It's CLEAN!!!

I decided as soon as I get my house all clean I can start my next project. Don't worry, it's a simple one, I just want to make a little shelf for all our shoes in the closet. I already have the wood, and it's already painted. I just have to make a few cuts and put it all together.
ANYWAY... My goal was after Christmas I was going to work room by room till my house was ALL clean. I started with the Laundry room. It's as clean as I can get it until we get more shelving for the pantry (hopefully in March) The kitchen...well that is a daily thing, as well as the living room. The bedrooms....yikes. We went through all the toys and got the rooms "organized" But then they play with toys, get dressed and sleep in their beds and all of a sudden their rooms are messy again. But at least it's an easy clean up. 10 mins a room and we are in good shape. My bedroom...now that is a different story.
Doing an insane amount of projects before Christmas turned out to be a good habit forming thing in the long run (lets hope it sticks) Danton goes down for a nap and I get up and get busy. So far I've done it all week with out a thought. So yesterday i started on my bedroom. And in order to clean my bedroom (which still had boxes) I also had to dive into my closet and the kids closets. threw out a bunch of junk, organized all teh kids clothes they they have grown out of, got a bag fo things to donate and cleaned up the closet and finally delt with thoes boxes of random STUFF that you don't know what to do with. I didn't quite get done yesterday, so when nap time rolled around again today I got back to work. When Danton woke up I had a few papers to file, one more small box to go through and vacuuming. I pushed through and now my whole room is CLEAN! My bathroom counter looks a little cluttery, and we still have a few things that live on top of the dressers cause we don't' have a home for them yet, but it's CLEAN!! Things are put away and not just put somewhere!
So I'm going to see if I can manage to get the ENTIRE house clean all at the same time, and I THINK i can do it before Mark gets home today (and he gets off early today) (I'm including folding laundry AND putting it away. And I think I can do it in about an hour and a half.
On your mark.
Get set.
GO!!!!
(next post is Christmas, promise)
::UPDATE:: It took ALMOST 2 hours, but I did it. YAY! And I got it done before Mark got home. YAY! And I already know what I'm cooking for dinner. YAY! And it's easy (hamburgers, with preformed patty's) YAY!!!!!!

I stuck my banjo in the dryer...

And it SHRUNK!
Ok, not really. This is my new toy. I didn't get it for Christmas, I got it cause I've wanted it for YEARS and could never justify getting it. Then Mark said he wanted another gun, and I was fine with that cause we have the money to get it, and then I realized that he didn't need another gun, he already has 3, but the gun he wanted has a different purpose then the others, and I am totally fine with that. BUT WAIT, I don't NEED another banjo, but this has a different purpose then my others, so I asked Mark what he thought and he said go for it...so I did. :) I got it a few days before Christmas, just enough time to let it sit and acclimate, tune it, and play a bit before Christmas.
I love it, a little travel size banjo. It's in a different key then my full size ones, and it's in a key that I play in often. However It's almost Danton's size and I'm not aloud to play it cause it's his.
He loves to play the banjo. It took me a little while to realize that when he "plays" the broom it's not his guitar. He says "baow baow" when he plays it and I thought that he was doing sound effects, but he was actually saying banjo.
He loves to play the banjo. It's fun. Now I'm really glad I made that little one out of a cookie tin and a 2X4 a couple years ago, he can "play" that one and he lets me play mine.

I did good...

Now that I'm pretty much done with project except for wrapping, I'm getting even MORE excited fr Christmas. And this morning was a testament to me that I did GOOD. I picked the right gifts for my kids.
Lydia pointed to the big couch and said "Mom, this is our couch" and then over to the love seat "and this is our oven's and our kitchen" She will make a kitchen out of ANYTHING and everything, and she makes one just about every day. She is going to be so excited!
And Danton has a little 5 in tall 7-8 inch long plastic dump truck he was playing with this morning and then he decided to ride it. Yeah, a little small for a ride on toy, but he is going to LOVE his truck. HE can sit in it and DRIVE. I was just not going to wrap it, but then I thought that if his truck was just sitting out for him to see he would just play in it and not care about opening his other presents. :) So I went to wal mart yesterday (crazy I know) and got 2 rolls of 200 sq/ft paper. Hopefully that will be enough for the other 2 kitchen items and the truck. :)
And now I"m ready for a good back massage. my neck and shoulders are KILLING me from sewing and painting and assembling!

This years projects

I posted pictures on FB already so most likely you've already seen them, But I wanted some on my blog with a better explanation. The truck was my design. I drew up plans and went and bought wood, and cut it out and put it together.
I got the pictures on line, and put them together to my liking.
The flames on the back I just dew in real quick and started painting. I'm very excited about how it turned out. I can't wait to see him play with it on Christmas.

The kitchen is a different story. The microwave was built from scratch with the same wood I got for the truck. The sink and oven were originally two little end table things. My Grandpa use to teach Jr High shop class and these two tables (if I remember correctly) were done by students and then left there. My mom had them forever. The oven one was repainted once for me when I was a kid and I called it my strawberry table (it had stickers of strawberries) I repainted it a couple years ago for Lydia.
Both tables had a cressent shape cut out on the sides that I had to cut wood to match and fill it in. The oven I didnt have to do much changing too, but the sink I took completly apart and put it back together with an added piece.
I (in effort to save money) cut out and made all the handles and knobs and the faucet my self. The microwave handle I actually cut out of wood the others are dowel rods that I cut and knotched to fit together. Again, that was more work then I anticipated. But I'm glad I did it.

