Happy Paintbrushes!

This "Sweet Teal" table makes my paintbrush happy!  I love to find good deals on ugly little things and make them cute again, so this little table is kicking off our next wave of fundraising!  I am working on several projects to pull together for a "show" in July.  I am weighing a couple of options, but seriously am thinking my own front yard on the 4th of July is not a bad idea...this town is flooded with people, and 90% of them walk right in front of my house on their way to the park.  In the meantime, if anyone is interested in this cutie, she is $48...all to bring us $48 closer to our next goal.

I was quite excited to turn in our "adoption fund" to the bank last week in exchange for a cashier's check to send off to Love Beyond Borders.  Now the compilation of the dossier will be underway...we are closer to being matched which gives me butterflies in my stomach!  Our next financial hurdle is the largest one we've had yet, so my paintbrush and my sewing machine will be running in full gear...I will continue to post items, so please share the posts with friends and family who may need some awesome, unique, reasonably priced cool looking "stuff".  I will also keep everyone up-to-date on when/where I will have my projects displayed for a Home from Haiti sale.  Thanks for stopping by!  :)

Oh, by the way, if you really "stop by", I apologize for the piles of laundry folded on my coffee table and the fingerprints on the windows, and the massive number of weeds along the walkway, and the dining room table piled with fabric...I am too busy painting and sewing to keep up!

Garage Sale Success!

We had our "Home from Haiti" garage sale on Saturday, and it was great!  But I must admit that I have never stressed out to the point of hyperventilating until Saturday morning.  It was crazy, but I had been up until 12:30am the night before...went to bed knowing there was still TONS to do.  Alarm went off at 5am...and at 5:09, and at 5:18, and at 5:27...you get the idea...snooze is a wonderful feature!  Then, just as I'm listing furniture pieces and boxes for Bruce to haul up from the basement, he gets called into work.  Grrrrr!  So then I started to freak out just a bit...chin quivering, eyes filling with tears knowing that I had furniture to haul upstairs, pricing of pretty much everything in my garage left to do, emptying clothes out of my own closet, and of course, I had listed "garden perennials" in my flyer...yet they were all still happily rooted in the ground all around my house.  Not to mention I had four kids inside (yep...friend over) still sleeping, but knew they'd be up and needing some attention sooner than later.  So then I started to hyperventilate...it was quite ridiculous, really.  Then the phone rang....hallelujah!  My aunt was calling to see if I needed any help.  I started crying and said, "Bruce just got called into work."  That's all I had to say...thank you Jody!!  :)  We sold so much stuff...it was busy all day, and several people were very generous in the process...I cried a few more times throughout the day, but we made it through and it was all good.

The planters have been a huge success as well!  We've delivered 3 of them so far, and have 7 more to go.  Now we just have to find enough old, weathered pallets...I've never paid so much attention to those silly things before, but let me tell you...there's quite a variety of them & I keep pinning more and more ideas on Pinterest that we can make from pallets.  I'm pretty sure you can never have too many pallets!

Knowing what we can do with a seemingly ugly, worn out pallet, I have been looking at everything a little differently.  I got inspired (or should I say distracted) today for a new project while folding laundry....yep, laundry.  C had ripped the knee out of a pair of his jeans & just as I dropped them into the garbage can, I snatched them back out again.  I may have several loads of laundry in baskets waiting to be folded, but I have two cute new denim wall pockets made out of holey jeans!  I will try to get a picture posted soon.

Here it is!  The pallett planter  box...I LOVE stepping out on the deck and picking fresh lettuce, rosemary, oregano, cilantro, chives, onions, and am looking forward to some peppers!  Six sold at this point...$45 each.  Email me if you are interested in one!  heybruce@fctc.coop

First round of Fundraising underway!

Oh my goodness!  Bruce made this planter box for our deck out of an old pallet (will try to upload the photo, but not promising...I'm not good at this blogging thing yet).  It turned out so cool...I LOVE it!  I immediately thought..."we need to sell some of these as an adoption fundraiser!"  So, off I went, posting on facebook and emailing friends/family.  We have a waiting list of 6 people wanting them so far, so we have been on the lookout for good old worn out pallets.  Just those six brings us nearly $300 closer to our Home from Haiti goal!  Yippee!  :)

We are also having a garage sale next weekend, and I will be digging through every nook and cranny of our house over the course of the next week to find items we no longer use.  The cool thing is:  we have other people donating things as well.  Just picked up the coolest ride-on stuffed horse that I'm sure will make Eden cry as it leaves our garage to its new home.  She is such a fan of horses, and this thing is nearly as tall as she is.  Thank-you, Carie, my friend, for your great donations!  :)

But the coolest thing ever...I was at Carie's house tonight for a 31 Party, and the consultant, whom I've never met before, asked me if I'd consider doing a fundraising show.  She offered to donate her commissions and turn the hostess gifts into cash (rather than product)!  How cool is that?  Someone I don't even know, offering to help us out...pretty cool, I must say!  Of course, I'm having a Norwex party already in a couple of days, so it will be a few months before we do the 31 thing.  But awesome, nonetheless!

Our Family

And the orphanage is....

This week we found out the name of the orphanage our agency is going to be working with on our behalf.  It's called New Life Link and its located in Port-au-Prince.  I had butterflies in my tummy as I searched them on the web and YouTube to get any little glimpse i could into the life of our child.  I was relieved to have a peaceful feeling about the care they provide...looks like one of the best orphanages in Haiti.

Our home study had to be postponed until the end of February, because of the weather.  However, it went "okay"...I say that only because the kids were perfect...and I do mean perfect all morning in anticipation of the social worker arriving.  No arguments, no time-outs, helping out around the house, and playing quietly.  Then she arrived.  While they weren't terrible by any means, I think my expectations were just a little higher than they should have been!  We should be receiving the written report sometime this week!  Yeah!  :)

Oh, and yes...I did get a new sink and countertop in my bathroom!  :)

Procrastination

Oh boy, am I a procrastinator or what?  Despite that terribly negative trait, I have managed to complete the 20-page questionnairre necessary for our home study.  Lots of thoughtful answers went into that...so many of the answers could have been "it depends on the situation", but of course, that wasn't how it ended up.  I should have had fingerprint samples sent out to DCI weeks ago, because it takes 6 weeks to get them processed, but I haven't done it yet!  Mostly because it means Bruce leaving work a little early one day, so we can run to Toledo before they close...not to mention the fact that I haven't scheduled physicals yet either...ughhhhhh....just get it done!

Nonetheless, the process continues.  We are set up for our home study on Feb 4th, and I am actually looking forward to it!   This slight perfectionist-living-in-an imperfect home is thankful there is snow on the ground to hide the plants that should have been cut back in the fall!  They were looking pretty scraggly.  So we will try to pull together a couple of unfinished projects in the next couple of weeks, leading up to the Feb 4 deadline!  Hmmmm...thinking I may actually get a countertop in my master bath...and a second sink installed!  It's been sitting in a box, waiting to be installed for nearly FIVE years...seriously....seems crazy!  That will bring us just one step closer to a finished bathroom!  :)