Projects Abound!

What do two temporarily unemployed college grads do with themselves each day you ask... projects of course! Here is a look at what we have done this week.

To start things off, while we were in Seattle over Christmas we went to the Harry Potter exhibit at the Pacific Science Center as a family. At the end of the exhibit you had to walk through a gift shop, where they sold lots of HP replica items. We were there with my nephew Addison, and he wanted a wand really bad. Unfortunately, the were like $70, so that didn't happen. But then my mother in the Joanne-esque spirit of volunteering others to do things said that I could make a wand. I made one while we were there in Seattle, but I think I carved it a little too thin and it ended in disaster. So here is my Harry Potter wand version 2.0. It is thicker and shorter than the other one, and hopefully much more durable.



I think that at some point last week we both realized that in about two weeks we are going to have a little baby to bring home with us and thought, "Maybe we should get ready for that..." So this week we got serious about getting the nursery ready.

This is a changing table that my mom found for sale on the side of the road somewhere.


This is the outline of the frolicking lamb that was on the front of the door after I had sanded it off. I wish we would have gotten a real before picture, because the cheesiness of it was pretty epic.


And here is the finished product after I gave it one of those miracle spray paint jobs that are often found on other people's blogs. Katalyn was the chief designer, and I just did my best to make her vision come to life. Doesn't it look like something from Pottery Barn?


Rochelle had the nursery painted pink for Zoey, but we didn't want to risk damaging Joshua's (or whatever his name turns out to be) manhood by putting him in a pink room, so we decided to paint it.


We did it green beneath the chair rail and cream above it. Feel free to notice how good the changing table looks in there. Also, feel free to notice the cushion on top of the cedar chest.


Katalyn used her immense sewing skills to make that cushion. She even made her own piping, which as I understand is kind of a big deal.






Katalyn's aunts found us this great rocking chair on KSL. Here she is just all ready to be a little mom. Pretty cute, huh?


And here are some more pictures of the nursery. And this is the finished crib, that we were priming in the last post.



Here is a sneak-peak of the living room. Katalyn also sewed these curtains. Isn't she talented?


Well, that's it for now. Next week we will hopefully have some more exciting projects to post.

An Extremely Overdue Update

To start from way back, Katalyn had her birthday in November and we made red velvet cupcakes from scratch. It sure took a whole lot of red food coloring, but they were really good and we had a fun day.


Now to fast forward to the present. We've moved into Bill and Rochelle's house (Casey's brother and sister-in-law) and have been working on a lot of home improvement projects. We'll show you the kitchen in this post, as all the others are still works in progress. We'll update as they're completed.

This is the awful "grapes of wrath" wallpaper border we took down. It was originally below the chair rail in the dining area of the kitchen.


Here's the wall with the grapes gone, but before we painted it. Casey worked really hard on getting the border off.


Here's the ceiling fan that was in the same room. We've discovered since moving in that we HATE ceiling fans. Note to selves: Never buy a ceiling fan.



Here is the finished product of the dining room area...well, we're still planning on putting up curtains, and the table is usually cleared off, but we're sure you all understand. :) Please take note of the cool light fixture. We stayed up really late working on it, and Casey taught me all about electrical wiring as he was learning it for himself. It was a fun adventure, and now we know how to install light fixtures!


Here's a little preview of one of the projects we're currently working on. Casey's mom got us a changing table and crib, and we've been painting the crib. Here's the priming stage. (Katalyn felt safer wearing her chemistry lab goggles...and it looked cool.) Also note that you can finally see that Katalyn is pregnant, now that she's full term. We're pretty excited about that.



Stay tuned for the rest of our home improvement projects! Coming up: baby crib, living room, and bedroom/master bathroom.

Who would have thought...

Somehow I have made it through all of my education up to this point without ever taking a statistics class, but that had to come to an end this semester in order for me to get my degree. The funny part is that I am kind of falling in love with it. It is a really fun way of applying logic through mathematics, and it really surprises me sometimes.
Do you know how many people you would need to have in a group before the odds of at least two of them sharing a birthday (not counting the year of birth) is about 50/50?









