A New Ironing Board Cover

Inspired by the beautiful ironing board cover I saw on Sew Dang Cute's blog in April, I made a new ironing cover for me. My old was icky to say the least. I don't know why stores don't provide you with cute ones or perhaps they do and I was to cheap to buy it, but my old one was a funky material that ripped easily and it didn't stay on the board well, so I was constantly ironing on the padding underneath. I took Sew Dang Cute's directions and modified them a bit. One thing I did was I added a scrap of fabric at the top of the board underneath to hold the cover on better. Tam did this on her's too, but mine didn't have it originally so I eye balled it and made it work. I also didn't use all the same string and such from the original like she did, I bought everything new. I did use a very similar fabric though which I only just realized now that I had to look back to get her link. It's kind of funny. I think it's just that red is the best color out there so who wouldn't want a red patter for their ironing board.
Below are the pictures of the board, I forgot to take a before of it so I just laid the old material down over top the new so that you can get the gist of it. But just imagine the foam underlay sticking out and it being more wonky on top. You also can't see the rips in the cover, but it is ripped. I have to mention that I have only had this ironing board for about 3 and a half years, there's really no reason that it should be ripped other than it's crappiness factor. 
Before:

After:

When it's nice out, I prefer to iron outside. Don't you???

 So there you have it. What an improvement right? I used Michael Miller's Ta Dot in Red. It's scrumptious. I picked it up at Fabric Depot for under $5.00 a yard! It inspires me to decorate my sewing room now.

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Pillows

Recently we've been trying to move T into the big girl bed. Our attempts have not been working. But in the mean time we set up the big girl bed with a pretty cat quilt and cat pillow case cover.

My mom had this quilt made for me when I was a little girl. It's in fantastic shape, it looks brand new. When we I was looking into bedding for T's bed I was just shocked at all the pricing and the fact that everything was either girlish or boyish. I didn't want anything that was to girlish because she'll be sharing her room with her little brother at some point. Hence the trying to get her into the big girl bed.

Anyway, she won't sleep in it. But she will sleep with her cat pillow case cover. Which is a problem, because it's a pillow case cover not a pillow case. It's comfy but it's at least 25 years old and looks great and I would prefer it didn't get ruined by little mouths and oily faces. (I'm well aware that it will most likely be ruined anyway.) She would also pitch a fit if we tried to give her something else though, so what happens if the pillow case cover is in the wash for nap or bed time. Or she gets sick on it and I can't just rewash it. I knew I needed something different. Something she'd be excited about sleeping on. I took her to the store and showed her the Toy Story and Disney Princess sheet sets and I asked her which one she'd like. She just said "No Woody, No Princess." Great. Then I decided I'd make a pillow case for her. I found this beautiful fabric, which was out of my price range for a pillow case that I wasn't sure if she'd like or not.

So I went to Joann's. I found some really cute fabric of, princesses walking dogs and doing other things, cute cats and colorful stars. I've only used the princess fabric so far but she loves the pillow case and is using it. So I'm happy. Here are two versions of it.

I have to credit my husband with the idea of the second one. I was complaining that I had a bunch left over but not enough to do a whole pillow and this is what he came up with. It's my first pieced thing. I'm pretty excited about it. T is sleeping on the first pillow, the second one I made for a friends daughter. I need to make one for her son too, and then I'll send it off.

Tamper Proof Outlets

Our sweet sweet little girl manages to pull the outlet covers out of the outlets. Isn't that cute? Now she hasn't figured out that you can put stuff in the wholes of the outlets but she walks around with the outlet covers in her mouth very proud of herself for getting them out. "Look Mama made a challenge for me!" We decided to install tamper proof outlets, which from what we understand is the new standard in houses, however this was from the same guy who told us they were around $5.00 a piece, and that's just not true, so don't quote me on that. The outlets were about $1.24 each from Platt Electrical Supply. We purchased 40 of them which is enough to do all of the reachable outlets in the house and leave about 5 extra. Since outlets break it's always good to have a few on hand. These outlets do not slide to open, like some child-resistant outlets do, there is a  shutter mechanism inside the receptacle that blocks access to contacts.

Jason could install them however since my brother is an electrician we hired him to do the job, so that Jason can work on his ever growing list of tasks to accomplish. I'll be very relieved once these are in! Now we just need to replace our blinds!

On a side note, if any of you would like some tamper proof outlets installed and live in the area I can recommend my brother to do the job!

Still Unpacking & Getting Organized

With Tesla's help everyday I try to make a little progress...

Some days are better than others...

New Furnace!!!

Today we are getting a new furnace! I am so excited. Not only has it been failing often but it takes a lot of Jason's time to get it working again. So instead of working on that he can do other things. Which is great because I feel bad asking him to do anything after he comes home from work because we're both tired.

We are getting a Coleman Furnace, it's 97% efficient. We'll receive a tax credit of $1500 and then a rebate from our tax company for $250 so after all that it's a no brainer. I wonder if that picture is what it really looks like, it seems so compact.

