this moment.

{this moment} A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

. . . . . . . . . inspired by SouleMama

On (& off) the needles.

If you've noticed my little instagram feed widget to the right over there you probably see I post a fair amount of knitting photos.  I love the act of knitting and providing knit goods for the ones I love.  It's funny because whenever I'm knitting something I want to work on it as much as I can to finish it.  Then when it's finished I miss knitting it.  Knitter problems. ;]  Please do friend me on Ravelry if you're over there!

So far in 2014 I've knit a few small projects.  First is a honey cowl made with an absolutely gorgeous skein of yarn Ben put in my Christmas stocking.  (For those wondering it's called Fiddle Knits "Beats" the color is Forest Dweller.  I'd never heard of them but isn't it lovely?)  I agonized over the perfect project to knit with that wonderful yarn and I know I picked the right one. I LOVE my cowl.  The color is perfect and it's super comfy and goes with everything.



I posted the picture on Facebook and a friend really liked it.  So I knit her one too.  We met at our LYS (local yarn shop) on a Saturday morning and she bought the yarn and I brought it home with me.  Not a bad deal if you ask me. ;]  (This is Berroco Vintage.  An acrylic/wool blend that I like working with quite well!)



Lastly, another knit born out of my posting a picture on Facebook. ;]  I had posted a hat I knit for a Christmas order, and I got a request for a similar one.  This is Poppy.  Also knit with Berroco Vintage.


Currently on my needles is a (late!) first birthday sweater for my sweet boy. It's Abate by Alicia Plummer and I'm hoping to finish it by this weekend. I'm using Cascade 220 for this and decided to choose a nice dark color that he couldn't stain. ;]

In other news, I'm really itching to move into our permanent bedroom and have started to do a bit of work here and there to get us in there.  I'm trying to decide if it's more of a priority to just get in there, or to do more cosmetic work to it before we bring in all our things.

this moment.

{this moment} A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.
 
[Sometimes grainy cell phone pictures just have to do.]
 . . . . . . . . . inspired by SouleMama

Z's Room

Our 4 year old's room is the first room that we've fully overhauled.  Well, almost.  But the transformation is amazing!

I don't actually have a true before picture, I guess I forgot to bring my camera, but when we moved in this room had pink, old, yucky, stained carpeting.


 Here's Ben and my dad working on removing the threshold so they can start laying down our new pine flooring. They did so much awesome work! You can see the stains on the sub floor from cat pee or whatever else grossness happened over the years. ;]  
The floors are down. But the walls are still wood paneling that had been painted blue.
Ben pulled the paneling off and voila! There was a mishmash of drywall!
 If we had it to do over again, probably new drywall would've been purchased and hung. But instead we decided to mud and tape all the seams (Ben did) and patch every.single.little pin hole. And there were a lot. I now understand why my dad never wanted us to hang posters growing up. Jeesh.
It took so much mud. And time. There was frustration. But just look at the result!
I think this room is perfect for our little Z.  The antique bed and dresser were mine as a little girl, as well as the doll cradle, built by my dad.

We still need to apply a clear coat to the floors, but aren't they amazing?  The trim needs a coat of paint and really, the windows need replacing, but we're just taking things a little bit at a time.  One thing I'd really love to make for her room is a quilt for her bed.  I just need to find the courage to jump in and purchase all that fabric.  And promise myself that I would indeed press on and finish it.

One room at a time we're making this little house our own.

What about your other blog?

   If you know us already, you might know that I used to post on a blog called {inspired}.

   "Ben and Melissa do" is a bit of an {inspired} spin-off.  After deleting an old yahoo account that was associated with my flickr (I didn't even think about it!) almost all the photos on my blog were lost.  I've decided to start fresh here and collaborate with my sweet husband.  Our intent is to use this space to bring glory to God, while documenting and sharing our adventures in homesteading, honeybees, homeschool and beyond.

More about us.