Family Trip: Washington, DC and Roaring Spring, PA

This past weekend Hubby has some vacation time before his mother came over to visit from Ireland on Tuesday (ahhh mother-in-law visit). Since Steven's godfather lives in DC he hasn't seen Steven since he was born, we wanted to visit him and my grandparents. So we left Thursday night for the five hour trip to Roaring Spring to see my grandparents. We stopped at Cracker Barrel (my favorite!) for dinner, I had fish that was amazing and we got there in time to have a full night's sleep. Then we spent Friday hanging out at my grandfather's wood working shop and picking out new winter riding boots for me. (we found the perfect ones at Target). We went for a little walk around town with my grandmother at stopped at the famous spring to snag a few pictures. 
We left Saturday morning for the three hour drive to DC and had a relaxing visit with Godfather and family. Visited a new comic shop and had lunch at Red Robin. Then left Sunday afternoon feeling well socialized and less stresses about visits that we had been lax on. It was a great little vacation and perfect couple time before MIL came into town. But there is even better news coming later!!!

Altoona and Washington DC Trip in a weekend

finally trying some tummy time, much to Baby's dismay

Happy Friday and start to the weekend! Hubby's vacation started today, so as soon as he got out of work yesterday, we packed up the car (two hours later) and headed down to my grandparents' house for a quick visit and a pit stop before we head to Washington DC to visit with Steven's godfather/James' best friend. James was quick to get out of work a little early and with his mother coming to visit next week (gasp) he spent a little bit helping me get the house all in order. We also have Monday to get everything perfect, get grocery shopping done and some food made that I can just throw in the oven while she is here. I am so absolutely nervous about a week long visit from the mother-in-law, but we have met before and she is so nice but I am still super stressed about what we will do while James is at work. We have a couple things planned for when she is here, including a visit to the Statue of Liberty and maybe the Bronx Zoo, if I can convince James. Today we are spending the day in Roaring Spring, PA, the place where they make composition notebooks, at my grandparents' house. Dinner tonight, a nice sleep and then driving down to DC for a great visit there. Wish me luck in getting everything ready and still being able to enjoy this little vacation with the Hubbs!

Look at that serious face!

Garden Update: Spiders!!!

     With Baby coming a little earlier than I had planned, my garden updates have been a little lacking. While Steven and I enjoy sitting on our little bench in the garden for a couple minutes every day, since I got poison ivy a couple weeks before he was born, I haven't done my share of the weeding so at this point, the garden looks like a giant section of weeds interspersed with bright orange pumpkin flowers and tall pea vines. As soon as I can bend over comfortably again, I'll grab my gloves and the wheelbarrow and the stroller to take care of that beast of a garden.
     This picture, while slightly difficult to see because I was too scared to get too close, is of a giant spider nest made between some of my pea vines. The half dollar sized momma spider stayed close to the nest until the little spiderlings were big enough to be on their own, which took two weeks or so. There had to be around 300 tiny little spiders in the nest, which caused a disagreement between James and I. He wanted to "take care of them," they were too close to the house and he was worried about them getting in and biting one of us. I disagreed, figuring that in all reality, only a couple would make it to adulthood and the momma probably dies after her job is done. We had thought that they were wolf spiders, but when I looked it up, wolf spiders (who tend to be aggressive and bite-happy) carry their eggs with them. Nursery web spiders (a very appropriate name) look very similar but carry their eggs until they are ready to hatch and then make their beautiful web nursery. So this protective momma, won the argument and now they are out of the garden and out in the big scary world, hopefully growing up beautifully and not biting lots of people.
     In other garden news, my peas flowered in tiny, delicate white flowers. I wasn't sure what the flowers were going to look like, so I was happy when they looked so pretty. At this point, we have eaten almost all of the peas right off of the vine with none to save for actual cooking or canning. Note for next year: plant three times as many pea plants to prevent us devouring all of them. There are a couple that we missed eating while we were in the hospital and are now too dry to eat, so I will pick them soon to dry out for either pea soup (although I doubt there are enough for that) or to plant next year since these did so well. Thank you Burpee for giving us a wonderful crop of great tasting, off-the-vine peas. While Burpee may not have been to blame, our carrots did so poorly, if we have one plant I would be surprised. We had a late frost that did many of our more delicate plants in. The pumpkins have taken over most of the garden and a fair chunk of the sidewalk. The tomatoes are about a foot tall and doing well, we are still unsure how the potatoes are doing and surprisingly, my moonflowers have started to grow while I was away. I was convinced that the shock of transplanting and the frost had finished them off, but two vines are growing on the trellis so we will see if they bloom.
     In other news, baby Steven is above his birth weight, filling out his newborn sized clothing and spending a lot more time awake, mostly between nine pm and three am.
But he is doing well, this Momma is counting down the days until she can start some serious work on the extra 20-30 pounds that are still left over and until I can go swimming again. Eating lots of fruits and vegetables, high protein, vitamins and trying to stay hydrated to help the process along. This weekend, Baby and I are down in Altoona, PA visiting family, celebrating my grandmother's 60th birthday and my grandparent's 25th wedding anniversary. Unfortunately, Hubby could not get off work during the busy summer season so we are also spending our first chunk of time away from Dada. All things considered, I think I might be the most affected by that event. James has to work all weekend so he is a little preoccupied and Baby does not notice much quite yet. Two nights of this lonely momma pacing the hallway to calm Baby will be quite enough for awhile. While I love being with grandparents, I can not wait to be home with James and back in my own bed!

