Houses

We lost the house. The sellers refused to negotiate despite the discovery of the roof's very poor condition (which they of course didn't disclose before we went into contract and which if we'd known would have greatly changed our offer price). So it sucks. It's cost us time and money we just don't have much of. We may have found a different house which we like a lot too and would like to make an offer on, but since our money is tied up in the first one we're not exactly sure how soon we'll be free to move on to another house. We've got one month from this Thursday before we have to move out, though we're now hoping for another extension from our landlord which we'll have an anwswer to today. Huge frustrating sighs all around, we're just trying to move forward one step at a time and not freak out.

This house was one we passed in the city while on the garden tour a few weeks ago. I thought it looked just like an iced wedding cake!

a package for everything

Packaging up individual gift tags may seem like the most pointless idea ever, but they looked so naked and sad laying around waiting for me to mail them to Dacia for the swap that I had to do something about it. And the bonus is that I used up some of my lifetime supply of freezer paper in the process. I'm much happier with them now.





I haven't mentioned the house update yet because the outcome is still in limbo and I'm just so frustrated with it! The roof does need to be replaced (big sigh) and so we're trying to finalize negotiations with the sellers so that we're comfortable with the deal. I should definitely know within a day or two if it's going to happen.

martha magnets

I think this idea was from the MSL April issue? Here is the link to the online version. Last month when Laural posted about an amazing place to buy these little watchmaker tins for super cheap online I ordered the variety set and got 50+ tins (literally for about $16!). I finally got around to making some photo magnets out of some of them, mostly which I'm grouping into little sets and sending to friends. What you see is just a handful of the ones I've finished so far. I love them.

back to the dogs *update - it's my anniversary month!

*Ok so it took me messing around with my blogger template sidebar and noticing that my archives start in May 2004 to realize it's my 2 year anniversary of blogging at two rabbits! It's funny that I was randomly thinking about the layout. So just insert all the usual blog anniversary mush here about how much this means to me and how great you all are and how I never thought I'd still be doing this 2 years later and so on and so forth. It's all completely true of course, but I think you already know it.

What else do I have to post about when I have no new craft photos? Though I am happy to say I did do a fun craft project on Sunday and only need to take pictures so I can show you. But for now, here's Bella pretending to be a person sitting on the couch (the cushion next to her is folded up to try and keep the dogs off that couch which normally works because they are too big to fit on a single cushion laying down, but here Bella is showing us that if she sits up like a human she fits just fine!), and Moose being the cute adolescent boy that he is (just about 6 mo. now, I thought he was close to 7 but Greg told me I was a month off and he's not even 6 months old yet).







House inspection is tomorrow so keep the clean inspection vibes coming my way. You guys are so supportive and I love getting each and every comment. I can't wait to just get on with my life, I feel like it's been on hold the past few months while we wait to see what happens with our mess. Getting the house won't fix everything of course but it's such a major step towards getting everything back in order that I really, really hope it works out for us.

ps. I think I may start some sort of list to the right here for craft-related projects I'd like to do or things I've promised to post about but never did (um. . . gourd crafting, fabric box how-to, etc.). I wish I could just build my own site so I could format it the way I'd like, but I'm sure I could figure out a way to make a wider column to the right to accommodate this type of list. And damn do I need to update my reading list. I've left that fantasy stuff sitting at the top so long I've probably lost site visitors! It's funny too because I read quite a bit (well, compared to my friends at least, not compared to my mom) but just never remember to update the list there. I'll try to do better.

e n j o y

Gift tags for Dacia's swap. I think this is a such a sweet and perfect little swap - making 10 tags is something I can handle at any time, getting 10 cute tags back will be great and they'll be something I will definitely use, and who doesn't just love gift tags? So thanks Dacia!









