afternoon project

i decided this afternoon to dig deep into my head and pull out a quick craft that i coul do. this towel idea came out and i would say as my first attempt, this isnt too bad! its a little crookedy in some spots but practice makes perfect, right? this one i did using a dish towel i already had but i think i will do some with new towels for, hmmm, maybe a giveaway! i won Kelly's pay it forward giveaway and so of course next week i will be having a giveaway.

still snowing

and im still shoveling.

snow day

we had our first real snow of the season for the last 2 days, tuesday it snowed then iced then wednesday it snowed some more. my shoulder muscles are a little sore from shoveling.

this is taken standing at the end of my driveway looking up toward clifty drive
this is my neighbors window, i got inspired by megan to make some color/saturation/contrast adjustments, but i think i need some more practice.

go see kelly

she has a giveaway to award a lucky blogger.

plus you should go visit her anyway, shes an all-around cool gal we use to go to playgroup together when our boys were babies before we moved to indiana.

the goods

this is what i got at goodwill last week, the vase which i paid A DOLLAR for found its home on my dresser to hold my comb and brush for the winter until it can fulfill its real purpose when my irises bloom.

this fabric, 3 yards for 75 cents, i couldnt pass that up, this is becoming farmers market bags for me and maybe some lucky blogfriends.
this is not from goodwill, this is our k-5 sunday school  project from last week , i love a sunday school project that you can eat. we filled this cup with poly fill batting filled it with water and covered the top with legumes, from the grocery store and 5 days later voila, bean sprouts theyre twice as tall today (this picture was taken yesterday)

my most "interesting" family members; part1

this is my Great Grandpa Fairbanks, my mom's grandfather. grandpa fairbanks was a ww1 veteran and had lost one eye on the war. the other eye intact as it was, was rather weak. 

this is how he would watch tv, the binaculars combined with sitting about 5 feet from the screen worked well for him.

now heres a little tale of how he use his handicap to scare kids. one holiday when my cousin jeremy was about four everyone was sitting around the breakfast table in my grandmas old house, now being that the house was old the floors must have tilted slightly because when grandpa fairbanks removed his fake eye and laid it on the table, it rolled right past jeremy and sent him into a fit of hysterics. i suppose its hard to enjoy your pancakes when grandpas eye is staring at you from the butter dish.

oh, i wish...

heres a couple of summer photos. it wont help you if you are feeling caged in (like me) but they are pretty.

top 4 tagged

Ms. Math tagged me to tell my top 4 of 2008 in each category.

favorite memories of 2008

#1 painting my front porch with Teen Baysitter

#2 the mountain of fresh produce given to me by gardening friends

#3 lunch with mom and dad at the key west shrimp house (here in Madison)

#4 mani and pedi with kens mom and mimi.

favorite movies of 2008 (not necessarily 2008 movies)

#1 wall-e

#2 nacho libre

#3 elf 

#4 juno

favorite foods of 2008

#1 tortelini with meat sauce from Roxanos in Vevay, IN

#2 multi grain bagel with cream cheese

#3 mashed potatoes and gravy

#4 moms lasagna

favorite places of 2008

#1 my porch

#2 the farmers market

#3 the lumber mill antique mall

#4 Marcis house

events in 2008

#1 The Boy's 3rd birthday party

#2 halbert and rachels wedding

#3 art jam (free trolley rides!)

#4 ken starting school

things i liked in 2008

#1 my kid got potty trained!!!

#2 spending time at mike and helens when the power was out

#3 baking christmas cookies, all 3 times

#4 my church family's love and support of our ministry

things i look forward to in 2009

#1 a visit home to IA 

#2 being amazed by God in new ways every day

#3 more painting and home repairs

#4time with friends and family

the four people i am tagging are:

kelly (i know you're game)

megan

mom

daily newsie (i have never seen you tagged before)

cute house!

you have to check this out! its lovely, i'll take it has the cutest house featured, a 1955 home that has never had occupants on the main floor! there was apparenly had a basement apartment that was occupied but wow! you have to see this, all original furnishings!

wearing it out

as one of my first use it up, wear it out projects of the year, i have some pants, purchased last summer, they were slightly long on the boy back in july. now six months later, theyre a little short, and have endured six months of crawling around on the floor, hence the holes in the knees. 

i spent maybe an hour and a half on these. i opened up the inseam up to about an inch from the crotch then cut patches to fit from one side seam to the other, stitched them in on all sides cut out the damaged pieces, added a zig zag stitch around the hole to keep the fraying to a minimum and stitched the inseam back together.

i also took the hem out of the bottom, gave that a zigzag to match the knee.

iron and VOILA! 
he loves them. 

i know it looks like hes trying to hide from the crazy lady with the camera, but really hes just checking his theory on the refrigerator light conundrum.

any new projects with you?

how it went.

so, im sure youre all wondering about our first night of church, right?although his official ordination will not be until probably next month,  kens first night as acting pastor went very smoothly (see focus on the word, his blog) the message was simple, stop putting your hope for fullfillment in worldly things and start putting it in Jesus Christ.  

 the small crowd included mostly family, Rev. Vickie and Rev Glenn (pastors at Hanover UMC), a couple of guys from our church family at HUMC and one person from the Walnut Street neighborhood that we are working to reach out to. 

im so thankful to have a godly man as the head of our family.

