104 Days Until Christmas

Nope - not going to do 100 gifts in 100 days until Christmas.  However, this is a happy little reminder that I need to finish the basement to find my craft room because I have some awesome ideas for little boys.

In disappointing news today - I found a Serger on Craig's List for $75.00 last night.  What a steal - even used they still usually run over $200.  Unfortunately I was not the first one to call today.  Come on - it was a Sunday who calls before 11:00 am?  Oh well, not meant to be I guess.  I'll keep looking.  I am kicking myself for not buying one on an auction a long time ago.  You just don't find them for a bargain very often.

In really awesome news today - after church and lunch we went out to one of the landscape stores in town.  They still had fruit trees - hooray.  Better yet they all go on sale this week.  Hubby has already promised to stay a little late that morning to watch the boys while I go get in line for some apple, cherry and pear trees.  Better yet - mom and dad said I could pick some out as my birthday gift!  Thank you, thank you, thank you!  For those of you who may not know during our awful Iowa summer we lost all of our fruit trees.  Well, the pollinating cherry is still standing but he doesn't produce fruit.  So, you have no idea how excited I am!  Now, I just hope I get some before they are all gone.

To top off the day I started painting the basement!  After, I used a clorox/water solution to brush down the one corner with mold and what looked like barnacle growth (yuck - not sure what that was).  And I had to chase out all the spiders.  Then some primer/sealer on the area where the concrete hadn't been painted (behind the old wall studs).  But then - whoo hoo - I love to paint!  Makes it so clean and fresh.  Since I am painting the basement, with windows that don't really open, I decided to splurge on my paint and get the low odor type.  That was a smart move.  I am so in love with the blue paint I selected.  Normally I stay away from blue since I find it a color that I can easily get the wrong shade/saturation.  But this is lovely!  The pictures don't do it justice.

The other color for the opposite wall is a pretty cream.  I discovered what an amazing job of color selection I did on that tonight.  I already had a cream on the walls on the other half of the room.  It was some leftover paint that I mixed myself of an awful tan and white (and maybe yellow).  But I used it all up and couldn't remember my paint mix ratio so figured I'd just get new cream paint.  Where the two come together I cannot tell the difference.  Really - I can't see where the old and new come together at all.  I didn't even try to match.  Bizarre.  But really great because I don't think I would have had enough to do all the walls over and the ceiling.

Not a great picture I know - but can you see the paint change?  And no, that bit off to the left is just from the lighting.

The only downside to painting the basement walls is the concrete block eats up so much paint and you have to go over it with a brush to get all the little holes, cracks and crevices.  On the other side the paneling needs to have a brush utilized in all the "seam" areas.  So, it takes longer but it will look nice when finished and will be all sealed up.

Now some news from the boys.  This week Clark has discovered how much fun building with Lincoln Logs could be.  Good thing we have his dad's old Lincoln Logs to play with - over 30 years old and still lots of play left!  I had to show and then help him build his first houses but he has branched out from there.  Tonight with some help from daddy (but really not that much - daddy pretty much kept Hurricane Grant at bay) Clark built a Grand Hotel!  Really he designed this two story marvel all on his own.

It even had a grand lobby!

After the tornado blew through (Clark did it himself - not Grant).

Grant loves anything he can crawl through - under your arm or leg, whatever.  So, we have lots of tents built throughout the week.  The new favorite location is between the dining table and couch.

I love that this castle gate is guarded by the ferocious feline.  Ha - sleepy feline more like!