this, that & the other

We've been stayin' pretty busy around here...but what's new! Aside from all the usual craziness, here are a few extra tid-bits we've been doin'.

1. Emma and I remade a couple of shelves.

Brandon's Grandpa Frank found a couple of shelves at a yard sale and was super sweet to give them to me. I wish I'd taken a before picture of them. Why do I always forget to do that these days? I guess I'm just overly eager to dig into a project. Anyway, to give you a visual, they were dark oak in color with scalloped backs that contained heart cut-outs. Initially I thought maybe I could use them in Jem's room someday...but I really didn't need two. So, I offered one to my sister Emma since she is in the process of re-doing her bedroom. Well, once I talked to Emma, the creative juices just started flowin'. We decided we were gonna take the shelves apart, replace the backs, give em' a fresh coat of paint and get some funky knobs to go across the backs.

So, off to Home Depot I went to look in their scrap bins for new wood for the backs and then to Hobby Lobby for knobs. Both successful trips - the wood was a little bowed and we had to saw the knobs down by hand, but with a little "brute strength" (say it like Scar off "The Lion King"), nothing is impossible for Emma and I. ;) Poor Emma ended up with blisters from sawing these bad boys off - if anyone has some nifty trick for sawing through metal (without an expensive piece of equipment), do tell.

Blasted little hand saw. We pulled out the circular saw initially, but figured it wouldn't be worth losing a finger over. Slow and steady paid off.

Back to power tools. (Sigh of relief.)

Ya baby!

Hey Reed, just wanted to say ThAnKs for letting us use your sweet drills. Gonna have to invest in some of those when I don't live close enough to borrow them!

Screwing in the AWESOME knobs. :)

Here is Emma's stellar shelf. Is that not ADORABLE!

And here's mine. I have a slight obsession with shelves. I think there is at least one in every bedroom and bathroom. Now there are two in me and Brandon's bedroom...Those funky knobs really compliment my goodwill mirror. :)

Love those knobs.

Moving on.
2. In early January, I pulled out all my brown and pink scraps and decided to make a Valentine quilt. Jemma noticed the colors and inquired if the quilt was for her...so, Jemma has a new, bigger quilt.

I love a good pinwheel, so that's what I did...I was having a hard time comin' up with a cute boarder. So, I talked to my quilting pro friend, Kristina and she pointed me in the PERFECT direction. I am in love with those little triangles. They just make me so happy!

And I backed it with a hot pink polka dot sheet from Target. :)

3. Brandon did some baking.

This is huge. He never bakes.

He wanted to do something for the office he did his 3rd rotation at, so he made cinnamon rolls to take into them on his last day.

He is a PRO! Next time our family is in the mood for this tasty treat, I'm sending him into the kitchen. :) (Can you tell he's trying not to smirk while I'm snapping shots of him in all his baking glory? I should've slapped an apron on him. Ha ha!)

Didn't they turn out great?

Not only did they look good, they tasted incredible too. Moist, fluffy, cream cheesy deliciousness.

So there you have it. Just a few snippets from the last couple weeks. :)