Deployments and my hair

I joked with Nicholas before he left this time that I was going to dye my hair pink this time while he was gone. I told him that for the first deployment I grew my hair out (and went curly)

The night before N came home from Iraq, I went to Nashville with friends until after midnight and he landed at 7am, probably not my best idea. Had a good time though! It took Erin over an hour to straighten my hair to look like this.

During the second deployment I went really short. Super easy to take care of and much cooler than that long mop of hair!

After I told him my plans of crazy colors he laughed and said “sure, why not complete the circle of insanity, I think you’ve earned it”. So in July went I went to get my hair done I asked my hair girl, “would I look ridiculous with pink highlights?” and she squealed and said said “LET’S DO IT!!!!” I trust her, she’s been doing my hair for a while, I know she won’t let me look ridiculous. So now I have pink hightlights.

I love it and Nicholas loves it. I’ve had 1 person ask my why and I said “why not??” But then I started thinking about it more and I came to the decision that life is way too short for regrets. I’ve wanted to do this for a while, if I didn’t do it now then would I ever do it? And while it isn’t that big of a deal do I want to look back years from now and say, dang I wish I would have gone ahead and went for it!

In the month of June the post that Nicholas is stationed out of here in the states lost over 20 soldiers. That is a painfully high number of men and the majority of them were 25 or younger. It felt like every time I turned on the local news last month I heard “---- lost another soldier today…..” It’s heart breaking. Life is too short. And that is why I’ve decided I don’t want to live with regrets even over something as small as 5 little pink highlights in my hair.

And that’s what’s going on with me when I’m not spending time snuggling with all the mutts. No pictures with Hailey, that child RUNS from the camera, I think the red light and flash freaks her out.

Wood burning

I haven’t posted in a little while. I have been busy and I did finish another project but no pictures because it’s a surprise for the boy so I won’t be able to post about it until R&R. I’m going to be heading back to GA next week so I won’t be working on any more project for a least a month. I have a couple of friends that want stuff made so hopefully when I get back it will be cooler and I can work in the garage without sweating down. The heat this year has been terrible. I actually told N that I was looking forward to winter again, I can deal with cold over this heat any day!

Nicholas got busy in the last couple of days with a project of his own. He did a lot of wood burning last deployment and he finally had a chance to pick up the wood burning pen again this year. He wanted to start with something  “simple” since it’s his first project in a while.

The scene is from a video game that he has always loved. The character is called Sniper Wolf. I don’t  remember which game she’s from though. I only half pay attention when he’s playing games and this is from a game that came out years ago. I think he did a great job and he said he has the bug again and already asked for more wood! He told me he would LOVE to be able to do this as his job he loves it so much. Maybe one day. 

Construction is going strong on the 2 houses right across from ours. It sounds like they are building in my living room it’s so loud. I really hate to see those 2 houses go up because now my view of the creeks and fields will be completely gone. Oh well, I’m really ready for them to be done with all the building and hopefully it will make selling next year even easier.

A finished dining room

The chairs are inside. I’m so happy to be done with them. I also put the feet on the table but now that they are on there and the chairs are around it I’m not sure if I’m happy with them. I might go back and get some different feet that are shorter. I made the legs of the chairs longer but now with the table so tall I’m wishing the backs of the chairs came up higher. It just looks a little off to me right now. Maybe I’ll change my mind after looking at it for a while.  I still have one more chair in the garage that needs to come in but I have to move some things around before I have room.


If you need a reminder of the building process for the table go HERE and a reminder for the chairs HERE.

Poly and Weather

I’ve been working on the final step for the chairs and hopefully will have all the poly finished and have the chairs dry and in the house by Tuesday. I can’t wait.

We need rain. I know that’s crazy after the huge floods up here in May but my grass is dying! I’ve actually been watering it which I hate to do! Yesterday we were suppose to get a good bit of rain but all the storm managed to go around us and we only got a small sprinkle. Today we ended up with more rain! Thank goodness!!

Pooh has decided that she should live with Sharon and not me. I’m not really sure why because Sharon says she just sleeps on the sofa downstairs all day. I let her out at 7am and didn’t see her again until 4:45. Sharon said she had the door open in the afternoon, maybe she came in while I was in the garage so I didn’t see. I think she’s just being a little teenager and anywhere is better than home. She’s a brat.

I had a craving for chocolate chip cookies tonight so I made a batch and cooked 4 and the rest of the batch I put on a cookie sheet and covered them in plastic wrap and stuck them in the big freezer. Once they are completely frozen I’ll throw them in a plastic bag or container so in the future when I want a cookie I can just pull a couple out at a time. That will be a lot better than having a whole batch of cookies around since I don’t need them in the first place!

The seats are done!

Yay!! I’m done with the seats and I have the garage cleaned out! Tomorrow I can start with the poly on all the chairs and by this time next week they should be in the house! Can’t wait!
Since I already posted the green seat here is a picture of the blue seat.

And here is how I made the seats.
I bought the foam from Joanne’s fabric and it’s 2 inches thick. It was a pain to cut! First I tried a knife and that wasn’t the best so I ended up using just a pair of scissors. I put the piece of plywood on the foam and outlined it.
Next I used a layer of batting over the foam to “smooth” everything out. I used pins to square up the corners and then sewed it up.

After that I put the fabric on the same way and pinned the corners and sewed them up.
 
Then just like the batting I stapled it really well all the way around so nothing puckers.
 
All the seats together!
 
And this is what the dining room looks like after I’ve been working on a project. Guess I need to clean it now.

Getting closer!

I might actually finish these dining room chairs before I die of old age. They have been the most frustrating things I’ve ever worked on. I am so thrilled though that the end is is sight! Finally!!! The chairs are all stained and ready for poly, I wanted to cut the plywood for the seats before I cleaned the garage out completely. Now that I  have those cut it’s time to blow the garage out and get a couple coats of poly on the wood. I bought the fabric for the cushions from Fabric.com and received it in the mail yesterday so I got started on the seats and got one finished before So You Think You Can Dance came one. I have priorities and I love this show. Today I’m hoping to finish the rest of the seats, how that I know what I want to do I don’t think it will take more than 30 mins to do each seat.

I’m doing 3 chairs with this green fabric and 3 chairs with the same pattern but in an aqua blue color. I can’t wait to get one of the blue ones done!!

Anyone have suggestions on what to spray on the fabric to protect it from stains. When N is home he comes home from work every day and sits at the table to take his boots off and I don’t want any grime from his nasty flight suits to rub off on my seats!