Snow Day Projects

First, I'll open with some recent kid shots.

This picture is deceiving.

There are actually four children in that tent.

Four.

Baylor and Jack like the snow.

Charlotte tries some peaches.

Such a big girl!

I really have no idea how Baylor did this.

He was whimpering for some time

before I figured out that he needed aid.

I, of course, had to snap a picture first.

Today the temperature is reaching a high of -2 degrees (Fahrenheit, although my husband loves the idea of converting to Celsius--you have this argument a lot when you live with a man who has an advanced degree in physics) with a wind chill of somewhere around -35, so school was closed and Stephen got the day off. He is celebrating his snow day by staying in his pajamas all day. I am celebrating by cleaning, organizing, hanging things on the walls (or making him hang them, rather), and cooking.

I also have the great honor of announcing that my curtains are finally finished, or at least the ones in the dining room are. I still have to tackle the two in the living room, but they are hidden by a side table, so for now I'll wait on those.

Here is a picture of how they looked before I added their "skirts," as I like to call the block of fabric I sewed onto the bottom of each panel: 

Ridiculous, no? Remember, they were on clearance, and I wanted my room to look huge, so I hung them really, really high. I found some great fabric in a coordinating color on clearance at JoAnn's, convinced myself that I could, in fact, use the sewing machine, and proceeded to painstakingly sew panels onto the bottom of each of the four curtains. Here is the finished product:

Ta-da!

I'm actually rather proud of myself. As I said before, I am no seamstress, and I rarely get out the ole Singer. Here is a picture of my geriatric sewing machine:

I think I mentioned before that my mother got it used (from a university--it's an old Scholastic for teaching purposes) back in the early 80s, so there is no telling how old this thing really is. I actually Googled it, and there is just so little info out there on this model. I found its twin for sale on eBay, but that's about all I could find. It's like the heaviest thing in the world. There is no plastic to be found, I swear, it's all metal. Anyway, it still works like a charm, and it didn't disappoint for this project. When I am using this machine I do have to constantly remind myself that I have Jesus in my heart, since I want to swear and throw things every time I wind the bobbin, thread the needle, etc. It's just too much.

But somehow, by the grace of God, I have managed to finish this sewing with my faith intact.

Now I'm relaxing a bit in between projects, until I will start putting some fondue dips together for dinner. We're having my family over (they usually troop over here en masse at least once a week) and I have declared today Fundue Day. Yes, Fundue. We put the "fun" in everything, I promise. I can make cleaning fun.

Almost.