House Progress: Shutters and Flower Boxes

Here are some more pics from the day the storage pod was delivered:

Here is how the house looked at the start: (last fall)

Then we took everything off and started the painting. They used Sherwin Williams Duration paint. All four of the painters recommended this type when they gave us their estimates, so it must be good :)

Here it is after the painters' first day:

Meanwhile hubby was working on the shutters.  They are made from rough hewn cedar planks. They are about 25% wider than the original shutters.

He stained them black with a couple coats of a special exterior stain from Sherwin Williams.  Here it is after we re-attached the shutters and added the window boxes. 

Now we are just waiting for the awning, the window box liners, and the new storm door.  Then I will have to give the landscaping another spruce up. Progress!

Reuse Recipe: Dyeing Leather Shoes

Both hubby and I had some shoes that needed a spruce up.  Mine were a pair of birks that felt great on my feet, but the color was annoying.
I read up on how to dye shoes a new color and used these as the test pair.

 I taped off the soles and filled them with brown paper to keep the dye from going anywhere I didn't want dyed.

 I used a deglazer first, to take off any protective coatings and to make sure that the dye would take evenly. It stinks like super strong nail polish remover. I just rubbed it on with a clean rag. I was careful to get in and around the stitching.
The dye color is chocolate, which is supposed to be a very dark brown. The dye comes in a bottle and has a sponge paint brush.  It was very simple to use. Just paint it all over and voila. I wore gloves and did it outside based on others recommendations.

 I love the color.  I only used about a third of each jar to do these and probably could have gone a little lighter on the dye.
After the dye dried, I applied Fiebling's Mink oil to soften and waterproof them. Unlike the other products, this one smells good.

I showed my shoes to hubby and got his permission to fix up the dress shoes that he wears 6 days a week, to work and church.  I have tried to polish them a couple of times, but that is very short lived. Polishing shoes is so common in other countries, but not a habit among Americans it seems. In any case, this dye is a penetrating dye so it goes down into the leather rather than staying on the surface. 

Here is what hubby's shoes looked like at the start:

 I figured that my efforts could not make them much worse than they already were!   And luckily, using the same technique, everything worked great again.

 A nice dark chocolate.  These are taken after he had worn them for a couple days.

Family Schooling Summary

This was the last week of co-op school classes. (Class fair next week). Big sister A learned about Peru in Spanish culture club, made a greenhouse in Botany, and talked about Rapunzel's tower in fairy tale engineering. Brother M has enjoyed his lego class, but luckily he is still more interested in cars and trains.  

 Here are the cards, tray and smoothie that the kiddos made for me for Mother's Day.  (Notice the tiny table? The other one is in the storage pod already).

Baby L is bouncing and scooting a bunch.  Still loves being held best of all.

The boys had their Father and Sons campout this weekend. They were so excited to go, especially brother S since it was his first time camping out.

From what I understand, there was a lot of eating while they were there.

In other news, our fridge seemed to be petering out this week.  Finally, on Saturday we started to investigate and take things apart.  Looks like it just needed a good defrosting. *Kids leaving the door open a crack on a regular basis might be the problem here.

Sew Special: Civil War Dress and Red Cissy Dress

My neighbor is donating this doll to a local historic Civil War era mansion.  She wanted a dress that was correct for the time period. I used a historic period dress pattern from McCalls:

The doll's measurements were similar to a child size 2, but I had to do some alterations to the bodice. There was a lot more piecing than any dress bodice that I have ever done. Each sleeve was two pieces. The bodice had 9 pieces. Also it has a different (piece by piece) type lining which was interesting. I have never made a civil war period dress before, so I am assuming that this is just typical for that period. It was a fun project and I am pleased with the results. 

Finally done with the red Cissy evening dress. I love this silk fabric. The client chose a 25$/yard silk brocade. It was gorgeous to work with. I will make another one to sell in my shop with the leftover fabric.

Family Schooling Summary

It is shocking to me how fast everyone is growing-up.  Big sister A has 2 more loose teeth.  She is so independent now - makes her own pbj for school lunch, plans and carries out picnics with the brothers, takes care of baby L, and cleans whole rooms by herself, including vacuuming.  

Baby L is growing up too.  This coming week she is officially turning 4 months old and already she has started scooting.  I am amazed.  She rolls front to back, back to front, and scooches around in circles or backward. She has also entered the oral fixation phase and tries to make her hands pull everything she can grab towards her mouth.

This is what happens when 4 kids get a puking sickness in one week. I think this laundry pile is a good reminder for any nostalgic parents/grandparents of the hard parts of the "good old days" with young kids.  I am trying to enjoy these times and live in the moment, carpe diem etc. but some things are just hard.  At least it only lasted 24 hours for each of them and we parents managed to avoid it somehow.  This is what hubby and I did during our movie night. Good times.

We skipped dance class and some school work due to illness this week.  But brother M went to swim lessons and big sister A did her math and reading worksheets. We all went to co-op school.

Family Schooling Summary

I have almost nothing exciting to report about schooling this week. Same old stuff- co-op school, joy school, dance lessons, swim lessons, and workbooks.
The only news is that we have nearly finished reading the WondLa books together. Both big sister A and brother M are paying attention and their reading comprehension seems excellent -- as in they are telling their friends about the characters and storyline. We listened to the first 2 books on cd in the car, but the library only had the 3rd one as a book, so we are reading that aloud at bedtime.  Now I wish that we would have read them all in book format because the illustrations are awesome!  Nothing like a chapter book with great pictures of the alien creatures.  Brother M likes the "warbots" the best.

Pretending to Move

Hubby took down all the shutters and the awning on Friday.  He is planning out the new shutters and flower boxes. I am still trying to define the width of the new juliet awning that we are going to order. And also whether or not we should have the scroll supports on the sides (see link for examples).  Decisions, decisions...
The painters are coming to start on the exterior on Monday.   In the bright afternoon sun you can really see how the white paint has oxidized off the aluminum siding almost completely over the last 70 years. It looks dirty with the gray aluminum shining through in contrast to the areas that had been protected by the shutters.

Our storage pod was delivered on Friday. We planned to work on filling it with the big items Saturday afternoon.  Uncle P came over to help. Then the Elders texted me to see whether we had any service that they could help with. They are so inspired.  With their help we were able to get all the boxes and large items out of the house by about 5:30pm.  The pod (16'x8'x8') is about 80% full.  we are planning to have them take it to the longterm storage facility soon so that we can have the driveway paved.

Now it is on to cleaning and painting.   And yes, replacing that tree that did not make it through the winter. My fault for moving it :(.