So the house status is lukewarm. They accepted our offer, but only after putting out some shady unofficial feelers to see if we would up the offer since they were expecting more. And in the process of waiting we found out the roof may be very close to needing replacement which would be so damn expensive. But it's not positive. No one seems to know much about the roof which of course sounds sketchy, but the owners just put in 6 gorgeous huge skylights less than a year ago so it seems to me (yes now I'm a roof expert) that the roof would have to be in decent condition for them to do this, right? But anyway the next step is the inspection which will be Tuesday to see what's up with the roof (and any other potential issues). Our concern is that since the sellers are already not to happy with the sale amount, they aren't going to be very accomodating when we counter for even less money if the roof needs replacing in the next few years. I'm pretty distraught because I naturally looooove the house already (and Greg says I have attachment issues!) and we are about to be homeless so we really need a place to live. This weekend I'll be doing the clean inspection and "please let the roof not be so old" dance.

LeT's haVE A TEa PARTY

Yesterday my mom and I did a garden tour in the Pacific Heights neighborhood of San Francisco. The tour was put on by the Victorian Alliance of San Francisco and it was lovely! Unfortunately, only one of the home owners permitted photography of their garden (what did the others really think we'd do with photos? isn't it a compliment and the whole idea if worse case scenario someone tried to do something similar in their own garden and used a photo for a guide? i don't think mean people out to steal photos take garden tours. . . but I digress) and so the photos below are from that wonderful enchanted piece of earth and they do not in any way do the beauty justice. I have included a few direct links to the photos in a larger size than usual because it is so worth it to look at the details. Oh this garden was also just photographed to be featured in the Better Homes and Gardens Spring 2007 issue!

this was inside an old shed in the garden that was completely overgrown in ivy and flowering vines on the outside with a Mother's Day tea party inside!

bigger here

flowering tea?


squirrel shutters on the little shed


magical bedroom

bigger here

wee cottage

bigger here

I also got this bag from red ENVELOPE for my mom since she has a lot of fun with her new camera and photo printer so I knew she'd love being able to show off her pics in this great red tote. I used Bella, her rabbit Gizmo, and Moose as the first models for when she opened the present.


Now we are about to end the weekend as soon as I hit publish on this post with these chocolate covered strawberries!


and also, Greg and I made an offer on a house today (well, it won't go till tuesday but we took care of everything so the offer will happen then). and to tie this in, the house we want to buy has beautiful gardens and feels like a cottage! so yeah. . . fuck, this is scary business!!!! really hoping for good news tuesday night or wednesday. . .

k z

These are the letter softies I mentioned the other day. A "Z" for our godson Zach, and a "K" for his sister Karina. I love the idea of them, but don't like how they turned out too much. So I'm hoping to try another method and make more. I added the rope to them so they could be door hangers or hang on the wall or something? The fabric on the back is my new favorite (blue and green and covered with wild animals) and was a gift from my dearest friend Sara. I am still thinking of what I can make with it to really show it off.



Bella and Moose having a showdown in the yard.



And this is Pepper, our much-loved kitty who for some reason doesn't seem to get mentioned or photographed much. He is the best cat I've ever known, and actually gets along wonderfully with the dogs. He is afraid of the rabbits however, and I'm not kidding.

berrycake

My latest version of strawberry shortcake: one homemade pound cake layered with sugared sliced strawberries and a whipped cream and mascarpone filling & topping.

Yum! Wish I were home eating a piece right now.

we go together

We took the kids out together for the first time last night to visit friends of ours. These friends insisted that we bring both dogs over to their apartment because they are madly in love with them. So after making them sign a waiver to relieve us of all responsibility towards what either dog may do to their property (well, we verbally made them agree to this!) we piled them both in the car and headed over. Turns out we're nervous parents because the dogs were great and our friends couldn't get enough of Moose acting like he's a lap dog despite being over 90 lbs now, as you can see in the photos.







Today we went to an open house for a place we now desperately want to buy. Since we'll be homeless in 7 weeks purchasing a home one of these days would be a really good idea. But then again, Greg finding a job would be a good idea too and that hasn't happened yet. Ok, that sounded bitter. Really I'm just excited because we may actually try and buy this house and if we did it would be wonderful.

The walk in Golden Gate Park for the Brain Tumor Foundation was very inspirational but also sad. For every survivor there was someone else walking in remembrance of a friend or family member who didn't make it. Our friend ended up walking with us while his very pregnant wife played with the kids in the finish area so that was great because it gave us a lot of quality time to just chat and be with him. Greg and I are really glad we did it and thankful that our friends (real and online) are being so supportive.