DIY: Framed Jewellry Holders

     With only 8 days left before my due date, I figured I can sit down in my nice cool basement and write up another post before I head our grocery shopping!

     While not a tutorial, this is more of a "hey I saw this on Pinterest and had the opportunity so I grabbed it" kind of thing. While down in Pennsylvania on my little mini vacation, I was helping my wonderful grandfather make new cabinet doors for a customer. The original doors were just wooden frame (see picture to the left) with stained glass inside, the customer wanted to save the stained glass but make new frames to match her custom cabinets that my grandfather had already made. So after taking them apart, he told me to take the old frames to the dumpster and on my way I got distracted by something shiny and the idea to make jewelry holders out of the old frames. You can find pictures and ideas all over Pinterest for hundreds of variations of these and full on tutorials that will explain it in much more detail, or just do a general search for "DIY jewelry holder." 

     After sanding all the sides of the frames and removing all the old hardware, I went in search of some paint. My grandfather does a lot of traditional style work so the colors that he had were not necessarily the bright cheery ones that I would have picked but they worked for this on-the-fly project. The sanding done and a few coats of paint on and the frames were ready the lace background used to hold earrings. We raided my grandmother's old curtains for ones that were past their prime and cut them to fit the frame. The picture to the left is of dear sweet hubby stapling the lace to the back of the frame. After that was done, we picked out some interesting and slightly matching cabinet pulls and cup hooks, drilled them into place, hung picture frame wire on the backs and called it a day. All in all, the projects cost around ten dollars for three complete jewelry holders. Although, Hubby did point out that if we took into consideration our labor costs and any sort of profit margin, we would have to sell them for $75 each, so maybe not the most profitable venture. It was fun and I enjoyed trying a new project and convincing DH to help out. Can't wait to try the next project!!!

     

Thrifting: My First Auction!

     This past week I spent down in central Pennsylvania with my grandparents since the drive would be too long for them to come up during the baby-labouring business I am about to engage in. While I was there, we spent a day at a family reunion while I free floated in the pool feeling much more my tiny spry self then I have in about four months. My grandfather has a woodworking shop and store front where I spent some of my time, helping him clean up and hanging out (aka waiting for customers, drinking vast amounts of iced tea and zoning out to Pinterest). Around his store, which is 95% handmade deliciousness, he also has a few nice wood pieces that he has acquired at a local auction.
     With a very small amount of pleading, I was able to convince him to take my grandmother and I to the auction for a night on the town. Unfortunately, about half-way through my uterus decided to start practicing for labour, so I was a bit uncomfortable and it may have limited how much fun I actually had, but I can see a true potential for being an auction haunter later on! By the time that we closed up the shop and headed over to the auction house, they had started bidding, but this tiny baby was hungry, so my grandmother and I hit up the little snack shop for hamburgers and peanut butter cake, which was extremely satisfying. Then, after my obligatory three visits to the bathroom, we were finally ready to settle down for some serious bidding.