CAUTION: God at work

it's all happening! Church in the Grass will be having the its first service tonight! it is being held at a building owned by Madison consolidated schools but no longer used as an elementary school. if i think the ride has been wild so far i better hold on tight. Ken will still be attending bible college, working close to full time and pastoring a church, albiet a small one. i will be working, taking care of the house and generally making sure things run as smoothly as possible. i have been praying for God to open the hearts of all the people we will be teaching and allow us to help shine a light in the darkness to those who are feeling hopeless.

the good news is, i am currently NOT feeling like i want to either barf or cry:translation, at this moment, im not feeling overwhelmed by fear. thats a good thing, but im not the one preaching tonight.

in other news!

hey, someone from hollywood, CA checked my blog they came to LOTH from megans blog, so if i get "discovered" i owe it all to megan, actually i would owe it all to tricia, her mom, no mom, no megan, and in that case i guess i would owe it all to Gram, ...ok, we will stop there. thanks Gram.

what is it, man?!

i have had many inquiries as to what i will be doing with the fabric in the last post and the answer to that question is....i dont know. but now when i find a project, i will have some fabric so i can start post haste.

too many choices

last winter  i had to take my then 2 1/2 yr old son to work with me for a half day (praise God for a job and a boss which allow this on the rare occasion when its necessary) due to a combination of things including but not limited to, the daycare provider and her family being sick with the flu, Ken having an assignment that couldnt be changed in addition to a fully packed day of office work and me having PROMISED a full box of machine embriodered jackets to a local factory. i packed little boy's backpack up with toys and told him that if he was very, very good, we would go to walmart and he could pick anything he wanted to take home.

he was very very good and we proceeded to walmarts toy dept after lunch at mcdonalds.he looked at everything, trucks, trains, games, flashlights, dolls, riding toys, i mean everything. and then picked nothing, there was TOO MUCH! there was no way he could decide.

this is how i felt yesterday evening when i left the cozy isolation of my little town and went to Hobby Lobby, in columbus, IN to do a little fabric shopping. when i wandered into the fabric section i immediately saw a nice print with big bright flowers that i thought i HAD to have, then looked across the shelf and saw a fun polkadotted pattern that was even better, then blue and brown toile, then teal and grey stripes, then red and blue paisley with green and orange accents AAAAAHHHHHHHHH, i almost left with nothing, i had to call Ken over to help me, my itty bitty budget only allowed for me to buy 2 yards of fabric, so i had to make the right choice. ken stayed calm and exercised veto power on prints that were a no go to anyone with any fasion sense then narrowed it down to about three choices for me, and, bless his heart, helped me pick a coordinating solid color for the choice i had made.

this is how we finlly made a choice in walmarts toy dept, i picked a boat, a plane and a pack of hot wheels and The Boy made the final decision of the plane.

 then we hightailed it out of there before minds could be changed.

i like em

my new apron, which i purchased last saturday at the lumber mill. it had some damage on the lower right but i trimmed it off and hemmed it up in no time flat.

this one i made with some vintagey looking dish towels i got at the dollar tree (the pink) and an old shirt that i use to love until it got stained up (the light blue) 

 *** fatty makes a cameo appearance*** he must have seen the aprons and thought i was getting ready to make dinner, he likes to hang around in case i drop any cheese.

______keep scrolling, this is my second post of the day______

im "it"

Amanda Jo tagged me! im suppose to tell you 7 things you may not know about me.

#1 im unimpressed by any "holiday" that doesnt have an assigned meal this includes but may not be limited to valentines day, presidents day, MLK day, columbus day, and groundhog day. the food makes the holiday in my book.

#2 im growing my hair to donate to locks of love. by spring i should be well past the requisite 10 inches.

#3 i love vacationing with only my mom. we always have fun and one of us WILL do something hilariously embarrassing before the trip is over.

#4 i know how to throw a party. i dont do it often because its alot of work, but when i do it will be a good one. maybe not crazy elaborate but definately fun and good food.

#5 im scared to death of a jumbo insect the floridians call them palmetto bugs, texans call them water roaches. i once had one crawl up my leg in the shower. i was going to google and post a pic of one but i dont want to see the picture. you google it if you want to see that nasty thing.

#6 i love scrabble.