Seriously, guess first.















23. Isn't that cool?
Well, that satisfied my sudden urge to tell the world how fun probability can be. Aren't blogs great?

P.S. Sorry that we haven't done anything picture-worthy lately, hopefully we will rectify that soon.

Wahoo! Casey officially received his first medical school interview of the season! Guess where?? Yep, Ohio State. He goes on October 27th, which means we need to buy him a plane ticket and an interview suit. We're very excited!

July!

Here's a summary of the month of July in our Pickett family:

Let's start with the Fourth of July. Our 4th consisted of good food

Good friends

Neighbors

and of course....FIREWORKS!

There was the wedding of a dear friend and former roommate, resulting in a wonderful roommate reunion

Casey captained an intramural frisbee team which did quite well. Going into the tournament they were ranked 2nd overall. This is my best effort to capture Casey's frisbee talent.

On the 14th Casey turned 24! Woo! The birthday cake I made him was in true Pickett style: chocolate cake with fluffy white icing. (In the future I will not do the decorating with the fluffy white icing!)

Casey also played in the intramural singles tennis tournament and got 2nd in his division. Way to go Casey!

We don't have anymore pictures, but the family came to visit on their way to WA, and that was very fun to have the Pickett family here. And that was our month!

Memories

The other day while at the grocery store I noticed the doughnut display in the bakery. Though not as colorful as these, the display brought back wonderful memories. When I was a little girl it was a special treat to go to the grocery store with Dad because he would let any of the kids who were with him pick out a doughnut. In my early years I always chose the chocolate frosted doughnuts. As I got older my taste shifted, first to apple filled with powdered sugar, then to cream filled with chocolate frosting. Dad always got maple bars.

This experience at the grocery store made me think. It's amazing to me that something as simple as a doughnut display can bring back vivid images, tastes, and feelings. I realized that what makes life sweet are the little traditions and everyday things that we do with people we love. It made me resolve to do my best when I'm a mother to remember that, and to create opportunities for sweet memories with my children. Not necessarily grand and marvelous events, but little things each day that they can look back on and that will make them smile.

"Parents must bring light and truth into their homes by one family prayer, one scripture study session, one family home evening, one book read aloud, one song, and one family meal at a time."
-"Mothers Teaching Their Children"
Ensign, May 2010
Elder L. Tom Perry

Cupcakes!

Last night Casey and I, along with Dearie, went out to the Nielson family's house for dinner. Casey and I were in charge of dessert, and, not having planned ahead, started looking for a recipe with ingredients that we already had. We finally decided to bake some vanilla cupcakes. This is significant because the last two times I have tried to make cupcakes from scratch they have failed miserably. I mean miserably. I don't have pictures, but believe me, they were sunken and exploded and horrendous. Failed baking is not a usual occurrence for me, but after the last two incidents I was starting to lose faith in my baking skills. However, seeing as we had a limited repertoire of ingredients, we decided to make these. I don't know what it was (probably Casey helping me, it seems like anything he touches is a spectacular success), but these cupcakes were wonderful! We didn't have any form of chocolate to make chocolate frosting, so Casey used his resourcefulness and used hot chocolate mix. It worked just great, but I think traditional frosting would probably be best. Here's the recipe (they're really good), and some pictures.

Vanilla Cupcakes from Martha Stewart
24 regular cupcakes / 350 degree oven

3 cups all-purpose flour
1-1/2 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
16 tablespoons (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups sugar
6 large eggs
3 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1-1/2 cups milk

1. Preheat the oven to 350°.
2. In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time; scrape down bowl, and beat in vanilla.
3. Add flour mixture and milk alternatively, beginning and ending with flour mixture.
4. Divide batter evenly among cupcake liners, about three-quarters full each. Bake until golden and tops spring back to touch, about 20 minutes, rotating pan once if needed. Transfer pans to wire rack; cool completely.

I was very proud. (Casey said that failed baking isn't even an option for him, so I guess it wasn't that exciting for him.) Moral of the story: Never give up, but if what you're doing isn't working, maybe ask for help.