Two posts in one day :)

Here's the blanket so far. Um- you can see this blanket as a LONG way to go. The side of each square is about 2 inches. I'm thinking I'll probably do 20 squares across for the base row, this only has 6 so far. Every 20 or so squares I'm going to do a "double" (which has the area of 4 squares) like the rainbow one in this picture.

And a sneak peak of the front entry way- Kevin is in the process of grouting it.

Do you like the diamond tile? Kevin thought to add that detail and I think it looks nice- and his cuts are SO good.

Aww spring!

Look what is growing in our yard now!


Special thanks to the previous owners for planting all this stuff!


Living room pictures coming soon. We are still missing transitions strips, but it's pretty much a room again :)

And as an added bonus: Adorable Dog Pictures!

On a side note, the adorable dog's barking interrupted the blog posting!

Bedroom.

Isn't it so pretty! The paint is a very light purple and the curtains are ones we picked up at Target- they are blackout curtains, so I don't have to kill another sewing machine attaching blackout lining! Why are curtains so hard to find? These are actually kid's curtains (They are called "Bailey" the ones Kevin wanted were "Miley" but the length we needed was out of stock. Those were more lavendar, but I like the dark purple.) I'm not sure what makes them a kids curtain... I need to make tie backs for them, as they don't like to stay open on their own, but right now headbands are working fine.

The floor is just gorgeous. Kevin did such a nice job. We are still looking for some sort of area rug for the side of the bed, but we don't really need it. I think it will just be nice in the winter. (We did find an area rug for the living room!) We still need to hang up some art work in the room. The wall by the bedside table gets a picture of a Texas beach that was given to us at our wedding, and I'm not sure what will go above the dresser now, as the art we had doesn't match the purple... more shopping to do I guess.

The tile in the living room looks fantastic- I think he will grout it tonight, and he is about 1/3 done with the laminate, with plans to finish the room today. The stairs and the landings are all that's left, but that might be awhile.

Baby Legs

My sister emailed me yesterday to see if I could make her some Baby Legs type legwarmers for the boys. Baby Legs are apparently a great way to keep lower legs warm when wearing shorts, if it's not quite warm enough for pants, and can easily be whipped off if the temperatures get higher, and also fantastic for when not wearing pants at all- making diaper changes much easier.

The actual baby legs seem to be a very high quality product- made for all ages, they are big on your infant, and scrunch up a bit (which looks adorable), fit the full leg of a toddler, the lower leg of a young kid, and can even be arm warmers for teens and adults. Very cool. The problem- they cost $12 each. Which seems like a fair price for the product, but when you have twins, and need a new pair every day or so, or even a few times a day- that's way too much.

So a bit of googling, and it seems a DIY solution is possible, and easy. Just cut women's socks above and below the heel, cut off the toe, fold over the foot of the sock and use it to form a cuff on the top.

Because the twins are very tiny babies (Courtney estimated their legs as the size of the index finger to the joint of the thumb- I can't fathom that small of a baby!) I decided to get ribbed socks, because it pulls in more. As they grow, the ribbing can stretch, so hopefully the width of the sock will last awhile, though maybe the length won't? (I'm not sure how much leg needs to be covered- ankle to mid-thigh, or more? How long are babies legs anyway?) So I did that process with the blue and green sock. They kind of look like bell bottoms because of the ribbing, and I worried they were too short. So that's where the blue/white sock comes in.

That's actually one of my old socks (if she likes it, I have a black/white one, but I didn't want to cut up a sock if she didn't like it.) These look less weird because they don't pull in at the ribbing, but if the babies are as small as she says, then I think it will be too loose. But they are longer, so she can hang onto them, and they can grow into them.

Okay- so I need smaller width, but maybe long length? That's where I got the idea for the dual color ones. These don't have the cuff from the foot (I saved the feet of the socks to dust with...) instead, I just sewed two cuffs together. They are longer than using the foot, but take 2 socks to make. I can make them solid colored if she wants.