Currently I am in the middle of making two kid's softies (of a type) and homemade strawberry shortcake, so I'll get finished with both of those tasks and share the results here soon.

art for kids

Last night we babysat for our friends so they could go to a support group at the hospital. Greg and I love spending time with their two kids and apparently the kids were excitedly talking about seeing us all day so the feeling's mutual. Greg and Levi played Star Wars games and Sagea and I made crowns with cardboard scraps.



They have mentioned before that I should contact the local schools to see if they would let me come into classrooms for an arts & crafts hour once in a while since the schools have mostly cut out those types of programs due to budget issues. When I first heard about that I couldn't believe it. I'm not very knowledgable about the local education crisis other than knowing that there is in fact one going on, but schools with no art teacher or art classes? That's so sad! I know not all schools are lucky enough to have funding for arts programs but in my childhood that was such a major influence on my learning that I can't help but feel it's something big the kids are missing if they don't have access to art and music in school.

I wish I could figure out a way to at least volunteer at the school our friend's kids go to for some sort of craft-time. I would love that.

support

Brief interruption to the usual post fodder. . .

I've mentioned a few times here in the last few months about a close friend of ours who had a seizure one night while playing poker with Greg which ended up leading to the discovery of a brain tumor. A month ago I wrote about babysitting his kids the day he was undergoing brain surgery to remove the tumor. I don't know if I mentioned that the surgery was only partly successful and they had to leave part of the tumor intact, and that the biopsy results proved it to be cancerous. For the past few weeks he's been recovering from the surgery and battling some speech issues which are getting better and some reading comphrension issues which aren't. Today as I write this he is starting an aggressive chemotherapy and radiation treatment plan, to be administered 5 days a week for 6 straight weeks. I think it's symbolic that this Saturday happens to be the date for the annual walk in Golden Gate Park to support the National Brain Tumor Foundation. I just hope it's symbolic in a good way.

If you are in the Bay Area please think about coming out to walk in the park to offer your support. When I registered a fundraising page was created for me which you can find here if you'd like to make a donation.

Bay Area Angel Adventure Walk
National Brain Tumor Foundation
Saturday, May 6, 2006
Program: 9:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Golden Gate Park, Speedway Meadow, San Francisco

The Bay Area Angel Adventure is an inspirational fundraising walk and community day to support the brain tumor cause and the National Brain Tumor Foundation.

Now please turn your attention back to the scrumptious little lambs below.

little lambkins

I've gotten to just one craft goal on my list, but it's a good one. I used this adorable free lamb pattern to make these little guys. The one below in too-bright yellow is the practice lamby that I just machine-stitched in a hurry. The one above has a flower collar inspired by Jenny's (of allsorts fame) cute Scotties from her new (also free) pattern which is a take-off on the lambkin one (and has also become next on my craft list). These patterns are simple and fun to use and I am so happy about all this crafty blogworld generosity.

a sunday

Yesterday was a nice day. We got up early and drove all the way out to Lodi, California (middle of nowhere). . .



for a great dane specialty show being held at Sycamore Lane Kennels which was an oasis of beauty in the middle of nothing.



We met the couple who have Moose's sister and the pups played while we watched all the gorgeous danes show. We picked up these two great outdoor dog begs from them that we'd bought previously and when we got home Bella and Moose claimed them immediatly on the deck for sunbathing. (note to self: should have gotten bigger size!)




Greg went to play soccer and I read outside (Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro) with the dogs and decided to bring the rabbits out for some fresh air as well.




This is from Saturday night but I am throwing it in here anyway. My little girl neighbor had a birthday party and I gave her this little Alice in Wonderland pouch with heart barrettes.



In the evening Greg watched hockey and I sat with him and kept reading my book because I couldn't put it down. After dinner I made iced sugar cookies for dessert.



Greg fell alseep on the couch and so we both went to bed early with Moose curled up at our feet. The end.

(This week should be a pretty major one with us having to make final decisions about what we're going to do and where we're going to live since our time is running out - so I'm glad yesterday was so nice before the stress levels reach ultimate highs in the next few days.)