GUTTERS and FLOWERS

Our house came with no gutters. The roof was new, which is way more important, but we figured gutters were pretty important too. So, I googled a bunch and got some quotes. The prices shocked my socks off. Considering that our house is a one story rectangle, I figured white, plastic gutters would cost a couple hundred dollars. Turns out they would have been a couple thousand dollars installed from Lowes or Home Depot. We ended up spending a couple hundred dollars doing it ourselves. Actually, Daniel pretty much did it himself. I strategically placed the ladder and kept him company. That was last year.

Guttered roof

This year some gutter maintenance was in order. We had some heavy rain and wind and a couple of the downspouts came off (we hadn't got around to securing them with brackets); and the gutters filled up with leaves 'cause we skipped the leaf guards. To fix all this, Daniel chopped back some trees from the house, unclogged all the gutters, and attached a couple more downspouts. Then he re-attached the ones that fell off with brackets. We decided not to put on leaf guards, because going up on the roof once or twice a year to unclog them is super quick and easy.
Mari had a good time playing outside while we worked. The weather has been sunny and warm, in the 70's, so we've been spending a lot of time outside.

"Smell the flowers, but don't eat them"

 Crawling around outside seems to tire Mari out more than anything else. I'm trying not to complain too much, but this weather is not wintery at all. Today I nearly broke out my flip flops because it was 77 degrees!!! IN FEBRUARY!!! The daffodils are blooming. I wasn't sure they would survive when I planted them because after being dug up they sat in our laundry room for awhile. Then when we tilled up the yard last year, I was afraid we tilled them up. So seeing them come up this year pleasantly surprised me. Mari loves them too, and has learned to hold them under her nose and sniff. She likes to hold them up to my nose, daddy's nose and her baby doll's nose too.

Valentines Day

Now that I have lots of free time, I want to do a better job decorating the house for holidays and special occasions. It's a real challenge; since I am not earning an income, I don't want to spend any money on anything that is not vital to our existence. Sometimes I have a hard time deciding what is worth spending money on. On one hand, I like to buy things that enhance our every day comfort, like candles and new sheets and wine. On the other hand, my frugal side wants to save, save, save for retirement and once in a lifetime experiences (mostly involving travel). It's a tough call.
Anyway, now that our Christmas stuff is down, in an attempt to make the house look festive for February, I made some inexpensive Valentine's Day decorations.

The colors in this picture are a little off, since the pom poms on the mantle are supposed to be bright red...

 I saw a picture of a heart garland like this someplace on the internet and thought it was so cute! Joann's sells small sheets of colorful felt for about 30 cents apiece, so this only cost a dollar! Cutting the hearts out was a little time consuming, since I cut one at a time. Mari and I sat on the kitchen floor together, me tracing and cutting hearts while she contentedly played with the scraps and an extra pen. After they were all cut out, I sewed them together with the sewing machine. I also made some smaller hearts to put around a lamp shade.

Biggest Project of the Year

Here is the toy box that Daniel made last year for his sister. His parents commissioned him to make it a long time ago, but it just didn't happen until this year (2011). He created all the plans himself. I did the staining and varnishing. I am really not sure what went into the building process, although it did involve a lot of routering and sanding. This is the first real piece of furniture that Daniel has built and he really enjoyed working on it, once he finally started!