We're also having them install a cabinet just in case we want to get AC in the future. It's about $175.00 extra but if we do want that installed it'll save about a days worth of labor and that would cost more than that. Apparently they have to pull the furnace out in order to install it. Gosh maybe we'll have a mild summer and they'll be flooded with AC's and we can pick one up from them on a good deal. That would be great! AC is not nessecary here. Sure it got hot here last year, but it doesn't usually do that, so I'm not to worried.

How To Baby Proof Your Home

Tesla started crawling last week. This week she has taken off!!! She figured out that you can leave the rug in the living room, and now we are quickly learning what is not baby proofed and what is okay. Since we're moving anyway it's more of a matter of just putting things away and packing them up if they have no place to go, which is easy enough. We did of course already baby proof all of the outlets in the house. It's amazing how she just goes straight for it. Why when you have a million toys surrounding you are you interested in the one thing you can't have?

Certainly makes me think about how to organize the house in Washington. I'll have to really think about this since the kitchen is attached to the great room in a way that it's easily accessible by little feet. I am looking forward to being able to plop her in the high chair and put her up to the island to help me cook! That will be a lot of fun.

Anyway I googled, how to baby proof your home, and found this article:

When you bring your baby home from the hospital, suddenly the fireplace you once thought was so cozy becomes a potential hazard. There are many products marketed to parents to baby-proof their homes, but you don't have to buy every one of them. As with most parenting issues, the best solutions often rely on common sense.

Below are iVillage's 17 most popular and practical ways to make your home safe for your new arrival.

1. Crawl through your house to get a baby's-eye view, and remove anything that is either dangerous to your baby or precious to you.
2. Turn down your hot water heater to 120 degrees Fahrenheit to prevent burns.
3. Secure cupboard doors with childproof locks -- but don't expect them to work all the time (some babies are more wily than other!). Put dangerous items (e.g., cleaning solutions, knives) in high cabinets, far out of reach of children. Leave one easy-to-reach cupboard open and fill it with plastic containers or pots and pans that are safe for baby to play with.
4. Cover all electrical sockets with plastic plugs or, better yet, replace the cover plates with childproof ones.
5. Take the sharp edges off your fireplace or furniture by covering them with throw pillows, quilts, blankets, or foam rubber. Murphy's Law dictates that falls will happen in the worst-possible places.
6. Put a hook-and-eye latch high up on your doors so that baby doesn't end up anywhere he shouldn't be (like the basement or outside).
7. Make sure every area of your house has a smoke detector and a carbon monoxide detector. If you need help or information, call your local fire station.
8. Remove refrigerator magnets. They frequently fall off the refrigerator when the door is slammed, and they are small enough to pose a choking risk.
9. Program your phone's speed dial with the numbers of your pediatrician, the poison control center, your spouse at work, and your ambulance service (if you don't have 911). Let your baby-sitter know the numbers are there.
10. Keep a bottle of ipecac syrup on hand (up high or in a locked cabinet, of course) in case of poisoning emergency. This syrup is derived from a plant of the same name, and it triggers vomiting (not all poison cases require vomiting, so be sure to check with a doctor before administering it). Call your local poison control center for an emergency reference card. Let your baby-sitter know where the syrup and card are.
11. Keep older siblings' toys separate, either in their room or in a playpen, so that your baby can't get at them.
12. Make sure your baby monitor works and is within range. As a test place a ticking clock near it. If you can hear the tick-tock from the other end of the monitor, you can be sure you'll hear the baby.
13. Keep hot liquids away from baby. Whenever you're drinking coffee, tea, or other hot liquids, be sure to keep the drink far enough away so that if it spills, your baby won't get burned.
14. Never leave your baby alone in the bath. Babies can drown in just inches of water, so always stay next to your baby when you're bathing her (or when you're near a pool, the toilet, or a bucket of water). If the phone rings, let the machine get it -- or buy and use a cordless phone.
15. Don't expose your baby to smoke. Secondhand smoke can cause illness now and serious health problems down the road.
16. Ask a professional. In many areas, professional "baby-proofers" will come to your home, install protectors and locks, and look for hazards you might not notice. Because they are so quick, they can be inexpensive. Ask your pediatrician if there are any reliable, inexpensive baby-proofers in your area.
17. Get a good stain stick to clean anything that your didn't baby-proof.

Read more: http://home.ivillage.com/cleanandorganize/organize/0,,7f92,00.html#ixzz0XjNvPvUt

We're moving!

Well almost two and a half years ago, Jason and I put the house on the market and left Redmond for good.... Turns out not so good. We're moving back to the house because it's still on the market. It's unfortunate because we want to live in New Hampshire and we love all of our friends and the community that we've created here, but there's a reality, we can't afford to pay the mortgage and the rent any longer and the best thing to do is move back. Our plan is to live in the house for at least two years but more likely five. We'll do a bunch of improvements and then try again. This time we'll continue to live in the house while it's on the market. We won't be playing this waiting game again.

Although we are not happy about the move we're going to make the best of it and enjoy the beautiful house and gorgeous property. We have plenty of space for visitors so please all feel welcome.