A tiny, quick update...

Daddy spending quality time with his son:)

At the baby shower my mom had for me. Thanks Mom!!:)

A little lovin' <3

Birth announcement pics...

Welcome to the world, Evan Luke!!!:)

Evan Luke Polcyn

Born Sat. Aug. 22, at 12:52 a.m.

7 lbs 12 oz, 20 inches long.

The proud daddy with his little man:) Just a post to fill you all in on what happened here over the weekend. Also to let you know that I'll be taking a break from blogging until my Mommy legs are established:) So far its been pretty sleepless, so besides feeding, diaper changing and trying to calm the baby, this Mommy's not doing much else:) I will return tho, just need a couple weeks to recooperate and adjust to this wonderful new way of life. I love, love, LOVE the 2 men in this picture above, they are my world:)

Here's what's been happening with me!

Wow... Ok so I've been away for a while! At least from this blog, I've been very much present otherwise! So very very busy! And loving every minute of it:)

It's been lot's of fun though. I've been working on lots of projects, mostly in anticipation of this wonderful little one on whom I am "trying" to wait patiently for!

First of all. Remember in my last post I said I was going out for the night with my gals??? Well, they are just the most amazing girls of all!:) They did this...

They completely surprised & shocked me with a wonderful baby shower!!

All the wonderful food...

Letting them take pics of the ever growing belly...

Trying to figure out the pack-n-play, yep we did get it!

And then the night just got funnier:) Such good laughs & good talks girls! Thanks again! To see more pics go here and here.

My mom & sisters were also there, such fun that night was!:) I just LOVE surprises & this one was an awesome one!

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This is a project that is totally completed now & I am so happy with it:)

Here is what it looked like in the beginning, just a blah ol' basket. But I liked the shape & weaving of it. Saw the potential & snatched it up at a garage sale for a whopping $1! Love them sales:)

So I set up shop on the front porch, got out the paint supplies & away I went. I've done this several times now & people passing by on the road kinda give me funny looks, but hey, I like my front porch "work shop":)

Here it is getting a coat of white satin spray paint.

The day was rather dreary but so calming, the rain was coming down so slowly & gently, I just had a take a pic to remember it:)

And here is the finished product!! I'm rather pleased with how it turned out. And the best part? Supplies & all, total cost was around $2. Not to shabby for a diaper holder for my changing table, don't ya think?:)

I found a new favorite as well... Chalk board paint. The "label" I guess we'll call it is a little die-cut that I bought from Pat Catan's, spray painted it white then drew the outline & filled it in with 2 coats of chalkboard paint. Such fun stuff!! You'll be seeing more of it in some up coming projects too:)

Oh, and credit must go to Jenny for the inspiration of this idea! Although, I still think her stuff looks better than mine!!

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And now a little preview of a couple more things that are still in the works. I must warn you this next one is SCARY!!

AAHH!! It looks like the entrance to a cave or something I think.

What is it? The landing at the top of our stairs going into our upstairs hallway.

Why is it so ugly? Well, when someone (previous owners, not us!) wallpapers & then decides to go for a different look and paints OVER TOP of the wallpaper with a shiny, glossy, stark white, OIL paint, what is a girl to do???

Strip the wallpaper of course... *sigh* So much work! So I beg all of you... NEVER paint over wallpaper! Please remove such wall covering BEFORE painting! And then of course, what was under the wallpaper was nothing short of daunting... First of all, the glue would not all come off of the wall so we were left no choice but to sand it off. Thanks to my hard-working mother who endured the dust so I wouldn't have to! Thanks Mom!

And.. plaster, OLD plaster, full of small holes & dents & knicks & whatever else you can think. So this creates work for the husband as well! He ever so diligently went about filling all the above mentioned holes in the walls and created a much smoother surface for me to paint.

In this picture you can also see the new doors that were being installed. Once again (previous owners, not us!) ruined the old doors by sawing of bits here and there to try to level them after the new basement was put in rather than re-installing the door frames. Oh & these were also painted with oil based paint & then painted over AGAIN with latex paint WITHOUT properly preparing the surface.

The result? Chopped up peeling painted up doors. So not a pretty thing. So what did we do? My handy husband worked mucho much & installed brand new doors. AH... So much better!!!

So as you can tell, there has been much progress since these pictures have been taken. The walls are now painted & the trim is currently being painted as I have time. It should be completely done this week and then I can't wait to show you the after pics! It is such a change!!:)


Here is another project that has been started & is awaiting completion... I was searching for just the right thing and I finally found it so now all I have to find is time to finish it up & show you all!:) This little crate cost 10 cents at a yard sale & I do believe it was well worth the dime spent:)

And here is a picture of Baby's crib... Just waiting to gaze upon a sleeping (we hope!) newborn in there!!:)

Paint...