All I can say is I hope my work is as sturdy ans some jr high kids. That shelf did NOT want to come apart. while hammering out the nails they took chunks of wood with them. It's a good thing I got a big tub of wood filler, I used A LOT for these.
It would have been easier to start from scratch with everything, but I already had the tables and scraps to fill them, so it did save a little money, and it's fun for me to give something new life.

I've been working on these since October and just finished the last one yesterday. It was definitely more work then I thought. I worked on them nearly every day when Danton took his nap. I'd put on a movie for Lydia and work till Danton woke up. Then again when Mark had school in the evenings, and the kids were in bed I'd get to work again. total cost for all 4 was about $80 when all was said and done.
I am also repainting buildings from a little town my parents made when I was little. It's for Danton to have something to drive his trucks on. They are all sanded and repaired and ready for paint. There are only 5 little buildings so I should be able to get it all done during one of Danton's naps.
And I have some sewing to finish up as well. Stockings and something for Mark for Christmas eve. (not that I think he will read this between now and then, but just in case I'm not saying what it is)
WHEW! Almost done.

the truck

Not that anyone else really cares, but I managed to get some paint thinner before my brush dried and cleaned it. yay. The red paint is awesome, I'm almost done with Lydia's kitchen. I haven't taken pictures cause it's all still in parts, so it doesn't look like anything. I have one more piece to paint and then assembly time. :)
Danton's truck is ALMOST done. I need to paint the steering wheel and attach it, and then do the flames. :) But here is what it looks like (the inside toy box part was spray painted, I think I need paint it with a brush. ...anyway, the TRUCK:

Oil-FREAKING-based paint.

I have 3 main colors for all of my big projects, black blue and red. The first can of red paint looked nothing like it said it should, it seemed like it was watered down, super crappy, so I took it back and got a different brand. The ONLY other kind they had ended up being oil based (which I didn't notice when I bought it) My black and blue are water based. All my big things that need black are done, and I only have the top of one side of the truck to do in blue. currently between the two I'd do one color, wash my brush and do the other color while the first dried.
So today with my new vibrant red paint, I started painting away during Danton's nap. Blue first, wash my brush, go on to red.
WOW this red paint coated VERY well only small sections even NEED a second coat. But I noticed it wasn't drying very fast. So I washed my bush so I could to the FINAL coat of blue. Only to find out that I was using oil based paint and I have NO mineral spirits, OR acetone. BAH!
I MAY have salvaged the brush, I did find an oil solvent chemical, but there was not much. I'll see what it's like after it dries. It's soft, but still red.
Anyway, I had to STOP (grrr) in the middle of Danton's nap. If I had realized it was oil based I'd have put it back, however if I new how well it painted I would have kept it and just got a chemical to clean it with. If I had been prepared I could have gotten almost ALL of my red painting done durring Dantons Nap, and had the truck with it's final coat. But now, I have to wait till I can go to wal mart (which is hard when you are a one car family...we sold the truck on Saturday and we are currently between cars) and I have to buy another brush and some mineral spirits. *sigh* oh well.
Oh one other thing just so you know oil based takes 2-4 times LONGER to dry. So in the mean time it's a good thing I can lock my laundry room, cause this is what it looks like.
Oh, and my hands are VERY red from attempting to clean the brush.
On a happy note, I got some more pictures of Danton yesterday. He likes Daddy's "scary" shirts. When he wears them Danton goes "AH! Scary" Well he saw Daddy's scary shirt in the laundry yesterday before I got it in the wash and insisted on wearing it.

This last weekend

I think I don't have much to blog about, and then I upload the pictures on the computer and all of a sudden i could have 4 different blogs. Boy having a camera makes a difference.
Saturday I was throwing a baby shower for a friend of mine. Granny and Papa invited Lydia to go to a pancake breakfast with Santa.Mark decided to go too and take Danton. (brave soul) He thought I could use the time to get ready for the shower with out the kids. And BOY was he RIGHT. It was awesome. And I had more to do then I realized. He got home just a few mins before guests started arriving. Just enough time to put Danton in bed and split.

I wanted to let the kids decorate cookies this year, so that is what we did for FHE yesterday. We had Tithing settlement on Sunday and Bishop gave us 3 pictures of the new temple in Kansas City, one for the family and one for each of the kids. So for FHE first we talked about the new temple and why they were building it, and then we framed them and hung them in their rooms. Then it was COOKIE TIME. I frosted them and gave them the sprinkles. *DUMP* One of their decorated cookies had enough sprinkles to share with 2 others. They each did two, and that pretty much took nearly the whole batch. :) We were a little late with the camera so we didn't get any decorating in action pics (also it was over very quickly) But we did get some of the after product. And finally some project pictures. This is Danton's truck, it's on it's side cause the paint was drying. I finally figured out a simple sturdy way to attach the steering wheel and still have it spin. So I still have to cut out the wheel, paint the front, add the flames (oh yes, FLAMES) and attach the wheel.
I expected the truck to be a big project, but not Lydia's kitchen. But when you end up having 4 BIG wood projects to do for Christmas with NO wood working experience and minimal tools, it takes a while. Lydia's kitchen will take a little more explaining, so I'll save that for another post.