, like the fabric blocks, a few more burp cloths, and some bibs. There's still more clothes to get up to my mom's so they can be washed, folded or ironed and hung or put away before they come here.

Basically, we've got this sort of project timeline:

• Finish painting nursery furniture
• Take daybed to my dad's with mattress/ sheets
• Move entertainment center to our room
• Move TV to office
• Clean out closet, put all items in a specific designated place or get rid of it
• Take rest of items out of the room, find them a home or get rid of them
• Once nursery is emptied, vacuum room & clean baseboards/ walls (me)
• Steam clean carpet in nursery (Robert)
• Put nursery furniture in nursery (Robert)
• Add hanging closet extender to nursery closet and put all of Elizabeth's clothes away (probably me and maybe my mom)
• Make sure mattress for crib and pad for changing table are clean and sanitized (me and Robert) 
• Put crib bumper and crib skirt in crib (me)
• Put changing table pad cover on, and add everything to the table - diapers, burp cloths, etc. - (me)

So, some of this is unassigned for now. Most of that is because I have no idea what my energy level will be like, and how tired Robert will be after work and such.

Promise to keep everyone posted. Hopefully, I'll have more pictures of projects to post this week, as I only have one week left of working my second job at H&R Block.

Here we go on to just 7 more weeks before we get to meet Elizabeth!