Baby, Bismarck and Banners

This week I got the chance to travel with my husband for his job, so I've spent the week in Bismarck, North Dakota. I had always pictured North Dakota as completely ugly and boring, much like eastern Montana. I was surprised to see that it's not so bad, and Bismarck is a very nice place! On the way we passed the Teddy Roosevelt National Park and saw some elk and wild horses. We also visited the Dakota Zoo, which was the first time for taking Charlotte to a zoo. Call it childish, but I LOVE zoos!!!! There weren't very many people there, which was nice. We went to the Tiger exhibit and one of the tigers walked right up to us... I have never been within three feet of a tiger! It was about dinner time for the animals so the mountain lions were growling, and the bobcat was making it's noise. It reminded me of a little kid saying "ow" in a really whiney voice. I forgot my camera, of course!

We have taken Charlotte out to dinner with us several times (we've never gone without her, in fact), but this week has given us some new experiences in that area. On Monday night we went to the Red Lobster. When we got there we found that Charlotte had made a dirty diaper on the way... when I took her out of her carseat a gentleman sitting nearby said something to the effect of "uh, you'd better watch out, there's a mess there". Sure enough this "mess" went all the way up her back, all over her dress and everything. So I carried her like a bomb into the bathroom, with everyone in the waiting area looking on. Tuesday night we decided to try again... we went to the Texas Roadhouse... now, Charlotte is learning to use her hands, which I should have thought about BEFORE I let her stand on my lap in the booth. These newly found hands are adept enough to grasp the top of a completely full glass of ice water and pull it into mom's lap. So once again I get to walk through a restaraunt of onlooking people, this time with most of my front and parts of my backside completely drenched. The fun part is I'm pretty sure this is only the beginning of experiences like this! You can bet there are NO pictures of this. I think we're going on a picnic tonight.

On to my banners... I have been making pennant flag banners out of various fabrics for friends for awhile - mostly for their nurseries. Lately I have been making them out of burlap that is upcycled from coffee bags from a local coffee roaster. My first one I made said "Sweet Love", which I painted on to the burlap using old house paint. The saying was a fluke, as those letters fit the spaces I had. I wanted to use the word Love and just counted for the rest of them. Below are pictures of the ones I've done. The "Thank you" and "Family" were custom ordered with those sayings. As I make more I will continue to post pictures! It has been a fun hobby and I thoroughly enjoy making them!

Thanks to Jana of Twig for the Cherries picture. This was taken that the Vintage Whites Market in Summers, Montana.

4th of July Weekend and House Numbers

This was a long weekend for us, as my husband had Monday off for the 4th of July holiday. On Saturday we ventured down to Summers, MT (only a 15 minute drive from Kalispell, if that) to the Vintage Whites Market. I have some burlap banners for sale there, and I hadn't gotten to walk through it before. They have so much fun stuff! I wish I had more space in my house!

Our other project for the weekend was a revamp of our house numbers. The original house numbers were very small so we took them down when we moved in. A couple weeks later we ordered pizza at 11 pm and realized we didn't have any house numbers up, although we had bought them, so we put some up very quickly. The final house numbers are an idea my hubby had to use an old three pained window and center the house numbers in it... Below are before and after pictures.
Before...

and after...


"But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To HIM be glory both now and forever! Amen!" 2 Peter 3:18

A new venture!

So blogging is a new venture for me! My friend Jana with Twig Decor encouraged me to try it and it sounded like fun! I am a new mother to a 3 1/2 month old little girl (who is my world, by the way) and have been enjoying staying home with her. As I learn to handle motherhood I have become interested in persuing some of my hobbies a little further. Included in those hobbies are sewing and trying to work on my home a little bit at a time. Of course now everything takes several hours to get done, due to my little one!

Let me welcome you to my home and show you around a little! My husband and I bought a 1929 bungalow in Kalispell, MT awhile back and have been slowly working on it to make it our own. When we first saw the house it had 6 adults, a baby and a poorly house-trained chihuahua living in it. Keep in mind it is a two bedroom, one bath home and not very large! The house smelled like all of the above mixed with vinegar, as one of the guys had decided to clean his coffee pot at the exact time the house was to be shown.

My response was to paste on a smile, say "uh-huh" and nod and then get out as soon as possible! My husband however decided he really liked the place, so we went back to see it again... and it looked and smelled the same. Anyway, after much convincing on his part, we bought the house. I scrubbed the ceilings, walls and floors down with amonia and we began moving in! One by one we have repainted most of the rooms with only our bedroom and the kitchen left to do!

In my research about Bungalows I found this quote "(Bungalows were designed) to substitute the luxury of taste for the luxury of costliness; to teach that beauty does not imply elaboration or ornament; to employ only those forms and materials which make for simplicity, individuality and dignity of effect." - Gustav Stickley. Sounds like a good goal to me!