My "project" life revolves around paint right now... preparing for paint, sanding, priming, ultimately paint paint paint!!!

Soooo happy it's getting done though. Huge thanks to my Mom who came yesterday and helped get ALOT done along those lines!

Today was more paint paint paint, and the next few days will have paint time snuck in wherever possible. So once I feel like I need a break from all that painting I have a completed project to show you & hopefully some fun nursery pictures & progress on our upstairs!!

Hope everyone is having a great week! I gotta run and get ready for a fun night with some awesome gals!!:) O. And make supper for my hubs:) Can't have him going hungry while I run off!:)

Sounds fun to me:)

Saturday night.

I'm home by myself, these are things on the agenda...

Curl up on top of the quilt on my bed surrounded with tons of pillows & read a good book. (The bed is more comfy than the couch for this:))

Watch a movie that I picked up at Redbox today.

Eat a dish of yummy homemade cornstarch pudding that I made earlier today and is now perfectly chilled... (you all know what I mean by cornstarch pudding, right?:) I don't know what else to call it, it's something Mom used to make when we were little, I never really liked it then, but I'm pregnant, I like it, enough said.:) Although I do like it cold rather than hot, she used to serve it warm most of the time...)

Maybe do some scrapbooking...

Sounds like a good Saturday evening to me!

But I will be even happier when my hubby comes home tomorrow!!:)

35 Weeks

Is this pregnancy really winding down and there's only 5 weeks until my due date??? Yes! But it is soo hard to believe! I'm definitely feeling like I am in late pregnancy:) Feeling very awkward and uncomfortable at times. I read somewhere a while back that pregnant women should really watch out for curbs or sidewalks where there could be a step and they might not see it since their belly is so big that they can't see their feet. Huh? Well, yeah, it happened to me twice now! I felt quite silly as I completely missed the step and went lunging forward like it was going to be the same level. Thankfully I didn't twist an ankle or anything, just felt a little foolish:)

I find myself planning things for this week, next week, the next, etc. and all of a sudden I realize, Wow! Pretty soon it'll be "next" week that this baby is supposed to come! So amazing, strange, extremely exciting, LIFE CHANGING... But oh I cannot wait!!


*P.S. These pics were actually taken LAST week, at 34 weeks & I think the belly is bigger now, just a week later!!

Friday I have an appt. with the midwife and then I think I will be going every week to see her until the baby comes. I think that'll only make the time go faster!

Right now I am really enjoying my time, I am no longer working at my job and am really enjoying my freedom:) I have time now to work on all these little projects that I've been wanting to do before Baby makes an appearance. I'll show you a couple of them soon when they're completed:) The best thing about it is they are garage sale finds & 1 cost a whole $1, and the other a whole $.10!! I'm gonna miss those garage sales come this winter!!

Hope everyone is having a wonderful day!

Just Peachy

Saturday morning waffles... Topped with fresh peaches, so perfect & sweet no sugar is needed. Yum, what a great way to start a great Saturday:) It was a bit of a rainy blustery day & it felt so good to start in a slow relaxed way, enjoying a good breakfast & then heading out to run some errands.

After coming home, James worked on trim in the hallway & I was so impressed at all that he got accomplished! Now I have to paint...:) Hmm, I'm looking forward to that in my current awkward stage about as much as he was to working on the trim. But he did a super job, I'm so proud:)

As he was slaving away ripping boards & making it all fit just so, I washed all the baby clothes that I've been collecting from garage sales & thrifting, and put them away! Now that was fun!:) It's so fun so see it all come together & makes me feel like we're just a little bit more ready for this little one to arrive.

Peach pie that I made the other day. Turned out amazing if I do say so myself:) We only have a couple of slices left...


Pie crust is such a frustrating thing for me! I always use the same recipe and it usually turns out, but sometimes just sooo much better than other times. Usually when I want to make it for company is when it turns out just a little "off". Well this pie was made just for us, and of course this time it turned out absolutely perfect. Not to brag, but I do think it was the best pie crust I have ever made! And that was using the same pie crust recipe as always...

This was the Peaches-N-Cream pie from Taste of Home, I used the Martha Stewart recipe for the crust of course but for the filling I used the above recipe. I did use about a cup more peaches than it asked for, I would recommend that, otherwise a 9 inch pie pan would not be full enough (in my opinion anyway:), and the peaches were so sweet naturally that I only used about a 1/4 cup of sugar & I used generous TBLs of flour because I don't like runny fruit pies! It was a first time for this recipe and I do think I would make it again:)

I hope you all had a wonderful relaxing weekend!