Kiwi Crate

I'd heard rave reviews of Kiwi Crate for a good year or so. For Hanukkah, my mom got the kids a subscription. I can't say enough good things about it.

I love that they include every single thing you need for the projects - even down to tape. Alex was able to follow the step by step instructions (with pictures) without any help, although I was a pretty active and excited observer. I love all the little extras - a few additional projects you can put together, the pair of scissors they include in the first crate of the subscription because a lot of the projects need cutting, the extra glow sticks that are only actually needed if you do the additional projects, the booklet with stories and activities all on the theme of the projects.

The kit comes with 2 projects plus the add-ons mentioned above. We managed to do one project between opening gifts and showers/bedtime, which means it took fewer than 10 minutes. Alex slept with her new glowworm stuffed animal for several nights and Zoltan spent days petting and hugging his.

Because my mom is eager, she ordered the subscription well in advance and we've already received all 3 crates. The third crate (I skipped the 2nd for now) was winter themed. The "extra" was a snowflake cookie cutter and recipes for sugar cookies and salt dough to make ornaments.  One of the main projects was malfunctioning and this is where I get to extol the quality of their customer service.

I don't like that there are no phone numbers anywhere on their web site; you have to email your problem and wait for a reply. But, to their credit, the reply came only a few hours later. They immediately sent a replacement for what didn't work AND told me where to find a similar product in a craft store if I didn't want to wait for delivery.

When relaying everything to Terry, I marveled at the good customer service we've been receiving lately. After thinking about it a moment, I observed "Maybe we're just used to bad service after 4 years of Russia and then Comcast."

Fat Brain Toys

We have been happy consumers of Fat Brain Toys for several years now. I like how most of their stuff isn't plastic crap. They tell us where most of the toys are made and even break it down age and gender-wise who's buying the products.  I even spent a November Gratitude extolling their virtues.

And then they got even better.

Last we knew, an item was missing from our Christmukkah order and they shipped it out right on time. Of course, it was a replacement for something that never came so they didn't charge us for it. It arrived the morning of the first night of Hanukkah. However, the night before that I had discovered the original item that had, in fact, been included in the original order.

I called to find out what to do and was told to follow the process for "returns" outlined on their web site. So, I did. Then they refunded us the cost of the item because, I assume, it was considered a regular return. I called to explain what happened and to tell them to put the charge back on.

The lady sent me a $5 credit as a thank you for the call. And by the way, all this fuss was for an item that cost $7.95.

Winter weather observation

Last night we finally got some snow. Today we finally got some cold weather. The kids lasted all of 5 minutes outside this morning. Already going soft? Maybe. But I also note that - presumably because of all the tall buildings - there's rarely a blustery wind in Piter other than on the bridges. Here the wind was whipping everything about, including the snow that got in the kids' faces. I am a little surprised at us that we aren't likely to go back out and play in the beautiful, pristine snow!

Wordless Wednesday

One Little Word 2014

Last year I jumped on the bandwagon. When I hesitated about something, I remembered to "trust". When I wondered about someone's behavior or questioned their motives, I remembered to "trust". When I questioned my own ability, I remembered to "trust". It served me so well I am doing it again.

This year my word is:
Health
I'll be focusing on all aspects: physical, emotional, spiritual.
http://aliedwards.com/blog/one-little-word

I'm BACK

After huge amounts of stress and anxiety, after 3.5 months, I am back on the register with my shiny new clearance. I am 11 out of 126 on the Consular register. Come on January, come on March invites, let's make this official!

I think this is the best early-birthday present I could have asked for.

Stain stains

A long, long time ago (seriously. It was before we joined the foreign service.) Terry's dad made a super cool hamper. It looked just like a bedside table, but inside the piece was a pull-out hamper. We placed an order. And then left the country.

Terry's dad did us one better and made a matching set: one hamper and one real bedside table. Then he put it somewhere safe and essentially forgot about it as we weren't coming for it any time soon. Fast forward seven years and the tables are in our house.

We had to stain them to make them match the bedroom furniture we already had - all dark and walnut-y. We had to sand down the table tops and eventually attach them to the bases. We had to apply a sealant something on top of the stain.

But they are now almost finished and oh, so pretty! I can't wait to get these babies into our room.

Renovation - Floor down

Last Saturday, Lynne planned on taking the kids to the botanical gardens to meet up with friends.  I planned to stay home all day and lay the tile floor.  Laying the floor is a kind of a slow process as you have to lay some tile glue down, then wait for it to dry some and get tacky.  Then you lay down the tile in that area.  This gets repeated many times as you can't lay glue on too much of the floor or you would be tracking glue all over the new tile and anywhere else in the house you roam.  Well, on Saturday I managed to work through the room laying the tile and getting it all down.  In the end I am really happy with the floor.  Lynne was also pleased with the final product.  During the waiting time I managed to stain the end tables some more (more on those in another post later) and finish the cabling in the adjacent room.  Slowly we are moving towards finishing this room off.

Wordless Wednesday

Renovation - Prepping the floor.

I am trying to get better about the renovation posts and making them a little more timely.  Since last weekend the door is painted and rehung.  It is much nicer now - without the globs of excess paint it actually can close. I still need to put the door knob back on and put the new strike plate on the door jamb (the old one was no longer brass from all the coats of paint).  Then it will be done.

This week I also worked on leveling the floor for the new tile (this is the photo in the post).  The old floor consisted of carpet (that we ripped up) with tile underneath.  Many of the tiles near the walls were broken when they installed the tacking strips for the carpet, so we can not use that flooring.  So, we are going to be installing a new tile that looks like a fake hardwood floor.  Not the fanciest but the tile is very durable and considerably cheaper and easier to install than real hardwood.  In order to install this I needed to make the entire floor level.  So out came concrete that I used to fill in holes in the floor and where there was tiles missing.  If all goes well this weekend I am hoping to lay the new floor.