A 2 year old in the house

It  has been awhile since I have had a 2 year old in the house. Though one of my sons is disabled and takes a lot of care,  I am not used to the busy body of a 2 year old.

 

On Sunday night my soon to be sister in law had an emergency situation. She was having horrible pains in her chest and couldn't breathe... to make a long story short she had a fast growing tumor between her rib cage and her lungs. Thank God they do not believe it to be cancerous. She was admitted to the hospital and the next day had emergency surgery.  My brother in law wanted to stay with her in the hospital during this scary time and so my little nephew, Jaxon, needed a place to stay.  He is used to spending Saturdays at our house while his Mom works (she is a hairdresser and Chantel watches Jaxon on Saturdays) and so I quickly offered to take him during this stressful time...it seemed like it would be the best place for him to be.

What fun it was to have a 2 year old in the house again! I forgot about so many things...like being asked about 100 times an hour, "What are you doing?" (or the dreaded words... "whoops I broke it"). We had fun, played with playdough, watched cartoons, played video games, even went for walks with my Mom and her dog. He never stopped talking..though I only understood about half of it. Though after having him a few days, I was beginning to understand almost everything he said. :)

So my plans of repainting my coffee table and other little changes to the livingroom had to be put on hold...again. (first the flu and then this family emergency) I actually thought--I can do this--take care of a 2 year old and paint the coffee table--but then I looked at the Cheeto fingerprints on the refrigerator and came to my senses. I don't know how I ever got anything done when I had 3 toddlers of my own. Actually, the truth is I never did get anything done!

Jaxon's Mom is probably getting out of the hospital tomorrow and tonight his Dad came and picked him up. I am so happy his Mom is going to be okay. Thank God because this little boy needs his Mom, as we all do in our family.

The house is once again quiet. I had not realized how peaceful our house often is. But I am happy for this extra bonding time I had with my nephew. It also gives me a glimpse of my future with my Grandchildren that I plan to someday have and care for. What fun that will be...and at night I will be able to send them home to their parents, and have my once again peaceful house. The best of both worlds!

To end this post I wanted to share this wooden heart and cross that I got as a treat to myself made by Rosemary. I think most of us bloggers will agree she is the queen of finishes! She has a new online shop http://www.zibbet.com/Villabarnes

It looks just perfect with my beloved wooden angel wings...

Simple things that make me smile!

I am looking forward to finally getting back in project mode...stay tuned!

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I love Ikea

 My daughters and I recently made a trip to Ikea. I don't know if it is my Swedish blood or what but I love that store! 

I found these cute plastic placemats that I just adore...and only $1.50 each! They coordinate well with the pink roses apron and kitchen stuff they carry.

I love it when Ikea brings in pink stuff :) I also love it when they bring out new sizes in their lace pots--they are one of my favorite things!

I have them inside and outside. So pretty.

They are good for so many things! These small ones make a beautiful reflection when burning candles at night.

I got a big surprise for Christmas! Janae bought me the floral couch slipcovers for my couch. I have been wanting them but at 3x the cost of the white ones I couldn't justify buying them on my budget. Thank you Janae!

Image from Ikea.com

I have some ideas for changes in the livingroom and I think this couch will look lovely with my white chairs. Fun to add a little pattern for a change. I have never seen this slipcover in anyone's house...would love to see how other people decorate with it.

I was able to find a single cover in the seconds section of Ikea. It was $10. I am going to use it to make a throw pillow to put on one of the chairs and draw everything together.

My favorite fabric online fabric store had a sale and I got these gorgeous fabrics. I can't wait to start sewing! https://www.etsy.com/shop/agardenofroses?ref=l2-shopheader-name

Our baby guinea pigs are growing like weeds! We of course think they are the cutest guinea pigs ever born :)

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Our babies are here!

It has been awhile since I did a post...this flu really got me this time! After being in bed for 8 days I am finally feeling better.

In my last post I showed our ready to burst Mama Guinea pig that we adopted not knowing she was pregnant. Well she finally popped..and honestly it was like she just popped them out! She had 2 beautiful little babies in less than 10 minutes!

Two is just perfect and we adore them. As soon as they were born they were running around and eating lettuce. So hard to believe these two were born from their Mother. Birth is such a miracle...I am always in awe of a new life.

Birthing babies can be really hard on a Mom as we all know...and they say  1 out of 5 young Mothers will die. So I was really worried about Mama Paisley but she did a wonderful job and did everything just perfectly.

We were able to witness the birth and as I said, it was amazing.

One baby looks like Mom and the other one has more of the coloring of the Dad. The previous owners sent us a picture of the Dad who was elderly and passed away about a month before we got Paisley.

