Recent happenings (March)

Here are some other photos that weren't posted in March.  Can you believe it, it's April 1 today!! I just realized that, so hopefully no jokes being played on today!

Finally sorted out all of the boys' Lego bins and as of right now, it's just sitting on this larger shelf in the corner of the downstairs' living room.  I can actually see the floor.  Woohoo!!

But nevermind on this other side... Ha ha!  Still work in progress, obviously!

I recently purchased a base for an old sewing machine.  I thought it was a Singer, but this one has White on it. I've never heard of the company before but it seems the White Sewing Machine Company was founded in 1858.  Woah!

So I'm guessing that maybe this base is probably quite old!  Well, speaking of old, I also decided to buy a record player.  It was half-off online as it's a used one.  And seems that they are made to look old:

The needle on this has been a bit wonky, although Graham was able to get it to play a record yesterday.  Pretty cool!  I was going to record a video but didn't have my phone handy.  Well, since then, the needle fell off (Ha ha!) so I've purchased a couple of new ones online.  I guess you just never know how the player is going to work if it shows up in the box like this?!  Most of the styrofoam was in pieces!

So I'll be sure to make a recording once we can play those records again.  I'm so glad we were able to borrow some from Grandma and Pop-pop during our stay there this past Spring Break :-)

And another vintage item... Graham, for whatever reason said that he wanted a film camera.  Ahhh, what we do for our kids:

I found an old Pentax film camera online for only $40 and figured that was quite the deal!  And well, the 3 rolls of film online were about $22.  So it's obviously adding up quickly.  And we still haven't figured out where we're going to get these film developed.  One thing at at time I guess.  He finished his first roll of film but I don't think it was winding up properly inside the camera - since he was comparing it to how his 2nd roll is working.  Anyhow, time will tell what photos come out!

And anything to keep these boys off their computer screens and phones:

Always time for gelato:

We recently bought a couple more birdhouses.  I managed to get this one hung up before Spring Break:

You can't really see it but I put our California vehicle license plate on the roof top.  And had to seal a few gaps within the birdhouse - I guess that's what you get when you buy birdhouses from individuals rather than in the store! Hopefully the smell of the sealant won't put off any of the birds.

Here's the other one that I need to put up.  It's rather heavy and had a hole in the roof from one of the knots from the wood.  Well, there goes another one of our old vehicle license plates.  Ha ha!

And I was going to anchor this birdhouse onto a piece of wood and then screw it into the tree.  Well, we picked up a few pieces of wood from a neighbor once and he mentioned how hard this wood is.  While trying to screw into this wood with a screwdriver, the top/head of the screw totally popped off!  Talk about some hard wood!!!

So now that means I need to drill into the wood first.  Thankfully I was able to find the charger for the drill.  That's always something I keep losing for whatever reason.  Anyway, this "Hang the Birdhouse" Operation will just have to wait once it's warmer outside. It's been raining and we are suppose to dip below freezing again later in the week. What is going on with this weather?!

Nonetheless, something is starting to sprout in our raised bed. I planted some garlic last Fall. I'm guessing this is it??!

And with the upcoming snow before Spring Break, I was able to put a garden tarp over it to protect it from the freeze.  Hopefully we will get some garlic when it's time to harvest!

Charlie recently broke one of my favorite bowls.  Noooo...!!  I think I bought it in a Japanese supermarket back when we lived in California:

I managed to glue it back together and I guess since it's not food safe anymore, I'll probably use it to house one of my plants.  And I guess this will be another reason why we have to visit California later this Summer!  Well, nothing has been planned yet - but I'm hoping!

And I recently purchased an "antique" tupperware.  It's the perfect size container to soak/pickle leftover daikon and carrots:

It was a bit tricky to open so hopefully I won't break it when trying to do so.  I've been putting those pickles on almost anything right now.  Love it... YUUUMMMM! :-)