#7 i tried out for the high school variety show tap dancing team in 10th grade, i didnt make it.

ok the ones i will tag for this game are..... ok i just want to admit here, i have a petty small blog circle i suspect a couple of lurkers but really, i have already tagged you all at some point, i dont find tagging annoying but i dont know, maybe some of you do. 

if you just read this, consider yourself tagged.

ive been meaning to...

heres a lamp i have been using as is for a while, it was The Boys lamp when he was a little baby, before the trucks took over.

a few seams, a couple of strips of double sided tape and about an hour of my time, i now have a pretty lamp. the next rehab will be the end table which i have also been using as is, we found it in our crawl space above the garage when we bought the house Ken dug it out for me last spring. im not too sure what color it wants to be though, im going to cite that  as my reason for neglecting it.

the search

someone arrived at life on the hilltop yesterday by searching "what to do if you see a mountain lion"

i hope it wasnt an immediate "need to know" kind of thing. but im glad i could help.

just how i like it

life has been WONDERFULLY BORING for the last 2 days.

after church on sunday we came home and ken made lunch, he told me what to write on my wal mart list then put the boy down for his nap, pushed up his sleeves and started doing dishes. i went to wal mart. when i got home he was mixing up a meat loaf, how nice! i grabbed my book, a loaner from Teen Babysitter ( need a hint? hes every jr high girl's favorite "vegetarian" and evidently mine too) and sat down to enjoy my hour of immersion. make that 3 hours, ken and the boy played cars, puzzles, mr potato head, etc and i read and read and read. then i hear a wonderful call that usually only comes from me! Dinners Ready! meat loaf and potatoes (cue the angel chior).

i dont think i could have invented a better winter sunday!

then of course yesterday, back to work. the holidays are officially gone and we are free to resume our normal lives. but im kind of bummed , no more surprizes in the mail for another year. no more christmas cards for a year, no more sparkly boxes, no more bows, no chocolate covered pretzels. well, we will see about the chocolate covered pretzels.

fabulous fun

here are some shots from my fun afternoon of coffee and antiquing at the Lumber Mill with Tricia. we had a great time looking around and chatting about the good (antique pedastal sink with separate faucets for hot and cold) the bad ( cast metal eagle wall clock) and the ugly (ceramic camel planter).

tricia checks out a wheeled table i try to think of where i could possibly hang this aged archetectural piece.

tricia tries on a navy and white graphic pillbox hat, it suits her dont you think?
oh my stars!
and take a look at some of these beautiful quilts.
we were not able to ichat with megan :( no wifi hotspot, but i hope to get together again with tricia and meet her daughters on a future trip to madison, how 'bout it girls?

yippee!

im going, this morning, downtown to meet with Tricia! she is a  blogfriend from florida who has family just across the river from me in KY. im so excited, i dont think i will have many opportunities to meet my faraway fellow bloggers (although i would love to meet you all in a big life on the hilltop backyard bbq).

and whats even more. theres a chance that her daughter Megan will get to ichat (i think this is the term) with us while we have coffee! which im also excited about because i really love her work (photos).

im sure there will be pictures taken which i will post later today or tomorrow.

my goal for the year

my new goal  is to use the materials God has already entrusted to me to manage and to avoid buying new "anything" whenever it is possible. there are 3 ways i plan to acheive my goal.

use it up: i will not buy any more hair product until i use up what i already have, i will not buy more tea bags because i think the ones i have may be old, i also pledge to do better with eating leftovers and scraps of leftover food (i will call it casserole)

wear it out: i will fix it, patch it or rig it up to work (prefer the first two options but the third may have to do sometimes) 

make it do: this one has been engrained in my very make up, we fairbanks are resourceful to the core. but i will give some examples anyway. who needs a fancy desk organizer, save tin cans, small jars and little boxes to arrange in your drawers, the bonus here is you get to do it your way. use old socks and tee shirts for spills and cleaning, you were going to throw them away anyway, might as well make em' useful one last time. clothes pins are indespensable in my house we use them as chip clips, clip notes to the calendar with them and the #1 use toys (yep he just got a whole santa sack full of toys and a clothes pin with a face drawn on it still wins his favor) this category is literally endless, so i will stop here.

there are also a couple of questions i will ask myself before i buy anything. trips to wal-mart may become mentally exhausting..

#1 how will this item make my life better?

#2 do i already have something like this?

#3 do i need this right now?

now i want to tell you the main motivation behind my goal. our family budget has NO wiggle room, i am not exaggerating when i say it is a miracle when we get all of our bills paid without using any of our quickly dwindling savings, we praise God every week when this happens and it keeps on happening every week. during my prayer times (too few, i admit, but thats another post for another time) God is showing me how i can simplify my life and how i can encourage other women to do the same. step one i achieved by accident, we got rid of cable last summer and i stopped seeing, every day, what the world was telling  me my life should be like.  step 2 is stop buying stuff, i started this with my buy nothing christmas and then ran into the quote in the picture on dec. 28 in a newspaper insert. God had been preparing my heart for the message of this quote for a while and i immediately cut it out (im glad noone else wanted to read that part).

this is the reason for my new goal,this is not a "resolution" those are made to be broken it is  a change in the type of consumer i am.