More flooring

We decided to take the leftover flooring and put it in our basement. We just had a cut carpet edge and poured cement flooring. Now, we have this beauty:

We ran out before we could finish. But that's okay because our stairs really need some help. 

So I figure that once the stairs get finished (by a professional because the drywall is also wonky and the stairs are built over the carpet and some other weird things) we may order more flooring and finish the whole thing! But for now it is so awesome. The picture of our new flooring makes me so happy. 

Also, I had the "opportunity" to clean our carpet yesterday. I left out a blue sharpie. Which Peter (2 years old) found and colored his hands and carpet with. You can't see it easily, but if you look just in front of Peter you can see scribbles from the fireplace to the white car. 

Rubbing alcohol just made the blue spread into splotches. Hairspray was somewhat effective, but I didn't want to scrub that hard for that long, so I borrowed Mom and Dad Gould's carpet cleaner. 

I finished off with a spot cleaner spray that I went over again with the cleaner machine. And my results? See for yourself:

New flooring

Our neighbors are redoing the flooring in their house and they gave me their old flooring. We have had linoleum in our garage to keep it warmer on our feet in front of the washing machine and food storage. I have been wanting to redo the flooring in the garage because it was starting to look shabby. Well, I used their flooring to make it awesome!

I am waiting for Hollis to get home from work so he can use a saw to cut the boards to the length I need to finish it. 

Halloween Costumes

So my sister-in-law Carol is an expert costume schemer (Neoma wrote about this more in-depth on her blog).  Carol suggested to us that we would make the perfect Popeye, Olive Oyl, and Sweet Pea.  And she was right, so I just had to make the costumes.

(I'm not sure right now where a better quality photo is.)

I think I did a good great job.  Hollis makes a cute Popeye.  Leroy was the cutest little sleepy Sweet Pea you ever saw.  And Benji is pretty cute too.

 

I couldn't justify spending the money to buy fabric to make Leroy's costume unless I could make it function later.  I decided that I would make it in the style of a sleep sack so that he could use it for the rest of the winter.  When I went to the store to buy fleece, they were having their annual fleece sale! So I bought enough to make 4 sleep sacks.  I have finished three of them (see below) and am debating what to put on the last one before I finish it.

  

And Neoma is supermom - she made matching costumes for her whole family in just a few days!

These costumes later served as the inspiration for a movie that they made as a Christmas present for another sibling.  The video - "The Super Goulds" - is embedded below so you can watch it if you want.