  (in the bottom left of the photo is my sweet, darling grandfather trying to slyly bid on things that he thinks my grandmother would like without her knowing...she and I giggled on the other side of the aisle)

    To our left is my wonderful grandfather, looking very intense while eating crackers that neither myself nor my grandmother could find out where he found them. When he saw us looking at him, he gave us the, "What on Earth could they possibly be so confused about?" look. Then proceeded to pull out a bag of nuts as well.
 
      To our right is a very overexposed photo of that same lovely man bidding on some larger pieces.


     We had looked through all of the items, and the bidders could keep looking while the bidding was going on so that made it easier to actually see everything. If you look at the picture of the front of the auction carefully, you can see a box on the floor, under a covered table that has this in it:

   
     Six books, a decorative hollowed out book and a decorative book shaped knick-knack box. Five of the books are dated in the 1950's or prior, which gives me all sorts of joy.
     There is a rhyming dictionary, which I have never actually seen before, though I did know of their existence. I am still trying to figure out exactly how they work, but it did come in a beautiful teal colour and it is hardbound which wins a vote in my book.
     The second book up from the bottom of the picture, the tan with the wonderfully stamped cover is called Charles Auchester: A Memorial by E. Berger. I haven't read this yet but it is supposed to be a book about a musician, I haven't been able to find a copy online either to compare it to, but its very pretty!
     The third book up, the orange with red detailing is called I Remember Christine by Oscar Lewis. This one was dated by the original owner in 1946 and the story is about a well-to-do family in San Francisco around the turn of the century.
     The fourth book is a gorgeous book titled An Elementary American History, intended as a textbook to teach history to students, I love that it actually does start off with the Vikings exploring and discovery the Americas. It is copyrighted in 1904 with the original owner's name in it, with a stamp from Greensburg Borough school district, which is outside of Pittsburgh.
     The fifth book up, the dark green with red and gold detailing is called Two Years before the Mast by Richard Henry Dana, and is part of a series called Classic Romances of Literature. It is copyrighted in 1937, and was marked by the owner as a present in January of 1939.
     The fifth and final book, the darker blue with black lettering is called Pathway to Paradise, by Maysie Greig, which is an adorable name by the way.This one is dated 1945 and seems to be one of a series of schoolgirl romances, with the first man introduced named Ashley! I can't wait to read them and hopefully find out more about them. Just winning the bid on these books would have made my night. A beautiful, hard bound book with an embossed or stamped cover will do it for me every single time, without fail, and winning the auction for $6 made the deal even sweeter!!!
     While my grandmother and I finished watching the smaller items bid, my grandfather headed to the back where the large furniture was being auctioned. While unsupervised, he won a bid on an air conditioner ($10), a coffee table ($5), a coffee table with two matching end tables ($6) and the deal sealer of 30 pounds of bananas for $5!!!

     The next day we made seven loaves of banana bread and gave away as many bananas as we could to random family members that walked through the door. We used this recipe and it turned out amazing! My grandfather even was impressed with it and complimented how delicious it was. I didn't blend the bananas completely, so there were still chunks in it after we cooked the bread, and we used an extra half cup of bananas so the flavour was really strong.
     I had tons of fun at the auction and would definitely recommend going and at least trying the experience out. You can find some nice deals and odd items (like fifteen pairs of those glasses that you can put pictures in from ages ago, I can't remember what they are called now, or doll furniture made in Depression Era workshops, or forty pounds of bananas).  The only downside was missing my hubby, he would have loved it, although he also may have filled up our car with all those really great deals. When I got back and showed him pictures of what we had found, we agreed on trying to find a couple local auctions to go to (an exciting date night idea in the works) and he is obsessed with trying to bid on storage units at some point in our future lives, but I am much more wary about that!