Drying Rack

So I was surfing on Pinterest a few weeks ago and I fell in love with this idea.  It is a fold-up drying rack that attaches to the wall.

 

 I had had some problems with my method of hanging things to dry.  It started with:

I am too short to make the already existing tension rod useful.

If I lowered the tension rod it would block the shelves above the washer and dryer.

Enter the twine seen in the pictures and new problems:

Twine slides along the rod as the weight of the hanging clothing gets heavier.

It hangs directly over the top load washer and in front of the shelves.

It blocks most of the light from the only light which is directly above the tension rod for those late night loads.

 

So I thought that a fold-up rack would be the perfect solution.  But of course it could not be that easy.  As you can see from the picture above there is no wall space.  The window takes up the upper wall and anything lower would be in the way of the dryer door and in reach of exploring little fingers.  The wall opposite where I am standing to take the picture is the doorway and the wall across from the washer and dryer is the pantry and door to the storage closet.

Challenge accepted.

Solution: Build the drying rack into the window well.  This caused for some major modifications on the plans online.  My window is considerably larger that the drying rack plans, so I can fit a lot more on at once which I am thrilled about.  However, all of the weight has to be held by the frame itself with no back to brace it to a none existing wall.  With a few measurements taken I began my first DIY addition to the new house.

Here is the frame as I tweaked a few things to fit.  I used (6) 3/8" dowels and spanned them between 1x2"s cut to a little lower (about 3/4") than the height of the window well.  The dowels are just fitted into snug holes and held in by the tension of the 2x2"s that are nailed to the inside of the 1x2"s to the width of the window (about 1/2" shorter).

 I gave it a quick prime coat on the back patio.

I spray painted a few coats of high gloss white, which I found the previous owners left in our storage closet.  I attached the hinges directly to the window sill and bottom of the frame.  It stayed closed on its own pretty well, but I decided to add a hook and eye just in case to the top.

 I wanted to use the same hinge that was used in plans I found online, but couldn't find one that was quite right anywhere.  In my search inspiration struck once again.  I decided to use a picture hanger wire.  Since I already had some from another project I was drawn even more by the price.  As I prepped my staple gun caught my eye and a marriage was made.  After stapling the wire in place with a little slack I just twisted the wire back on itself so that it wouldn't slip out of place.

 Voila!

 

 Added perk it fits an entire load of diapers to dry in the sun light and even a breeze (if I remember to open the window).

Introducing ... Max

After much consideration, planing and searching we decided to expand our family by one feline.  Not sure how Hannah would handle a pet we have spent several Saturdays meeting puppies and kitties at the rescue shows at some of the pets stores in the area.  We had a rare Saturday without a ton to do so we ventured across town to visit the animal shelter in hopes to find a kitty that wanted to be apart of our family.

Hannah gets very hesitant with the animals and at most will bop it on the head or back and then retreat into the safety of Mommy of Daddy.  But there was something different about this orange striped ball of fuzz.  Hannah really pet him and even played with the fur on the top of his head and he was totally fine with her as well.  To us that was a sign that he was the boy for us.

After a visit to the vet we were able to pick him up on Wednesday afternoon and bring him home.  At ten weeks old he is the perfect size to play with Hannah.  So here are a few pictures that we snapped between running to and from Hannah.

He found a nice spot on the window sill.

 He played with a yard ball that we made him.

 And I think so far his favorite spot in under Hannah's highchair playing with the straps and the chair legs.

Here is a cute video of Hannah and Max and a pretty good example of how they interact so far.

He is really stinky and a little sick, but we are enjoying having him around and hope to all be settled soon.

Another Busy Week

 We have had another busy week around the Pruett house.  With projects and a busy little girls along with all of your other responsibilities it is hard to keep track of everything.  Here is Hannah in her usual spot for the evening "helping" with dinner.  I snapped this pic on a night where Josh was making one of his specialties for his girls.  Hannah always wants to know what is going on in the kitchen.

Hannah and Halle made good use of the warmest part of the day the other morning and played in the sprinkler.  They had fun getting soaking wet and in Hannah's case really muddy (she is still getting used to her new shoes that are a little big).  It rained about 30 mins later and proceeded to get cooler the rest of the afternoon and week. 

 Hannah has a new obsession...Buckles.  Anytime she gets out of the out of the wagon, car seat, high chair, or shopping cart she wants to stay in the seat and just investigate the buckle.  It can last for 15 mins sometimes and usually ends in a lot of frustration since she is still working on the motor skills and strength to buckle them.

Hannah likes to bring a toy or book to bed with her lately.  Today when I went to get her up from her morning nap she was sitting in her bed "reading" her book.  By the time I got the camera she was standing up, but still with book in hand.  I feel good about the idea that she likes to read her book in bed while she waits for me to free her.  The other night when we went to check on her before we went to bed and we actually found her asleep with her face on her open book as if she feel asleep reading just like her Daddy.

I hope to have another project post up in the next day or two...I have to take a few more pictures.

Photo Shoot

So I got the pictures back from the photo shoot that we had with our friend Jane of janey pie photography.  The shoot was a couple days before Hannah's birthday so that we could more professionally document this great milestone.  It was a lot of fun and a lot of work. Hannah loves Jane and Jane's camera so most of the pictures were taken right as Josh or I ran out of the shot and before or while Hannah ran full speed at Jane.  So if you will indulge me I will commence bragging on Hannah.