The Dad is the black and white one

The Dad was a shorthair but I was happy both babies are longhair's. I love animals with lots of hair. :)

They both have such different personalities. We are anxious to figure out if they are male or female--it is so hard to tell at this point. I would love it if they are both girls--but if they are boys, or if they are a boy and a girl--Wyatt will be keeping the boys and Chantel will be keeping the girls. The kids are really interested in Guinea pigs and thinking of maybe showing them with 4H.

Of course I have been busy taking their photos--within a couple months they will be as  big as their Mom.

1 day old

 

2 days old

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day 3

The one that looks like Mama is very sweet. If she is a girl Chantel will name her Penny. She isn't as easy to take photos of because she is dark, and also she cries for her Mama. She is easy to calm though and is really cute.

 

The other one is brown and white. "He" is a little more independent and doesn't seem as worried about Mama as his sibling. He also nips at me when he has decided he has been held long enough. I guess that is why I think he is a boy.

Chantel is pretty happy with her new babies.

This sickness I have had has really put me behind on all the projects I wish I was doing! I just yesterday got all the Christmas stuff put away. When I was in bed for days you wouldn't even believe how bad this house got. Every dish we owned was dirty and laundry was piled high. The house did not get vacuumed or swept for over a week. If I ever doubted it before, I am definitely the maid in this house. As soon as the house is back in shape I look forward to showing you some new projects I have planned :) 

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My sewing machine and I can now rest

I always get stressed before Christmas because I make so many of my gifts. It is usually Janae that I make the most for because she really appreciates the things I make. This year she talked about buying handmade stockings for all her animals and I talked her out of it. It would be so expensive and that is something I could do. Oh, what a job it was!

Now that they are done I am so happy I did it. Janae loves them and that makes it all worth it.

The dogs are all named after a "thing"--so the dogs got their "thing" on their stocking.

Lace for lacie, Bells for Bella, Lillies for Lilly and a matchbox Bentley car for Bentley.

For the cats and Bunny Fufu they got pink for the girls and blue/green for the boys.

The pictures I printed on a iron on paper that I got from Walmart.

I made larger stockings for Janae and her long time boyfriend Sidney. The larger stockings were actually easier for me to make than the smaller ones thanks to my arthritis.

I made the stocking just the perfect size as they fit across Janae and Sidney's mantle. No more room or anymore fur kids though! Someday I am hoping to make some human Grandbaby stockings though :)

I also made a pillow of the furbabies with the Rachel Ashwell Simply Chic sheet fabric that looks so perfect on their bed.

I figured she needed a replacement for the Santa pillow.

Now for some heat therapy for my hands and some rest for my sewing machine and I.

There is surprising news around the Brown household as Chantel has recently become very interested in Guinea pigs...2 girls, Penelope and Paisley. They are really cute and fun.

The surprising part is that turns out after having them for a couple weeks we realized we got more than we were planning for. The longhaired girl (Paisley) is with piglet...or probably several piglets. (Baby Guinea pigs are actually called pups but piglet sounds cuter!) You can feel the little ones moving around in her belly so we assume she is close. So now we are on guinea pig birth alert. Wyatt is pretty excited because he wanted a guinea pig too. I guess it was meant to be.

If you have never been around Guinea pigs before they are surprisingly adorable. They purr and coo. It is so cute! They say the babies are running around about an hour after birth and have a third of their full size by 1 week old.

Now I am working on taking down Christmas and dreaming about spring....

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Merry Christmas!

Sitting here on Christmas eve...feeling content that my presents are made and wrapped...and thinking of all my blogging friends who add so much to my life.

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

I hope your day is filled with Christmas joy :)

Christmas time at our house

Christmas is such a wonderful time of year! I keep trying to remind myself of that as I stress over having money for the holidays and getting all the presents made that I need to make. Every now and then I just have to take a deep breath and tell myself I will get everything done!

I thought I would share some photos from around our house.

I have seen some people saying on Facebook that they have lost their joy this year. I know the stress of the holidays can cause this to happen. So many people struggling in this awful economy makes the holidays harder than they used to be. Several years ago I decided to just believe what is suppose to happen will happen and though everyone gets down once in awhile I thank God for all the joy I have in my life.

Decorating for Christmas makes me happy--though I will be ready to take them down when the holidays are over. :)

Love this painting of Santa my Grandmother painted.

 

I even decorated my car this year. Meet my Cruizer the red nosed reindeer--Chantel thinks it is so embarrassing.  As a Mother, embarrassing my kids is my job. I picked Chantel and a couple of her friends up at school today and I said, "All abroad the reindeer express". :) Chantel did not seem amused :)

Sending all my blogging friends many Merry Christmas wishes and hoping you are all finding joy in the season!

Thanks for visiting!