A lovely kitchen floor and a...Card?

The laminate floor is finally in place:)) Thanks to my husband's supernatural powers, the kitchen now looks like this:

And this...

The kitchen cabinets aren't yet in place, because we need some plumbing (and gas installing) to be done before we can do that. We did put in a few, just to see how it will look with the dark floor, and I think it looks amazing:))) The cabinets are kind of old looking, just the way I wanted them. My first choice was a pale green rustic kitchen, but since it was two times more expensive, we decided on this one. I have no regrets:)!!

The walls proved to be really crooked, and it seems the only way to really fix an old house like ours would be to scrape all the way to the bricks, make them bare and then add on whichever insulation and method you prefer. However, such a process would be very costly and loooong, so that, for now, we are very pleased with what we (ahem, Miro) accomplished.

Well, there is another very exciting thing happening on my blog: this is the first time that I'm 'publishing' my handmade card and linking it to any blog that's hosting a challenge. Of course, since Nina is my greatest inspiration and the woman who introduced me to the whole card making world (or paper creativity in general:), I am joining the Stamp TV's Color Combo Challenge that she is hosting (to use any shade of red; cream or white; kraft or sand; and chocolate brown). I am sooo excited about it. Here is my card:
It was very difficult to make it look like it looks in 'real life'. Even this one, that I ended up choosing, is not true to the original (e.g. you can't really see that the ribbon is of a cream colour). Buuuut, this is my first time ever, and I am super excited, nevertheless:))

Have a wonderful weekend, dear friends:)!

Kitchen renovation is afoot

But my hands are still akimbo:) - Miro is doing all the work! Since we don't have any money left to pay 'real' craftsmen, my husband is being Jack of all trades, and so far it's really working well for him:) The kitchen is completely 'gutted', but alas! parts of the wall are also falling apart. I usually see this kind of thing on TV, and often there are several people working on it. Well, it just couldn't be done that way. Lord willing, Miro will finish plastering and leveling the wall by this evening, and we may even attempt to paint one of the walls. It is so ugly now, but I know it will be so lovely when it's done.

Hm, talk about a gutted kitchen...

In other news, my doctor's appointment went really well, that is to say that I haven't dilated any more. Praise the Lord for that!! The baby is really active and I can feel him kicking and moving almost all the time. This is how I look these days (corduroy pants are just wishful thinking, it's still too warm). I forgot to rotate it before, and don'tknow how to do it here:(

Jakov and Josip are busy outside. The corn field that is near our house is harvested and now we can see the railway!! It is such an amazing event for the kids, and I too love it how the scenery has completely changed all of a sudden.

There are many fruit trees in our garden, even some that I have no idea what they are. Do you?

There are also apples, pears, grapes and walnuts. The last few days there has been a light breeze in the mornings and late afternoons, and I really enjoy that. There is something so special about a soft breeze. My Croatian Bible translates the verse from the Genesis account (3:8) where it says that God walked in the cool of the day, as 'God walked in the breeze of the day'. Oh how gloriously that rings:), as the best possible part of the day.

Another great news is that my darling friend Nina, who is an amazing artist, became a Senior Designer for GinaK Designs. Wow! How wonderful! They are lucky to have her:))

Well, that's all for now. I'll see you soon with new pics of the kitchen;)!

Wooziness, the residential hero, kitchen 'befores'

Well, I've spent most of the day in bed:(. I did work on translation in the morning, but then around 1 pm I just started feeling all weak and like I was going to faint. That's when Miro came home from his meeting and saved the day, as usual. After spending the whole morning in that meeting, he finished lunch, put the kids to bed, planted flowers in the garden, took great care of me (which included large amounts of chocolate) ...and still looks like a million dollars:))

There are so many things I would love to do now, so many little projects, some of which even have to do with Christmas - antebaby fever is shaking me strongly. So much nesting to do, and so little energy. My dr appointment is on Wednesday, and I'm really afraid that he's going to send me on STRICT bed rest. Oh no...

I thought that today might be a good day for my 'befores' - you can't do much when you're in bed all day long... please pray that this goes away, my family really needs me, especially when our kitchen looks like this (actually, the cabinets are new, but are waiting for the old ones to go out, which can't be done before a zillion other things get done):

The grey spot on the wall denotes the place where there used to be a door, but my crafty husband and our Master Fixer Charlie made it disappear.

Look at those old dingy kitchen cabinets...

and those HIDEOUS tiles!!!

Something radical must be done, don't you think?!?

This does seem like a horrific intro into our house make over:))) But, hang on, it might get worse - wait till we get to the bathroom!!!

A lazy Saturday morning in the Balint-Feudvarski home.. Unfortunately, it is mainly caused by Miro's toothache that kept him up most of the night. It's actually gums inflamation. Apparently, one of his wisdom teeth is pressing on another tooth and gums, causing terrible pain. He's on antibiotics now, but that doesn't seem to help much. It was hard waking up at night only to see him walking around the house or tossing and turning in bed.

My allergy is also acting up these days, worse than usual. Ever since the beginning of my pregnancy, I've had to sleep with my mouth open, because the nose is completely clogged. You don't want to know how the inside of my mouth looks like in the morning:)...yuck!!

However, we didn't let it bring us down. We had our coffee(s), had a wonderful breakfast with J&J, even worked on translation for a bit (Christology, as a part of the Systematic Theology for TBA in Krapina).

Speaking of J&J, they are outside, in the yard, along with half of the neighbourhood kids:) I am so glad Josip is out there, because lately he spends all his time at home, as if we should have named him Jakov (Jacob):))

Please pray for Jakov to make friends at the kindergaten. As usual, I am freaking out, thinking that nobody wants to play with him and that the boys are just pushing him away and... please pray for him, but also for me, that I stop thinking like that, because I know I can only hurt Jakov that way, and not help him.

As a family, we are going through Hebrews. Quite a bit to swallow for a 6 and (almost) 5 year old, but we have had so many glorious opportunities to talk about Jesus with them, it has been amazing. As they are memorizing the fruit of the Spirit, Miro and I are reminded of our own faults... nothing seems as humbling as teaching someone else something you are not obedient at. With kids it becomes so obvious that faith MUST be lived out, because otherwise it is no faith at all.

Well then, here is a nice photo of my two little sinners, making nasty faces:)))

Have a wonderful day, all over the world:)!

It was never a custom of mine to make new decisions and resolutions at the beginning of the year, and I still can't get the hang of it. For me, the year used to begin in September. When school was starting. The whole year cycle had its beginning and end there - in that time of buying school stuff, getting new (no matter how second hand) books, the smell of classrooms, a new school bag, homework, socks... It was just the most special feeling in the world.

Back in those days I had no love for the "lightness" of Summer, "the livin' is easy..." mood; I only craved shawls and jumpers. And books, and long dark afternoons, and being deep about great matters of life:))).

Nowadays, things are a lot different, in the sense that I really love the Summer season, I love it when my kids get a lot of sunshine and when they get to swim and play on the beach, get all tanned and happy. But my feelings about the September never changed.

All this to say how happy I am that we are in this month of September, in the month of new beginnings, new smells and new decisiveness:). Maybe it doesn't seem like that, especially if you live in warm areas where Autumn just won't kick off, but it's there, just around the corner.

I hope I'll see you on a rainy afternoon, when the skies are terribly gloomy and the wind is blowing the rain in every direction (the most annoying kind:) and we'll run into a nice little cafe, take off our wet coats, have a warm cup of coffee and be merry.