Here she is in her princess dress from Auntie Kathy.

 On your mark...get set...

 Making faces at Mommy or Daddy.

 Play break.  Time for some jumping.

 Getting a few more wiggles out.

 Changing locations with style.

 The sun was bothering her so I lent her my glasses.

 So excited about her 'baw"

 She still hasn't quite out grown putting things in her mouth, but she sometimes does it just for our reaction and attention.  So she decided to lick the ball and see what we did.

 Playing with her shoes.

 Found some grass on her foot and decided to admire it.

Our week was actually rather low key.  Hannah had a fever for a few days and Daddy was on a business trip so the girls just hung out at home catching up on sleep and cartoons.

Birthday Party!

We had a really busy week!  On top of the usual craziness that seems to ensue around here we had a birthday party to prepare for.  Here are some highlights of the party.

Here is Hannah in the pool where she spend most of the party splashing and playing.

 We also got really good use of the wagon we got from Didi and Grandad with wagon rides for all of the kids.  Here are Hannah, Halle, and Afton being pulled by Jane and followed by Ayden (the lone big kid of the party).

 And here are Hannah and her buddy Finn whose birthday is in a few weeks. Yes, Hannah is shivering.  she did it most of the afternoon because she kept getting in the pool and doesn't have enough meat on her bones to keep her warm in 85 degrees.

 This is Hannah, her buddy Finn again, and the birthday boy Jackson.  They spent about twenty minutes taking turns on the trike that is too big for all of them.

Here is a little video of the main event. The wind blew out the candles, but that didn't hamper the cake eating.

 

Here are a few pictures of the cake eating progress.

Hannah continuing to dig in.

 Then she needed to cleanse her pallet with some celery.

 Jackson didn't want Hannah's cake to go to waste so he decided to help.

 This is around the time that Jackson decided that he was done and Hannah was still going with a drink at her side.

In the end neither one ate all that much of the cake, but Jackson seemed to understand how to demolish pretty well, while Hannah took the more dainty approach of eating all the fruit.

To end the night we put one of Hannah's presents to good use by giving her her very first bubble bath.  It took her a few minutes to investigate, but this was the final decision.

So excited!

I know that I have already posted this week, but I am so excited to show you what I have been working on that I decided to show things off a little early.

So to start off, a certain little girl has a birthday that is quickly approaching.  Lucky for me when we stopped by our friends' yard sale a few weeks ago we founda doll stroller.  Problem was there was no seat.  So I looked online and found a really easy tutorial and spent nap time the other day cutting and sewing.  I still need the clips for the belt, but since Hannah doesn't know how to use them yet I think I am okay.

   

Before                              After   

Then the big event of the week was finishing the painting in the living room!  So here is a reminder of what it looked like after we removed the popcorn ceiling and moved all of the furniture in.

This is after we primed the walls.  It was a huge difference in the amount of light that seemed to be in the room.

AND NOW... Here it is all painted!  I decided that I liked the brightness of the room and do not want to clutter it back up with the second couch and child death trap of a media tower so they are now listed on Craig's List and will hopefully help pay for the desperately needed drapes and rug.  I will keep you updated with the changes as they come.

Yard Work is Fun

We have been hard at work lately trying to ready our house for the up coming first birthday party for a certain someone we know.  I thought that I would share some of the changes that the work has brought about.  My favorite dramatic change was a result of my attack on the front bushes.  This is how they looked when we got home from the store with our new shears and bow saw.

After about a half an hour of hacking and whacking it looked like this.

 

We learned that a little work can make a huge difference and that you should not trim bushes outside a baby's bedroom if you want her to sleep.  She decided that it was more fun to play peak-a-boo through the window.

Here is the evolution of our garden plot (at least to this point).  Here is the location that we scouted right in front of the compost bin.  Don't mind the weird grass pattern it occurred when our friends mower fell apart on Josh for the second time before we got our own.  We chose this spot because it gets the best sun, being off to the side of the house and the furthest from the trees in the yard.  Sadly that criteria also made it one of the best areas for grass in the entire yard.

 Here is our box built and in place.  It is upside down so we could trace the area to dig which you can see we did in white paint around the sides.

 This the after we dug up the grass, made the post holes, and tested the fit.  It sat this way for a few weeks until the weather got a little cooler and dryer and we had a little more time.

 Here we are back to work.  Since we noticed some burrowing holes around the yard we decided to protect our plants by attaching mesh to the bottom of the box.  This meant we had to dig the entire area out and bury the mesh under it.  So we dug up a ton of dirt (it at least felt like it) and leveled the entire plot out.

After leveling we placed the box in place.

 We then got to move all the dirt back from the tarp and pavers to the inside of the box.  We sifted the dirt through the mesh to bury the posts and then also buried the edges of the box as well.  Then we added a bunch of free dirt that Josh brought home from work after they were done running tests on it in the lab.  We still need to add some topsoil and hopefully some compost before we plant in the spring (February--we do live in southern Louisiana).

 And now for some Hannah cuteness.  Here she is drinking her "joo" (juice) with a straw.  She likes to be like Mommy, but actually prefers Mommy's cup and straw.  Maybe her favorite color is blue?  Sorry for the grimace.  She doesn't like the flash, but Josh did point out that is about the face she makes when asking for her "joo".

And now Hannah has a circus performance for you all.