I'm Back (finally!)

Hi Everyone! It's so good to be back! First, I must give a big THANK YOU to my good friend Sarah, over at The Castle Diaries for letting you all know what was going on in my world (THANK YOU AGAIN SARAH!). Sadly, my computer is not the same. I cannot figure out how to run Windows Live Writer (which is why I'm using Blogger), and I've lost a bunch of stuff, but at least the virus is gone!

So, how have you been? How are the kids? What have I missed? I feel like I've been lost on a deserted island for the past couple of weeks :) Things here are much the same as ever...I've been trying to master my new Scroll Saw, but I must admit, it's harder than I thought it would be (anyone out there -hint, hint, GAIL- have any advice???please???). I have been enjoying football playoffs, even though none of my teams made it :( I love watching all the action at the Australian Open, and am ecstatic that two of my faves, Kim Clisters and Novak Djokovich (not sure on the spellings on those!), are still in it! woo hoo!! And, finally, I'm so excited for NASCAR to start up again! Lots of fun sports action going on. As for my family, we are all well, and healthy :)

So, while I was gone, I finally got to complete the Birthday Countdown Block set that my daughter had requested (in December). I love all the cute cupcake papers (and you know, cupcakes are one of my favorite things!), but with this set, I wanted it to be gender neutral, so both my boys and girls could use it. I love the colors, muted greens and aquas with some brown thrown in = gorgeous! Of course, I think I'll need to make another Birthday Countdown, because two of my boys have birthdays one day apart, and I just cannot make the littlest one get only one day to count down his birthday...so, I'm thinking on how to do that! The weather was too nasty in December to go outside and work, but we've had some beautiful days lately, and I actually got to go outside and sand and paint this set...it felt amazing! The whole time I was spray painting, I kept thinking how much I love (and missed) the smell of spray paint and wood...does that make me weird? Probably! Does anyone else feel that way??? Or am I the only one?? One of the best things about this project is that I only had to spend $3 on the paper...I had the wood and clothespin on hand. This was super simple, as I just used 2x4's that I had, sanded and painted them, then used Gorilla Glue to glue them together. I sanded and painted some left over blocks, then added scrap paper and vinyl to the blocks and bases, and used a light coat of Mod Podge to finish it all off. The clothespin was painted and I just glued a piece of one of the block papers to it, to tie it all in. I then used the Gorilla Glue to glue the clothespin onto the block bases. I thought about drilling a tiny hole and attaching the clothespin with a nail or screw, but opted for the easier way out. I'll let you know if it doesn't hold (but I'm hoping it will).
Anyway, it's good to be back, and hopefully I can get my Live Writer working again. Thank you all for your patience!
PLEASE leave me a comment and let me know you were here. I really have missed you!!