Each of these took only a few minutes.

And last, if what she really needs is smaller than a women's sock, I hand knit one (still working on the pair). That actually stretches enough to just barely fit onto my lower arm, so it shouldn't be too small (though maybe too short? No idea what length I need...). I'm only making one pair until I hear back from her. If it's what she wants, I'll get working on knitting more. (That was a 1 day project, so no big deal... though I did have to put off my Cauchy socks which are part of a March KAL, and probably won't get done in time now- but twins are way more important.)

In other news- Kevin did the tile at the upstairs door. Only 2 more areas to tile, and lots more laminate to do. Also we go curtains for the bedroom. They are dark purple. Pictures eventually.

So Linda will stop asking for pictures...

Here is a picture of the doors.

They have blind-in windows that look much nicer than our older "after market" ones, but the mechanism to open them is one-to-one so it's more of a pain then the older one which was just a short slider. The handle is also on the inside now (which confused Elsa because the door opened the wrong way- she's figured it out) so the locks turn in different direction! The deadbolt turns towards the outside door and the knob lock turns away from it. At least they are both "up and down" when they are locked!

The contractor said we were the first people he's installed these doors for who got screens. They are neat double screens, so they usually sit behind the right hand door. They can be easily removed if we ever wanted it completely open. Guess we can get giant furniture now.

Notice the floor is a disaster. We are tiling in front of the doors to prevent water damage to the laminate (also to catch Elsa's muddy paws before she is all the way in, so we have to do that before we can put anymore laminate down.)

Oh goodness...

So as you all known we are laying laminate flooring (and tile soon). Last night the stairnose things came, so we can start the living room (he couldn't start until he saw how wide they were). Last night we ripped the carpet off the stairs, and my job is to take out the 200 million staples that were holding the carpet pad to the stairs. (And the ones that weren't holding anything, but were probably from the older carpet pad- apparently our disgusting living room carpet was actually a replacement from the builder grade carpet in the bedrooms. It wasn't quite as ugly, but was more worn.)

Anyhow- Kevin tells me not to worry too much about the staples anymore, because the stairs are cupping (falling in in the middle) and he's going to have to do some work on them before he can lay the floor, so getting the staples out is no longer a concern.

Then he tells me. "If you go downstairs, watch the first step."

I go to look at the first step. Um- there is nothing to watch. He took the step off. He's planning on completely rebuilding the staircase.

(Taken from the top of the staircase. Like the white walls? No more orange.

Smoke Detectors, Secret Knitting and Sushi

We started the day getting new smoke detectors. Even though the light was still blinking the fact that we managed to have a teeny (immediately put out) kitchen fire while making patacones, and then a house full of smoke making burgers and they didn't go off was a good clue they were broken. (We test them when the clocks change like your supposed to...)

So we went to lowes and got new smoke detectors. They are nice and pretty white and match our ceilings instead of the awful old yellow look. Grungy, and gross, and probably original to the house, so it was time to replace them anyway.

Then I took out the dye pot and made two shades of pink- super bright bold, and super bright but light- that makes no sense at all- you'll have to wait for pictures later in the week. I'm pretty impressed these colors both came from the same fushcia dye. They are nothing alike.

Then I started my super secret knitting project. It's Christmas knitting for my secret santa pick. No way s/he reads this blog (you couldn't pick your spouse) but I'm gonna hide it for awhile. I'll let you know when I post it on Ravelry, so knitters can check it out. S/he is definitely not on ravelry, and that's not searchable by the public.

So anyhow, on this particular type of knitting I knit with even more of a death grip then usual and have to give myself a break every 2-3 rows or my hand will break off. I have no idea how to loosen up. It's not a skill I posses.

Kevin is making sushi (California rolls and shrimp "tempura" rolls. Sadly no tamago this time.) I'm hoping it will be ready soon. I'm hunry!