I'm an Aunt for the 5th time!!

Just wanted to share my excitement. My littlest brother and his wife had their first baby yesterday. He's such a little cutie. So pleased to introduce little Daniel:

Memorial Day 2014

This year we really didn't do much for Memorial Day except enjoy an extra day off of work. Mom and I finished my chair cushions. And Dad grilled some stuff outside. I spent most of my day watching movies and chatting with long distant friends. It was a nice relaxing day. Here are some pictures of our picnic.

Dad making Root Beer

 

We also had some watermelon pie on Saturday... Yummy!!

It was just a nice day spent with friends and family.

Crafty with Cushions

The other day I was looking at my dining room chairs and thinking...I wonder how hard it would be to make some chair cushions. So I turned to the internet to see how it was done. After checking a few websites I was pretty confident that I could make some....with my mom's help. I don't really sew.

My first step was to trace the chair seat and since I only had Christmas tissue paper, I got a pretty creative pattern.

This was on Tuesday of last week....the rest of my week got really crazy. So I didn't get a chance to go shopping for materials until Friday night. And with the Memorial Day holiday coming up I got most of my supplies half off.

I went with a really pretty jade green color linen. The color looked great with my dark wood chairs. The next step was to cut out the foam. I'd never cut foam so I wasn't sure how to do it. I tried a knife first then the kitchen scissors. The scissors did the job.

After I got the foam shaped into the patterned I wanted, I laid it on the fabric and cut around it. Getting a top and bottom piece.

And this is where I called in the reinforcements....my mom. She can sew and she thought it was pretty simple.

We sewed the "pillow case" covering and stuffed the foam inside. Leaving a gap in the back to attach the tie strings.
 
















With all six finally finished today, I took them home to see if they worked out.

I am extremely happy with how they came out. One of these days I'm going to learn how to put buttons in them so they have a more quilted look. But for now they turned out perfect.

My Dad the Voice Actor

My dad took a voice acting class back in August of 2013 just for the fun of it. Just to see if it would be a good hobby to take up. After a few classes, his teacher thought he had the talent to do it for real. So ever since then my dad has been very excited about working as a part time voice actor. He's been going to his teacher's master class and getting really excited about trying this voice acting thing. So when my parents moved into their new home, my dad picked out a perfect place to build sound booth. Here are the fun photos of it's build:

First Dad had to empty the closet in his den

Then when my older brother was in town for Christmas, he helped put the frames up

 Nothing moved ahead on the project until my Uncle Randy and Mike came into town in February. Then things started to happen.

Uncle Randy taking a break.

 

 They added another foot onto the frames, moved my dad's overhead fan over about a foot in the ceiling. And put some drywall up.

Dry walls up.

Window in.

Dry wall smoothed out and texture added.

Then Uncle Randy and Mike left and things kind of stopped for a bit. Finally in April Dad decided to paint the whole den. Which is where Mom and I came in. We are the family painters. And in just a couple of hours we had the room and sound booth painted.

 

Got a little paint on my fingers...but I like that, I'm a artist.

 And Dad was able to move his stuff out of the hallway and back into the den...much to Mom's delight.

Next was just the finishing touches to really make it into a sound booth. Doug wired the fans and Dad removed the old carpet to be replaced by hard wood floor.

The air intake fan.

Doug laying the hardwood

Very nice job

The last touch to the floor was a multi purpose rug and a nice door threshold.

With the floor to Dad's liking they moved on to sound proofing the room with foam.

 

 

With everything in place, Dad was able to try it out. With Doug in the other room recording.

Dad on the microphone

Doug's operating system.

So now my Dad can live his dream of being a voice actor. He even has a demo reel out and if you are interested in hearing it here is a website: http://voice123.com/jepperson

Toasty the Yorkie

I finished another painting today. My friend has the cutiest little Yorkie terrier, named Toasty. And I wanted to try my hand at painting him. So after my Saydi-dog painting I made my attempt. And here it is:

I like how he looks like he is smiling. But with all the fluff on his head you can't see his pointy ears. Cute puppy.

Mother's Day 2014

Sunday was Mother's Day and for us it was a nice quiet one. Mom was lucky to be home, enjoying a nice weekend between business trips. Today she is in Omaha, Nebraska, last week she was in Eugene, OR. But she got to be home for two days. And Doug and Dad impressed her with a Mother's Day breakfast-in-bed:

Buttermilk Pancakes, with real buttermilk

Dad hid the buttermilk so Mom didn't suspect the surprise. The guys pulled it off, good job! On Saturday, Mom and I tried out a new recipe for a Lemon-Lime Meringue Pie. With the two of us working together, we were able to make it perfectly. And were able to enjoy it after dinner on Sunday.

 

The Lemon and Lime flavor was really strong, so next time we might not use as much of the juices. But it was delicious.

At church, all the women got long stemmed roses for Mother's Day. It was very sweet.

And for dinner Dad cooked some hamburgers on the grill and we had Mom's yummy potato salad. It was a nice picnic like meal.

After dinner Mom got to Facetime with the grand-babies. I think that made her day. Also earlier, my brother Mike and his wife Nicole called to wish Mom a happy Mother's Day.

I think she had a good day. It's always fun celebrating the amazing women in our lives. Happy Mother's Day Mom! Love you!