Happy Julyfest, everybody!
What is Julyfest, you may ask? Only the most important month-long holiday on the calendar. Pete started Julyfest right before we started dating in order to impress me (I really don't know how that was supposed to work?) because we both have birthdays in July. When Lukie's due date was figured, we really, really hoped he'd make it all the way to July. When July 1 rolled around, I told him he was free and clear to make his entrance into the world because now, the whole family could celebrate Julyfest. I don't know what will happen if we ever have a second child...
All of this to say that, you guys, Lukas is TWO. It happened last Friday. He went to bed on Thursday night not two, and woke up on Friday morning TWO.
The problem, really, was that he also went to bed sick on Thursday evening...so he was kinda punky on his birthday. Yup, my kid got a cold on his birthday. On July 3rd. The season of no colds. He wasn't the only one, either. The rest of the daycare has been getting it. Pete had it. I have now had it. WHO GETS SICK IN FRIGGIN' JULY???
We do.
Anyway, didn't stop us from eating cake.
Now, I don't really do cake. I bake a cake maybe once per year. That's a big maybe. The thing is, pie>cake. At all times and in all situations. We had pie at our wedding reception for gosh sakes. So, given the option, I will choose to bake a pie. I did, actually, just this morning.
But birthdays require cake, and birthday cake requires frosting (not all cake requires frosting, though- Pete actually prefers his cake without frosting, which is just one of his many opinions on EVERYTHING).
So, I made a vanilla cake (because Lukas doesn't like brown foods, even if they are chocolate ice cream and/or chocolate cake) and made blue frosting (because Lukie doesn't communicate yet what his favorite color is, so he gets my favorite color for frosting). Pete told me I should smear the frosting on the wall, it was so close to my favorite color. DON'T MIND IF I DO, PETER NOLL!!!
Anyway, we ate cake on Friday night, just the three of us. Lukie will have a big birthday party at Momo's house in a week and a half.
Sniffing the cake (above). Everything gets sniffed in our house before he puts it in his mouth. Only, he doesn't understand what sniffing is. He's actually blowing OUT of his nose instead of sniffing IN.
After eating cake, we spent a low-key weekend getting over our colds and working on house projects. There have been more more more house projects.
First, I've been agonizing over painting the living room (please ignore the literally-falling-apart Craigslist couch...it will be replaced shortly but I'm not going into debt over a couch, so we have to save up). I've been labelled a lover of gray by both Peter and my mother, who likes to ask me which color of gray I plan on painting (---insert anything here---), so I thought I'd go with a nice gray-ish blue in the living room. I tested three different colors, picked the best one, and started painting. With a brush. Because painting plank walls with a roller doesn't REALLY work very well.


That's just one wall. The others are done now. I haven't decided what to do because I kind of don't love it and wish I had just gone with gray. Figures. We'll see if I can learn to love it (especially after buying a new rug, but who knows when that will happen) or if, someday soon, I find myself inexplicably standing on a stepladder holding a paintbrush slathered in gray paint. Or white paint. but probably not blue paint.
Pete has also finished the doors on the bottom of the built-in cabinet in the dining room. They are currently painted, but now need re-painted since he fixed the planing on one of the panels. Next step is making glass doors for the top two shelves. And possibly painting the inside of those shelves a different blue. Because I'm not sure I like that color either. But it won't be grey. Promise (she says while crossing her fingers behind her back).
For the last three years, our mailbox has been bare wood and messy paint. I fixed that last week. I'm going to landscape it next year, but with that being kind of icky soil, I want to wait until the spring to get some things in there so they have a better chance of establishing roots and making it through the winter.
Oh, and Pete is ripping apart the porch.
See, we have a nice big porch on the front of our house. It's the defining architectural feature on that side of the house. Buuuut, the posts and rails were built out of untreated lumber and never planed for shedding water. Which means that there is some serious rot on a porch that's less than ten years old. It's been giving Peter serious anxiety for about two years, so this week, he started knocking it down and building it back up.
That's a good thing because, as it turns out, the posts are approximately half rotted. Who knew, right? Not really what you want SUPPORTING THE WEIGHT OF THE PORCH ROOF. Oy.
So look forward to more updates on that...
Lastly, Pete and I did our birthday shopping for each other. Our birthdays aren't until the 12th (mine) and the 20th (his), but we found ourselves with some open space on the calendar last week, and we both kind of knew what we wanted for our birthdays. Coincidentally, both of our gift choices were available in antique stores...so for two days last week, we went antiquing.
Pete wanted a giant wooden screw that he had seen in the Greeneville Antique Market approximately a year ago. He negotiated the price down eight whole dollars and I bought it for him for his workbench. It was dirty and gross, but he proudly paraded it around the Chinese restaurant, where we saw a former student of his. Then he came home and cleaned it.
I wanted a white stoneware pitcher for my new dining room cabinet. I was willing to buy new if it was the only way to get a decent price on one, but really preferred antique if I could find it. I didn't necessarily need it to be the most ornate or beautiful one out there; in fact, I preferred simple but heavy. After going to Kingsport, TN looking, we finally found one and it was on sale. Score!
We think this is a lovely birthday tradition and saves us both the hassle of figuring out a gift. Plus, it combines birthday shopping with Date Day, which is nice.
Oh, and I couldn't resist this little apothecary bottle when I saw that it was from Monticello, IL, which is near my hometown. So that came home with us, too, for $3. It's got a chip in it, but I don't care. I like to put flowers in them, and they're one of very few doo-dad type things that I like. I now have a whopping TWO apothecary bottles in my collection.